Coronavirus - worldwide spread and control

[lansbergen]

Well, it appears now that the Princess Diamond cruise ship has become an incubator for the virus rather than a good place for quarantine. According to a Virologist at McGill, the ship is the second most contagious spot on the planet for coronavirus, after China, according to epidemiological data.

yep

 

[Sid]

China Tries 3,000-Year-Old Traditional Remedy on Virus Patients

Well now I'm reassured.

 

[Mij]

I ordered an item from a Chinese seller on Etsy over a week ago, s/he is not allowed to leave home to send it out to me until March 1st.

I will soak it in alcohol when I receive it.

 

[AliceLily]

Another thing which reduces the acquisition of respiratory infections is simple water gargling: see this study.

So when you get back home, washing your hands and then water gargling might be an idea.

I couldn't read all this study (link below) and don't know if it was done well, etc. Needs replication. Really it is just a reminder for me to do salt mouth washes with cold virus infections and it could help with this new virus? Might help to get over the infection quicker?

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-37703-3

 

[Invisible Woman]

My father was a big fan of salt water gargling. The nanosecond you thought you might be coming down with something out would come the salt.

 

[Forbin]

An AP article on home quarantine for travelers returning from China features a few quotes from Dr. Ian Lipkin, who, after 14 days, will leave the confines of his home's basement on Tuesday.


https://apnews.com/24f0467ead5541ccb228ff70c698eb91

 

[Snow Leopard]

I ordered an item from a Chinese seller on Etsy over a week ago, s/he is not allowed to leave home to send it out to me until March 1st.

Viruses cannot survive more than a few hours outside a host, so there is basically no chance the item can infect you. The ban is most likely to stop logistics workers from infecting other logistics workers.

 

[Milo]

For those still wondering about effectiveness of masks, read on.

https://multimedia.scmp.com/infographics/news/china/article/3047038/wuhan-virus/index.html

 

[Sarah]

Viruses cannot survive more than a few hours outside a host

A German group has performed a literature review of how long previously known coronaviruses remain on surfaces at varying temperatures. The results summary is as follows:

Most data were described with the endemic human coronavirus strain (HCoV-) 229E. On different types of materials it can remain infectious for from 2 hours up to 9 days. A higher temperature such as 30°C or 40°C reduced the duration of persistence of highly pathogenic MERS-CoV, TGEV and MHV. However, at 4°C persistence of TGEV and MHV can be increased to ≥ 28 days. Few comparative data obtained with SARS-CoV indicate that persistence was longer with higher inocula (Table 1). In addition it was shown at room temperature that HCoV-229E persists better at 50% compared to 30% relative humidity [8].

https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195-6701(20)30046-3/fulltext

 

[Snow Leopard]

A German group has performed a literature review of how long previously known coronaviruses remain on surfaces at varying temperatures. The results summary is as follows:



https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195-6701(20)30046-3/fulltext

Wow, that is quite surprising, I guess I was wrong.

Air travel poses its own challenges, radiation, large temperature swings.
"Temperature Variations Recorded During Interinstitutional Air Shipments of Laboratory Mice"
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2652616/

 

[Leila]

Would this explain all the spraying that's being done in the streets of Wuhan?

 

[JemPD]

Thanks for that @Sarah.
does anyone know if it can (or would be likely to) survive freezing - ie on the surface of a bag of peas in my home freezer. - lol it's just to settle an 'argument' between myself & someone else about the fact that the delivery driver often touches the frozen items when my shopping is delivered, when he puts them into other bags for easy carrying. So... when they get put into the freezer will that kill it? or not?

 

[NelliePledge]

Article from BBC on how to self isolate. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51506729

this talk of self isolation should be taken as an opportunity @Action for M.E. @Russell Fleming to highlight to journalists the chronic isolation of people with severe ME

 

[Mij]

@JemPD my wild guess is no, not all viruses can be inactivated by lower temps. I would be worried that freezing preserves the virus!

