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You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / COVID-19 Coronavirus Update – Saturday/Sunday, 2/29-3/1

COVID-19 Coronavirus Update – Saturday/Sunday, 2/29-3/1

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Excellent advice:


I’m no virology expert, but I am someone with anxiety issues. I do this update once a day so that I, and you guys, don’t obsess over possibilities for the other 23 hours a day. If I see a tweet or a story that seems significant, I consciously set it aside, on the reasonable theory that either it’ll still be significant the next morning or else I’ve saved everybody another unnecessary adrenaline spike. There’s a lot of stuff to worry about these days; we need to pace ourselves.

Reader Interactions

35Comments

  1. 1.

    NotMax

    Nothing wrong with a sprinkle of anxiety, provided it is tempered with a cold shower of common sense. Crossing into panic is destructive to the self and to others.

  2. 2.

    Betty Cracker

    The Post story linked above is pretty good. It documents the Trump administration’s attempts to gaslight us, whereas many outlets are giving them a pass.

    Trump flat-out lied about the actions he took prior to the community outbreak, telling one set of lies Wednesday and another set yesterday. Pence repeated Trump’s lies on both occasions. Azar lied yesterday too, though he was weaselly enough in his wording that he’ll be able to walk it back if there’s ever anything as sane and necessary as hearings to investigate the rank incompetence in how this public health emergency is/was handled.

  3. 3.

    YY_Sima Qian

    My first comment ever on Balloon Juice was sharing my dad’s experience on the very first evac flight from Wuhan. Between the repeated delays, the three changes in final destination within 24 hours, and the then voluntary three day quarantine upon reaching American shores (a decision apparently driven by cost considerations), I knew the Trump administration’s response to COVID-19 would be characterized by incompetence and incoherence. I was also dismayed by the indication that even a technocratic organization like the CDC has been compromised by the three years of Trumpian cancer.

    I am still glad that he made it out, since Wuhan in late Jan. and most of Feb. was not a good place for someone in the most vulnerable cohort. However, had he stayed, and there is an evac flight to the US now, I would have advised him to stay put in Wuhan. My mom would certainly have been safer in Nanjing (no new cases in nearly two weeks), than in the US with community spread under the surface.

  4. 4.

    Brachiator

    UPDATE: Mike Pence will now appear on 3 Sunday shows (NBC, CNN, Fox Business)

    Fauci is not scheduled to appear at all.

    I guess it is a futile gesture to say that the networks should not have scheduled Pence, or that the first question should be, “Why are you here at all? Shouldn’t we be talking to the people who actually know something about this virus and the steps being taken to protect the public?”

  5. 5.

    Betty Cracker

    @YY_Sima Qian: Thank you for sharing your stories. I hope you and your family continue to stay safe.

    @Brachiator: That’s exactly what they need to be asking. The hosts should also explore the changing stories from press conferences just a few days apart, e.g., the timing and scope of the travel restrictions, etc. The admin is lying to us, and it would be journalistic malpractice to let that slide.

  6. 6.

    WereBear

    Journalistic malpractice is the New Normal. They keep running on their little wheels and scampering through the same habitrail tunnels. They will continue to do so even if the Kanamit aliens arrive and present us with the book, To Serve Man.

  7. 7.

    YY_Sima Qian

    Wuhan added 565 confirmed cases yesterday, an uptick from the 28th. 233 of the are from a one time update from the penitentiary system in the city. I guess data from the prisons are still being keyed into the national database. An unknown number are also from an outbreak in a nursing home, already under individual quarantine. 80 – 90% of the new confirmed cases are from suspect case pool, already under quarantine, finally registering a positive test result. Total stock of suspect cases continue to plunge, at 851 for all of China (the vast majority in Wuhan), and only added 132 new suspect cases yesterday. If the trend thold, even Wuhan should be showing rapid decline in new cases over the next week, barring further surprises from the penal system.

    Only 5 cases from Hubei ex-Wuhan, and 3 cases from China ex-Hubei.

    However, importation from overseas is becoming a new complication. Over the past four days, there have been four cases imported from Iran. Two tested positive upon reaching their final destination in Ningxia in northwestern China, having gotten through the airport in Shanghai and took an overnight train. Two cases had symptoms when they left Tehran, got through Beijing airport, took the bus to the high speed rail station, and were stopped there. All of them had overnight layovers in Moscow. Hope they have not created new clusters in their trail! Many Chinese expatriates, and some Korean nationals, have been fleeing Korea for cities all over China in the last few days, filling up every flight (though the number of flights is a fraction of pre-epidemic level). China will have to really tighten on the screening of incoming travelers at all points of entry, and be really rigorous with contact tracing. I think the CCP regime will certainly want to avoid having to declare large scale lock downs again. The social and economic cost is too high.

