Senate Reaches Deal. Per Igor Bobic of Huffington Post.
He also has a Twitter thread with newer developments.*
*Individual Twitter posts combined for clarity
Harvesting plasma from people who have recovered from a new disease has been, as you said, standard procedure for a long time (for example, it was used with Ebola). But it is definitely a big “Hail Mary” thing. It is very hit-and-miss; effectiveness is all over the place. Definitely better than nothing, but better not to put too big hopes on it.
…the Spinoff have been publishing some of the most responsible and clear messaging around Covid-19, and here is another great piece that clearly explains some of the science behind viruses and how they work. I’ve been hearing about “not touching the face” for a while, but this is the first time I actually understood why. :smack: Art by Toby Morris, help from Dr Siouxsie Wiles.
Yes, well, all those young covidiots who think they’re immune and immortal need to hear that they, too, can get sick with this. Appealing to their better natures to not spread the virus hasn’t worked, maybe we can appeal to their selfish side.
No one has forgotten old people get this and can die of it, right now we need to get the kids to behave themselves, both for their sakes and for the rest of us.
Dude is channeling his inner Trump…
Breaking: Prince Charles tests positive. He’s 71, but otherwise in good health.
Yeah, I don’t begrudge so much celebrities who manage to get tested, whether or not they skip the line based on their symptoms, because they on average are meeting a lot more people than others are, and traveling in the bargain, so can be a hughly higher vector for Captain Trumps than the average joe salaryman.
Reporting an 18 year old whose death may or not have been due to COVID-19 as a “child death” is not aimed at getting the audience of young adults who behave in the manner you describe.
It preys on parents, perhaps especially parents of younger children, and their fears. The news for parents is really that across the world there are less than a handful of deaths under 19, and apparently the 0 to 10 cohort has had none worldwide. Definitely a few significantly ill, and a very small number ICU level ill, but freakishly few. Again, it will be a very big n, so freakishly low risk will still create a non-zero number, but for kids it appears to be way less dangerous than influenza.
If New York’s confirmed cases were ranked it would come in at number 7
China Mainland 81,218
Italy 69,176
United States 55,330
Spain 47,610
Germany 34,009
Iran 27,017
New York 26,348
Total U.S. deaths up 200 from yesterday.
Mommy, get me out of this timeline. 
Better brace yourself then; US deaths total will prolly top 1,000 by the end of today.
Taiwan had another 19 cases, bringing the total up to 235.
To date, 197 of the 235 cases of the disease recorded to date in Taiwan have been classified as imported, according to CECC data.
There are only five cases of unknown routes for transmission, and their contacts were screened so it didn’t go further.
Other news:
Taipei, March 25 (CNA) Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Wednesday announced that it will expand the scope of its COVID-19 coronavirus screening tests to medical and healthcare workers with suspected infection symptoms in order to prevent possible cluster infections in the nation’s healthcare system.
Those who work in hospitals, healthcare institutes and nursing homes who have developed fever or other respiratory symptoms are now subject to coronavirus screening tests, said Deputy Health Minister Hsueh Jui-yuan () during a CECC press event.
People are being asked to avoid large gatherings.
I’d like to know more about this, if for no other good reason than I like to know stuff. Reliable info broken down into digestible bites?
Thankfully Brazil is a federal nation like the U.S. so that more responsible state governors in each nation can ignore the prattling coxcomb heading the federal government and employ reasonable measures.
And will hit 1000 daily probably during the first few days of April.
Here’s the non digestible bit, preliminary paper on a small pilot study: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.16.20036145v1
A group of 10 patients showed significant improvement in symptoms, including successful weaning and extubation of 2 of the 3 mechanically ventilated patients. The effects were most pronounced when it was given within 2 weeks of infection. The group did dramatically better than a randomly selected group of patients with similar baseline characteristics.
One significant challenge is that you need to get the plasma from patients who have recovered quite recently, as the antibody levels decrease rapidly.
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IANAD, but my understanding is that a serum derived from plasma is like giving a man a fish, whereas an actual vaccine would be teaching a man to fish.
The serum would give you some antibodies that fight the virus for you. But once they’re used up that’s it. Could be useful for patients that are really struggling to fight it on their own. But it’s only a short term solution and if it cures you now, you won’t have immunity.
A vaccine would teach your body to make as many antibodies as needed. Not just now when you’re ill, but in the future when you get re-exposed.
Seeing as how it’s a known technique, stands to reason it had already been tried, and if it was a medical miracle, we would already know about it. Next dumb question: if someone has had it, got over it, and is immune, that means the virus won’t hurt them, but they could still pass it along to somebody else?
On Italy.
I was reading where the Italian practice of multiple generations living under one roof (which generally is a good thing) has backfired here because those elderly cannot as easily be quarantined (as they would in a US style nursing home) and are more exposed to any germs the younger people in the house could bring home.
So do you all think the practice will change? Personally I’ve always hated the way older people are put away from families but maybe it is for the better?
I dont know.