# 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:** 255
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2020, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/5103 "2020-10-18T00:57:11Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > It’s not unusual to catch the same viral infection more than once, especially after some time has passed. I don’t have any stats or figures in front of me … but ISTM that the rarities are actually the viruses that **do** generally confer ‘lifetime immunity’ after first exposure, such as chicken pox (but then some get shingles decades later [?]). > > ‘Lifetime immunity’ in quotes because even for those viruses, some tiny number of exposed people never get lifetime immunity. Puts up hand. I had chicken pox twice. The second time, I said to my dad and the family doctor that I’d already had chicken pox, a few years before. They didn’t seem inclined to believe me until I pointed out a pox scar on my forehead. Then they said, “Oh right, Hmm. Odd.” ---
**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 18, 2020, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/5104 "2020-10-18T01:27:01Z")
A growing concern: pandemic fatigue. We all know what that is. > **[As the Coronavirus Surges, a New Culprit Emerges: Pandemic Fatigue (Published...](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/17/us/coronavirus-pandemic-fatigue.html)** > > Exhaustion and impatience are creating new risks as cases soar in parts of the world. “They have had enough,” one U.S. mayor said of her residents. > … “People are done putting hearts on their windows and teddy bears out for scavenger hunts,” said Katie Rosenberg, the mayor of Wausau, Wis., a city of 38,000 where [a hospital has opened an extra unit](https://www.wausaudailyherald.com/story/news/2020/10/08/coronavirus-wisconsin-aspirus-wausau-hospital-add-covid-19-unit/5922031002/) to treat Covid-19 patients. “They have had enough.” > … > > “Citizens have made huge sacrifices,” said Dr. Hans Kluge, the W.H.O.’s regional director for Europe. “It has come at an extraordinary cost, which has exhausted all of us, regardless of where we live, or what we do.” > … > > “In the spring, it was fear and a sense of, ‘We are all in it together,’” said Vaile Wright, a psychologist at the American Psychological Association who studies stress in the United States. > > “Things are different now,” she said. “Fear has really been replaced with fatigue.” > … > > “The scary scenario is the number of patients who really just don’t know where they got it,” Dr. Landrum said. “That suggests to me that it’s out there spreading very easily.” > > The challenge ahead, he said, would be convincing people that they need to take significant steps — all over again — to slow down spread that could be even worse than before. > … ---
**Author:** ![Tfletch1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tfletch1/32/5340_2.png) [@Tfletch1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tfletch1)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2020, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/5105 "2020-10-18T02:12:27Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > While we’re discussing how nations are counting infections … very little is heard of China’s numbers anymore. The public-facing reports of their case counts suggest that cases in China have remained statistically flat for going on eight months now. > > Is it just conventional wisdom that “ _everyone knows China’s low COVID-19 numbers are faked_ ”? Or does anyone reputable ever argue that “ _nope – China actually **has** beaten this thing within their borders_ ”? A city in China locked down and tested 10 million people because of just 13 cases. Ten million tests in a few days seems like a lot. [City In China Tests 10 Million People After 13 COVID-19 Cases Are Found : Coronavirus Updates : NPR](https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/10/16/924382187/city-in-china-tests-10-million-people-after-13-covid-19-cases-are-found) ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2020, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/5106 "2020-10-18T02:12:33Z")
China is able to impose much more severe measures to prevent outbreak, partially because it’s more tolerated by the people there, partially because they don’t have to worry about electoral consequences. From reading on another forum about what someone in China went through during the spring, I feel it’s reasonable to believe that China was able to stomp it out simply because it eventually noticed that it was a real problem and took the measures necessary. Once you go through a harsh long-enough lockdown and kill almost all community transmission, you can track the few remaining people coming in and maybe a little community spread. What they did in China is simply not possible much of anywhere else, and is the one “good” thing about an extremely authoritarian government not subject to removal at the ballot box. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2020, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/5107 "2020-10-18T02:15:31Z")
