# Coronavirus COVID-19 (2019-nCoV) Thread - 2020 Breaking News **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [February 11, 2020, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758 "2020-02-11T01:16:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 251
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2020, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/5023 "2020-10-06T04:05:36Z")
35,698,655 total cases 1,045,953 dead 26,867,153 recovered In the US: 7,679,644 total cases 215,032 dead 4,895,078 recovered Yesterday’s numbers for comparison: > [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > 35,398,976 total cases > 1,041,823 dead > 26,623,375 recovered > > In the US: > > 7,636,912 total cases > 214,611 dead > 4,849,038 recovered ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2020, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/5024 "2020-10-06T17:20:54Z")
Good news. > **[White House lifts block on FDA's stricter vaccine requirements](https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/06/fda-vaccine-guidelines-white-house-426764)** > > The agency's decision to hold vaccine developers to the stricter criteria will likely push any vaccine authorization beyond Election Day. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2020, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/5025 "2020-10-06T17:51:01Z")
Just to clarify, good news that safety is not being compromised in response to political pressure and that even in the face of strong attempts at compromising safety the FDA is standing firm for safety. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2020, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/5026 "2020-10-06T18:32:38Z")
I sense some firings on the horizon… ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2020, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/5027 "2020-10-07T04:08:18Z")
36,044,736 total cases 1,054,604 dead 27,149,067 recovered In the US: 7,722,746 total cases 215,822 dead 4,935,545 recovered Yesterday’s numbers for comparison: > [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > 35,698,655 total cases > 1,045,953 dead > 26,867,153 recovered > > In the US: > > 7,679,644 total cases > 215,032 dead > 4,895,078 recovered ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2020, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/5028 "2020-10-07T19:17:17Z")
Wisconsin: > **[Wisconsin activates field hospital as COVID keeps surging](https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-us-news-ap-top-news-wisconsin-milwaukee-61856a69ec6e9e6f032bb121b6d58a5d)** > > MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin health officials announced Wednesday that a field hospital will open next week at the state fairgrounds near Milwaukee as a surge in COVID-19 cases threatens to overwhelm hospitals. > [@](#): > > According to the state Department of Health Services, only 16% of the state’s 11,452 hospital beds are available as of Tuesday afternoon. The number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients has grown to 853, including 216 in intensive care. > > The COVID-19 test results on an additional 262 in-patients are pending. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built a 530-bed field hospital on the state fairgrounds in West Allis in April, but it wasn’t needed until now. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2020, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/5029 "2020-10-08T01:01:18Z")
Desperation is the world’s worst cologne. > **[Trump says catching COVID-19 was a 'blessing from God'](https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-says-catching-covid-19-was-a-blessing-from-god-230251826.html)** > > President Trump released a new video from the White House Wednesday in which he said that his contraction of COVID-19 was a “blessing from God." ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2020, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/5030 "2020-10-08T02:26:21Z")
Well, his adoring acolytes, apparently immune to science and medical advice, adore him even more now. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2020, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/5031 "2020-10-08T04:05:37Z")
36,394,149 total cases 1,060,462 dead 27,412,267 recovered In the US: 7,776,224 total cases 216,784 dead 4,983,380 recovered Yesterday’s numbers for comparison: > [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > 36,044,736 total cases > 1,054,604 dead > 27,149,067 recovered > > In the US: > > 7,722,746 total cases > 215,822 dead > 4,935,545 recovered ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2020, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/5032 "2020-10-09T04:19:53Z")
36,753,910 total cases 1,066,856 dead 27,667,554 recovered In the US: 7,833,763 total cases 217,738 dead 5,025,193 recovered Yesterday’s numbers for comparison: > [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > 36,394,149 total cases > 1,060,462 dead > 27,412,267 recovered > > In the US: > > 7,776,224 total cases > 216,784 dead > 4,983,380 recovered ---
**Author:** ![Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heffalump_and_roo/32/7691_2.png) [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heffalump_and_Roo)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2020, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/5033 "2020-10-09T10:46:33Z")
Wasn’t sure where to put this, so apologies if it’s not considered breaking news. Considering how much people are relying on accurate data about the rate of infection and the death rates to make informed policy decisions, the UK has realized that using Excel to aggregate this information left them with problems with the limits of old Excel templates. (the newer xlsx files don’t have the same problem). > **[Why you should never use Microsoft Excel to count coronavirus cases](https://theconversation.com/why-you-should-never-use-microsoft-excel-to-count-coronavirus-cases-147681)** > > There are any more sophisticated programs available for managing health data. Why did Public Health England use Microsoft Excel? > [@](#): > > Public Health England has admitted that [16,000 confirmed coronavirus cases](https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-54412581) in the UK were missed from daily figures being reported between September 25 and October 2. The missing figures were subsequently added to the daily totals, but given the importance of these numbers for monitoring the outbreak and making key decisions, the results of the error are far-reaching. > > Not only does it lead to underestimating the scale of coronavirus in the UK, but perhaps more important is the subsequent delay in entering the details of positive cases into the NHS Test and Trace system which is used by a team of contact tracers. I think about this often in regards to Excel. It’s used so often for data mining and data collection when there are better database tools available. ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2020, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/5034 "2020-10-09T11:46:34Z")
While I agree that Excel is not great at many things and that it is horribly overused, there’s really no excuse for this particular issue. The .xlsx format has been around for 13 years now, so there’s no good reason to hit the 64K row issue. It also generates an error when you try to exceed it. A lot of balls had to be dropped for this to not get caught right away. More importantly, why in the fuck isn’t Public Health England using an actual database for this? ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2020, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/5035 "2020-10-09T13:00:28Z")
