Coronavirus in the US

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Industry associations warn of looming major food shortages across Asia

There could be major food shortages across Asia as a result of supply chain disruptions and trade protectionist measures due to the coronavirus outbreak, two industry associations warned.

Many countries have locked down large areas, quarantined millions and restricted movements across borders to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease, formally known as COVID-19. Such measures restrict the movement of manpower and disrupt transportation and logistics.

Some countries have also started stockpiling strategic food products and restricted exports in an environment where consumers are buying more for their own pantries as they stay home.

“Any restriction of movement, including the workforce, will affect the stability of food production. The situation has now been exacerbated by the global increase in demand for food. Even the slightest measure affecting the free movement of people and goods will strain the global food chain further,” said Abdul Halim Saim, president of the ASEAN Food and Beverage Alliance. ASEAN is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

The alliance and Food Industry Asia, are calling for governments across the region “to ensure the unhindered production and supply of food and beverages as each country tries to contain the outbreak of COVID-19,” they said in a press release on Monday.

“During a lockdown, if governments across the region put in place policies that hinder production across supply chains as well as trade barriers, this could lead to regional food shortages, especially when looking across the world and seeing the continued but unnecessary panic buying behavior,” they said. (CNBC)

FEMA is sending 250 ambulances, hundreds of medical workers and 85 refrigerated trucks to NYC to fight coronavirus outbreak
CNBC

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is sending 250 ambulances, about 500 EMTs and paramedics and 85 refrigerated trucks to serve as temporary mortuaries to New York City, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., city officials said.

The ambulances, 100 of which have already arrived, will increase capacity to transport coronavirus patients between medical facilities and assist the Fire Department with responding to a record number of medical calls, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office said in a press release. The city’s Emergency Management System has seen medical calls surge by 50% during the pandemic over normal daily call volume.

“Our EMTs and paramedics are facing an unprecedented number of medical calls each day. There has never been a busier time in the history of EMS in New York City,” New York City Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said in a statement. —Noah Higgins-Dunn

Belarus’ president dismisses coronavirus risk, encourages citizens to drink vodka and visit saunas
CNBC

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has refused to implement a lockdown in the country of roughly 9.5 million people, reportedly suggesting that others have done so as an act of “frenzy and psychosis,” according to Sky News. The president of Belarus has urged citizens to drink vodka, go to saunas and return to work. In Belarus — a country that borders Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Ukraine — 152 people have contracted COVID-19 infections, with no deaths.

Airlines receiving coronavirus aid will be allowed to consolidate routes into fewer airports
The U.S. Department of Transportation will allow airlines that receive coronavirus aid to consolidate certain routes, giving carriers some breathing room in requirements for the relief.

Congress last week approved $50 billion in aid for U.S. airlines, part of the $2 trillion coronavirus relief package. Half of the aid is available in grants that wouldn’t have to be paid back, a victory for the airline industry that lobbied against an all-loans package. The grants are dedicated to maintaining payroll, and airlines that accept them have to commit not to furlough workers through Sept. 30.

Travelers through TSA checkpoints dropped to 154,080 Monday from 2.3 million last year

The Transportation Security Administration said 154,080 passengers went through a TSA checkpoint on Monday, a sharp drop from 2.3 million travelers on the same day a year earlier and down from 180,002 on Sunday.

CNBC

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Walmart will start taking employees’ temperatures before shifts
CNBC

Walmart will start taking employees’ temperatures when they report to work and tell them to stay home or seek medical care if they have a fever of at least 100 degrees.

The retailer also said it’s ordering masks for employees and will offer masks and gloves for them to wear, if they choose. The company said the masks will be high quality, but not the N95 respirators that at-risk health-care workers need.

In a post on Walmart’s website, John Furner, president and CEO of Walmart U.S., and Kath McLay, president and CEO of Sam’s Club, said the additional steps are new ways the retailer is trying to keep employees safe during the coronavirus pandemic.

Spirit cancels New York area flights after CDC warning

Low-cost U.S. carrier Spirit Airlines said it will cancel all flights to and from New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey after U.S. officials warned against travel to the area because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Spirit, which appeared to be the first major U.S. carrier to cancel all flights to the tri-state region, said it was responding to this weekend’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory warning against all nonessential travel to and from the area. Spirit said it will suspend service to the airports it serves in the region, New York LaGuardia, Newark, Hartford, Niagara Falls, and Plattsburgh, New York, through at least May 4. —Reuters

11743

Maybe the Germans follow College Confidential:

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"I’m sure it has been mentioned, but you don’t necessarily need to test everyone individually. You could, for example at an airport, pool 10 passengers samples together, and test once. If negative, they are all released. If positive, do them individually.