Report that the severity of symptoms can be predicted based on the relative amounts of two cytokines in the patient’s blood: IL-6 and IL-10. The first promotes inflamation and the second inhibits it. Based on the change of the ratio of these molecules over the first 4 days, which gives a score called the Dublin-Boston score, doctors can predict how severe the case is likely to be. > **[New blood test predicts which COVID-19 patients will develop severe...](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/10/201014114106.htm)** > > Scientists have developed a score that can accurately predict which patients will develop a severe form of COVID-19. ---
**Author:** ![SayTwo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e56c9b/32.png) [@SayTwo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SayTwo)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2020, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/5108 "2020-10-18T02:32:59Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > While we’re discussing how nations are counting infections … very little is heard of China’s numbers anymore. The public-facing reports of their case counts suggest that cases in China have remained statistically flat for going on eight months now. > > Is it just conventional wisdom that “ _everyone knows China’s low COVID-19 numbers are faked_ ”? Or does anyone reputable ever argue that “ _nope – China actually **has** beaten this thing within their borders_ ”? I tend to think that it’s harder to hide such things in this day and age than some seem to believe. One could, of course, take the approach some countries have and not look exhaustively for something that is apparently not there, but I’m not sure there is evidence of that happening in China, either. I found this recent study fascinating. It explores a hypothesis that the virus spread, during an outbreak in Guangzhou, via fecal matter through a hole in a sewer pipe, carried by floodwaters to adjacent buildings, then brought inside apartments on shoes and bicycle tires. The whole thing makes for a gripping read. But to address the question raised here, it may be illustrative to consider the approach they took in handling the outbreak. For the index cases in this particular study, a woman and her husband, once they had positive tests confirmed the Guangzhou CDC immediately tested 2500+ people in the couple’s neighborhood. Then they rounded up all 212 residents of the couple’s apartment building and the immediately adjacent ones and took them to a central hotel for quarantine, where they gave them a rectal swab and followed up every two or three days with throat swabs. They each got a single-occupancy room and weren’t allowed to leave it. If they tested clean for 14 days they could go home. Meanwhile, they went through their apartments and swabbed everything for testing, before a deep clean. It’s the kind of thing that you can’t imagine being accepted, voluntarily, in the United States. But it’s also something that the Chinese government doesn’t seem to care to hide. I am sure there are countless studies along these lines that are freely available for all to view. Maybe it’s anyone’s best guess what happens in the Chinese countryside, but I’m not sure a lot of secrets exist in the big cities. The study: > **[Sewage as a Possible Transmission Vehicle During a Coronavirus Disease 2019...](https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/73/7/e1795/5920983)** > > During a coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in a densely populated community in Guangzhou, China, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 migh ---
**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 18, 2020, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/5109 "2020-10-18T04:17:55Z")
39,959,269 total cases 1,114,633 dead 29,888,584 recovered In the US: 8,342,665 total cases 224,282 dead 5,432,192 recovered Yesterday’s numbers for comparison: > [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > 39,586,909 total cases > 1,109,130 dead > 29,658,575 recovered > > In the US: > > 8,288,278 total cases > 223,644 dead > 5,395,401 recovered ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2020, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/5110 "2020-10-18T04:21:49Z")
Hey **@Snowboarder_Bo** , You started this thread on February 10; that’s just over eight months of you putting up the numbers every night. That’s an impressive accomplishment, showing dedication to keeping your fellow Dopers informed, and creating an historical record. **THANK YOU!** ---
**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 18, 2020, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/5111 "2020-10-18T06:51:26Z")
> [@Tfletch1](#): > > A city in China locked down and tested 10 million people because of just 13 cases. Ten million tests in a few days seems like a lot. Not really, when you take into account the sheer size of populations here. I spent a year in a city of approximately five million people in the urban area. In China, that is considered a small town. All local governments throughout the country have access to testing, IIRC. Here in Beijing (population north of 21 million), before schools could open their campuses in May, everyone attendiing or working on campus had to get tested. Back in June there was one cluster of 45 infections connected to one market in Beijing but those infected showed no symptoms. The city shut down all the schools and canceled tourist and sports events. School was online for the rest of the semester. Government here and the population are taking this seriously and doing what is required. People have died doing what is needed. Those are nurses, doctors, and even food delivery workers who got infected doing their jobs. The only people I know who call this pandemic “plandemic” or “hoax” are foreigners and they show me the excellent caliber of their stupidity by doing so. