Lots of COVID news
Mar. 30th, 2020 07:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thewayneI had bad information about the two hospital ships. The San Diego ship was sort of ready to go, it just needed to top up supplies and recall personnel. The east coast ship was in for refit, apparently they were able to expedite it and got it moving pretty darn fast - it was supposed to dock at New York City today!
Speaking of which....
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New York is going to trial using antibodies to treat serious cases. These are the cases just shy of needing ventilator support. Basically, the antibodies are taken as plasma donations from people who have recovered from COVID-19 and they are infused into the sick people, hoping that the antibodies will directly attack the virus and help train the antibodies in the host body.
I REALLY hope this works! This could turn the tide in the fight - IF successful. It's an effective treatment in several diseases, we just don't know yet if it is good in our current epidemic.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/03/hospitals-in-nyc-will-start-testing-therapy-using-plasma-of-those-infected/
****
WE'RE NUMBER ONE! WE'RE NUMBER ONE! Which is not a good thing. The USA has the most diagnosed cases of the coronavirus in the world. Italy is still sadly highest on the death rate, though that is momentarily slowing. Unfortunately it looks like the virus is spreading into southern Italy, so they may start to explode.
****
A new process will allow masks to be disinfected and reused - up to twenty times. Machines are in use in Ohio and soon will be deployed in NYC, DC, , and Seattle. They received an FDA waiver to increase the number of masks that can be disinfected in one chamber run. Apparently it can't disinfect just any mask, so it's not quite universal. Still, better than nothing.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/03/29/coronavirus-fda-eases-restrictions-mask-sterilization-technology/2936670001/
****
If you watched the recent HBO series The Watchmen, they got the cast together remotely and filmed a video series, The Washmen, to encourage people to wash their hands. Quite funny.
https://twitter.com/watchmen/status/1243583774924865538
****
This is amazingly beautiful and made me cry a bit, I needed that. The Rotterdam Philharmonic got 19 musicians together playing Beethoven's Ode To Joy, from their homes, and layered in the chorus.
It is stunningly moving.
https://twitter.com/Khanoisseur/status/1243954960037003266
****
Strange things in Wuhan. First, they reopened their movie theaters. Then they closed them again. Then on the 27th, NPR reported that people who had been sick and recovered - testing negative, are testing positive again. This is not good. So does being sick confer no immunity? "Some of those who retested positive appear to be asymptomatic carriers..." That's very bad. That means that problems in China - and every single country in the world - are far from over. It will be interesting to see if this group of second positives get sick again, or just remain asymptomatic carriers, and if they remain carriers, how long do they remain as such? They were tested for coronavirus a second time for treatment for unrelated health issues - again, non-symptomatic for COVID, and that's when they found out they were positive but apparently not sick.
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/03/27/822407626/mystery-in-wuhan-recovered-coronavirus-patients-test-negative-then-positive
Cinema Shutdown:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/china-shuts-down-all-cinemas-again-1287040
****
In ventilator news, people in Italy have constructed a ventilator using hobbiest/3D-printed parts for about $500. They hope to get approval within a week. It looks quite crude, but it WORKS. It's not elegant, it's not as finely-controllable as a $25,000 machine, but if it keeps someone alive long enough for them to regain lung function - it's good enough!
*
In California, a techie got ahold of a ventilator manual, got ahold of several broken ventilators that the maker said couldn't be repaired quickly, and started fixing them. The company normally makes green energy fuel cells, set its techs repairing several broken ventilators that had been warehoused since the H5N1 bird flu outbreak a decade ago, and get 170 of them back into working order.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52094193
*
Elon Musk is re-gearing his New York solar panel factory to make ventilators as fast as he can, in partnership with Medtronics. So he'll be making a proven and already certified design.
https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/elon-musk-says-teslas-new-york-factory-will-make-ventilators-as-soon-as-humanly-possible-medtronic/
Also mentioned in the article is that NY Gov. Cuomo got 400 ventilators from FEMA, which is good. Except NY and NYC projects they're going to need 30,000.
*
While making new ventilators is great, getting production lines up and running is going to take a lot of time and money. First they need to find stockpiles of broken and slightly old retired equipment and get those serviced and working again.
