Emergence of a Deadly Coronavirus

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Large gathering of idiots flood the pools.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/katv.com/a ... distancing

NORTH KOREAN CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

North Korea has been very tightlipped about the extent of the current pandemic. Even more so than China.

I suspect the country has been hit hard. It is interesting that China has imposed a major lockdown in the Chinese province Jilin that borders North Korea. This may give a feel for the severity in North Korea of the current pandemic.

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The latest outbreak is concentrated in Jilin, a northeastern province of 27 million people that sits near China’s borders with Russia and North Korea. Jilin has reported a small outbreak of about 130 cases and two deaths, but experts there have warned of the threat of a “big explosion.”

The authorities have also imposed a lockdown on parts of Jilin City, a manufacturing base, bringing factories to a standstill and quieting streets. In some areas, residents are allowed to leave their homes only once every two days, and for a maximum of two hours, to shop for groceries. The strictest measures are probably affecting more than 200,000 people in the city [Shulan].

[The reports also hint at a mutation in the virus.] Patients are taking longer than the typical one to two weeks to show symptoms of the illness after being infected, an expert with the National Health Commission, Qiu Haibo, told the state-run broadcaster this week, and they are carrying the virus for a longer period of time.

Source: After New Coronavirus Outbreaks, China Imposes Wuhan-Style Lockdown

Colleges nationwide hit with lawsuits over coronavirus refunds

--More than 220 student-led petitions have begun circulating with more likely on the way.
--As more petitions circulate, more schools are being hit with lawsuits amid the financial constraints the coronavirus pandemic presented.

Universities across the country are being hit with lawsuits by students who aren’t satisfied with the refunds they’re being provided after being told to leave campus.

The coronavirus pandemic resulted in colleges and universities telling students to leave campus and take their courses online for the remainder of the semester. As a result, some students circulated petitions while others resorted to lawsuits saying the refunds are nowhere near comparable to the costs they paid for the spring semester.

As previously reported by Campus Reform, Michigan State University issued refunds amounting to less than a quarter of students pay for a semester of room and board, despite students there being told to move out halfway through the semester.

Currently, there are more than 220 petitions on change.org demanding schools provide the proper refunds. However, the list of schools getting smacked with lawsuits is also growing.

https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=14781

A NEW WORD - "MASKNE"

“Maskne,” or acne that tends to form around the areas of your face covered by protective masks, is becoming more and more common as Americans don protective face coverings in the fight against COVID-19. But that doesn’t mean you have to accept “maskne” as just another irritating facet of life in 2020.



Dr. Samer Jaber, of Washington Square Dermatology in NYC, says that while “maskne” may be more prevalent, there’s no reason not to adopt a few simple practices to keep it from forming in the first place.

“When you wear a mask, you seal in your breath,” says Dr. Jaber on the causes of “maskne” and other related skin conditions. “This creates a moist, humid environment as it traps your breath, skin oils and sweat, leading to irritation, rashes and acne.”

Comparing the phenomenon to diaper rash, Jaber adds that the masks themselves may also irritate skin simply by being in contact with the face for long periods of time. This can possibly exacerbate existing conditions like eczema, psoriasis or rosacea.

“The longer you wear a mask the worse it is, so this is unfortunately very common in health care workers, as they need to wear their masks for long periods of time,” says Dr. Jaber.

Source: 'Maskne': Suffering from acne or breakouts under your mask? Here's what to do

LENGTH OF CONTAGION

A new study out of Singapore suggests that COVID-19 patients are not infectious 11 days after getting sick.

"In a local study from a multicenter cohort of 73 COVID-19 patients, when the Ct value was 30 or higher (i.e. when viral load is low), no viable virus (based on being able to culture the virus) has been found," the researchers wrote in the study. "In addition, virus could not be isolated or cultured after day 11 of illness."

The researchers noted that a separate study out of Germany found "the degree of viral shedding was very high in the first week of symptoms," supporting their findings.

"In sputum, sgRNA (also known as (viral subgenomic messenger RNAs, which are only present in actively-infected cells) declined over days 10 - 11, and in throat swabs, sgRNA was not detected after day 5," the researchers added. "Infectious virus was cultured from throat and lung specimens in the first week of symptoms, but none after day 8 in spite of high viral loads detected by regular PCR."

