Outside Topic Covid-19 considerations - Printable Version
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+--- Thread: Outside Topic Covid-19 considerations (/thread-19023.html)
RE: Covid-19 considerations - 82lsju - 03-01-2020
Quote:The U.S. government has come under severe criticism for not providing nearly enough tests needed to understand the extent of spread in the population. A test kit produced and distributed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was shelved after state and local lab trying it out discovered that it contained a faulty reagent. As a result, many labs that have the capability to test themselves have not been allowed to do so.
The new recommendations focus on “high-complexity testing laboratories” that are certified under federal rules known as Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments. This group of facilities includes many hospital labs, like the one that epidemiologist Michael Mina works at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “Essentially it’s opening up a clear and concise avenue for labs like the one at Brigham and Women’s,” says Mina. “It’s what I’ve been advocating for a month now.”
If these labs want to make and use their own tests, FDA says, they should send five positive and five negative samples, as determined by their protocols, to another qualified lab for confirmation. The FDA still requires labs to submit what’s known as an emergency use authorization (EUA) application to the agency. “For a reasonable period of time after validation and while they are preparing their EUA requests, FDA does not intend to object to the use of these tests for specimen testing,” the recommendations state.
...
the agency’s [the CDC's] Nancy Messonnier said new manufactured testing kits have been provided to the International Reagent Resource, a clearinghouse of sorts established by CDC. She said these kits can test 75,000 people.
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/02/bid-rapidly-expand-coronavirus-testing-us-agency-abruptly-changes-rules
lex24 - lex24 - 03-01-2020
I vote to move this thread off the main board. No offense. But we get enough on this in the media etc. Don’t need it here as well. Would like to get way from all that a bit. Prefer to have sports on the board.
Just a thought.
RE: lex24 - 2006alum - 03-01-2020
(03-01-2020, 05:59 PM)lex24 Wrote: I vote to move this thread off the main board. No offense. But we get enough on this in the media etc. Don’t need it here as well. Would like to get way from all that a bit. Prefer to have sports on the board.My view, for what it's worth, is that the thread title is not too gory or specific (so easily avoided for those who don't want details), all the Covid-19 comments are contained in a single thread (so it's hardly overwhelming the board), and the thread concerns ongoing updates about the areas immediately surrounding Stanford, which makes it topical and timely to many Peninsula-local readers.
Just a thought.
Not to mention, there really isn't any other place on the board for it to go - it's not recruiting talk or classic hits, and it's anything but a "private" discussion. We continue to monitor in case things turn political and have already intervened once to that effect.
RE: Covid-19 considerations - M T - 03-01-2020
The PAC-12 Women's Swimming & Diving championships were in Seattle this past week. The PAC-12 Men's championship will be there next week.
For each, the NCAA championships will start 3 weeks after the start of the PAC-12 championships.
As we've seen above, there is a suggestion that COVID-19 has been circulating in the Seattle area.
I hope that there was no exposure of these ladies to COVID-19 in Seattle (or at Stanford). The chance of a fatal outcome for their age group is quite small, but the current US goal seems to be to limit the spread of the disease. If even one athlete shows up with the disease from Stanford, I wonder if the whole team might be scratched from the NCAAs. What if one athlete from another team shows up with it?
(Hmmm... as I type this, Cynthia Potter said "There's been a lack of energy in this [men's dive] competition." Divers have to qualify at a Zone divving meet Mar 9-11, again in Seattle. Another possible hurdle for them.)
On top of that, I think there's a good chance that the Olympics might not be held. This crop of athletes may lose out on some big meets. It may be even tougher on student-athletes that took the year off to concentrate on the Olympics.
RE: Covid-19 considerations - oldalum - 03-01-2020
Professional soccer games are already being played in empty stadiums in Europe, and the National College Player's Association (who are they?) has suggested March Madness may need to do the same. article
(There! we brought the Outside Topic back to basketball!)
