Jump to content

Menu

wuhan - coronavirus


gardenmom5

Recommended Posts

22 minutes ago, Arcadia said:

@Ausmumof3@Pen 

Don’t know where Holland America are going to house these passengers in Atlanta and San Francisco. Coral Princess is another mess.

https://www.businessinsider.com/holland-america-florida-ships-zaandam-rotterdam-flight-details-2020-4

“In its approved plan, Holland America included information on what will be done for any guests "whose home countries will not accept inbound citizens."

"These guests will be flown on the Atlanta or San Francisco charter flights on Friday," the document said.”

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article241768491.html

“Two people have died aboard the Coral Princess, which docked in Port Miami Saturday morning and began to unload people shortly after. 

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez said two people were taken from the ship to Larkin Community Hospital. Two others are being sent to Tampa for treatment. During an online press conference, Gimenez offered condolences to family members of two passengers who died aboard the Princess. “It’s heart-breaking news,” he said.”

 

Sounds like they are trying to fly them to wherever “home” is via charter flights , so maybe  they are to be housed in whatever home they normally would reside in?  Unless Country that’s home has a quarantine facility ready? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Arctic Mama said:

Square, 

That’s what I said.  The change happened but the lag in understanding of the severity, especially within the public, was very understandable.  The messages being sent among the task force and advisory counsel drastically changed in tone too.  There has been much criticism about the response, but the fact is the ever changing data and adjustments to it are to be expected instead of criticized. 
 

The retrospective is good for data moving forward, but it’s easy to criticize with the benefit of hindsight and not really productive to assessments moving forward.  Again, the problem is not what was done, and when, so much as whether the feds and states corrected course when the situation changed and they understood it better.  I’d say many states and our feds have actually done well with course correction, even if it wasn’t as fast as many would have liked to see.  
 

They are being responsive the input and data and expert review, trying to fix holes when found, and cam the nation while letting people know the seriousness at the same time.  That is an almost impossible situation and one where not everyone will be happy no matter what is decided upon, especially with the baked in hatred with this administration that sometimes clouds fairness.

Baked in hatred? Anyone following tweets and statements from our leader who is not appalled, embarrassed, aghast, and worried is a huge puzzlement to me. Speaking of Germany, again, a model of excellence and wonderful contrast. I’m guessing Merkel doesn’t have an unqualified SIL leading much of Germany’s response.

  • Like 10
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Pen said:

 

Sounds like they are trying to fly them to wherever “home” is via charter flights , so maybe  they are to be housed in whatever home they normally would reside in?  Unless Country that’s home has a quarantine facility ready? 

I read it as those countries has closed inbound flights so these passengers would have to be “quarantined” in Atlanta and San Francisco. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Arctic Mama said:

You don’t seem a ramping up? Multiple companies have converted facilities or are in process and at least three companies are being leaned on to switch over production with threat of the defense production act. Which, is better than forcing them into it, from a liberty standpoint. 
 

There is still a lag, but it’s being worked on.  I’d like to hear better numbers of he current shortage compared to need, though.

We’re still barely testing in my state, despite being one of the earliest states with a confirmed case. Of the seven people from five families I know who likely had it, none could get tested. 

  • Sad 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Arcadia said:

I read it as those countries has closed inbound flights so these passengers would have to be “quarantined” in Atlanta and San Francisco. 

 

Mhmm.  IDK? 

I thought it sounded like charter flights were arranged for passengers to be repatriated back to UK, Australia, or other cities in US, etc.  But it might be the way you thought.

Dont most countries still allow their own citizens to return home?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Frances said:

We’re still barely testing in my state, despite being one of the earliest states with a confirmed case. Of the seven people from five families I know who likely had it, none could get tested. 

How awful.  😞 We are currently at a capacity of 6000 tests/day, and only 3000 are being used. Now that we have excess capacity, they are planning a randomized testing regime to evaluate community spread. 

  • Like 9
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Has this been posted?  Google tracking of movement by country, and by state within USA. It does not show good compliance with lockdown requirements in the US in any state. Compare the stats to any country with a strict lockdown.

