quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:
Wait.

I thought Obi Wan was our only hope.

Fuck. Now I'm confused again...

quote:

Originally posted by RAMIUS:
Seen online: “In Chicago, coronavirus actually lowered the death rate.”

quote:

Why this Nobel laureate predicts a quicker coronavirus recovery: ‘We’re going to be fine’

Michael Levitt, a Nobel laureate and Stanford biophysicist, began analyzing the number of COVID-19 cases worldwide in January and correctly calculated that China would get through the worst of its coronavirus outbreak long before many health experts had predicted.

Now he foresees a similar outcome in the United States and the rest of the world.

While many epidemiologists are warning of months, or even years, of massive social disruption and millions of deaths, Levitt says the data simply don’t support such a dire scenario — especially in areas where reasonable social distancing measures are in place.

“What we need is to control the panic,” he said. In the grand scheme, “we’re going to be fine.”

Here’s what Levitt noticed in China: On Jan. 31, the country had 46 new deaths due to the novel coronavirus, compared with 42 new deaths the day before.

Although the number of daily deaths had increased, the rate of that increase had begun to ease off. Essentially, although the car was still speeding up, it was not accelerating as rapidly as before.

“This suggests that the rate of increase in number of the deaths will slow down even more over the next week,” Levitt wrote in a report he sent to friends Feb. 1 that was widely shared on Chinese social media. And soon, he predicted, the number of deaths would be decreasing every day.

Three weeks later, Levitt told the China Daily News that the virus’ rate of growth had peaked. He predicted that the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in China would end up around 80,000, with about 3,250 deaths.

This forecast turned out to be remarkably accurate: As of March 16, China had counted a total of 80,298 cases and 3,245 deaths — in a nation of nearly 1.4 billion people where roughly 10 million die every year. The number of newly diagnosed patients has dropped to around 25 a day, with no cases of community spread reported since Wednesday.

Now Levitt, who received the 2013 Nobel Prize in chemistry for developing complex models of chemical systems, is seeing similar turning points in other nations, even ones that did not instill the draconian isolation measures that China did.

He analyzed 78 countries with more than 50 reported cases of COVID-19 every day and sees “signs of recovery.” He’s not looking at cumulative cases, but the number of new cases every day — and the percentage growth in that number from one day to the next.

“Numbers are still noisy but there are clear signs of slowed growth.”

In Iran, for instance, the number of newly confirmed COVID-19 cases remained relatively flat last week, from 1,133 on Monday to 1,148 on Friday.

Of course, recovering from an initial outbreak doesn’t mean the virus won’t come back: China is now fighting to stop new waves of infection coming in from places where the virus is spreading out of control. Other countries are bound to face the same problem as well.

Levitt acknowledges that his figures are messy, and that the official case counts in many areas are too low because testing is spotty. But even with incomplete data, “a consistent decline means there’s some factor at work that is not just noise in the numbers,” he said.

The trajectory of deaths backs up his findings, he said. So do data from outbreaks in confined environments, such as the one on the Diamond Princess cruise ship. Out of 3,711 people on board, 712 were infected and eight died. In his view, this unintended experiment in coronavirus spread will help researchers estimate the number of fatalities that would occur in a fully infected population.

Levitt said the social-distancing mandates are critical — particularly the ban on large gatherings — because the virus is so new that the population has no immunity to it and a vaccine is still many months away. “This is not the time to go out drinking with your buddies.”

Getting vaccinated against the flu is important because a coronavirus outbreak that strikes in the middle of a flu epidemic is much more likely to overwhelm hospitals and increases the odds that the coronavirus goes undetected. This was probably a factor in Italy, a country with a strong anti-vaccine movement, he said.

But he also blames the media for causing unnecessary panic by focusing on the relentless increase in the cumulative number of cases and spotlighting celebrities who contract the virus. By contrast, the flu has sickened 36 million Americans since September and killed an estimated 22,000, according to the CDC, but those deaths are largely unreported.

He fears the public health measures that have shut down large swaths of the economy could cause their own health catastrophe, as lost jobs lead to poverty and hopelessness. Time and again, researchers have seen that suicide rates go up when the economy spirals down.

The virus can grow exponentially only when it is undetected and no one is acting to control it, Levitt said. That’s what happened in South Korea, when it ripped through a closed-off cult that refused to report the illness.

“People need to be considered heroes for announcing they have this virus,” he said.

The goal needs to be better early detection — not just through testing but perhaps with body temperature surveillance, which China is implementing — and immediate social isolation.

While the COVID-19 fatality rate appears to be significantly higher than that of the flu, Levitt says it is quite simply put, “not the end of the world.”

Based on the experience of the Diamond Princess, he estimates that being exposed to the new coronavirus doubles a person’s risk of dying in the next two months. However, most people have an extremely low risk of death in a two-month period, and that risk remains extremely low even when doubled.

