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Thread: Covid19: Global reports, news and updates

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    Ecuador Avalon Member Rosemarie's Avatar
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    Default Re: Covid19: Global reports, news and updates

    Hola my friends. I am writing you from Guayaquil, Ecuador, the hardest hit city for covid19 in Ecuador. I will just share with you my personal experience and a day in the life.......
    Today, Sunday 5th of April a goverment spokesman says the total population with covid19 in Ecuador is 3,646, dead 180. Guayas Province is the one with the most cases with 2,524, the second hardest hit province is Pichincha where the capital, Quito, is situated with 345. As you see the difference is huge.

    A little personal background here. I returned from a trip to California in the middle of Feb and started packing for my move to a new home besides all the paperwork with selling and buying a new property, and fixing the new place with lots of workers coming and going. no time for outside news I really lived in a bubble. I had disconnected cable tv and went in the internet sporadically as at night I was beat . So I did hear a little about covid19 but did not paid it that much attention.
    Thursday 12 March I started to hear a little bit more , but I was I in the middle of my move, with a moving company and 6 people packing my home. Social Isolation was imposible ! This continue Friday and then on Sunday March 15 we heard that there were going to be very strict measurements to combat this covid19 specially in the city of Guayaquil starting on Wednesday the 18 th. My move continued and Tuesday 17th at 6pm everybody left and I was left with a dirty apt, full of boxes, all paintings still packed. I spent the next 10 days unpacking , cleaning, disinfecting , cleaning, disinfecting again and again. More than 10 people between strangers
    and some people work for me had been in very close quarters with me for close to a week. No social distancing at all, besides being in the group of over sixty years old and being a diabetic......I started to worry..

    Some of the measurements the government took was to put a curfew in place for all the country from 4 pm to 5 am at the beginning , then it was shorten from 2pm to 5 am NO private cars allowed. No inter-provincial traffic allowed. All stores closed, BUT supermarkets and pharmacies open. The companies or businesses relating to food production and medicine are still working. Nothing else. Then they put a restriction to our driving. You could go out depending on your last tag number, mine being 2 I was allowed to drive Tuesday and Saturday. Then this coming week it has been changed to once a week. My day is Monday which means tomorrow I will be in line outside the supermarket at 7 am ( opens at 8) and surely I will be number 70 in line as I was this past Friday. Everybody wearing a mask and gloves , more than 6 feet apart. the line at that hour moves fast and inside the supermarket you find almost anything you need. Maybe lysol type products are not found , but plenty of toilet paper( what is the deal ?) and food. That will be the only day I could go out of my house. In the urbanization I live you cannot even exercise or walk on the public places. Very strict.

    Restaurants are closed, but they can deliver. Uber eats and all similar business doing good. Airports are close since 2 weeks ago ,no domestic or International flights allowed, just some humanitarians flights taking USA nationals back to the states, there is one this Tuesday from Guayaquil. tickets one way are $1,000. Also today I know there is another humanitarian flight from Great Britain bringing 90 underage students that were in Oxford learning or perfecting their English language and have been stuck there for close to 3 weeks. The plane if arriving in Quito and everybody had to pay a hotel in Quito to quarantine for 15 days.

    All this brings me to how I think Guayas, my city Guayaquil and my neighborhood specially got so many cases of covid19. This is our summer in this part of the country. Heat and rain. No classes. Quito , in the Andes mountains has the same summer vacation as USA OR Europe. This is the time for school vacations with your family and lots of people travel to USA or Europe. Also, colleges an d universities are cheaper in Europe than USA and lots of kids study there. When problems started in Europe, and classes were cancelled, then Ecuadoreans kids returned home. The first ones did not quarantined and passed the virus. since then , things have changed, but the damage was done. Paciente Zero here was not from Guayas, but from another province and she passed it to her family.

    Ecuador being a third world country is poor and was not prepared for this epidemic. Who was ? Look at Italy, Spain, Usa........we are doing the best we can , but yes, hospitals are full, the only free beds are if somebody dies a doctor was telling me a few days ago. Number of deaths are higher than the official numbers, but cases in my zone have start to stabilize. I really do not know if it is true they are burning corpses in the streets. I saw a video of what looked like a corpse in the streets with a sheet covering it and a lady went to remove the cover and the man. jump at her ! There is a lot of fake news around , promoted by the opposition to this goverment.

