Coronavirus Pandemic

[Sinister 2,583]

The Social Distancing stuff is easy for me because I’ve been doing it for decades. 

[Squirrel 5,180]

[DavidCore89 7,404]

Boris the Bellend IMO needs to consider closing schools, colleges and universities while the rate of infection is increasing.

All we've done is cancel sport, and that was too late.

Oh well, keep washing your hands!

[Jjss924 576]

After the extended spring break, my kid's schooling will be online. They also said they would be delivering lunch to kids that need it. 

[Squirrel 5,180]

Phone networks around the UK going down. I’m only able to post this because I’m using hospital wifi. 

[Lann 10,846]

All schools and educations, highschool and older are closing tomorrow here.
 

We have encouraged all coworkers that can to work from home. 

[Fido_le_muet 5,198]

Full lockdown mode activated. 

Mrs, baby and I are staying home for at least 2 weeks. Probably a month. 

I work for the local government so I may be called in to help with the crisis in the local situation room. 

[Jjss924 576]

I'm pretty optimistic that this will be over in a few months. Most countries seem to be taking it seriously now.

[Con 5,719]

30 minutes ago, Jjss924 said:

I'm pretty optimistic that this will be over in a few months. Most countries seem to be taking it seriously now.

I hope it serves as a glimpse into our possible future worst case scenarios. At minimum, I wish this will increase an appetite for science. For science and not religion is what is going to save us while we are alive on the planet. I hope we get more scientists, biologists, climatologists, doctors, and teachers out of this corona virus pandemic episode.

[Spinnaker1981 974]

5 minutes ago, Con said:

I hope it serves as a glimpse into our possible future worst case scenarios. At minimum, I wish this will increase an appetite for science. For science and not religion is what is going to save us while we are alive on the planet. I hope we get more scientists, biologists, climatologists, doctors, and teachers out of this corona virus pandemic episode.

That is a given. The amount of kids that are quarantined right now, not going to school, etc.. will propel them to try and find a way to prevent this in the future and several will join the scientific communities around the world in trying to do so. Though what I don´t know is if there is room to harbour so many scientific minds... who will pay for their wages? Who really pays for that? Pharmaceutical companies and chemical companies, but that is very far from enough and focused on specific tasks.

We need to have more people working on entities like the CDC working on find new virus epidemics while they are controllable, around the world, and studying these new strains from as close to patient 0 as possible.

[Con 5,719]

1 minute ago, Spinnaker1981 said:

That is a given. The amount of kids that are quarantined right now, not going to school, etc.. will propel them to try and find a way to prevent this in the future and several will join the scientific communities around the world in trying to do so. Though what I don´t know is if there is room to harbour so many scientific minds... who will pay for their wages? Who really pays for that? Pharmaceutical companies and chemical companies, but that is very far from enough and focused on specific tasks.

We need to have more people working on entities like the CDC working on find new virus epidemics while they are controllable, around the world, and studying these new strains from as close to patient 0 as possible.

You should start some kind of business. Or start making survival kits you can sell. I''d buy survival gear designed by a pharmacist.

[zztop911 1,609]

"EXPERTS" are saying the new Xbox and PS5 may be delayed, priced higher and/or available in limited quantities.

LMMFAO! I don't know where these so called experts get their info on production of either these consoles! With infection and death rates declining in China, it's just too far away from a holiday period release to delay release or impact price or availability.

[Squirrel 5,180]

@zztop911 we’ve had a 3 week delay in deliveries due to the China shutdown. Our components aren’t as complex as a PS5 but I know the Chinese work ethic. They will be working twice as fast to get production back on track. 
 

Where delays may occur is in the promotion and development of games. The hardware itself will probably be on time but we may struggle to find anything to play on it. 

[zztop911 1,609]

9 minutes ago, Squirrel said:

@zztop911 we’ve had a 3 week delay in deliveries due to the China shutdown. Our components aren’t as complex as a PS5 but I know the Chinese work ethic. They will be working twice as fast to get production back on track. 
 

Where delays may occur is in the promotion and development of games. The hardware itself will probably be on time but we may struggle to find anything to play on it. 