  8. 8.

    YY_Sima Qian

    Many Chinese accounts of infected persons (including those with pneumonia showing tell-tale signs on the CT) showing 3, 4, 5 negative results, before finally registering a positive. The longest I have heard of is 7 negative tests before a positive. Nasal and throat swabs are just not sensitive enough for some patients. Don’t rely on it alone! We have already seen that with evacuees from Wuhan, as well as the Diamond Princess.

  9. 9.

    dmsilev

    Mentioned last night that a big conference (over 10k people normally) I was supposed to attend tomorrow was suddenly cancelled because of the virus. I have a colleague who flew in from Japan yesterday, and later today he’s turning around and flying right back. He’s far from the only one in that situation. Cost aside, this sort of event isn’t great for the whole ‘try to localize the problem’ thing.

  11. 11.

    Ken

    Mike Pence will now appear on 3 Sunday shows

    I wish I knew more about social networking stuff.  I want to get people saying “I was worried when I thought Trump was in charge, but now that he’s delegated it to Pence we should be OK.”

    The idea: Trump freaks because he’s a narcissist and “takes charge” from Pence.  One or two days hours later he gets bored and stops paying attention. The professionals at NIH and CDC are able to work without our homegrown Lysenkos interfering.

  13. 13.

    Shalimar

    I am now operating from the assumption that Trump and his cronies have been replaced by aliens who don’t understand human behavior.

    1. They apparently can’t tell the difference between human males and females
    2.  Their leader dry-humps flags
    3.  His translator appears to be broken, constantly repeating the same stories and phrases over and over and over
  14. 14.

    Percysowner

    Here I will point out that one of the issues with Medicare for All is that Medicare doesn’t cover all vaccines. I had to pay close to $350 for the new Shingles vaccine, because it’s not covered. Flu, covered, boosters, covered, Shingrex not fully and not covered at all until I make my prescription deductible. I would bet that this new vaccine won’t be covered as well, although maybe if it falls into the “flu” category it will be? If it doesn’t, the population most vulnerable to this disease may also not be able to afford the vaccine. I suppose that’s one way to weed out the aging Republican base, but it shouldn’t happen.

    This is just a note that anyone who wants Medicare for all needs to think about making sure that Medicare meets the standards that are required for insurance under Obamacare .

  15. 15.

    Barb 2

    I have been following the White house/Trump response and then the updates from the three West coast states. Often the first cities travelers from Asia touch base is the West coast. I did not have a good morning when I learned that the first US death was in Washington State. Suburban area North of Seattle and a cluster of positive test result in a suburban area South of Seattle.

    I am relying on information and advice from medical experts not aligned with the CDC, FDA but rather medical and scientists on the State level. Both WA and .CA have excellent medical schools and Democratic Governors, and Health Advisors.

    Anyway as a result of the lack of Covid-19 test kits and the refusal of the CDC and FDA to allow suspected cases of Covid-19 to be tested unless they met tight criteria only 500+? were tested.  My guess is that political appointees were/are making the decisions. All three western states now have one of more community based cases (don’t know where the f*ck the patient became infected.

    Oh and Trump wants to block information about the spread of Covid-19 – briefing to Congress was top secret. Sure sound like the Trumpian form of government is Authoritarian dictatorship.

    so The first death is not that far from where I live as the Sea gull flies. I live in a rural area and don’t get out often. So I’m not worried – yet. I expect that as this Covid-19 virus spreads more of you will feel the same shock as it hits your state. The hell of it is that without mass testing we have no idea how far the virus has spread and how far into each community it has spread. Thanks to poor decisions made by political appointees.

    As the medical professionals say – wash your hands, don’t touch your face and don’t shake hands.

  16. 16.

    ziggy

    The situation here in Western Washington is a mess, but I won’t discuss that further.

    I don’t feel particularly anxious, but I guess I am, as I didn’t sleep well last night. I’m not afraid of the virus, seems like a bad flu. But I’m concerned about how this crazy administration will handle the situation, and the effects on the local businesses.

  17. 17.

    Barb 2

    @ziggy: We are lucky Jay Inslee is our Governor. He has declared a state of emergency with will speed up supplies etc plus the National Guard can be call on th assist if needed. Jay was my Congressional Rep for years before becoming Governor. So he knows how the Washington DC politics work.

    People are scared. And that reflects on Trump poor leadership.

