What if CA and NY take them all and there aren’t any left when KY and IL need them?
Hong Kong facing new wave of health issues related to imported coronavirus cases
From CNN’s Alex Lin and Isaac Yee in Hong Kong
Hong Kong is facing a resurgence of health issues related to imported coronavirus cases as it confirmed 16 new cases, bringing its total to 208.
In a news conference on Thursday, Dr. Chuang Shui-kwan of the Center for Health Protection said most of the new cases had recently arrived in Hong Kong from countries including Spain, the UK, Italy and the US. She said that the new cases included business people and students returning from overseas.
Dr. Chui Tak-yi of the Food and Health Department said that Hong Kong was facing a new wave of public health issues related to imported cases. He added that officials are expecting a rise in cases in the days to come.
He added that over the past two weeks, 92% of new cases recorded in the city were imported cases.
Of the 208 confirmed cases, 91 patients are still receiving treatment in hospitals including one patients who is in critical condition according to Dr. Linda Yu of the Hospital Authority.
The entire Georgia state legislature has been asked to self-quarantine after a senator tested positive
All legislature members in the US state of Georgia, along with their staff, are being asked to self-quarantine for 14 days after a senator was confirmed to have the coronavirus.
Sen. Brandon Beach has tested positive, the Georgia House said in a statement.
Meanwhile, two members of the US Congress have tested positive for the virus – Rep. Ben McAdams of Utah and Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida.
Several other Congress members in different states have also announced self-quarantines after coming in contact with McAdams or Diaz-Balart.
The world needs more ventilators. So it’s turning to wartime solutions to make them
From CNN’s Emma Reynolds and Eoin McSweeney
Governments and manufacturers are adopting drastic measures to produce more ventilators as the coronavirus pandemic places unprecedented demand on the world’s hospitals.
The UK government has turned to a wartime solution, enlisting manufacturers including luxury carmaker Rolls-Royce and vacuum company Dyson to produce this essential equipment.
Helen Meese, vice-chair of the biomedical engineering division at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, told CNN Business there was “a major need” for ventilators, particularly as the world prepares for “quite a drought of these devices over the coming weeks” as we reach the peak of the pandemic.
The World Health Organization has urged all countries to “optimize the availability” of lung ventilation equipment, which assists or replaces breathing functions for critically ill patients, pumping oxygen into the blood to keep organs functioning. “Oxygen therapy is the major treatment intervention for patients with severe Covid-19,” the organization said.
US government is preparing for coronavirus pandemic that could last up to 18 months
From CNN’s Christina Maxouris
Nearly two months after the first US coronavirus case, the federal government is now preparing for a pandemic that could last up to 18 months or longer and “include multiple waves of illness,” a report obtained by CNN shows.
The report, dated Friday, is a behind-the-scenes look at how the administration is ramping preparedness and how the whole of the federal government is being mobilized to tackle the crisis in our midst.
While not saying specifically that the administration believes the pandemic will last 18 months, the document lays out the contingency plans they are making have to assume a longer timeline to ensure preparedness.
“Shortages of products may occur, impacting healthcare, emergency services, and other elements of critical infrastructure. This includes potentially critical shortages of diagnostics, medical supplies (including PPE and pharmaceuticals), and staffing in some locations,” the report outlines in one potential scenario.
The country is already feeling the strain: Hospitals have sounded the alarm on quickly vanishing supplies as the outbreak in the US shows no signs of slowing – in just 24 hours, cases soared by more than 40%.
The US government announced this week it would help make up for potential medical supply shortages and deploy two hospital ships to help increase medical capacity.
The study I tried to link was published"In consultation with Stanford University School of Medicine, UAB School of Medicine and National Academy of Sciences researchers. March 13, 2020"
Again, the summation states that “US CDC research shows that chloroquine also has strong potential as a prophylactic (preventative) measure against coronavirus in the lab, while we wait for a vaccine to be developed.”
Later the report states:
Chloroquine as a prophylactic (preventative) measure against COVID-19[11]
According to research by the US CDC, chloroquine has strong antiviral effects on SARS coronavirus, both prophylactically and therapeutically. SARS coronavirus has significant similarities to COVID-19. Specifically, the CDC research was completed in primate cells using chloroquine’s well known function of elevating endosomal pH. The results show that “We have identified chloroquine as an effective antiviral agent for SARS-CoV in cell culture conditions, as evidenced by its inhibitory effect when the drug was added prior to infection or after the initiation and establishment of infection. The fact that chloroquine exerts an antiviral effect during pre- and post-infection conditions suggest that it is likely to have both prophylactic and therapeutic advantages.”
The study shows that chloroquine is effective in preventing SARS-CoV infection in cell culture if the drug is added to the cells 24 h prior to infection.
