Coronavirus in the US

[romanigypsyeyes]

@Lizardly
Fwiw, I absolutely remember there being panic around swine flu but you have to remember the time. Facebook was in its infancy, MySpace was still popular with my age group, twitter was just taking off, and we had a lot of other things going on at the time. Less social media = less noticeable panic.

Maybe I remember it so clearly because I was one of the first to get it, before any of us really knew what we were dealing with.

ETA: I just googled swine flu panic and a bunch of articles from 09 came up. There definitely was mass panic.

[maya54]

“The pharmaceutical company Pfizer says it has identified certain antiviral compounds it had in development that have the potential to inhibit coronaviruses and is engaging with a third party to screen the compounds

The company said it hopes to have the results from that screening by the end of March and if any of the compounds are successful, it would hope start testing them by the end of the year.”

I’m sure Pfizer wanted to get this out because other pharm companies like Gilead already are testing their anti-virals. Gilead could do so very quickly with Remdesivir on humans because they tested it with Ebola and though it was not effective it was safe ( thus speeding up the human testing process after seeing it effective in animal trials on the another Coronavirus…I think SARS.) Here’s hoping that or some of the other anti-virals prove effective sooner rather than later.

[doschicos]

Well, lookie here. India has been doing more testing than the US.

"India will now be screening passengers from 12 countries for coronavirus on arrival in the country, according to health minister Harsh Vardhan.

Despite its close proximity to China and high population, India only has five confirmed cases of the coronavirus.

During a news conference on Monday, Vardhan said that passengers arriving from Vietnam, Malaysia, Nepal, Indonesia, Iran and Italy would now also be screened.

Passengers from China, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea were already being screened.

The screenings will take place in 21 airports, 12 major seaports and 65 minor ports.

A total of 3,217 samples have tested negative for coronavirus, five tested positive and 23 are still under testing, Vardhan added." (CNN)

New York Times halts nonessential business travel

"The New York Times has cancelled nearly all nonessential business travel for its staff to areas of the world affected by the coronavirus outbreak, CNBC has confirmed. “The health and safety of our employees is our top priority. We’ve halted almost all nonessential travel to affected areas,” a Times spokesperson said. “In addition to providing support to our staff covering the spread of the coronavirus worldwide, we have protocols for all staff returning from affected areas.” (CNBC)

Consumers buy up survival foods like dried beans and vitamins

“Consumers are shopping for more foods with long shelf lives and packaged items as the number of coronavirus cases in the U.S. rises, according to the latest Nielsen data…sales of fruit snacks were up by nearly 13%, dried beans were up 10% and pretzels were up 9% in the week that ended Feb. 22…Sales of energy drinks, pet medicine, vitamin supplements and first aid kits also saw sales spike. On the other hand, sales of fresh fruit and vegetables have dropped. Mandarins were down 4% and celery was down 16% in the week that ended Feb. 22.”

Poor celery.

[BunsenBurner]

“Well, lookie here. India has been doing more testing than the US.”

And what is the point of that screening? There are no tests that would allow you to get the answer right on the spot. Do they quarantine all these incoming folks until the results are in and confirmed by a second test? You bet not.

[TatinG]

Georgia has 2 cases. A couple. One had returned from Italy.

[Sybylla]

I would not believe that India is doing any reliable mass screening.

[maya54]

“On the other hand, sales of fresh fruit and vegetables have dropped. Mandarins were down 4% and celery was down 16% in the week that ended Feb. 22."

That’s so interesting because I’ve been trying to do only fresh vegetables and fruits on the assumption that at some point we may have to rely on other things and I’ll miss them.

[doschicos]

Federal judge in Texas denies request to keep Diamond Princess evacuees in quarantine

"A request by the US city of San Antonio for a restraining order to keep Diamond Princess cruise ship evacuees in quarantine has been denied by a federal judge.

“The Surgeon General of the United States and the Secretary of Health and Human Services are authorized to make and enforce such regulations as in their judgment are necessary to prevent the transmission or spread of communicable diseases," US district judge Xavier Rodriguez said in his decision late Monday. “This court has no authority to second-guess those determinations even though the court also shares the concerns expressed by the plaintiffs,” the judge said.” (CNN)

China looks to recovered to develop effective COVID-19 treatments

Doctors focus on preventing disease progressing to critical stage as work continues to develop effective drugs, vaccine.

