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Corona Virus Blog, March 25, 2020

The shocking news has just been released that Prince Charles is inflected with the Corona Virus.

He is one of thousands around the world, and London, New York, Paris, and Madrid remain shut down.

Let's continue the discussion.

Comments

Nutty Flavor said…
I agree. Does he have the power to do that? Does Cuomo?

Another question would be - who would enforce a travel ban?

I was at a train station the other day and saw three soldiers going back to base with their camouflauge backpacks.

They were teenage boys, certainly not trained in all the delicate sensitivities involved in containing civilians during a health outbreak.
Portcitygirl said…
If this doesn't happen I'm afraid it will spiral. Unfortunately,
I think our leaders seem to be making this political. Hopefully,
Trump and the hotspot Governors can come together on this. My family member finds out their post today.

There are already posters on Reddit saying New Yorkers have come to their states and are not self isolating at all. They have been encouraged by others to report them. I think all interstate travel should be shut down for a month.

I don't know if I mentioned it here, but we have had two people who knew they were symptomatic
fly in from other states, one LA, and called the airline AFTER they tested positive. So the authorities are "trying" to locate all the passengers of both planes. I think these people should be jailed for knowingly spreading a killer disease.
SwampWoman said…
Yes, New Yorkers are a huge problem in FLorida as well. They are fleeing the infection while carrying the infection with them.
SwampWoman said…
If you are in a high-risk age group (although the latest guy who died in my area was 52,so who knows what that is) or have other conditions, you have to act as though every single person is infectious.
SwampWoman said…
The Florida Keys are open to residents only now. They are placing checkpoints on the only road in and out.
Ian's Girl said…
Teen-aged boys are tireless, almost impossibly strong, and are more than able to follow the orders of people who have been trained in all the delicate sensitivities involved in containing civilians during a health outbreak.


Todays' society encourages suspended adolescence on a wide scale. This is a fairly recent phenomenon, and not a good one, in my opinion.
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Portcitygirl said…
Swampwoman

Please be safe. Elle, I am so thankful you are on leave and this trend of babying grown men
runs rampant in other cultures as well. I do share your opinion on this as well.

Here in Devon UK, we had the police helicopter overhead for the first time in years, seemingly they were patrolling the beach looking for crowds of idiots.

We're in our 3rd day of isolation - v easy to get tetchy with each other - thank goodness we've got a bit of space of our own. It must be hell for people cooped up in flats with no private outside access, I really feel for them.

I think I've been anticipating something apocalyptic for over 50 years, since I used to read John Wyndham's novels. They were in many ways prophetic - Day of the Triffids was a dark warning of the dangers of technology that wasn't Fail Safe - once people were no longer capable of making sure it stayed safe, danger and death stalked the streets.

Similarly, `The Kraken Wakes' was a veiled reference to Global Warming, recognised long before now. The spookiest to me, though, is the `Midwich Cuckoos', when read in the light of contemporary events in the UK. Nuff said, though the film version, `Village of the Damned' had a gay subtext.

My response was to think in terms of being prepared with a good store cupboard and a garden just large enough to grow a bit of food. We achieved that almost 20 years ago so we do have room to move about outside.

I may also have inherited some of my attitude from my father - he had farming ancestors and had, perhaps, an atavistic view that there was security in land. Perhaps mourning for the lost family farm was impressed upon him by his grandmother (born c.1835).
In an earlier post, I mentioned some of the scary things that somehow we've got through since WW2, None of which have affected the under 40s. I forgot some of the epidemics they wouldn't be aware of:

It's 17 years since I was in a veterinary establishment, dealing with BSE paperwork - we were all going to die of brain disease.

AIDS - a terifying prospect in the mid 1980s.

1950s - polio. Swimming pools closed, children in `iron lungs', lucky to survive with `just' a withered arm or leg.

Before that, there were smallpox and diphtheria. My generation still bears the `vaccination marks', the scars left by the vaccinations. My first Head of Department (b 1917) said, as a child, he'd had diphtheria and had been the only one to survive from a ward full of children.

Today's youngsters perplex me. When I last worked in a VIth form college, the students had pretty much all the privileges of adulthood (sex, flats & cars) from age of 16 or 17, yet seemed incapable of taking adult responsibility, as evidenced by their inability to return library books on time.
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Sandie said…
The shutdown in South Africa is harsh ... some key points:

All borders are closed. Only cargo allowed into the country and will be disinfected.

Anyone spreading fake news will be prosecuted (already one case).

Any shop hiking prices will be issued a certificate (not sure what that means but 11 have already been issued, and the shutdown has not even started, and another 30 are being investigated).

