Per Seattle Times:
"8:49 am
Dick’s Drive-In asking customers not to pay in cash
Dick’s Drive-In is asking customers to pay with debit or credit cards so workers don’t have to touch cash that might have the virus on it.
The local burger chain is still accepting cash at all locations but is telling customers that cards are preferred.
“Our employees have extra sanitization procedures for all orders that involve cash,” Dick’s wrote on its social media accounts Friday morning."
Guidance lacking for mass transit to combat outbreak
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. transit system operators have received little guidance from the Trump administration on issues ranging from cleaning trains, buses and ferries to combat the spread of coronavirus to what to do if a shutdown of their commuter networks is required.
In an American Public Transportation Association conference call on Friday with more than 1,000 participants, K. Jane Williams, acting administrator of the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), said that while the agency “is carefully obviously monitoring the situation, we have not issued any directives or guidance on system shutdowns.”
As the number of U.S. coronavirus cases has risen, reaching more than 230 in 21 states as of Friday, mass transit agencies are scrambling to find ways to protect their ridership.
But Williams had little to tell transit agencies about cleaning and disinfecting regimens outside of steps taken by transit providers in Washington state, which has had a cluster of cases, and elsewhere.
“FTA does not have specific vehicle cleaning guidelines,” she said.
On the call, an official with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention encouraged transit agencies to work with local health departments and to clean “high-touch surfaces” once a day using products registered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for their effectiveness against viruses."
I don’t understand…and this same question was posed on Sci Fri on NPR today.
How is it that the Koreans can test 10,000 people per day…and we don’t have the capacity to do the same…or more?
Why can’t we get the testing kits from the folks who have had success making large quantities of them?
Ok…I do understand that imports might not be possible…but what about the information used to make these tests?
Seems like the U.S. feels the need to invent its own wheel.
What I read was the flu has a transmission rate of something like 1.2 people per each person with flu and Covid19 something like 2.4 but I’m sure I have those numbers wrong. In any case, the question of if it is more contagious than the flu has already been answered by research, from what I understand. So, waiting and seeing how bad off Seattle gets when it is already worse than they can possibly even know given that they still don’t have the needed capacity to test and there are many walking around undiagnosed does not seem like a good idea. I think UW made a good, proactive choice.
Initially they wanted to invent their own wheel. But the made errors and twiddled their thumbs for several weeks afterwards. Now they are farming it out to for-profit companies.
I’ve seen those same numbers, the R0 or R naught.
They farmed it out to anyone who can do it, which includes for-profit companies but also other labs. UW Virology is doing a fantastic job.
Amherst College just announced that this weekend’s Women’s basketball NCAA Div III Regionals will not allow spectators. Also if anyone had dreams of tailgating, they are saying no to that, too.
One of my kids takes the bus in southern CA, and has no car. It makes me nervous. She sanitizes her hands, that’s about it. She has some chronic illnesses so isn’t the typical healthy young person.
Doctor who treated first US coronavirus patient says COVID-19 has been ‘circulating unchecked’ for weeks
"Dr. Amy Compton-Phillips recalled the day the first U.S. patient infected with COVID-19, a 35-year-old man from Snohomish County in Washington state, had taken a “turn for the worse.”
“He was day nine in his course and he actually started going downhill, started getting worse,” said Compton-Phillips, chief clinical officer of Providence St. Joseph Health, where the patient was treated.
At first, the patient only had common cold-like symptoms, Compton-Phillips said. But very quickly he began to have shortness of breath and a cough, she said. His X-ray also showed viral pneumonia. He needed supplemental oxygen and had to be put on an experimental antiviral treatment.The patient has recovered and has been released from the hospital.
Since the patient landed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Jan. 15 from the outbreak’s epicenter in Wuhan, China, the virus has spread to at least 75 other people in Washington state…
Compton-Phillips said the doctors, nurses and other front-line workers watching the outbreak in real time are all saying “this is coming.” “It’s not if, it’s when. And we better get ready now,” she said."
More in the article
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/06/doctor-who-treated-first-us-coronavirus-patient-says-covid-19-has-been-circulating-unchecked-for-weeks.html
Nothing is being “farmed out.” When it became clear that there is a market, companies moved in. Until then, someone had to take the wheel. The for profit companies would not move and develop a product for which there is no market. I don’t blame them.
Do you think UW makes everything from scratch? The reagents used are from the same Sigmas, Qiagens, Thermos, IDTs, etc.
1:28 pm
UW officials expect in-person classes to resume March 30
University of Washington officials said Friday they expect to resume in-person classes by March 30 in time for next semester. But UW President Ana Mari Cauce cautioned she doesn’t have a “crystal ball and can’t say where we are going to be with COVID-19 three weeks from now.”
In the meantime, the university has doubled the amount of cleaning and sanitizing happening on campus. They’re transitioning some food-service items from self-serve to grab-and-go, officials said at a news conference on Friday.
Geoffrey Gottlieb, a professor with the division of allergy and infectious diseases, said the university is taking the potential threat very seriously as it has surpassed both SARS and MERS in terms of deaths and illnesses worldwide. “The scale of this epidemic is unprecedented,” he said.
Officials said four students with possible exposure were tested, but came back negative. One faculty member’s test has not yet been federally approved. That test came back positive, but will not be considered confirmed until the result is confirmed by the state Department of Health.
But we are the smartest best and most prepared country in the world and this will all disappear in April, like magic.
I understand the time it takes to develop and distribute these tests. What I don’t understand is how Korea is testing 10,000 people per day, and we can’t get enough tests to do a fraction of that in a week.
How come Korea and China have tons of tests…and we don’t?
You forgot Italy.
Ugh! Someone at DD’s office is married to a Biogen employee. The Biogen employee wasn’t originally tested but lots are currently being brought to a Boston hospital to be tested. DD is not a direct line of exposure but did talk with her coworker yesterday.
DD is probably not infected but she was supposed to come home tonight and go to a show by our youth theatre company with me. That’s not happening now. DH is +60 with asthma (and DD has been having asthma cough issues this winter) so don’t want to risk that contact. Not to mention bringing her into a school auditorium and then having to explain to the school that I arrange our rental space from that I brought a possibly infected person into the school if her coworker’s spouse gets tested and is positive. Definitely in the better safe than sorry mode! Now I have to mail all the sanitizer and wipes I was going to give her this weekend.
@compmom I get your concern. D is in Seattle, has no car, takes the bus to work, and has multiple underlying health conditions. She’s working 16+ hr days and is worn down. She Ubers home. I’m not sure how much safer that is.
@BunsenBurner RE: the restaurant with no cash. How much safer are cards than cash? Haven’t they been handled by many? I’m just curious if anyone knows. Sorry if I missed it, but this thread moves fast.
My kids were at expensive schools. I’d be completely ok with school’s going online or whatever they feel is necessary. I’m sure the decisions are not made lightly.
Just thinking off the cuff but with a card and card readers these days, it is often just you touching your own card vs. paper bills being circulated among many people.
Yes, but the money is made by the sponsors in venue tickets, concessions, sale of autographs and t-shirts and games and other junk. The sponsors can’t pay the big prize money if they don’t make the money.
They kept saying they wouldn’t, now they are…
SXSW festival canceled amidst coronavirus concerns
"Austin city officials have announced that the annual South by Southwest tech, film and music festival has been canceled due to novel coronavirus concerns.
The festival was slated to take place March 13 – March 22.
Several high profile companies had already pulled out of the event, including Twitter, Facebook, Intel, Vevo and Mashable." (CNN)