It may be time to note that countries that locked-down properly including New Zealand, Japan, and South Korea have effectively eliminated the virus. The schools are opened in these countries, all businesses are opened, the bars & nightclubs are full, and the economies have recovered. The only measure they have in place is the 14 day quarantine on incoming residents and a ban on incoming tourism. Shows the benefits of doing it right once -- with a properly lock-down and phased re-opening. These countries are the fastest to recover on the face of the globe.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/h...armongering-only-about-3-or-4-more-people-icu Houston Hospital Boss Shatters Media's COVID Fearmongering: "Only About 3 Or 4 More People In ICU" https://justthenews.com/politics-po...t-counting-every-covid-positive-hospital-case Texas hospital CEO: COVID inpatient count 'misinterpreted,' level of alarm 'unwarranted'
Thank you China!!! Keep em coming. We know you can do it. I said "China" because it is happening in China but I know. That's old school. If it jumps to humans (or more than it has already. those words "more infectious" sound a little suspicious to me) then we will be required to take the "China" references out. Not to worry. WHO is monitoring this. womp...womp...womp. "Pig farm workers also showed elevated levels of the virus in their blood, the authors said, adding that “close monitoring in human populations, especially the workers in the swine industry, should be urgently implemented”. China study warns of possible new 'pandemic virus' from pigs https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...le-new-pandemic-virus-from-pigs-idUSKBN2410BU
Yes.. the new swine flu is hte next pandemic threat.... ‘Pandemic potential’: New swine flu strain discovered in Chin https://www.nxsttv.com/nmw/news/pandemic-potential-new-swine-flu-strain-discovered-in-china/ A strain of swine flu that scientists fear has the potential to become a pandemic in humans has been identified in China. According to a report from the BBC, researchers are concerned the flu could mutate and easily spread from person to person. Right now, it’s carried by pigs but could infect humans, according to scientists. Experts say this strain has “all the hallmarks” of adapting to impact the human population. With it being a newer virus, people would likely have little to no immunity. “We just do not know a pandemic is going to occur until the damn thing occurs,” Robert Webster, an influenza investigator, told Science Magazine. “Will this one do it? God knows.” Scientists say G4 EA H1N1, which is the name of the new virus, could grow and multiply in human airways. They say the current flu vaccines don’t appear to protect against it, according to the BBC report. “Right now, we are distracted with coronavirus and rightly so. But we must not lose sight of potentially dangerous new viruses,” said Prof Kin-Chow Chang of Nottingham University in the UK in an interview with the BBC. Scientists wrote in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that it’s important to control the virus in pigs and monitor people who work with the animals. “From the data presented, it appears that this is a swine influenza virus that is poised to emerge in humans,” said Edward Holmes of University of Sydney, according to Science Magazine. “Clearly this situation needs to be monitored very closely.” The last major flu outbreak was the swine flu of 2009. That outbreak turned out to be less deadly than originally feared because many people had immunity to it, according to the BBC. Scientists wrote this new strain is similar to the 2009 version of the flu — but with just enough changes to make it problematic.
Indeed. They are clearly playing games and talking out the side of their mouths already on this. The BBC article says "right now it is carried by humans but could infect humans" but the Reuters article says "pig farm workers are showing elevated levels of the virus in their blood." Helloooooo.......elevated levels of the virus means that humans are already infected and the virus is busily learning to adapt to humans. This is Wuhan 2.0 where they play language games. The fact that human to human transmission is not occurring (even if one believes that) does not mean that humans are not infected. It means that they are infected and the virus is rapidly trying to figure out how to advance its game. You will know when and if there is any evidence that it is transmitting human to human because the Chinese will start saying that the virus was planted there by the American military. We know how the dance works.