Too much to quote. Worth a read if you are interested in vaccines, antivirals, and such.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/china-recovered-develop-effective-covid-19-treatments-200302082850237.html

[3SailAway]

The pharmaceutical company Pfizer says it has identified certain antiviral compounds it had in development that have the potential to inhibit coronaviruses and is engaging with a third party to screen the compounds.

I’m wondering why they weren’t further along with antivirals for coronaviruses. We’ve had two coronavirus outbreaks—SARS which emerged in 2002 and MERS in 2012. The most recent MERS cases I’ve see were in December 2019.

Experts all warned that this was going to keep happening, so why did drug companies stop before the antivirals were fully developed? Many people in epidemiology/infectious disease thought SARS would be a turning point where the world would seriously begin to prepare for the threat of zoonotic viruses. Maybe this third dangerous coronavirus will be the turning point.

As others have said on this thread, we need to be heavily investing in antivirals and in universal vaccines.

Articles in Fortune:

1. Before the new coronavirus, there was SARS and MERS: Do epidemics ever really end?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/fortune.com/2020/02/29/coronavirus-epidemic-end/amp/

1. Coronavirus shows how we need vaccines before, not after, an outbreak

https://www.google.com/amp/s/fortune.com/2020/02/29/coronavirus-covid-19-flu-vaccine/amp/

[BunsenBurner]

“On the other hand, sales of fresh fruit and vegetables have dropped. Mandarins were down 4% and celery was down 16% in the week that ended Feb. 22.”

Idiots. Apples and oranges can store quite well even when not refrigerated. Cosmic Crisp apples can sit without refrigeration for a couple of weeks and still be juicy and crunchy.

[doschicos]

Food and Drug Administration issues emergency authorization on healthcare workers’ masks

Concerned about potential shortages of protective gear, the US Food and Drug Administration has granted a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention request to let healthcare workers use a wider variety of respirators.

A number of countries globally have seen shortages of protective masks as governments and citizens buy large numbers to guard against the coronavirus outbreak.

The FDA regulates what respirators healthcare workers can use. Today’s decision will allow medical personnel to use respirators that have been approved by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, such as certain N95 masks, but do not necessarily meet FDA requirements.

“We will continue pursuing every possible avenue to secure the protective gear needed for responding to the COVID-19 outbreak," US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement. " (CNN)

Okay, for you scientists on here, what do you think of this? Does the lack of FDA requirements matter much? Also, did we not here at the press conference how masks were being made - up to 35 million per month?

[BunsenBurner]

“Coronavirus shows how we need vaccines before, not after, an outbreak.”

Nice. How do you think one should approach development of a vaccine against something that has never been seen in humans or known?

“I’m wondering why they weren’t further along with antivirals for coronaviruses. We’ve had two coronavirus outbreaks—SARS which emerged in 2002 and MERS in 2012. The most recent MERS cases I’ve see were in December 2019.”

The answer is simple. There is no market.

[Knowsstuff]

https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-inspired-homes-cancels-trade-show-20200302-g3lhxosh5nhitfovx7nv5ihpjy-story.html

[maya54]

I think that the fingers are really crossed that an anti viral can halt and reverse severe progression like Remdesivir did for the patient in Washington. Doctors were so excited by the very anecdotal evidence because the patient went from very sick to much much better in a day. But he was relatively young ( mid 40s) and anecdote is definitely not evidence. The animal tests on SARS were apparently pretty good though and the fact that the safety prong has been established is a big plus. But clinical trials so often don’t work out so it could easily be a bust.

[3SailAway]

And what is the point of that screening? There are no tests that would allow you to get the answer right on the spot. Do they quarantine all these incoming folks until the results are in and confirmed by a second test? You bet not.

@BunsenBurner You may be right that mass testing is not helpful, but the evidence coming out of China suggests that widespread testing of symptomatic people is important to slowing and containing Covid-19.

In China, the virus was infecting people in clusters (mostly family clusters due to closed schools, no mass gatherings etc). Authorities are able to do very effective contact tracing, and people are getting it from “close” contacts. This suggests that airborne transmission is not common, because otherwise the infections would be more random and not traceable.

