Posted on 04/30/2020 3:05:32 PM PDT by RaceBannon
Corona Virus Daily Thread #49 COVID-19 4/30/2020
CARE HOMES AND INSULIN
Trump signs proclamation designating May as “older Americans month”, announcement forthcoming on pricing of Insulin:
Coronavirus government response updates: Trump declares May ‘Older Americans Month’
“The president outlined steps the federal government is taking efforts to safeguard nursing homes, including having FEMA send supplemental shipments of personal protective equipment to 15,400 Medicaid and Medicare certified nursing homes in the U.S. and increasing nursing home inspections with the CARES Act.”
“...He went on to say the administration is finalizing a rule this week requiring nursing homes report coronavirus cases directly to the CDC — “and testing data will be posted online, so everyone gets to see it” — along with a new “Coronavirus Commission for Safety and Quality in Nursing Homes” — calling it “a big deal.”
“This commission will be composed of leading industry experts, doctors and scientists, resident and patient advocates, family members, infection and prevention control specialists, and state and local authorities,” Trump said. It “will convene in May and issue recommendations for further steps we can take to protect our nation’s seniors.”
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma also said there would be a “great” announcement soon about lowering the price of insulin for seniors.”
Fine for “nursing homes”, glad to see it.
What about ‘assisted living’ and other collections of the elderly?
hopefully they’re all under the same umbrella. if not a few well-placed tweets could bring about an adjustment in definition.
US ARMY - VACCINES already in animal testing
you might be interested in the below:
Inside the Army’s 24/7 lab working to develop a unique coronavirus vaccine
:...The lab’s vaccine candidates are already in animal testing and WRAIR hopes to begin human clinical trials in late summer.
“Amazingly, in that growing landscape of vaccines, our approach is unique,” said Dr. Kayvon Modjarrad, the director for emerging infectious diseases at WRAIR. “It presents that part of the virus — the spike protein that’s the hook that gets attached to your lung cells — a lot of vaccines just present one of those to the immune system. Our approach presents them multiple times.”
“Modjarrad is leading the Army’s effort to develop a coronavirus vaccine. The advantage to their approach, he said, is that the vaccine could be used for all coronaviruses, not just COVID-19, because other viruses in the coronavirus family have similar protein spikes on their surface. ..
Seattle mayor talks capping third-party delivery fees to protect restaurants
Restaurants trying to stay afloat are charged fees from apps like Seamless.
On Friday, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan issued an emergency order capping these fees from third-party delivery apps to 15% and mandating that 100% of tips go to drivers.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/seattle-mayor-talks-capping-party-delivery-fees-protect/story?id=70427471
BRAZIL
US weighs restricting travel from Brazil amid fears it may be next coronavirus hot spot
Asked about the growing death toll, Brazil’s president said, “So what?”
“...With 5,466 killed by COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, Brazil’s death toll has now surpassed that of China, where cases first exploded. It has the second highest number of cases in the Western Hemisphere, behind only the U.S., although its total is likely much higher given a shortage of testing.”
DEADLY VENTILATORS
British Doctors Say Ventilators From China Could Kill Coronavirus Patients
The ventilators received from China, the Shangrila 510 model, were built by one of the country’s major ventilator manufacturers, Beijing Aeonmed Co. Ltd. The manufacturer could not be reached for comment.
The letter detailed serious concerns over the “basic” quality of the ventilators, calling the oxygen supply “variable and unreliable.” The doctors said that the machines are also unfamiliar to British doctors and were built for ambulance use, rather than hospital use.
“.... At a press briefing this past Sunday, Li Xingqian, China’s director of the Commerce of Ministry’s foreign trade department, said 74 countries and six international organizations had signed 192 contracts for Chinese medical supplies.”
I bought some UVC lights (made in China) back in January. I have been using one for perhaps 20 minutes every other day and it works great.
I see recent reviews on Amazon that have numerous ones where it doesn’t even last an hour (and at 3x what I paid). I’m guessing their quality control takes a second seat to just trying to meet demand.
Saw an article explaining the differences.
Of course it’s not at hand.
“nursing homes” are well regulated by the feds, other collections of elderly not so much.
STUDY
first, here’s the writeup:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/nearly-a-dozen-approved-drugs-could-be-effective-against-covid-19-study/ar-BB13qUeP?ocid=spartanntp
and here’s the study:
A SARS-CoV-2 protein interaction map reveals targets for drug repurposing
“More broadly, the pipeline described here represents a new approach for drug discovery not only for pan-viral strategies, but for many diseases, and illustrates the speed in which science can be moved forward using a multi-disciplinary and collaborative approach.”
PDF file:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2286-9_reference.pdf
two things of note among many positive notes in the study:
1) “ we find that the widely used antitussive dextromethorphan harbors proviral activity and therefore its use should merit caution and further study “
and
2) hydroxychloroquine...hits a particular protein in the heart tissue, which could explain the drug’s effect on heart rhythms
Part of it is family spread during lockdown. Dad picks it up at Wal-Mart, and, thanks to lockdown, the family has numerous chances to pick it up from him.
ahhh. Something tells me that’s about to change. :)
Not that we have a pandemic every 3 years, but we do need to have some sort of system in place, that nursing homes/assisted living/rehab/private home care facilities, become a literal ward of a hospital in case of pandemics. Like if ZZ rehab sends most of their patients needing urgent care to AA hospital, or AA hospital sends their rehab discharges to ZZ rehab, then ZZ rehab comes under the umbrella of AA hospital. That hospital hires/assigns a dual-roll person on staff to act as a crisis intervention person to educate, train and supply PPE to that/those homes. And that crisis intervention person becomes part of the disaster response team of each county. It could be the in-hospital OSHA person or someone in similar authority who can get things done. We can’t leave these facilities out to dry and to figure out what to do on their own. Having just proved that doesn’t work. At all.
begin rant/ I couldn’t believe that one nurse saying, the vets were on top of each other we didn’t know who was COVID and who wasn’t. I’m yelling - why- didn’t - you know? Who in hells damnation was in charge? We owe at least due diligence to our seniors and they didn’t get it. FUBAR doesn’t describe what happened to the one area we need to get right. We can blamegame clear into next week and all we’ll get is more hot air. So we act instead. We take emergency response out of the center’s hands. We need to make sure the vulnerable, the trapped, are priority one - all of the time - as part of an integrated and multi-pronged response. We let them down and we let ourselves down. Let’s not do it again. /end rant
I’m not sure why one would run for an hour, tho? Isn’t it pretty much clap on clap off fast ?
more about rural area spread - time to trigger the old voluntary social distancing, friends and cousins:
“...its spread is now more concentrated in smaller towns, rural areas and exurban areas that had previously been untouched....In the last week, almost a third of the counties experiencing high prevalence for the first time are rural or smaller communities, while just a quarter are urban cores.”
WASHINGTON - Food Chain
Farmworkers sue Washington state over coronavirus protections
“What is our duty to protect essential workers when there is an executive order requiring these employers to operate?”
since they are migrant workers, i.e., illegals, then maybe a solution, if they get sick, is to bill the Messican govt for their hospital care directly related to CCP virus?
or, where’s the national guard unit that will spend their two weeks summercamp picking strawberries? There’s gotta be a MIL standard for that somewhere.
CALIFORNIA
California lists dozens of outdoor activities permitted under stay-at-home rules: (How long is your list?)
Athletics
Badminton (singles)
Throwing a baseball/softball
BMX biking
Canoeing (singles)
Crabbing
Cycling
Exploring rock pools
Gardening (not in groups)
Golf (singles, walking – no cart)
Hiking (trails/paths allowing distancing)
Horse riding (singles)
Jogging and running
Kite boarding and kite surfing
Meditation
Outdoor photography
Picnics (with your stay-home household members only)
Quad biking
Rock climbing
Roller skating and roller blading
Rowing (singles)
Scootering (not in groups)
Skateboarding (not in groups)
Soft martial arts: tai chi, chi kung (not in groups)
Table tennis (singles)
Throw and catch an American mini-football, frisbee or frisbee golf (not in groups)
Trail running
Trampolining
Tree climbing
Volleyball (singles)
Walk the dog
Wash the car
Watch the sunrise or sunset
Yoga
more CALIFORNIA - Mandatory? Testing
California public health officials announced late Wednesday another major expansion of coronavirus testing, recommending that all people in high-risk settings, including grocery store employees, bus drivers and law enforcement officers, join the ranks of a broadening group of candidates to receive routine screenings for the virus.
Such workers, considered “essential” even amid the shutdown, continue to come into regular contact with the public and, therefore, should be given priority access to testing, even if they don’t show symptoms, according to the new guidance by the state Department of Public Health.
The latest change to the state’s testing guidelines signals growing confidence among officials that testing capacity at laboratories is increasing enough to handle a bigger share of the state’s population.
The state’s latest announcement follows last week’s move to open up priority testing to asymptomatic people who live or work in nursing homes or prisons.
What if you catch the baseball? Allowed?
? ;)
Someone posted the times to me before but I forgot. Yeah - one video I saw where the guy experimented with Ecoli he zapped it for 30 seconds and it killed about half of them. (Left it in a petri dish for a day). At 2 minutes almost all of it was dead, 2 very small “colonies” each maybe the size of a millimeter.
I run mine for ten minutes, rearrange the items and then another 10 minutes. Two feet above the items, 25w bulb. Probably overkill - but....
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