Emergence of a Deadly Coronavirus

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Hand-held device measures aerosols for coronavirus risk assessment

Researchers from the Cardiology Centers of the Netherlands and the University of Amsterdam demonstrate that a commercial hand-held particle counter can be used for this purpose and help determine the impacts of risk-reducing measures, like ventilation improvements. They describe the quick and easy, portable process in the journal Physics of Fluids.

The key challenge with using hand-held particle counters is dealing with the background dust prevalent in public spaces. The question then becomes, can you distinguish these dust particles from aerosols that arise from breathing, speaking, sneezing, and coughing? Because dust and aerosols inhaled into human lungs differ in size, the researchers developed a way to subtract the dust signal in the particle counter by measuring the dust for some time, and watching how the signal changes after aerosols are added to the mix.

They compared the aerosol concentration determined by this method to laboratory-based techniques and found the results match up perfectly. Though this work reports on one specific hand-held particle counter—the Fluke 985, which is used to monitor the dust and air quality in clean rooms—Bonn noted the results aren't unique to this device and can be extended to other particle counters as well.

The findings suggest well-ventilated areas can have aerosol concentrations more than 100 times lower than poorly ventilated areas, such as public elevators or restrooms. "There are people worried about going to the gym, coming to the office, taking the train. All that can at least be evaluated," Bonn said. "The motto remains ventilation, ventilation, ventilation."

A superspreader event occurred in California recently. IMHO this was probably caused by aerosol transmission.

Irene Chavez, senior vice president and area manager of Kaiser Permanente San Jose Medical Center, told local news stations in an emailed statement that 43 staffers in the emergency department tested positive between Dec. 27 and Jan. 1.

Source: Coronavirus outbreak in California emergency room infects 43 hospital staffers

The emergency staff was the first to receive the COVID-19 vaccine less than 10 days ago and the hospital said they "would not be expected to have reached immunity when this exposure occurred. It is important not only for everyone to get vaccinated, but to receive the required two doses of vaccine to be protected."

Source: 43 emergency staff at Kaiser Permanente San Jose infected with COVID-19, officials confirm

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One part of this story doesn't make very much sense.

Healthcare facility officials are investigating whether the outbreak was impacted by an employee appearing briefly in the emergency department on Christmas Day wearing an air-powered, holiday-themed outfit.

Source: Coronavirus outbreak at Kaiser San Jose hospital infects 43 people

On page 443 of this thread on 11 November, I discussed COVID-19 progression
"After the initial exposure, patients typically develop symptoms within 5-6 days (incubation period). SARS-CoV-2"

The Christmas party was on Christmas Day (December 25), which means that the infected should start to show symptoms beginning around December 30. (not on December 27) That is way too early!

Also why did they call the costume as an air-powered, holiday-themed outfit instead of an inflatable Christmas costume. Was it circulating air? Did it have a fan and motors?

SAGE group told the Government not to re open schools after christmas, school union telling headteachers not to open schools, PM Johnson telling primary schools they need to open from today.

Sending kids into schools to mix and spread the virus when it seems likely there will be (yet another) government u-turn in the coming days and the country will go into lockdown.

Been an absolute shambles from the start and it keep on coming

Altering Vaccine Dose Regiment

Both the U.S. and the U.K. are considering altering the vaccine dose regiment.

By Monday morning, the federal government had distributed at least 13 million doses, and over 4.2 million vaccines have gone into Americans' arms, according to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Officials have said there are likely lags in reporting, however. [So the actual numbers may be higher.]

In the U.S. they are talking about reducing the dosage rate for the Moderna vaccine, by cutting it in half for those aged 18-55. In the U.K. they are talking about increasing the time between the first and second dose from 21-28 days apart (depending on the vaccine chosen) to 12 weeks (84 days).

The U.S. plan would inoculate twice the amount of [<55 year old] people, Dr. Moncef Slaoui, the chief operating officer for Operation Warp Speed (OWS), said, calling it a "more responsible approach based on facts and data." The comments from Slaoui arose Sunday as he told CBS’ Margaret Brennan that halving the dose volume in vaccines administered to those aged 18 to 55 translates to an "identical immune response" to the full, 100-microgram dose.

Source: FDA to weigh half-dosing Moderna COVID-19 vaccines

And right on cue Scotland announces it's going into a month long full lockdown and now we have an 8pm announcement from the PM, which as ever is leaked to the press first and they are all saying England & Wales will go into lockdown (though obviously he will use another name for it, Tier 5 Plus maybe)

Announced yesterday "I have no doubt in my mind that schools are safe", ordered schools to open today for the first time since before Christmas, nice bit of virus spreading, and now tonight he is expected to announce they are being closed.

Absolute buffoon as always

AstraZeneca Vaccine

The U.K. on Monday became the first country in the world to begin administering AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford's coronavirus vaccine, following emergency authorization last week.