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2020, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/5112 "2020-10-18T07:18:31Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > > [@Tfletch1](#): > > > > A city in China locked down and tested 10 million people because of just 13 cases. Ten million tests in a few days seems like a lot. > > Not really, when you take into account the sheer size of populations here. I spent a year in a city of approximately five million people in the urban area. I thought the question related to the number of tests, not their capacity to do them. Ten million tests seems plausible, especially if their national approach is to handle it as Say Two described, and they have geared up that specific capacity. The US, with all its problems, has managed a million per day. In fact, just checking Worldometers, US is 20th in per capita testing versus China’s 77th spot. The Faeroe Islands still leads the table. MFIGA. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2020, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/5113 "2020-10-18T11:44:39Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > What I don’t get though about those who bring up the low numbers of registered deaths in India as a reason to doubt their covid mortality rates is why their influenza mortality rates seem to be believed Huh? I can’t recall anyone ever pointing to India’s flu mortality rates for any reason, and if I ran across it, I would take it with a grain of salt. I mean, maybe someone somewhere does that, but has India’s flu mortality ever been discussed in the general news in the US? Not that I’ve ever noticed. ---
**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 18, 2020, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/5114 "2020-10-18T12:57:07Z")
As the main focus of U.S. general media discussion, not too often (sometimes in pandemic years), but it is implicit in the expectations experts and others have had for what COVID-19 would result in, both there, and in Africa where there has been much less impact than most had been expecting: knowledge of what influenza usually results in there both in usual seasonal years and in pandemic ones. The thought early on was pretty much that COVID-19 is X much deadlier than the flu is, Y is how many flu kills there, so start off with X times Y as the expectation. Worries based on the size of the population so was initially expected to be a big driver of worldwide death numbers. Instead, relative to what had been feared, to what would have been if this bug behaved like influenza does, hardly any. ---
**Author:** ![Monocracy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monocracy/32/4493_2.png) [@Monocracy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monocracy)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2020, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/5115 "2020-10-18T12:58:43Z")
Has anyone been paying attention to the Dakotas? Their numbers are staggering. North Dakota jumped to the top of cases per million in the US and South Dakota isn’t far behind. Cases are still rising in both states. The test positivity rate in South Dakota was above 20% for weeks, then it jumped up to 35%! South Dakota’s deaths per million per day are bad but not too bad at around 5, but North Dakota has been at over 10 deaths per million for over a week. These low density states should not be having numbers this big! ---
**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 18, 2020, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/5116 "2020-10-18T13:02:29Z")
Sturgis. Paid attention to some yes. ---
**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 18, 2020, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/5117 "2020-10-18T13:35:54Z")
I posted about it [here](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aftermath-of-the-sturgis-sd-motorcycle-rally/919616/165): > [@Aftermath of the Sturgis SD Motorcycle Rally](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aftermath-of-the-sturgis-sd-motorcycle-rally/919616/165): > > Saw an update on this today. > > ### [How the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally may have spread coronavirus across the Upper…](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/how-the-sturgis-motorcycle-rally-may-have-spread-coronavirus-across-the-upper-midwest/ar-BB1a7VkP) > > Within weeks of the gathering that drew nearly half a million bikers, the Dakotas, along with Wyoming, Minnesota and Montana, were leading the nation in new coronavirus infections per capita. > > Long and informative article. The link is through MSN, so maybe not paywalled. > > I hadn’t realized this (my bold): > > > But this year, a survey found that **60 percent of residents wanted the rally postponed.