RE: Covid-19 considerations - Snorlax94 - 03-01-2020
I vote keep the thread. If we can discuss applications of graphene, surely we can discuss covid 19, which, as others have pointed out, touches upon everything — the health of the Stanford community, the bay area region, pac 12 locations (including seattle), possible travel restrictions, the Olympics, the continuation of large, public events, maybe even life itself.
I appreciate hearing the thoughts of the cardboard community, and the opportunity to ask questions and to hear what other cardboard members are focusing on and finding. Because a number of posters have a medical background, the cardboard offers a unique and valuable resource.
If anyone is uninterested, they can skip the thread.
RE: Covid-19 considerations - qwerty49 - 03-01-2020
(03-01-2020, 06:57 PM)M T Wrote: On top of that, I think there's a good chance that the Olympics might not be held.
And that is a staggering concept. I realize speculation is somewhat unproductive, but when one pits the commercial implications of cancelling the Olympics against possibly the world's most fastidious national culture in Japan, that is the irresistible force meeting the immovable object. When we were in Tokyo on our honeymoon back in the 80s, we saw quite a few people walking on the streets with masks. When we asked a local if there was some sort of health issue we should aware of, he said that a lot of the mask wearers were people with colds who did not want to infect others in public. And this was more than 30 years ago.
RE: Covid-19 considerations - BostonCard - 03-01-2020
I think there is enough potential relevance to Stanford sports to merit keeping the thread (plus the OP was considerate enough to ask).
The Louvre was closed today, and France doesn't even have much of an outbreak.
Depenending on how this epidemic evolves, there is a non-insignificant chance that future NCAA sporting events are affected, either having no attendance or cancelling the events altogether.
BC
RE: lex24 - OutsiderFan - 03-01-2020
(03-01-2020, 05:59 PM)lex24 Wrote: I vote to move this thread off the main board. No offense. But we get enough on this in the media etc. Don’t need it here as well. Would like to get way from all that a bit. Prefer to have sports on the board.
Just a thought.
Nobody is forcing you to open the links. I ignore many threads on the board.
And FWIW, the discussion here is more informed and grounded in considered thinking than you will get in most media reporting.
RE: lex24 - cardcrimson - 03-01-2020
If there were only a forum where Stanford aficionados could discuss current events in a open, honest and intelligent manner. . . .oh, never mind.
(03-01-2020, 05:59 PM)lex24 Wrote: I vote to move this thread off the main board. No offense. But we get enough on this in the media etc. Don’t need it here as well. Would like to get way from all that a bit. Prefer to have sports on the board.
Just a thought.
RE: Covid-19 considerations - M T - 03-01-2020
(02-28-2020, 03:00 PM)M T Wrote:(02-28-2020, 01:20 PM)OutsiderFan Wrote: ANOTHER variable to consider is mutations or gene sequences of the virus. What it was in December might not be what it is in March. Perhaps this would provide some clues to re-infection. Then again, testing may not have been able to pick up trace levels of the virus in people who had it but were cleared. IOW, re-infection could be a misnomer, and the reality is it never really went away.
Sometimes the more you think you know, the more you realize how little you do. Seems to be the case with SARS-CoV-2.
The WHO-China joint mission investigated mutations to Feb 24.
Quote:The Joint Mission carried out whole gene sequencing in 104 new coronavirus strains isolated from different locations
and confirmed that the homology among these strains reached 99.9%. Accordingly, the Joint Mission believes that the virus has no obvious variation
You may find the phylogeny of 138 samples from around the world interesting.
https://www.gisaid.org/epiflu-applications/next-sars-cov2-app/
(This is a live display, you can get more info out of it.)
The newest on that chart as I type is 27 Feb from Mexico.
The Solano county individual is CA9 (top red one, Feb 23) (Highlight USA to see the US genomes), and is similar to a genome from Thailand from Jan 13.
The genome from the Mountain View patient is not available.