Hindsight is also crucial as a learning tool. And we need to learn MANY LESSONS from this pandemic and what worked and what didn’t.
Hopefully some of the automakers can retrofit lines to also make some ventilators (maybe some other manufacturers too).
Much medical device manufacturing moved overseas (a lot to Ireland) after the industry was singled out and taxed in the Affordable Health Care Act. Although that tax was repealed last year, not sure any mfr has yet to bring manufacturing back to the states.
Trump on possibility of losing jobs: “I don’t think anyone believes that’s going to happen”
President Trump was asked about comments made days ago by his former head economist Kevin Hassett who said that the US could lose 1 million jobs in March because of the coronavirus outbreak. Trump said he disagreed with Hassett’s comments.
“I don’t think anyone believes that’s going to happen,” he said.
The President continued by saying that if the US can get “this thing wrapped up and finished earlier” he thinks it could work out “nicely” for the economy.
Pence says “the private sector” will provide enough medical equipment
From CNN’s Nikki Carvajal
Vice President Mike Pence stressed “the private sector” will help get more medical supplies to hospitals across the country, but there’s widespread skepticism that will be enough.
“We continue to work with healthcare providers and businesses to identify more supplies, much more importantly across the private sector,” he said.
Companies have now increased “by tens of millions” their production of N95 masks, according to the vice president.
“On the subject of ventilators,” he continued, “we are working with healthcare providers around America and suppliers we literally identified tens of thousands ventilators can be converted to treat patients.”
“We are remaining confident that we’ll have the ventilators that we need as the coronavirus makes its way across America,” he assured.
The Department of Homeland Security estimates that should the virus become “very severe” 38 million people will need medical care, and 9.6 million people will need hospitalization. Of those, an estimated 2.9 million people will need to be admitted to intensive care units, easily overwhelming the nation’s current capacity.
Adding/clarifying my previous posts, chloroquine, another drug used to treat malaria, is separate and distinct from hydroxychloroquine…but they are related, from the same family (quinolones).
Trump says Carnival Cruise will provide ships for medical use
From CNN’s Betsy Klein
President Trump announced Thursday that he spoke with Carnival Cruise chairman Micky Arison, who has said he will make some ships from his fleet available to complement the work of US Navy hospital ships.
“This morning, I spoke with Micky Arison of Carnival Cruise Lines and he’s going to make ships available. So in addition to the big medical ships that you have coming, if we need ships with lots of rooms, they’ll be docked at New York and Los Angeles and San Francisco, different places,” he said.
Pence says “tens of thousands” of Americans are being tested daily
From CNN’s Nikki Carvajal
Vice President Mike Pence, the head of the Trump administration’s coronavirus task force, said that “tens of thousands” of tests are being conducted across the country daily, and testing centers are now required by law to report those test numbers.
“Because of the public private partnership that the President initiated several weeks ago, tens and thousands of tests are being performed every day,” Pence said at a Thursday press briefing at the White House.
In addition, he said, “state and private labs are now required by law to report all coronavirus testing directly to the CDC, which will give the American public and our research timely and important information.”
More context: The administration has come under increasing criticism in recent days for being unable to say how many people in the United States have been tested.
Still, Pence encouraged only those with symptoms to get tested, despite the possibility of asymptomatic spread. “It is important for every American to remember, if you don’t have symptoms, you don’t need the test,” he said.
Two emergency room doctors test positive for coronavirus in Illinois
From CNN’s Melissa Alonso
Two emergency room physicians at Rush Oak Park Hospital in Illinois tested positive for novel coronavirus and are isolated at home, according to a statement from hospital spokesperson Nancy Di Fiore.
“One doctor has not been seeing patients for several days prior, when he would have been contagious,” the statement said.
“The other may have had patient and peer contact and we are assessing the overall risk of exposure,” according to the statement.
Di Fiore said the cases were likely “community acquired.”
“In these uncertain times, one thing is for certain staff in our healthcare systems are heroes for providing comfort and care under difficult circumstances with a highly transmissible disease,” the statement said.
Will the 15 day social distancing guidelines be extended? We’ll know on day 14, Trump says
From CNN’s Betsy Klein
President Trump wasn’t able to provide any specifics when asked when life will get back to normal for Americans who are practicing social distancing.
“I hope very soon. We’ll see. This is unchartered territory as you know… I would hope very soon,” he said.
Asked later whether he expects the 15-day guidelines to be extended, he said, “I can only tell you on the 14th day. We’ll have to see.”
It is, but it’s totally separate from dealing with the here and now. Here and now we need to be looking at what’s working elsewhere, what the best theories from health experts are, and going from there. We need to deal with what we have.
