bluewater
bluewater's JournalNew Covid-19 crisis hits ICUs as more patients need dialysis
Source: CNN
Emergency room doctors say they are running into a new crisis as they struggle to treat patients with Covid-19 -- a shortage of dialysis machines and supplies.
They say they are overwhelmed, not only because patients are going into kidney failure, but also because the body's intense reaction to the virus is often causing their blood to clot too much, and the clots are literally clogging up the dialysis filters.
It's part of the new syndrome that doctors are seeing in Covid-19 patients. They are not dying from the pneumonia that has been one of the defining symptoms of serious Covid-19 disease, but from other systemic effects on their hearts and other organs.
What exactly are 'underlying conditions?' And why people with them may experience more serious illness from coronavirus
"It's taken everyone by surprise because it is acting so different from everything else," said Dr. Sam Parnia, a critical care specialist at New York University Langone Medical Center.
"They are not dying because they can't get enough oxygen. They are actually dying because of other complications and it is predominately due to blood clots."
And these blood clots are clogging up the filters used to clean the blood during dialysis, Parnia and other doctors told CNN. Intensive care units are already struggling to get enough dialysis equipment and staff to care for Covid-19 patients and the crisis is made worse because they go through so many supplies. "There aren't enough filters," Parnia told CNN.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/17/health/coronavirus-kidney-dialysis-need/index.html
Coronavirus could attack immune system like HIV by targeting protective cells, warn scientists
Source: South China Morning Post, Hong Kong
The coronavirus that causes Covid-19 could kill the powerful immune cells that are supposed to kill the virus instead, scientists have warned.
The surprise discovery, made by a team of researchers from Shanghai and New York, coincided with frontline doctors' observation that Covid-19 could attack the human immune system and cause damages similar to that found in HIV patients.
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Further investigations to the coronavirus infection on primary T cells would evoke "new ideas about pathogenic mechanisms and therapeutic interventions," the researchers said in a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Cellular & Molecular Immunology this week.
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A doctor, who works in a public hospital treating Covid-19 patients in Beijing, said the discovery added another piece of evidence to a growing concern in medical circles that the coronavirus could sometimes behave like some of the most notorious viruses that directly attack the human immune system.
"More and more people compare it to HIV," said the doctor who requested not to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.
Read more: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3079443/coronavirus-could-target-immune-system-targeting-protective
I hope to god these preliminary reports turn out to be unsubstantiated.
But it raises the question, are we being told everything about this disease?
Have governments around the world all agreed to shut down their economies for months because there actually are insidious aspects of covid-19 that are not public knowledge yet?
EDIT: Ok, that last part sounded a bit conspiratorial, as some posters have pointed out. Let me clarify that. I do not mean to imply there is a cover-up, rather, that the ramifications of the latest findings are known better to the experts and government leadership that we in the general public at this time.
The steps taken to date have been extraordinary in scope and breadth, with nations shutting down entire economies and talk now of keeping them shut down into the summer, Trump's posturing to "re-open" the country not with standing.
Personally, I am just starting to wrap my head around how big the pandemic is in both medical and economic terms.
Thanks out to those that have discussed this with me down thread already.
It's not a fucking snow day.
https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1244315750967410691Stay home. Keep everyone safe.
Cuomo says 209 die in day as coronavirus 'war' looms and N.Y. cases soar above 52,000
Source: New York Daily News
Gov. Cuomo on Saturday warned New Yorkers to gird for a “war” on the coronavirus pandemic as the death toll soared by 209 people in the past 24 hours alone.
The number of dead rose to 728, up from 519 the day before, in the state that is now the epicenter of the global pandemic that has transformed life in a flash from the crowded streets of Brooklyn to remote corners of rural Asia and Africa.
These are still people who we lost. We lost because of this virus," Cuomo said mournfully. "If they didn’t have the virus, they would be with us today,” The governor said New York is trying to “go on offense” after being “behind the virus from Day 1."
Models predict the worst of the pandemic will hit the city and state in about three weeks, he said. “The war will fully engage when we hit that apex,” he said. “God forbid the apex happens, make sure you are ready.”