The earlier posts about the Seattle cases (WA1 and WA2) were about that the genome of WA2 (bottom red one, Feb 24) is very similar to WA1 (Jan 19, red, just above WA2, middle of chart), suggesting that it is the same infection circulating 5 weeks later.
lex24 - lex24 - 03-01-2020
Your right, Outsider, no one forces me to open this. And no one would force somebody to open a thread that went off on political issues either. But the board doesn’t have those. So I consider this a sports board - something I greatly appreciate about it. (As Cardcrimson notes, I know where to go for politics). And I come to it, in part, to get away from the shit going on in the every day world. So that’s just my thought process. I’m certainly not the boss of this board I just made a suggestion. I won’t dare do so again.
RE: Covid-19 considerations - cardcrimson - 03-01-2020
Hopefully this isn't crossing the "no politics" line, but curious as to the opinions here. Had the early morning news on in the background this morning, and I noticed one of the graphics: Coronavirus Racism (or something to that intent). The story was about the drop in business and visitors in Chinatown and similar drops in customers at Chinese restaurants across the Bay Area. The inference was that the declines were due to racist sentiments about Chinese resulting from the outbreak in Wuhan.
With the backdrop of a very scary disease emanating from China, is it racist to avoid things Chinese?
RE: Covid-19 considerations - OutsiderFan - 03-01-2020
(03-01-2020, 09:55 PM)cardcrimson Wrote: Hopefully this isn't crossing the "no politics" line, but curious as to the opinions here. Had the early morning news on in the background this morning, and I noticed one of the graphics: Coronavirus Racism (or something to that intent). The story was about the drop in business and visitors in Chinatown and similar drops in customers at Chinese restaurants across the Bay Area. The inference was that the declines were due to racist sentiments about Chinese resulting from the outbreak in Wuhan.
With the backdrop of a very scary disease emanating from China, is it racist to avoid things Chinese?
I purposely went to a Chinese restaurant with some friends last week specifically to show support.
RE: Covid-19 considerations - 2006alum - 03-01-2020
I think pressing on whether something is racist is the fastest, wettest, slipperiest slope to a political debate possible. Let's keep things focused on the virus and not on potentially irrational responses to it. Thanks.
RE: Covid-19 considerations - cardcrimson - 03-01-2020
(03-01-2020, 10:08 PM)2006alum Wrote: I think pressing on whether something is racist is the fastest, wettest, slipperiest slope to a political debate possible. Let's keep things focused on the virus and not on potentially irrational responses to it. Thanks.
There's nothing political about it. People are scared. Are scared people racist? That's such a strong word, don't you think?
A couple of days ago, there was an in-depth discussion on a mineral collecting forum whether it was safe to import rocks from China, even though they'd be on a plane for at least a week. Irrational, probably. Sincere, absolutely. Political, not at all.
Finally, if you're worried about irrational responses on this board, I suggest you revisit discussions about our coaching staff. Feel free to pick any sport you wish. . ..
RE: Covid-19 considerations - Snorlax94 - 03-01-2020
(03-01-2020, 09:55 PM)cardcrimson Wrote: Hopefully this isn't crossing the "no politics" line, but curious as to the opinions here. Had the early morning news on in the background this morning, and I noticed one of the graphics: Coronavirus Racism (or something to that intent). The story was about the drop in business and visitors in Chinatown and similar drops in customers at Chinese restaurants across the Bay Area. The inference was that the declines were due to racist sentiments about Chinese resulting from the outbreak in Wuhan.This question was worded in such an uninformed way, it almost makes me wonder if it was done so willfully. But I'll assume it wasn't, and respond to it at face-value.
With the backdrop of a very scary disease emanating from China, is it racist to avoid things Chinese?
So from Social Psychology, if we define prejudice as negative attitudes toward an individual (or even a product or shop) based solely on its membership in a group, that is prejudice. So, yes, as the question was worded, of course avoiding anything Chinese because it's Chinese is prejudiced. If you avoid a fortune cookie invented and manufactured in NY and sold in CA because it's "Chinese," there's no rational reason to avoid it. But maybe what you intended was "is it prejudiced to avoid restaurants specializing in, run by, and largely patronized by people who may be much more likely to have traveled recently to mainland China?"
