Sunday, March 29, 2020

Blossoms!



30 comments:

  1. Biden consolidates support, but trails badly in enthusiasm: Poll [Click] He’s in a virtual dead heat with Trump among registered voters.

    Florida Coronavirus Cases Are Growing Fast [Click]

    UK not helping Britons stranded overseas to return home. [Click] How does £40,000 for a one-way flight grab you? Steerage is a mere £15,000.


    Jared Kushner is demanding his tenants keep paying rent — while asking for leniency from his creditors: WaPo reporter
    [Click]

    California coronavirus news [Click] Many ventilators delivered from federal stockpile are unusable, need to be rebuilt.

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  2. In local news:
    "The Fresno County Department of Public Health announced 12 new cases of the coronavirus on Saturday, bringing the county total to 43 confirmed positive tests [with more tests in progress]... Of the 43 confirmed cases, 16 are travel-related, four person-to-person, four community-spread (unknown source) and 19 are under investigation." No reports of local hospitalizations or deaths so far.

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    1. Your county’s record of no hospitalisations or deaths is impressive, to the point of feeling suspect.

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    2. So far it hasn't gotten into any nursing homes hereabouts. There has been one death in the county immediately to the north, and another two counties to the south. And the testing is neither extensive nor fast; no one knows how many cases there really are.

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  3. Thanks to our Dean blogger friend, Liane, who wrote:

    “The scariest part is that completely asymptomatic people's lungs are also being damaged.

    “They've been finding on CT scans of people who come in from car accidents and the like, that their lungs are also damaged, even if their immune system isn't having the kind of reaction that leads to symptoms.”

    Doctors produce 3D view of the inside of COVID-19 patient's lungs
    https://www.wcvb.com/article/doctor-inside-lung-coronavirus-patient/31915109

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    1. It seems quite a jump to attribute pulmonary abnormalities to Covid-19 when a person has no symptoms and they haven't had a positive test result for either antigen or antibody.

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  4. Aha! Look at those Korean Covid-19 test devices! [Click] They are obviously the kind that give results within minutes, on-site. They might detect either antigen or antibody, no way to tell by looking, but either would be good, and FAR more practical than PCR.

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    1. I believe PCR is likely to be better at picking up early, asymptomatic cases. But... That's not the crucial point right now.

      I think it was yesterday's newspaper that announced Abbott Laboratories has developed a test that gives results in 13 minutes or less and that Abbott expects to have it in production in about a week.

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    2. 13 minutes would be OK if it can be done in-house. Certainly "In a couple of weeks, maybe, if we get around to it" does not cut the mustard under the present circumstances. Way back in olden times I remember older medical laboratory technologists saying that if you didn't want to be bothered with stats you should get a job at Public Health; they didn't know the meaning of the word. I've seen no indication that has changed.

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  5. From a physician on the Covid front lines in NYC [Click] If as I type this it isn't yet as bad as anything in Italy, it will be within a day or so.

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  6. Ohio, 1,653 confirmed cases, 29 deaths.

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  7. No thunderstorms last night. Or at least none that woke me. The prediction in yesterday's newspaper web site was obviously wrong. But today is very windy.

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    1. The newspaper says there were in fact thunderstorms with large hail and gusts up to 60 mph. But they apparently avoided Oak Park.

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  8. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  9. FDA relaxes regulations around Covid-19 diagnostics [Click and scroll down to 12;30 PM for full article]

    ”The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has relaxed the regulations around diagnostics for Covid-19 to expedite the availability of testing.

    Tests developed and used by laboratories across the country can now be authorised by state Departments of Health without direct engagement from the FDA.”

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  10. CA Gov. Newsom on dealing with ventilator supply: [Click] ”Gov.Gavin Newsom on Saturday said the federal government sent Los Angeles County 170 ventilators that arrived “not working,”and now a Silicon Valley company is fixing the equipment amid the coronavirus outbreak.
    California and other states have been stocking up on ventilators in anticipation of a shortage at hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic. Newsom said he learned about the problem with the federal government’s ventilators when he visited Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti on Friday.
    “Rather than lamenting about it, rather than complaining about it, rather than pointing fingers, rather than generating headlines in order to generate more stress and anxiety, we got a car and a truck,” Newsom said. Bloom Energy is fixing them, he tweeted Saturday”


    Amid coronavirus, Army vets fought to mass produce $100 ventilators. Then capitalism took over. [Click]

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    1. Nic weather for now; we will shortly commence eradicating weeds in the front yard. I find that therapeutic.

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  11. Millions of Americans will be infected by coronavirus and death toll could top 100,000, warns Dr. Anthony Fauci. The last couple of paragraphs also report state-level travel restrictions that haven't made the national news.

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  12. VT: Sun 52/2 ~ Mon 75/5
    Tues 95/7 ~ Weds 123/8
    Thurs 158/9 ~ Fri 184/10
    Sat: 211/12 ~ SUN 235/12

    Today is the first day all week that we have not had more deaths overnight. I am grateful.
    Our death rate is now down to 5.1%. (Still highest in the nation.)
    SUN 3.8%, MON 6.6%, TUE 7.4%, WED 6.5%, THU 5.7%, FRI 5.4%, SAT 5.7% -> 5.1%

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  13. Replies
    1. Right. I got an e-mail to this effect and was preparing to post it here. Good thing I checked first.

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    2. Good things bear repeating, Cat.

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  14. WV mow has a hundred confirmed cases, and first death, an 88 year old woman.

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