I still don't understand the push for blanket COVID-19 testing of the general population.

You could go in to get a test today, test negative and then go out and contract the infection the next day (if you were exposed to someone who had the infection).

1. Unless you are severely ill, testing for COVID-19 does not change your treatment. Healthy people with mild symptoms will get the same advice as those who get the flu: stay home, stay hydrated, and take Tylenol. If you feel sick, prevent spreading your infection to others through self-quarantine for 14 days. Regardless of whether or not you may have a positive diagnosis of COVID-19, we can all do our part by practicing responsible social distancing.

2. Going to get tested could put you at risk for catching or spreading COVID-19. Patients are crowding waiting rooms to request testing, leading to a breakdown in social distancing that exposes more people to the spread of COVID-19. Even the test itself can spread infectious particles, as patients undergo the unpleasant process of having a nasopharyngeal swab stuck up their nose and often end up coughing or gagging.

3. Current tests can still miss infections. A recent study found that nasal swab testing in China missed 37% of COVID-19 cases, while throat swabs missed up to 68%. In the U.S., there are multiple different tests with varying degrees of accuracy, and the number of patients who test negative but actually have COVID-19 remains unknown. In the early stages of infection, it’s possible for your test to be falsely negative, which could lead to a false sense of confidence. A negative test does not change your risk of becoming infected, and everyone must continue to practice responsible health precautions.

4. In most regions of the U.S., COVID-19 is so widespread that testing is no longer helpful for containment. During the initial “containment” phase of an outbreak, testing is critical for finding isolated cases and tracking down contacts who may have been exposed. Done properly, like in South Korea and Singapore, early testing prevents an outbreak like COVID-19 from spiraling out of control. Unfortunately, our own efforts to ramp up testing have come far too late – we missed the opportunity to trace and contain COVID-19. Now that the coronavirus has become so widespread, social distancing, rather than testing, is the most effective strategy for fighting this pandemic.

5. Unnecessary testing could overwhelm our health care system and deprive resources from critically ill patients. As we face one of the most severe flu seasons of this decade, hospitals are already operating at close to maximum capacity. With impending shortages of beds, masks, and ventilators, it may only be a matter of time before American doctors are forced to make the same extraordinary rationing decisions being made by their Italian colleagues.

source: https://www.centerforhealthjournalism.org/2020/04/01/why-covid-19-testing-probably-won-t-improve-your-health

Opening the beaches in OC last weekend resulted in a spike of new cases bringing the death total for the entire county to 45 now. A little more than double what it was a month ago.

In other news- NASCAR racing is set to resume in three weeks.

California has one of the largest homeless populations in the world, and we have contracted with motels that are not being used right now because of the shut down. Good short term solution for the crisis.

To be fair (I am NOT saying opening the beaches was a good idea), people infected last week-end are unlikely to be dead by now - it will probably take a few weeks to see if it had an impact.

I'm sure hoping our 99.999% survival rate gets even better!

Today I had to leave the house for the first time in *49* days.

Let me say - whoa. Gas is $1.85 a gallon now, which is insane for Massachusetts.

Roads weirdly quiet. It was a very surreal experience.

To be even more fair, the hot, blazing sun supposedly kills this shit, and although I did not go to the beach, I got sunburned and have one of the best tans in years from working on painting my fence over the last week.

There is very little sign of panic here, but most are wearing masks, and a line 15 or more cars long is not unusual at a place like Arby's the day after their coupons arrived in the mail and the news announced there might be a meat shortage. That place is fully checked out, with mostly teenage workers wearing protective gear and they haven't been to school in over a month. And the French Dip, Beef N Cheddar, and Potato Cakes were hot, fresh, and tasty as usual.

Jennifer Aniston has denied she is infected.

zzzIggy 1000 (resized).jpg

I knew someday her trying to stay young methods would catch up with her.

Australia and the USA are both " rich " countries . I would like to think they could come up with long-term Solutions . Even if it's places with stretcher beds , hot food and showers available ( like in Revenge of the Nerds ) . No one in our countries should have to sleep on cardboard on the side of the road .

IMG_20200502_040835 (resized).jpg

Looks like the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator went off a little too close to her. Edit : Regarding The Aniston Popp picture.

That's either Iggy Pop or Jennifer really needs a shave .

The thing about homeless shelters is that they are sometimes unsafe/dangerous for certain people or because of certain people.

News piece from a few years ago:

https://www.npr.org/2012/12/06/166666265/why-some-homeless-choose-the-streets-over-shelters

It's a fairly common theme across a variety of news pieces on the subject.

I was going to add security guards

Some of the surrounding counties are much stricter, but due to our extremely low infection rate, masks are yet to be a requirement here. And workers at places like Home Depot wear them mostly just hanging around their necks after long shifts.

