Corona Virus Updates Part 3

a reply to: Advantage

money is good.........

Lets hope its allocated properly..........

That being said, money is grand.......but if theres no product because China is almost shut down......money wont matter........

All in all.........Im hoping for the best but weve prepared just fine so , were good........

Im more concerned about those that havent, which is a majority........

I use to joke about "we need a new plague" the whole "Office" thing........i sort of feel bad about it now.........sort of....

Coronavirus Testing In the U.S. Is Somehow Looking Worse by the Day

So I’m listening to Sanjay Gupta the CNN health guy and Cuomo asked him a direct simple question. Why isn’t the country with the greatest health system in the world testing for the virus?
Or why don’t they have a test?
He rambled on and didn’t answer the question directly at all.

Something very strange is going on here.

link

The questions keep piling up.

www.thedailybeast.com...

There was the revelation late Wednesday that federal officials initially declined to test the first U.S. 2019 novel coronavirus case of “unknown origin.” Plus word of hundreds of people under monitoring for infection in Massachusetts and thousands more in California.ADVERTISEMENT

Taken in tandem, the developments underscored festering concerns about testing for the deadly disease in a country with a questionable health infrastructure.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) at first declined to test a since-confirmed case of novel 2019 coronavirus at UC Davis Medical Center, Dr. David Lubarsky, CEO of University of California Davis Health, announced Wednesday.“We requested COVID-19 testing by the CDC, since neither Sacramento County nor CDPH is doing testing for coronavirus at this time,” he said in a press release. “Since the patient did not fit the existing CDC criteria for COVID-19, a test was not immediately administered. UC Davis Health does not control the testing process.”

On Sunday, the CDC changed its mind and ordered testing of the patient, along with airborne precautions and strict contact precautions, Lubarsky added. By Wednesday, the agency confirmed the individual’s diagnosis—the first case of community transmission from an unknown origin in the United States and the 60th case on American soil.

Apparently there is a problem with the American novel virus test. Or they have an issue running the test. Or they only want to run it on known suspicious cases.


Strange. In S Korea, Japan, Italy, and other places, the test seems to be prevalent and no problem with it.

South Korea has tested more than 35,000 people for the 2019 novel coronavirus, and in Italy, officials have carried out thousands of tests, confirming at least 650 cases by Thursday—and 17 deaths.By contrast, tests in the U.S. have encountered serious problems, which CDC officials have called “frustrating.” Roughly 500 people were known to have been tested as of Wednesday, not including those who were on the State Department flights and cruise. Outside of the CDC, only 12 states and localities can conduct their own tests, officials have said.

Some public health labs have gone so far in recent days as to ask the CDC for permission to develop their own tests, Hawaiian officials asked for the OK to use Japanese tests, and at least one doctor in Boston was working on their own, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

One expert who has been sounding the alarm about the U.S.’s lackluster testing infrastructure said the dearth of diagnostic materials, which comes into sharper focus almost daily, was alarming.

“It isn’t under control,” said Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University and an expert on U.S. readiness for pandemics. “We do not have anything close to a sufficient quantity of test kits. There’s definitely a problem in the supply chain for accurate, reliable testing materials. I don’t know that we really know what’s happening in California or anywhere else right now for that matter. It’s a very, very confusing time.”

The CDC did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Beast on Thursday. But a representative for the CDC who was not authorized to speak publicly told The Daily Beast that it would take the agency “days” to get back to reporters’ requests. When asked how reporters were supposed to properly cover the outbreak, the official said they did not see the lag time changing in the near future.

a reply to: ManBehindTheMask

100% agree, goes to show if China did indeed want to it could very easily set the world on fire.

Makes sense now why the trade war was so ineffective, China holds all the cards.

Sanity on CV Panic...for those interested:
threadreaderapp.com...

originally posted by: hopenotfeariswhatweneed
a reply to: IAMTAT

Thanks, although I'm looking for where Australian companies are manufacturing.

If you're looking for drugs, I think it depends on the company and how they view their production strategy.