Public transport will be severely restricted, e.g. taxis (the most common form of public transport) are limited to certain hours in the day and the number of people they can transport and must disinfect after each journey. (People can leave their homes to buy food, go to the bank or pharmacy, get petrol and visit any health care provider.)

Sale of alcohol is being restricted (liquor outlets are not allowed to be open).

Support services for abused women and children has been increased.

The army is being deployed to assist the police in enforcing the shutdown.

It goes on and on ... this is real lockdown, and it is for 3 weeks. It won't eradicate the virus but it will give the health authorities time to track contacts, test as many people as possible and 'flatten the curve' so that the health system is not overwhelmed.
SwampWoman said…
Here's some cheerful news about innovation. (At least I think it is cheering; not so cheering is why it may be needed.) From the National Association of Amateur Radio: http://www.arrl.org/news/radio-amateurs-team-up-to-help-university-design-low-cost-ventilator

Radio Amateurs Team Up to Help University Design Low-Cost Ventilator
03/23/2020
Amateur radio volunteers from around the world have volunteered to assist University of Florida Professor Sam Lampotang and his engineering team in their quest to rapidly develop an open-source, low-cost patient ventilator that can be built anywhere from such commonly available components as PVC pipe and lawn-sprinkler valves. The amateur radio volunteers are developing Arduino-based control software that will set the respiratory rate and other key parameters in treating critically ill coronavirus victims.

Multiple volunteers responding to a call for help from Gordon Gibby, MD, KX4Z, included noted software developer Jack Purdum, W8TEE, and uBITX transceiver maker Ashhar Farhan, VU2ESE. University of Florida physicians are working to address the critical legal aspects as the design moves closer to fruition.

The ventilator’s valves would precisely time compressed oxygen flow into patient breathing circuits under Arduino control, allowing exhausted patients with “stiff” lungs impacted by viral pneumonia to survive until their body can clear the infection. The software design team is also adding simple features such as an LCD display, encoders to choose parameters, and watchdog safety features. -- Thanks to Gordon Gibby, KX4Z

Portcitygirl said…
Elle,

Thank you for your kind words. They are always a comfort to me. I hope you won't be called out again. Please stay safe as well.
https://uk.yahoo.com/style/goop-expert-says-coronavirus-doesnt-151929500.html

Ye gods and little fishes!

Someone tell this woman that the thing about the science is that it's true, whether you believe it or not.
Here at the coast, the buses are still running, but the county has hired people to disinfect after every passenger. Ridership is very low, so the person, with mask and gloves, notices everything the bus rider has touched and after the rider departs, sprays and wipes down everything. The only problem is that the cloth seats can't be cleaned. Ridership is mostly the homeless, who ride the buses all day to keep warm. So sad.

Most of the restaurants who have tried to go to takeout have stopped, and the only delivery we can get here is pizza.
The $2 billion coronavirus bill is still in jeopardy, according to MSN:

"A round of 11th-hour objections is throwing a curveball into the Senate's consideration of a mammoth stimulus package.
Senate leadership announced the deal on the $2 trillion bill shortly after 1 a.m., and want to pass it on Wednesday as they face intense pressure to take steps to try to reassure an American public and an economy rattled by the coronavirus.
But a brewing fight over a deal on unemployment provisions is threatening to open the door to a push for broader changes to the bill, which was negotiated by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, warned that unless a group of GOP senators back down from their demand for changes to the unemployment insurance benefits, he would slow walk the bill until stronger guardrails were put on hundreds of billions in funding for corporations."
Meowwww said…
I’m 49, have AFib and PVCs, so I am a bit worried.
The governor of Minnesota finally called a stay-home ruling. We will see who listens, as no one is now, it’s not real here.
When I saw Prince Albert had it (with the weird press comment that his health “is not of concern”) I knew PC would have it. I hope he recovers well.
And that stimulus package....sounds good, people are running with it and mentally spending it, but we all know it won’t be like what it seems.
At my work (small pet food shop) today we had a guy ridicule the idea of social distancing and stand right over my coworker. It was really alarming.
SwampWoman said…
Well, snap. The air force bases are locking down on the west coast of Florida. I suppose the shelter in place order instead of the shelter in place suggestion will be coming for us soon.

As of 6 p.m. tonight, there were 1867 cases in Florida residents, 110 cases in non-Florida residents, for a total of 1977 cases. Well. That doubled quickly! The deaths are up to 23 now.
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SwampWoman said…
Meowwww said...I’m 49, have AFib and PVCs, so I am a bit worried.
The governor of Minnesota finally called a stay-home ruling. We will see who listens, as no one is now, it’s not real here.


