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Showing posts from March, 2020

Dr. Fauci Reports That Alcohol May Help People Survive Coronavirus Briefings | The Borowitz Report

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Fauci changes Trump's Twitter Password.  “I was just waiting for the right opportunity.”   During the daily meeting of the   coronavirus   task force, the esteemed virologist noticed that, while Trump launched into an extended rant about former   Vice-President Joe Biden , he left his phone unattended on the conference-room table. Springing into action, Fauci surreptitiously took custody of Trump’s phone and changed his Twitter password in a matter of seconds. “I’d never hacked into a Twitter account before,” he said. “My heart was beating like a rabbit’s.” Fauci said that there was “little to no chance” of Trump being able to guess his new password. “I used a polysyllabic word,” Fauci said. C.D.C. Director Says Coronavirus Effort Could Be Helped by Quarantining Pence The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday that significant progress in battling the coronavirus could be achieved by today's  blog is a parody of curre...

Coronavirus: Italy's hardest-hit city wants you to see how COVID-19 is affecting its hospitals | World News | Sky News

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World News | Sky News : Coronavirus: Italy's hardest-hit city wants you to see how COVID-19 is affecting its hospitals.    The sheer number of people succumbing to the coronavirus is overwhelming every hospital in northern Italy.  The sheer number of people succumbing to the coronavirus is overwhelming every hospital in northern Italy. The staff  frantically wave us out of the way, pushing gurneys carrying men and women on mobile respirators - it's not chaos, but it is hectic. Masked, gloved and in a hazmat suit, my team and I are led through corridors full of gasping people who look terribly ill. The sheer number of people succumbing to the coronavirus is overwhelming every hospital in northern Italy - and it could easily overwhelm the rest of the country as well.  In groups, they crowd around the latest patients. Attaching monitors, drips and most importantly respirators. Without them, the patients will simply go downhill fast. Really fast....

Cepheid wins 1st FDA nod for point-of-care coronavirus test |

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One of the most powerful engines in the United States is public-private collaboration. The symbiosis of government authority and funding along with the entrepreneurial motivation of industry leads to extraordinary results.  We saw this same occurrence. World War II when production facilities transitioned in a very short time to war output. Factories in Detroit, MI shut down automobile assembly lines to begin producing tanks, and jeeps. Clinical laboratories and medical device manufacturers are tapping into today's high-speed broadband to accelerate testing for COVID-19.  Every great challenge mobilizes great advances in technology, production, and human interaction The FDA has granted the use of the Cepheid   POS (point of service) for a variety of diseases, Critical Infectious Diseases such as those listed here can be tested in hospital and clinic without waiting for the return of results. Xpert Xpress SARS-CoV-2 (EUA), Covid-19 Xpert Xpress Strep A Xpert Xpress Fl...

Coronavirus pandemic could last over 18 months, according to a federal plan

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The next year and a half could include "multiple waves of illness." The coronavirus pandemic could last over 18 months, according to a 100-page federal government response plan recently shared with The New York Times. The next year and a half could include "multiple waves of illness," according to the document. "The spread and severity of COVID-19 will be difficult to forecast and characterize."  What's more, increasing COVID-19 cases in the U.S. will mean more hospitalizations among at-risk people, which could strain the health care system, they wrote. The document, dated March 13, is marked as "unclassified" but "for Official Use Only," and "Not For Public Distribution or Release."  In the document, officials explore responses that the government could take in response to the outbreak, including steps already taken such as shutting down schools and invoking the Defense Production Act of 1950, a law dating back to the Kor...

Researchers in US give first shot to person in experimental COVID-19 vaccine test, Health News, ET HealthWorld

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According to a report by the Associated Press (AP), scientists at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Research Institute in Seattle begin an 'anxiously awaited testing As coronavirus cases continue to shoot up across the globe, researchers in the US gave first shot to the first person in a test of an experimental COVID-19 vaccine on Monday. Forty-three-year-old Jennifer Haller of Seattle, an operations manager at a tech company, received the injection inside an exam room. Haller, the mother of two teenagers, termed it an "amazing opportunity" for her to "do something". The said 'vaccine', codenamed mRNA-1273, was developed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Massachusetts-based biotechnology company Moderna Inc. More than 1,50,000 people have been infected worldwide by the virus which originated in China last December and has claimed the lives of over 6,500 people. "We are team coronavirus now. Everyone wants to do what they can in this emer...

