OT: Corona virus

[warspite1]

So one thing that has been puzzling me. Why can Worldometers show a Total Cases and an Active Cases and Total Death for the UK - but not the Total Recovered? Isn't this just the first minus the other two?

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: Sammy5IsAlive

Bad day for everyone looking at Worldometers. These midweek figures are tough to see. Case numbers in the US look encouraging again though.

Brazil looks like it is getting increasingly ugly [:(]. Bolsonaro says 'so what'. I'm hoping it doesn't contravene the no politics rule to suggest he seems to be a pretty awful piece of work.

I was going to post on this too but after the recent outcry about a quote posted defending John Ioannidis I thought twice. [;)]

Now that you've broken the ice, I'd offer that Brazil is in a difficult situation, with most local authorities disagreeing with the central government's lack of response, and numbers rising.

It's such an amazing place and I fear for the poor especially in the big cities of Rio and Sao Paolo.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... death-toll

Since Brazil confirmed its first coronavirus case on 26 February, Bolsonaro has continually minimised the pandemic, rejecting media “hysteria” over its dangers and suggesting Brazilians could swim in excrement and emerge unscathed.

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Health specialists fear Covid-19 – which is moving into poor regions, having initially affected middle- and upper-class areas – could wreak havoc on Brazil’s most deprived and vulnerable communities.

“I’m scared,” Josiete Pereira do Carmo, who lost her mother and three uncles, told one local TV network. “We can’t lose anyone else.”

This may be how we learn horribly what this disease will do with only sporadic measures in place. I truly hope the local administrations and people themselves take on some measures now or extend existing to keep this from being a case study in how not to handle a pandemic.

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EDIT: Just found this

In this Daily Post article the re-opening of the Southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina has led to a suddenly steeper rise in cases, even with a lot of people using masks and other personal protection.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... ncing.html

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

So one thing that has been puzzling me. Why can Worldometers show a Total Cases and an Active Cases and Total Death for the UK - but not the Total Recovered? Isn't this just the first minus the other two?

I read that the UK is "developing" a way of tracking recovered. Not sure why it's so hard.

I've also read only 2/3 of people admitted to hospital that are positive are recovering. A lot of co-morbidities there, but still, not good.

[RFalvo69]

ORIGINAL: Alfred
Let's see ...

No HIV vaccine after some 35 years of intensive research

After decades, still no long term flu cure, only a limited prophylactic shot based on the previous years flu version

A cure for the common cold, still the El Dorado for all pharmaceutical companies

True, but, since we can't finance everything, these efforts are proportional to the overall impact of the problem. HIV, common cold and even cancer never shut down the whole planet. Not even the Spanish Flu managed this feat. COVID19 did.

I have no hard data about the research for a vaccine, only my feelings - but I guess that the effort to find a vaccine will be like nothing else seen before. You simply can't compare the current level of affliction with anything else in the history of modern medicine.

[RFalvo69]

ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

COVID-19 turning out to be huge hoax perpetrated by media
Media hyped the virus and alarmed Americans to the point of shutting down the economy

April 28, 2020



https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/20 ... etrated-b/

The Washington Times never stops giving [8|]

[obvert]

An interesting article on the stresses that this pandemic is adding to an already difficult financial situation for many US hospitals. I had no idea for instance that the US government spending for healthcare per capita was more than is spent in a number of countries with nationalised healthcare.

https://www.ft.com/content/3bbb4f7c-890 ... 8a3e3fbd33

The US government funds more than half of healthcare spending — but it does not run the hospital system. Instead, it supplies public insurance in the form of Medicare, for seniors, and Medicaid, for the poorest, paying through a fragmented network of healthcare providers. To get by, hospitals must also have enough money coming in from commercial insurers or beg for extra subsidies.

Many are on the brink. More than a hundred have closed in the past decade, and a report last month from consultancy BCG estimated that 20 per cent were at “near-term risk of insolvency” before the pandemic. They now think the figure is between 30-40 per cent.