    Please do not ask me for charts or articles that I have read. I do not know how to include them here. this is just my personal experience I wanted to share. So we continue , this is my third week or 19th day in my apartment. I am lucky it is big , has a beautiful view, I have money to pay for my food. Very worried about the consequences that are going to happened , the social upheaval that can result from this when people cannot work. I Have friends with the virus, some in hospitals in USA or here in Ecuador , in ventilators. I had people I know died. Also some family members got the virus, but in a mild form. I also have friends that are giving their plasma because they are cured . The people that have died had died alone

    THAT is all for now. As always excuse my English. Please take care. I have not read anything in the forum about the virus, my internet is not that good. Will do so now. bye
    ahhhh had to finish by saying our Vice President is great. Just saw Bill has the latest from him .
    .
    Last edited by Rosemarie; 5th April 2020 at 20:58.
    "Be kind for everybody is fighting a great battle" Plato

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  3. Link to Post #62
    United States Avalon Member graciousb's Avatar
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    Default Re: Covid19: Global reports, news and updates

    Disclaimer, I'm just a curious layperson who enjoys finding patterns, very hungry for a pattern or two in all this, re my comments below.

    Possible correlation between blood types , and the HH gene (10% of northern europeans carry including myself), and vulnerability/resistance to Covid? (Theory is O most resistant, the others less so).

    One of my sisters, in Washington State in US, just had a friend come down with the thing, hospitalized, getting better. She's in her mid 50s. Blood type AB (carrying an extra 40lbs or so, no other health issues). She had been in some kind of family gathering a week or two prior. Her father in law in his 80s also contracted it and quickly died. Dont know his blood type. But two people I'm close to who likely had it, were very ill, but recovered now (in Seattle and other in San Diego), also blood types A.

    Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying on youtube (a couple, both scientists, used to teach at Evergreen until the SJW fiasco drove them out). Heather is blood type A and she thinks she had it some weeks back. He is type O and didnt get it. They take it super seriously and basically go through a hazmat process coming and going.

    I know this is only anecdotal but it's interesting. Here's another possible clue that could explain why Italy and other areas have such high viral mortality , and why Sweden has taken a more cavalier stance (no lockdowns). 10% of Europeans are resistant to HIV virus (and doesn't the COVID have possible HIV ''inserts'' or similarities? Possibly due to their ancestors exposures to viral plagues. Could this resistance have anything to do with the variations ?

    Just wondering.

    PS meant to say 10% of northern Europeans.

    "Professor Duncan added: “Haemorrhagic plague did not disappear after the Great Plague of London in 1665-66 but continued in Sweden, Copenhagen, Russia, Poland and Hungary until 1800. This maintenance of haemorrhagic plague provided continuing selection pressure on the CCR5-delta 32 mutation and explains why it occurs today at its highest frequency in Scandinavia and Russia.”

    From

    https://www.sciencedaily.com/release...0325234239.htm
    Last edited by graciousb; 5th April 2020 at 21:23.

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    United States Moderator (on Sabbatical) Deborah (ahamkara)'s Avatar
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    Default Re: Covid19: Global reports, news and updates

    I cannot find the source- sorry- but I believe some preliminary data from China or South Korea noticed a resistance to complications in type O blood, and a relatively high percentage of complications in blood type A. No mention of rh factor.

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    United States Avalon Member graciousb's Avatar
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    Default Re: Covid19: Global reports, news and updates

    When we know for sure who is actually vulnerable, with antibody testing plus accurate test for the virus itself, we can know who needs to ''lock down'' or who may benefit from a vaccine if a useful one is ever developed, instead of applying these very dangerous draconian anti democratic measures across the board.

    Keeping in mind governments are no more likely to return your liberties back to you post crisis than your meth addict brother in law will return that $50 he borrowed years ago.

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    Scotland Avalon Member greybeard's Avatar
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    Default Re: Covid19: Global reports, news and updates

    Coronavirus and dissent, with Peter Hitchens -- The Brendan O'Neill Show


    Peter Hitchens, outspoken opponent of the coronavirus lockdown, joins Brendan O’Neill to discuss the rush to shut down democracy, dissent and the economy in response to Covid-19.

    Be kind to all life, including your own, no matter what!!

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    Scotland Avalon Member greybeard's Avatar
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    Default Re: Covid19: Global reports, news and updates

    Boris has gone into hospital on the advice of his Dr -- just for face to face tests.
    No deterioration in health.
    Chris
    Be kind to all life, including your own, no matter what!!

