General / Off-Topic Some numbers and a shortage

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While I think it's foolish and ignorant to conflate typical seasonal influenza with this coronavirus outbreak--coronavirus is far more virulent, with a mortality rate at least twenty times as high, and if everyone who caught the flu caught corona virus instead we'd be looking at tens of millions dead--I do feel situations like this illustrate just how much global economy and politics are susceptible to chain reactions of hype and fear. Most of the harm done won't be caused by the virus itself, but of various reactions to it.

With the exception of suicide, the time is beyond our control.

If I had believed anything of the sort and not exercised the very real control I frequently have over my fate, I'd not be here now.

Not all of us have the same degree of control over our lives, but almost everyone is presented with choices that will increase or decrease their likelihood of survival, exercising some actual control over the when and how, even if they don't acknowledge it.

Even in a situation like this, where we all have a common enemy and a common goal, you people still have to dig trenches and throw mud at each other? You humans... :rolleyes:

It would take something quite a bit more dramatic than a coronavirus pandemic to convince most people that they more to fear from it than from each other.
 
Well to be or not to be....

On Jan 24, 2020, we came to Wuhan, China, to support the local nurses in their fight against the COVID-19 infection. We entered the Wuhan isolation ward as the first batch of medical aid workers from Guangdong Province, China. The daily work we are doing is mainly focused on provision of oxygen, electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring, tube care, airway management, ventilator debugging, central venous intubation, haemodialysis care, and basic nursing care such as disposal and disinfection.
The conditions and environment here in Wuhan are more difficult and extreme than we could ever have imagined. There is a severe shortage of protective equipment, such as N95 respirators, face shields, goggles, gowns, and gloves. The goggles are made of plastic that must be repeatedly cleaned and sterilised in the ward, making them difficult to see through. Due to the need for frequent hand washing, several of our colleagues' hands are covered in painful rashes. As a result of wearing an N95 respirator for extended periods of time and layers of protective equipment, some nurses now have pressure ulcers on their ears and forehead. When wearing a mask to speak with patients, our voices are muted, so we have to speak very loudly. Wearing four layers of gloves is abnormally clumsy and does not work—we can't even open the packaging bags for medical devices, so giving patients injections is a huge challenge. In order to save energy and the time it takes to put on and take off protective clothing, we avoid eating and drinking for 2 hours before entering the isolation ward. Often, nurses' mouths are covered in blisters. Some nurses have fainted due to hypoglycaemia and hypoxia.
 
The coronavirus does not have a mortality rate "20 times higher than the seasonal flu."

Only critical people are being tested in China and most other cases around the world, and the simple reality is that we don't know how many people are out there suffering from the virus without even being tested for it. Only testing the most severe cases will dramatically inflate the mortality numbers in an artificial way, meaning that the mortality rate is far far lower than is being promoted, almost certainly well below 1%.
 
The new antibody test kits from WuXi and Singapore might solve this issue.


We need to move away from the PCR test, generally. It's not just an organizational failure regarding testing, its a technical problem affecting kit availability.

It's too costly to mass produce and administer, and only 71% accurate when the right reagent gets used.
Not being able to test widely is hamstringing the US response in the early phase of spread, without accurate numbers or the ability to pick up asymptomatic cases, the contact tracing fails.

That is going to produce clusters. There's one forming in Seattle, Washington, one in San Diego area, and we cannot say with certainty how clear other districts are because there's no testing getting done.

Pretty sure this is a local batch problem here too.

Antibody tests would really come in handy.

More on the antibody tests here:

It's not hard to mass produce the protein nowadays, just insert the gene in some E coli, feed it sugar, and voila. If you are going to invest on Monday, (which is brave) you might look into these biotech firms with antibody kits as one potential line for a gain.
The Chinese one isn't likely to be able to export soon. All production will get domestically vacuumed up. I'd buy the Singapore company, if they are even listed. They have their cases nailed down there, and can export the kits.

If I had access to a kit, I'd be able to see if my plasma could be used to treat the sick. Or generally, we could ID potential donors.
 
The new antibody test kits from WuXi and Singapore might solve this issue.


We need to move away from the PCR test, generally. It's not just an organizational failure regarding testing, its a technical problem affecting kit availability.

