Corona Virus Updates Part 6

Thailand: only 3 new cases today, no deaths. At the moment Covid-19 seems all but eliminated here but I won't be surprised if a second wave eventually develops. Huge stocks of masks, gloves, PP suits and ventilators sit ready while hospital staff can take a breather and enjoy their success.

Alcohol sales "unbanned" as of today to the grudging approval of western expats.

Many people are fleeing Bangkok and other urban areas to return to their original family farms in the hinterland. When unemployed it's much better to be in the countryside with free shelter, plenty of food and the support of relatives.

Thais continue to be repatriated from other countries in large numbers. There are reports of 40 or so unconfirmed probable new cases in the deep south. My guess these people have returned from Malaysia.

Meanwhile, I need to get a few things from a building supply store. I can't see why places like that are still closed.

Patience, I'm told is a virtue. Maybe tomorrow.

I feel for Russia.. I think they're about to go through some dark times

www.worldometers.info...

10,000 new cases in 24hrs..

3-4 days ago it was only 5-6000

How about some positive news:

Spain has recorded its lowest daily death toll linked to coronavirus since 18 March, new figures from the health ministry show.

A total of 164 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours, the lowest number in over six weeks, while new cases of the virus rose to 217,466 from 216,582.

Spain records lowest death toll in 6 weeks.

originally posted by: Willtell
a reply to: Tamsuan

What is the reason for shutting down world-wide? What is the logic behind that conspiracy?

It is a global conspiracy. The UN/WHO are fully involved in it and have been since their inceptions.

Do you seriously believe that tptb are limited to the USA?

originally posted by: Byrd
There's been a lot of clinical details published lately, but the one publication (not really covered in the news) that is most significant here is that the FDA has issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for Remdesivir to be used in the treatment of hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

Yep, anything and everything to distract from something cheap, non-patentable and extremely effective...

originally posted by: Byrd
"Here we report that after screening 19 antiviral drugs that are either in clinical trials or with proposed activity against SARS-CoV-2, remdesivir was the most effective. Chloroquine only effectively protected virus-induced cytopathic effect at around 30 µM with a therapeutic index of 1.5. Our findings also suggest that velpatasvir, ledipasvir, ritonavir, litonavir, lopinavir, favilavir, sofosbuvir, danoprevir, and pocapavir do not have direct antiviral effect."

This is how they distract from cheaper/nonpatentable treatments.

Comparing Remdesivir to Chloraquine, instead of hydroxychloraquine+zinc+z-pack - you know, the combo that was actually being used and was shown to actually work

Why would they do that? From tfa:

"Gilead did not immediately respond to a request for the price it plans to charge for the drug after its pledged donations are used up. The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, which assesses effectiveness of drugs to determine appropriate prices, put the cost of producing a 10-day course of remdesivir at $10, but suggested that the price would rise to $4,500 based on patient benefits shown in clinical trials."

Did you catch that? $10 cost to produce, but they outright admitted the cost would rise to $4,500. Couldn't have anything to do with the fact that remdesivir still has a long way to go on its patent protection.

More importantly, once the smoke clears and insurance starts picking up the tab, it will likely rise to $45,000 or even more (a lot more), based on the history of drug price gouging in the pharmaceutical/insurance industry.

Nah, couldn't have anything to do with it.

NEW YORK CORONAVIRUS HOSPITALIZATIONS LOWEST SINCE MARCH AFTER 19 STRAIGHT DAYS OF DECLINE

ew York reported 19 straight days of declining numbers in COVID-19 hospitalizations, bringing the total number to their lowest levels since late March.

Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Saturday that there are now 10,350 people infected with the novel coronavirus in New York hospitals across the state–the lowest number of hospitalizations since 9,517 people were hospitalized on March 29.

New York saw a peak in hospitalizations on April 12 with 18,825, a number that has been declining ever since. Hospital bed capacity in the state is over 90,000, after Cuomo instructed hospitals to increase the previous 53,000-bed capacity.

www.google.com...=1

a reply to: tanstaafl

I don't think anyone would argue price gouging by big pharma.... but you quote no source? Sounds legit

Also, im assuming you actually have a source that says that... didn't this administration profess that ANY price gouging with respect to the COVID-19 debacle be immediately cracked down on? Class action suits and prison time for the exec's on that one.