Square, what needs to be focused on *right now* is compliance with clear and strict lockdown rules. 

https://www.google.com/covid19/mobility/

  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

28 minutes ago, Pen said:

Mhmm.  IDK? 

I thought it sounded like charter flights were arranged for passengers to be repatriated back to UK, Australia, or other cities in US, etc.  But it might be the way you thought.

Dont most countries still allow their own citizens to return home?

 

I am not sure about "most countries" allowing their own citizens to return home. Colombia, during this crisis, will only allow Colombian citizens who are residents of Colombia, or, aliens like me, who are  permanent residents and actually live here, to enter Colombia.

However...   The airports in  Colombia are closed to International flights and I believe that approximately 90% of Domestic flights have been cancelled.

And then, if one can enter Colombia, assuming they are not coming from a country that is prohibited, due to high incidence of Covid-19, they would need to do a Quarantine or "Shelter in Place" for approximately 14 days.  

I believe that many countries have imposed laws similar to those here in Colombia. My wife told me a few days ago that she read or heard that Colombia is ranked #3 in the steps they have taken to reduce the number of Covid-19 cases/deaths and my belief is that is quite possibly true.

The "humanitarian" flights that the U.S. Embassy has arranged for stranded tourists, in the emails about them, they indicate that one cannot buy Food or Water (bottled) in El Dorado airport in Bogota.  I think it is almost desterted except for those occasional flights, or charter flights. I believe the Cargo flights are arriving and departing normally.

  • Like 1
  • Sad 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Pen said:

 

Sounds like they are trying to fly them to wherever “home” is via charter flights , so maybe  they are to be housed in whatever home they normally would reside in?  Unless Country that’s home has a quarantine facility ready? 

No, there is a list of the other flights they are putting international passengers on, which will be going to Canada, France, Germany, and the UK. The part Arcadia quoted applies to passengers whose home countries will not accept them — those passengers are being put on the flights with US passengers to SF and Atlanta, but there is no information in the report about what will happen to them after that. 

 In its approved plan, Holland America included information on what will be done for any guests whose home countries will not accept inbound citizens. These guests will be flown on the Atlanta or San Francisco charter flights on Friday, the document said.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

51 minutes ago, Pen said:

I thought it sounded like charter flights were arranged for passengers to be repatriated back to UK, Australia, or other cities in US, etc.  But it might be the way you thought.

Dont most countries still allow their own citizens to return home?

Yes, most citizens are allowed in, but there is no way to get to there. In NZ 100,000 tourists were stranded here because when the lockdown was announced, it gave only 48 hours notice before NO internal travel would be allowed.  Although you could illegally drive to Auckland to catch an international flight (if you could get one during that time), if you were in the South Island, you had 48 hours to get a ferry or airplane before they were stopped. 

Seven days into the lockdown, the government has finally allowed tourists to take internal flights IF you could show that they were flying home out of Auckland. And Air NZ was chartering special internal flights just for this purpose.  In addition, there is a real problem for tourists from Europe getting home.  There are simply NO transit lounges that are open, and the flight is too long to do in one hop.  So NZ, Germany, and the UK  have worked with the Doha airport to allow transit to get these people home. Sounds like they are going to try to get the job done in the next 2 weeks through charter flights.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, this is disappointing if it holds true...

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/27/opinion/coronavirus-trump-testing-shortages.html

In three to four weeks, there will be a major shortage of chemical reagents for coronavirus testing, the result of limited production capacity, compounded by the collapse of global supply chains when the epidemic closed down manufacturing in China for weeks.

 

... any public health response that counts on widespread testing in the United States is doomed to fail. No one planned on the whole world experiencing a health conflagration of this magnitude at once, with the need to test many millions of people at the same time. Political leaders and talking heads should stop proffering the widespread-testing option; it simply won’t be available.

 

  • Sad 11
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's surprising to me how different communities are so varied in their mask use. Yesterday, Dh and I went to Super 1 and probably 1/3 of the customers wore a mask. Today, I went to a store about 35 miles away, and I thought I was the only one with a mask until I saw one more person in the check out with one on. 

