SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus (COVID-19)

many (most?) US long term facilities are for profit businesses,run on a tight budget, charging enormous fees, being subsidized by government, and prociding substandard care in the best of times.

they were (are) not equipped to handle an epidemic. the staff are poorly trained lay people (many alcoholics and drug users) who live in tightly packed immigrant communities also having a higher than average case rate. with a nurse here and there and a doctor who visits several facilities.

they do not have access to ppe or testing, cannot social distance in the setting, and once the virus gets in, they are done for.

with years of experience taking care of two elderly parents, that is what i have seen first hand

 

'asian giant hornets sighted in US', probably should be in environmental, but seemed appropriate timing

 

Do you mean the 'group hug' to hyperthermia? Where the little bees can tolerate a higher body temperature than can the giant hornets?

 

My impression was that this is not suicidal for the honeybees. Or does this depend on the variety, such as Japanese vs Asian?

Here is an old NPR article, with a cartoon sequence that I remember from some time back (though I likely saw it more recently than its publication date). They called it "murdersquishing". The Japanese giant hornet can live to 46C, the Japanese honeybees can survive 50C, so they heat their hot "murdersquish" ball to 47C to roast the hornet.

'Murdersquishing' Them To Death: How Little Bees Take On Enormous Hornets : Krulwich Wonders... : NPR

 

Some interesting all-cause death rate charts. These help spot excess deaths, which may be helpful in retrospective independent estimates of this outbreak's casualties. Excess deaths will be from a mix of various reasons, some from unreported virus cases, some from collateral issues such as unrelated conditions in which patients couldn't get or stayed away from or delayed necessary treatment, some from activity changes such as fewer traffic and industrial accidents, etc. Unraveling the factors won't be easy and may not have consensus.


CDC-NVSS: Excess Deaths Associated with COVID-19
Beware that it takes quite variable amounts of time for the many jurisdictions to file their reports. Thus the most recent weeks are always short, and will grow later as more local reports are included.



NYT: N.Y.C. Deaths Reach 6 Times the Normal Level, Far More Than Coronavirus Count Suggests



NYT: 46,000 Missing Deaths: Tracking the True Toll of the Coronavirus Outbreak

 

There are reports from New York that senior homes were required to handle any COVID or suspected themselves. Some asked for suspected infections to be transferred either to the Javitts field hospital or to the hospital ship but were denied. They were told those facilities were Onkyo for hospital use.

if you are able to exclude those cases in elder care housing the US numbers would be much lower. In the US this is politics at its nastiest.

 

well, we're probably gonna find out as states reopen. that will either lead to more cases and deaths outside of the long term facilities, or it won't.

 

Against pandemic research exceptionalism | Science

 

Welcome to the lab, my fellow rats:


Elon Musk has speculated that we may be living in a simulation. However, I prefer "Hitchhiker's Guide To The Universe" where mice conduct experiments on Earth I:


Bob Wilson

 

As that article mentions, only Japanese honeybees have learned that trick of 'group hugging' the hornet to death. So European honeybees could be in trouble, since entire hives can get wiped out by this 'killer hornet' (European honeybees are one of the most common bees in the US starting from when it was introduced to the US continent in the 1600s).

If this nightmarish beast establishes a foothold in the US, maybe we should start importing the Japanese honeybees to the US too, so the bees will stand a chance at survival. Heck, it would just be one imported species augmenting another imported species.

 

Unfortunately, native Japanese honeybees (Apis cerana japonica) are in endangered status in Japan due to widespread of Europian honeybees (Apis mellifera) for honey production. I just did spring split on my hives.

 

Got to teach our species to do the wave to scare off predators.

Why this hive of honeybees is doing 'the wave' | MNN - Mother Nature Network

 

How little bees take on enormous hornets - The Oatmeal

Seen elsewhere in this forum (Think: Tesla)

 

Also at NPR, as linked from post #1870 of this very thread.