Navy removes 116 staff from hospital ship after virus infects 7

The Navy has removed 116 medical staff members from its hospital ship docked off Los Angeles after seven of them tested positive for COVID-19, an official said Tuesday.
...
It’s unclear where or how the sailors became infected, Rieger said.

The ship left San Diego on March 23 when all were screened before they boarded, Rieger said. It arrived to Los Angeles four days later to provide relief to the city amid the pandemic by accepting patients from hospitals who were not infected with the virus.
...
So far the ship, with 1,000 beds, has taken in 48 patients from hospitals and none has tested positive for the coronavirus or showed any symptoms of the illness, Rieger said. Two medical personnel from the ship who tested positive came in close contact with a small number of the patients but they were wearing full protective gear, including gloves, N95 masks and eye goggles.

https://apnews.com/30482fcfde019fd03e5173b6261219d5

Family of New York woman blames hydroxychloroquine combo for fatal heart attack

A New York woman with coronavirus symptoms died last week after being prescribed a drug cocktail with known cardiac side effects, and family members say she was not tested for COVID-19 or for heart problems before receiving the medication.

The family’s experience suggests that at least some physicians are prescribing hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin — drugs President Donald Trump has promoted to treat the coronavirus — outside of hospital settings, underscoring why major medical organizations including the American Heart Association have issued warnings about the drug’s potential to trigger heart arrhythmia in some patients.

In early April, Ligia, a 65-year-old Queens resident, was given the drug by her general practitioner after she reported having a bad cough, fever and shortness of breath. Ligia’s last name is being withheld on the request of her children.

While Ligia’s symptoms were consistent with those of COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, she was never tested for the virus, her brother-in-law, Lee Levitt, told NBC News. Ligia received the drug after speaking by phone with her doctor, Levitt said. She was never evaluated in person and received no heart screening or warning about the potential side effects.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/family-new-york-woman-blames-hydroxychloroquine-combo-fatal-heart-attack-n1185451

French study finds hydroxychloroquine doesn't help patients with coronavirus

Source: CNN

A drug that's been touted by President Donald Trump as a "game changer" didn't help hospitalized patients with coronavirus and was associated with heart complications, according to a new study.

"This provides evidence that hydroxychloroquine does not apparently treat patients with Covid 19," said Dr. Paul Offit, an infectious disease specialist at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "Even worse, there were side effects caused by the drug -- heart toxicities that required it be discontinued."

In the new study, among the 84 patients who took hydroxychloroquine, 20.2% were admitted to the ICU or died within seven days of taking the drug. Among the 97 patients who did not take the drug, 22.1% went to the ICU or died.

"These results do not support the use of [hydroxychloroquine] in patients hospitalised for documented SARSCoV-2-positive hypoxic pneumonia," the study authors wrote.


Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/15/health/new-french-study-hydroxychloroquine/index.html

Guatemala health minister says more than half of deportees from U.S. have COVID-19

Source: LA Times

More than half the deportees flown back to Guatemala by U.S. immigration authorities have tested positive for coronavirus, the top Guatemalan health official said Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters in Guatemala City, Hugo Monroy, the minister of health, did not specify a time frame or the total number of deportees who had arrived home with infections.

But hundreds of Guatemalans have been returned in recent weeks, including 182 who arrived Monday on two flights from Texas.

Monroy said that on one flight — which he declined to identify — more than 75% of the deportees tested positive.



Read more: https://ktla.com/news/california/guatemala-health-chief-says-more-than-half-of-deportees-from-u-s-have-covid-19/

21-year-old Riverside nursing assistant dies from COVID-19 complications

Valeria Viveros of Riverside knew there were risks working in a nursing home amid the COVID-19 pandemic, family members said.

But the 21-year-old felt compelled to do her best to help as she worked her first job as a nursing assistant at the Extended Care Hospital of Riverside.

Earlier this month, she became one of dozens at the facility diagnosed with the virus herself. Seven days later, on Friday, she died from complications of COVID-19.

