OT: Corona virus

[RangerJoe]

ORIGINAL: mind_messing

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

ORIGINAL: mind_messing




The person.

Curious as to your claim that the CDC has a political agenda, that's news to me, not being from the US. Would you mind expanding on it?

Every governmental entity has a political agenda. More money, larger budgets, more control => more power. The CDC apparently stopped other entities in the United States from developing tests for the Corona virus, that meant that any tests had to come from the CDC. Meaning that the CDC could ask for more money, more employees, and hence, more power.

Interesting. Have you a source for that?

It is the way that things work in any business entity, governmental entity, or other organizations. Offices with a window, corner offices are even more prestigious. A secretary for just one person and not shared, how many assistants (if any) are all signs of power. Even if they make the workload heavier and are not needed. I suggest that you take some college business courses for the sources. Don't forget to take simple economic courses as well. Not to mention higher level courses if needed.

[mind_messing]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

ORIGINAL: mind_messing

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe




Every governmental entity has a political agenda. More money, larger budgets, more control => more power. The CDC apparently stopped other entities in the United States from developing tests for the Corona virus, that meant that any tests had to come from the CDC. Meaning that the CDC could ask for more money, more employees, and hence, more power.

Interesting. Have you a source for that?

It is the way that things work in any business entity, governmental entity, or other organizations. Offices with a window, corner offices are even more prestigious. A secretary for just one person and not shared, how many assistants (if any) are all signs of power. Even if they make the workload heavier and are not needed. I suggest that you take some college business courses for the sources. Don't forget to take simple economic courses as well. Not to mention higher level courses if needed.

You've misunderstood - a source for your claim that the CDC stopped manufacture of testing kits.

[PaxMondo]

I don't know that they stopped them, but I do know that we will be importing Swiss ones and as I understand it, they will be license built in the US shortly.

[PaxMondo]

Roche's test kit …

https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabeltogo ... e454ef4fa8

What I understand is that beginning next week they will be shipping one to every metro area (one Level 1 Trauma Center) initially, then backfilling all lvl 1 Trauma's. Supposedly, the tester production is licensed and several manufacturer's are gearing up ASAP. Realistically, still 6 - 9 weeks away from having all the test capacity one would like, but at least there is now a solution. Roche won the contest ...

[Anachro]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

I don't know that they stopped them, but I do know that we will be importing Swiss ones and as I understand it, they will be license built in the US shortly.

Yes, by Roche. The ramp-up in production will be pretty quick.

[PaxMondo]

BTW: my understanding with the CDC was that prior to the Roche unit, the other testing methods produced too many false negatives … very, very bad. False positives, not good, but acceptable. False negatives … no-no. [:-]

Roche crash tested there machine (I heard through the grape-vine via another US medical machine company) that Roche tech's had been 24/7 for over 6 weeks. They had 3 or 4 variants and they ran them all in parallel. Good call on their part, the people who sacrificed a lot of family time: kudo's. A lot of people are going to owe them a BIG thank you. Management there also, good call stepping up like they did.

[durnedwolf]

Hey RangeJoe,

In regards to the arthritis medications info and link you posted - I wanted to say thanks. My wife contacted her doctor to ask about any known complications for people using her medication and regimen for rheumatoid arthritis. The doctor basically said there wasn't a strong sample size nor many within his network that had any working experience with the virus yet.

In the end, he basically told her to try extra-hard not to catch the virus... <wry grin>.

[Canoerebel]

Good point on false-positives vs. false-negatives, Pax.

Question: I understand (I think) why the lack of testing is such a concern. If the disease has escaped containment, is running rampant and undetected in the general population, should we very soon see (or should have already seen?) an exponential growth in people admitted in extremis and in the number of deaths?

There can be a lag between onset and full-blown maturity, but whether there is adequate testing or not, should we see exponential increases in admissions and mortalities? Especially in states like Washington, California, New York, Florida?

The numbers are up but (to my untrained eye) the deaths are much less than I would expect.

If that's true, in turn, is it due to the quality of medical care, the actual rate of mortality, a combination of these and other things?

In the USA today, the number of deaths is up by six. We're now two weeks into this. Given what I'm hearing and seeing, I'd expect much higher numbers, either now or soon.

[Canoerebel]

Here's today's total of countries experiencing the highest number of cases (as I understand it, China reports its totals at the end of a day, but tabulations for the other countries are adjusted regularly during the day).

