OT: First coronavirus case of unknown origin confirmed in the USA

[sonicCows]

Going to pray for the affected to recover quickly!

[jtakeda]

Thankfully this virus isn’t as deadly as the news is making it out to be but it still is very contagious.

It’s not that surprising that they can’t find who passed the virus. I bet if you tracked the regular flu there would be instances like this also

[jimcav]

Originally Posted by jtakeda

It’s not that surprising that they can’t find who passed the virus. I bet if you tracked the regular flu there would be instances like this also

I'd say it reflects that, unlike flu, there isn't a nationwide rapid nasal swab testing process to serotype and identify strains. We do that for flu in each county near me. Since Swine flu, there is ongoing flu surveillance testing and local/regional labs are on the lookout for a novel flu strain. Per what I saw on CDC the recent CA case did not have OCONUS travel, nor contact with a known case, so there is an unknown case, and without rapid and widespread lab testing, it will be hard to figure out where the exposure was, and so harder to contain. As far I can tell, CDC is screening OCONUS travelers at 11 airports. If someone elsewhere becomes a patient under investigation, the sample is collected and sent to the CDC--there isn't any similar local lab testing as there is for flu. How hard is it to have the same labs that do flu surveillance do coronavirus testing, I'm note sure, but they aren't doing it and whatever that process is , it would have been better started sooner.
I'm checking WHO sitreps:
https://www.who.int/docs/default-sou...rsn=6126c0a4_2
for today you can see 322 cases in Italy, 11 dead (3/5% fatality rate) and 121 cases were internally spread...I will be checking back and see how Germany fares as they had 4 foreign exposure cases and the other 14 of their 18 current cases occurred internally. hopefully US cases don't expand as others have

[doomridesout]

My wife, who is due to give birth April 5, is freaking out a bit. We live in Sacramento... Not sure what to do other than double check the supplies.

[jimcav]

Originally Posted by doomridesout

My wife, who is due to give birth April 5, is freaking out a bit. We live in Sacramento... Not sure what to do other than double check the supplies.

lots of info at CDC
many don't wash hands long enough or properly, I taught my boys to do it properly (sing happy birthday TWICE, turn off water with a paper towel and not their hands after washing, etc)
cdc guide:
https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/hyg...ndwashing.html

[Louis]

Originally Posted by doomridesout

My wife, who is due to give birth April 5, is freaking out a bit.

It's hard to avoid emotional reactions like this when a new and unknown risk pops up. As much as you'd like to be rational and tell yourself we're already living with so many other, more significant, risks, new things tend to provoke more fear than is truly justified.

[robertbb]

Read this pubmed article from November 2015: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26552008

Then read this: http://www.virology.ws/2015/11/19/bat-s ... -sars-2-0/

If those are TLDR;

The researchers were interested in seeing if bat coronaviruses have the potential to infect humans. It was thought that they could not, because they “theoretically” did not have the right keys to enter human cells.

The researchers engineered a new virus to use in their research by splicing two natural viruses. First they took a mouse-specific coronavirus (CoV-MA15). Then they spliced the inside of this virus with the “corona” exterior of the bat corona virus. They call this the “spike” in the paper. The spikes are like a key that determines what cells the virus can get into. The reason they made such a chimera virus is because they wanted it to test if the bat virus could theoretically get into mouse cells.

The original CoV-MA15 kills mice in 4 days. By comparison the new virus caused only weight loss in young mice (non died), and killed about 20% of old mice. It is much less virulent than the original (the ease with which a virus can enter a cell is related to how much damage it does). But it can get it. That is what is important.

Their conclusion – the theories were wrong. Bat coronaviruses can jump to humans.

That was in November 2015. And that's what eventually happened, 5 years later. They knew it could happen, and likely that it would happen.

[zmalwo]

the problem of a new virus is not so much about the mortality rate. however, it is troublesome to add another thing on top of HIV, flu and all the other stuff that's going around. once it spreads it will stay and become another usual thing. One more thing to worry about year after year.

[zmalwo]

if it isn't contained and eradicated, in 20 years something like: "alright kids it's that time of the year to get corona-shots again." will be the norm

[gibbo]

I was reading an article that was discussing the possibility that the Japan olympics may be canceled due to Corona, scary stuff with significant financial repercussions. This got me thinking about the Giro and TdF this year. I am actually planning a trip to France this year and was planning on taking in a few of the stages. It would be pretty sad if some of these big sporting events get $hit caned over this. :-(


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[oldpotatoe]

I am planning a big family trip to DisneyLand end of March..7 of us..CA DisneyLand...looking hard at whether or not that is going to happen. My initial feeling is that we will slide it, probably about a year..8yo and 6yo are going to be disappointed..Tough one, tell them why w/o freaking them out.

Have the essentials, this feels like Y2K..Pretty easy to self quarantine if it gets ugly...I also ordered 150 face masks..the medical grade ones... Pretty easy to get so far..ebay..

Wish I had more confidence in the various levels of 'government'...

I don't think it's foolhardy to be prepared..in all aspects of 'protection'..no need to get looney about it but..'me and mine'...I'm less worried about the virus than the wackos that 'may' come out of the woodwork...

[oldpotatoe]

nytimes.com
The New York Times

BREAKING NEWS
A California coronavirus patient had to wait days to be tested because of restrictive federal criteria, despite doctors' suggestions.
Thursday, February 27, 2020 7:47 AM EST
Doctors at the University of California, Davis, Medical Center considered the novel pathogen a possible diagnosis when the person was first admitted on Feb. 19.

But the federal agency that conducts the testing did not administer the test until days later because the case did not fit the agency’s narrow testing criteria, university officials said in a letter to the campus community late Wednesday.

[joosttx]

Originally Posted by oldpotatoe

This really angers me.

[Tony T]

Well, that explains why there were so few cases reported in the US.
First I’ve read that the US has restricted testing to those who travelled to China or had contact with someone who had that virus.

[colker]

I hope they have this under control in a few mo...