The CDC sent kits out to all the states to test patients for the coronavirus, but some of the kits don't work. The CDC is scrambling to fix this, but in the meantime samples have to go to Atlanta.
Trump has cut the CDC budget, shut down labs, and not filled important positions relating to infectious diseases. That the Democrats are not making hay out this is a sign we are a doomed party. The Rs would, if the shoe was on the other foot.
My anxiety about the flu is rising. I think it got worse last year after one of my favorite authors died in her mid-30s of the flu.
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While we all always get a flu shot each year, I never really worry about it as a major concern--I had never in my life met anyone who had the flu and this year alone we directly know 6 people who have had it. So last week when S was sick with a high fever I actually took him in to get swabbed. So glad that he did not have it (though there are 3 confirmed cases in his class!)
Trump has cut the CDC budget, shut down labs, and not filled important positions relating to infectious diseases. That the Democrats are not making hay out this is a sign we are a doomed party. The Rs would, if the shoe was on the other foot.
China also won't let the CDC in to help, and I have to wonder if that would be the case under any other presidency. They probably think Trump would turn around and send them a bill.
Trump has cut the CDC budget, shut down labs, and not filled important positions relating to infectious diseases. That the Democrats are not making hay out this is a sign we are a doomed party. The Rs would, if the shoe was on the other foot.
I’m fearful he’s going to use the virus as an excuse to postpone/cancel the election, if it stretches past the summer.
Trump has cut the CDC budget, shut down labs, and not filled important positions relating to infectious diseases. That the Democrats are not making hay out this is a sign we are a doomed party. The Rs would, if the shoe was on the other foot.
I’m fearful he’s going to use the virus as an excuse to postpone/cancel the election, if it stretches past the summer.
He can’t cancel elections. They are run by the states.
I just finished the Netflix series "Pandemic." It didn't necessarily make me more scared of coronavirus, but definitely has made me more scared of the flu in general and I will be way more vocal about the flu shot to my friends and family next year. (I already get it due to work/state laws.)
I've come home extremely sick from two vacations (stomach viruses) and this thread really opened my eyes to how easily that can happen. Both times I didn't come down with anything until a day or two after landing. Coincidentally, I had to go to my first class of my infectious disease epidemiology class one of those times.
Is an airplane really that much worse than any other random thing that we touch, like elevator buttons, etc?
I think the length of time on a plane might have some impact on my exposure. It seems logical to think that sitting near someone who is sick for 3 hours as opposed to 45 seconds on an elevator might be the tipping point as far as breathing in enough pathogens.
Is an airplane really that much worse than any other random thing that we touch, like elevator buttons, etc?
I think the length of time on a plane might have some impact on my exposure. It seems logical to think that sitting near someone who is sick for 3 hours as opposed to 45 seconds on an elevator might be the tipping point as far as breathing in enough pathogens.
I think she was referring more to people wiping off the tray tables and stuff. But I still don't think it's a good comparison because you're probably not doing too much else with your hands in an elevator, but on an airplane you will be reading/using your computer/iPad and touching your own stuff/putting it on the tray table, etc and it's not easy to get up and wash your hands. So I while I've never actually remembered to bring wipes to do it, I understand the idea of it.
We continue to have a trickle of cases every few days here in Seoul, it’s definitely not gaining in momentum. What I find kind of odd, though, are the updates we get from my kids’ school. Their risk assessment meets daily regarding corona virus. This includes the head of school, medical director and the 4 principals for each unit. They also conference call with the other foreign schools in Seoul as well as an infectious disease doctor from the University Hospital that shares a piece of property with my kids school. They also get daily advisories from the Ministry of Health’s office. So, really, it seems like a lot of overkill for something that isn’t hitting us all that hard at the moment.
We started out in January closing all events to just students and parents. No grandparents or other guests were allowed at a school play that took place right after Lunar New Year. All international sporting competitions were cancelled but they still had inter-Korea events. Field trips were cancelled on a week by week basis.
But in yesterday’s update, they pretty much cancelled everything through April 1. Nobody but students and staff allowed on campus. No PTA meetings, the next school play will only be for a student audience, (live streamed for parents to watch online), all sports events against other schools have been cancelled (kids have practice and their season will be made up of inter-school games played in front of no spectators) they are looking for an alternate way to conduct parent teacher conferences, etc. The wording of the email was “upon guidance from SMOE (the ministery) and Severance (the university hospital), we anticipate further impact on our community and will communicate any additional changes to the schedule.
