Coronavirus - worldwide spread and control

Status
Not open for further replies.
"We are calling on every country to act with speed, scale and clear-minded determination," the WHO's director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told a briefing at the U.N. health agency's Geneva headquarters.

Tedros voiced concern that "some countries have either not taken this seriously enough, or have decided there is nothing they can do".

He added: "This is not the time to give up. This is not a time for excuses. This is a time for pulling out all the stops.
Click to expand...

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/wires...9-epidemic-pushed-concerted-approach-WHO.html
 
The UK government has promised £46m to fund urgent work to find a coronavirus vaccine and develop a rapid test for the disease.

This will include work on eight possible vaccines which are already in development as well as further research, the government said.

The funding will also support a lab in Bedford to develop a test that could provide results within 20 minutes.

But the test could still be six months away.
Click to expand...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51771116
 
Do people not usually wash their hands?:giggle::yuck:

IM popped to the shops this morning for some milk. He also decided to see if there were any little bottles of hand sanitizer (with 70% alcohol) to carry when out and about. We only need one small bottle really. Normal handwashing with soap and water will do us at home and his workplace have installed sanitizer dispensers all over the place.

Still no alcohol sanitizer to be found. I can understand that but...... he noticed that all the handwash in all the shops he visited had sold out as well? I understand people being a bit more vigilant and washing their hands a bit more, but this sudden massive demand suggests they are hoarding to a ridiculous degree or sales are normally much lower because they don't wash their hands.
 
I rarely wash my hands.

I only do it whenever I wash something up, prepare food, after eating, or use the bathroom - so probably only about 20 times a day.

I certainly don't do it whenever I enter or leave a room or whenever I touch something that has a 'surface'.

e.g. I received 2 letters today, not only did I not wash the letters before opening I also didn't wash them once I'd opened them - I did wash my hands shortly after but that's co-incidence (I made breakfast).
 
EDITED - I deleted the link to a recipe for home made hand sanitizer.

I do believe it had the right proportions to get the right concentration of isopropyl alcohol. It definitely wasn't one of those debunked vodka recipes.

However, I've read a few articles online that say it's really best not to rely on these home recipes. So, just to be extra cautious, I've edited this post to delete the information.
 
Last edited:
A virus spread from animals to humans is termed zoontropic; what is the opposite, i.e. humans spreading it to animals? What a terrible condition
we’ll have if both are true of coronavirus! @Hip Are you aware of any hits on this? (BTW, greetings from PRF, other moniker - note location,-)
 
NelliePledge said:
I’ve got tea tree wet wipes as they’re easy to carry round also they haven’t sold out. I’m going to a football match tomorrow do you think I’m daft?
Click to expand...


It's so very hard to know.....

You enjoy the football so much it seems a shame to miss it. The vast majority of people don't have corona virus.

On the other hand close proximity to lots of other people. Lots of shouting and cheering so presumably a bit more chance to inhale other people's breath?

If this is going to be ongoing, and it rather looks that it will, how long will you be prepared to miss out on matches?

It might also be that if the virus spreads local fixtures might be cancelled, so there won't be any matches to go to. Shame to miss out to miss on this one then.

In short - I dunno. :unsure:
 
ahimsa said:
In the case of hand sanitizer there has been some hoarding by folks who re-sell those bottles at a huge profit. Sad, but true.

If you can find these two ingredients, aloe vera gel and rubbing alcohol (isopropyl alcohol), then you can mix up some hand sanitizer at home using this recipe:

https://www.oregonlive.com/coronavi...ntion-how-to-make-hand-sanitizer-at-home.html

(fair warning, I have not made any for myself but it looks pretty easy and straightforward)

I know most ME patients are at home most of the time and handwashing is the best solution ... BUT if you're out doing errands it is handy to have a small bottle for those times when there's no place nearby to wash your hands.
Click to expand...

If you can't get sanitizers anymore what according to my pharmacist also works are these alcohol pads being used to clean your skin before an injection.

They are soaked in 70% isopropyl alcohol and at least in the pharmacies I've been still available. I always need them for b12 injections anyway.

The WHO gave out a recipe for the pharmacies to mix their own sanitizers but the problem here seems to be they themselves can't get the alcohol anywhere.
 
Last edited:
This article, written by Dr. Anthony Fauci et al. and published just seven days ago (2/28/20) in the New England Journal of Medicine says:
On the basis of a case definition requiring a diagnosis of pneumonia, the currently reported case fatality rate is approximately 2%. 4
Click to expand...

So if you develop pneumonia the fatality rate is 2%.

The authors go on to say:
In another article in the Journal, Guan et al.5 report mortality of 1.4% among 1099 patients with laboratory-confirmed Covid-19; these patients had a wide spectrum of disease severity. If one assumes that the number of asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic cases is several times as high as the number of reported cases, the case fatality rate may be considerably less than 1%. This suggests that the overall clinical consequences of Covid-19 may ultimately be more akin to those of a severe seasonal influenza (which has a case fatality rate of approximately 0.1%) or a pandemic influenza (similar to those in 1957 and 1968) rather than a disease similar to SARS or MERS, which have had case fatality rates of 9 to 10% and 36%, respectively.2
Click to expand...

I don't know exactly how current this info is. It was published in the NEJM just seven days ago, but there may have been some delay between submission and publication.