 

[JemPD]

@JemPD my wild guess is no, not all viruses can be inactivated by lower temps. I would be worried that freezing preserves the virus!

yes that's what I said Mij...
I have images from movies in my head... with live viruses frozen in laboratories getting out & infecting people... but lol my friend said I was being silly.

 

[Wonko]

When they were digging up people killed by the Spanish flu, from permafrost, they took precautions to prevent any live virus from getting out. So presumably it's possible that viruses can survive being frozen and still be viable.

https://www.nytimes.com/1998/08/21/...a-new-hunt-for-the-deadly-1918-flu-virus.html

https://www.open.edu/openlearn/body...planet-the-cemetery-could-save-millions-lives

 

[Mij]

"The bodies, which were not embalmed, will not be thawed or taken from the grave, both out of respect and as a precaution against the spread of any infectious material. The scientists seriously doubt that any of the flu virus will still be alive, but just in case, each will be wearing a modified space suit with self-contained breathing apparatus".

Imagine wearing this while cooking peas

 

[lansbergen]

Old malaria med chloroquine works for corona virus COVID-19

Oud malariamiddel werkt tegen coronavirus
Miriam Groot | Nieuwsbericht van: 18-02-2020
Onderzoekers aan de KU Leuven in België hebben ontdekt dat het bestaande malariamedicijn chloroquine werkt tegen COVID-19, de ziekte die door het coronavirus wordt veroorzaakt. Dat meldt NU.nl.
Het middel chloroquine is al sinds 1934 op de markt. In 2004 ontdekte de Belgische professor Marc van Ranst dat het middel werkt tegen SARS. Hij vroeg zich af of het ook zou werken tegen het huidige coronavirus 2019-nCoV. Dat bleek zo te zijn.

In tien ziekenhuizen in Peking, Hunan en Guangdong is het malariamedicijn getest op patiënten die besmet zijn met het coronavirus COVID-19. Experts van het Chinese ministerie van Wetenschap en Technologie meldden maandag dat het middel werkt.


Bij de patiënten die een week lang chloroquine toegediend kregen, verlaagde de koorts en verbeterde de longfunctie. Al snel waren zij virusvrij en genezen, meldt de KU Leuven. Het is voor het eerst dat er een middel is waarmee corona-patiënten kunnen worden genezen. Hiervoor konden artsen alleen de symptomen van het virus bestrijden.

Tot er een vaccin tegen het coronavirus beschikbaar is, kan het malariamiddel worden gebruikt. Het zal echter nog zo’n twee jaar duren tot het vaccin kan worden toegepast op mensen. “Gelukkig is chloroquine eenvoudig, goedkoop in grote hoeveelheden te produceren”, aldus Van Randst.

 

[Sisyphus]

I'm at a loss to know what to think here. 1st reaction is "so much hype, thus too much hype". Most cases are mild and never recorded, blending in with common colds. Financial markets care very much care about such events and are aware of supply chains, consumer confidence etc. Outside of China they've just shrugged. Maybe they know something.

Then I look at progress to complications and consider that I (and probably most here) are more likely than average to experience said complications. For those that haven't cleared it by 2 weeks, progress is to systemic infection and often death. We still don't know if there are post infection consequences; just because "oh, it's a coronavirus like the virii causing (some) common colds" does not mean that you're in the clear once the virus clears, there may be post-viral damage. It is said that exposure does not confer good immunity, you can catch it again and again. It does have a high mutation rate so that's plausible.

It's definitely very contagious. It spreads in Singapore, so summer will not halt it unless there's something defective about the 85F air in equatorial Singapore. It may have a strong affinity for smokers, or smokers may be only one of several susceptible groups. It may or may not cause a handshake with mortality if we catch it.

It seems near impossible to stop. It may be an overhyped cold/flu, or it may be deadly to people like us.
????

 

[Wonko]

Or we may be essentially immune to the more severe effects, like the Spanish flu that essentially ignored everyone apart from the robustly healthy (at least according to my recollection of it).

Of course being essentially immune, to the virus, may not be that useful if enough other people get it, like the people who stock supermarkets, or home delivery drivers, or people who keep water and power running.