Doesn’t that seem weird for something that, at the moment, is not getting any worse? It makes me wonder what the ministery of health knows that they are sharing with the school. I find this whole update very odd.
4speedy, I would assume that their overabundance of caution is born out of familiarity with the Chinese government's propensity to hide problems as long as they can, and not that there's actually a secret outbreak in South Korea.
Post by aprilsails on Feb 13, 2020 19:14:44 GMT -5
My Mom (virologist) conformed that they are also having issues testing for the virus with the kits in Canada, so all samples are now being double checking at the main lab in Winnipeg.
WHO has appointed a very capable Canadian doctor to lead the way in China. My Mom was very encouraged about this since she has worked with him before on Ebola.
Unfortunately she still thinks this disease will ultimately go global. She thinks the attempts at containment will amount to human rights violations and will only slow the inevitable movement of the virus. To some extent she thinks it will ultimately be fairly mild, and that more effort should be put towards getting oxygen treatment measures in place in hospitals than in attempting quarantines.
She’s also reading research about vaccine development. Hopefully those come through quickly.
Post by basilosaurus on Feb 13, 2020 20:29:43 GMT -5
4speedy, it's definitely slowed in Thailand. However, Singapore has picked up quite a bit. I'm thinking they're looking not just at your local area but potential for spread based on lots of different sources of data. No one wants to say "well, in hindsight, maybe we should have canceled the school play."
aprilsails, thank you for your updates. I (not a medical person at all!) also dn't see how it can really be contained - I think international spread will happen. My concern is, as always, for those persons without access to decent healthcare around the world as those are the populations it will hit the hardest.
I feel like the extent to which it goes global depends heavily on how well they can keep it contained/limited in spread until the weather changes. IF, like people seem to be hoping, it's vulnerable to warmer weather in the same way that other common viruses are.
I dunno. SARS was a coronavirus, it was contained after an initial outbreak that spread on a limited basis globally, and then it basically disappeared. The outbreak was in 2003 and the CDC says there haven't been any new cases anywhere since 2004.
So will COVID-19 be like that, or is it going to be more like a new flu variant where it comes back year after year? No idea. But I'm supposed to have another work trip at the end of March and I'm going to buy a refundable ticket just in case, even though it's a domestic flight, because there's no way to know where things will be in a month's time.
Patrick Poon, a researcher at Amnesty International, said it was still unclear whether Chen or Fang "were taken away by police or placed under 'forced quarantine'".
My H showed me the video of the body bags in the van and we both said it was just a matter of time until the guy who filmed it got arrested. It's possible that both of these journalists actually got sick, but it's also terrifying to think how easily the government could arrest dissidents under the guise of quarantine.
litebright Unfortunately Wuhan is in a region that already has spring-like temperatures. They don't have defined seasons to the extreme that New England might.
litebright Unfortunately Wuhan is in a region that already has spring-like temperatures. They don't have defined seasons to the extreme that New England might.
But is it a relative change in temp or humidity levels compared to the rest of the year?
We still very much have flu season here in SoCal even though the temp difference is minimal. the air is dryer which I’ve read may also contribute (though much of this seems theory based)
litebright Unfortunately Wuhan is in a region that already has spring-like temperatures. They don't have defined seasons to the extreme that New England might.
But is it a relative change in temp or humidity levels compared to the rest of the year?
We still very much have flu season here in SoCal even though the temp difference is minimal. the air is dryer which I’ve read may also contribute (though much of this seems theory based)
Wuhan is a very humid area all year-round. It's on both the Yangtze and a large lake. When DH and I lived there (15 years ago), winters were wet and summers felt like you were breathing in steam.
4speedy , I would assume that their overabundance of caution is born out of familiarity with the Chinese government's propensity to hide problems as long as they can, and not that there's actually a secret outbreak in South Korea.
Oh, I wasn’t thinking there was a secret outbreak. I was actually more interested with the university’s info rather than the government. I was wondering if they had determined there was actually a longer incubation period that would indicate more people are walking around and spreading it than realize, or maybe more people are “symptomless” than realized. I wondered if they had some models that showed an explosion in cases was inevitable, not that they are hiding cases here in Korea.
Also, I have debated the meaning of the phrase ‘further impact.” I am wondering if they mean “continued impact of the same degree” or if they mean “additional impact”. It could be interpreted either way.
4speedy Has life changed much in South Korea outside of the restrictions on who can attend school events? I've noticed a few news articles about a cluster outbreak stemming from a woman who attended a large church.