****
The U.S. government is being really slow and cagey about sharing data about the coronavirus, so the New York Times is stepping in. They've created a repository on Github that anyone can access showing everything known on a county-by-county basis!
https://www.nytimes.com/article/coronavirus-county-data-us.html
****
BBC article reports that more people are listening to the news and there's not as much music streaming going on! Interesting stuff. Me, I just spent a lot of time making a batch of red chili stew with Vivaldi streaming in my hearing aides.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52037461
****
88 of the 200 largest cities in the U.S. got clobbered in internet speeds: Austin down 44%! Other big losers: Oxnard, CA: 42%, San Jose: 38%, and Winston-Salem, NC at 41%.
https://broadbandnow.com/report/internet-speed-analysis-march-15th-21st/
****
Spectrum Cable is such a beloved organization. To further show their appreciation for their installers, rather than giving them hazard pay for going in to people's homes for installs and repairs, they got $25 gift cards for local restaurants (which are probably closed) for risking exposure to COVID. They don't have protective gear: no gloves, no masks, no hand sanitizer. Oh, and that's not a $25 card per house: that's $25 per WEEK.
Isn't that special.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/amberjamieson/spectrum-workers-coronavirus-gift-cards
****
So locally, still no cases in Otero County, my stomping grounds, which I expect to change within the next two weeks. New Mexico doubled their deaths from two to four. And it turns out that New Mexico is #3 in the nation in testing per capita! That rather surprised me.
We're doing OK, I'm still fighting a sinus infection and doing better. I've never run a fever, my throat is fine, but I'm still a little low energy. But it is very nice getting to sleep until I wake up!
I'm probably going in to the library tomorrow: I need a couple of files and a password that's written on a PostIt on the side of a drawer in my desk. But nobody's there, so I'll call security, muck about for half an hour gathering stuff and sending files to my email, so it should be pretty much zero risk.
Take care, all!
Speaking of which....
****
New York is going to trial using antibodies to treat serious cases. These are the cases just shy of needing ventilator support. Basically, the antibodies are taken as plasma donations from people who have recovered from COVID-19 and they are infused into the sick people, hoping that the antibodies will directly attack the virus and help train the antibodies in the host body.
I REALLY hope this works! This could turn the tide in the fight - IF successful. It's an effective treatment in several diseases, we just don't know yet if it is good in our current epidemic.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/03/hospitals-in-nyc-will-start-testing-therapy-using-plasma-of-those-infected/
****
WE'RE NUMBER ONE! WE'RE NUMBER ONE! Which is not a good thing. The USA has the most diagnosed cases of the coronavirus in the world. Italy is still sadly highest on the death rate, though that is momentarily slowing. Unfortunately it looks like the virus is spreading into southern Italy, so they may start to explode.
****
A new process will allow masks to be disinfected and reused - up to twenty times. Machines are in use in Ohio and soon will be deployed in NYC, DC, , and Seattle. They received an FDA waiver to increase the number of masks that can be disinfected in one chamber run. Apparently it can't disinfect just any mask, so it's not quite universal. Still, better than nothing.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/03/29/coronavirus-fda-eases-restrictions-mask-sterilization-technology/2936670001/
****
If you watched the recent HBO series The Watchmen, they got the cast together remotely and filmed a video series, The Washmen, to encourage people to wash their hands. Quite funny.
https://twitter.com/watchmen/status/1243583774924865538
****
This is amazingly beautiful and made me cry a bit, I needed that. The Rotterdam Philharmonic got 19 musicians together playing Beethoven's Ode To Joy, from their homes, and layered in the chorus.
It is stunningly moving.
https://twitter.com/Khanoisseur/status/1243954960037003266
****
Strange things in Wuhan. First, they reopened their movie theaters. Then they closed them again. Then on the 27th, NPR reported that people who had been sick and recovered - testing negative, are testing positive again. This is not good. So does being sick confer no immunity? "Some of those who retested positive appear to be asymptomatic carriers..." That's very bad. That means that problems in China - and every single country in the world - are far from over. It will be interesting to see if this group of second positives get sick again, or just remain asymptomatic carriers, and if they remain carriers, how long do they remain as such? They were tested for coronavirus a second time for treatment for unrelated health issues - again, non-symptomatic for COVID, and that's when they found out they were positive but apparently not sick.