"Her mother, father, sister, and brother are in shock, mourning, and in quarantine,” aunt Rafaela Pinto Urrea wrote on the memorial page. “Valeria made the ultimate sacrifice for her elderly patients,” she said. “Valeria did not have the heart to stay home! She was driven to be with the elderly under her care at a skilled nursing facility in Riverside, in spite of the fact that several patients were infected with COVID-19.”

https://ktla.com/news/local-news/21-year-old-riverside-nursing-assistant-dies-from-covid-19-complications/

94% of countries have lower Covid-19 death rates than US

With news today that the US now has the most total Covid-19 deaths of any country in the world, the right wing is deflecting by claiming that is not the proper "statistical analysis" to apply. I have been hearing a lot of right wing talking points that we are "way down the list when it comes to death rate," so we should "move on" from "obsessing" over the total deaths and that we should "look at the death rates per capita." Some even claim the US has "done a damn good job" when compared to other countries, that we are doing a better job than "more than half of Europe." When you hear that, please call these people out as liars. If we don't use the "L" word, then we are just letting them gaslight us.

First, there are 195 countries in the world, and only 11 have worse Covid-19 death rates per capita (deaths/1 million population) than the US. That puts us in the top worst 6% in the world. In other words, we are doing a poorer job than 94% of the countries in the world, by the right wing's own criteria.

And if you want to just talk about Europe, it doesn't get much better. There are 44 countries in Europe. Only 10 European countries have a Covid-19 per capita death rate worse than us. So, in other words, 77% of European countries are doing a "better job" than us.

Here are the 149 countries who have Covid-19 cases, and their death rates (from https://www.realclearpolitics.com/coronavirus/ ):

Total Global Coronavirus (COVID-19) Deaths: 108,828 Total Global Confirmed Cases: 1,780,315

Country- Deaths-Deaths/1M-ND-Tests- Confirmed Cases- CC Ftl Rate-CC/1M-EstCases:

1Spain 16,606 355.4 - 355,000 163,027 10.19% 3,489.2 -
2Italy 19,468 322.2 - 963,473 152,271 12.79% 2,519.7 -
3Belgium 3,346 292.9 - 102,151 28,018 11.94% 2,453.0 -
4Saint Maarten 9 213.9 - 134 50 18.00% 1,188.1 -
5France 13,832 206.5 - 333,807 129,654 10.67% 1,935.5 -
6Netherlands 2,643 153.4 - 101,534 24,413 10.83% 1,416.8 -
7United Kingdom 9,875 148.5 - 334,974 78,991 12.50% 1,188.0 -
8Switzerland 1,036 121.6 - 190,000 25,107 4.13% 2,948.0 -
9Luxembourg 62 102.0 - 28,965 3,270 1.90% 5,380.7 -
10Sweden 887 87.1 - 54,700 10,151 8.74% 996.8 -
11Ireland 320 65.9 - 53,000 8,928 3.58% 1,839.5 -
12United States 20,577 62.9 - 2,670,674 532,879 3.86% 1,628.8 -
13Bermuda 4 62.5 - 416 50 8.00% 780.9 -
14Iran 4,357 53.3 - 251,703 70,029 6.22% 856.1 -
15Portugal 470 45.7 - 162,798 15,987 2.94% 1,554.9 -
16Denmark 260 44.8 - 67,771 5,996 4.34% 1,034.2 -
17Austria 337 38.1 - 140,975 13,806 2.44% 1,560.5 -
18Germany 2,871 34.6 - 1,317,887 125,452 2.29% 1,512.8 -
19Turks and Caicos 1 28.2 - 62 9 11.11% 253.9 -
20Liechtenstein 1 26.4 - 900 79 1.27% 2,083.9 -
21Slovenia 50 24.2 - 34,279 1,188 4.21% 574.6 -
22Isle of Man 2 24.0 - 1,934 226 0.88% 2,712.6 -
23Norway 119 22.4 - 124,279 6,409 1.86% 1,206.0 -
24Antigua and Barbuda 2 20.8 - 40 21 9.52% 218.1 -
25Bahamas 8 20.3 - - 46 17.39% 116.9 -
26Panama 79 18.9 - 14,588 3,234 2.44% 774.3 -
27Ecuador 315 18.4 - 21,568 7,257 4.34% 424.8 -
28Estonia 24 18.2 - 29,456 1,304 1.84% 987.2 -
29Canada 653 17.6 - 401,552 23,318 2.80% 629.2 -
30North Macedonia 34 16.3 - 7,653 760 4.47% 364.9 -
31Martinique 6 15.9 - - 155 3.87% 411.7 -
32Romania 291 14.9 - 59,272 5,990 4.86% 307.6 -
33Barbados 4 13.9 - 747 68 5.88% 236.9 -
34Turkey 1,101 13.4 - 340,380 52,167 2.11% 633.7 -
35Dominican Republic 135 12.7 - 8,469 2,759 4.89% 259.6 -
36Czechia 129 12.1 - 120,285 5,902 2.19% 555.4 -
37Israel 101 11.4 - 117,339 10,743 0.94% 1,209.3 -
38Bosnia and Herzegovina 37 11.1 - 6,911 946 3.91% 284.6 -
39Serbia 74 10.6 - 16,399 3,380 2.19% 484.1 -
40Finland 49 8.9 - 44,354 2,905 1.69% 526.5 -
41Hungary 85 8.7 - 31,961 1,310 6.49% 134.1 -
42Greece 93 8.7 - 37,344 2,081 4.47% 194.0 -
43Moldova 30 8.5 - 6,271 1,560 1.92% 439.9 -
44Cyprus 10 8.4 - 17,119 616 1.62% 518.0 -
45Lithuania 23 8.2 - 38,472 1,026 2.24% 367.8 -
46Albania 23 8.0 - 3,644 433 5.31% 151.1 -
47Guyana 6 7.7 - 193 45 13.33% 57.5 -
48Mauritius 9 7.1 - 6,730 319 2.82% 252.0 -
49Algeria 275 6.5 - 3,359 1,825 15.07% 43.2 -
50Malta 3 6.2 - 16,016 370 0.81% 765.2 -
51Trinidad and Tobago 8 5.9 - 1,102 112 7.14% 82.1 -
52Peru 181 5.7 - 67,712 6,848 2.64% 214.1 -
53Poland 208 5.5 - 129,560 6,356 3.27% 167.4 -
54Brazil 1,140 5.4 - 62,985 20,962 5.44% 100.1 -
55Croatia 21 5.1 - 15,691 1,534 1.37% 375.1 -
56Belize 2 4.9 - 364 13 15.38% 31.8 -
57Armenia 13 4.4 - 6,484 967 1.34% 327.6 -
58South Korea 214 4.1 +3 514,621 10,512 2.04% 203.0 -
59Bulgaria 28 4.0 - 18,502 661 4.24% 94.1 -
60Chile 73 3.9 - 76,374 6,927 1.05% 369.9 -
61Bahrain 6 3.8 - 60,425 1,040 0.58% 662.7 -
62Montenegro 2 3.2 - 2,869 263 0.76% 422.6 -
63Morocco 111 3.1 - 7,734 1,545 7.18% 42.9 -
64Lebanon 20 2.9 - 14,055 619 3.23% 90.4 -
65Honduras 25 2.6 +1 1,600 393 6.36% 41.0 -
66Belarus 23 2.4 - 53,000 2,226 1.03% 234.7 -
67Tunisia 28 2.4 - 10,676 685 4.09% 59.2 -
68China* 3,339 2.4 - - 82,052 4.07% 58.9 -
69Brunei 1 2.3 - 9,637 136 0.74% 317.0 -