4speedy I wanted to check in on you since the most recent update. How are you and your family? My husband was driving for work to Daegu last week so we are a little anxious/nervous. I'm following coronamap.site/ for the latest updates/reports.
4speedy Has life changed much in South Korea outside of the restrictions on who can attend school events? I've noticed a few news articles about a cluster outbreak stemming from a woman who attended a large church.
Are they reporting in the US that the woman attended a large church? Because the Korean government actually classifies that church as a cult. The woman was actually escorted to the hospital twice and she left twice because she thought medical intervention undermined her faith in Jesus. We are 14 hours ahead so when you wrote your post to me, I think it was my Friday evening. When I woke up this morning, 142 additional cases had been confirmed during the previous 12 hours and between 9am and 4 pm today, another 87 cases beyond that had been confirmed. The vast majority of cases are linked to the cult and it’s vicinity as well as the nearby hospital.
I typed a much longer response to you this afternoon but GBCN ate it. The short answer is yes, we are not quarantined but the school is locked down as tight as can be to even parent visitors. Pretty much just students and staff are allowed in the doors. They are carrying on with plays, events, etc. but pretty much for kids only and they are live-streaming whatever they can. Things have changed day by day as it has progressed. It’s been really interesting as far as the daily changes and how we are noticing the effects. I live in Seoul, which is 3 hours away from Daegu which is where the outbreak is. So we are not in any immediate danger but the attitude in the city has definitely changed from wondering if it will spread to making plans for when it does spread.
One of the first things the Korean government did is discontinue intakes of newly enlisted into the military. They are trying to keep themselves self contained at the moment. There is mandatory 21 months of service here for all Korean men, the turnover is nearly constant. So with nobody new entering the service, they need to keep all positions filled so therefore, nobody is allowed to leave the service either. My DH works with a man whose son was supposed to be discharged this week but he’s been to,d he is in the army until further notice.
The US Department of State is supposed to provide information (we’re registered with the State Department as American civilians living overseas) as far as translating instructions from the Korean CDC, etc. we have received not even one single word from them. The US Embassy in Korea has posted information on their webpage but only in Korean. (So that’s real helpful.). We thankfully have a number of friends who are military contractors with the US Department of Defense, so they have been forwarding information to us as far as which district health department foreigners should report to if we have any symptoms.
4speedy I wanted to check in on you since the most recent update. How are you and your family? My husband was driving for work to Daegu last week so we are a little anxious/nervous. I'm following coronamap.site/ for the latest updates/reports.
Actually, I have been thinking about you all day—you’re closer to it than we are. Someone at my DH’s office reported to the heaalth office with symptoms on Thursday afternoon so the entire company was sent home at 3 pm. (There’s probably 2000 employees at his employer between several connected buildings). Around midnight they received a message that the employee tested negative so he was able to go back to work on Friday. If not, our whole family would have been self quarantined for 14 days. So we finally had to make a concrete plan as far as what we would do if we could not go grocery shopping, etc. for two weeks.
4speedy You're right. Late last night I read a new update that it was now being classified as a cult. Initially they made it sound like one of those mega nondenominational Christian churches. The storyline is definitely changing. They said people attending services were not allowed to wear masks!
If you have to self quarantine, can you receive grocery deliveries?
4speedy I wanted to check in on you since the most recent update. How are you and your family? My husband was driving for work to Daegu last week so we are a little anxious/nervous. I'm following coronamap.site/ for the latest updates/reports.
Actually, I have been thinking about you all day—you’re closer to it than we are. Someone at my DH’s office reported to the heaalth office with symptoms on Thursday afternoon so the entire company was sent home at 3 pm. (There’s probably 2000 employees at his employer between several connected buildings). Around midnight they received a message that the employee tested negative so he was able to go back to work on Friday. If not, our whole family would have been self quarantined for 14 days. So we finally had to make a concrete plan as far as what we would do if we could not go grocery shopping, etc. for two weeks.
I am glad it came back negative and all is clear at your DHs work. That is really scary. I'm glad you're getting a plan in place. We are preparing the same way and I stocked up a small bit this last shopping trip on canned goods. These cases are getting too close for comfort and I'm getting more concerned since the latest is 10 mins from my apartment.
I'm on my phone but in the morning I'll send you a PM of resources I follow for updates and the foreigner numbers I have. We were told to call the numbers to see what hospitals are opened before going since smaller hospitals that couldn't handle quarantining patients are closing.