Coronavirus 2019-nCoV

[Napoleon Dynamite]

a Department of Commerce study that found that 97 percent of all antibiotics in the United States came from China. “If you’re the Chinese and you want to really just destroy us, just stop sending us antibiotics,”

https://www.cfr.org/blog/us-dependence-pharmaceutical-products-china

American national security officials are worrying about that scenario as they come to grips with this little understood fact: The vast majority of key ingredients for drugs that many Americans rely on are manufactured abroad, mostly in China.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/u-s-officials-worried-about-chinese-control-american-drug-supply-n1052376

China accounted for a 70.4% share of U.S. antibiotic imports in 2013. Today, that number may be even higher at a dominant 97%, according to Gary Cohn, previously chief economic adviser to President Donald Trump

https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma-asia/as-china-battles-coronavirus-should-other-countries-worry-about-their-drug-supply

[ShockingButTrue]

Do you have a line of sight on antibiotics supply chain issues? Media reports state that 97% of antibiotics come from China.

One good thing from COVID-19 (hopefully) that we're going to take a serious look at our supply chain. We are totally at the mercy of China for almost everything we need for daily living, business, etc.

With Trump at the wheel? Yeah, for sure.

[MoValley John]

This is no different than SARS and MERS, both earlier corona viruses that were supposed to wipe out the world.

Yes, we should be careful, yes, we should wash our hands, yes, yes, yes. But if your'e not old or infirmed, this too shall pass. And just when we conquer this viral strain, there will be another that will surely wipe out the entire human population.

[MoValley John]

If I was old and sickly. I'd be shittingy pants right now. But I'm not old and sickly. I'll just do my best not to transmit my viral load to the old and sickly. I knew if I worked it right, I could find a place on this board where I could speak of my viral load.

[WstateU]

If I was old and sickly. I'd be shittingy pants right now. But I'm not old and sickly. I'll just do my best not to transmit my viral load to the old and sickly. I knew if I worked it right, I could find a place on this board where I could speak of my viral load.

First read "old and sticky"...

[ShockerFever]

This is no different than SARS and MERS, both earlier corona viruses that were supposed to wipe out the world.

Yes, we should be careful, yes, we should wash our hands, yes, yes, yes. But if your'e not old or infirmed, this too shall pass. And just when we conquer this viral strain, there will be another that will surely wipe out the entire human population.

Social media and a progressively worse reporting/hypersensitive news media has certainly not helped the situation.

[wufan]

This is no different than SARS and MERS, both earlier corona viruses that were supposed to wipe out the world.

Yes, we should be careful, yes, we should wash our hands, yes, yes, yes. But if your'e not old or infirmed, this too shall pass. And just when we conquer this viral strain, there will be another that will surely wipe out the entire human population.

SARS (~10%) and MERS (~33%) had a much higher mortality rate, but a much lower transmission rate (8500 and 2500 cases respectively) compared to the near 100000 cases of Coronavirus. While less severe, this outbreak has killed many more than the other two combined.

[1979Shocker]

You just have to trust President Trump. His gut is telling him that the 3.4% death rate from the coronavirus is false.

Trump's Gut Collides With Science On Coronavirus Messaging

[MoValley John]

You just have to trust President Trump. His gut is telling him that the 3.4% death rate from the coronavirus is false.

Trump's Gut Collides With Science On Coronavirus Messaging

Perspective

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-age-sex-demographics/

If you aren't old and or sick, the Corona virus becomes pretty benign. And when people 70 years old and up die at an 8% clip and 80 year-olds die at a near 15% clip, over 20% when you only consider confirmed cases, you see how 3.4% can seem high. 60 year-old mortality rate is only 3.6%. The fatality rate for the bulk of the population is <1%.

[DCShockerFan05]

I care about old and sick people.

[wufan]

You just have to trust President Trump. His gut is telling him that the 3.4% death rate from the coronavirus is false.

Trump's Gut Collides With Science On Coronavirus Messaging

Oh good! I was getting concerned!

[MoValley John]

I care about old and sick people.

So do I. And to even begin to think that I don't is offensive and insulting.

That said, like it or not, old and sick people do die. And nobody is saying don't treat them. Nobody is saying we shouldn't be working our asses off to save them. But we do need perspective. The sick and the elderly are the ones that should be sheltered from anyone with a cold, influenza, or one of the many strains of a corona virus.

I'm not going to quit travelling, quit socializing or isolating myself because another corona virus is now out there. I will wash my hands, cover my cough and avoid the elderly and sickly should I be under the weather.

So why we're all caring about the old and sick, it was Barrack Obama who said to give them a painkiller.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-jun-25-na-health25-story.html%3f_amp=true

In my opinion, Obama was right. Ugly answer, but right.

It was Donald Trump who enacted right to try. Also right.