Knowing this, it is important to get symptomatic people to self-isolate while a test is done. If they are positive, they need to stay in isolation, and their close contacts should be tracked down to prevent a cluster of cases which could otherwise grow unimpeded.

As far as health care workers, it is crucial that they know which patients have Covid-19, unless you want hospitals to become very understaffed and a big source of new cases.

According to WHO assistant director general and veteran epidemiologist Bruce Aylward:

The key is public information and having an informed population, finding those cases, rapidly isolating them. The faster you isolate them is what breaks the chains. Making sure close contacts are quarantined and monitored until you know if they’re infected. Somewhere between 5 and 15 percent of those contacts are infected. And again, it’s the close contacts, not everyone.

[doschicos]

Dr. Matt McCarthy, a staff physician at New York-Presbyterian:

“I’m here to tell you, right now, at one of the busiest hospitals in the country, I don’t have [a rapid diagnostic test] at my finger tips.” “I still have to make my case, plead to test people. This is not good. We know that there are 88 cases in the United States. There are going to be hundreds by middle of week. There’s going to be thousands by next week. And this is a testing issue.”

The team at New York-Presbyterian Hospital is isolating suspected coronavirus patients and taking proper precautions to prevent the spread, McCarthy said, but “they’re hamstrung.”

“In New York State, the person who tested positive is only the 32nd test we’ve done in this state,” he said. “That is a national scandal. […] They’re testing 10,000 a day in some countries and we can’t get this off the ground,” McCarthy said. “I’m a practitioner on the firing line, and I don’t have the tools to properly care for patients today.”

Includes video with Dr. McCarthy:
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/02/coronavirus-new-york-city-doctor-has-to-plead-to-test-people.html

Former FDA Commissioner is also in that interview - he says vaccine will be a year or two away. I think the video is a must watch. “We’ve moved beyond containment to mitigation”.

[3SailAway]

”Coronavirus shows how we need vaccines before, not after, an outbreak."

Nice. How do you think one should approach development of a vaccine against something that has never been seen in humans or known?

“Coronavirus shows how we need vaccines before, not after, an outbreak” is the headline of the Fortune article I linked. It is about the need for a universal coronavirus vaccine and a universal influenza vaccine.

I disagree that there is no market for these vaccines. What will happen to all our markets without them?

We also do not live in a purely capitalistic society. I think many Americans would like their government to be investing in vaccines.

[BunsenBurner]

@3SailAway

”Coronavirus shows how we need vaccines before, not after, an outbreak."

Nice. How do you think one should approach development of a vaccine against something that has never been seen in humans or known?

“Coronavirus shows how we need vaccines before, not after, an outbreak” is the headline of the Fortune article I linked. It is about the need for a universal coronavirus vaccine and a universal influenza vaccine.

I disagree that there is no market for these vaccines. What will happen to all our markets without them?

We also do not live in a purely capitalistic society. I think many Americans would like their government to be investing in vaccines.

Please re-read my post. The “no market” comment referred to ** antiviral drugs **to treat SARS and MERS.

A universal vaccine would be nice. If one can ever be found. Not holding my breath though.

[3SailAway]

Please re-read my post. The “no market” referred to drugs to treat SARS and MERS.

I see what you meant now—there would be a market for vaccines, but there is no market for coronavirus treatments. Presumably because most of the people who get sick can’t pay?

Maybe you’re right, but I still think we could have reached a turning point where pharmaceutical companies will realize that there is a market. People will pay a lot for something that saves their life, and there are plenty of wealthy people who will get a coronavirus at some point in the future.

I wonder why we developed anti-retrovirals to treat HIV. Where did the market for that come from?

I also think the search for treatments teaches us a ton about the viruses, which adds to knowledge for vaccine development.

[BunsenBurner]

More on the “weakly positive” dog:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/02/asia/pets-coronavirus-spread-intl-hnk/index.html

To veterinarians and animals rights experts, there is a bigger issue than the potential spread of coronavirus to pets: the spread of fear.
After the announcement that the Hong Kong dog tested positive last week, the Lifelong Animal Protection Charity (LAP) – a group which helps rehome animals in Hong Kong – wrote to the government, saying its announcement caused “a tremendous amount of panic.”