The high number of uninsured people in the US compounds the challenges of responding to coronavirus. At least 27 million Americans lack any health insurance, and that figure is set to rise as millions more lose their jobs. Without insurance, patients risk getting saddled with high bills from emergency room visits that they cannot pay, forcing bad debt on to the hospitals.

Even though the US spends trillions of dollars on healthcare, much of that is wasted. The funding gets used up by bureaucrats that have to code and bill every action a doctor takes, by doctors and hospital administrators paid far more than their European counterparts and by the soaring cost of drugs. A study last year in The Journal of the American Medical Association found at least $760bn was wasted in unnecessary health spending — more than the US spends on primary and secondary education.

Poorer hospitals that cater to low-income urban communities, or rural areas where population is declining, are dependent on government insurance. They say the payments from Medicaid do not cover their costs as the price of staff, equipment and drugs rises.

---------------

Initial data suggests the disease has had a disproportionate impact on communities of colour. In New York, black and Latino people are twice as likely to die as white people. At One Brooklyn, the group has seen a high rate of hospitalisation among its coronavirus-positive patients. “Our community has been very significantly affected,” says Brown. “There is a reality that many of the hospitals that serve low-income communities of colour have the least amount of resources . . . Any public health crisis will uncover inequalities.”

[MakeeLearn]

Covid-19 news: UN says 1.6 billion people could lose their livelihood

29 Apr 2020


https://www.newscientist.com/article/22 ... ivelihood/


"Nearly half the global workforce – more than 1.6 billion people – could lose their livelihoods due to coronavirus restrictions and lockdowns, according to a UN International Labour Organization report. These include many informal workers, such as domestic workers, agricultural workers and street vendors, who may not have worker benefits or social protection.

“For millions of workers, no income means no food, no security and no future,” said the organisation’s director general Guy Ryder. “As the pandemic and the jobs crisis evolve, the need to protect the most vulnerable becomes even more urgent,” he said."

[HansBolter]

ORIGINAL: RFalvo69

ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

COVID-19 turning out to be huge hoax perpetrated by media
Media hyped the virus and alarmed Americans to the point of shutting down the economy

April 28, 2020



https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/20 ... etrated-b/

The Washington Times never stops giving [8|]

Had an interesting discussion with my employer yesterday about how much different the current world wide panic is compared to 1968-69 when the Hong Kong flu killed 100,000 Americans.

In 68-69 we didn't hide in our homes and shut down our economies.

I pointed to the WWW and instant world wide communication as the major difference between now and then.
I personally think we can thank the internet for our current world wide 'snowflake' approach to dealing with a similar, but actually less dire threat.

We are all millennials now.

p.s. Florida begins opening up its non-essential businesses next Monday.

[MakeeLearn]

US Navy stages back-to-back challenges to China's South China Sea claims
6 hrs ago


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/us ... li=BBnb7Kz


"A United States Navy warship conducted a "freedom of navigation operation" Wednesday aimed in part at challenging China's claims in the South China Sea, the second such operation in as many days near disputed islands that the US has accused Beijing of militarizing."

"The guided-missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill on Wednesday "asserted navigational rights and freedoms in the Spratly Islands, consistent with international law," said Cmdr. Reann Mommsen, a spokesperson for the Navy's 7th Fleet, in a statement."

[MakeeLearn]

Goldman Sachs asks in biotech research report: ‘Is curing patients a sustainable business model?’

Apr 11 2018

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/11/goldman ... model.html



"“Is curing patients a sustainable business model?” analysts ask in an April 10 report entitled “The Genome Revolution.”

“The potential to deliver ‘one shot cures’ is one of the most attractive aspects of gene therapy, genetically-engineered cell therapy and gene editing.

However, such treatments offer a very different outlook with regard to recurring revenue versus chronic therapies,” analyst Salveen Richter wrote in the note to clients Tuesday.

“While this proposition carries tremendous value for patients and society, it could represent a challenge for genome medicine developers looking for sustained cash flow.”"