But since there are now a few places requiring them, and I always want to do my part, I fabricated one out of materials I already had around the house. And now wear it whenever grocery shopping or going into 7-11.
DSCN6811 (resized).JPG

When you see the pictures of the ERs/ICUs/morgues from around the world, it's hard to argue that this is the worst virus we've seen in many years.

That said, if you don't live in a city like New York or Lombardy (Italy), that was hard hit, I can see how the reaction seems way overblown.

What really prevents Bumblef#ck, Idaho from becoming the next New York City? Much lower population density and the lack of public transit? I can't imagine the smaller hospitals could even support a handful of severe COVID patients.

Governor Newsom deserves a lot of respect for his handling of this situation. Daily, he is sharp, and ahead of the game.

And history will probably show he is a hero even if other factors are involved that kept our state's mortality level low. At least so far.

So much so, that last week they gave him his own covid-19 bobblehead, to be added to the other few that so far deserve this great honor.

Unknown (resized).jpg

If you want government money, you need to be a good bullshitter and tell them what they want to hear.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/01/us/coronavirus-moderna-vaccine-invs/index.html

" In quest for vaccine, US makes 'big bet' on company with unproven technology"

Here's a very interesting article about how Seattle handled the situation so much better than New York. They both got hit with their first cases around the same time, but Seattle almost immediately allowed their scientists and doctors to take the lead ...

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/05/04/seattles-leaders-let-scientists-take-the-lead-new-yorks-did-not

Washington state as a whole seemed to shut it down as fast as it got there. Sad they didn't do it sooner.

Again, they are now saying it hit Ca. first, at least the first people in the USA that died from it, and with the commerce and tourism from China greater here than anywhere else in the country, of that I have no doubt. So there must be other factors involved keeping the infection spread here so low. Glad to be here, but feeling for those elsewhere.

You never know, the worst might still be yet to come no matter where you are, even here. And probably will as people get antsy and states open back up. The southern hemisphere is also approaching winter, so they may get hit much harder then too.

One thing is for sure, although China's numbers may not be correct, there is no way in hell the USA will take the measures they did to slow the spread.

Yes, you gotta follow science. I was pretty dismayed when NYC bars, restaurants, theaters etc. were open the weekend after the shit hit the fan and we all knew what was going on (Thanks TOm Hanks and the entire NBA!). New York state / city has done better than some but worse than others, including Washington and Ohio.

Science also helping out in the murky waters of finding effective treatment. Some good news from Fauci this week about a promising drug that can help with treatment. It's not a "miracle cure" and "game changer" but sometimes the truth is more effective than hype when the drug in question actually helps.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/01/anthony-fauci-did-five-minutes-what-trump-failed-do-weeks/

There are definitely a lot of factors at play. Illinois was pretty aggressive and actually issued their initial stay at home order two days before Washington State, yet we currently have nearly three times as many deaths. I think the article does a good job of explaining how Seattle got the people to actually listen to them really quickly. It was a great moving getting Microsoft on board right at the start. When you see a huge company like that suddenly having everyone work from home, it sends a strong message.

After about 2 months in the US, we're not really any different than we were 2 months ago, are we? Outside of 60,000+ dead and the economy teetering on the edge of a cliff?

It's a highly contagious virus that will probably spread to the majority of the population. Hopefully, you're not in the small percentage of people who will need ER/ICU, because we don't really have clear-cut effective drugs or treatment at this point. We might get a vaccine, but that might be years from now and it's going to be very difficult to manufacture and distribute to the billions of people who would need it.

4kbz20uju1w41 (resized).jpg

Every day I watch the news, and there still seems to be a lot of missing info as to why some places get hit harder than others. It is easy to pat some people in charge on the back and give them credit when it goes good and others when it goes bad not so much.

There is no doubt in my mind that parts of So Cal or even the rest of the state are as densely populated as any, with congregations of people in places like sporting events, amusement parks, and even shopping places like Costco almost as crowded in winter as summer. We only shut down a few days before others, so did that really make that much a difference? I'm sure it does now, but why did we not get harder in the beginning?

And places like Walmart and Costco stayed open with their usual clusterfk of people until recently they started enforcing masks and social distancing. And even now, that is kind of lax.

China does not have an election in 2020. It can piss off anyone it wants.

Each state has been left to handle it in their own ways. Rightfully so, as the pandemic is hitting harder and at different times depending where you are.

Florida seems to be on the cutting edge now, with their own way of doing things.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/florida-curtails-reporting-of-coronavirus-death-numbers-by-county-medical-examiners-173503327.html

I read this entire article this morning. Slowly. Not because I read slowly, it was just a lot to digest. Well written piece though.

