Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[Legbiter]

We're over a hundred confirmed cases, almost 1000 people are in quarantine, one has been hospitalized. On testing the policy is, if you have symptoms you can get tested. We're seeing these utterly random secondary infections in people who wo've had contact with cases coming from Italy/Austria.

[Tamas]

Has Trump done anything during his presidency apart from tax cut and travel bans?

[The Minsky Moment]

Just watched it.  It was a well written speech for the most part.  The part where he slagged on the Yuros sounded more Trumpian, as did the parts when he talked about our ossum response.

I would have dropped the orange a few notches and hammered down the sides of the pelt if I were handling makeup.

He kind of gave me the impression of drunk guy trying to pass a sobriety test. 

There were a few times when he sounded a little raspy throated. 

I don't agree he sounded presidential, but at least he was smart not to wing it, or to write his own copy.

If a monkey plays a piano sonata almost passably, it seems overly harsh to critique its technique. The sight of Trump attempting to perform an imitation of a real President and staying on script without breaking into obnoxious ad libs is so unusual he gets some points for the effort even if the execution is wanting.

[Sheilbh]

Has Trump done anything during his presidency apart from tax cut and travel bans?

Massive de-regulation/gutting of the administrative state

And let's not forget his budget cut funding to the CDC by 80% - luckily Congress didn't follow that recommendation.

Also the ancillary cruelty on immigration: kids in cages etc etc.

[The Minsky Moment]

Has Trump done anything during his presidency apart from tax cut and travel bans?

Take Central American kids from their parents and put them in cages
Steal money from the US military to build fancified fencing in the desert
Take an angry 50 years old frat Bro and make him a justice of he Supreme Court.

[Tamas]

My bad!

[viper37]

Starting to wonder if I'll be allowed to drive through Canada in two weeks time

Unless we change government, I wouldn't expecte any problem.  It's not like they're asking any questions or monitoring people's body temp. 
As for coming back though...  Even with a US passport, they might not let you in 

[viper37]

Who's hysterical?

the stock market. 

[Agelastus]

That seems normal in other countries - with the exception of the US which has almost 1,000 cases but has only done (from what people can tell) about 6,000 tests.

I don't get this - it's been about a week since I saw stories saying that the CDC had relaxed the rules concerning tests developed in other institutions (public and private) in the USA and that various institutions were ramping up to be able to test thousands a week.

In fact, if you look at this page for Washington State they pretty much say they are testing over 400 people a day (it's a double test - 1 person equals two samples), that they are rapidly ramping up to 2700 a day, and that these figures only include the figures for two institutions (the state public health lab and the University of Washington's Virology lab) whereas other commercial labs are working to be able to process tests soon as well.

https://www.doh.wa.gov/Emergencies/NovelCoronavirusOutbreak2020/TestingforCOVID19

And this is only one state and one university.

[Grey Fox]

Starting to wonder if I'll be allowed to drive through Canada in two weeks time

Unless we change government, I wouldn't expecte any problem.  It's not like they're asking any questions or monitoring people's body temp. 
As for coming back though...  Even with a US passport, they might not let you in 

Don't you dare! Your friend in the Oil Party of Canada wouldn't be doing anything either.

[Sheilbh]

Yeah - it may be catching up, it looks like state based testing is getting far better than the CDC - plus I imagine there are private options.

I was getting it from here:
https://ourworldindata.org/covid-testing-10march

The US data:

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, report from 9 March noon, published here.
    Number of tests: 8,554 tests performed.
    Remarks: The total number of tests in the report from 9 March includes tests conducted in CDC labs (N=3,698) and US public health laboratories (N=4,856). The chart here includes the number of tests by laboratory type and date. Earlier CDC reports, from before 9 March, are not available from the source. The report from 9 March includes a note that reads: "This page will be updated regularly at noon Mondays through Fridays. Data close out at 4 p.m. the day before reporting."

And the chart at the start of this week:

[Agelastus]

The US data:

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, report from 9 March noon, published here.
    Number of tests: 8,554 tests performed.
    Remarks: The total number of tests in the report from 9 March includes tests conducted in CDC labs (N=3,698) and US public health laboratories (N=4,856). The chart here includes the number of tests by laboratory type and date. Earlier CDC reports, from before 9 March, are not available from the source. The report from 9 March includes a note that reads: "This page will be updated regularly at noon Mondays through Fridays. Data close out at 4 p.m. the day before reporting."

So not including any of the tests done by the University of Washington's virology department, which is currently testing 3 times as many people as the State of Washington's public health laboratory per day.

I wonder how many more tests are being done nationwide but not being collated by the CDC; I've looked it up and the FDA (not the CDC, oops) relaxed their policies concerning the introduction into use of newly developed tests on February 29th, nearly 2 weeks ago.

[Tamas]

The majority of coronavirus infections may be spread by people who have recently caught the virus and have not yet begun to show symptoms, scientists have found.

An analysis of infections in Singapore and Tianjin in China revealed that two-thirds and three-quarters of people respectively appear to have caught it from others who were incubating the virus but still symptom-free.

The finding has dismayed infectious disease researchers as it means that isolating people once they start to feel ill will be far less effective at slowing the pandemic than had been hoped.

I think if this is true we can throw the British masterplan of scheduling the virus spread right out the window.

[crazy canuck]

I don't think anyone is claiming Trump's actions are based on sound medical advice.

Sadly he is not the only one

Should no country shut anything down? Are Italy and South Korea only acting out of social media panic and not sound medical advice? Should they follow the advice of the BC CDC?

Politicians should defer to their local medical experts

Edit and following our model wouldn't be a bad idea

In other words, politicians should defer to the one expert that CC likes to listen to, regardless of local conditions.

Reading comprehension is not your strong point.  Our model is a single payor system in which our medical professionals make decisions regarding medical matters - it is enshrined in our legislation.

[viper37]

Reading comprehension is not your strong point.  Our model is a single payor system in which our medical professionals make decisions regarding medical matters - it is enshrined in our legislation.

I don't see Italy or UK as being vastly different than our model.
Yet, they have some problems.

But I am worried about the non insured people in the US.  If it costs 100-150$ only to be tested, many people won't do it.