70Philippines 247 2.3 - 24,500 4,428 5.58% 41.5 -
71Malaysia 73 2.3 - 71,897 4,530 1.61% 143.7 -
72Australia 57 2.3 +1 351,380 6,303 0.90% 252.2 -
73Mexico 273 2.2 +40 35,479 4,219 6.47% 33.4 -
74Qatar 6 2.2 - 47,751 2,728 0.22% 980.7 -
75Bolivia 24 2.1 +4 2,185 300 8.00% 26.4 -
76UAE 20 2.1 - 648,195 3,736 0.54% 387.9 -
77Colombia 100 2.0 - 40,603 2,709 3.69% 54.6 -
78Argentina 89 2.0 - 18,027 2,142 4.15% 48.1 -
79Uruguay 7 2.0 - 7,496 494 1.42% 140.4 -
80DRC 20 1.9 - - 223 8.97% 21.0 -
81Iraq 72 1.9 - 33,889 1,318 5.46% 34.3 -
82Djibouti 2 1.9 - 4,017 187 1.07% 173.4 -
83Suriname 1 1.7 - - 10 10.00% 17.2 -
84Iceland 8 1.6 - 34,635 1,689 0.47% 348.0 -
85Ukraine 73 1.6 - 26,577 2,511 2.91% 56.3 -
86Latvia 3 1.6 - 27,796 630 0.48% 327.0 -
87Saudi Arabia 52 1.5 - 115,585 4,033 1.29% 119.7 -
88Egypt 146 1.5 - 25,000 1,939 7.53% 19.7 -
89Cuba 16 1.4 - 13,162 620 2.58% 55.3 -
90Singapore 8 1.4 - 72,680 2,299 0.35% 407.7 -
91Burkina Faso 27 1.4 - - 484 5.58% 24.5 -
92Jamaica 4 1.4 - 907 69 5.80% 23.5 -
93Indonesia 327 1.2 - 19,452 3,842 8.51% 14.4 -
94Liberia 5 1.1 - - 48 10.42% 10.7 -
95Azerbaijan 11 1.1 - 61,342 1,058 1.04% 106.4 -
96El Salvador 6 0.9 - - 118 5.08% 18.2 -
97Paraguay 6 0.9 - 2,262 134 4.48% 19.3 -
98Japan 108 0.9 - 68,771 6,748 1.60% 53.3 -
99New Zealand 4 0.8 - 61,167 1,330 0.30% 272.2 -
100Georgia 3 0.8 - 3,271 242 1.24% 64.9 -
101Kyrgyzstan 5 0.8 - 9,618 339 1.47% 52.0 -
102Russia 106 0.7 - 1,184,442 13,584 0.78% 94.0 -
103Jordan 7 0.7 - 20,500 381 1.84% 38.3 -
104Oman 3 0.6 - - 546 0.55% 113.1 -
105Costa Rica 3 0.6 - 6,608 577 0.52% 115.4 -
106Hong Kong 4 0.5 - 96,709 1,001 0.40% 134.3 -
107Kazakhstan 10 0.5 - 61,955 865 1.16% 46.3 -
108Thailand 35 0.5 - 71,860 2,518 1.39% 36.3 -
109Niger 11 0.5 - 4,298 491 2.24% 22.0 -
110Afghanistan 18 0.5 - - 555 3.24% 14.9 -
111Cameroon 12 0.5 - - 820 1.46% 32.5 -
112Gabon 1 0.5 - - 46 2.17% 21.2 -
113South Africa 25 0.4 - 75,053 2,028 1.23% 35.1 -
114Botswana 1 0.4 - 2,527 13 7.69% 5.6 -
115Gambia 1 0.4 - 281 9 11.11% 3.8 -
116Pakistan 86 0.4 - 57,836 5,011 1.72% 23.6 -
117Palestine 2 0.4 - 16,992 268 0.75% 53.0 -
118Togo 3 0.4 - 2,069 76 3.95% 9.6 -
119Slovakia 2 0.4 - 25,846 728 0.27% 133.7 -
120Mali 7 0.4 - - 87 8.05% 4.4 -
121Sri Lanka 7 0.3 - 4,525 199 3.52% 9.2 -
122Venezuela 9 0.3 - 181,335 175 5.14% 5.4 -
123Ghana 8 0.3 - 37,405 408 1.96% 13.5 -
124Taiwan 6 0.3 - 45,436 385 1.56% 16.2 -
125Mauritania 1 0.2 - 380 7 14.29% 1.7 -
126Kuwait 1 0.2 - - 1,154 0.09% 278.9 -
127India 288 0.2 - 189,111 8,446 3.41% 6.2 -
128Zimbabwe 3 0.2 - 547 14 21.43% 0.9 -
129Bangladesh 30 0.2 - 8,313 482 6.22% 3.0 -
130Guatemala 3 0.2 - 1,134 153 1.96% 9.2 -
131Haiti 2 0.2 - 365 33 6.06% 2.9 -
132Ivory Coast 4 0.2 - - 533 0.75% 21.3 -
133Nicaragua 1 0.2 - - 9 11.11% 1.4 -
134Kenya 7 0.1 - 6,192 191 3.66% 4.0 -
135Libya 1 0.1 - 507 25 4.00% 3.6 -
136Senegal 2 0.1 - - 278 0.72% 17.5 -
137Uzbekistan 4 0.1 - 70,000 767 0.52% 22.5 -
138Zambia 2 0.1 - 1,239 40 5.00% 2.3 -
139Syria 2 0.1 - - 25 8.00% 1.4 -
140Malawi 2 0.1 - 231 12 16.67% 0.6 -
141Benin 1 0.1 - - 35 2.86% 3.0 -
142Angola 2 0.1 - - 19 10.53% 0.6 -
143Somalia 1 0.1 - - 21 4.76% 1.3 -
144Congo 5 0.1 - - 60 8.33% 0.7 -
145Myanmar 3 0.1 - 1,406 38 7.89% 0.7 -
146Tanzania 3 0.1 - - 32 9.38% 0.6 -
147Nigeria 10 0.1 - 5,000 318 3.14% 1.6 -
148Sudan 2 0.0 - - 19 10.53% 0.4 -
149Ethiopia 3 0.0 - 3,577 69 4.35% 0.7 -