Come on people, get with the program.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

56 minutes ago, Math teacher said:

Come on people, get with the program.

since the recommendation is fairly new, it will take time for people to be able to acquire masks. It's not like you can go out and buy them in stores. Not everybody sews or has materials. Ordering and shipping takes time

Edited by regentrude
  • Like 14
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Corraleno said:

The masks were manufactured in China by a US-owned company (3M). And I agree with you that the precedent this sets would be very concerning for the future, if products — including food — produced by foreign-owned businesses could be seized by those foreign governments if they chose. More than 30 million acres of US farmland are owned by foreign companies and investors. Smithfield Foods, the largest pork producer in the world, is Chinese owned. If the US can seize masks manufactured in China and sold to Europe, then what's to stop the Chinese from seizing food and other goods produced in the US if there's a shortage of those things? 

I think scenarios like this are coming to the forefront during this crisis.  Never before in human history have we had so much international ownership (and general corporate ownership of agriculture) and production of critical supplies.  In this mad rush that we have had to find the absolute cheapest location to make goods and allowing purchases of domestic companies by foreign entities, I think the potential consequences have been overlooked.  It is all a very tangled up mess that we are going to have to sort through.  Any time one produces a product in a foreign country while being based in another country or registers a cruise ship in a foreign country one opens oneself up to a very big can of worms in an unstable situation.  Hopefully we learn for the next time.

  • Like 11
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am having trouble getting my head around some of the numbers.  Louisiana is considered a hotspot.  According to the Louisiana Dept of Health they have 1726 people hospitalized, with 571 of those individuals on ventilators.  

When I look at the COVID-19 projections of the government model, it projects 6555 hospital beds needed by April 4 (with a range of 3073-9580) and 913 ventilators (307-1438), assuming full social distancing.  

While it is not good to have anyone sick or hospitalized, the number in Louisiana is only 26% of the government's projection.  In fact, it is only 56% of the minimum projected.  

About 4% of the reported US cases are in Louisiana.  If the same percentage of cases are hospitalized on other states, that would mean about 44,300 hospitalized in the US.  But the government's model projects 164,745 beds needed today (which is over 1/2 of the active cases in the US today).

It looks like the numbers are much better than what the government has been projecting if we were practicing full social distancing.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Frances said:

We’re still barely testing in my state, despite being one of the earliest states with a confirmed case. Of the seven people from five families I know who likely had it, none could get tested. 

 

There’s not only a very limited supply of testing materials, but also lack of personnel and lack of PPE. Doing a test a health worker has to very close to test subject, a problem with PPE shortages.  Also if transmission can occur from surfaces the health worker could pass it from one test subject to next because there certainly aren’t PPE changes available for after each test done.

 I heard that for latter problems they are looking into possible self swabbing.  

But that won’t help the lack of test materials needed.

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, regentrude said:

since the recommendation is fairly new, it will take time for people to be able to acquire masks. It's not like you can go out and buy them in stores. Not everybody sews or has materials. Ordering and shipping takes time

 

A pillowcase and 2 rubber bands.  A pillow case and 4 rubber bands can make 2 masks.  

In this video, the person has a bandana and hair ties, but cutting a pillowcase in half will do the same job.

 

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Garga said:

 

A pillowcase and 2 rubber bands.  A pillow case and 4 rubber bands can make 2 masks.  

In this video, the person has a bandana and hair ties, but cutting a pillowcase in half will do the same job.

 

 

I saw a lot of these in the grocery store locally! (Also saw big burly men with plastic - from a trash bag? a tablecloth? - tied around their faces.)

Our grocery is limiting customers, and has huge 6-foot-spaced lines all outside the store, like Black Friday, under police supervision. We waited 30 minutes to get into the grocery store; it shows how spoiled I am that that's the first time that has ever happened to me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 minutes ago, lewelma said:

Can someone update me on the 5 minute test for Covid19. My dad told me about it this morning, and I see it was in the news from 2-4 days ago.  Why are we not hearing more about it?