If that was the question, I think it could have been rational and not necessarily prejudiced for much of February.
But because of the travel ban, people from Wuhan and mainland China haven't been travelling to the US for weeks, or for longer than the generally understood incubation period, and I have seen no evidence of the virus then circulating in Chinatowns, so I don't see any reason to avoid a Chinese restaurant at this time. If Chinatowns are emptier even now, it could be because people are uninformed and irrational in their fears.
Now, I think Seattle, Iran, Italy and South Korea are all risky areas, so for the next few weeks, I think it'd be reasonable to try to minimize exposure to anyone who has recently traveled to any of those areas. Not because it is something that is Iranian, Korean, or Italian, but because people who recently traveled to any of those countries could reasonably be considered higher risk. I would not travel to Seattle right now.
I haven't seen any dropoff or changes in the places I go. I just got back from Hawaii and it was still crowded. My favorite sushi restaurant -- which is a popular "foodie" place -- still has lines out the door. The trampoline park I took my kids to yesterday was still packed (though one parent canceled on us at the last minute due to covid fears). So I haven't seen a large dropoff in crowds due to the covid virus, though I think it's a very nice gesture for people to try to patronize businesses that may be hurting during periods of fear and possible prejudice. I did try to go to more Middle Eastern restaurants after 9/11. During the next year, I'd probably make a point of visiting businesses that were hurting if at that time they were struggling solely because of ignorance, hysteria, or prejudice.
RE: Covid-19 considerations - cardcrimson - 03-01-2020
(03-01-2020, 10:50 PM)Snorlax94 Wrote: This question was worded in such an uninformed way, it almost makes me wonder if it was done so willfully. But I'll assume it wasn't, and respond to it at face-value.
Sorry I'm such an uninformed moron.
Let me make it clearer. KGO inferred in their reporting that those who avoided going to Chinatown or Chinese restaurants at this particular point in time were racists. Are they?
RE: Covid-19 considerations - M T - 03-01-2020
(Cases are popping up all over now. I think reporting these here is relevant because Stanford is in this county.)
Santa Clara county now has had 7 9 confirmed cases of COVID-19
San Mateo county has 1
Jan 31: #1 male who had recently been in Wuhan. Visited local clinic & hospital. Isolated at home.
Feb 2: #2 female who had recently been to Wuhan. Arrived Jan 23. Visited 2 urgent care centers. Isolated at home.
Apparently one of the above two has been released.
Friday, Feb 28: #3: ~65 yo female admitted to El Camino Hospital. No known source of infection.
Sat, Feb 29: #4: a female from the same household as #3.
NOTE: I don't know which of #3 or #4 was infected first. It is conceivable that #4 may have been infected from a prior patient or traveler, and then infected #3.
Sun, Mar 1: #5: a female. No mention of source of infection yet.
Sun, Mar 1: #6, #7: a married couple that had recently been to Egypt (but I note that there have only been 2 cases in Egypt), reportedly with a known exposure.
(#3,5,6,7 are all hospitalized)
Mon, Mar 2: #8, a male who was exposed to a patient in another county. Home isolation.
Mon, Mar 2: #9, unspecified gender, who was in the same household as another Santa Clara County patient. Home isolation
San Mateo County:
Mon, Mar 2: #1, unspecified gender, adult, no known source. Hospitalized
Plus Mar 1: a health care worker living in Alameda county
and Mar 1: a health care worker living in Solano county,
both work in Vacaville. Their contact was with the recent Solano County patient.
RE: Covid-19 considerations - Nan3cy - 03-01-2020
My son and his wife are pediatric anesthesiologists in New York City. When we talked to them yesterday, I asked what their take was on Covid-19, and they basically shrugged and said “wash your hands.” They really didn’t seem hyper about it at all, and when their first child was born, they were hyper about *everything*. We were surprised.