SwampMan also has A-fib; he's off his meds to wear a Holter monitor again to see if surgery cured it, but I think they forgot to schedule it with the COVID-19 thing. He needs to call and see if he needs to resume his meds, but he's convinced he doesn't need it. Oy.

Please be careful with the personal protective equipment and STAY WELL! We need all y'all here.

SwampWoman said…
Elle, I believe it is a shelter in place type of situation, Eglin.
@Elle, Oh, no! Here we go in Clatsop County. Our little hospital will be completely overwhelmed, especially as one of the ER doctors is known as "Doctor Death," on normal days. He tends to send very sick people home with no help. People who have been rushed to the hospital with strokes, etc. If you can get by him, one of the hospital doctors is a miracle-worker- so smart and caring, but you have to get past the ER doctor first and be admitted. All of us know to go to Portland if anything serious is happening, but we're not going to do that now.
CatEyes said…
Finally the small rural county I'm in has its first case of CV-19 (we are 60 mikes away from Dallas). He have been ordered to stay home. Now Dallas is the hotspot in Texas with the most cases instead of Houston (the 3rd largest city in the country). The streets were desolate today in Big D this morning; most people are taking it seriously.

But there is a great concern about the homeless population (about +4,600); the politicos don't have a cohesive thought out plan it appears other than to move laughably 10-15 into hotel rooms and some in the convention center with social distancing between cots. The encampments are going to be left intact and they are advising the homeless to stay put (yeah sure, that's going to happen).
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Portcitygirl said…
Cateyes

This may be false info coming from Reddit, but a redditor said that his friend picked up his gf from nyc and brought her back to Dallas and that they are not abiding by quarantine rules. Everyone said for him to alert the authorities. I believe it was up on r/ CoronavirusUS. I will try to find it and post.
Interesting reports coming in now about the role of a the apres ski bar in Ischgl,Austrian Tyrol.


https://uk.yahoo.com/news/uk-patient-zero-east-sussex-184453808.html
SwampWoman said…

So, @Swampwoman, you mean the AFB Elgin is SiP, not charged with making sure the locals do the same? I read that a couple of people on base have tested positive, so that makes sense. If it spreads rapidly on an USAF Base or a Naval Base or a Naval AFB, that puts the entire country at risk. Imagine a nuclear submarine or an aircraft carrier with an outbreak while at sea? It is one reason the troglodytes infuriate me: they can't see past their own ego issues to realize that they could potentially be putting those who serve at risk. IDGI, really, not at all. They're still spouting "it's no worse than the flu" BS, and behaving accordingly.


Military knows that civilians do boneheaded things routinely. They should be taking care of their people. I *think* most of the bases have quietly gone SiP to protect their people as much as possible.

I'm not saying that military doesn't do boneheaded things. We did way back in the pre-internet age when I was in (grin) so it wasn't documented. And military-aged people, like most civilian young people, feel pretty danged immortal.
SwampWoman said…
And speaking of "just getting started" daughter said last night "OMG, I'm going to have to be setting up hurricane shelters with this." Just when you think it can't get any worse, boom, there it is.
Meanwhile, the L-wing press in UK (Indie & Grauniad) are grinding their axes to make it a party political thing, as per usual, and there are complaints about Charles being given a test when NHS staff can't get them.

That's nothing to do with whether C should or should not be tested.

C is in Scotland, though, not England, different health authority - NHS Scotland, not NHS (which is for England & Wales, now that Scotland can do its own thing). Virus situation is probably different there but critics choose to ignore inconvenient facts.
Portcitygirl said…
https://www.reddit.com/r/CoronavirusUS/comments/fp2vtd/this_is_not_a_game_perdue_farms_workers_walk_out/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

Found on Reddit.

What happens when the grocery store employees begin testing positive? Will they have to alert all who shopped there or will they just carry on? I'm so concerned about lack of delivery options. People are going into the stores like they are going to a festival. Smdh.
Hellobluesky said…
Hello nutties ! I hope everybody is safe and sound...

Here my husband had some fever and diarrhea this morning, it could be the virus, could be just a cold.

I gave him some paracetamol, vitamin C, and a mix of essential oils against the flu.

I'm a little bit worried because he's 59 and a heavy smoker, but it's too early to call the doctor or make a self assessment online.
There's an official internet site where you enter your symptoms, and the site tells you if you could be positive to the virus, and eventually suggests to stay home, to call the doctor or to call the emergency service.
The datas will be used later for the researches on this virus (here in France we are not tested except if you go to the hospital with heavy symptoms, so we don't know how many people are infected).

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