It's too costly to mass produce and administer, and only 71% accurate when the right reagent gets used.
Not being able to test widely is hamstringing the US response in the early phase of spread, without accurate numbers or the ability to pick up asymptomatic cases, the contact tracing fails.

That is going to produce clusters. There's one forming in Seattle, Washington, one in San Diego area, and we cannot say with certainty how clear other districts are because there's no testing getting done.

Pretty sure this is a local batch problem here too.

Antibody tests would really come in handy.

More on the antibody tests here:

It's not hard to mass produce the protein nowadays, just insert the gene in some E coli, feed it sugar, and voila. If you are going to invest on Monday, (which is brave) you might look into these biotech firms with antibody kits as one potential line for a gain.
The Chinese one isn't likely to be able to export soon. All production will get domestically vacuumed up. I'd buy the Singapore company, if they are even listed. They have their cases nailed down there, and can export the kits.

If I had access to a kit, I'd be able to see if my plasma could be used to treat the sick. Or generally, we could ID potential donors.
Thanks for the heads up, my sauron eye 👁 will turn in that direction.
 
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What does Covid look like on chest CT?

So here is the resource my team is using to judge. Just in case you are interested in how we do it.

Reading this stuff is surprisingly easy at a basic level. You can pick up the rudiments in 10 minutes, and be right most of the time. Or, at least, you might find it interesting. It's 2020. We should be trying to kill the information embargo between the various jobs we do, and help mutual self sufficiency. At the very least, you should understand better what your doctor is trying to tell you.

Chris Mortenson(?) Sp at Peak Prosperity has been releasing YouTube content. He is intelligent, but not a trained doctor, and he did a chest X-ray reading that was horribly wrong, circling the normal heart as evidence of pneumonia.

I let that slide, as he's not deliberately giving out disinformation, just unqualified in the field. BTW, that X ray was a bacterial lobar pneumonia, not Covid at all. The net is buckling under the loads of simply wrong info. Some of Peak Prosperity material is right, some wrong, and some just misinterpreted, but I think the guy is trying to help.

Let's not be like that. Let's be right and reliable. We can't afford the luxury of being wrong anymore.
 
It wasn't meant as a consolation.

It's an acknowledgement of an inevitability.

With the exception of suicide, the time is beyond our control.

All the hype and stress won't change that.
I understand what you mean.

But for my part the fact of knowing that everyone dies (me too) does not oblige me to be satisfied with the situation and to give up fighting.

I also think there is an good hype and an good stress sometimes.

Talk and inform allows to stay alert.
 
.

What does Covid look like on chest CT?

So here is the resource my team is using to judge. Just in case you are interested in how we do it.

Reading this stuff is surprisingly easy at a basic level. You can pick up the rudiments in 10 minutes, and be right most of the time. Or, at least, you might find it interesting. It's 2020. We should be trying to kill the information embargo between the various jobs we do, and help mutual self sufficiency. At the very least, you should understand better what your doctor is trying to tell you.

Chris Mortenson(?) Sp at Peak Prosperity has been releasing YouTube content. He is intelligent, but not a trained doctor, and he did a chest X-ray reading that was horribly wrong, circling the normal heart as evidence of pneumonia.

I let that slide, as he's not deliberately giving out disinformation, just unqualified in the field. BTW, that X ray was a bacterial lobar pneumonia, not Covid at all. The net is buckling under the loads of simply wrong info. Some of Peak Prosperity material is right, some wrong, and some just misinterpreted, but I think the guy is trying to help.

Let's not be like that. Let's be right and reliable. We can't afford the luxury of being wrong anymore.
Well if you don’t know what you’re doing stop doing it! Or at least don’t pretend you know what you’re doing 😎
 
Well if you don’t know what you’re doing stop doing it! Or at least don’t pretend you know what you’re doing 😎
It would be nice if these same people would also extend that philosophy to prognostications of impending environmental doom, hey ho.
 
"Dr. Fauci has told associates that the White House had instructed him not to say anything else without clearance
."

Silencing the doctor, eh? Let's see how that works out.

Let's see if this stays up.
Being silenced is part of the job these days.
 
."

Silencing the doctor, eh? Let's see how that works out.

Let's see if this stays up.
Being silenced is part of the job these days.

He refuted that live at the last press conference. Communications are coordinated so as not to cause messaging confusion, but Dr Fauci explicitly stated that he was not being silenced in any way.

Stop buying into fake news.
 
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