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    United States Avalon Member thepainterdoug's Avatar
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    Default Re: Covid19: Global reports, news and updates

    A friend sent me this report tonight. I cannot verify who this Dr is or from where. But seems pretty believable based on the news on this.


    Bob de Bouwer
    Chief Surgeon1992–present
    203.3k content views187.9k this month


    I’ve just recovered. This is what I got (53, excellent health)

    For the first 9 days it is very much like the flu, slight fever, general malaise, some coughing, like staying in bed but completely manageable. It comes and goes, some periods are completely fine, some feverish periods are somewhat worse. But nothing too bad.

    On day 9 - 10 the pneumonia sets in. That is the killer. Fever spikes and part of your lungs just fill with water. Even if you are a healthy and fit person, you might very well die. The problem is that your O2 saturation levels are 90, but you don t feel it. You just fight. Like drowning, This is the pivotal point. And you are completely alone here. There is no cure. Just fight it. It is you against the virus.

    After this, you either make a recovery, or you die. Flip a coin. I had nasty feverish episodes, coughing my heart out. and then, after 14 days, you literally feel the virus has left you. Suddenly you know you have won. Oh yeah, funny but your sense of taste and smell have gone for a few days.

    At first, you will not be able to walk very far, still sleeping upright, but you feel you are on the win. Your condition improves and after a week or so, you are able to get around.

    Thats were I am now. I am a health care worker, so in the first line of defense. Got it from one of my patients.

    Next week, i will be back on the job again, donating plasm since I’m making antibodies to virus now. Just to help others to fight it.

    Please stay safe you all.

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    United States Avalon Member Elainie's Avatar
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    Default Re: Covid19: Global reports, news and updates



    ¤=[Post Update]=¤

    Quote Posted by thepainterdoug (here)
    A friend sent me this report tonight. I cannot verify who this Dr is or from where. But seems pretty believable based on the news on this.


    Bob de Bouwer
    Chief Surgeon1992–present
    203.3k content views187.9k this month


    I’ve just recovered. This is what I got (53, excellent health)

    For the first 9 days it is very much like the flu, slight fever, general malaise, some coughing, like staying in bed but completely manageable. It comes and goes, some periods are completely fine, some feverish periods are somewhat worse. But nothing too bad.

    On day 9 - 10 the pneumonia sets in. That is the killer. Fever spikes and part of your lungs just fill with water. Even if you are a healthy and fit person, you might very well die. The problem is that your O2 saturation levels are 90, but you don t feel it. You just fight. Like drowning, This is the pivotal point. And you are completely alone here. There is no cure. Just fight it. It is you against the virus.

    After this, you either make a recovery, or you die. Flip a coin. I had nasty feverish episodes, coughing my heart out. and then, after 14 days, you literally feel the virus has left you. Suddenly you know you have won. Oh yeah, funny but your sense of taste and smell have gone for a few days.

    At first, you will not be able to walk very far, still sleeping upright, but you feel you are on the win. Your condition improves and after a week or so, you are able to get around.

    Thats were I am now. I am a health care worker, so in the first line of defense. Got it from one of my patients.

    Next week, i will be back on the job again, donating plasm since I’m making antibodies to virus now. Just to help others to fight it.

    Please stay safe you all.
    Day ten is exactly when my daughter woke up because she couldn't breathe and said her lungs felt waterlogged.

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    Default Re: Covid19: Global reports, news and updates

    Quote This is the pivotal point. And you are completely alone here. There is no cure. Just fight it. It is you against the virus.
    This is all panicy, it would have been helpful if he had mention if he used any of the drugs that are said to be helpful at this stage or if he "fought it out by himself" means no meds...

    he also never mentions if he used anything that would have strengthened his immune system prior to the onset.

    so the entire thing is pretty much useless, in case you haven't heard, you can die of the FLU in almost the same way. and thousands do. every year.

