Wuhan virus (coronavirus) arrives in the USA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's already here and quite likely being spread. We will only know once we start being able to test people for the virus, which we are not doing much of.

"When pressed on when specifically the kits will be made available, Messonnier did not provide a date.

Currently, only 12 labs outside of the CDC—located in California, Illinois, Nebraska, Nevada, and Tennessee—have the capability to test for the virus. Peter Kyriacopoulos, the chief policy officer for APHL, told CIDRAP News the testing process could be dramatically shortened and expanded if 100 Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL)-member labs receive authorization to do their own tests."

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/02/cdc-warns-us-covid-19-spread-labs-frustrated-over-lack-tests

China is making the US look incompetent. It's embarrassing.

+1. We are supposed to be world leaders?

This is what you get when you elect a government that cares more about making money than it does about making people's lives better. The Trump administration has cut funding to the areas critical to managing a response to just this kind of crisis. It also ridicules those who want to take COVID-19 seriously and says everything is under control. I was OK with Trump being president when it seemed like he would keep things going for the country, even if he is a jerk, but this virus has the potential to do great harm and the White House has basically no response. It is more than embarrassing, it's dangerous and upsetting. I think the only reason he's said anything at all is due to the stock market slide, and then his response is, "Nothing to see here! Everything is fine!" Scary. I believe he won't allow the government to take the kind of steps needed to limit the damage, such as quarantine places, allow community testing, close businesses, because that will hurt his precious economy that he is so proud of (and did very little to build).

Having a president like this makes me realize what it is like to live in a country like Iran where information suppression is the norm and the government is NOT looking out for its people.

X million

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are up to 445 cases tested. How can that be?? https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-in-us.html
Does anybody have ideas how we could encourage the govn't to move forward with testing? It looks like labs and doctors are finally putting pressure on the CDC/FDA to allow for non-CDC test kits. Should we do the same? By contacting our senators or members of congress? Any concrete ideas? Test availability in mid-March (which is what I have heard repeatedly) is NOT acceptable. Recall that a month ago, the virus was just starting to explode in China, now it is has already started to blow up in many nations (and possibly here). I am sure Europe or South Korea will share their testing expertise.
We as a nation are completely left in the dark. I would almost find it almost reassuring to know if there are cases/clusters where I live. At least we would know to take precaution, events could be canceled, schools could be closed etc to slow the spread. America first? It looks more and more that America can count itself in the bottom of the world ranks in terms of preparing the nation.

Who exactly are they supposed to test? You seriously want the health dept to enter your children's schools and do mandatory testing on them all?

people with symptoms? Like when you feel like you might the flu, don't you go get a test to see if it's the flu?

Honestly? No. I stay at home, drink fluids, take cold/flu medicine and eat soup and saltine crackers. I don't go to the doctors office unless I have to. I would likely do the same with this virus.

We don't get tested either. Our co-pay is too high. Can't afford to take everyone to the doctor because we think they might have the fou.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are all these other countries testing and not us? Can someone help us understand the problem?

While I do feel that we could be testing more, I'm not sure where you would draw the line at this point. The symptoms are not so unique from many other illnesses currently going around, that I guess the CDC just decided unless you came from Hubei directly, it doesn't make sense. Because the alternative would probably turn into testing WAY too many people, running out of tests, etc. which would just drain the system too much.

Of course I'm not 100% sure if this is true, but I definitely don't think the answer is simply mass testing willy nilly.

We can't even do focused testing.

Right but if we had unlimited tests.... would we be doing more? Not sure.

Even if we had unlimited tests on hand, there is effort/cost to each test so we'd probably not test every single person in the US.

We could focus on healthcare workers or senior centers. We could sample within various metropolitan areas to identify outbreaks. Lots of options if we had them.

. Oh, good grief. We don't even do that for the common flu, measles, etc. Get a grip.

So you don't think we should test anyone ever?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are up to 445 cases tested. How can that be?? https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-in-us.html
Does anybody have ideas how we could encourage the govn't to move forward with testing? It looks like labs and doctors are finally putting pressure on the CDC/FDA to allow for non-CDC test kits. Should we do the same? By contacting our senators or members of congress? Any concrete ideas? Test availability in mid-March (which is what I have heard repeatedly) is NOT acceptable. Recall that a month ago, the virus was just starting to explode in China, now it is has already started to blow up in many nations (and possibly here). I am sure Europe or South Korea will share their testing expertise.
We as a nation are completely left in the dark. I would almost find it almost reassuring to know if there are cases/clusters where I live. At least we would know to take precaution, events could be canceled, schools could be closed etc to slow the spread. America first? It looks more and more that America can count itself in the bottom of the world ranks in terms of preparing the nation.

Who exactly are they supposed to test? You seriously want the health dept to enter your children's schools and do mandatory testing on them all?