The AstraZeneca vaccine was found to be safe and 70% effective in clinical trials. The vaccine was developed using more traditional methods as opposed to the mRNA technology platform that was used for both Moderna and Pfizer’s vaccines. The Oxford-AstraZeneca option involves an inactivated common cold virus isolated from chimpanzees, altered with genes to express the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Source: UK launches first AstraZeneca vaccinations worldwide

This vaccine was tested under different dosage regiments which then produced different results. A British scientist involved in the approval of the vaccine said one dose of the vaccine is around 70% effective after 21 days and before the second dose is given.

A Simple Thing to Make Your Home Safer from COVID during the Winter

I measured the relative humidity (RH) in various rooms of my house today. It varied quite a bit. I heat with a wood stove and in the main room I had 29% RH and 74 deg F. On the other side of the room, the temperature dropped a little to 69 deg F but the RH increased to 33%. In my bedroom where I run it cooler, the temperature was 69 deg F but the humidity rose to 36%. And then in a room which was partially closed off, the temperature dropped to 59 deg F and the RH rose to 44%.

So what does this have to do with anything?

Well one of the ways that people become infected is from viral aerosols. They are microscopic particles and they are very light. If a person keeps their RH levels above 40%, the humidity in the air will combine with the viral particles and they will become heavy and quickly drop to the floor and generally become benign. The lower the indoors humidity level gets the more dangerous it is for infection.

So one simple change is to run your house a little cooler during the cold winter months and bundle up.

A high percentage of infections occur in one's home between family members.

Back on 4 March on this thread, I talked about the Chinese approach to winter.

But the fact remains that for the most part Chinese people have, unlike Westerners, never felt the need to develop a way of heating the air around them (convection heating). If they developed heating systems at all, they developed radiant heating (kang). Most importantly, though, they have decided to deal with the cold simply by wearing a lot of layers. Come winter, it is common to see people walking around (or sitting in their homes) swaddled in layer upon layer of padded cotton jacket (棉袄 mian’ao) and long underwear (秋裤 qiuku), particularly small children and old people.

New lockdowns for England and Scotland ahead of 'hardest weeks'

California Rationing Oxygen

In a matter of weeks, COVID-19 cases in the county have nearly doubled -- increasing from 400,000 on Nov. 30 to more than 800,000 on Jan. 2, according to the Los Angeles Department of Public Health.

California officials recently said they were having trouble getting the necessary amount of oxygen to critically ill coronavirus patients, with supply issues causing at least five Los Angeles County hospitals to declare an "internal disaster," which means they could turn away ambulances. Coronavirus patients generally need 60 to 80 liters of oxygen a minute, while other patients may receive six liters per minute. Dr. Jeffrey Gunzenhauser, L.A. County’s chief medical officer said officials are exploring "every possible way to reduce the burden on the hospitals."

The L.A. County Emergency Medical Services Agency issued a directive Monday detailing the decision. "Given the acute need to conserve oxygen, effective immediately, EMS should only administer supplemental oxygen to patients with oxygen saturation below 90%."

To assist with the situation, California created a state oxygen team, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers crews recently arrived to update their oxygen delivery systems.

Los Angeles County ambulance crews told to ration oxygen amid surge in COVID-19 cases

A Facemask for Your Car

Honda is ready to clear the air ... of coronavirus. The automaker has developed a cabin air filter attachment that it said can trap and destroy 98.8 percent of airborne coronavirus particles, including the one responsible for COVID-19, during a 15-minute climate control system cycle. The device was treated with zinc phosphate and designed to fit over the standard air filter.



Honda has named it the Kurumask, which is a combination of the Japanese word for car, Kuruma, and mask. Unfortunately, it's currently only compatible with the Honda N-One microcompact that's sold in Japan, but Honda plans to introduce versions for other models.

Source: Honda's 'Kurumask' is a coronavirus killer for your car

Covid variant in South Africa is ‘more of a problem’ than the one in UK, official says

Why Experts Are Warning Against Drinking Booze When You Have The Vaccine

Progress of COVID innoculations

According to the coronavirus vaccine tracker, the U.S. has now administered 4.84 million vaccines.
Vaccinations have already begun speeding up. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top disease expert in the U.S., said Tuesday that the U.S. could soon be giving at least a million COVID-19 vaccinations a day, according to the Associated Press.

Sources:
* Coronavirus vaccine tracker: How many people in Canada have received shots?
* US could soon give 1 million COVID-19 vaccinations a day

Globally 14.56 million people have been vaccinated with the U.S., China and Israel in the top three positions.

Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine gets green light for European Union

The European Commission on Wednesday granted final approval for Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, officially clearing the way for a second vaccine to rollout among European Union member states. The formal, conditional marketing authorization was announced just hours after Europe’s regulatory agency endorsed the jab, recommending it for those 18 years old and older.

"We have just authorised the second COVID-19 vaccine! Following the recommendation of the European Medicines Agency, we have granted a conditional marketing authorisation for the Moderna vaccine for all EU countries," the European Commission said in a tweet announcing the news on Wednesday.