“The real situation is not as nearly as terrible as they make it out to be,” he said.

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quote:

Originally posted by Doc H.:
Good news on chloroquine is that trials seem to have gone well, and continental sub-Saharan Africa (and other countries) where malaria prophylaxis is widespread, SARS-CoV-2 seems not to be thriving (can also be tropical/Arctic climate - if you look at the JH map, the band of highest exposure seems to be between the equatorial tropics and somewhat south of the Arctic). We shall see....

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Originally posted by Ronin1069:
Article by Dr. Michael Osterholm. He’s considered one of the ‘go to’ experts on this topic in the world. I’ve been reading ‘everything’ on this pandemic and Osterholm knows his stuff and tells it like it is.
http://www.startribune.com/cor...osterholm/568978932/

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Originally posted by f2:

quote:

Originally posted by Doc H.:
Good news on chloroquine is that trials seem to have gone well, and continental sub-Saharan Africa (and other countries) where malaria prophylaxis is widespread, SARS-CoV-2 seems not to be thriving (can also be tropical/Arctic climate - if you look at the JH map, the band of highest exposure seems to be between the equatorial tropics and somewhat south of the Arctic). We shall see....

Thanks Doc H. Are there any links to the (preliminary?) data?

quote:

Originally posted by Ronin1069:
Article by Dr. Michael Osterholm. He’s considered one of the ‘go to’ experts on this topic in the world. I’ve been reading ‘everything’ on this pandemic and Osterholm knows his stuff and tells it like it is.
http://www.startribune.com/cor...osterholm/568978932/

great read - thanks.

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Originally posted by sjtill:
Back on page 198 liner posted a link to an article by Aaron Ginn on Zerohedge.com (after it was removed from Medium.com--lefties screamed bloody murder probably because he had written for Breitbart.com).

There are two really important points in Ginn's article, which he backs up with good sources:
1. The risk of transmission from asymptomatic people is very low
2. The risk of transmission from random people in public spaces is very low compared with prolonged exposure in confined environments

If these are true, then we should be opening up our stores, restaurants and bars, and concentrating on hygiene, and perhaps recommending using masks in public.

You know that if after two weeks this locking down everything is going to continue, that people will not put up with it.

quote:

Originally posted by Doc H.:
Not just yet, but should show up on the growing pile shortly. Research has provoked another look at other quinoline derivatives though, and they may be onto something. Time (a short time hopefully) will tell, and I expect we'll hear some good news on vaccine progress in a bit. I'm somewhere between Tony Fauci and the President - ramp up production yesterday of drugs that have shown some progress, and start national protocols right now for use. Physicians will be reluctant to prescribe off-label use without some backing. The idea of seasonal effect is not without merit, and we may in fact be seeing some now. I'm not ruling out Divine intervention at this point...

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“WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF,” Trump said in a late night tweet.

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Originally posted by sdy:
Pelosi screws us again

https://www.breitbart.com/econ...ts-all-visa-workers/

The House coronavirus spending bill allows roughly 500,000 college graduate visa-workers from China, India, and elsewhere to stay in their U.S. jobs, regardless of job losses by American graduates in the economic meltdown, according to a lobby group for H-1B workers.

The measure would prevent U.S. graduates from getting hundreds of thousands of college-grade jobs as the foreign workers’ visas expire — despite the colossal job losses being caused by China’s Wuhan virus.

The rule would even allow foreign H-1B workers who are fired to stay and compete for any jobs that come open during the epidemic.

“We have been working behind the scenes to address the immediate concerns of a lot of immigrants,” claimed the Facebook post by Immigration Voice, which was posted around 5.oo PM EST. The group continued:

We take some solace to report, Immigration Voice has convinced the House to include a provision in the upcoming stimulus bill which says – in light of the indefinite closing of USCIS offices and U.S. embassies and consulates around the world, all existing lawful immigration statuses and EADs [Employment Authortization Documents] will be automatically extended for 1 year from the date the legislation is enacted. As per the current language, if you have an H4 EAD, it will be extended for a year. If you have an H-1B about to expire, it will be renewed and you can remain here even if furloughed until the crisis is over.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

related:

https://www.breitbart.com/poli...coronavirus-package/

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said on Sunday that she has decided to move forward with her own emergency coronavirus relief package.

Pelosi spoke just hours before the Senate was scheduled to take a procedural vote that would lead towards a final vote on a bipartisan economic relief package. The bill would provide economic relief after the coronavirus epidemic ravaged the country’s economy.

“From my standpoint, we’re apart,” she said.

Subsequently, Senate leaders decided to delay a planned vote to 6 p.m. Sunday.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said on the Senate floor on Sunday that he intended for the legislation to be bipartisan and aimed at helping the American people.

quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:

quote:

“WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF,” Trump said in a late night tweet.

It won't be an easy decision. He will be criticized either way. So far, he's handled this very well. I pray for him.