Limited production has already resumed in China, a friend has production there.

Developers are starting to have employees work from home.

I just don't see any problems meeting the "holiday" timeline this year.

[Con 5,719]

So I'm not going to lie. I wasnt worried about the corona virus at all and I thought, if i get it, its just a rougher flu so ill stay in bed drink fluids and rest. Well after finally doing some actual research I have learned that I dont want to get it because its more than just the flu. Once you get it, chances are you will need to be put on a ventilator, i've had the flu in the past, I was never put on a ventilator. I appreciate people wanting to live their life and not let this thing control our lives but getting this thing is no joke and nor is it a just a "flu".

I found it sobering that people's ARDS survival rates have increased because of 2000 and 2013 medical discoveries in treatment and techniques....I was astonished to learn just how recent these breakthroughs are in the treatment. 

Here are two videos that taught me a lot this morning, enjoy:

 

 

 

Edited March 17, 2020 by Con

[Con 5,719]

If you were wondering why we are seeing the Corona Virus or COVID-19 being called SARS- CoV-2, here is why:

SARS-CoV-2: What’s in a Name?

By Mark Lesney

There is no Baby Book of Names or hurricane alphabet to readily name diseases and their causal entities. Throughout history and even in the modern era, a host of considerations have intruded on the decision as to what to call these blights upon humanity. Names have varied from inflammatory to misleading, from colloquial to scientific. And when it concerns a new epidemiological entity such as the latest coronavirus outbreak originating in China, health organizations, media, politicians, scientific taxonomy commissions, and the public at large all have a stake in the naming.

From "Wuhan virus" to "novel coronavirus-2019" to "COVID-19 virus," the name of the new coronavirus that first appeared in China has been evolving to its now official designation: SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2). But where did the final name come from, how does such a name become official, and who makes it so?

Virus Taxonomy

The Coronavirus Study Group (CSG) of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) named the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 based upon its genetic relationship to the original SARS-CoV that caused an outbreak of disease in 2002—2003.

According to the ICTV website, the first internationally organized attempts to introduce order into the bewildering variety of viruses took place at the International Congress of Microbiology held in Moscow in 1966 where a committee was created that later became the ICTV and was given the task of developing a single, universal taxonomic scheme for all the viruses infecting animals, plants, fungi, bacteria, and archaea. The ICTV was created as a committee of the virology division of the International Union of Microbiological Societies and is governed by statutes approved by the virology division. Virus classification and nomenclature are subject to rules set out in an International Code.

These designate that: "The universal virus classification system shall employ the hierarchical levels of realm, subrealm, kingdom, subkingdom, phylum, subphylum, class, subclass, order, suborder, family, subfamily, genus, subgenus and species."

Many of the topmost areas of classification are based on whether the viruses are DNA or RNA, single or double stranded, and have a simple protein shell or a complex lipoprotein envelope. Other levels of classification include host species, type of replication, and type of diseases they cause, the later exemplified in the SARS designation for this virus.

There are 98 international study groups (SGs) covering all major virus orders, families, and genera that are part of the ICTV, and it was the one dedicated to the single-stranded RNA coronaviruses, the CSG, that came up with the SARS-CoV-2 name and first referenced it in their Feb 11 publication in the Cold Springs Harbor preprint journal bioRxiv.

"Based on phylogeny, taxonomy and established practice, the CSG formally recognizes this virus as a sister to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronaviruses (SARS-CoVs) of the species severe acute respiratory syndrome—related coronavirus and designates it as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)," they wrote.

According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information Taxonomy Browser, with respect to the original SARS CoV virus, of which this is a relative, the full taxonomic designation is: Viruses, Riboviria, Nidovirales, Cornidovirineae, Coronaviridae, Orthocoronavirinae, Betacoronavirus, Sarbecovirus.

The Problem With Naming Names

The World Health Organization currently is not using the official scientific name of the virus, but rather is merely labeling it with regard to the disease: COVID-19, which simply refers to coronavirus disease 2019.