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    UK Avalon Founder Bill Ryan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Covid19: Global reports, news and updates

    Quote Posted by Goba (here)
    Quote This is the pivotal point. And you are completely alone here. There is no cure. Just fight it. It is you against the virus.
    This is all panicy, it would have been helpful if he had mention if he used any of the drugs that are said to be helpful at this stage or if he "fought it out by himself" means no meds...

    he also never mentions if he used anything that would have strengthened his immune system prior to the onset.

    so the entire thing is pretty much useless, in case you haven't heard, you can die of the FLU in almost the same way. and thousands do. every year.
    Well, maybe he can be forgiven for a slightly emotional post.... he could have died, and he was clearly aware of that. When that happens, it's a big shock, and it wakes one up a little. (I've been in that situation myself, with near-misses that I somehow managed to survive.)

    See this very interesting and entertaining thread!
    The guy's human. (So are we all. ) It's a personal description of his experience, rather than a medical report.

    I do think this kind of subjective testimony is important because it shows anyone who may still be in denial that this is for real, and can fell a 53 year-old in excellent health like a fallen tree.

    That may be valuable, and even life-saving, for some people to understand better than they may do at the moment. (Of course, this is completely separate from the Cui Bono? issue. The virus is real... that was why he shared his experience.)

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    Default Re: Covid19: Global reports, news and updates

    This is very interesting. The guy is aiming at the Senate so he has an agenda but he seems honest and I cant find fault with what he says (90% of the time)


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    Default Re: Covid19: Global reports, news and updates

    Quote Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
    I do think this kind of subjective testimony is important because it shows anyone who may still be in denial that this is for real, and can fell a 53 year-old in excellent health like a fallen tree.
    It can, and with RELATIVE higher probablility than the flu. But we still do not know the ABSOLUTE numbers of Corona deaths and before we know these there really is no saying which one is more dangerous for a "healthy" 53 year old in comparison.

    Regarding subjective health (or even objective as far as it goes today): a German medical doctor which whom I worked on a project (about increasing the immunity incidentally) once did a VAST research into the relationship of final blood (and other) tests at the time of death and he found no significant correlation which means in most cases one could not have guessed the time of death from those tests. Many causes of death allow the victim to feel "totally healthy" briefly before they drop.



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    United States Avalon Member thepainterdoug's Avatar
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    Default Re: Covid19: Global reports, news and updates

    And now I add this from my friend Jon. these are people. And peoples lives being destroyed, regardless of what you call it //


    My friend dusty died friday. He got back from london March 15th with his finance ... March 18th was in the hospital. Just 5 days ago he thought he was getting past it and then within no time he was doomed. Dusty was 37. Sunday was his funeral and only 10 people could join. His dad also has it , still hanging on in the hospital , and his only wish is to die now as well. This Virus has no boundaries and can get anyone , any age , good health , it doesn’t matter. Everyone stay safe and take proper precautions. I for one have been been a little non believing the risks and haven’t been as smart as I should As if it can’t get me ... I’m so wrong ... my niece and her other medical school students are on the front lines and it’s war for them. Everyone be safe and well. Below is a go fund me only to support first responders in his memory. Looking forward to the dinner after this where we celebrate life and times we have so little of together. Cheers. Dusty is on the page below.

    https://www.gofundme.com/f/17th-stre...-dusty-cemenja

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    Default Re: Covid19: Global reports, news and updates

    Here is an article about SARS-CoV-2 causing damage to the heart in 19% (seems coincidental) of the patients. The heart contains the same ACE2 receptor as the lungs and kidneys, so it is susceptible to infection from SARS-CoV-2.

    Mysterious Heart Damage, Not Just Lung Troubles, Befalling COVID-19 Patients

    By Markian Hawryluk APRIL 6, 2020



    While the focus of the COVID-19 pandemic has been on respiratory problems and securing enough ventilators, doctors on the front lines are grappling with a new medical mystery.

    In addition to lung damage, many COVID-19 patients are also developing heart problems — and dying of cardiac arrest.

    As more data comes in from China and Italy, as well as Washington state and New York, more cardiac experts are coming to believe the COVID-19 virus can infect the heart muscle. An initial study found cardiac damage in as many as 1 in 5 patients, leading to heart failure and death even among those who show no signs of respiratory distress.

    That could change the way doctors and hospitals need to think about patients, particularly in the early stages of illness. It also could open up a second front in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic, with a need for new precautions in people with preexisting heart problems, new demands for equipment and, ultimately, new treatment plans for damaged hearts among those who survive.

    “It’s extremely important to answer the question: Is their heart being affected by the virus and can we do something about it?” said Dr. Ulrich Jorde, the head of heart failure, cardiac transplantation and mechanical circulatory support for the Montefiore Health System in New York City. “This may save many lives in the end.”