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/03/27/822407626/mystery-in-wuhan-recovered-coronavirus-patients-test-negative-then-positive
Cinema Shutdown:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/china-shuts-down-all-cinemas-again-1287040
****
In ventilator news, people in Italy have constructed a ventilator using hobbiest/3D-printed parts for about $500. They hope to get approval within a week. It looks quite crude, but it WORKS. It's not elegant, it's not as finely-controllable as a $25,000 machine, but if it keeps someone alive long enough for them to regain lung function - it's good enough!
*
In California, a techie got ahold of a ventilator manual, got ahold of several broken ventilators that the maker said couldn't be repaired quickly, and started fixing them. The company normally makes green energy fuel cells, set its techs repairing several broken ventilators that had been warehoused since the H5N1 bird flu outbreak a decade ago, and get 170 of them back into working order.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52094193
*
Elon Musk is re-gearing his New York solar panel factory to make ventilators as fast as he can, in partnership with Medtronics. So he'll be making a proven and already certified design.
https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/elon-musk-says-teslas-new-york-factory-will-make-ventilators-as-soon-as-humanly-possible-medtronic/
Also mentioned in the article is that NY Gov. Cuomo got 400 ventilators from FEMA, which is good. Except NY and NYC projects they're going to need 30,000.
*
While making new ventilators is great, getting production lines up and running is going to take a lot of time and money. First they need to find stockpiles of broken and slightly old retired equipment and get those serviced and working again.
****
The U.S. government is being really slow and cagey about sharing data about the coronavirus, so the New York Times is stepping in. They've created a repository on Github that anyone can access showing everything known on a county-by-county basis!
https://www.nytimes.com/article/coronavirus-county-data-us.html
****
BBC article reports that more people are listening to the news and there's not as much music streaming going on! Interesting stuff. Me, I just spent a lot of time making a batch of red chili stew with Vivaldi streaming in my hearing aides.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52037461
****
88 of the 200 largest cities in the U.S. got clobbered in internet speeds: Austin down 44%! Other big losers: Oxnard, CA: 42%, San Jose: 38%, and Winston-Salem, NC at 41%.
https://broadbandnow.com/report/internet-speed-analysis-march-15th-21st/
****
Spectrum Cable is such a beloved organization. To further show their appreciation for their installers, rather than giving them hazard pay for going in to people's homes for installs and repairs, they got $25 gift cards for local restaurants (which are probably closed) for risking exposure to COVID. They don't have protective gear: no gloves, no masks, no hand sanitizer. Oh, and that's not a $25 card per house: that's $25 per WEEK.
Isn't that special.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/amberjamieson/spectrum-workers-coronavirus-gift-cards
****
So locally, still no cases in Otero County, my stomping grounds, which I expect to change within the next two weeks. New Mexico doubled their deaths from two to four. And it turns out that New Mexico is #3 in the nation in testing per capita! That rather surprised me.
We're doing OK, I'm still fighting a sinus infection and doing better. I've never run a fever, my throat is fine, but I'm still a little low energy. But it is very nice getting to sleep until I wake up!
I'm probably going in to the library tomorrow: I need a couple of files and a password that's written on a PostIt on the side of a drawer in my desk. But nobody's there, so I'll call security, muck about for half an hour gathering stuff and sending files to my email, so it should be pretty much zero risk.
Take care, all!
no subject
Date: 2020-03-31 06:45 am (UTC)Thus, I compare Norway with Sweden. Norway has more cases than Sweden but half the deaths per million. Norway is on lockdown, Sweden is not.
I am wondering though, with so many Americans cut off from healthcare, the death rate is actually higher than is being recorded.
no subject
Date: 2020-03-31 03:19 pm (UTC)Yeah, the rates are squishy numbers, plus the variety in severity in how people experience it, which is problematic. Some people get mild symptoms, and may write it off as a mild flu, then go around infecting people, ignoring the fact that they're told that we're in the middle of a pandemic.
no subject
Date: 2020-03-31 08:01 am (UTC)Geez, what assholes. But I still need internet, so I'm not canceling. I don't think calling new workers out to connect me to something else would help. But what assholes.
no subject
Date: 2020-03-31 03:22 pm (UTC)Spectrum is really high up on the asshole corps list. I can't remember if it's Spectrum or Charter - both of which are "We can help you work from home! - is requiring their call center workers to work in the office, not from home. 24/7 call centers, hot seats, no cubical separations. They're going to be falling over soon.
no subject
Date: 2020-03-31 02:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-03-31 03:17 pm (UTC)That is more or less what the Italian model looks like to me.