Yes, he deserved to be canned based on this. I suspect the other recipients also weren’t people the Navy would want to see his letter. Plus, the number of infected sailors on the Roosevelt, or any navy ship, directly impacts its readiness to complete its mission, something we <probably> don’t want actively advertised to just anyone

quote:

Originally posted by wcb6092:
Next to the last paragraph explains why he may have been canned.
.

“The letter was sent over not-secure, unclassified email even though the ship possesses some of the most sophisticated equipment in the fleet,” Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly said Thursday. “It wasn’t just sent up the chain of command, it was copied to a broad array of other people.”

The cases where I work (Residents not employees) has gone up by a factor of 5 in the last week. There's one hospital we chose not to go to during our last tour because they were overwhelmed with cases to the point they had no where left to put them so they were in the hallways and everywhere else.

I haven't followed all of this thread but did a quick forum search and hadn't seen this mentioned (although sdy posted about a different Utah based company doing phlegm/ sputum testing).

I just caught a radio interview with the CEO of a microbiology testing lab that has developed, and been approved, for using saliva to test for COVID-19. The tech is fresh from the lab, although based on previously approved use. Supposedly as, or more, accurate than nasal swabs, shows a more accurate viral load count, and allows for faster testing.

The lab is allowed to conduct public testing under their current federal approvals, but also hopes to have FDA approval in the next day or so.

Customer orders test kit, company overnights it, customer uses kit at home, customer overnights sample back to lab= lab results within 24 hours.

Kit costs $125, but the CEO mentioned a coupon code that will bring the cost to $99.

When asked, the CEO said he would like to be able to bill insurance companies for the test but doesn't want to risk having a claim denied 6 months down the road. The lab will provide documentation with results so that customers can try to file a claim on their own.

They have the current capacity to do 10K tests/ day and expect to ramp up to 14-15K but currently only have a customer test base of 1K/ day, so they appear to be ramped up and ready to test.

With Sputum Test for SARS-CoV-2, MicroGen Dx Aims to Challenge Quest, LabCorp

Apr 03, 2020 | Kelsy Ketchum

NEW YORK – Although hundreds of labs across the US have been providing testing for SARS-CoV-2, Quest Diagnostics and Laboratory Corporation of America are the industry's leaders and have provided hundreds of thousands of tests.

But MicroGenDx CEO Rick Martin thinks they've dropped the ball – and believes his lab can do better. "People assume that LabCorp or Quest … because they're the biggest labs, they would be the most proficient at setting up for large scale testing or molecular," Martin said. "They're simply not."

Citing statistics from the California Department of Public Health reporting more than 57,400 people in the state still have pending test results, Martin noted that the backlog could have serious consequences for patients, including potential false negatives. "If you do a nasopharyngeal swab and you think that RNA's going to last on that swab forever, it's not," Martin said. "So, you're going to get a lot of false negatives."

He added that MicroGenDx has talked to patients with "all the symptoms" of the SARS-CoV-2 virus who received a negative result from LabCorp, only to be found positive after they were retested at his lab.

In a recent statement, Quest acknowledged a backlog that resulted from "a sharp influx of test orders that continued to outpace our growing capacity." It noted that for several days after it launched its test, only its lab in San Juan Capistrano, California performed SARS-CoV-2 testing, and added that much of its testing was based on its laboratory-developed test, which was "less suited to high-throughput environments."

The Secaucus, New Jersey-based lab company added it has reduced its backlog 28 percent since March 25, from 160,000 tests to 115,000 tests as of Wednesday.

LabCorp didn't respond to requests for comment.

MicroGenDx's's secret to providing faster results is offering testing with another type of sampling: sputum or saliva. The Orlando, Florida-based company developed a SARS-CoV-2 test based on the protocols of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention test, which was issued Emergency Use Authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration in February. MicroGenDx then designed three primers for their laboratory-developed test, and submitted validation data to the FDA this week under the agency's EUA guidance. Martin said that he expects EUA to be issued for the test by next week.

The firm is also seeking FDA approval for the test. Although the company's MicroGenDx COVID-19 KEY test is a laboratory-developed test and doesn't technically need to be approved by the FDA, Martin said MicroGenDx still wants FDA authorization because healthcare professionals often want an FDA seal of approval.

Right now, MicroGenDx is the only commercial laboratory in the US offering sputum testing for SARS-CoV-2. Other firms and organizations, including the New England Biological Institute, are working on sputum tests for the virus, but Quest and LabCorp for the most part only accepting nasopharyngeal or oropharyngeal swabs. LabCorp has also been accepting nasopharyngeal or orpharyngeal aspirates or washes, and bronchoalveolar lavage.