Of course, exact protocols and numbers will vary for technical reasons."

11744

The 2015 study isn’t relevant. When I wore a mask because of air pollution, I didn’t concern myself particularly whether I touched my face or not. Now, when I wear a mask because of coronavirus, I don’t touch my face at all. The reason makes all the difference.

11745

NYS latest update:

  • there are 5 different models, the apex is predicted anytime between 7-21 days. [yikes, wish the models agreed a bit more]
  • number of cases NYS 75,795 up by 9,298 (49.9% of those tested)

NYC 43K (+ 5,685)
Westchester has almost 10K (+641) This means that 1% of Westchester population has tested positive.

  • 10,929 currently hospitalized
  • 1413 new hospitalizations (highest number so far but not crazily high)
  • 2,710 current ICU patients
  • 354 new ICU admissions
  • 295 new intubations (similar to yesterday)
  • 4,975 hospital discharges (+ 771) :)
  • 1550 deaths total (+332) :(
  • number of tested total 205, 186 yesterday 18,645 (49.9% tested positive)
11746

Is that going to happen? What about the residents in those areas?

Cuomo keeps bleating about NY needs this and NY needs that. He wants HCWs from other states to come help out NYC, and promises NY will help their states when the time comes. Right…just like he promised to send ventilators back to the states after they send them to NY. If his predicted apex is still 14-21 days away, then what about the states where the HCWs are poached from? The needs of those states for HCWs (and vents!) are going to increase before 14-21 days from now. And shouldn’t the HCWs returning to their home states from NY quarantine for 14 days? (The ones who didn’t die, that is.) Oh, but wait…who cares about anywhere else, Mr. Cuomo?

NYC has already gotten a Navy hospital ship (one of only two). They are getting FEMA help and all sorts of other help. But it isn’t enough. It will never be enough until Cuomo gets all the HCWs, vents, FEMA supplies, ambulances, PPEs, etc.

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@sorghum Wearing masks is something that’s very likely to happen here sooner or later (hopefully sooner). It will just take a bit for people to get used to. Just like they needed to adjust to the idea of college and school closings, restaurant closings, social distancing, etc. You name it.

Some things are much easier to adjust to if one is the middle of it (1% of our county now tested positive). A week ago in the store, there were about 10-20% of people wearing masks (and I wasn’t one of them). Today, there were masks everywhere. Those who didn’t have one were in the minority. If I were to guess, 60-75% of people had a mask on, some of them homemade. And unlike last week, I had one too.

(Before you all start attacking me, it wasn’t N-95 but an old mask that I found in our medical cabinet)

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I have 4 N95 masks hanging off a peg in my shop. They are all pretty well beat-up, but I’ll use if needed.

11749

T-shirt masks are easy.

11750

That seems unnecessarily harsh/mean-spirited. Look at the numbers for just those states that currently have about or more than 2000 cases :

state / cases / new / deaths /new /active
New York 75,795 +8,470 1,550 +208 69,270 [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
New Jersey 16,636 198 16,438 [1]
California 7,453 +205 149 +4 7,244 [1]
Michigan 6,498 184 6,309 [1] [2]
Florida 6,338 +634 77 +6 6,261 [1] [2]
Massachusetts 5,752 56 5,686 [1] [2]
Washington 5,250 210 4,550 [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
Illinois 5,057 73 4,982 [1] [2] [3]
Pennsylvania 4,843 +689 63 +12 4,780 [1] [2] [3] [4]
Louisiana 4,025 185 3,840 [1] [2]
Georgia 3,817 +785 108 +6 3,709 [1] [2] [3]
Texas 3,186 +280 47 +6 3,032 [1] [2]
Colorado 2,627 51 2,576 [1]
Connecticut 2,571 36 2,535 [1] [2] [3]
Indiana 2,159 +373 49 +14 2,110 [1]
Tennessee 2,026 +98 13 1,961

New York has almost 5X more cases than NJ and almost 10X more cases than California. Their death rate is 10X higher than CA and almost 10X as much as NJ. Cuomo is doing as much as he can for his constituents. That is the sign of a good leader. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

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I read about a study years ago on getting patients to give their children vaccines. Doctors first thought if they talked deeply with parents and explained using lots of evidence, etc, why vaccines worked and were important, the vaccine rate would go up, but what they found was that it went down because it scared people. What they found worked was not explaining or talking to parents as thought they were peers but rather just telling people, ‘you must vaccinate your kid or they could die’ and things like that. They found being authoritative worked. This is the opposite of what would work on someone like me. I’d do better if I hear the logical explanation. I think that doctors are doing what has been shown to work, which I guess is what you called KISS.