They are following a modern standard by which disease names avoid inflammatory connotations with people and places. Too often in the past from syphilis as the "French pox," the 1918 influenza as the "Spanish flu," AIDS as the "gay plague," Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), and the currently named "WuFlu," which made an appearance early in the new outbreak and which is symbolic of a sudden wave of anti-Asian, and specifically Chinese, prejudice.

Chinatown districts even in the United States are being affected economically through unwarranted fear associated with the virus. And there have been equivalently virulent outbreaks of hate speech against Asian individuals in places untouched by the new virus.

However, although SARS-CoV-2 as a name avoids such problems, different considerations led the WHO to reject it in its discussions, determining that its use ties it to tightly to the much more deadly SARS-CoV-1 virus in the public mind, risking greater fear and panic, especially in Asia, where SARS-CoV-1 had the biggest impact.

Back in 1896, William Sykes, MD, writing in the first flush of the triumph of germ theory in modern medicine, attempted to give some guidance to how medical science should best come up with new names of diseases by merging the demands of common parlance with those of taxonomic legitimacy. His "On the Origin and History of Disease-Names," published in the Lancet, had clearcut advice: "It is vain to attempt to replace a folk name or one widely adopted by the people by a new one deliberately coined by scholars, and this for the following reasons: first, whatever names may be accepted by medical men must be translated by them into the vernacular of their patients, and by a resulting reaction the vernacular name comes to be the commoner one with themselves; and, secondly, there is no continuity or unchangeableness in the terms invented by savants, which are amended, improved upon, and displaced by the next writer on the subject, or, even more absurdly still, by the very inventors themselves in a subsequent publication."

This is the reason that virus taxonomy provides names based upon unchangeable scientific descriptors of the actual disease causing entity, as illustrated by the decisions of the ICTV. In addition, the genomic sequences being provided by the scientific community are all being organized under the SARS-CoV-2 name and thus are cementing that moniker as the only acceptable scientific one.

Whether the rest of the world universally adopts SARS-CoV-2 as a name is still in question. If the outbreak spreads significantly beyond its current limits, fear and confusion — and simply the need for a more familiar-sounding label — may lead the general public to adopt more colloquial designations than those that science attempts to impose, as Dr. Sykes suggested back in 1896. That remains to be seen.

This story originally appeared on MDedge.com.

[Squirrel 5,180]

Number of confirmed local cases has actually decreased. Only by 1 but that’s a positive sign. 

[Danielle 3,007]

Schools and nurseries in Scotland and Wales are closing on Friday possibly until after the summer holidays.

[CatManDoza 3,474]

Local secondary school is open to year 10s and 11s only from 2moro. My sounds teacher is in isolation now as she's pregnant. Expecting full closures from next week. 

[Squirrel 5,180]

Leeds cases now down to 11 from a high of 19 earlier in the week. This are only confirmed cases so who knows how many untested cases are out there. 

[djw180 7,005]

Not too technical short paper on how stable this virus is, i.e. how long it can hang around on different types of surfaces before it breaks down.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2004973

Main thing is bottom row of the figure. Red dots this virus, blue the SARS from a couple of year's ago. The lower the numbers the faster the virus breaks down. It lasts longer on plastic and stainless steel than cardboard or copper.

[omarcomin71 3,899]

Well I’m stuck at home for at least two weeks.
80 confirmed cases here in San Diego county. 59 cases just last night. However zero deaths. 
Groceries were limited but I was able to buy just about anything I wanted. No hand sanitizer of course, or products to make you own.
Toilet paper is once again available, however limited. 

[Jjss924 576]

First confirmed case in my town. The wife said facebook people are going nutty.

[Con 5,719]

The first two cases have appeared in my town. No surprise considering the bars and stores were packed the past two weekends. I just watched Contagion last night, only second time watching it and maaaaan, lot of things went over my head the first time I watched it, last night, I understood it fully and got a glimpse into what it takes to create a vaccine or in the film's depiction, a nasal spray, to combat a SARS virus. I started my review of the film so by tomorrow I will post it for anyone that wants to read it. 

Edited March 19, 2020 by Con

[Danielle 3,007]

I'm going to make today my last day at work for a while, I believe the NHS will start letting people know from Monday who needs to isolate for 12 weeks.