Different countries have different standards of production for their medications and facilities have to be built to different standards. That can be easier or more difficult depending on what country you're looking at. Lines of supply for your ingredients is also a factor. What can you source, how hard is it to find and bring in, and what is the cost?

Remember most of these companies produce not just for the US, but for every other country in the world, so you have to figure in the cost of those country's drugs. Most are price controlled to an extent, so that makes manufacturing more challenging at prices that might exist if you manufactured in one country over another.

a reply to: ketsuko

Yeah so it seems, thanks. It's a tangled web we weave...

a reply to: hopenotfeariswhatweneed

Husband works in the industry, so these are things he talk about. His company like to build a facility and source local ingredients and supply chain as much as possible for it. But certain facilities can only manufacture certain products because each one is certified to different standards (domestic and international), and a standard for one country will not meet the standard for another. So each facility will have its own list of products it produces according to what its level of certification is.

Regulatory is a PITA.

a reply to: Willtell

The test isn't always accurate which may explain at least some of the cases where someone can be tested multiple times and turn up different results each time or test negative and seem better and then suddenly test positive again.

They're not sure if it's because of where they're taking sample from or if the test just isn't quite sensitive enough to pick up virus all the time or if people shed different levels of virus at different times, but it's about 70% so there is a problem with the tests.

a reply to: hopenotfeariswhatweneed

Uh no.

Trade war very effective and still is. You have no idea what it’s doing to CCP political structures. Xi almost lost power in Sept last year. The virus may be the final curtain for his career.

The media in the US does not understand how trade works between US and CCP. At all. They refuse to have people on their programs who do clearly understand it.

CCP holds fewer cards than you think, the virus is bearing out all the international corruption (WHO and UN) that we suspected was there.

The CCP is even aware of how precariously they hold onto power. Why do your think they cook the living hell out of their GDP? Why do they bail out banks? Every single month since June 2017 the CCP has backstopped a bank with cash or bailed them out.

For the guy who asked for a Twitter link about WHO investigators under CCP influence/control. Read what I typed... when it goes on Twitter I will post here. It’s not here as of this posted, I can’t link to WeChat due to how WeChat works. Uploading screenshots is a massive pain and sometimes it’s in Chinese.

a reply to: ketsuko

Interesting, so it's a cocktail of producers, a little from here and a little from there, that paints a disturbing picture to my mind.

This was known a bit ago.

CDC Update: Failed Roll-out of Diagnostic Due to Faulty Reagent; Sample Prioritization Mishap Delayed COVID-19 Diagnosis

Link

can be explained by one reagent that isn’t performing as it should consistently and that’s why we are re-manufacturing that reagent, obviously a state wouldn’t want to be doing this test and using it to make clinical decisions if it isn’t working as well as perfectly at the state as it is at CDC, so this is part of a normal process and procedure and redoing the manufacturing is the next step.”

originally posted by: hopenotfeariswhatweneed
a reply to: ketsuko

Interesting, so it's a cocktail of producers, a little from here and a little from there, that paints a disturbing picture to my mind.

Again, it depends on how each company does it. At the same time, each different authority who depends on those manufacturers will also inspect, each according to their own regime. Understand, husband is on USDA side, not FDA, which is a whole other ball of strictness on regulation, but even on USDA side, QA was a never-ending round of inspections and audits by various different regulatory bodies.

Some would schedule; some would tell you they were coming in during an approximate time frame; some just showed up for an annual you knew was going to come at some point. You agree to this when you enter into a business relationship. Sometimes, there were multiple teams on-site.

And in turn, the company would inspect its suppliers who would also have facilities that would be held to certain standards, etc.

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: Willtell

The test isn't always accurate which may explain at least some of the cases where someone can be tested multiple times and turn up different results each time or test negative and seem better and then suddenly test positive again.

They're not sure if it's because of where they're taking sample from or if the test just isn't quite sensitive enough to pick up virus all the time or if people shed different levels of virus at different times, but it's about 70% so there is a problem with the tests.