I find this kind of information either encouraging or highly misleading. I'm not sure which it is, yet.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Good point on false-positives vs. false-negatives, Pax.

Question: I understand (I think) why the lack of testing is such a concern. If the disease has escaped containment, is running rampant and undetected in the general population, should we very soon see (or should have already seen?) an exponential growth in people admitted in extremis and in the number of deaths?

There can be a lag between onset and full-blown maturity, but whether there is adequate testing or not, should we see exponential increases in admissions and mortalities? Especially in states like Washington, California, New York, Florida?

The numbers are up but (to my untrained eye) the deaths are much less than I would expect.

If that's true, in turn, is it due to the quality of medical care, the actual rate of mortality, a combination of these and other things?

In the USA today, the number of deaths is up by six. We're now two weeks into this. Given what I'm hearing and seeing, I'd expect much higher numbers, either now or soon.

My understanding is that without the ability to test, MDs are unable to say if COVID-19 was the cause of death or not, so the official figures may still suffer from FOW. Almost every expert I have heard on TV (MDs all) has said the testing is the start point for knowing who has it or had it and all other data depends on that. I hope the testing kits can be rolled out within a week.

[Canoerebel]

What about the "serious" cases though? Presumably, the hospitals have been able to verify that they have 2,395 active cases, as shown in that chart, and have determined that only 10 of those are serious.

Of course, that's assuming that table is accurate. But in that case, look at Italy with it's high infection rate and high mortality rate. 17,750 active cases, of which 1,518 are serious. A bit less than 10%. Why are we at 4/10ths of one percent? Probably a reporting anomaly.

[RangerJoe]

ORIGINAL: durnedwolf

Hey RangeJoe,

In regards to the arthritis medications info and link you posted - I wanted to say thanks. My wife contacted her doctor to ask about any known complications for people using her medication and regimen for rheumatoid arthritis. The doctor basically said there wasn't a strong sample size nor many within his network that had any working experience with the virus yet.

In the end, he basically told her to try extra-hard not to catch the virus... <wry grin>.

You are welcome. But the information was that the Chinese were testing the drugs for Corona virus cytokine overload, where the body essentially goes nuts and destroys itself. Apparently that is what is happening to people who get very sick and then go to see what is next.

[RangerJoe]

ORIGINAL: mind_messing

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

ORIGINAL: mind_messing




Interesting. Have you a source for that?

It is the way that things work in any business entity, governmental entity, or other organizations. Offices with a window, corner offices are even more prestigious. A secretary for just one person and not shared, how many assistants (if any) are all signs of power. Even if they make the workload heavier and are not needed. I suggest that you take some college business courses for the sources. Don't forget to take simple economic courses as well. Not to mention higher level courses if needed.

You've misunderstood - a source for your claim that the CDC stopped manufacture of testing kits.

Somebody else posted that link earlier. I guess the problem was the accuracy with those other tests. So then the only source for the test kits was the CDC. One kit can test many people depending upon the supplies available.

[Kull]

A treatment for the uninfected - not a vaccine but a procedure which could dramatically slow the spread of the disease - could be just weeks away:

With a vaccine for COVID-19 still a long way from being realized, Johns Hopkins immunologist Arturo Casadevall is working to revive a century-old blood-derived treatment for use in the United States in hopes of slowing the spread of the disease.

With the right pieces in place, the treatment could be set up at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore within a matter of weeks, Casadevall says.

The technique uses antibodies from the blood plasma or serum of people who have recovered from COVID-19 infection to boost the immunity of newly infected patients and those at risk of contracting the disease. These antibodies contained in the blood's serum have the ability to bind to and neutralize SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Casadevall—a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of molecular microbiology and immunology and infectious diseases at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and School of Medicine—published a paper on the proposal today in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.

"Deployment of this option requires no research or development," he says. "It could be deployed within a couple of weeks since it relies on standard blood-banking practices."

In this case, physicians would ask patients who recover from COVID-19 to donate their blood, from which sera would be isolated. After processing the serum and removing other toxins or trace illnesses, it can be injected into sick patients and those at risk of contracting the disease. The procedure for isolating serum or plasma is a long-established technology that can be performed using equipment normally found in hospitals and blood-banking facilities, and recent advances make it as safe as a blood transfusion, Casadevall says.