Debriefing in preparation for the “next time” is different than what’s going on with most folks. They’re doing the blame game - armchair quarterbacking as if they were somehow superhuman and are always correct with every decision they ever make.
There have been good, bad, and ugly decisions made by many in the past. If we could read the ending first, most would have been made correctly, but no one gets to read the end first when something is new.
That said, one big key for next time is to let health folks run health things and keep gov’t in their place. This goes for far more than one country. IMO it’s also the best way to run things now…
The fact of the matter is, stopping the flights from China was a good decision, but we wasted the 3 weeks we had from that because of the very bad decision to not get testing from outside the US. If we had tested immediately in the areas with the first confirmed cases (we did have tests for some of these confirmed cases, right?) then we could have made good decisions about quarantining and containment.
Remember - Italy closed flights from China on the same day as us. And look where they are. Not enough early testing there either. A big FAIL.
The Brazilian government has issued a decree closing the country’s land borders to foreigners, CNN Brasil reports. Brazil has borders with ten countries.
The measure will not include entry to Brazil from airports, according to the report.
Louis Vuitton owner LVMH has converted its perfume manufacturing at all its Christian Dior, Guerlain and Givenchy facilities to the production of sanitiser and giving to hospitals in France for free.
Spanish fashion chain Zara is turning over its logistics and manufacturing facilities to delivering 300,000 surgical masks by the end of the week to the health authorities.
It is also using its networks to source medical grade fabric for hospital gowns.
Nivea has started serial production of medical grade disinfectants to support the fight against the coronavirus pandemic in Europe, the German consumer goods firm said on Thursday.
Parent company Beiersdorf said the medical hand sanitisers are being produced in two plants in Germany and one in Spain that usually produce Nivea and other skincare brands.
It will provide 500 tons of medical hand sanitisers to clinics, hospitals, medical and nursing staff and other public services.
[ you snooze, you lose. ]
Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau warned that it could take “weeks or months” for the aggressive measures taken across the country to fully take effect in the fight against the coronavirus.
But he also praised the “unique and difficult measures” taken by residents as the number of cases continues to grow.
Speaking outside his house for the fourth day in a row as he remains in self isolation, Trudeau acknowledged there was no clear timeline for when social distancing measures might be eased, saying his government was relying on expert advice. Across Canada, schools, restaurants and community centres have all closed to slow the spread of Covid-19.
While he reiterated calls for social distancing, he also called on residents to help out where possible, including donating blood. His request led to so many visitors to the Canadian Blood Service website that the site crashed temporarily.
Canada has dramatically ramped up its testing capabilities in recent days, said Trudeau, announcing 50,000 tests to date, including 25,000 in the last week.
There are currently 770 confirmed and presumptive cases in the country.
Trudeau also announced the anticipated closure of the US-Canada border to all non-essential travel would come on Friday night.
A number of provinces have declared states of emergencies in recent days, but the prime minister continued to resist calls for the implementation of emergency measures, calling the legislation “extreme”, but also leaving open the option to use military procurement as a way of obtaining more ventilators — similar to discussions in the United States.
“We are considering using any measures necessary that could assist our healthcare system,” he said.
Guardian
Until we know the efficacy of the WHO test (really, German) vs. the efficacy of the CDC test, can’t really say for sure.
The studies are showing Plaquenil (hydroxychloroquine) is an acceptable alternative.
- As chloroquine is not available in Korea, doctors could consider hydroxychloroquine 400mg orally per day (Hydroxychloroquine is an analog of chloroquine used against malaria, autoimmune disorders, etc. It is widely available as well).
Here is another source of information: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0924857920300820?via%3Dihub#!
Dutch Health minister resigns one day after fainting in parliament
From CNN’s Mick Krever in London
The Dutch Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport, Bruno Bruins, has resigned, the Dutch government said in a statement to CNN.
The announcement comes one day after he collapsed during a parliamentary session.
Bruins was responsible for the Netherlands’ COVID-19 response.
After collapsing Wednesday, Bruins tweeted last night that he had been suffering from “faintness because of over-exhaustion and intensive weeks.”
He said at the time that he was doing better, and was looking forward to “getting back to work to fight the corona crisis as well as possible.”
Until a new appointment is made, Minister Hugo de Jonge will take over Bruins’ responsibilities.
Queen Elizabeth: “We all have a vitally important part to play as individuals”
From CNN’s Max Foster
In a message put out by Buckingham Palace Thursday, Queen Elizabeth said “we all have a vitally important part to play as individuals” as the UK battles to contain the spread of coronavirus.
Here’s the Queen’s complete message:
“As Philip and I arrive at Windsor today, we know that many individuals and families across the United Kingdom, and around the world, are entering a period of great concern and uncertainty.