The state now has 52,000 coronavirus cases, with 7,000 positive diagnoses in the past day alone.
In the five boroughs, 25,000 have tested positive for the dreaded disease, including more than 4,000 between Friday and Saturday.
Read more: https://www.nydailynews.com/coronavirus/ny-coronavirus-cuomo-20200328-eghpza5bvnc4feeccpl74crgma-story.html
6 Die as Coronavirus Races Through Upscale Retirement Community in N.Y.
Source: New York Times
The first sign appeared two weeks ago, when an employee tested positive for coronavirus. By Wednesday, Peconic Landing, an upscale elder community on the North Shore of Long Island, announced its sixth death from the virus, sparking fears of an even bigger outbreak among a vulnerable, confined population.
What was a peaceful waterfront resort by the shores of Long Island Sound has become a scene emergency crews in hazmat suits. Employees worked double shifts to cover for missing workers; when one threw out her mask to go on break, her supervisor reprimanded her for not reusing it.
Visitors trying to check in with parents were turned away at the gates, and families were advised that removing their relatives was even riskier than keeping them there. “I’m 90 years old, I’d like to die naturally,” one resident told her son. “But I don’t want to die for this.”
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Nursing homes and other group residences for older adults are particularly susceptible to the pandemic, because residents are in close contact with one another and with the workers, and because many residents already have other health problems and weakened immune systems.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/26/nyregion/coronavirus-peconic-landing-nursing-home.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
Even though I am old myself, I've never personally faced the challenges of long term care for aging parents, both of mine died suddenly though years apart.
My heart goes out to everyone who is or who has loved ones in these facilities. This virus seems designed to target people in places where we thought they would be most well cared for.
100 Deaths From Coronavirus in N.Y. in One Day: Live Updates
Source: New York Times
From Wednesday morning to Thursday morning, 100 people died of the coronavirus in New York State, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Thursday, as patients stay on ventilators longer and succumb to respiratory failure.
The number of patients hospitalized in the state also surged 40 percent in a day, the sharpest increase in days, Mr. Cuomo said during a news briefing where the message was notably less hopeful about the surging outbreak that it had been the previous day.
The governor emphasized on Thursday that the numbers on any single day did not provide an accurate picture of the damage caused by the coronavirus.
Still, Thursday’s briefing represented a significant swing from the previous day’s, when Mr. Cuomo led with optimistic projections about the slowing growth rate of hospitalization in the state, which he attributed to social-distancing rules.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/26/nyregion/coronavirus-new-york-update.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
Rapid increase in coronavirus cases aboard US aircraft carrier
Source: CNN
There are now 23 sailors who have tested positive for the coronavirus aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, just two days after the Pentagon announced that three sailors aboard the ship had tested positive for the virus, a Navy official has confirmed to CNN.
Earlier in the day, acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly had said there were "several" more cases onboard the ship, but did not give a specific number.
"We are in the process now of testing 100% of the crew of that ship to ensure that we're able to contain whatever spread might've occurred," Modly told reporters at the Pentagon at a briefing Thursday morning. There are approximately 5,000 personnel on board the carrier.
The Roosevelt is in the process of pulling into Guam, according to Modly. "No one on the crew will be allowed to leave anywhere into Guam, other than on pier side," he said.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/26/politics/coronavirus-cases-us-aircraft-carrier/index.html
New York's case count is doubling every three days, the governor says.
Source: New York Times
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who last week adopted a friendly tone toward Mr. Trump, got as close as he has to chastising the federal government, which has so far sent 400 ventilators to New York City.
“You want a pat on the back for sending 400 ventilators,” Mr. Cuomo said. “What are we going to do with 400 ventilators when we need 30,000 ventilators? You’re missing the magnitude of the problem, and the problem is defined by the magnitude.”
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Mr. Cuomo, speaking at the Javits Center in Manhattan, which the Army Corps is retrofitting into a 1,000-bed emergency hospital, said the rate of new coronavirus infections in New York is doubling about every three days.