Another right wing talking point is that we shoudn't trust China's numbers. Well duh. But that does not put us in a much better position. Remember, all countries, especially us, are underestimating their numbers. Many more people than usual are dying in group homes for the elderly, or at home, and are never counted as Covid-19 deaths, even though their families report they were suffering from Covid-19 symptoms before their death. They are simply listed as "cardiac arrest" or "pneumonia" deaths. We don't test dead bodies because we don't even have enough tests for the living.

For example, ten times as many New Yorkers are dying in their homes than normal and they aren't being tested. In New York City, somewhere around 20-25 people die at home on a typical day. But according to City Council Member Mark Levine, who chairs the health committee, between 200 and 215 are dying at home every day at present. As Levine wrote on Twitter, only those “who are known to have a positive coronavirus test have the disease listed as the official cause on their death certificate.” Gothamist reports that the city Medical Examiner’s office “is not testing dead bodies for COVID-19. Instead, they’re referring suspected cases to the city’s health department as ‘probable.’” And those “probable” COVID-19 deaths aren’t included in the tallies. This is not a problem that’s unique to New York. BuzzFeed News reported that “medical professionals around the US [say] that the official numbers of people who have died of COVID-19 are not consistent with the number of deaths they’re seeing on the front lines.” https://www.rawstory.com/2020/04/ten-times-as-many-new-yorkers-are-dying-in-their-homes-than-normal-and-they-arent-being-tested-for-covid-19/

So no, Trump is not doing a good job fighting Covid-19, by any measure.

Ten times as many New Yorkers are dying in their homes than normal and they aren't being tested

In New York City, somewhere around 20-25 people die at home on a typical day. But according to City Council Member Mark Levine, who chairs the health committee, between 200 and 215 are dying at home every day at present. As Levine wrote on Twitter, only those “who are known to have a positive coronavirus test have the disease listed as the official cause on their death certificate.”

Gothamist reports that the city Medical Examiner’s office “is not testing dead bodies for COVID-19. Instead, they’re referring suspected cases to the city’s health department as ‘probable.’” And those “probable” COVID-19 deaths aren’t included in the tallies.

This is not a problem that’s unique to New York. BuzzFeed News reported that “medical professionals around the US [say] that the official numbers of people who have died of COVID-19 are not consistent with the number of deaths they’re seeing on the front lines.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/04/ten-times-as-many-new-yorkers-are-dying-in-their-homes-than-normal-and-they-arent-being-tested-for-covid-19/

Sen. Harris makes fundraising moves that fuel speculation of her as Biden's running mate

California Sen. Kamala Harris made two notable fundraising moves Wednesday that are sure to fuel speculation about her prospects to be Joe Biden’s running mate on the Democratic presidential ticket.