    Virus Or Illness?

    The question of whether the emerging heart problems are caused by the virus itself or are a byproduct of the body’s reaction to it has become one of the critical unknowns facing doctors as they race to understand the novel illness. Determining how the virus affects the heart is difficult, in part, because severe illness alone can influence heart health.

    “Someone who’s dying from a bad pneumonia will ultimately die because the heart stops,” said Dr. Robert Bonow, a professor of cardiology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and editor of the medical journal JAMA Cardiology. “You can’t get enough oxygen into your system and things go haywire.”

    But Bonow and many other cardiac specialists believe a COVID-19 infection could lead to damage to the heart in four or five ways. Some patients, they say, might be affected by more than one of those pathways at once.

    Doctors have long known that any serious medical event, even something as straightforward as hip surgery, can create enough stress to damage the heart. Moreover, a condition like pneumonia can cause widespread inflammation in the body. That, in turn, can lead to plaque in arteries becoming unstable, causing heart attacks. Inflammation can also cause a condition known as myocarditis, which can lead to the weakening of the heart muscle and, ultimately, heart failure.

    But Bonow said the damage observed in COVID-19 patients could be from the virus directly infecting the heart muscle. Initial research suggests the coronavirus attaches to certain receptors in the lungs, and those same receptors are found in heart muscle as well.

    Initial Data From China

    In March, doctors from China published two studies that gave the first glimpse at how prevalent cardiac problems were among patients with COVID-19 illness. The larger of the two studies looked at 416 hospitalized patients. The researchers found that 19% showed signs of heart damage. And those who did were significantly more likely to die: 51% of those with heart damage died versus 4.5% who did not have it.

    Patients who had heart disease before their coronavirus infections were much more likely to show heart damage afterward. But some patients with no previous heart disease also showed signs of cardiac damage. In fact, patients with no preexisting heart conditions who incurred heart damage during their infection were more likely to die than patients with previous heart disease but no COVID-19-induced cardiac damage.

    It’s unclear why some patients experience more cardiac effects than others. Bonow said that could be due to a genetic predisposition or it could be because they’re exposed to higher viral loads.

    Those uncertainties underscore the need for closer monitoring of cardiac markers in COVID-19 patients, Jorde said. If doctors in New York, Washington state and other hot spots can start to tease out how the virus is affecting the heart, they may be able to provide a risk score or other guidance to help clinicians manage COVID-19 patients in other parts of the country.

    “We have to assume, maybe, that the virus affects the heart directly,” Jorde said. “But it’s essential to find out.”

    Facing Obstacles

    Gathering the data to do so amid the crisis, however, can be difficult. Ideally, doctors would take biopsies of the heart to determine whether the heart muscle is infected with the virus.

    But COVID-19 patients are often so sick it’s difficult for them to undergo invasive procedures. And more testing could expose additional health care workers to the virus. Many hospitals aren’t using electrocardiograms on patients in isolation to avoid bringing additional staff into the room and using up limited masks or other protective equipment.

    Still, Dr. Sahil Parikh, an interventional cardiologist at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City, said hospitals are making a concerted effort to order the tests needed and to enter findings in medical records so they can sort out what’s going on with the heart.

    “We all recognize that because we’re at the leading edge, for better or for worse, we need to try to compile information and use it to help advance the field,” he said.

    Indeed, despite the surge in patients, doctors continue to gather data, compile trends and publish their findings in near real time. Parikh and several colleagues recently penned a compilation of what’s known about cardiac complications of COVID-19, making the article available online immediately and adding new findings before the article comes out in print.

    Cardiologists in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are sharing the latest COVID-19 information through a WhatsApp group that has at least 150 members. And even as New York hospitals are operating under crisis conditions, doctors are testing new drugs and treatments in clinical trials to ensure that what they have learned about the coronavirus can be shared elsewhere with scientific validity.

    That work has already resulted in changes in the way hospitals deal with the cardiac implications of COVID-19. Doctors have found that the infection can mimic a heart attack. They have taken patients to the cardiac catheterization lab to clear a suspected blockage, only to find the patient wasn’t really experiencing a heart attack but had COVID-19.

    For years, hospitals have rushed suspected heart attack patients directly to the catheterization lab, bypassing the emergency room, in an effort to shorten the time from when the patient enters the door to when doctors can clear the blockage with a balloon. Door-to-balloon time had become an important measure of how well hospitals treat heart attacks.