 

7 minutes ago, Pen said:

Someone posted Abbott’s latest press release upthread 

From their Twitter 

“By the end of the day, we’ll have shipped 190,000+ rapid tests and nearly 1 million lab tests to customers across the U.S. Read our update on our progress on COVID-19 testing: http://abbo.tt/3aeFwPe

ETA: https://mobile.twitter.com/AbbottNews/status/1246168895716810758

Edited by Arcadia
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

37 minutes ago, Garga said:

A pillowcase and 2 rubber bands.  A pillow case and 4 rubber bands can make 2 masks.  

In this video, the person has a bandana and hair ties, but cutting a pillowcase in half will do the same job.

I tried that just awhile ago. With this design, you end up with eight layers of fabric. I found it very difficult to breathe. Gotta look for different material.

How do you glasses wearers handle this? First, my glasses fog up really bad, second, the elastic behind my ears interferes with my glasses. Gotta rig something with ties.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, square_25 said:

The only reason I blame the federal government more is because nationwide pandemics are traditionally their domain. 

Actually, not really.  There are so many cdc and hhs guidelines issued at least over the last 10-20 years that are geared specifically for businesses and local and state governments, and how to be ready and self-reliant for a national pandemic. They clarify that a national pandemic is going to mess up the supply chains, there will be shortages/price gouging etc, shutdowns, and that each locality needs to prepare.

The federal government is a backup; it was never meant to be the main supplier. Their stockpile was traditionally meant for essential personnel to keep the government, military, health, and law enforcement running.  It was not meant for the regular citizens. They should have been covered at a local level for 6-8 weeks. I do think some states were woefully unprepared because they didn’t want to spend the money.  CA for instance did away with some of the pandemic supplies and plans that Swargenager (sp) put in place due to cost.  I’m sure that is not an isolated case. It is expensive to plan for a ‘maybe’. I get that.  It just is backfiring at the moment. 

  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

@regentrude

I am alternating between reusing the ear loop mask my oncologist clinic gave during visits and using just my balaclava. Either one doesn’t fog up my glasses. I find my balaclavas more comfortable and I can easily wash them. 

My glasses has an anti-fog coating but you can buy an anti-fog spray for glasses as well. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 minutes ago, lewelma said:

so why not more rah rah news on this?

 

Maybe US Politics?  When looking for links I felt I had to avoid ones that had political figures prominent?

Edited by Pen
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 minutes ago, Arcadia said:

😂Thanks for the chuckle........just mailed this to several friends in England who I am trying to check in on most days.  The reality is there isn’t a whole lot say, so am super appreciative positive or at least funny articles to agg in.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Pen said:

 

Again this isn't news.  Many pages back we discussed studies that this wasn't just a virus attacking the lungs and causing pneumonia.  It breaches the blood brain barrier and causes inflammation everywhere.  It attacks the brain stem, the heart, the liver, and the lungs just like many cytokine storm inducing illnesses.  Young doctors who are spending all their time treating patients rather than reading the research don't have time to be anything but shocked that this isn't just like any other viral pneumonia.  He probably hasn't been told the cytokine storm thing at all.

  • Like 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, lewelma said:

so why not more rah rah news on this?

While I think it is good news, especially for testing first responders and frontline healthcare workers, I think there are a few caveats. They are still ramping up production. They still require PPE and swabs, things in very short supply in some areas, including my state. And although the results are quick, only one test can be completed at a time. Other methods can run around 100 at a time. That’s why there was initial disagreement over where these tests would be most effective. Any additional bit of testing helps. But when testing was halted at the largest hospital in my state for almost ten days, except for admitted patients, it was due to the PPE and swabs.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, Katy said:

 

Again this isn't news.  Many pages back we discussed studies that this wasn't just a virus attacking the lungs and causing pneumonia.  It breaches the blood brain barrier and causes inflammation everywhere.  It attacks the brain stem, the heart, the liver, and the lungs just like many cytokine storm inducing illnesses.  Young doctors who are spending all their time treating patients rather than reading the research don't have time to be anything but shocked that this isn't just like any other viral pneumonia.  He probably hasn't been told the cytokine storm thing at all.

