Coronavirus and Pandemics

Xerox Will Mass Produce Disposable Ventilators In Partnership With Vortran To Fight Coronavirus

quote:

---

The copier giant plans to help Vortran, a small medical-device manufacturer, scale production of its GO2Vent ventilator and related airway pressure monitor, APM-Plus, from approximately 15,000 before the crisis and 40,000 ventilators in April to between 150,000 and 200,000 a month by June. Their goal is to eventually produce as many as 1 million of these ventilators for both the U.S. and global markets.

​

The GO2Vent, which is disposable and costs approximately $120, is not a replacement for ventilators used in ICUs for the most critically ill patients, but rather a device that can be used for lower- and medium-risk patients to free up those devices for the patients who most need them. The device is gas-operated and can be operated on a compressor, oxygen or air for up to 30 days.

---

Trump Says He Never Read, Looked for Memo Warning of Possible Coronavirus Pandemic

quote:

---

Instead, the restrictions Trump has touted as evidence that he took the threat of COVID-19 seriously when confronted with statements he made downplaying it applied only to foreign nationals, and did not cover residents of Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. U.S. citizens and permanent residents were also exempt from the restrictions, and incoming flights did not stop landing at U.S. airports until several weeks later. Nearly 40,000 people arrived on inbound flights from China in the 60 days after Trump imposed the partial restrictions he now touts as a ban, according to The New York Times.

---

And "Hawaii should have stockpiled enough military equipment to fight the Japanese without Federal help."

Nitric oxide — a gas that led to Viagra — could emerge as COVID-19 treatment

quote:

---

Nitric oxide, a gas that could improve breathing and potentially mitigate severe symptoms of the coronavirus, is among the latest contenders in the race to find a treatment for COVID-19.

​

Naturally produced by the body, nitric oxide relaxes blood vessels, increasing the amount of oxygen being transferred to the blood and reducing the heart's workload. The molecule not to be confused with nitrous oxide or laughing gas is already used to treat heart disease, erectile dysfunction and respiratory illness.

​

Hospitals in Boston, Alabama, Louisiana, Sweden and Austria have started a clinical trial to test the treatment on patients with mild to moderate symptoms of COVID-19. Patients inhale nitric oxide through a CPAP breathing machine for 20 to 30 minutes. The treatment is given twice a day for two weeks

---

‘It is what it is’: Fauci carefully admits Trump ‘could have saved lives’ if he took the virus seriously

quote:

---

"Do you think lives could have been saved if social distancing, physical distancing, stay-at-home measures, had started the third week of February instead of mid-March? Tapper pressed.

​

You know, Jake, again, it’s the ‘what would have, what could have,' Fauci explained. It’s very difficult to go back and say that. I mean, obviously you could logically say that if you had a process that was ongoing and you started mitigation earlier, you could have saved lives. Obviously no one is going to deny that. But what goes into those kinds of decisions is complicated. But you’re right, I mean, obviously, if we had right from the very beginning shut everything down, it may have been a little bit different but there was a lot of pushback about shutting things down back then.

---

Worker threw exception | www.rawstory.com | Cloudflare

quote:

---

As the Post reports, One of the biggest obstacles to the virus response is Trump himself.

​

Even the most dutiful plans and projects often get caught up in the chaos of the White House. Advisers spend significant time trying to manage the president and his whims from successfully dissuading him from seeking to reopen the country at Easter to tempering his impulse to push unproven drugs as miracle elixirs, the report continues, before adding that the president reportedly suggested letting the coronavirus wash over the country in an effort to develop herd immunity, only to have an alarmed Dr. Anthony Fauci tell him, Mr. President, many people would die.

​

The report goes on to note that the task force meetings helmed by Vice President Mike Pence rarely move the ball forward.

​

Despite the debates, few actual decisions are made. Instead, Pence tries to reach a consensus and then bring it to the president for approval. Decisions made in the room are often undermined by Trump, and some discussions, such as guidance on wearing masks, stretched on for weeks. Several officials say the meetings are rarely, in the words of one senior administration official who has attended many of them, ‘where the real action happens.' the Post reports.

---

Edited by JonF, : No reason given.

Wow, talk about loaded questions!Trump was not so distracted by impeachment that he couldn't play lots of golf and hold lots of rallies.You are correct that the questions wouldn't be there at all if it was Obama or Biden standing there. Obama or Biden would have reacted much earlier and done an incredibly more competent job. Such questions wouldn't arise because we wouldn't have the fustercluck that the Administration has made much worse than it had to be.