[Cap Mandrake]

Initial data suggests the disease has had a disproportionate impact on communities of colour. In New York, black and Latino people are twice as likely to die as white people. At One Brooklyn, the group has seen a high rate of hospitalisation among its coronavirus-positive patients. “Our community has been very significantly affected,” says Brown. “There is a reality that many of the hospitals that serve low-income communities of colour have the least amount of resources . . . Any public health crisis will uncover inequalities.”

Oh Sweet Baby Jesus! Here it comes. COVID-19 is a racist. America is racist. Healthcare funding is racist. The virus STARTED in an Asian country. In Wuhan 99.9% of the victims were "coloured". It smashed into Queens. Guess who lives in Queens.

That is insufferably ignorant.

[Cap Mandrake]

ORIGINAL: obvert

An interesting article on the stresses that this pandemic is adding to an already difficult financial situation for many US hospitals. I had no idea for instance that the US government spending for healthcare per capita was more than is spent in a number of countries with nationalised healthcare.

<snicker>

Where you been, man. That is the preamble of every attack on US healthcare. By ra way, how is the oxygen thingy holding up over there?

[MakeeLearn]

ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

Initial data suggests the disease has had a disproportionate impact on communities of colour. In New York, black and Latino people are twice as likely to die as white people. At One Brooklyn, the group has seen a high rate of hospitalisation among its coronavirus-positive patients. “Our community has been very significantly affected,” says Brown. “There is a reality that many of the hospitals that serve low-income communities of colour have the least amount of resources&#8201;.&#8201;.&#8201;.&#8201;Any public health crisis will uncover inequalities.”

Oh Sweet Baby Jesus! Here it comes. COVID-19 is a racist. America is racist. Healthcare funding is racist. The virus STARTED in an Asian country. In Wuhan 99.9% of the victims were "coloured". It smashed into Queens. Guess who lives in Queens.

That is insufferably ignorant.

The coronavirus spike protein is a multifunctional molecular machine that mediates entry into to any social cause.

[MakeeLearn]

Coronavirus: Europe’s economy suffers worst drop since records began
April 30, 2020


https://globalnews.ca/news/6886566/coro ... e-economy/


"The European economy shrank by a record 3.8% in the first quarter as business activity from hotels and restaurants to construction and manufacturing was frozen by shutdowns aimed at preventing the spread of the coronavirus.

The drop in the 19-country eurozone was the biggest since statistics began in 1995 and sharper than the plunge in the midst of the global financial crisis in the first quarter of 2009 after the bankruptcy of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers."

[MakeeLearn]

Americans are surprisingly open to letting their phones be used for coronavirus tracking

In a new study, more than half of respondents said they would use an app to let people know they had COVID-19
Apr 30, 2020

https://www.theverge.com/interface/2020 ... rveillance


"Today Apple and Google released an initial version of the API that represents the first phase of their joint effort to enable public health authorities to quickly identify people who may have been exposed to new cases of COVID-19. By mid-May it should be available to most health agencies. And so it’s time to revisit a question we first asked here three weeks ago: will Americans actually use these apps? "

[MakeeLearn]

US weekly jobless claims hit 3.84 million, topping 30 million over the last 6 weeks
18 mins ago


https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets ... r-BB13qlJV



"First-time filings for unemployment insurance hit 3.84 million last week as the wave of economic pain continues, though the worst appears to be in the past."

"Gross domestic product contracted 4.8% in the first quarter, according to a government report Wednesday that is expected to look much worse when the final revisions are in and only begins to show how much damage has been done.

Economists not only expect the Q1 number to end up sharply lower but predict a second-quarter decline worse than anything the U.S. has ever seen."

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

US weekly jobless claims hit 3.84 million, topping 30 million over the last 6 weeks
18 mins ago


https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets ... r-BB13qlJV



"First-time filings for unemployment insurance hit 3.84 million last week as the wave of economic pain continues, though the worst appears to be in the past."

"Gross domestic product contracted 4.8% in the first quarter, according to a government report Wednesday that is expected to look much worse when the final revisions are in and only begins to show how much damage has been done.