Harris, who dropped out of the White House race in December, set up a joint fundraising operation with the Democratic National Committee, an arrangement that is typically reserved for nominees trying to attract large donations from the party’s biggest boosters. Hours later, she made a surprise appearance on a virtual fundraiser, introducing Biden to donors.

Harris, 55, will host her own virtual fundraiser Thursday. The deal allows contributors to give a maximum of $357,800, with $2,800 going to retire Harris’ presidential campaign debts and the rest going to the national party.

The senator and the DNC filed paperwork for the arrangement Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission, in the first joint fundraising agreement of its kind for Democrats this election cycle. Biden and the party chairman, Tom Perez, had been hesitant to enter into such an arrangement while Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders was still actively campaigning against Biden. But Sanders suspended his campaign Wednesday, making Biden the presumptive nominee.
https://ktla.com/news/nationworld/sen-harris-makes-fundraising-moves-that-fuel-speculation-of-her-as-bidens-running-mate/

Why we must wear masks: talking, even breathing, expels microscopic droplets.

The louder we talk, the more potentially infectious droplets we released, with singing being about as bad as nonstop coughing. That explains why we have such big outbresks in churches. But even simple breathing releases micrscopic droplets that could contain viruses.

From a 2019 article in Nature:


It has long been recognized that particles expelled during human expiratory events, such as sneezing, coughing, talking, and breathing, serve as vehicles for respiratory pathogen transmission.
The relative contribution of each expiratory activity in transmitting infectious microorganisms, however, remains unclear. Much previous research has focused on coughing and sneezing activities that yield relatively large droplets (approximately 50 ?m or larger) easily visible to the naked eye. Less noticeable, but arguably more infectious for some diseases, are the smaller particles emitted during sneezing and coughing as well as during breathing and talking. These small particles are believed to be generated during breathing and talking from the mucosal layers coating the respiratory tract via a combination of a “fluid-film burst” mechanism within the bronchioles and from vocal folds adduction and vibration within the larynx. The particles emitted during breathing and typical speech predominantly average only 1 ?m in diameter and are thus too small to see without specialized equipment; most people outside of the community of bioaerosol researchers are less aware of them.

Despite their small size, however, these micron-scale particles are sufficiently large to carry a variety of respiratory pathogens such as measles virus (50–500?nm), influenza virus (100?nm–1?µm), and Mycobacterium tuberculosis (1–3?µm). Indeed, recent work by Yan et al. has confirmed that significant amounts of influenza viral RNA are present in small particles (<5 ?m) emitted by influenza-infected individuals during natural breathing, without coughing or sneezing. These small particles are potentially more infectious than larger sneeze- or cough-generated droplets for several reasons. First, smaller particles persist in the air for longer time periods before setting by gravity, thus increasing the probability of inhalation by susceptible individuals. Second, smaller particles have a larger probability of penetrating further into the respiratory tract of a susceptible individual to initiate a lower respiratory tract infection. Third, and perhaps most importantly, speech can release dramatically larger numbers of particles compared to coughing. Early work by Papineni and Rosenthal and Loudon and Roberts reported that speaking (as exemplified by counting aloud) releases about 2–10 times as many total particles as a single cough. Similarly, Loudon and Roberts investigated the role of singing in the spread of tuberculosis and showed that the percentage of airborne droplet nuclei generated by singing is 6 times more than that emitted during normal talking and approximately equivalent to that released by coughing. More recent work using advanced particle characterization techniques have yielded similar results. Chao et al. used an interferometric imaging technique to obtain the size distribution of particles larger than 2 ?m and found that counting aloud from 1 to 100 releases at least 6 times as many particles as an individual cough. Likewise, Morawska and coworkers reported that counting aloud for 10?seconds followed by 10?seconds of breathing, repeated over two minutes, releases half as many particles as 30?seconds of continual coughing, which in turn releases half as many particles as saying “aah” for 30?seconds. They also reported that more particles are released when speech is voiced, which involves vocal folds vibration, rather than whispered, which does not.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-38808-z

Crew member aboard hospital ship Mercy tests positive for COVID-19