Dr. Fauci explains why Trump’s travel bans didn’t work and he was begging action as early as mid-JanuaryI want to quote the whole thing. But I can't, so go read it. One highlight:

quote:

---

Fauci explained that there was always some indication that there was danger. But he claimed that the information coming out of China was wrong until the end of December. Trump has claimed China, saying that they lied to the United States and blamed the World Health Organization for perpetuating it. Whether that is true or not, Fauci made it clear that the United States knew this was a problem at the end of December and by the end of January, it was known that the virus was spreading from person to person.

​

They said it was something like 24 cases in this wet market, where these exotic animals are sold and there is a human/animal interface, said Fauci. The proposal made by the authorities in China where this was just jumping from an animal to a human, and it wasn’t spread from human-to-human. Then it became clear, when you look back, that it was likely in China that there was human-to-human spread. By the time we got that information and we started getting cases here, it was, ‘well, it’s not efficiently spread from human-to-human.’ As soon as it became clear that there was community spread, which means that it isn’t just a travel-related case, that there are cases that are in the community under the radar screen, then it became clear that we were in real trouble.

​

Sharpton asked when that was and Fauci said that it was toward the middle to end of January.

​

And did you begin advising the administration and those authorities that we were, in fact, seeing something different here and this could be a major problem at that time? asked Sharpton.

​

You bet, Fauci said emphatically.

---

COVID-19 Patients Given Unproven Drug In Texas Nursing Home In 'Disconcerting' Move : NPR

quote:

---

It's actually going well. People are getting better," Armstrong told NPR, adding that after just a handful of days, some of the 39 patients on the medication are showing signs of improvement.

​

But scientists argue that relying on observational, uncontrolled evidence can be misleading and that the only way to truly prove a drug is working is through carefully controlled clinical trials. And, contrary to Armstrong's assertion that hydroxychloroquine "has virtually no side effects," it is known to have serious negative health impacts. That is why so many in the medical community worry about prescribing it without such proof.[...]

​

He acknowledged that some families were not aware their relatives were put on the drug, saying that "for the most part," he consulted with each nursing home resident prior to giving them on the tablets.

---

That last bit is a big issue too.

In this context "safe" means "has acceptable number and severity of side effects at the standard dose levels." We don't know if chloroquine is "safe" for Covid-19.

Interesting collection of data by Josh Marshall More on Excess Mortality and COVID19's Hidden Toll

quote:

---

I’m returning to this topic of calculating the full death toll of the COVID19 Crisis. As I noted yesterday, samplings of data from New York, Spain and Italy suggest a pattern in which the true scale of mortality tied to the COVID19 Crisis is roughly twice that recorded in the COVID19 death tolls we see each day, and sometimes much higher. Here are a few more data points which add weight to this emerging pattern.

---

More detail at the link, short and well worth a read.

Blogger analysis with a link to the study: PulmCrit - Hydroxychloroquine fails first meaningful RCT Hydroxychloroquine didn't affect the virus or the pulmonary issues.

quote:

---

This is now the third anti-viral therapy to disappoint us within a few weeks (preliminary data on lopinavir/ritonavir and remdesivir were both unimpressive). This raises a question of whether any anti-viral therapies will be beneficial. Especially among the critically ill, patients often present relatively late (at a time-point when viral load is already falling anyway). Much of the pathogenesis of critical illness seems to result from dysregulated inflammation, rather than direct viral cytopathic effect. This raises a question of whether any antiviral treatment will be beneficial for late-presenting patients with severe illness.

​

Of course, it is possible that earlier use of hydroxychloroquine could be beneficial (e.g., perhaps at the first signs of illness on an out-patient basis). This is under investigation and additional data is likely to be forthcoming soon. Even if this does work in the outpatient clinic, it would probably have little impact on the management of these patients within the intensive care unit.

---

Edited by JonF, : Read url and get title failed

Jesus f***ing Christ on a Pogo stick! This moron is still in charge? Trump Set To Outline Plans For Reopening The Economy

quote:

---

Trump says we are beginning a science-based reopening, and that it’s important to be extra vigilant in blocking the form of entry of the virus from abroad.

---

He thinks cross-border transmission is our number one problem?

I was talking to a nurse at my cardiologist whose 73-year-old brother bags at a local supermarket. She complained to the Board of Health because the supermarket wouldn't issue masks and gloves.Around here masks are pretty universal and gloves are common. Edited by JonF, : No reason given.Edited by JonF, : No reason given.