** At council meetings, people lined up to argue. A nurse warned there wouldn’t be enough hospital beds if the event went forward, while a business owner said she would lose her building if it didn’t. Calling off this year’s rally, its 80th anniversary, would mean a loss of around $2 million for the city, authorities said. It had only been done during World War II. > > … > > > > In the run-up to the rally, officials estimated that 250,000 people would come. The actual number, according to the South Dakota Transportation Department, was over 460,000 — down just 7 percent from 2019. > > > > They came in the greatest numbers from South Dakota, source of an estimated 93,000 attendees, or a fifth of the total, according to calculations by the Center for New Data. Minnesota ranked second, with an estimated 31,000 people, followed by Colorado with 29,000. Many traveled hundreds of miles: 21,000 rallygoers are believed to have come from Texas, and 20,800 from California. > > … > > > > “No one that I spoke to there wasn’t aware of coronavirus, and wasn’t aware that there was a risk of them being there,” Crerar said. “It was just a risk that they accepted.” > > … > > A “risk they accepted” on behalf of OTHER PEOPLE who had no say in the matter. 😠 > > This guy Cervantes is identified at the beginning of the article as someone who went to the rally against his girlfriend’s advice. He got very sick, spent a week in the hospital. At least at the end he acquired some wisdom. > > > Cervantes now looks at things differently. Watching football, he worried how many of the thousands of fans admitted to a recent Kansas City Chiefs game might become infected, even as he noticed they sat apart. He once put on a mask to humor Balcom [his girlfriend]; now he says he has to resist the urge to yell at strangers to wear them. > > > > After weeks of missed work, his stint in the hospital and a return visit to the ER over a blood clot concern, he’s come to deeply regret his decision. > > > > “I was naive,” he said. “I was dumb, you know? I shouldn’t have went. I did; I can’t change that, so I just got to move forward. But sitting here just the past few days, that’s all I keep thinking about. I’m like, Jesus, look at the hell I’m going through, the hell I put everybody through. It ain’t worth it. It wasn’t. It really wasn’t.” > > He’s lucky he lived to regret the decision. ---
**Author:** ![SayTwo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e56c9b/32.png) [@SayTwo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SayTwo)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2020, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/5118 "2020-10-18T14:16:33Z")
I wonder how many counties are left in the US that have been relatively spared. ---
**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 18, 2020, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/5119 "2020-10-18T14:50:58Z")
It should also be noted that it is regional: Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Montana, Nebraska … that whole group of more rural Western states have had per capita case rates surge dramatically since the beginning of September, minimally tripling, pretty much in lock step, now all well above the U.S. norm. True though that North Dakota is exceptional especially in death rates. The others mostly still have death rates lower than the U.S. average and very low CFRs. Is the whole region’s rise due to Sturgis? It may be. ---
**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 18, 2020, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/5120 "2020-10-18T14:58:16Z")
> [@Monocracy](#): > > Has anyone been paying attention to the Dakotas? More on the South Dakota. > **[Rural Midwest hospitals struggling to handle virus surge](https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-wisconsin-health-south-dakota-9039f5a16a2efb826dc4c20fae6bc204)** > > WESSINGTON SPRINGS, S.D. (AP) — Rural Jerauld County in South Dakota didn't see a single case of the coronavirus for more than two months stretching from June to August. ---
**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 18, 2020, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/5121 "2020-10-18T19:01:36Z")
/bow Thank you for the kind words. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2020, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758/5122 "2020-10-18T20:24:55Z")
Hawaii started letting in tourists again this past Thursday. My advice is do not come here. Too many of the locals are not yet all that happy to see you again regardless of the crashing economy. There is a convoluted system of Covid checking. In most cases, it seems you must have a test before you come, then promise to have another one after you arrive. Some of the islands still have their own restrictions. I _think_ you still have to quarantine for two weeks on the Big Island. I don’t think anyone is checking to see if you do get that follow-up test. Many of the new arrivals here did not get tested beforehand but were allowed in anyway, with the state saying there will be a period of leniency. All seems a mess. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758.md?page=254) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758.md?page=256)