COVID-19 Coronavirus roundup. Headlines from the past hour.

[Mike 03]

Most of these stories hit Google news within the past hour.

NYT: Coronavirus Live Updates: 800 New Cases Reported in South Korea

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/29/world/coronavirus-news.html

Iranian MP 'dies of flu' as coronavirus spreads through country
Death toll rises to 43 with 593 confirmed cases, according to health ministry

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/coronavirus-iran-mp-death-toll-outbreak-mohammad-ali-ramazani-dastak-a9366121.html

(Amsterdam) ABOUT 100 TESTED FOR COVID-19 INCL. FAMILY OF AMSTERDAM CORONAVIRUS PATIENT

https://nltimes.nl/2020/02/29/100-tested-covid-19-incl-family-amsterdam-coronavirus-patient

Coronavirus live updates: France confirms 19 new cases of virus

https://www.fox13memphis.com/news/trending/coronavirus-live-updates-singapore-has-98-cases-mexico-has-first-cases/P2G5NZWVNVHPPONFRFVLSVRZ2Y/

California monitoring 8,400 people for symptoms of coronavirus

https://www.jpost.com/International/California-monitoring-8400-people-for-possible-coronavirus-619280

Iran says 'tens of thousands' may get tested for coronavirus
An Iranian Health Ministry spokesman says the Islamic Republic is preparing for the possibility of “tens of thousands” of people coming to get tested for the new coronavirus

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/bahrain-threatens-untested-iran-arrest-amid-virus-69300053

Coronavirus spreading in California amid intense fight to slow outbreak

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-02-29/intense-search-for-people-exposed-to-coronavirus-sparks-concern-in-solano-county

There are at least 4 coronavirus cases in the US that are not travel-related, officials say

https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2020/02/29/there-are-at-least-4-coronavirus-cases-in-the-us-that-are-not-travel-related-officials-say/

Qatar reports first case of coronavirus - state news agency

https://www.reuters.com/article/china-health-qatar/qatar-reports-first-case-of-coronavirus-state-news-agency-idUSB2N2A0024

[Jarqui]

1. Thanks for the roundup

I suspect we're watching a simmering volcano that's going to blow pretty soon

Trump probably wants his rich buddies to get their money out of the market first ... and leave the rest of us holding the empty bag

[riverbendviewgal]

2. Have you read this

https://virus.stanford.edu/uda/

It is very enlightening about pandemic of 100 years ago.

[MontanaMama]

3. Someone in DU shared this website

a couple weeks ago. I bookmarked it for easy access. I think it’s well done, informative and is updated often.

https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

[USALiberal]

4. Here is another.....

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

[RAB910]

5. This is an outstanding link

I work in public health emergency preparedness and I use it all the time (especially now that Trump is censoring the CDC)

[USALiberal]

6. You might get busy! nt

[RAB910]

9. actually I already am

[malaise]

7. Here's another one

The United States badly bungled coronavirus testing—but things may soon improve
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/02/united-states-badly-bungled-coronavirus-testing-things-may-soon-improve

[localroger]

8. The important thing about CV-19 is that all statistics are out of date

...before they are even collected, because the virus has such a long symptom-free infectious incubation period before a person actually gets sick. So every single identified CV-19 case had a week or two walking around infecting other people before they got noticeably sick.

That means that for every CV-19 case that's been identified, there are probably at least three more that are incubating, and those individuals are walking around spreading it to even more people before they get sick. That's not even factoring in the likelihood that a fair number of people may get the virus and become carriers without even getting sick.

The fact that there is an individual in California who got the virus but from no identifiable source is damning. It's out there, it's not contained, and that means containing it won't be possible. The fact that only a few percent of its victims die actually makes it worse because it increases the opportunity for the infection to spread before the disease manifests. The estimate that 70% of the human race -- the entire human race, globally, over five billion people -- will get the disease seems very reasonable. The math is terrifying.

Dear Leader is actually right that most of the people who get it won't get die or even get all that sick. But enough will get sick to overwhelm our hospitals, which could increase the death rate, and enough will die to disrupt our economy and create one of the largest single lethal disasters in living memory.

How many people do you interact with in the course of a week? How many will they go on to interact with in the week after you meet them? If the rho is 3, meaning each victim infects three more before becoming sick, and that takes one week, then there are probably close to half a million people walking around infected already. By the end of March there will be 20 million. By the end of April there will be half a billion. By the end of May, it will reach everyone who does not have natural immunity or live on a desert island.

Those numbers are all on the conservative side of what has been reported.

[LiberalArkie]

10. An interesting tidbit I read yesterday is that there are not enough hospital beds.

In the U.S. the hospitals (being for profit) do not want empty beds, so they are built for the normal demand. If a hospital cal not fill the beds and keep them full they are naturally shut down.

Where are all these sick people going to be treated?

[localroger]

11. In China they built makeshift hospitals

...but that costs money, and the Orange Gremlin won't want to spend any of THAT that doesn't go straight into his bank account, so I don't know what will actually happen.

[trueblue2007]

12. thanks for the info