China, Japan, Korea, Italy, who have already tested thousands don’t have the same problems?


We can’t get theirs?

a reply to: Willtell

They also have lots of people who test positive, test negative, test positive, test positive, test negative ...

On Jan 24, 2020, we came to Wuhan, China, to support the local nurses in their fight against the COVID-19 infection. We entered the Wuhan isolation ward as the first batch of medical aid workers from Guangdong Province, China. The daily work we are doing is mainly focused on provision of oxygen, electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring, tube care, airway management, ventilator debugging, central venous intubation, haemodialysis care, and basic nursing care such as disposal and disinfection.
The conditions and environment here in Wuhan are more difficult and extreme than we could ever have imagined. There is a severe shortage of protective equipment, such as N95 respirators, face shields, goggles, gowns, and gloves. The goggles are made of plastic that must be repeatedly cleaned and sterilised in the ward, making them difficult to see through. Due to the need for frequent hand washing, several of our colleagues' hands are covered in painful rashes. As a result of wearing an N95 respirator for extended periods of time and layers of protective equipment, some nurses now have pressure ulcers on their ears and forehead. When wearing a mask to speak with patients, our voices are muted, so we have to speak very loudly. Wearing four layers of gloves is abnormally clumsy and does not work—we can't even open the packaging bags for medical devices, so giving patients injections is a huge challenge. In order to save energy and the time it takes to put on and take off protective clothing, we avoid eating and drinking for 2 hours before entering the isolation ward. Often, nurses' mouths are covered in blisters. Some nurses have fainted due to hypoglycaemia and hypoxia.
In addition to the physical exhaustion, we are also suffering psychologically. While we are professional nurses, we are also human. Like everyone else, we feel helplessness, anxiety, and fear. Experienced nurses occasionally find the time to comfort colleagues and try to relieve our anxiety. But even experienced nurses may also cry, possibly because we do not know how long we need to stay here and we are the highest-risk group for COVID-19 infection. So far 1716 Chinese staff have been infected with COVID-19 and nine of them have unfortunately passed away. Due to an extreme shortage of health-care professionals in Wuhan, 14 000 nurses from across China have voluntarily come to Wuhan to support local medical health-care professionals. But we need much more help. We are asking nurses and medical staff from countries around the world to come to China now, to help us in this battle.
We hope the COVID-19 epidemic will end soon, and that people worldwide will remain in good health.
We declare no competing interests.

www.thelancet.com...(20)30065-6/fulltext#%20

gizmodo.com...

Again...for over 3 years...Trump has been working to bring BACK the industries and manufacturing to the US from China and other countries...that previous administrations have forced to migrate away.

He has been all about the US becoming self-reliant and not at the mercy of China.
It's pretty much his mantra...and Democrats have been trying to prevent him at every turn.

THIS situation is exactly WHY we need to bring manufacturing and industries BACK to the USA.

link

More than 60 people in Missouri have been evaluated for the disease due to their travel, potential exposure or symptoms. But only a few of those had specimens sent to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for tests, and all were negative.

On Thursday, Missouri received federal approval for its state health lab to conduct its own tests for the coronavirus. State Public Health Laboratory Director Bill Whitmar said that should speed up the test time, allowing results to be determined in a day or less..

They want to conduct their own tests and would receive the results much quicker. Interesting...

RE: US Testing - Maybe it has to do with issues of exactly *what* the test is for.

I have been watching nextstrain.org... for what the strain lineage of the Iranian cases are. Still no data.

Notably, there is no data from cases in Iran OR Canada. And Canada has cases from Iran. Why no data?

originally posted by: Oleman
RE: US Testing - Maybe it has to do with issues of exactly *what* the test is for.

I have been watching nextstrain.org... for what the strain lineage of the Iranian cases are. Still no data.

Notably, there is no data from cases in Iran OR Canada. And Canada has cases from Iran. Why no data?

I did see a rumor during the initial breakout in Iran, that this was a different strain of COVID19..