Economists not only expect the Q1 number to end up sharply lower but predict a second-quarter decline worse than anything the U.S. has ever seen."

Gee, just last week the Govt said unemployment would peak at 27 million, when we were at 26 million unemployed.

It is exceptionally hard to see the economy rebounding.

[RangerJoe]

ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

Initial data suggests the disease has had a disproportionate impact on communities of colour. In New York, black and Latino people are twice as likely to die as white people. At One Brooklyn, the group has seen a high rate of hospitalisation among its coronavirus-positive patients. “Our community has been very significantly affected,” says Brown. “There is a reality that many of the hospitals that serve low-income communities of colour have the least amount of resources&#8201;.&#8201;.&#8201;.&#8201;Any public health crisis will uncover inequalities.”

Oh Sweet Baby Jesus! Here it comes. COVID-19 is a racist. America is racist. Healthcare funding is racist. The virus STARTED in an Asian country. In Wuhan 99.9% of the victims were "coloured". It smashed into Queens. Guess who lives in Queens.

That is insufferably ignorant.

Unfortunately, many of those people have other health issues. It may be genetic as well as socioeconomic. Until unbiased research delves into this, it is difficult to address.

I remember reading about one heart medicine that was tested. The only group that it actually helped was the black people, it did not help whites or asians. So it was marketed for the black people who need it but then it was called a racist drug. Some drugs, asians metabolize at a much lower rate (10% was the figure for some drugs) than the European or African ethnic groups. Many Europeans, and most especially Northern Europeans, and their descendants keep producing the enzyme that metabolizes lactose while other ethnic groups do not. This is because of the historic consumption of cow's milk.

[Lowpe]

Rules for me, but not for thee....


Barack Obama Goes Golfing at Country Club the Day After Michelle Urged African Americans to Stay Home

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/m ... ne-n386764

[RangerJoe]

ORIGINAL: obvert

An interesting article on the stresses that this pandemic is adding to an already difficult financial situation for many US hospitals. I had no idea for instance that the US government spending for healthcare per capita was more than is spent in a number of countries with nationalised healthcare.

https://www.ft.com/content/3bbb4f7c-890 ... 8a3e3fbd33

The US government funds more than half of healthcare spending — but it does not run the hospital system. Instead, it supplies public insurance in the form of Medicare, for seniors, and Medicaid, for the poorest, paying through a fragmented network of healthcare providers. To get by, hospitals must also have enough money coming in from commercial insurers or beg for extra subsidies.

Many are on the brink. More than a hundred have closed in the past decade, and a report last month from consultancy BCG estimated that 20 per cent were at “near-term risk of insolvency” before the pandemic. They now think the figure is between 30-40 per cent.

The high number of uninsured people in the US compounds the challenges of responding to coronavirus. At least 27 million Americans lack any health insurance, and that figure is set to rise as millions more lose their jobs. Without insurance, patients risk getting saddled with high bills from emergency room visits that they cannot pay, forcing bad debt on to the hospitals.

Even though the US spends trillions of dollars on healthcare, much of that is wasted. The funding gets used up by bureaucrats that have to code and bill every action a doctor takes, by doctors and hospital administrators paid far more than their European counterparts and by the soaring cost of drugs. A study last year in The Journal of the American Medical Association found at least $760bn was wasted in unnecessary health spending — more than the US spends on primary and secondary education.

Poorer hospitals that cater to low-income urban communities, or rural areas where population is declining, are dependent on government insurance. They say the payments from Medicaid do not cover their costs as the price of staff, equipment and drugs rises.

---------------

Initial data suggests the disease has had a disproportionate impact on communities of colour. In New York, black and Latino people are twice as likely to die as white people. At One Brooklyn, the group has seen a high rate of hospitalisation among its coronavirus-positive patients. “Our community has been very significantly affected,” says Brown. “There is a reality that many of the hospitals that serve low-income communities of colour have the least amount of resources&#8201;.&#8201;.&#8201;.&#8201;Any public health crisis will uncover inequalities.”