    “We’re taking a step back from that now and thinking about having patients brought to the emergency department so they can get evaluated briefly, so that we could determine: Is this somebody who’s really at high risk for COVID-19?” Parikh said. “And is this manifestation that we’re calling a heart attack really a heart attack?”

    New protocols now include bringing in a cardiologist and getting an EKG or an ultrasound to confirm a blockage.

    “We’re doing that in large measure to protect the patient from what would be an otherwise unnecessary procedure,” Parikh said, “But also to help us decide which sort of level of personal protective equipment we would employ in the cath lab.”

    Sorting out how the virus affects the heart should help doctors determine which therapies to pursue to keep patients alive.

    Jorde said that after COVID-19 patients recover, they could have long-term effects from such heart damage. But, he said, treatments exist for various forms of heart damage that should be effective once the viral infection has cleared.

    Still, that could require another wave of widespread health care demands after the pandemic has calmed.

    Markian Hawryluk: MarkianH@kff.org, @MarkianHawryluk

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    Default Re: Covid19: Global reports, news and updates

    The media is now claiming that COVID-19 can infect animals:

    Tiger Tests Positive For Coronavirus At New York City Zoo, 1st Case Of Its Kind In US

    A 4-year-old female Malayan tiger at a zoo in New York City has tested positive for the novel (new) coronavirus, according to results from the National Veterinary Services Laboratories at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Officials say it's thought to be the first known COVID-19 infection in an animal in the U.S., or of a tiger anywhere. COVID-19 is a disease caused by the coronavirus.

    The USDA said samples from the tiger, named Nadia, were taken and evaluated after several lions and tigers at the Bronx Zoo presented symptoms of respiratory illness. The zoo said Nadia, her sister Azul, two Amur tigers and three African lions had developed a dry cough and decrease in appetite. They are all expected to recover.

    Article continues here:
    https://www.news9.com/story/41977427...its-kind-in-us

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    Default Re: Covid19: Global reports, news and updates

    So, can you imagine what comes next? Of course, they will say that all of your pets can carry the virus. This will eventually lead to people not being allowed to have dogs because dogs will protect their families.

    In those countries that do not allow guns, there are dogs that will protect their owner - only the police will be allowed to have dogs.

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    UK Avalon Founder Bill Ryan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Covid19: Global reports, news and updates

    Quote Posted by thepainterdoug (here)
    And now I add this from my friend Jon. these are people. And peoples lives being destroyed, regardless of what you call it //


    My friend dusty died friday. He got back from london March 15th with his finance ... March 18th was in the hospital. Just 5 days ago he thought he was getting past it and then within no time he was doomed. Dusty was 37. Sunday was his funeral and only 10 people could join. His dad also has it , still hanging on in the hospital , and his only wish is to die now as well. This Virus has no boundaries and can get anyone , any age , good health , it doesn’t matter. Everyone stay safe and take proper precautions. I for one have been been a little non believing the risks and haven’t been as smart as I should As if it can’t get me ... I’m so wrong ... my niece and her other medical school students are on the front lines and it’s war for them. Everyone be safe and well. Below is a go fund me only to support first responders in his memory. Looking forward to the dinner after this where we celebrate life and times we have so little of together. Cheers. Dusty is on the page below.

    https://www.gofundme.com/f/17th-stre...-dusty-cemenja



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    Default Re: Covid19: Global reports, news and updates

    Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been moved to intensive care in hospital after his coronavirus symptoms "worsened", Downing Street has said.

    Mr Johnson has asked Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to deputise "where necessary", a spokesman added.

    The prime minister, 55, was admitted to St Thomas' Hospital in London with "persistent symptoms" on Sunday.

    The spokesman said he was moved on the advice of his medical team and is receiving "excellent care".

    A statement read: "Since Sunday evening, the prime minister has been under the care of doctors at St Thomas' Hospital, in London, after being admitted with persistent symptoms of coronavirus.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52192604

    Viking
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    Choose well.
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    Default Re: Covid19: Global reports, news and updates

    Only in America...

