The other obvious reason to delay transmission as long as possible is to allow the health care researchers more time to find possible treatment that might mitigate the ill effects on the young healthy and perhaps reduce the mortality rate of the elderly.
@sherimba03 then I apologize. There is a quote function on this forum. You could have used that to make it clear that the words were not yours…like you did on this response.
Regardless. You posted two separate quotes as though they were designed to go together. That is co-mingling information that wasn’t necessarily designed to work together.
Perhaps some of the heightened concern you have is because of this.
These two articles are separate…not united.
[quote=“doschicos;.”
So, that’s 39% of staff showing symptoms. And surely some will be asymptomatic.
[/quote]
This is what people need to be nervous about. There is no overestimating the issues here. I think the real problem is underestimating. Unless the US is going to block hospital admissions, use strict triage, the effect on staff is going to be significant. Shut schools and have staff unable to work, and these things together mean the US healthcare system won’t even be able to staff those acute beds even if they are empty.
The Florida Department of Health announced the new case on Saturday night.
"MANATEE COUNTY — A second Manatee County resident has tested “presumptively positive” for the Coronavirus, also called COVID-19.
In a late night social media post, the Florida Department of Health said the individual is “isolated and being properly cared for” but did not give details on how the case was discovered or the condition of the patient."
Sounds like case #12 in Florida.
Agreed! I posted two separate articles together but I don’t understand why it substantially affects anything? I find the whole situation concerning and I’m not alone in trying to understand how this virus compares with influenza. And of course the second article was quickly identified as no longer valid; my apologies for not fact-checking better.
I opened my post with a statement indicating who had actually written the article. Anyway can you please direct me to the thread that instructs how to quote from outside of the thread? The only quote function I’m familiar with is within the forum, not from articles external to it.
How is quarantine handled if you were someone who had contact with a person positive for the virus?
Are people allowed to quarantine at home with others living in the home at the same time?
Where would a family of 4 go? would all 4 have to be isolated somewhere separately? what if you have children?
Italy has shut down Lombardy, estimates they’ll have ~18,000 cases by March 26th of which ~3000 will need to be in intensive care. Exponentials gonna exponential.
We’d better get ready, and we’d better be vigilant about social distancing. It’ll happen there, and it’ll happen here.
@Artist2233 From the NYTimes.com, “How to Quarantine Yourself” by Roni Caryn Rabin.
IMO, don’t compare and conflate it with influenza. It is its own virus with its own characteristics, many of which aren’t clearly known yet. What we do know is it is worse - higher R naught and high mortality rate.
And it looks like many other countries are heading in that direction, too.
Re quarantining. At last night’s Pence press conference it was said that if there are multiple people in a house, that the sick person should stay in a separate room and if they could have a separate bathroom, so much the better. IMO, it was a “well, that’s better than nothing” proposal.
I agree. I keep reading people saying it hasn’t killed as many people as the flu so we should just all calm down, and I totally disagree, and I was trying to make that point that it’s more contagious with a higher lethality.
Poor Italy 
but sounds prudent.
Italian PM signs decree for lockdown
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced early Sunday that the entire region of Lombardy and a number of provinces in other regions were put under lockdown as the coronavirus continued to spread throughout the country.
The region of Lombardy alone is home to more than 10m people.
The new measures will apply to about a quarter of the Italian population and will be in force at least until April 3.
Italy has confirmed 5,883 cases, with more than 1,200 reported in a single 24 hour period. The spread shows no sign of slowing.
The northern regions of Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna and Veneto are the hardest hit, representing 85% of cases and 92% of recorded deaths. (Guardian)
SOUTH KOREA - 367 new cases on Saturday, bringing the country’s total to 7,134. Six more deaths were reported on Saturday, with 50 in total.
Among the 367 new cases, 294 are from Daegu city and 32 are from North Gyeongsang Province, the most heavenly infected areas in the country.
Very interesting article in NYT about why we really dont know yet much about mortality rates of COVID-19 vs current knowledge of usual influenza:
“Over the long term, epidemiologists do a kind of blood testing of large numbers of people in a given community. By testing their immune systems, they can measure how many people have been exposed to a disease…even if asymptomatic. That type of research is often the gold standard for getting a real infection rate and a better fatality rate, called the infection fatality rate. This testing is what has been used to obtain our knowledge that the infection fatality rate for the flu is about one tenth to two tenths of 1 percent.
But that measurement technique which is the most accurate one… is most useful after a disease has already spread widely, so it can’t be easily used now.”
I’d venture that authoritarian regimes exercise more control over avoiding ‘loss of face’. Kind of like the explanation as to why a dog licks himself — because he can.
Thanks for the laugh, @catahoula!
So, out of curiosity, I just spent the past 5 minutes or so googling for info on how many tests each New England state has conducted thus far, first by looking to see if it is on the state’s Department of Health website. If not, doing a google search from news sources in the past 24 hours. Here’s what I found. If you are inclined, look up and add a state.
CT - 53 with 42 negative and 11 pending. The 2 positives connected to CT are people who work in CT but live in NY and were tested in NY.
MA - more than 700, with the ability to test 40-50 per day, 13 positives.
ME - 1, tested through CDC as the state currently lacks the capacity to test in-state. They expect to start testing in state in the coming week.
NH - 25 tests, 2 positives
RI - 45, 3 positives
VT - 28 tests, all negative
FWIW, when I compare it to the flu, my point is that I wish we would put this much freaking attention on the flu every year.
There is no reasons for tens of thousands of Americans to die of the flu. But people are lazy and don’t get their shots or otherwise prepare.
I’m still personally far more worried about the flu - as that actually really affects pregnant women and babies - but I’d never make the mistake of thinking the flu and this were in any way comparable. It’s just the divergent reactions that drives me up a wall.
@creekland it’s a reference to Holiday Inn Express commercials where people seem like experts but really aren’t. But they’re smart because they stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night 
The two CT cases are hospital employees. One worked at two hospitals and the other worked at a third. Both cases are connected to the New Rochelle/NYC lawyer at the center of the majority of the NY cases. Sobering to see how far one case can spread.
It seems impossible to believe that no one in the three CT hospitals was exposed, but that is what I have read so far.
Do you know if most of the MA cases are related to the original Biogen exposure or have there been multiple origins?
Thanks!
At least a handful of the MA cases are related to Biogen. Not sure of the exact number.
CT still has 11 tests pending but I agree with you, should be more under the circumstances.
States are sure being tight doling out those tests.