They aren't testing because the administration wants to put its head in the sand. They think they can pretend the virus is not here if they don't test.

Test who???? Wouldn't the hospitals be reporting if people were suddenly dying from "colds" or an "unconfirmed virus"? It's not an issue because that isn't happening.

Yes, let's just wait until people start dying to realize that it's everywhere and not containable. Iran-style.

[Anonymous]

Georgia reports its first case, no further information.

Sweden and Finland are each reporting an Italy related case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are all these other countries testing and not us? Can someone help us understand the problem?

While I do feel that we could be testing more, I'm not sure where you would draw the line at this point. The symptoms are not so unique from many other illnesses currently going around, that I guess the CDC just decided unless you came from Hubei directly, it doesn't make sense. Because the alternative would probably turn into testing WAY too many people, running out of tests, etc. which would just drain the system too much.

Of course I'm not 100% sure if this is true, but I definitely don't think the answer is simply mass testing willy nilly.

We can't even do focused testing.

Right but if we had unlimited tests.... would we be doing more? Not sure.

Even if we had unlimited tests on hand, there is effort/cost to each test so we'd probably not test every single person in the US.

We could focus on healthcare workers or senior centers. We could sample within various metropolitan areas to identify outbreaks. Lots of options if we had them.

. Oh, good grief. We don't even do that for the common flu, measles, etc. Get a grip.

So you don't think we should test anyone ever?

We could at least test sick people who have any recent travel and who test negative for Strep and Flu. That would at least be a step in the right direction.

[Anonymous]

To the no testing person:

Let's say you are an ER doctor.

You have a patient with fever and other symptoms who has tested negative for flu. The patient tells you he just got back from skiing in northern Italy. You think the man should be tested for COVID-19. After several calls you are told that 1) a test kit would have to be sent from Atlanta, 2) then after the sample is taken it would have to be sent back to Atlanta, and 3) since the patient wasn't in Hubei they will not send you a kit.

You have an ER full of sick people. What do you do with this patient?

[Anonymous]

This is a good read, happy/sad story of an American man (who Have never been sick ) evacuated from Wuhan, endured quarantine, and how mean some people were to him.

Evacuated For COVID-19 Scare, Pennsylvania Man Reflects On Life After Quarantine

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/02/20/807867022/evacuated-for-covid-19-scare-pennsylvania-man-reflects-on-life-after-quarantine

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are up to 445 cases tested. How can that be?? https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-in-us.html
Does anybody have ideas how we could encourage the govn't to move forward with testing? It looks like labs and doctors are finally putting pressure on the CDC/FDA to allow for non-CDC test kits. Should we do the same? By contacting our senators or members of congress? Any concrete ideas? Test availability in mid-March (which is what I have heard repeatedly) is NOT acceptable. Recall that a month ago, the virus was just starting to explode in China, now it is has already started to blow up in many nations (and possibly here). I am sure Europe or South Korea will share their testing expertise.
We as a nation are completely left in the dark. I would almost find it almost reassuring to know if there are cases/clusters where I live. At least we would know to take precaution, events could be canceled, schools could be closed etc to slow the spread. America first? It looks more and more that America can count itself in the bottom of the world ranks in terms of preparing the nation.

Who exactly are they supposed to test? You seriously want the health dept to enter your children's schools and do mandatory testing on them all?

They aren't testing because the administration wants to put its head in the sand. They think they can pretend the virus is not here if they don't test.

Test who???? Wouldn't the hospitals be reporting if people were suddenly dying from "colds" or an "unconfirmed virus"? It's not an issue because that isn't happening.

That dying takes time. And in the middle of flu season, elderly people dying of pneumonia wouldn't raise a red flag, UNTIL there are enough deaths that it is impossible to ignore. Given the incubation period, the long time for symptoms to pneumonia and then death - that takes a lot of time. But that is precisely what the CDC/FDA are waiting for, as they don't think they can do contact tracing, interrupting transmission chains, follow up testing etc. They are waiting for the time when testing is useless as it has spread everywhere. Too bad if in the meantime, doctors and other patients are infected and opportunities to delay spread are missed.
S. Korea is now doing drive through testing apparently! What a fantastic idea to limit spread. And look at this quote http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20200225000788 "Five pneumonia patients in Daegu tested positive for the virus when authorities checked all 514 pneumonia patients in the city, according to health authorities."

[Anonymous]

New case in U.S., not from Wuhan evacuees or the Diamond princess, according to Azar.

“As of this morning, we still had only 14 cases of the novel coronavirus detected in the United States involved travel to or close contacts with travelers. Coming into this hearing, I was informed that we have a 15th confirmed case, the epidemiology of which we are still discerning,” Azar said.

https://www.cnn.com/asia/live-news/coronavirus-outbreak-02-26-20-intl-hnk/index.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's already here and quite likely being spread. We will only know once we start being able to test people for the virus, which we are not doing much of.