    Washington — "A conservative lawyer has filed a class-action lawsuit against China for the coronavirus pandemic, pushing an unsubstantiated claim that the Chinese government developed the virus as an illegal biological weapon to unleash on the world.
    Lawyer Larry Klayman and his group Freedom Watch filed the complaint in federal court in Texas seeking at least $20 trillion from the Chinese government because of its "callous and reckless indifference and malicious acts."

    https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronav...over-outbreak/

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    UK Avalon Founder Bill Ryan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Covid19: Global reports, news and updates

    I felt this was interesting and relevant enough to post here. I wrote myself a couple of weeks ago that the US was only just ahead of Africa and South America in its ability to deal with this.
    Coronavirus is revealing how broken America’s economy really is

    6 April, 2020

    We are told by everyone from the United Nations to Donald Trump that the US is a ‘developed’ economy. The statistics suggest otherwise


    An emergency field hospital is set up in Central Park as the Covid-19 outbreaks spreads. The US has fewer beds per person than countries such as Libya and Mongolia. Photograph: Jeenah Moon/Reuters When Susan Finley developed flu-like symptoms, she didn’t go to the doctor because she was frightened about the cost. Finley’s grandparents later found her dead in her apartment. She was 53.

    Finley did not die as a result of Covid-19. She died in 2016 as a result of America’s healthcare system – a system that led her to avoid treatment for the common flu in order to avoid debt. It is that same system that is currently creaking under the pressure of a pandemic that experts warned was coming but governments failed to prepare for. It is a system that does not qualify for the term “developed”.

    The United States of America, we are told by everyone from the president to the United Nations, is a developed economy. That term, “developed economy”, sounds like an endpoint, like man standing upright after a series of hunched and hairy iterations. It’s the contrast that makes the definition – developed economies can only really exist if they are compared to their poorer “developing” counterparts. Covid-19 has merely shown the cracks in a very successful marketing campaign about which category the US falls into.



    There are 2.9 hospital beds for every 1,000 people in the United States. That’s fewer than Turkmenistan (7.4 beds per 1,000), Mongolia (7.0), Argentina (5.0) and Libya (3.7). In fact, the US ranks 69th out of 182 countries analyzed by the World Health Organization. This lack of hospital beds is forcing doctors across the country to ration care under Covid-19, pushing up the number of preventable deaths.

    America’s numbers are similarly unimpressive when it comes to medical doctors. The United States has 2.6 doctors per 1,000 people, placing it behind Trinidad & Tobago (2.7), and Russia (4.0 doctors per 1,000, for a country that is described as being “in transition”). Life expectancies at birth are lower in the US than they are in Chile or China. The US has a higher maternal mortality rate than Iran or Saudi Arabia.









    It’s not just health. Access to the internet is better in Bahrain and Brunei (two countries the UN does not consider developed economies) than it is in the US. Inequality scores are higher in America than they are in Mali and Yemen. A closer country to America in inequality is Israel, a country which functions as an apartheid state.



    And the US ranks 81st in the world in terms of women’s political representation. So, you’ve got a better chance of making it into office as a woman if you live in Vietnam, or Albania. Sub-Saharan Africa is most comparable to America - 24% of seats in the region’s parliaments are held by women, the same figure as in the US.



    In the United States, 83% of students graduate high school. That figure is higher in Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Barbados, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as Montenegro. None of those countries are considered “developed economies” by the United Nations.

    So why does the United Nations consider the US as a developed economy when its own statistics so clearly suggest otherwise? One might argue that it’s about simple wealth, or gross domestic product (GDP), the broadest measure of the economy, per capita.

    But if that were the measure of development then European countries such as Romania, Hungary and Slovakia should not qualify for the term “developed economy” while Bermuda, Qatar, Singapore and China should all make the list. Besides, GDP per capita is no reliable measure of wellbeing in a country like the US where the richest 5% of people own two-thirds of the national wealth.

    The facts are as exhaustive as they are exhausting. There’s one simple conclusion from all of this. We’ve been tricked. We’ve been told that America, like most other majority-white countries, deserves the title “developed economy”. It does not. You can not charge a woman $39.95 to hold the baby that she has just given birth to. You can not constantly operate hospitals at close to capacity in order to maximize profits. The pursuit of private money in systems built for public good has not worked ethically or practically.

    Why does it matter whether a country is defined as developing or not? Because it means that policymakers here can distract voters into thinking that crises are constantly diplomatic, military or trade based when actually the problems that America needs to fix most urgently are right here – they’re the crises of health and education. Had those problems been better addressed, the nation would not be struggling as desperately as it is right now.

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