MicroGenDx's PCR test works with nasopharyngeal swabs or sputum samples and runs on the Roche LightCycler instrument. Currently, MicroGenDx's CLIA-certified, CAP-accredited lab, which is located in Lubbock, Texas, has nine Roche instruments and can run 1,000 tests in one cycle for a total of up to 10,000 a day. Martin noted that the lab has moved to three shifts and may soon be able to perform 14,000-15,000 tests per day. Despite this capacity, however, Martin added that in the first few days of testing, the lab was only receiving enough samples to run 400 to 500 tests a day. Now they've topped 1,000 per day, but "we're sitting at capacity, and it's a shame," he said.

MicroGenDx was inspired to validate the test for sputum and saliva due to the nationwide shortage of nasopharyngeal swabs. Both validations had 100 percent sensitivity and 100 percent specificity, according to Nick Sanford, the company's laboratory section director. The company also validated sterile saline as a transfer media, due to the low supply of viral transport media.

The sputum samples have been performing much better than the swabs, Martin said, because the viral particle load on the nasopharyngeal swabs was 3.5 million particles of SARS-CoV-2, whereas the viral load on sputum was 21 million particles. MicroGenDx's test has a limit of detection of 283 particles, Sanford noted.

"If you think about it, it's logical," Sanford said. "It's an airborne droplet coming out of your nose and your mouth. The fact that anybody thinks a nasopharyngeal is required to get a diagnosis, I think is just because that's what the CDC validated first and everybody took that and ran with it."

The advantage of using sputum or saliva over a nasopharyngeal swab is the increased sample volume and the potential availability for more targets, said William Abrams, an adjunct professor at New York University's School of Dentistry. "It depends on the quantity of viral particles present in the collected sample," Abrams said. "It's likely that if the virus is actively shedding, I think are you will see it’s footprint in saliva."

Part of the difficulty with sputum testing for SARS-CoV-2 is that patients with symptoms don't have productive coughs and forcing them to cough something up could spread viral particles in the air and endanger the healthcare professional taking the sample. MicroGenDx decided to try testing patients' saliva too, and noticed that saliva often had just as many, if not more, viral particles of the virus.

"If you're trying to extract RNA, if you're trying to get it out of mucus materials, it's more difficult," Martin said. "But saliva is a lot cleaner, so you're going to get a higher load of the viral RNA out of saliva than trying to get it out of the mucus material."

Another potential issue with sputum is its thickness due to mucins, said Abrams. The increased viscosity could cause difficulty preparing the sample for extraction, he added. There's also potential for higher variability in saliva samples due to a patient’s saliva inadequacy, so Abrams said it would be up to the company to address that variability.

The lab is conducting paired sample analysis to continue verifying the validity of saliva samples and having patients submit second samples of either a swab or sputum that they didn't submit before, Sanford said. MicroGenDx is also considering time course studies to see how far after symptom onset the virus can be detected, he added.

While MicroGenDx may be the only commercial lab offering sputum-based testing for the coronavirus, several companies have developed sputum- or saliva-based testing for SARS-CoV-2. PerkinElmer's New Coronavirus Nucleic Acid Detection Kit, which can detect SARS-CoV-2 in sputum, plasma, or serum samples as well as oropharyngeal and nasopharyngeal swabs and bronchoalveolar lavage, received EUA from the FDA last month. Meanwhile, Primer Design, a Novacyt subsidiary, has its Genesig real-time PCR Coronavirus (COVID-19) CE-IVD assay, which is validated for swabs and sputum as well, and Mologic is developing a saliva-based assay to detect coronavirus antigens.

Developing its own test has also helped the lab improve turnaround time for results, Martin said. "Because we're not using the standard kits, we've been able to stockpile our reagents and master mix and the things we need for our test," he noted. Right now, MicroGenDx is delivering a 24-hour turnaround time for SARS-CoV-2 testing, compared to Quest's 2 to 3-day turnaround.

The test is not covered by insurance and patients will have to pay $125 out of pocket for the SARS-CoV-2 test. MicroGenDx will provide an invoice for patients to consult with their health plans. "I would love to be able to take insurance and file a claim, but I'm not taking the risk to file a Humana claim and get it denied in six months," Martin added.

Besides its SARS-CoV-2 assay, the lab offers other tests, including a rapid test for mycobacterium launched in February. The Acid Fast Bacilli (AFB) panel is a two-step PCR and next-generation sequencing assay for identifying four main mycobacteria species: Mycobacterium avium, Mycobacterium intercellulare, Mycobacterium abscessus, and Mycobacterium masiliensis.

The PCR-based panel for the four species is run on the Roche LightCycler and has same-day results. It can be followed up with comprehensive NGS, using the Illumina Miseq platform with results in three days. The NGS test can identify any other mycobacterium species, Martin said.

Later this year, depending on how long the current pandemic lasts, Martin said the company is looking to add biomarkers for white blood cell count and C-reactive protein in its NGS test, mainly for orthopedic samples.