Experts around the U.S. are rushing to implement the treatment in several different areas, including New York City, Casadevall says. Doctors in Shanghai have already used the plasma therapy with newly infected coronavirus patients in China and have reported promising early results. Japan's largest drugmaker, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, has also begun testing the therapy.

[Jorge_Stanbury]

the end of the good times for pandemia profiteers:

amazon cracking on Corona virus price gouging

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/14/tech ... llers.html

[obvert]

This is beautiful

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-eur ... ost-morale

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: Kull

A treatment for the uninfected - not a vaccine but a procedure which could dramatically slow the spread of the disease - could be just weeks away:

With a vaccine for COVID-19 still a long way from being realized, Johns Hopkins immunologist Arturo Casadevall is working to revive a century-old blood-derived treatment for use in the United States in hopes of slowing the spread of the disease.

With the right pieces in place, the treatment could be set up at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore within a matter of weeks, Casadevall says.

The technique uses antibodies from the blood plasma or serum of people who have recovered from COVID-19 infection to boost the immunity of newly infected patients and those at risk of contracting the disease. These antibodies contained in the blood's serum have the ability to bind to and neutralize SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Casadevall—a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of molecular microbiology and immunology and infectious diseases at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and School of Medicine—published a paper on the proposal today in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.

"Deployment of this option requires no research or development," he says. "It could be deployed within a couple of weeks since it relies on standard blood-banking practices."

In this case, physicians would ask patients who recover from COVID-19 to donate their blood, from which sera would be isolated. After processing the serum and removing other toxins or trace illnesses, it can be injected into sick patients and those at risk of contracting the disease. The procedure for isolating serum or plasma is a long-established technology that can be performed using equipment normally found in hospitals and blood-banking facilities, and recent advances make it as safe as a blood transfusion, Casadevall says.

Experts around the U.S. are rushing to implement the treatment in several different areas, including New York City, Casadevall says. Doctors in Shanghai have already used the plasma therapy with newly infected coronavirus patients in China and have reported promising early results. Japan's largest drugmaker, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, has also begun testing the therapy.

This has been done already in China. One female doctor who recovered donated her plasma for this cause.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/202 ... -life.html

[font="Trebuchet MS"]The Chinese government has urged recovered patients to donate plasma, which experts say contains antibodies that could be used to treat the sick. Ms. Deng contacted a local blood bank soon after getting home.

She plans to go back to work as soon as the hospital allows it.

“It was the nation that saved me,” she said. “And I think I can pay it back to the nation.”[/font]

It seems they've been doing this since early February treat some patients at least.

https://time.com/5784286/covid-19-china ... treatment/

[font="Trebuchet MS"]China National Biotec Group Co. has been using this plasma, which contains highly potent antibodies, to treat more than 10 seriously ill patients since Feb. 8, the company said in an statement on its official WeChat account Thursday night. It claimed that those receiving the treatment improved within 24 hours, with reduced inflammation and viral loads along with better oxygen levels in the blood.[/font]

[RangerJoe]

Read what RFalvo69 wrote from Milan, Italy.

https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.a ... =&#4775963

[RangerJoe]

I read about China doing that earlier. It should help as long as another disease is not spread.

[Kull]

ORIGINAL: obvert

This has been done already in China. One female doctor who recovered donated her plasma for this cause.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/202 ... -life.html

[font="Trebuchet MS"]The Chinese government has urged recovered patients to donate plasma, which experts say contains antibodies that could be used to treat the sick. Ms. Deng contacted a local blood bank soon after getting home.

She plans to go back to work as soon as the hospital allows it.

“It was the nation that saved me,” she said. “And I think I can pay it back to the nation.”[/font]

It seems they've been doing this since early February treat some patients at least.

https://time.com/5784286/covid-19-china ... treatment/

[font="Trebuchet MS"]China National Biotec Group Co. has been using this plasma, which contains highly potent antibodies, to treat more than 10 seriously ill patients since Feb. 8, the company said in an statement on its official WeChat account Thursday night. It claimed that those receiving the treatment improved within 24 hours, with reduced inflammation and viral loads along with better oxygen levels in the blood.[/font]

Which makes this even more encouraging. It's not a theory. It works!! And best of all, per the first story, none of this is "new technology". The hardware exists and the process exists.