Coronavirus COVID-19 Thread

Aramsolari

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I have to say if Canada ever builds a border wall I shall be terribly sad. Still pissed off at what the US did back in 2001, there was no need for it.
Eh. We don't have the money for that. Makes no political or financial sense. I'll rather the money goes towards Vancouver getting an NBA team again. Besides....the moose will just chew right through it.
 
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ColdDog

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Nobody cares because nothing that happens there has any effect on us here.

Stop derailing this thread with bullshit.
I did not expect that comment from you, because it is pretty selfish.

So, here is some bullshit that you folks don't give a fuck about.


Death may be better measured than infection, especially in HICs, but even so there is ample evidence that COVID-19 deaths are being misattributed to different causes. By some estimates, reported death rates in selected countries could be underestimated by 60 percent.
 

August

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We’ve seen consistently low rates of mortality here (about 0.014% of known cases resulted in fatality) but the virus has spread very effectively and has resulted in larger numbers of hospitalisations and serious illness.

While each country is different, I’d suggest that hospitalisation rates are more closely tied to actual rates of infection assuming similar population demographics.

If that is accurate then in countries without universal healthcare I can see the problem with this. If people don’t want to go to hospital for fear of bankruptcy (they’ve lost their job and insurance for example), the chances of getting a handle on actual rates of infection would be slim to none.
 

Radegast74

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While each country is different, I’d suggest that hospitalisation rates are more closely tied to actual rates of infection assuming similar population demographics.
With testing being so sporadic/underutilized/unavailable (in the US, at least), the "reported cases" are probably a measure of "serious enough COVID19 symptoms to actually seek medical attention" and out of those, a certain percentage will be hospitalized.

Again, it is a case of "garbage in, garbage out" in that it tells us something, but, who knows what, exactly?

The Gold Standard for measuring the impact of COVID19 here in the US will be looking at "excess mortality," i.e., looking at the number of death certificates issued on a weekly basis for the years preceeding this, and then during the current year. Right now, it is looking pretty bad.

On another note, I must be sadistic, these "I thought coronavirus was a hoax until I got it!" stories never get old!
 

NaffNaffBobFace

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We’ve seen consistently low rates of mortality here (about 0.014% of known cases resulted in fatality) but the virus has spread very effectively and has resulted in larger numbers of hospitalisations and serious illness.

While each country is different, I’d suggest that hospitalisation rates are more closely tied to actual rates of infection assuming similar population demographics.

If that is accurate then in countries without universal healthcare I can see the problem with this. If people don’t want to go to hospital for fear of bankruptcy (they’ve lost their job and insurance for example), the chances of getting a handle on actual rates of infection would be slim to none.
With testing being so sporadic/underutilized/unavailable (in the US, at least), the "reported cases" are probably a measure of "serious enough COVID19 symptoms to actually seek medical attention" and out of those, a certain percentage will be hospitalized.

Again, it is a case of "garbage in, garbage out" in that it tells us something, but, who knows what, exactly?

The Gold Standard for measuring the impact of COVID19 here in the US will be looking at "excess mortality," i.e., looking at the number of death certificates issued on a weekly basis for the years preceeding this, and then during the current year. Right now, it is looking pretty bad.

On another note, I must be sadistic, these "I thought coronavirus was a hoax until I got it!" stories never get old!
I think one of the generally accepted better measures where testing and confirming of infection is not absolute is the number of deaths above average.

The below chart was for the UK from the 1st of May:

1589983442619.png



I can't think of any other way of getting an overview without having a 100% testing capacity?


EDIT - updated chart numbers as recent as May 18th:

1589984711590.png


1589984832042.png


 
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ColdDog

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Radegast74

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I can't think of any other way of getting an overview without having a 100% testing capacity?
Yep, simply put, without 100% testing, you are sampling and estimating...but you won't have an actual answer. Since everybody who dies for any reason has to have a death certificate, deaths will get recorded, and you can get a better estimate (likely, the *best* estimate) of how many have died from the "excess deaths" during this time period.

Based on that, we can then get a better estimate of exposure rates, etc.
 
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NaffNaffBobFace

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Yep, simply put, without 100% testing, you are sampling and estimating...but you won't have an actual answer. Since everybody who dies for any reason has to have a death certificate, deaths will get recorded, and you can get a better estimate (likely, the *best* estimate) of how many have died from the "excess deaths" during this time period.

Based on that, we can then get a better estimate of exposure rates, etc.
It's just getting hold of that deaths over average data, I've been searching for it for Colorado for a few days now and I just can't find it anywhere. I can find the average for last year, the last five years, but I can't find weekly/monthly registered deaths for 2020 anywhere. I don't think they do them...?

I've also temporarily stopped bothering looking at Colorado info as they changed the count from "Died with COVID" to "Died from COVID" last friday which makes it farly irrelevant until they lock down that metric and decide how they are going to analyse it going forward.

If you counted deaths from HIV/AIDS the same way, the total death rate would be 0% as it weakens the immune system to the point it can't counter other conditions which then kill the victim, such as pneumonia etc.
 
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Radegast74

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It's just getting hold of that deaths over average data, I've been searching for it for Colorado for a few days now and I just can't find it anywhere. I can find the average for last year, the last five years, but I can't find weekly/monthly registered deaths for 2020 anywhere. I don't think they do them...?

I've also temporarily stopped bothering looking at Colorado info as they changed the count from "Died with COVID" to "Died from COVID" last friday which makes it farly irrelevant until they lock down that metric and decide how they are going to analyse it going forward.

If you counted deaths from HIV/AIDS the same way, the total death rate would be 0% as it weakens the immune system to the point it can't counter other conditions which then kill the victim, such as pneumonia etc.
For most states, I don't think that death certificate data like that is posted on line. I think that university researchers/epidemiologists will be getting that data within the next 6 monts. If you find it, let me know!

Here is another great article from the CDC's MMWR:
 

ColdDog

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View: https://youtu.be/idNqeOKqi6g
 

Montoya

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This is the reuters chart I follow most closely now.

We just have to keep seeing declining deaths excluding NY and NJ.

1589998475362.png
 

ColdDog

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A Trial of Lopinavir–Ritonavir in Adults Hospitalized with Severe Covid-19
NEJM, 18 Mar 2020

Main message: Kaletra, an HIV treatment, did not show benefit in very severe COVID-19 patients
  • Randomized controlled open-label trial of 199 laboratory-confirmed hospitalized COVID-19 patients. 99 in lopinavir-ritonavir (Kaletra) group, 100 in standard care group.
  • No significant difference in time to clinical improvement, 28-day mortality or viral detectability.
  • In hospitalized adult patients with severe COVID-19, no benefit was observed with lopinavir–ritonavir treatment beyond standard care. Note that these were very severe COVID-19 patients (22% died vs. ~11-14% death rate in other studies).
Hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin as a treatment of COVID-19: results of an open-label non-randomized clinical trial
IHU – Méditerranée Infection, 18 Mar 2020

Main message: Hydroxychloroquine, a drug generally used for malaria, should be further investigated for COVID-19. This study is too small and has too many limitations to conclude its effectiveness for COVID-19 treatment.
  • At day 6 post-study inclusion, 70% of patients in the hydroxychloroquine group tested negative compared to 12.5% of the other patients. When hydroxychloroquine group was separated into hydroxychloroquine only versus hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, 100% of patients who received hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin tested negative. Faster time to viral clearance may or may not correlate with better clinical outcomes and improved survival.
  • Clinical trial of 42 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 patients. 26 in hydroxychloroquine group, 16 other patients. 6 patients from hydroxychloroquine group were lost to follow-up. Results are from 36 patients.
Japanese flu drug ‘clearly effective’ in treating coronavirus, says China
The Guardian, 18 Mar 2020; original article unavailable

Main message: Favipiravir should be further investigated for COVID-19. This study is too small and has too many limitations to conclude that favipiravir is effective in treating COVID-19.
  • Clinical trial of 340 patients in Wuhan and Shenzhen
  • Patients who were given favipiravir tested negative after a median of four days compared with a median of 11 days for patients who were not treated with the drug
  • X-rays confirmed improvements in lung condition in about 91% of the patients who were treated with favipiravir compared to 62% of those who were not treated with the drug
  • Japanese health ministry source suggested that the drug was not as effective in people with more severe symptoms
  • Faster time to viral clearance may or may not correlate with better clinical outcomes and improved survival.
 
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NaffNaffBobFace

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Todays UK numbers for today 20th May:

Total confirmed 248,293 with 2,472 new (less than yesterdays estimate so the estimate has been removed from the chart), total dead 35,704 with 363 new.

Chartorama20-05-20.jpg


Todays status is in reflection of the recent rebrand "Stay Alert" advice rather than "Stay Home" prompting silly bastards to piss off down the seaside again in turn causing multiple problems including a 40 minute queue for the toilet in Skegness Lincolnshire, because unsurprisingly all but one of the public toilets were closed as all of the seaside town ARE closed, all the shops, restaurants, arcades and other facilities are currently in Lockdown... To put this in context, all the MCDONALDS in the UK are still closed. To be honest, at the point you join the end of a 40 minute queue for the john, you'd likely just wade off into the sea and drop your load there. I've been to Skegness and the water there is brown anyway (English channel between the UK and Europe, it's not the clear blue of the Mediterranean) so no one would notice unless you produced a floater at which point everyone would run like Jaws had made a guest appearance:


The status outlook is for the potential of mixed messages to cause more "confusion".
 
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