"Based on the accumulated data since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the infectious period of SARS-CoV-2 in symptomatic individuals may begin around 2 days before the onset of symptoms, and persists for about 7 - 10 days after the onset of symptoms," the researchers concluded. "Active viral replication drops quickly after the first week, and viable virus was not found after the second week of illness despite the persistence of PCR detection of RNA."

Source: COVID-19 patients are not infectious 11 days after getting sick

NEW YORK NURSING HOME DEATHS.

COVID-19 has already killed thousands of nursing home residents in New York. An estimated 10,000 or more, double what the state reports. It’s hard to know what’s worse, the dying or the lying.

Under criticism for forcing nursing homes to admit COVID-19 patients, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is trying to shift the blame to President Trump. “Don’t criticize the state for following the president’s policy,” Cuomo said at his Saturday news conference. The governor points to a Trump administration statement issued on March 13.

Sorry, Governor, but you’re twisting what the statement said. The administration recommended nursing homes should admit patients even if they were coming from a hospital battling COVID-19, not that patients with COVID-19 themselves should be admitted.

To the contrary, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was emphatic about the dangers of allowing COVID-19 to invade a nursing home. On March 18, the CDC stated that “once COVID-19 has been introduced into a long term care facility, it has the potential to result in high attack rates among residents, staff members, and visitors.” The agency warned “it is critical that long-term care facilities implement active measures to prevent introduction of COVID-19.”

One week later, on March 25, Cuomo’s Health Department mandated that nursing homes accept COVID patients and barred homes from requiring COVID tests for admission. Facilities had to fly blind, not knowing which incoming patients endangered residents and staff.

As soon as the mandate was announced, the national association of nursing home doctors protested that Cuomo’s policy posed “a clear and present danger to all of the residents of a nursing home.” The Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths, a patient advocacy group, urged Cuomo to change course.

But the state’s health commissioner, Howard Zucker, doubled down, as deaths soared, and instead began fudging the death statistics to conceal the carnage.

At the outset of the pandemic, New York reported how many nursing home residents died from COVID-19, whether they died at the home or after being hospitalized. That’s standard. But as the toll escalated, the state Health Department quietly shifted to reporting only deaths at the homes, omitting those who succumbed after going to a hospital.

It’s likely 10,000 nursing home residents have died in New York from COVID-19, about double what the Cuomo administration is reporting. That estimate has also been put forward by health care think tank American Commitment.

Cuomo bragged last week that New York ranks 34th in per capita nursing home deaths. It’s a phony number – another whopper.

Many mistakes have been made so far during this pandemic. Mistakes are inevitable, and we should all be working together to rectify them and plan for a better response next time.

But the evidence suggests New York’s decision mandating nursing homes take COVID patients wasn’t just bungling It’s about money. Two other states started to impose a similarly lethal policy and quickly pulled back, as deaths rose.

New York stuck with the lethal policy until May 10, way too long. Why? Hospitals inundated with COVID-19 patients insisted on clearing out the elderly and sending them to whatever nursing homes had empty beds. The state Health Department willingly complied, nursing home residents be damned.

In New York, the Health Department works for the hospital industry, not for patients and families. The Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA) bundles millions of dollars from the hospitals and funnels the money to New York politicians, including Cuomo and the state Democratic Party’s housekeeping committee. Hospital interests give more and hold more sway in Albany even than the real estate industry or Wall Street. Often it’s GYNHA’s president, Ken Raske, who gets a prized seat at Cuomo's table at political dinners.

The state Health Department, in return, does the hospital industry’s bidding, tolerating hospital infection rates worse than the national average and hiding outbreaks of deadly diseases like Candida auris at hospitals, when the public has a right to know.

Source: Cuomo nursing home scandal – Deaths likely closer to 10,000 and it gets worse

Yup, Cuomo screwed up.

I believe they set up additional beds in Connecticut using the National Guard.
But, the governor here had more time to devise a solution.

I think this is scary in the same way cancer clusters are scary. People get concerned when they see a cluster of cancer in a small town. The difference is that we know the cause this time.

So 50% of antibody tests might be wrong, CDC says

Coronavirus outbreak at South Korea e-commerce warehouse drives spike in new cases

I think it's worth to notice the numbers.
40 new cases resulted in massive testing and stop of a large company for thorough disinfection.
40 new cases a day in a country of 50 million.

My country is an order of magnitude from there, there are few-hundred-persons outbreaks in mines that cause similar reactions.

Where is yours?

That is how you stop something with exponential growth. You need to attack it while it is still small and manageable.
If you wait the numbers grow too fast to stop.