[DCShockerFan05]

I apologize for the insinuation. It wasn't fair and I shouldn't have said it that way. Chalk it up to the early morning stress of someone who's seeing their work and life disrupted quite a bit already (I normally spend my days traveling from hospital to hospital giving business advice--you can imagine that it's a bit of a chaotic time right now). And I went to bed in a bad mood after that debacle in Memphis last night.

Let me try again. I care about old and sick people, as do we all. And I know that a whole heck of a lot of the country is in close contact with them. Just consider the 20 million health care workers---second largest employment sector behind the over-broad "professional and business services," according to BLS. It's not feasible that everyone can stay away from the elderly. And the big problems with this disease--what distinguishes it from SARS in critically important ways--are the long, asymptomatic incubation period and the ability for asymptomatic transmission. We could contain SARS because we could spot sick people and isolate them. That's not enough with this one. It's not enough to stay away just when symptomatic. The danger is that you or I have the virus, don't realize it, never get sick, but pass it to someone else, and within just a few steps it's in the nursing home, the dialysis center, the cancer ward, or whoever your preferred septuagenarian political leader may be. That's what makes this so difficult--if we really want to protect vulnerable populations, we have to act like it's dangerous to us, even if it's not. we're not wired that way.

And all this is happening while the race to a vaccine goes on. Slowing the spread, even slightly, buys time and buys lives.

Right now our scientists are working very hard to understand the details of the disease so we can figure out how much social disruption would be necessary to achieve certain objectives. There's a big range between 'please wash your hands' and 'we'll shoot you if you leave your home.' Somewhere in there is the right balance. It's going to be up to all of us as a society--maybe even as a species--to decide what's worth it. We'll be able to make a better judgement if we recognize how all the pieces fit together, and that our own actions affect others in invisible but knowable ways. I hope that it DOESN'T become necessary to take significant isolation measures, but I recognize that it might.

I don't know if I can make it better, but I'm trying my damndest not to make it worse.

Sorry again for the snark this morning.

[MoValley John]

I apologize for the insinuation. It wasn't fair and I shouldn't have said it that way. Chalk it up to the early morning stress of someone who's seeing their work and life disrupted quite a bit already (I normally spend my days traveling from hospital to hospital giving business advice--you can imagine that it's a bit of a chaotic time right now). And I went to bed in a bad mood after that debacle in Memphis last night.

Let me try again. I care about old and sick people, as do we all. And I know that a whole heck of a lot of the country is in close contact with them. Just consider the 20 million health care workers---second largest employment sector behind the over-broad "professional and business services," according to BLS. It's not feasible that everyone can stay away from the elderly. And the big problems with this disease--what distinguishes it from SARS in critically important ways--are the long, asymptomatic incubation period and the ability for asymptomatic transmission. We could contain SARS because we could spot sick people and isolate them. That's not enough with this one. It's not enough to stay away just when symptomatic. The danger is that you or I have the virus, don't realize it, never get sick, but pass it to someone else, and within just a few steps it's in the nursing home, the dialysis center, the cancer ward, or whoever your preferred septuagenarian political leader may be. That's what makes this so difficult--if we really want to protect vulnerable populations, we have to act like it's dangerous to us, even if it's not. we're not wired that way.

And all this is happening while the race to a vaccine goes on. Slowing the spread, even slightly, buys time and buys lives.

Right now our scientists are working very hard to understand the details of the disease so we can figure out how much social disruption would be necessary to achieve certain objectives. There's a big range between 'please wash your hands' and 'we'll shoot you if you leave your home.' Somewhere in there is the right balance. It's going to be up to all of us as a society--maybe even as a species--to decide what's worth it. We'll be able to make a better judgement if we recognize how all the pieces fit together, and that our own actions affect others in invisible but knowable ways. I hope that it DOESN'T become necessary to take significant isolation measures, but I recognize that it might.

I don't know if I can make it better, but I'm trying my damndest not to make it worse.

Sorry again for the snark this morning.

I just want you to know that I am the spouse of a nurse that is treating corona virus patients. She is doing this today at the Nebraska Medical Center. There is no callousness in my opinion, it is a very well informed opinion. I wouldn't allow my wife to do what she does without investigating this strain of Corona virus. I was much, much more concerned when she treated the Ebola patients.

We do need to protect the elderly, as best we can. I don't want my mom, in her 80's, to die from Corona virus. That said, we need to be reasonable. We need perspective. And yes, like it or not, old people do die from these new virus strains, they always have.

We should take proper caution, but we shouldn't tank a global economy out of fear. In two or three years, we will have the next virus that is going to wipe out the world. Donald Trump has a knack for saying things poorly, but he really wasn't wrong at all; looking at the fatality rate of this corona virus, a 3.4% fatality rates seems to be too high a number. It seems high because the vast majority of deaths are those 70 and above.

[MoValley John]

https://www.nebraskamed.com/COVID