Ten percent of all Medicare and Medicaid spending is for fraud. Some unintended but most intentional. The chance of getting caught is relatively low with businesses going in and out of business under different names at different locations. The ones that stay in business at the same place and location are most likely to be caught. I read where one group home charged for therapy sessions that did not take place. In fact, one individual was in jail during the time that he was supposedly undergoing therapy.

I saw on television where an insurance company would be billed $4000 for a CAT scan, while Medicare/Medicaid would be billed between 2400-2600. If a person offered to pay the bill that day, that person would be charged $400.

In a study, if a person went to a doctor with a lingering chest cold there was the chance of either an average 4 x-rays or less than 1. The difference? Whether or not the doctor's office owned an x-ray machine.

If a person agrees to pay for "out of coverage" medical tests or care, then the bills can really escalate. The doctors don't have to go through the in coverage lab but can go to a different one, like the one that the doctors own.

Bill Of The Month
For Her Head Cold, Insurer Coughed Up $25,865
December 23, 2019

Alexa Kasdan had a cold and a sore throat.

The 40-year-old public policy consultant from Brooklyn, N.Y., didn't want her upcoming vacation trip ruined by strep throat. So after it had lingered for more than a week, she decided to get it checked out.

Kasdan visited her primary care physician, Roya Fathollahi, at Manhattan Specialty Care, just off Park Avenue South and not far from tony Gramercy Park.

The visit was quick. Kasdan got her throat swabbed, gave a tube of blood and was sent out the door with a prescription for antibiotics.

She soon felt better, and the trip went off without a hitch.

Then the bill came.

Patient: Alexa Kasdan, 40, a public policy consultant in New York City, insured by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota through her partner's employer.

Total bill: $28,395.50 for an out-of-network throat swab. Her insurer cut a check for $25,865.24.

Service provider: Dr. Roya Fathollahi, Manhattan Specialty Care.

Medical service: lab tests to look at potential bacteria and viruses that could be related to Kasdan's cough and sore throat.

What gives: When Kasdan got back from the overseas trip, she says there were "several messages on my phone, and I have an email from the billing department at Dr. Fathollahi's office."

The news was that her insurance company was mailing her family a check — for more than $25,000 — to cover some out-of-network lab tests. The actual bill was $28,395.50, but the doctor's office said it would waive her portion of the bill: $2,530.26.

"I thought it was a mistake," she says. "I thought maybe they meant $250. I couldn't fathom in what universe I would go to a doctor for a strep throat culture and some antibiotics and I would end up with a $25,000 bill."

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-sho ... -up-25-865

Surprise medical bills: How you can fight back
By Walecia Konrad
November 23, 2016

Surprise medical bills: How you can fight back

By Walecia Konrad

November 23, 2016 / 5:15 AM / MoneyWatch

Last week, the New England Journal of Medicine published a comprehensive report on something thousands of health care consumers have been grappling with for years: surprise out-of-network medical bills.

Take the woman in Charleston, South Carolina, who underwent an emergency C section. The in-network anesthesiologist wasn’t available, so she faced a $15,000 bill for the out-of-network doctor who replaced him.

Or consider the man from Grapevine, Texas, who underwent an emergency appendectomy with an out-of-network surgeon -- the one who was on duty at the time. His bill: $950.

So-called surprise billing comes about when patients visit a hospital or emergency room that’s part of their insurance company’s network, but then they receive care from a doctor or other provider who isn’t part of that network. That provider sends a bill directly to the patient, usually for the difference between the in-network contracted price and the provider’s full fee.

The authors of The New England Journal of Medicine study looked specifically at surprise billing in ER situations. They found that 22 percent of the time, patients who went to the ER at a hospital covered by their plan received treatment -- and a bill -- from an out-of-network doctor.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/surprise-m ... ight-back/

Those don't include billing errors, or exhorbitent billing such as five dollars for two Paracetamol, also known as acetaminophen (tylenol) but you are not allowed to bring in your own bottle of 100 which costs $4 or less. Always check the bill for errors, some things are added in a package even though you may not have received it.