I’m guessing we’re looking at an office here that never had to deal with more than a few hundred rows of data before, and they just adapted on the fly. I’m not saying it’s right, but you can see how it happens. But certainly they’re not the first people to screw up with Excel… > **[An Outdated Version of Excel Led the U.K. to Undercount COVID-19 Cases](https://slate.com/technology/2020/10/u-k-covid-19-spike-caused-by-microsoft-excel-error.html)** > > And you thought you had frustrating experiences with Excel. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2020, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/5036 "2020-10-09T14:24:27Z")
Let’s face it, NO ONE likes to install Microsoft updates. They often wreak some kind of secret havoc that you don’t even discover til waaaay later. Best just to ignore those updates, amirite? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heffalump_and_roo/32/7691_2.png) [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heffalump_and_Roo)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2020, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/5037 "2020-10-09T16:39:34Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > But certainly they’re not the first people to screw up with Excel… That article gives some great examples. Especially the aftermath. Economic policy was based on the Reinhart-Rogoff Economic study with the wrong data. In the Barclay case, a $1.75B bankruptcy deal was based on incorrect data. The TransAlta’s spreadsheet mistake wiped out 10% of the company’s profit that year. > [@](#): > > **The Reinhart-Rogoff Economic Study** > **Excel Sheets Altering Human Gene Names** > **The 2012 London Olympics’ 10,000-Ticket Overbook** > **MI5 Bugging More Than 100 Wrong Phones** > **Barclays’ Hiding-vs.-Deleting Mistake** > **TransAlta’s $24 Million Cut-and-Paste Mistake** smh None of that surprises me at all. That’s only the stuff that got caught. I suspect there are way bigger errors out there based on flawed Excel spreadsheets. Yet people rarely crosscheck with a database or another cross check of the numbers. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of Covid-19 data that is captured on Excel spreadsheets is inaccurate as well. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2020, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/5038 "2020-10-09T22:23:16Z")
> [@DMC](#): > > More importantly, why in the fuck isn’t Public Health England using an actual database for this? …this is probably the best explainer. > **[Coronavirus: Data can save lives, data can cost lives - and this latest...](https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-data-can-save-lives-data-can-cost-lives-and-this-latest-testing-blunder-will-likely-prove-it-12090904?awc=11005_1602281225_11bf4cf78af2c115a1e989dffd94135f&dcmp=afc-101248-na-na-longtail&dclid=CjgKEAjwlID8BRCP6e_Q-aff4HYSJABYaHqEYAEClklSXE-jvv88wjPepeEwEN3IJxiuaGMvaVXNb_D_BwE)** > > Excel is both amazing - and at the same time utterly frustrating and the limitations of the old version meant data got lost. Long story short: Public Health England do use an actual database. And existing labs within the public health sector (Pillar 1) feed their results directly into the database. The mostly private sector labs though (Pillar 2) can’t talk to the database so send in their results via CSV files that got fed into an excel template that then got fed into the database. So while Public Health England deserve criticism for not keeping their excel versions (etc) up to date: I think the UK government and the private sector cronies deserve equal amounts of the blame IMHO for a variety of reasons related to the billions of dollars invested in the private sector that could have been put to better use. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2020, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/5039 "2020-10-10T04:24:15Z")
37,110,995 total cases 1,072,712 dead 27,897,034 recovered In the US: 7,894,478 total cases 218,648 dead 5,064,300 recovered Yesterday’s numbers for comparison: > [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > 36,753,910 total cases > 1,066,856 dead > 27,667,554 recovered > > In the US: > > 7,833,763 total cases > 217,738 dead > 5,025,193 recovered Today the world had over 350,000 new cases (a new one day record!). If that continues, we will be adding over 1,000,000 new cases every three days. That works out to about 28,000,000 new cases by the end of the year (for a total of around 65,000,000 cases). That’s if the current rate _holds_. Unfortunately the trend has, thus far, been ever upward. Speaking of upward trends, the US is back up to 60,000 new cases per day. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2020, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/5040 "2020-10-10T20:46:08Z")
> [@DMC](#): > > The .xlsx format has been around for 13 years now, so there’s no good reason to hit the 64K row issue. It also generates an error when you try to exceed it I don’t know any more than you, but dollars to donuts they _exported/saved_ the results from something (probably Excel) as a spreadsheet in the well known common format, and all they got was the generic warning “features will be lost” And you send in the old format because that’s still the generic/common format. > [@DMC](#): > > More importantly, why in the fuck isn’t Public Health England using an actual database for this? Even if they _are_ using an actual database for this, they would _still_ export as CSV or use an export tool to export as Excel 97. Because CSV and 97 are still the common interchange formats. ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2020, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/5041 "2020-10-10T22:05:14Z")
CSV is perfectly fine to export (and import). Including Excel in the process is asking for problems, but my guess is that they are using it for some sort of T in the ETL process. For an example of the database related issues with Excel that goes far beyond versions, just load a CSV with zip codes in it and say goodbye to New England. On the other hand, database designers (at least those with any experience at all) always make zip fields have character types, so when importing a CSV, it retains the leading zero just fine. Standard rule of database design is that if you’re not going to sum it, average it, or do any other sort of math or aggregations in it, don’t store it as a number, with the possible exception of a unique identifier field. Excel, on the other hand, sees digits, assumes numeric. At this point, this seems like the wrong place for this, so I’ll stop the hijack. ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2020, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/5042 "2020-10-10T23:33:26Z")
> [@DMC](#): > > On the other hand, database designers (at least those with any experience at all) always make zip fields have character types, so when importing a CSV, it retains the leading zero just fine. Heh. As late as a couple years ago I’ve run into web sites for ordering stuff that failed at that. Incredibly annoying to go through the shopping process all the way to entering your address and have it refuse to accept your Massachusetts zip code with a snarky “must enter 5 digits.” Grrr. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758.md?page=250) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758.md?page=252)