  18. 18.

    Geminid

    My understanding is that HHS had a vendor produce a crappy Covid-19 test instead of using the available test developed by the WHO. This begs the questions of who was the vendor and what were the circumstances. Was it another one of the many alligators Trump has brought  to “drain the swamp”? I expect news reporters and Congress members to follow the money on this one.

  19. 19.

    RoonieRoo

    Anne Laurie, I appreciate the morning round up as this allows me to do exactly what you intended and lets me get info and then on with my day.

    One thing that pissed me off yesterday is that people have bought up all the little alcohol wipes I use in my blood sugar testing kit.  As a diabetic I want to say that people who are buying those in a panic suck. Just saying.

  20. 20.

    Mousebumples

    @Percysowner:  To offer some insight into why… Medicare A/B (doctor & hospital coverage) only covers the flu and pneumonia shots. That’s a carryover from before Obamacare for sure, and it possibly predates Medicare Part D. (I wasn’t working in a pharmacy when that was passed under the Bush admin)

    The other vaccines are typically covered in the pharmacy benefit, which means typical copays and deductibles apply. Ideally, Obamacare would have addressed this inconsistency between Medicare & the then-new Commercial vaccination coverage rules, and it probably would have been fixed if congress had managed to pass any fixes. (eg if the gop wasn’t focused on trying to burn everything down)

    I know when I had been working at walgreens, I’d often have Medicare patients come by at the end of the year to see what vaccines they could get with their flu shot. Their deductible had been met and some had moved into catastrophic coverage due to their drug expenses to that point.

  22. 22.

    frosty

    @Percysowner: I was puzzled because my second Shingrex shot was covered and I’m on Medicare. Turns out I got the shot 5 days before dropping employer insurance and switching over.

  23. 23.

    Laura Too

    @Barb 2: I am off to Seattle next Thursday and am heartened by the fact that your government is proactive. I appreciate the candor vs. the cover up. I am a bit concerned in MN that we have only tested 3 people (though there may be more & I just haven’t heard) and we have no positives. Hard to believe with such a mobile population, lots of students, busy airport, etc. That said, it is winter & who wants to come here now!

  25. 25.

    piratedan

    as an add-on as to why it takes a few days to determine a positive result, I thought I would add this…. my bonafides are that I work in laboratory software functionality and in the US Hospitals that I have worked at, flu testing is a somewhat specialized event, namely not every hospital has the capacity or means to have in-house testing set up for testing for the Flu.  In each hospital organization that I have worked for, there’s one facility (many times not even in network), that handles all of that testing and the turn around for results of this kind of testing usually runs two to three days (at a minimum) because of the amount of time it takes the virus to manifest itself in the culture media.  I would imagine that since this flavor of the disease is new, the amount of facilities that have a solid testing methodology is limited, as an understanding of the disease is still being developed. It takes time to grow these bugs and properly identify them and in some cases, have properly trained people in place to confirm it upon testing.

    The organization that I work for, has a naming convention and ordering and treatment protocol in place, and I would like to think that a majority of hospital organizations have done so, what is likely to be an issue is that a reference laboratory that would normally run a few hundred specimens twice a week is now going to have to ramp up and be running these items daily (i’m thinking thousands) and will need to have media and reagents in stock to do so.

  26. 26.

    Percysowner

    @Mousebumples: That makes sense. Although I have prescriptions, I rarely meet my deductible, so I had to pay for my Shingrex shots. I’m lucky about the deductible part, of course, but annoyed about having to pay for the shingles.

  28. 28.

    opiejeanne

    @RoonieRoo: I bought the last box of those little alcohol wipes at my Costco, and now I have about 18 months worth, because Costco bundles them together in a package of 4 boxes of 100. I just wanted one box.

    If you can’t get them, get in touch with me through Anne Laurie and I’ll ship you a box.

  30. 30.

    Laura Too

    @opiejeanne: I thought that was what I read. That is going to overwhelm the process we haven’t really even started yet…My heart hurts for the professionals who must be so frustrated. And for the people in China who sacrificed so much.

  34. 34.

    piratedan

    @Laura Too: quite possible, as the bug is incubating, it may not give you a positive reading on the first pass because the infection levels are below the detection threshold and with the longer times for manifestation that appears to be a factor in this virus, you could probably have cold like symptoms for a bit before it “blossoms”, so to speak, with higher fever and mucus and respiratory impacts.

  35. 35.

    Laura Too

    @piratedan: That is helpful, the more I can inform myself about how it works the better I feel. It may not do me anymore good, but it makes me feel better. Thanks!

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