The company also has a quantitative PCR-based panel and NGS assay based on targeted 16S sequencing that identifies common microbes. The PCR panel can determine 17 microbes and resistance factors that can determine resistance to eight classes of antibiotics, and the NGS panel is used to more comprehensively analyze present microbes.

While the company is still offering its complete suite of tests, SARS-CoV-2 is a primary focus for MicroGenDx, as it is for the rest of the world. "I just want the world to know the fact that we don't need to be in a search for nasopharyngeal swabs," Martin said. "We're going to have evidence to show that phlegm, saliva, mucus in your mouth is going to be loaded with the COVID-19 virus, therefore allowing for easier testing."

Italy

https://www.breitbart.com/news...s-virus-curve-falls/


Europe is seeing further signs of hope in the coronavirus outbreak as Italy’s daily death toll was at its lowest in more than two weeks and health officials noted with caution Sunday that the infection curve was finally descending

Angelo Borrelli, the head of Italy’s Civil Protection agency on Sunday, said there were 525 deaths in the 24-hour period since Saturday evening. That’s the lowest such figure in the country since 427 deaths were registered on March 19.

Italy now has a total of 15,887 deaths and nearly 129,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases.

A day shy of one month under a national lockdown that the Italian government ordered, the lower count of day-to-day deaths brought some encouragement.

The number of intensive care unit beds occupied by COVID-19 patients has also showed a decrease in the last few days, including in northern Lombardy, Italy’s most stricken region.

Borrelli also noted with a measure of satisfaction that the number of those hospitalized but not in ICU beds also has decreased.

Italy recorded 4,316 new cases Sunday . Earlier in the outbreak, daily increases in caseloads topped the 6,000 mark.

“The curve, which had been plateauing for days, is starting to descend,″ national health official Silvio Brusaferro told reporters, referring to graphs indicating daily numbers of confirmed cases.

But Borrelli warned: “This good news shouldn’t make us drop our guard.”

Confirmed - deaths - recovered = active

128948-15887-21815 = 91,246 active

Daily increases for Italy:



latest data in above chart from 3 April (Friday)

Do you know their blood type?

quote:

Originally posted by RAMIUS:


My 63 year old super unhealthy chock full of co-morbidity buddy was isolated/treated in hospital, and is recovering. He has asthma.

My ultra healthy elite athlete 38 year old buddy spent 2 weeks on a respirator, almost died, and lost 30% of lung function.

Neither of them know if they are now immune or can be reinfected.

Both were recently released from the hospital and are recovering at home. Both still feel like shit.

One of my musician friends in London tested positive for the virus a few days ago.

Mid 30s, caucasian, male, volunteers with mental health patients and is in and out of medical facilities there.

He's otherwise normally healthy, lean, non smoker. Fully able under normal circumstances.

Currently on the mend after experiencing a week of extreme fatigue, tightness of chest, headaches, loss of taste and smell, etc. Had already started feeling better before the official diagnosis, fwiw. Is at home...

quote:

Originally posted by homie:
Do you know their blood type?

quote:

Originally posted by RAMIUS:


My 63 year old super unhealthy chock full of co-morbidity buddy was isolated/treated in hospital, and is recovering. He has asthma.

My ultra healthy elite athlete 38 year old buddy spent 2 weeks on a respirator, almost died, and lost 30% of lung function.

Neither of them know if they are now immune or can be reinfected.

Both were recently released from the hospital and are recovering at home. Both still feel like shit.

The older guy is an A blood type, which initially concerned him. He’s continuing to feel better from a text today. Still definitely not near 100% though.

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:

quote:

I do wish they would show the number of active cases.

county by county data is available at

https://coronavirus.1point3acres.com/en

what county are you in ?

That link says 0 recovered in Florida, which is not true, and thus the cases are cummulative cases, not just active cases. I suspect that site is getting its information from this one which is published by the state of Florida: Link. Towards the bottom of the web page, there is an orange rectangle with the text "See the Report" which if you click it will bring up a .pdf file that lists individual deaths and cases by county, cases by city, who many cases in assisted care facilities and nursing homes, how many tests each lab doing testing has performed, lots of graphs, etc.

The NY cases are still highly concentrated around NY City



93% of NY cases are in the area around NYC

NYC 67551
Nassau 14398
Westchester 13723
Suffolk 12405
Rockland 5326

113403 / 122192 = 93%

Maybe that just mostly correlates to population density

fatality rate keeps increasing
3.4% of the confirmed cases

Five cases down home in the county Mom lives in. She's 85 with multiple health issues to include something like COPD. Almost 500 up here in my county. Don't like it, but I'll stay up here for Easter. Perhaps Memorial Day weekend we can get out more.

quote:

Originally posted by Modern Day Savage:


I just caught a radio interview with the CEO of a microbiology testing lab that has developed, and been approved, for using saliva to test for COVID-19.

