First of all I live in America so getting tested isn’t exactly an option, even if you are sick. Second, don’t be a moron. Covid is the biggest global catastrophe since World War II. Be smart enough to understand the danger we are in and the historical implications.
The Brits are looking like they may have a doable at home antigen test coming relatively soon. This is big because it will help to understand how widespread the virus is and who has actually had the virus. Could really change the economic landscape pretty quickly once viable. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...home-testing-to-be-made-available-within-days
Germany proving the only way to effectively mitigate Covid right now is to test, test, test. It keeps the virus from spreading to the vulnerable populations and Germany’s mortality rate for Covid is 0.05%. (Also, Germany has a high smoking rate and average pre x population for you guys impacted by that stuff.) https://www.npr.org/2020/03/25/8205...witter.com&utm_term=nprnews&utm_medium=social
That article starts out better than it ends. Germany is doing well because they did well with the testing as long as they could but now that is being overwhelmed or projected to be. All of the early testing snafus being noted and excessively discussed, I would nevertheless not be surprised to see the Americans leapfrog ahead. There is the roll out of the new test that allows for results on-site withing 45 minutes. If the reliability of that is good and we get the volume up as needed then we are cooking with gas. You know, it has only been, what, about three weeks since the only way you could do a test was to have a CDC affiliated lab do it. Then the big move was to deploy that to private labs, Labcorps, Quest, etc, and to the state labs and add drive-through to the process. Now we seeing in tests being rolled out with a 45 minute return that can be done on-site. That is all for the good and is a lot of progress for a short period of time. Unfortunately, we started from scratch and the epidemic rolls fast. But it would be good to have a test that can used remote with immediate returns and we are getting there. That of course is what Africa and South America etc will need too so that will be a big help to them. The model of having a limited number of tests that can only be done by a CDC lab only worked here for about two weeks so that model sure as hell will not work in Africa. America= good, Canada = good, Germany = good, Japan=good, South Korea= good. Anyone who is moving the ball forward. China = well, I will get back to you later.
We are being the America we expect now but weren’t leading when we needed to for the benefit of the American people. We failed to prepare with testing and equipment. This is how we have become the epicenter of the pandemic. We are about to do numbers that are going to be mind blowing. Hunker down, this is out of control. What is really unfortunate is we should have had a jump on this in January. Now we have to control a disaster instead of prevent one.
Interesting stuff happening in Switzerland with regard to ancestry and mortality: Definitely could be lifestyle stuff but also possible underlying genetic weaknesses.
The alarm bell for genetic implications went off for me the other day when four or five members of the same family died from corona in New Jersey. I just checked and their last name is Fusco. That's Italian right? Could also be that those of Italian heritage are not exactly good at social distancing whereas for Germans it is a bit easier. Although all those deaths in that same family in New Jersey still points to genetic factor beyond cultural differences, in my mind.
Switzeralnd has a lot of Italians and German ancestry living there. I know this was fatality rates regardless of size of pool but it would make sense that their rates would be higher anyway...
I think that's the point... Though I wonder if the "social" factor was accounted for. Basically, is every ethnicity getting the same level of healthcare? Are there cultural or dietary factors involved?