SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus (COVID-19)

My understanding is:

• S. Korean and other (W.H.O?) foreign tests were by-passed in favor of a CDC effort
• The CDC test turned out to have a lot of errors making them functionally useless
• Current coronavirus tests in the USA have reported a lack of swabs to collect samples
• Good news: antibody tests are quick, less than an hour
• Bad news: too early to evaluate antibody accuracy except from small sample set numbers, ~100

Speculation but the reagents for either a coronavirus (CoS) or antibody test are not trivial. These also need calibration and local hospital labs need them. But there is the odor of "not invented here."

Bob Wilson

 

One obvious concern is not everything in a room is going to be immune from 222 nm UV. There are dozens of plastics, paint, and other materials in the room that could suffer accelerated aging. Some would be benign but a power cord, plug, and outlet could lead to other problems. Any ceiling, fire dispersal, thermal plug would be of concern.

I'm all for more testing but it needs to be a wide effort looking for materials that might fail.

Bob Wilson

 

My understanding is that they (and many other countries too) had far more testing capacity in the initial stages than we had.

A fully captive press also helps with creating the desired appearance of control.

In my region (the first part of North America to get hit), during the initial stages when we really really needed lots of testing, this 'odor' was an overpowering stench, similar to that of an enclosed sewage vault. The ones with lethal fume concentrations. And this 'NIH' did prove lethal.

 

Who is resisting? I've never heard anyone resisting, but technically and logistically it is not an easy thing to do. For one thing, a nasopharyngeal swab for the PCR testing can be taken only by certified medical personnel. There was a shortage of swabs, but the FDA recently approved the use of other types of swabs repurposed for the current COVID-19 test. The PCR is quite amenable to automation, but to do it requires a centralized lab with infrastructure already in place. But the real bottleneck is sample correction, rather than actually running the PCR. For antibody testing, unless it is a home diagnostic kit everyone self-report, again there has to be a visit to a medical facility to collect a blood sample. I don't think hospitals and clinics inundated with the care of symptomatic patients are up to handling a huge number of sample collections from the healthy general population right away.

 

Update 10 - 4/20/2020
Continued good news: both new cases and new deaths are showing a stationary or decreasing trend. The only strange aspect is that after reaching the peak, the decreases are somewhat sinusoidal on a roughly weekly cycle. The cases/deaths appear to peak at the end of the week/weekend reducing towards the middle of the week, rinse and repeat. My guess is that this may be due to testing, rising during the week, but falling off on the weekend (with a few days of delay for reporting).

New Cases


New Deaths


Data is from COVID19 Tracker

 

yahoo news: 'dermatologists seeing a mini epidemic of blood vessel issues in the toes of teenagers, similar to frostbite. believe it might be a covid symptom in otherwise asymptomatic individuals'

 

How does coronavirus kill? Clinicians trace a ferocious rampage through the body, from brain to toes | Science | AAAS

 

An orally bioavailable broad-spectrum antiviral inhibits SARS-CoV-2 in human airway epithelial cell cultures and multiple coronaviruses in mice | Science Translational Medicine

 

O-GlcNAc transferase promotes influenza A virus–induced cytokine storm by targeting interferon regulatory factor–5 | Science Advances

 

'cdc reviewing 'stunning covid-19 test results' at boston homeless shelter, pine street inn.

officials tested the 397 residents, of which 146 tested positive. yet, all of the positive cases are asymptomatic.

 

This study of 3,300 offers a dramatic 50 to 85 fold : https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.14.20062463v1.full.pdf

Q: When was the first cov2 test released?

 

these results could be great news, i hope they prove out

 

My first question is about the test? Was it reporting false positives?

Bob Wilson

 

I'm sure the over-estimated fatality rate to be reduced by 50-85 fold is a relief to some. But I am not sure if that is such great news. It will not change the number of confirmed death. Many epidemiologists have speculated 50-100 more cases of infected for each confirmed case from the beginning. The seroprevalence data presented by Bendavid et al. certainly support that notion. But it means that there are 50-85 fold more infected people in the general population who can infect others. If any of those unconfirmed individuals, most likely to be asymptomatic, do not practice very strict quarantine and isolation, the rest of the healthy uninfected population are doomed.

 

Some preliminary drug study results are in. Still preliminary, not yet reviewed, not rigorous, so stay tuned for updates and additional studies.

More deaths, no benefit from malaria drug in VA virus study

"A malaria drug widely touted by [... FHoPol bait redacted ...] for treating the new coronavirus showed no benefit in a large analysis of its use in U.S. veterans hospitals. There were more deaths among those given hydroxychloroquine versus standard care, researchers reported.

The nationwide study was not a rigorous experiment. But with 368 patients, it’s the largest look so far of hydroxychloroquine ...

Researchers analyzed medical records of 368 male veterans hospitalized with confirmed coronavirus infection at Veterans Health Administration medical centers who died or were discharged by April 11.

About 28% who were given hydroxychloroquine plus usual care died, versus 11% of those getting routine care alone. About 22% of those getting the drug plus azithromycin died too, but the difference between that group and usual care was not considered large enough to rule out other factors that could have affected survival.

Hydroxychloroquine made no difference in the need for a breathing machine, either."


Last week, scientists in Brazil stopped a different study of the same drug after heart rhythm problems developed in one-quarter of patients in a higher dose group.

 

interestingly, that's what tom hanks and rita wilson got in australia, and claim it worked

 

i see the good news of much of the country possibly infected, and can go back to work

 

Are they saying that in their medical judgement the stuff is what worked?

Or are they saying they were sick, they were given the stuff, and ultimately they got better?

 

#2

 

Well, whether or not it does anything at all, everyone who is given it and survives will have story #2.