11752

NY is on track for 827 deaths per day. One of them could be me. Or other posters here.

Don’t you dare leave, just stay and die, and quit complaining.

11753

I recall hearing in the 1980s that the Red Cross was testing donated blood for AIDS this way. It’s a pretty well-known technique.

11754

Things changed drastically all over the globe. Early march i shared that during a video conference call, 1 person in china wore a mask and he sat in his office. Today’s call, a month later, almost everyone (from 8 countries, 4 continents) wore mask. Me and a couple others didn’t. I work from home, I assumed those who wore mask were in the office.

11755

My husband did his own simulation and he said that another way to look at it is that if you infected 3 people today, you will effectively kill 1 people in the next 15 days.

11756

My husband told me from watching loads of Chinese and Taiwanese news in China and talking to loads of people on Wechat including doctors (some who are relatives) the past 3 months that the virus can be passed through the air and that 6 feet is the most critical but it isn’t limited to 6 feet. The Chinese pushed masks for a reason. I am immune deficient and if I had to go in public beyond taking walks with my family, I would wear a mask. I would feel bad about it and no one looking at me would know that I am immune deficient and my doctor said I must wear a mask. I may have to wear them in order to stay employed so I can go to my job in the fall when it seems we will have a 2nd wave. I work with people who come to work sick and can’t count on any type of 6 foot anything, at least not all the time. Pretty near impossible. I do feel horribly guilty to have any masks at all but I also am very concerned with my own safety. I do not have a giant stock of masks, just a small amount. I feel so upset and worried to know doctors don’t have enough. And people in high contact jobs don’t have them. I know someone who works for an airline and the airline donated all their masks, gloves, and other protective gear to a hospital so the airline staff were flying without anything to protect themselves starting about 3 weeks ago. That’s terrible!

11757

How much food do you have in your house? How long could it reasonably last with replenishment? How much more do you have on hand now than before the virus?

We have practically no shortages or supply disruptions yet, but I have stocked up to a few weeks supply. Before, maybe a few days and not planned for balance. Maybe I will write out a clear plan and try to boost it to a month.

11758

Can’t see if it was posted, but this is IMO the best “what to do” video I’ve seen. Straightforward, reassuring, empowering, clear.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=WxyH1rkuLaw - well worth watching at least the first 20 minutes.

Dr. Dave Price of Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City shares CRUCIAL information on how we can stop the spread and get back to normal, well, kinda normal. His experience with the virus and people infected for the last 3 months has given him great confidence on how not to get infected. Rules to protect yourself and family. It’s a must watch! Recorded March 22

Unedited full length video: https://vimeo.com/399733860

11759

It makes sense when the volume of samples is large and the % of infected samples is small. Otherwise, every batch will have to be retested defeating the purpose.

11760

Regarding the wearing of masks.

DS21 was born the year of the SARS pandemic and there was a particularly acute outbreak in Toronto which is near to where we live. He developed bronchiolitis at 6 weeks of age and I had to take him to the ER. Because of SARS they were issuing masks to everyone entering the ER. I found it extremely uncomfortable and difficult to breathe. He was admitted and was placed in an isolation room in Peads but they fortunately didn’t require me to continue wearing a mask. He was there for about 4 days and I was there with him for the entire time. I don’t know how I would have coped if I had to wear a mask the whole time.

Fast forward and he had his wisdom teeth out on the March 13th which was the day before March Break started for our students. At this point things were getting serious globally but WHO hadn’t made their pandemic announcement and our governments hadn’t started shutting things down as we had very few reported cases as yet (though dh had predicted it was coming soon) so his surgery went ahead as planned. When we arrived at the clinic there were no additional safety measures taking place. He had a follow up appointment the following week though, which was post announcements. When arrived we were the only patients there and were asked to wear masks. We were seen by a nurse who was fully kitted up wearing gown, gloves, mask, and face shield. The whole appointment took 10 minutes at most fortunately as I couldn’t wait to get out of there and take the mask off. I just can’t breathe. I have the same issue in the winter wearing a scarf over my nose.

I’d rather stay isolated in my house if going out in public means I have to wear a mask.