I know the WHO suggested a higher mortality rate of 3.4% on Tuesday, March 3rd, as reported in the New York Times yesterday [below], but the NYT article says that figure is "loaded with caveats."
“Globally, about 3.4 percent of reported Covid-19 cases have died,” Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the W.H.O.’s director general, said on Tuesday at a news conference in Geneva.

But the figure came loaded with caveats. Experts, including those at the W.H.O., say that when more is known about the epidemic, the death rate will be considerably lower.

The death rate Dr. Tedros cited does not include mild cases that were not detected because people did not seek medical attention. And it primarily reflects the experience in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the epidemic began — and where the numbers soared before China’s medical systems had gathered the knowledge and marshaled the resources to fight it.

Earlier estimates of the mortality rate in China had been closer to 2 percent.

Dr. Bruce Aylward, who is leading the W.H.O.’s coronavirus efforts, said he expects that ultimately, it will turn out to be between 1 and 2 percent. And it could be below 1 percent, according Dr. Anthony S. Fauci and Dr. H. Clifford Lane, of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Dr. Robert R. Redfield, director of the C.D.C.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Hand sanitisers seem to be sold out but I had no trouble picking up 2 litres of methylated spirit.

The traditional kill all steriliser in the lab was ethanol. I guess it is not widely sold because people drink it. I am keeping a J cloth in a big yogurt pot steeped in meths and wiping down gloves (rubber) and phone etc. when getting home as well as washing my hands. Meths is good for surfaces too. It also smells nicer than it used to.
 
Thanks @Invisible Woman theres a meeting on Monday between the Football leagues and the government about what to do as it becomes more widespread. Possibly they will have games played in empty stadiums as is happening in Italy. So it might not be my decision after tomorrow. The next afternoon home game for my team after tomorrow is in 4 weeks time so I reckon there’s a strong chance we won’t be allowed to attend.

Where I sit there are some empty seats so we aren’t squashed up together it isn’t any different to going on public transport although better because open air.
 
Forbin said:
This article, written by Dr. Anthony Fauci et al. and published just seven days ago (2/28/20) in the New England Journal of Medicine says:


So if you develop pneumonia the fatality rate is 2%.

The authors go on to say:


I don't know exactly how current this info is. It was published in the NEJM just seven days ago, but there may have been some delay between submission and publication.


I know the WHO suggested a higher mortality rate of 3.4% on Tuesday, March 3rd, as reported in the New York Times yesterday [below], but the NYT article says that figure is "loaded with caveats."
Click to expand...

Maybe the WHO is stressing the mortality of 3.4% because they want this number to be printed everywhre and everyone to take it more seriously.

They haven't addressed anyone specific but have criticized that not all governments are taking the necessary steps. From what I understand that's the reason why they don't want to call it a pandemic, because they fear that then everybody thinks it's out of control anyway and people surrender/give up on containment.
 
Jonathan Edwards said:
It also smells nicer than it used to.
Click to expand...

You just gave me a shudder, remembering the smell when the assistants in Woolworths wiped down the glass counters with meths, which were at face level for kids! I don't think I've had a whiff of it since the 1960s.

Loved the smell of surgical spirit, though, which we were doused in when our mother was trying to remove the stubborn black residue left by old-school sticking plasters. I guess that would make a reasonable surface cleaner too, if anyone needed one?
 
Leila said:
Maybe the WHO is stressing the mortality of 3.4% because they want this number to be printed everywhre and everyone to take it more seriously.

They haven't addressed anyone specific but have criticized that not all governments are taking the necessary steps. From what I understand that's the reason why they don't want to call it a pandemic, because they fear that then everybody thinks it's out of control anyway and people surrender/give up on containment.
Click to expand...
Fauci discussed this on CNN last night. Basically saying the 3.4% is strictly just a pure calculation: deaths/known cases. Clearly, the true denominator should be larger, as there are many undiagnosed cases of COVID-19. So the actual death rate is considerably lower than the purely calculated one.

But this 3.4% is something everyone can agree on. It's just a calculation.

Fauci went on to say that determining the true (larger) denominator and actual (lower) death rate requires using models. Models give a range rather than a number, but I didn't hear him say what that range was.
 
Jonathan Edwards said:
Hand sanitisers seem to be sold out but I had no trouble picking up 2 litres of methylated spirit.

The traditional kill all steriliser in the lab was ethanol. I guess it is not widely sold because people drink it. I am keeping a J cloth in a big yogurt pot steeped in meths and wiping down gloves (rubber) and phone etc. when getting home as well as washing my hands. Meths is good for surfaces too. It also smells nicer than it used to.
Click to expand...
A reminder of my youth.

In days before computers drew everything , a prerequisite before you drew up your yearly " final.project" with T - square and ink was a trip to Boots for meths ( to clean your board, T Square and adjustable set square), and a packet of razor blades for scraping ink off any mistakes
You had to sign for meths.

You can imagine the looks from the counter staff....
 
Jonathan Edwards said:
Hand sanitisers seem to be sold out but I had no trouble picking up 2 litres of methylated spirit.

The traditional kill all steriliser in the lab was ethanol. I guess it is not widely sold because people drink it. I am keeping a J cloth in a big yogurt pot steeped in meths and wiping down gloves (rubber) and phone etc. when getting home as well as washing my hands. Meths is good for surfaces too. It also smells nicer than it used to.
Click to expand...
How long do you think it's effectiveness remains? - what I mean is can you wipe stuff, put it back in it's pot & use it again later? or does it need to be a freshly steeped cloth every time?
And would that be the same for 70% isopropyl alcohol?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom