Emergence of a Deadly Coronavirus

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INTERESTING ANALYTICAL TOOL - NUMBER OF INFECTED MAY BE 5 TIMES GREATER THAN OBSERVED

Coronavirus was detected in Massachusetts sewage at higher levels than expected, suggesting there are many more undiagnosed patients than previously known, according to a new study.

Researchers from biotech startup Biobot Analytics collected samples from a wastewater facility for an unnamed metropolitan area in late March, according to a report Tuesday on medRxiv.

Eric Alm, one of the authors of the study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, stressed that the public is not at risk of contracting the virus from particles in the wastewater, but they may have the potential to indicate how widespread the virus has become, Newsweek reported.

“Even if those viral particles are no longer active or capable of infecting humans, they may still carry genetic material that can be detected using an approach called PCR (polymerase chain reaction,) which amplifies the genetic signal many orders of magnitude creating billions of copies of the genome for each starting virus,” Alm told the outlet.

The researchers, along with a team from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, analyzed the samples and found the number of coronavirus particles was on par with if there were 2,300 people infected with the virus.

But at the time of tests, there were only 446 confirmed cases in the region, according to the study.

“It was interesting that our estimation was definitely higher than the number of confirmed cases in the area,” said Mariana Matus, CEO and co-founder of Biobot, according to Stat News.

The researchers shared their findings with local health officials who said it was plausible there were hundreds of undetected cases.

Source: Coronavirus traces found in Massachusetts wastewater at levels far higher than expected

The key is....TESTING, TESTING, TESTING

THE EFFECT OF THE CORONAVIRUS ON MASS TRANSIT

London, Paris and South Korea have struggled to keep public transport running.

In London, where ridership is down as much as 93% from the same point last year, images posted on social media have shown some trains crowded at rush hour since fewer are running because of staff illnesses. Fourteen London transport staff have died from the virus, including eight bus drivers.

In New York, too, use of all forms of mass transit has plummeted.

Ridership on the subways Monday was down 92% compared to a normal weekday. The commuter rail lines serving Long Island had 97% fewer passengers. On Metro-North, which serves the city's northern suburbs, including those in Connecticut, ridership was down 95%. On MTA buses, it is down more than 60%.

The agency has cut back bus service by about 25%, reduced the number of trains running on weekdays on the Long Island Rail Road from around 740 to around 500 and on Metro-North from 713 to 424.



“Everybody is very scared,” Shaderra Armstead, a health care clinic receptionist who rides the subway to work, said this week. ”They’re trying to keep their distance from each other, but it’s impossible.”

They let trains that look too crowded pass by. If they decide to board, they search for emptier cars to ride in. Then they size up fellow passengers before picking the safest spot they can find to sit or stand for commutes sometimes lasting an hour or more.

This quiet calculus is being performed daily by people who must keep working during the coronavirus pandemic and say the social distancing required is nearly impossible to practice in the enclosed spaces of New York City’s public transit system.

Waiting for a Manhattan-bound train on the Queens platform, Ebrahima Sumareh said he searches for the least crowded subway car he can find before boarding.

“I’m scared for people to touch me, to get close to me,” said Sumareh, a railroad quality control clerk. “I’m scared for other people too.”

He’s also worried some of his fellow riders might not be following the distancing protocols in their lives, not just on the trains, he said. “New Yorkers, we don’t listen.”

The agency has posted signs on some trains that read: “Essential Worker, yes, ok to ride. … No — why are you even reading this? Go home.”

Source: Coronavirus sparks fear in New York City subway riders struggling to keep apart: 'Everybody is very scared'

When It Comes to Quarantine - It Looks Like the New York Elites Play By a Different Set of Rules

The news today may have helped clarify what seemed like such strange behavior – to be relocating to Hawaii, now. Let’s face it, life will never be the same as it was before. Everything has been upended, including life in big cities, like New York. The charm is gone at the moment.

1. A renowned NY real estate agent has been helping his ultra high end customers escape the city and transplant themselves here in Hawaii. Michael Bolla, who has rich and famous clients, has been quietly moving some of them out of multi million dollar Manhattan homes and into rural Hawaii. One just rented a $20k/month home on Maui.

2. The real estate agent himself wasn’t far behind, and is said to now be getting his Hawaii real estate broker’s license. He said, “you are doing everything you can to help people figure out their lives…. Many of my clients are now in their 60’s and 70’s. They understand that they are not going back to life as usual any time soon.”

3. We do know that coming to Hawaii and using a vacation rental as a launching pad is not enough to be considered an intended resident. There could be another thing happening too. Those who have a second home or condo in Hawaii, perhaps otherwise used as a vacation rental when not occupied, are now coming to Hawaii with the idea of making it their new permanent home. Since they already own property in Hawaii, that would be easy to do.

Starting this Saturday, Kauai will largely put the kabosh on situations similar to the one depicted above. Effective April 11, Kauai vacation rentals are closed for the duration of the current emergency. That includes Airbnb and home stays too. Kauai Mayor Derek Kawakami said yesterday that they “must cease all operations.” There is one exception, however, and that allows those currently in a vacation rental to complete the stay they paid for. While Kauai started this policy, we may see it implemented soon on the other islands too.

Source: Next Wave of Intended Hawaii Residents Fleeing Big Cities

You kind of wonder how many of them are carrying along the infection with them. We might see a rise in the infection rate in Hawaii soon!

A technique called "proning" can be the difference between life and death for critical COVID-19 patients, a Las Vegas ICU doctor said Friday.

Appearing on "America's Newsroom," Southern Hills Hospital ICU Medical Director Dr. Christopher Voscopoulos explained that the medical center had learned the technique from other physicians in virus hot spots who passed along the "especially valuable" information.

"What proning is, is that normally we have patients lie on their back," he explained. "When they lie on their back, their heart applies pressure on the back of their lungs and it closes off those lungs just a little."

"And, what we do is we simply turn people over and they lie on their stomach. By doing that, the heart falls off the lungs and opens up a little bit more of the lung," he stated further. "You have to remember that these are people fighting for their life. And so, when we open up a little more lung, that's the difference between life and death."

Source: Las Vegas doctor explains how 'proning' COVID-19 patients can be 'difference between life and death'

BUREAUCRATIC RED TAPE DRAMATICALLY SLOWED THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ANTIBODY TEST IN USA

Johns Hopkins University professor of public health Dr. Marty Makary claimed Thursday that an obscure Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation delayed work on a potential antibody test for COVID-19 early in the onset of the contagion in the United States.

researchers began creating antibody tests in January after the scientist who initially identified the COVID-19 strain published its genetic code in a medical journal.

"[The published genetic code] allowed anyone to run a basic genetic test with any body fluid from anybody suspected to have the infection from around the world and see if it matches," Makary explained. "And in fact that's what most of the world did."

"But our FDA has a system where, using these old regulatory rules, it insisted on sanctioning the test," Makary continued. "And we lost precious time when one of the original scientists submitted an application and was told that he had to submit it also by paper mail with a CD-ROM with the files burned on it."

Makary claimed that regulation stymied the process until the application was submitted in accordance with the rules.

Source: Dr. Marty Makary claims obscure FDA regulation caused setback to coronavirus antibody test

Experts: COVID-19 pandemic unlikely to ebb as weather warms

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspec ... ther-warms