 

Whether it’s “news” or not, if frontline doctors particularly icu specialists don’t know what they are dealing with, that seems significant. 

  • Like 5
  • Sad 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

@lewelma@Frances@TCB@wathe@Pen

News link https://www.biospace.com/article/fda-approves-1st-covid-19-antibody-test/

“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first blood test that looks for the antibodies against the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. This is different than assays that test for presence of the virus—those test to determine if a patient has COVID-19. These new antibody tests determine if the person was exposed to the virus, had COVID-19 and recovered. And it suggests, if positive, that the person is now immune to COVID-19 and can’t get it again.

Research Triangle Park, North Carolina-based Cellex was granted an emergency use authorization (EUA) on its test yesterday.

The test is performed on a blood sample taken from a patient’s vein and can be performed by laboratories certified under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA), the Health and Human Services division that oversees clinical diagnostic testing in the United States.

The authorization stated, in part, “Results are for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, IgM and IgG that are generated as part of the human immune response to the virus. IgM antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 are generally detectable in blood several days after initial infection, although levels over the course of infection are not well characterized. IgG antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 become detectable later following infection. Positive results for both IgG and IgM could occur after infection and can be indicative of acute or recent infection.”

Mayo Clinic is reportedly to begin antibody testing on Monday as well, using an internally developed test. Elitza Theel, director of the Mayo Clinic laboratory testing COVID-19 antibody tests, told Minnesota Public Radio (MPR), “It’s important to know that these types of tests are different than all of the molecular tests that are being done off of nasal swabs or throat swabs. Those tests detect viral genetic material [to show whether the coronavirus has infected that person].”

Theel also pointed out that, in some cases, it takes 10 to 11 days for an individual’s immune system to attack the virus and produce the antibodies. That’s why the tests won’t be used to diagnose patients with COVID-19 that are showing symptoms within the last two or three days.

Theel also says Mayo hopes to have the tests available next week, but because of a limited supply, will be doing a slow roll out and hope that commercial manufacturers will speed production in the next few weeks.

“FDA approval is not needed at this time,” Theel said. “However, laboratories that are offering these tests have to go through a very rigorous verification process to make sure that the tests they’re offering provide the right results.””

FDA link for the Cellex testdownload

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 minutes ago, Pen said:

 

Whether it’s “news” or not, if frontline doctors particularly icu specialists don’t know what they are dealing with, that seems significant. 

 

It seems typical to me.  Doctors have to memorize an enormous amount of information.  Once you pick a specialty you pretty much forget everything that doesn't pertain to it. It doesn't surprise me at all that he thought an acute viral illness would act like any other acute viral illness, or that he's shocked that it doesn't. He's young and he only knows what he's been trained to know.  Differential diagnosis in a narrow specialty doesn't leave a lot of room for other information.  This is one of the issues with our medical system that many people don't run into unless they have a rare disease that is difficult to diagnose or treat.

Most viral pneumonia is quite mild unless someone has an immune issue.  I've literally only seen people with HIV hospitalized for it except during the swine flu epidemic.  ETA:  I mean working on adult med-surg floors.  Obviously children are hospitalized with things like RSV all the time.

Edited by Katy
  • Like 8
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, regentrude said:

I tried that just awhile ago. With this design, you end up with eight layers of fabric. I found it very difficult to breathe. Gotta look for different material.

How do you glasses wearers handle this? First, my glasses fog up really bad, second, the elastic behind my ears interferes with my glasses. Gotta rig something with ties.

Yes! I got a bandanna yesterday and tried the mask and couldn't stand it. Then I tried folding it lengthwise in four and tying it above my ponytail. That covers my nose and mouth, but its still too hard to breath through imho. I finally went with folding it into a triangle and tying it above my ponytail while tucking the hanging part under my chin. That was the only bearable way to wear the bandanna. I hope two layers is good enough. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, chiguirre said:

Yes! I got a bandanna yesterday and tried the mask and couldn't stand it. Then I tried folding it lengthwise in four and tying it above my ponytail. That covers my nose and mouth, but its still too hard to breath through imho. I finally went with folding it into a triangle and tying it above my ponytail while tucking the hanging part under my chin. That was the only bearable way to wear the bandanna. I hope two layers is good enough. 