I hope it isn't just a big con game Moderna is playing with mRNA as a possible medical game changer. Moderna has yet to bring anything to market in all the years of their operation as the article clearly states. Yet we as taxpayers just handed them $483 million.

Wow.

Looks like we got free testing thanks to Sean Penn:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/la-becomes-first-major-city-offer-free-covid-19-testing-done-partnership-sean-penns-nonprofit-1292569

Pretty cool of him to assist with that, I think they plan to expand that to other cities as well.

I'm pretty convinced New York got clobbered mainly due to their public transportation. No other American city crams citizens into tin cans like NYC subways, trains and buses. Easy to transmit covid, and in much larger quantities. CA has tons of people but much larger percentage using private transportation.

You see the worst breakouts anyplace you have people *really* crowded together. Seattle's nursing home, Albany's family funeral, Ohio's prisons, NYC public transit, etc. In other, more normal spaces, even if the virus was transmitted to a new victim, it was likely in much smaller quantities and the resulting illness much less severe.

I think we're OK opening parks and areas where people might congregate but in less-dense quantities. No concerts or sports where people are going to scream and become covid cannons.

Yes, not much different besides cleaner air and environment and the usual amount of protests.

And ten times as many cases and deaths than China reported.

My guess would be it's sticking to temperate regions. Maybe it's the sun - like you say? Maybe it's the warmth?

It's not hitting India very hard proportionately, which is a real cluster of people living on top of each other, not always in the best of conditions:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-52435463

Similarly, it's not hitting Africa very hard proportionately (with millions living on top of each other - sometimes in terrible conditions) except for South Africa which - surprise surprise - is a more temperate climate:

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/coronavirus-what-does-covid-19-still-have-in-store-for-africa/

Maybe those numbers are due to a lack of reporting cases? However, perhaps it's just not hitting those regions as hard as more temperate ones?

Perhaps it will die down as things warm up and it gets more sunny in some of the hard-hit areas across the World in the Northern Hemisphere?

.... however, similarly we are probably in for a helluva ride next Flu Season (Fall and Winter months) for Wave Two ?

Fair enough. But...

We may not have subways, but plenty of busses, crowded bars, schools, airports, restaurants, sporting events, beaches, and of course places like this with people from every part of the world including China, that even on the coldest and rainy winter days, looked pretty much the same. All going day and night all year long.

Total recorded cases in Orange County with a population of 3 million, 2393 with now 45 deaths. Surrounding counties similar except LA with now a total of 1100 deaths. LA county population- 10 million.
fb546506852f41af58e428347f25a6e1 (resized).jpg

Yeah, that's a very interesting side effect of all this.

3lrdxilf6yv41 (1) (resized).jpg

All except that some of the states keep getting second guessed. I felt sorry for the governor of Georgia.

Having the homeless use motels keeps them social distanced right now, and provides income to the motels because the state is subsidizing them. It is a win/win for the current situation and I believe it is one of the reasons why the disease has not spread even more in California.

In Fresno, we have many beds in shelters that go unused. The reason: Homeless are not allowed to bring drugs or alcohol into the facility. Our mayor, police chief, and recovered addicts did a short public announcement video explaining the homeless problem.

Finding a better management and treatments for mental illnesses and addiction would cut the need for facilities, just like California's management of the Corona Virus has cut the need for the make shift hospitals created by the Army Corp. of Engineers.

Michigan protests on Thursday to open up.

BCF05974-8CB9-4089-85D9-349B8E751CD2 (resized).jpeg

Ya know, I really like it the way it is now.

Fresh air every day, people not racing up and down my street to get to work, or drop kids off at school. The leaf blowers being essential as the are, aren't even bothering me as much now.

It all comes down to there are way too many people in the world and a lot of unessential things to give them work or a paycheck week after week.

What thinning of the population this pandemic won't do, if we go back to screwing with mother nature like we used to which is inevitable, it is my belief she will be serving up much stronger medicine with the next one. And it won't be another 100 years until it arrives. More like less than 10. Probably closer to 5.

How to get people to stop social distancing at many of our fine beaches?

The answer must be to close them.

6143327_050120-kabc-hb-crowd (resized).jpg

I'm not sure where you're going with this but there are plenty of places on the Earth where this is an everyday occurrence...

Love those guys!

If I get COVID-19+ I want them to carry my coffin from the refrigerated semi-trailer to the mass grave down by the river.

Ca some body tell me how those Michigan idiots manage to get into a courthouse with assault weapons? If I walked into either county courthouse or the Federal Courthouse across the packing any kind of heat, even a BB gun, I would be on the ground in handcuffs.

Nobody walks in LA

Reading this thread and contrasting with pinball machines being offered *and* sold for 17K is just disturbing for me.

Quite the 2 different realities, the disparity in the US has never been higher???

Great thread, anyway.