Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[Legbiter]

It's not just an Italian thing. Spain is looking just as bad.

Most of that family looks obese and likely has conditions like diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and probably a few smokers/COPDers. And honestly that situation describes a lot of Americans. I don't think our average lower age than Italy is going to yield a less deadly outbreak because our population overall has a significant amount of comorbidities.

Yeah, there's an interesting article on the fatality cohort in Italy.

More than 99% of Italy's coronavirus fatalities were people who suffered from previous medical conditions, according to a study by the country's national health authority.

..The Rome-based institute has examined medical records of about 18% of the country's coronavirus fatalities, finding that just three victims, or 0.8% of the total, had no previous pathology. Almost half of the victims suffered from at least three prior illnesses and about a fourth had either one or two previous conditions.

More than 75% had high blood pressure, about 35% had diabetes and a third suffered from heart disease.

The average age of those who've died from the virus in Italy is 79.5. As of March 17, 17 people under 50 had died from the disease. All of Italy's victims under 40 have been males with serious existing medical conditions.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-18/99-of-those-who-died-from-virus-had-other-illness-italy-says

This is terrible news for our elderly relatives but we'll be fine.

[DGuller]

It's not just an Italian thing. Spain is looking just as bad.

Most of that family looks obese and likely has conditions like diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and probably a few smokers/COPDers. And honestly that situation describes a lot of Americans. I don't think our average lower age than Italy is going to yield a less deadly outbreak because our population overall has a significant amount of comorbidities.

One the one hand, that's what I as thinking as well as I was looking at that family picture.    On the other hand, it is mentioned that the dead have no prior medical conditions, so either the obese ones were not the ones who died, they were healthy obese people, or they didn't go the doctor frequently enough to know they were unhealthy obese people.

[Zoupa]

There are no healthy obese people, DG.

[katmai]

Feel better Zoups..

My job is ending early so will be driving home to Alaska starting Monday or Tuesday.

[DGuller]

There are no healthy obese people, DG.

Depends on who you ask.  There are a lot of obese people who would tell you that it's possible to be a healthy obese person.

[viper37]

This is terrible news for our elderly relatives but we'll be fine.

that is relative.

"fine" as in "not dying", sure.  "fine" as in "not getting sick", not a chance.  Older people and people with comorbidity will die first because:
A) the obvious, duh.  Fighting against other ailment and getting this shit is hard for your system
B) if there ICUs are filled to the brim, guess who's gonna be sent home?  Yeap, these poeple.

There's really no surprise there.

What is worrying is that a significant propertion of recovered patients have seen their lungs capacity reduced by 20-30%.  Too early to tell if this will be permanent, but if it is, that might leave this people more vulnerable to the next epidemic.

[viper37]

Also, did anyone here hear something (recently) about Chinese patients who recovered but were hit again by the same virus?  My friend told me she saw this on the news, but I haven't found anything credible so far.

[Fate]

There's a few anecdotes of reinfections but there could be a few explanations -

1) they never really cleared the infection in the first place and had a biphasic sickness.
2) they didn't actually have COVID-19 the first or second time and had a different respiratory illness - these tests have an uncomfortable high false positive rate, especially when on the bleeding edge of deployment.
3) they're an aberration due to something about their underlying physiology which clearly hasn't played out in the population at large because the anecdotes of reinfection can be counted on one hand.

I don't think it should be a concern for the average person.

[Zoupa]

I believe I read about a Korean patient testing positive again a few weeks after his (first) recovery.

[Zoupa]

What Fate said.

[crazy canuck]

77 new cases in BC 348 total

Nine people have died, including eight in one old age home. Twenty-two people are now in hospital, with 10 in intensive care. Six people have fully recovered

[Grey Fox]

Stay strong Zoups! 



49 new cases in Alberta, total of 195.  5 in ICU, 3 more than yesterday.

It's spiking.

By April 1st, Canada needs to be under 24 000 cases. This is going to be an upsetting week.

[Admiral Yi]

By April 1st, Canada needs to be under 24 000 cases.

Why is that?

[merithyn]

Of the nine New Jersey deaths, four came from one family: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/03/20/new-jersey-man-4th-family-member-die-coronavirus-20-isolated/2882689001/.    I wonder if there is a genetic component to it.  Maybe people of certain ancestry are more predisposed to having complications.

I read an article that said that people with type A blood type are more susceptible than type O or B.

[merithyn]

There are no healthy obese people, DG.