Don’t they have larger families as well? Which could mean tighter living quarters, more spread.
Yes
I enjoy listening to Dr Scott Gottlieb on CNBC… very non partisan, fact focused guy. This was reassuring and how I feel about the recent outbreaks:
Some areas of the U.S. are seeing a surge in coronavirus cases. Could that lead to a larger spread?
@scottgottliebmd says, “I think we have much better tools now. We have much more widespread testing in place…states do have the capacity to keep these outbreaks contained.”
***Except, I guess ARIZONA, based on the 8-9 days results we just heard about! Unconscionable!
The article made it sound like NY had a choice to test when the CDC had not let states decide when to test. We know now that NY had early spread at a time testing wasn’t up and running yet and continuing to the time period when the CDC had very strict rules about who could be tested that didn’t align with where known outbreaks were (or the fact that one plane ride puts anyone from Wuhan basically anywhere else in the world). I think the article blamed NY for things that it could have done different but also for things about which it had no choice and were the responsibility higher up on the chain of decision making.
Agree. NYS was actually at the forefront on expanding testing once CDC/FDA/Feds removed the shackles stymying their efforts.
I agree about the testing in NY.
Early in the epidemic, in early February, California wanted to test and couldn’t; the requests were denied. Washington wanted to test, and couldn’t; the requests were denied. So I’m not blaming NY for not testing, at a time when they couldn’t.
NY should have shut down earlier, no doubt about that. Given what they knew, they should have shut down. If they’d been able to test, maybe they would have shut down earlier.
Experiment suggests coronavirus has evolved to more easily infect human cells
From CNN’s Maggie Fox
Researchers in Florida said they believe their experiment has shown that the new coronavirus has mutated in a way that makes it more easily to infect human cells.
They said more research is needed to show whether this changes how the virus infects people, and whether the change has affected the course of the pandemic. But at least one researcher not involved in the study said it likely has done so, and the changes may explain why the virus has caused so many infections in the United States and Latin America.
The scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in Florida said the mutation affect the spike protein – a structure on the outside of the virus that it uses to get into cells. If the findings are confirmed, it would the first time someone has demonstrated the virus has changed in a significant way.
“Viruses with this mutation were much more infectious than those without the mutation in the cell culture system we used,” Scripps Research virologist Hyeryun Choe, who helped lead the study, said in a statement.
Just this week, the World Health Organization said the mutations seen so far in the new coronavirus had not made it more easily transmissible, nor had they made the virus more likely to cause serious illness.
Choe and colleagues ran a series of experiments in lab dishes that show a mutation called D614G gives the virus many more spikes, which in turn make it easier for it to get into cells. They’ve published their findings on a preprint server called BioRxiv. That means the work has not been reviewed by other experts in the field.
But Choe and colleagues did send their paper to William Haseltine, a virologist, biotechnology entrepreneur and chairman of Access Health International. Haseltine believes the findings explain the easy spread of coronavirus across the Americas.
“It is significant because it shows the virus can change, does change to its advantage and possibly to our disadvantage,” he told CNN. “It has done a good job so far of adapting to human culture.”
Most Americans following social distancing advice, CDC survey finds
From CNN’s Maggie Fox
Most Americans are following advice to stay home and support other measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus, a new survey from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds – or at least, they did last month.
Close to 80% of Americans surveyed nationwide said they had self-isolated and 85% of New Yorkers said they had, the survey found.
Nationwide, 74% of those surveyed said they wore face coverings in public either always or often and those in the hard-hit cities of New York and Los Angeles said they did so about 90% of the time.
“Overall, 84.3% of adults in the U.S. survey cohort believed their state’s Covid-19 community mitigation strategies were the right balance or not restrictive enough, compared with 89.7% in NYC and 79.7% in Los Angeles,” the survey team, led by the CDC’s Michael Tynan, said in the agency’s weekly report.
“As well, 74.3% of respondents in the United States reported they would not feel safe if these restrictions were lifted nationwide at the time the survey was conducted, compared with 81.5% in NYC and 73.4% in Los Angeles.”
The team used survey data from Qualtrics LLC, given online. Surveyors contacted 4,000 adults and invited them to complete the questionnaire, so it was not completely self-selected – something that can skew survey results. In the end, 2,200 responses were included in the survey, taken in May.
Across the US, 17% of those surveyed said they knew someone who had tested positive for coronavirus but that rose to 42% in New York. Nationally, 6% of people said they knew someone who had died of coronavirus and this went up to 23% in New York.
"Most adults reported they would not feel safe if government-ordered community mitigation strategies such as stay-at-home orders and nonessential business closures were lifted nationwide at the time the survey was conducted, although a minority of these adults who did not feel safe wanted these restrictions lifted despite the risks,” the team concluded.