I tried one of my homemade masks(pictured of the mask thread) and went bike riding.  I overheated really quickly, so did Dh wearing his. In the 80’s today.  Had to breathe through my mouth.  Two layers quilters cotton.  Thinking about making a single layer mask for biking.

Trying to figure out for  my kids, biking and masks with water necessary during ride.  The potential for contamination from the mask seems huge because they will need to take it on and off to drink.  What do runners etc use?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 minutes ago, chiguirre said:

Yes! I got a bandanna yesterday and tried the mask and couldn't stand it. Then I tried folding it lengthwise in four and tying it above my ponytail. That covers my nose and mouth, but its still too hard to breath through imho. I finally went with folding it into a triangle and tying it above my ponytail while tucking the hanging part under my chin. That was the only bearable way to wear the bandanna. I hope two layers is good enough. 

 

Was  it all cotton? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

37 minutes ago, square_25 said:

If anyone but me is interested in amount of PPE needed, here's a link where the governor of Michigan mentions some numbers:

https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/meet-press-march-29-2020-n1171591

Relevant quote: 

"I'm grateful we got a shipment from FEMA yesterday for 112,000 N95 masks, but, you know, we're going to be in dire straits again in a matter of days." 

I remember the orders of magnitude for NY being similar. Hundreds of thousands would last a few days, and that I think is with rationing (because everyone ratios in times of this much scarcity, and that was reported by the doctors and nurses.) 

Not sure if this is relevant to anyone outside the state, but Minnesota has a new tracker for PPE needs. It looks like their stock of N95 masks is almost 375,000 but they want another 1.6 million masks to be prepared.

https://mn.gov/covid19/data/response.jsp

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 minutes ago, mumto2 said:

I tried one of my homemade masks(pictured of the mask thread) and went bike riding.  I overheated really quickly, so did Dh wearing his. In the 80’s today.  Had to breathe through my mouth.  Two layers quilters cotton.  Thinking about making a single layer mask for biking.

Trying to figure out for  my kids, biking and masks with water necessary during ride.  The potential for contamination from the mask seems huge because they will need to take it on and off to drink.  What do runners etc use?

I see a lot of benefit in wearing a mask when you're around other people like at the store and such.  But my husband, who is a physicist by training and in the Air Force was on the "cleaning up nuclear spills" deployment team and had a ton of training with PPE for that says if it's not hard to breathe, it's not doing a lot of good.  He doesn't see a lot of point in masking for bike riding or running or exercise where you are not in proximity to other people, because 1) you will be messing with it to drink and such, which makes you less safe, and 2) there's not a lot of need if you aren't around other people.  

  • Like 14
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Terabith said:

I see a lot of benefit in wearing a mask when you're around other people like at the store and such.  But my husband, who is a physicist by training and in the Air Force was on the "cleaning up nuclear spills" deployment team and had a ton of training with PPE for that says if it's not hard to breathe, it's not doing a lot of good.  He doesn't see a lot of point in masking for bike riding or running or exercise where you are not in proximity to other people, because 1) you will be messing with it to drink and such, which makes you less safe, and 2) there's not a lot of need if you aren't around other people.  

Thanks, sort of what we were thinking.  At most the kids pass 20 people in their 20 plus miles on a pretty wide trail.  Everyone is trying to be polite but not get too close.  I am thinking risk outweighs benefit.

We wanted to try out the fit of the mask today as I am making for a few other people too.  Hubby did some alterations to my basic pattern from his experiences with masks in labs etc They are tight😉and can have a filter put in if we get to that.  But hot!

Btw, regarding glasses fogging ....my sunglasses fogged because I put them on in the house, hubby’s did not as he put them on outside.  No glass fog issues after we started moving.
 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, lewelma said:

so why not more rah rah news on this?