Seems like the Republican party CEO supporter is full of shiat... maybe he needs to wake up and present the facts. The ICU beds in Houston have been well above 93% capacity for weeks where above 70% ICU capacity is considered critical. Houston Moves COVID-19 Patients to Other Cities: 'We Don't Have Capacity https://www.newsweek.com/houston-moves-covid-19-patients-other-cities-we-dont-have-capacity-1514600 With novel coronavirus cases in Texas approaching nearly 161,900, hospitals in Houston, the county seat of Harris County, are moving patients to facilities outside the city in a bid to cope with the surge in COVID-19-related cases and lack of beds. Harris Health System, which operates Houston's Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital and Ben Taub Hospital, has transferred patients to the University of Texas Medical Branch in the cities of Galveston and Conroe as well as the Woodlands community in a scramble to find beds for patients, Houston's ABC13 reported. Charlie McMurray-Horton, the associate administrator for clinical integration and transformation at Harris Health System, told ABC13: "We are actively trying to transfer out ICU [intensive care unit] and surge patients that are COVID positive and under investigation, just because we don't have the capacity to treat those patients. (More at above url)
US buys up world stock of key Covid-19 drug remdesivir No other country will be able to buy remdesivir, which can help recovery from Covid-19, for next three months at least https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/30/us-buys-up-world-stock-of-key-covid-19-drug The US has bought up virtually all the stocks for the next three months of one of the two drugs proven to work against Covid-19, leaving none for the UK, Europe or most of the rest of the world. Experts and campaigners are alarmed both by the US unilateral action on remdesivir and the wider implications, for instance in the event of a vaccine becoming available. The Trump administration has already shown that it is prepared to outbid and outmanoeuvre all other countries to secure the medical supplies it needs for the US. “They’ve got access to most of the drug supply [of remdesivir], so there’s nothing for Europe,” said Dr Andrew Hill, senior visiting research fellow at Liverpool University. Remdesivir, the first drug approved by licensing authorities in the US to treat Covid-19, is made by Gilead and has been shown to help people recover faster from the disease. The first 140,000 doses, supplied to drug trials around the world, have been used up. The Trump administration has now bought more than 500,000 doses, which is all of Gilead’s production for July and 90% of August and September. “President Trump has struck an amazing deal to ensure Americans have access to the first authorised therapeutic for Covid-19,” said the US health and human services secretary, Alex Azar. “To the extent possible, we want to ensure that any American patient who needs remdesivir can get it. The Trump administration is doing everything in our power to learn more about life-saving therapeutics for Covid-19 and secure access to these options for the American people.” The drug, which was trialled in the Ebola epidemic but failed to work as expected, is under patent to Gilead, which means no other company in wealthy countries can make it. The cost is around $3,200 per treatment of six doses, according to the US government statement. The deal was announced as it became clear that the pandemic in the US is spiralling out of control. Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading public health expert and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told the Senate the US was sliding backwards. “We are going in the wrong direction,” said Fauci. Last week the US saw a new daily record of 40,000 new coronavirus cases in one day. “I would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around,” he said. He could not provide an estimated death toll, but said: “It is going to be very disturbing, I guarantee you that.” The US has recorded more than 2.5 million confirmed cases of Covid-19. Some states lifted restrictions only to have to clamp down again. On Monday, the governor of Arizona ordered bars, cinemas, gyms and water parks to shut down for a month, weeks after they reopened. Texas, Florida and California, all seeing rises in cases, have also reimposed restrictions. Buying up the world’s supply of remdesivir is not just a reaction to the increasing spread and death toll. The US has taken an “America first” attitude throughout the global pandemic. In May, French manufacturer Sanofi said the US would get first access to its Covid vaccine if it works. Its CEO, Paul Hudson, was quoted as saying: “The US government has the right to the largest pre-order because it’s invested in taking the risk,” and, he added, the US expected that “if we’ve helped you manufacture the doses at risk, we expect to get the doses first”. Later it backtracked under pressure from the French government. Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau warned there could be unintended negative consequences if the US continued to outbid its allies. “We know it is in both of our interests to work collaboratively and cooperatively to keep our citizens safe,” he said. The Trump administration has also invoked the Defense Production Act to block some medical goods made in the US from being sent abroad. Nothing looks likely to prevent the US cornering the market in remdesivir, however. “This is the first major approved drug, and where is the mechanism for access?” said Dr Hill. “Once again we’re at the back of the queue.” The drug has been watched eagerly for the last five months, said Hill, yet there was no mechanism to ensure a supply outside the US. “Imagine this was a vaccine,” he said. “That would be a firestorm. But perhaps this is a taste of things to come.” Remdesivir would get people out of hospital more quickly, reducing the burden on the NHS, and might improve survival, said Hill, although that has not yet been shown in trials, as it has with the other successful treatment, the steroid dexamethasone. There has been no attempt to buy up the world’s stocks of dexamethasone because there is no need – the drug is 60 years old, cheap and easily available everywhere. Hill said there was a way for the UK to secure supplies of this and other drugs during the pandemic, through what is known as a compulsory licence, which overrides the intellectual property rights of the company. That would allow the UK government to buy from generic companies in Bangladesh or India, where Gilead’s patent is not recognised. The UK has always upheld patents, backing the argument of pharma companies that they need their 20-year monopoly to recoup the money they put into research and development. But other countries have shown an interest in compulsory licensing. “It is a question of what countries are prepared to do if this becomes a problem,” said Hill.
For Texas. Huh. Next 30 days seems fine for hospital overload. Next post will do specifically Houston.