Better news than I thought out of New York, from Cuomo’s daily email:
BTW he attibutes it to the slow opening up, the fact that most NYer’s are wearing masks and/or social distancing.
Some good news: My cousin shared on Facebook yesterday that her mom, who is 95 years old and my only surviving aunt, has been declared recovered from COVID-19 and was moved from the isolation part of her nursing home back to her regular room. Cousin and her mom live in Iowa.
@rosered55 that is wonderful news.
Our trip to Costco and Home Depot almost didn’t happen. Just as we were getting ready to go my H looked out from our deck and saw smoke in the not far distance. At the same time I got an alert on my phone. The open space just a few miles from our house was on fire. It was windy and we live in a high fire area. Within minutes we heard sirens and within 15 minutes the water dropping helicopter was on it. We had a great view from our deck of the helicopter doing its job. The fire department in our area is top notch and within 90 minutes they had the fire under control. This is an area with a lot of dry grasses and some thick shrubbery. The area is used my walkers, kite gliders, bikers and people hiking down to the beach.
Traffic has definitely increased and people seem to have forgotten how to drive. We had lunch out at a local fish taco place. It was our first meal out. We sat outside and they weren’t busy. The area has about 6 places and I think we saw 100% mask wearing. I was surprised that people were wearing them even while walking from the parking lot. No menus and no self serving drinks. Napkins and condiments not on the tables. We hadn’t planned on eating there but our delay in getting out of the house put lunch before Costco not after. I don’t think I’d be in a rush to dine out again even though felt safe.
Costco had plenty of TP, no wipes. The price of ribeye has gone up $2 a lb from early March when we were last at Costco. Bummer is that the patio umbrellas are sold out. The guy helping us said they sold out quick this year. They are sold out online too.
Home Depot was not crowded and had no line to get in. We were in and out in 10 minutes. Both Costco and Home Depot had everyone in masks.
Daughter in law got a message this am that her Covid 19 test was either lost or some sort of problem and she needs to come back for another test. She is annoyed and not going back as it’s now been enough time from her protest march that she feels like she doesn’t need it.
My son in AZ (works in a grocery store filling orders for pickup) got a sore throat (one inflamed tonsil, really) A few weeks ago. We had him call out sick immediately and go get a Covid test the next day. Results took six days. The sore throat was gone before he got the result, which was negative. Employer kept him out for 10 days minImum and three days past the end of symptoms regardless, paid.
We thought six days was a ridiculously long time to wait, 8-9 is beyond inexcusable, especially while the governor is going on in his press conference about the increased testing. Sounds like testing capacity is more than maxed out and that can’t be good. I just really wish he’d mandate masks. I don’t think our governor will reinstate Stay in place unless it gets really dire here. He kept saying in his press conference yesterday that we have plenty of hospital beds available. Not reassuring. We are staying in place as much as we can but two essential workers in the house means we still don’t feel very safe.
My aunt with COVID passed away yesterday at 91. The mom of a former coworker just had it and is now negative. She’s 97.
Our county is going to Phase 2 next week, assuming the numbers are still trending down. Bethesda is closing off streets for outdoor dining.
I went into downtown DC yesterday (four blocks from Lafayette Square) for a doctor’s appointment. Pretty much everyone I saw on the streets was masked. Outdoor COVID testing site was set up next to GW Hospital.
Masks are mandated in indoor facilities in our county. Because our neighborhood has no sidewalks, we all walk in the street, so it’s easy to socially distance without masks. The dogs miss their buddies.
So sorry, @CountingDown.
My condolences, @CountingDown. :heartbreak:
@doschicos — thank you for the updates. You always find such interesting and helpful information!
So sorry, @CountingDown
Thank you so much for posting this. It was very interesting and informative. NYS and NYC did so much incorrectly. Two very big egos there, but I guess one would have to have a huge ego to be the the governor or NYC mayor.
I’ve occasionally watched Cuomo’s pressers, and one thing that strikes me is that he is quick to blame others. The other is that he says how NY is going to come out of this stronger. Really? I don’t know he and his staff can sleep at night, knowing how many deaths were caused by his missteps. (Same for the NYC mayor.)
The levels of corruption and incompetence of the political class in NYS (and NYC especially) are only matched by its collective arrogance. Nothing has changed in fifty years that I have seen. I can still remember back in March and April all the back and forth on here about NYS and Florida.
Oh please. If one wants to find examples of politicians who are “quick to blame others”, they are looking at the wrong politicians. But this isn’t supposed to be political, so lets move on.
A gentle reminder about the recommended focus in the OP of the June thread: