Merged 2019-nCoV / Corona virus

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First case in Chile is interesting - a backpacker who spent the last month travelling around Southeast Asia, coming back via Spain. It's like he was trying to get it.

https://www.pauta.cl/nacional/se-confirma-el-primer-caso-de-coronavirus-en-chile-via-talca

Alfredo Donoso, director del Hospital de Talca, confirmó que se trata de un hombre de 33 años que estuvo viajando durante cerca de un mes por distintos países del sudeste asiático, entre ellos Singapur, Indonesia, Malasia y España.
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Meanwhile in Malaysia, where cases nearly doubled overnight to 50, they have started temperature checking with a radar gun as you enter my office. It fills me with confidence, especially when they checked me and found I had a temperature of 34.1. Definitely no fever here, though I may be close to hypothermic coma.
 
It's here, now.

Just turned on the morning news. They were reporting a case had been confirmed in Wake County. Some guy who just flew in from Washington state. They're sending him home to self-quarantine. He lives in Raleigh. That's next door. I mean almost literally. The city border is less than ten miles from where I live.

Just for info, Raleigh, Durham (The airport the guy flew into is known as RDU International. The "RDU" stands for Raleigh/Durham.), and Chapel Hill form a tight group, with borders touching each other. Four major universities, and tech industry hubs in all three. The daily rush hour traffic jams are in both directions to all three. It's really just one big metro area.

I guess I'd better start stocking up.
 
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The Atheist said:
Yep, I've mentioned mutations much earlier in the thread.







Quite right - those with mild cases wouldn't need it and shouldn't get it.



I think there's a case to be made that anyone sick enough to be sent to hospital should be given it. The tests aren't yet complete, but the chances of recovering once you get to hospital aren't great and the window for treatment is pretty short. Looks to me like it would be worth trying given the lack of alternatives.
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Are you a communist. Let the market decide.
 
Planigale said:
The problem may be resistance developing, RNA viruses tend to mutate at a higher rate than DNA viruses. Manufacturing might also be an issue. I guess they would limit its use to those who had serious illness rather than those with mild disease.
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Coronaviruses have proofreading of the RNA polymerase so they should mutate less.
 
Skeptic Ginger said:
All of them, AFAIK. Capsid might know of some exceptions. They don't have cell walls, some have protein capsules around the genetic material but it doesn't function like a cell wall.
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Well, shows what I know. I always thought of virions as miniature cells.

But of course, being not really alive it's no surprise that they don't share life's most common features...
 
The Atheist said:
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I wrote a piece the other day that said this was going to be an earth-changing event, and it looks more and more like it every day. Every survivor will have a family member or someone close to them die. I just hope they use the experience to demand change.
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I'd call it world-shaking, but only for the societal aspects. We've already seen earth-changing effects, surprisingly for the better. (Wuhan's air pollution dissipating.)

For some reason I'm feeling less apocalyptic about the human effect. Many will get the virus, some of those will die. But I don't think we're going to be seeing a breakdown in society. Unless the damn thing mutates and goes all Andromeda Strain on us.
 
The Atheist said:
I wrote a piece the other day that said this was going to be an earth-changing event, and it looks more and more like it every day. Every survivor will have a family member or someone close to them die.
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Wish-fulfilment fiction?

For ****'s sake, man, why are you so end-of-times gloomy about this?
 
Checkmite said:
The first Covid-infected patient in the US state of New Hampshire was told to self-isolate at home, but decided to go to a social function instead where he evidently created the second Covid-infected patient in the US state of New Hampshire. And medical authorities there say they expect to find more positive-testing patients as they investigate this incident.
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Wonder if there is a path to civil or criminal liability here? This is an unusual case in that there is a lot of work being done to track the spread of the disease. It may be possible to identify reckless actors with a pretty high level of certainty, especially in these early days where the number of cases is low.

I am assuming that this would be a firing offense for any kind of medical organization.
 
Captain_Swoop said:
Probably not a radar gun.
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Most likely an infrared laser thermometer.

ZDCigSk.jpg
 
It sounds like your office radar gun is making big errors. A person with hot coronavirus fever will pass as normal. Good times.
 
theprestige said:
As far as I can tell, most healthcare workers are just as likely to be inconsiderate douchebags as anyone else in society.
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Skeptic Ginger said:
Would that be in some red corner of the US? Someplace where they all go to church and rely on thoughts and prayers? :rolleyes:

Pretty sure I know more health care workers than you do. Your assumptions are wrong.
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Skeptic Ginger said:
There are times that is valid and other times when it is something specific to the health care field, and something they are no doubt hearing about every day, then no, in this case they aren't the same in this specific thing.

And it was clearly worded to be an uncalled for (we have no evidence it was true) insult.
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Checkmite said:
The first Covid-infected patient in the US state of New Hampshire was told to self-isolate at home, but decided to go to a social function instead where he evidently created the second Covid-infected patient in the US state of New Hampshire. And medical authorities there say they expect to find more positive-testing patients as they investigate this incident.
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Time for a callback. Checkmitemate on depending on people in general to be equally inconsiderate.
 
Roboramma said:
Not sure if this has been posted yet. The WHO's "Report of the WHO-China Joint Mission on Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)"

https://www.who.int/docs/default-so...na-joint-mission-on-covid-19-final-report.pdf

A quote:
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Meanwhile. Back at the ranch the US is creaking into gear.

From Fortune magazine:

How does coronavirus testing work—and how much does it cost?

"Fortune reached out to every state health agency in the country to ask about the status of coronavirus testing. Most declined to comment, did not reply, or pointed to a press release. A handful—Wyoming, Wisconsin, Utah, Hawaii, Louisiana, New York, Arkansas, Indiana, and Idaho—directly answered questions either via email or by phone."

Many, many poor sick people will not get voluntarily tested. The government will not impose any sensible restrictions because the leaders are ideologically opposed to "violating" citizens rights to do anything they damn well please. I fear for the future.
 
pipelineaudio said:
Anything further on the chloroquine? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32074550
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The more conservative elements in America would probably throw a fit if we started widespread use of that stuff - the dreams man, THE DREAMS!!!

A took choloquine as a prophylaxis when I was in the Peace Corps. A day or two after taking it, one often experiences very vivid, weird dreams.
 
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