Here is the thing, why do I care, I take the test. Meanwhile I hit the grocery store while waiting for the results, etc.

I test neg., so what does that do for me? If I have been an any kind of environment since the test I am still not visiting my grandma right?

Note, this has nothing against your post Modern Day Savage, I just don't get this hype about tests unless you are sick with the Rona or anything else. Same on the ventilator hype.

quote:

quote:
Originally posted by Modern Day Savage:
I just caught a radio interview with the CEO of a microbiology testing lab that has developed, and been approved, for using saliva to test for COVID-19.

It sounds like MicroGenDx is doing really cool stuff. Taking on the big boys, Quest and LabCorp, and doing a great job. Impressive.

Boris Johnson hospitalized after coronavirus diagnosis as symptoms persist

https://www.washingtonexaminer...oronavirus-diagnosis



British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was taken to the hospital on Sunday, 10 days after he tested positive for the coronavirus.

“On the advice of his doctor, the Prime Minister has tonight been admitted to the hospital for tests,” a Downing Street spokesperson said in a statement. “This is a precautionary step, as the Prime Minister continues to have persistent symptoms of coronavirus.”

The hospitalization was not an emergency admission, according to Downing Street.

Johnson, 55, announced March 27 that he was self-isolating after contracting the virus, noting that he has had a high fever and a persistent cough.

Before the virus accelerated in the United Kingdom, Johnson quipped that he shook hands with “everybody” at a hospital that was treating coronavirus patients. Johnson later placed the U.K. in a lockdown to try and halt the spread.

quote:

Originally posted by was0311:

quote:

Originally posted by Modern Day Savage:


I just caught a radio interview with the CEO of a microbiology testing lab that has developed, and been approved, for using saliva to test for COVID-19.

Here is the thing, why do I care, I take the test. Meanwhile I hit the grocery store while waiting for the results, etc.

I test neg., so what does that do for me? If I have been an any kind of environment since the test I am still not visiting my grandma right?

Note, this has nothing against your post Modern Day Savage, I just don't get this hype about tests unless you are sick with the Rona or anything else. Same on the ventilator hype.

Apparently you don't care...so be it...I didn't post it for you, I posted it for people who might care.

Look, I don't have any symptoms at the current time and don't plan on getting tested. But, for those who either are concerned now, or for those who might develop symptoms, or for those who have family/ friends that develop symptoms, getting tested might give them a course of action, or at least, piece of mind.

But yes, I agree that getting tested and receiving a negative result doesn't keep someone from contracting the virus after the test result...and both a False Negative and a False Positive comes with its own set of problems...in fact, I made this very same argument to a family member when discussing this issue yesterday on the phone.

Tests like this offer hope for a potentially early diagnosis and an accurate diagnosis, potentially more accurate than the current nasal swab test, and relieve the capacity through-put issues occurring at some of the current labs ... not to mention that those who wish to be tested don't even have to leave their homes to do it.

From a statistical accuracy perspective, higher testing rates will give a more accurate mortality rate as well, giving a clearer picture to properly evaluate just how deadly the virus is.

As far as I'm concerned there are valid reasons to be concerned, valid reasons to take precautions...but there has been an over reaction by most of the media, the federal government, and the state governments...and unreasonable panic by the general public.

Hell, I don't even wear a mask in public, although I have contingencies plans in place should I feel the need arise.

First reported case of an animal with covid-19...

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyl...tests-205150772.html

There remains complacency in certain areas within Australia.

Below is an image from the Gold Coast (Queensland) on Sunday April 6.



(Source: news.com.au)

From the image, you'll notice that most are respecting the 'no more than 2' and 1.5m distance separation.

Elsewhere around the country, beaches are closed. In my city of Altona, the beach is closed with ranger and police patrols.

No-one is indignant when duly advised. Shouldn't have to be saying that to you, you moron, but there were are.

The next 3 weeks will be very different for many Aussies. Easter holidays are the annual school holiday and getaway, typically two weeks.

Anzac day, April 25th, memorials, marches,events and celebrations cancelled.

--chris

quote:

Originally posted by az4783054:
First reported case of an animal with covid-19...

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyl...tests-205150772.html

"...in the U.S."

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:

quote:

Originally posted by az4783054:
First reported case of an animal with covid-19...

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyl...tests-205150772.html

"...in the U.S."

I remembered hearing that some dogs were testing positive in Wuhan, but it was determined they were only infected with minute amounts that were considered environmental exposures, not illness. Actual sick animals as possible reservoirs are a concern

Boris needs to not die.

quote:

Originally posted by cjevans:
From the image, you'll notice that most are respecting the 'no more than 2' and 1.5m distance separation.

Umm, no.