ALSO, $10 to produce? I don't buy it, it cant possibly factor all the research time and effort that HAS to be retro-active when incorporating the cost of production. That IS fair....


FFS not everything is a GD conspiracy

Numbers from around the world are taken from Worldometers for May 3rd.

Spain - Pop: 44.6 M
247,122 Positive tests…….. or 1 out of 189 Spaniards
10.22% Deaths

Italy - Pop: 60.4 M
210,717 Positive tests….. or 1 out of 287 Italians
13.70 % Deaths

UK – Pop: 66.6 M
186,599 Positive tests….. or 1 out of 357 UKers
15.24 % Deaths

France – Pop: 67.0 M
168,396 Positive tests….. or 1 out of 398 French
14.70 % Deaths

Sweden – Pop: 10.2 M
22,317 Positive tests….. or 1 out of 458 Swedes
12.00 % Deaths

Denmark – Pop: 5.8 M
9,523 Positive tests….. or 1 out of 609 Danes
5.08 % Deaths

US - Pop: 330 M
1,169,984 Positive tests.... or 1 out of 282 Americans
5.81 Deaths

US death rates (2017):
1. Heart Disease …………….…………647,457 annual or 1,773 daily average
2. Cancer ……………………..……….….599,108 annual or 1,641 daily average
3. Accidents (unintentional injuries): 169,936 annual or 465 daily average
7. Diabetes:………………………………….83,564 annual or 228 daily average

COVID-19 ……………………………………….67,983 (64 Day) or 1062 daily average


*** SURPASSED *****

8. Influenza and Pneumonia …………55,562 annual or 152 daily average
9. Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis:..50,633 annual or 138 daily average
10. Intentional self-harm (suicide):..47,173 annual or 129 daily average
X. Auto accidents ………………….………37,461 annual or 102 daily average
X. H1N1 2009 ESTIMATED (8,868 – 18,638) for 1 year or 24 – 50 daily average

originally posted by: alphabetaone
a reply to: tanstaafl
I don't think anyone would argue price gouging by big pharma.... but you quote no source? Sounds legit

What I quoted was from the OP's second source...

From US News and World Report

ALSO, $10 to produce? I don't buy it, it cant possibly factor all the research time and effort that HAS to be retro-active when incorporating the cost of production. That IS fair....

Depends... who minitors at what point pharma companies have recouped their investment?"

FFS not everything is a GD conspiracy

True, but most things in the medical world are...

I want to thank Byrd, and others for keeping the data coming and interpreting it so we can understand (some of it is far too statistically technical).
My local area had no new deaths today. I do know someone personally who died tho. She was elderly but had been active and mobile and volunteering at a school prior to being taken into hosp with a fall and getting coronavirus in there.
Does anyone know what's happening in China now? It seems to have gone quiet from a media point of view.
We are soon to trial a track and trace app here in the uk. As much as I think it's a great concept. I won't be signing up. I know tptb have all our data but this just seems a step too far. What do others think?

originally posted by: checkmeout
I want to thank Byrd, and others for keeping the data coming and interpreting it so we can understand (some of it is far too statistically technical).
My local area had no new deaths today. I do know someone personally who died tho. She was elderly but had been active and mobile and volunteering at a school prior to being taken into hosp with a fall and getting coronavirus in there.
Does anyone know what's happening in China now? It seems to have gone quiet from a media point of view.
We are soon to trial a track and trace app here in the uk. As much as I think it's a great concept. I won't be signing up. I know tptb have all our data but this just seems a step too far. What do others think?

Use a second, old, phone for the track and trace app.
Make sure to reset to factory defaults first (and that there isn't something you'd like to keep on it still).



Keep bluetooth off on usual phone, and don't install the app on it.

Numbers update for Europe, and Elsewhere :







www.worldometers.info...