Mapping the Coronavirus Outbreak Across the World

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                            The coronavirus outbreak is now a pandemic, the World Health Organization declared on March 11, as global confirmed cases of Covid-19 now surpass 200,000 worldwide. The outbreak has spread from the Chinese city of Wuhan in late January to countries and territories—affecting every continent except Antarctica—in the course of a month. Cases in Europe now exceed the number in China. Efforts to prevent the pneumonia-like illness from spreading further have led to shuttered cities, widespread flight cancellations and shaken financial markets. Updated March 20,2020 256,689  Confirmed cases worldwide 10,368 Deaths Where          Deaths           Cases Italy 3,405 41,035 Mainland China 3,248 80,967 Iran 1,284 18,407 Spain 1,002 19,980 France 450 12,612 U.S. 206 15,973 U.K. 177 3,983 Netherlands 106 2,994 South Korea 91 8,565 ...

Social Distancing: This is Not a Snow Day - Ariadne Labs - Medium

 I know there is some confusion about what to do next in the midst of this unprecedented time of a pandemic, school closures, and widespread social disruption.   Things are changing quickly as public health officials, state governments and local cities struggle to keep up with changing guidelines.  Driving this chaotic evolution is the fear of not having adequate beds, and ventilators to treat those who have life-threatening pneumonia. Covid-19 is not influenza, as we have come to realize now that autopsies reveal the extent of pulmonary damage.  Today is March 21, 2020, just 8 days after this article, "Social Distancing: This is Not a Snow Day " was published on Medium. Since then it has become a global pandemic spreading across Europe, Italy and the Americas with the two largest cities in the U.S. heavily impacted (New York City) and Los Angeles. At this point there is open-ended guidance to shelter at home, most businesses are closed, theaters dark, and only ...

Infographic: The History of Pandemics, by Death Toll

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The history of pandemics, from the Antonine Plague to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) event, ranked by their impact on human life. The History of Pandemics Pan·dem·ic /panĖˆdemik/ (of a disease) prevalent over a whole country or the world. As humans have spread across the world, so have infectious diseases. Even in this modern era, outbreaks are nearly constant, though not every outbreak reaches pandemic level as the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) has. Today’s visualization outlines some of history’s most deadly pandemics, from the Antonine Plague to the current COVID-19 event. A Timeline of Historical Pandemics Disease and illnesses have plagued humanity since the earliest days, our mortal flaw. However, it was not until the marked shift to agrarian communities that the scale and spread of these diseases increased dramatically. Widespread trade created new opportunities for human and animal interactions that sped up such epidemics. Malaria, tuberculosis, leprosy, influenza, smallpox, an...

JOIN THE COCHRANE CROWD AND CONTRIBUTE TO COVID-19 KNOWLEDGE BASE

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What is Cochrane? Cochrane has now developed a crowdsourcing   application available to anyone to report on new evidence. What is TaskExchange? TaskExchange connects people working in health evidence with people who have the time and skills to help. The Covid-19 pandemic provides an opportunity. While the impact is devastating and lethal to some people, at the same time it is a tragic battleground to be examined by clinicians and scientists.  Although in the coronavirus family, this new mutation is a novel and fresh organism, which has some very different pathophysiology from ordinary and historical seasonal corona influenza. The current protocols for prevention, diagnosis, containment, and beyond are based upon standard CDC guidelines, which have been used previously for  SARS, MERS, EBOLA, and AIDS (HIV).  We are especially fortunate that one of the members of the task f orce is Deborah Birx, M.D. who has a life-long interest and experience with the aforementioned...

Tracking COVID-19 IMPORTANT UPDATE

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BREAKING NEWS MAYOR WILLIAM DEBLASIO GAVE AN IMPASSIONED SPEECH TO NEW YORK CITY CITIZENS EXPRESSING HIS SEVERE DISAPPOINTMENT IN THE   FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.  HE REQUESTED ASSISTANCE FROM THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO MEET THE NEEDS OF NEW YORK CITY BY APRIL 2020.  HE STATED THAT SUPPLIES WOULD BE EXHAUSTED AT THAT TIME. HE EXPRESSED HIS FRUSTRATION AT THE PRESIDENT'S DELAY IN USING HIS ALREADY ESTABLISHED POWERS TO ENGAGE THE MILITARY AND THE VETERANS ADMINISTRATION HEALTH CARE SYSTEM, AS WELL AS DOD TRANSPORTATION ASSETS TO DISTRIBUTE HEALTH-RELATED MATERIALS.  DEBLASIO ALSO SAID. THE PRESIDENT HAS THE POWER TO DIRECT MANUFACTURERS TO DO WHATEVER IS NECESSARY TO MEET THE NEEDS OF THE PEOPLE, INCLUDING DIVERTING MANUFACTURING FACE MASK, SURGICAL GOWNS, AND OTHER PROTECTIVE GEAR. Major hospital and medical groups called for Congress to provide $100 billion in direct assistance to front-line healthcare workers and hospitals so they can get ready for the influx of COVID...