“We haven’t flattened the curve,” he said. “And the curve is actually increasing.” The governor, appearing in front of piles of medical supplies, spoke in a far more sober tone and delivered notably bleaker news than he has in previous days.
The peak of infection in New York could come as soon as two to three weeks, far earlier than previously anticipated, Mr. Cuomo said, which would put even bigger strain on the health care system than officials had feared.
“The apex is higher than we thought and the apex is sooner than we thought,” Mr. Cuomo said. “That is a bad combination of facts.”
The governor said the state now projects that it may need as many as 140,000 hospital beds to house virus patients, up from the 110,000 projected a few days ago. As of now, only 53,000 are available. Up to 40,000 intensive-care beds could be needed. “Those are troubling and astronomical numbers,” he said.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/24/world/coronavirus-news-live-updates.html
“Those are troubling and astronomical numbers”
They truly are.
And Trump decided to send only 400 of the 20,000 stockpiled ventilators to the epicenter of the pandemic in the country!
This is criminal.
Modi Orders 3-Week Total Lockdown for All 1.3 Billion Indians
Source: New York Times
With four hours’ notice, India’s prime minister announced that no one could leave their homes for 21 days — the most severe step taken anywhere in the war against the coronavirus. India’s prime minister ordered all 1.3 billion people in the country to stay inside their homes for three weeks starting Wednesday — the biggest and most severe action undertaken anywhere to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
“There will be a total ban of coming out of your homes,” the prime minister, Narendra Modi, announced on television Tuesday night, giving Indians less than four hours’ notice before the order took effect at 12:01 a.m.
“Every state, every district, every lane, every village will be under lockdown,” Mr. Modi said.
The breadth and depth of such a challenge is staggering in a country where hundreds of millions of citizens are destitute and countless millions live in packed urban areas with poor sanitation and weak public health care.
Though India’s number of reported coronavirus infections remains relatively low — around 500 — the fear is that, should the virus hit as it has in the United States, Europe or China, the consequences would lead to a disaster far bigger than anywhere else.
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Without being specific, Mr. Modi said “all the steps to ensure essential commodities will be maintained.”
But Mr. Modi did not make clear how people would get food, water and other necessities during the lockdown, or how they would maintain a safe distance from one another in the cramped spaces many now live. Nor did the prime minister make clear whether exceptions would be made for workers deemed critical to keep the country — the world’s most populous nation after China — functioning.
Mr. Modi acknowledged that his decree would create “a very difficult time for poor people.”
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/24/world/asia/india-coronavirus-lockdown.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
Bernie Sanders needs to drop out before the NY Primary on April 28th.
The end of April is EXACTLY when New York, especially NYC, is expected to hit peak case load during the Covid19 pandemic.
Previously, after he lost the Michigan Primary, I called on Sanders to drop out of the race and get behind his fellow candidate that would have the best chance of defeating Trump in the General Election, namely Joe Biden.
I will re-iterate that call now. New York is facing the greatest health crisis in over 100 years and essentially forcing the public to endure a needless primary, with all its associated crowding and opportunities for virus transmission, is just unacceptable. Bernie Sanders should drop out now so NY can cancel plans for a primary at the peak of the virus infection that is going to wrack the state and it's medical resources.
Look, Biden was not my favorite candidate, he ranked 5th or 6th on my personal list. Warren was my number one choice and I contributed time and as much money as I had to spare to her campaign. Sanders, based on his policies, was my number two choice. Many people here know how hard I pushed for both those candidates when they were still viable, those that don't, trust me, I pushed very hard.
But it is clear now that Joe Biden is our presumptive nominee and that he won't be over taken in the delegate count. Add in the fact that Super delegates will decide the issue if needed on an unlikely second ballot, and throw their support behind Biden ensuring he will be our 2020 nominee.
Sanders simply has no real way forward. He needs to spare the voters, especially those in New York at this time, unnecessary health risks and to suspend his campaign immediately.
The looming April 28th New York Primary gives Bernie the opportunity to shift the focus off of his campaign and onto the health crisis we are all facing by pointing out the risks of holding that primary and suspending his campaign as soon as possible.
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