From the New York (state) government site, analysis and data: 12.3% of New Yorkers have Covid-19 antibodies

(actual title: "Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Announces Results of Completed Antibody Testing Study of 15,000 People Showing 12.3 Percent of Population Has COVID-19 Antibodies")

New York City, with the densest population per square mile, rather unsurprisingly has the highest numbers of positives. Interestingly enough, about 2% fewer women than men tested positive. Can't say whether that's due to lifestyle or what... just interesting to note.

I also like their plan to distribute (washable) cloth masks:

The Governor also announced that the state will distribute over seven million more cloth masks to vulnerable New Yorkers and essential workers across the state. The masks will be distributed as follows:

500,000 for NYCHA residents
500,000 for farm workers
1 million for vulnerable populations, including the mental health and developmental disabled communities
500,000 for homeless shelters
2 million for elderly New Yorkers and nursing homes
1 million for faith-based organizations and food banks
2 million for grocery stores, supermarkets and food delivery workers

Nothing about prisons but at least this is a good start. I'd like to see more states doing this.

Some Financial Times Graphs by John Burn-Murdoch, more at the link :

David Williams MD (Alabama) about CoronaVirus

Nature magazine has a review of some of the articles that they found of interest this week on the topic of Coronavirus. They led off with one I considered posting here but never got around to: "Immune system shows abnormal response to COVID-19" - there's a link to the paper, as well (accepted for CELL.)

The third one is another I also considered posting here (and didn't because it's complex) - summarizes some of the evidence that Covid-19 hijacks the immune system.

So... a month's worth of papers (about 3/week) that they found interesting and significant. Well worth taking a minute or two to scan through them.

Tonight's research paper choice:
Individual variation in susceptibility or exposure to SARS-CoV-2 lowers the herd immunity threshold from the MedRxiv source.

A partial quote from the abstract:

As severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spreads, the susceptible subpopulation is depleted causing the rate at which new cases occur to decline. Variation in individual susceptibility or exposure to infection exacerbates this effect. Individuals that are frailer, and therefore more susceptible or more exposed, have higher probabilities of being infected, depleting the susceptible subpopulation of those who are at higher risk of infection, and thus intensifying the deceleration in occurrence of new cases.

(translation: Those with compromised systems who get sick with Covid-19 more easily will catch it faster and you'll get an unrealistic tapering off of numbers of infected/ill people.)

The basics here is that you can divide humans into 2 groups: those who get really sick (quickly) with Covid-19 and those who don't. You can be fooled into thinking an epidemic is slowing down when you get a decline in cases from the first group... but the herd immunity hasn't actually gotten through the second group.

And yes, that's one of the mechanisms of "waves" of a pandemic.

Warren Buffett's company has sold off it's entire stock in various US airlines, including Delta and United Airlines worth 6 billion dollars! He was fairly pessimistic in his annual speech

Mr Buffett told the meeting, which was held virtually: "We made that decision in terms of the airline business. We took money out of the business basically even at a substantial loss.

"We will not fund a company that... where we think that it is going to chew up money in the future."

NY Times

BBC

originally posted by: MonkeyBalls2

originally posted by: checkmeout
I want to thank Byrd, and others for keeping the data coming and interpreting it so we can understand (some of it is far too statistically technical).
My local area had no new deaths today. I do know someone personally who died tho. She was elderly but had been active and mobile and volunteering at a school prior to being taken into hosp with a fall and getting coronavirus in there.
Does anyone know what's happening in China now? It seems to have gone quiet from a media point of view.
We are soon to trial a track and trace app here in the uk. As much as I think it's a great concept. I won't be signing up. I know tptb have all our data but this just seems a step too far. What do others think?

Use a second, old, phone for the track and trace app.
Make sure to reset to factory defaults first (and that there isn't something you'd like to keep on it still).



Keep bluetooth off on usual phone, and don't install the app on it.

Great idea. Except...I have no old phones. Also, the idea of the track and trace I think is that they trace where you've been etc. So you would take 2 phones everywhere? I guess that's normal for some folk. I'm too old for that lol