Because we don't believe it until we see it. Because our actual hospitals are putting out press releases that say the reality is that almost nobody can be tested unless they die and the government is having daily press conferences saying we have no testing shortages.

Edited by Paige
  • Like 5
  • Thanks 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, matrips said:

The federal government is a backup; it was never meant to be the main supplier. Their stockpile was traditionally meant for essential personnel to keep the government, military, health, and law enforcement running.  It was not meant for the regular citizens. They should have been covered at a local level for 6-8 weeks. 

Neither of those things is true — it was always intended to help "regular citizens," and it was designed for the initial stage of a public health emergency, not to kick in after 6-8 weeks. Dr. Tara O'Toole, who was chair of an advisory committee on the stockpile for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, said the national stockpile "was intended to bridge from the moment of crisis until a little while after when the private sector would be able to gear up and use the whole global supply chain to deliver what was needed.”

After weeks of criticism from multiple states about the lack of resources, the President explicitly said that he will not take calls from governors who criticize him and do not show appropriate appreciation. He specifically singled out the governors of Washington and Michigan, and said he had told Pence not to call them, but Pence did anyway. Suddenly we have new, unelected, totally unqualified pandemic response coordinator, who announces: “The notion of the federal stockpile was it’s supposed to be our stockpile. It’s not supposed to be states’ stockpiles that they then use.” Who exactly does that "our" refer to, if not the people? The public, whose tax dollars paid for the stockpile, have no rights to it? Now, for the first time in history, the national stockpile belongs to the administration, who can distribute it however they choose (i.e. to the states whose governors express sufficient appreciation and avoid criticizing the president)?

This is what the SNS website said until 2 days ago:

"Strategic National Stockpile is the nation’s largest supply of life-saving pharmaceuticals and medical supplies for use in a public health emergency severe enough to cause local supplies to run out.  When state, local, tribal, and territorial responders request federal assistance to support their response efforts, the stockpile ensures that the right medicines and supplies get to those who need them most during an emergency. Organized for scalable response to a variety of public health threats, this repository contains enough supplies to respond to multiple large-scale emergencies simultaneously."

After Jared Kushner attempted to redefine the purpose and ownership of the stockpile,  the wording on the website was hastily changed to say it is just a "supplement" and that states have their own stockpiles. Even with that sudden redefinition of the mission, which Kushner does not seem to have cleared with anyone else, there is nothing on the website that suggests it is not intended for public use, or is only available after 6-8 weeks:

"The Strategic National Stockpile's role is to supplement state and local supplies during public health emergencies. Many states have products stockpiled, as well. The supplies, medicines, and devices for life-saving care contained in the stockpile can be used as a short-term stopgap buffer when the immediate supply of adequate amounts of these materials may not be immediately available."

Here is a ink to the current text, which was changed by Kusher on April 2nd: https://www.phe.gov/about/sns/Pages/default.aspx

Here is the text as it appeared before Kushner changed it: https://web.archive.org/web/20200402234018/https://www.phe.gov/about/sns/Pages/default.aspx

 

 

 

  • Like 12
  • Thanks 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

1 hour ago, Terabith said:

I remember getting that vaccine over 20 years ago (as a teen) before we went to Germany. I was never supposed to get tb tested, but forgot when I was a young adult. Now, they think I was exposed to TB (I think I'm in a database of some sort), and when I told the nurse I had been vaccinated years ago, she said there was no such thing. It took a younger doctor to tell her that there is, but not readily available in the US.

  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, TracyP said:

Not sure if this is relevant to anyone outside the state, but Minnesota has a new tracker for PPE needs. It looks like their stock of N95 masks is almost 375,000 but they want another 1.6 million masks to be prepared.

NZ has 80 million masks in the stockpile for 4 million people.  I don't know the ratio of surgical to N95. But the local production here before ramp up was about 15K N95 and 185K surgical per day (Now 50k/day N95).  The government said that it had a 'good' supply. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...