We are all being advised to change our normal routines and regular patterns of life for the greater good of the communities we live in and, in particular, to protect the most vulnerable within them.
At times such as these, I am reminded that our nation’s history has been forged by people and communities coming together to work as one, concentrating our combined efforts with a focus on the common goal.
We are enormously thankful for the expertise and commitment of our scientists, medical practitioners and emergency and public services; but now more than any time in our recent past, we all have a vitally important part to play as individuals - today and in the coming days, weeks and months.
Many of us will need to find new ways of staying in touch with each other and making sure that loved ones are safe. I am certain we are up to that challenge. You can be assured that my family and I stand ready to play our part.”
Trump on repercussions for China: “We’re working on that right now”
From CNN’s Nikki Carvajal
President Trump said he is considering “repercussions” for the Chinese government’s handling of coronavirus, after days of placing the blame for the virus on the country.
“It would have been much better if we had known about this a number of months earlier,” the President said at a news conference Thursday. “It could have been contained to that one area in China where it started. And certainly the world is paying a big price for what they did.”
Some context: Trump was initially very complimentary of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s handling of the outbreak, but in recent days he has taken to calling COVID-19 the “Chinese virus.”
After consulting with medical experts, and receiving guidance from the World Health Organization, CNN has determined that that name is both inaccurate and stigmatizing.
The President also expressed skepticism of China’s claim that they had no new cases of coronavirus Thursday.
“As far as believing what they’re putting out now, I hope it’s true,” he said. “Who knows? But I hope it’s true.”
When asked if he was considering repercussions on the country, Trump answered: “We’re working on that right now.”
[ I think Trump has more important things to be working on right now.]
Yes, but the control wasn’t tight. Travelers from China, I assume they are mostly Chinese, could get through by flying to a third country first. If they were mindful citizens and stick to the spirit of the rule, we were probably better off. But travelers found loop holes to get to the US bringing the virus. Some Chinese went further like the lady who gave germans their first taste of the virus. She was sick with symptoms but faked normal and proceeded with the meeting. The world was baffled how an asymptomatic person infects so many people. That wasn’t nice.
Since the topic of hindsight is being tossed around, it is important to note that, just as the virus does not discriminate, the decisions we wished we would have made belong to all of us.
In the democratic debates on Feb 7 and Feb 19, not a single word was said about the virus. It wasn’t just Trump downplaying the threat.
Let’s keep the heat on our leadership to constantly do more and do it better, but we need to remain reasonable and honest.
California’s Ventura County issues shelter-in-place order for senior citizens
From CNN’s Stella Chan
Ventura County is ordering residents ages 70 and older to shelter-in-place until at least April 1, joining other regions of California attempting to stem the spread of coronavirus.
“All individuals currently living within Ventura County, equal to or older than 75 years of age, or equal to or older than 70 years of age with an active or unstable comorbidity, are ordered to shelter at their place of residence from March 18, 2020 to April 1, 2020," the country said in its order.
The order adds: “Exceptions shall only exist as necessary to seek medical care, nutrition, or to perform essential work in healthcare or government.”
Violation of this order is a misdemeanor and could result in a fine or imprisonment.
“We have no plans on arresting 75-year-olds,” said Ashley Bautista, Ventura County PIO. However, the cost for violation is to illustrate how serious coronavirus is to the community.
By the numbers: Ventura County has 13 cases of coronavirus. The state of California has 834 cases, including 17 deaths.
Trump lashes out against ‘very dishonest’ press
Trump took a question from One America News Network, a far-right outlet that he has repeatedly praised for its flattering coverage of him, at the close of the coronavirus briefing.
The OAN employee asked Trump if he believed mainstream journalists had aligned themselves with the Chinese Communist Party by noting his use of the term “Chinese flu” to describe coronavirus, which has been widely criticized.
The question was clearly meant to set up Trump to criticize the press, and he happily took the bait. “The press is very dishonest,” Trump said. “They are siding with China.”
Trump’s tirade against news outlets like the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal raised alarms, considering millions of Americans are turning to those same sources for information amid the coronavirus pandemic. (Guardian)
Donald Trump is now taking a Q&A.
Q: Under what condition would you implement the defense production act?
A: “If we were in desperate need of something,” we don’t want to do it when we need it but before we need it, Trump says.
Q: CDC has put out guidelines for hospitals dealing with mask shortages to use them beyond their shelf life or use bandanas.
A: Pence says he met with 3M, which produces masks in Minnesota. He says the government has extended liability protection so that industrial masks can be used in hospitals. Manufacturers are also scaling up production efforts he says.
With construction companies around America heeding the president’s call to donate … we know we’ll meet that need."
Guardian