"When pressed on when specifically the kits will be made available, Messonnier did not provide a date.

Currently, only 12 labs outside of the CDC—located in California, Illinois, Nebraska, Nevada, and Tennessee—have the capability to test for the virus. Peter Kyriacopoulos, the chief policy officer for APHL, told CIDRAP News the testing process could be dramatically shortened and expanded if 100 Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL)-member labs receive authorization to do their own tests."

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/02/cdc-warns-us-covid-19-spread-labs-frustrated-over-lack-tests

China is making the US look incompetent. It's embarrassing.

+1. We are supposed to be world leaders?

This is what you get when you elect a government that cares more about making money than it does about making people's lives better. The Trump administration has cut funding to the areas critical to managing a response to just this kind of crisis. It also ridicules those who want to take COVID-19 seriously and says everything is under control. I was OK with Trump being president when it seemed like he would keep things going for the country, even if he is a jerk, but this virus has the potential to do great harm and the White House has basically no response. It is more than embarrassing, it's dangerous and upsetting. I think the only reason he's said anything at all is due to the stock market slide, and then his response is, "Nothing to see here! Everything is fine!" Scary. I believe he won't allow the government to take the kind of steps needed to limit the damage, such as quarantine places, allow community testing, close businesses, because that will hurt his precious economy that he is so proud of (and did very little to build).

Having a president like this makes me realize what it is like to live in a country like Iran where information suppression is the norm and the government is NOT looking out for its people.

X million

Fox News is burying Coronavirus coverage on its homepage, so I guess Fox Nation will go down first.

[Anonymous]

The image fof the evacuated guy
[img]
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/02/20/807867022/evacuated-for-covid-19-scare-pennsylvania-man-reflects-on-life-after-quarantine[/img]

[Anonymous]

Israel has the right idea. I wish we would do this.

https://www.cnn.com/asia/live-news/coronavirus-outbreak-02-26-20-intl-hnk/h_1c3ec3bb4083bacc672eb0f311796fc1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are all these other countries testing and not us? Can someone help us understand the problem?

While I do feel that we could be testing more, I'm not sure where you would draw the line at this point. The symptoms are not so unique from many other illnesses currently going around, that I guess the CDC just decided unless you came from Hubei directly, it doesn't make sense. Because the alternative would probably turn into testing WAY too many people, running out of tests, etc. which would just drain the system too much.

Of course I'm not 100% sure if this is true, but I definitely don't think the answer is simply mass testing willy nilly.

We can't even do focused testing.

Right but if we had unlimited tests.... would we be doing more? Not sure.

Even if we had unlimited tests on hand, there is effort/cost to each test so we'd probably not test every single person in the US.

We could focus on healthcare workers or senior centers. We could sample within various metropolitan areas to identify outbreaks. Lots of options if we had them.

. Oh, good grief. We don't even do that for the common flu, measles, etc. Get a grip.

So you don't think we should test anyone ever?

We could at least test sick people who have any recent travel and who test negative for Strep and Flu. That would at least be a step in the right direction.

Yes, it'd be nice to have the option of testing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's already here and quite likely being spread. We will only know once we start being able to test people for the virus, which we are not doing much of.

"When pressed on when specifically the kits will be made available, Messonnier did not provide a date.

Currently, only 12 labs outside of the CDC—located in California, Illinois, Nebraska, Nevada, and Tennessee—have the capability to test for the virus. Peter Kyriacopoulos, the chief policy officer for APHL, told CIDRAP News the testing process could be dramatically shortened and expanded if 100 Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL)-member labs receive authorization to do their own tests."

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/02/cdc-warns-us-covid-19-spread-labs-frustrated-over-lack-tests

China is making the US look incompetent. It's embarrassing.

+1. We are supposed to be world leaders?

This is what you get when you elect a government that cares more about making money than it does about making people's lives better. The Trump administration has cut funding to the areas critical to managing a response to just this kind of crisis. It also ridicules those who want to take COVID-19 seriously and says everything is under control. I was OK with Trump being president when it seemed like he would keep things going for the country, even if he is a jerk, but this virus has the potential to do great harm and the White House has basically no response. It is more than embarrassing, it's dangerous and upsetting. I think the only reason he's said anything at all is due to the stock market slide, and then his response is, "Nothing to see here! Everything is fine!" Scary. I believe he won't allow the government to take the kind of steps needed to limit the damage, such as quarantine places, allow community testing, close businesses, because that will hurt his precious economy that he is so proud of (and did very little to build).

Having a president like this makes me realize what it is like to live in a country like Iran where information suppression is the norm and the government is NOT looking out for its people.

X million

Fox News is burying Coronavirus coverage on its homepage, so I guess Fox Nation will go down first.

Yup. Lots of older people. Lots of smokers and people with poor health...