COVID-19 Megathread #4 - All news

COVID-19 Megathread #4
Nike, Apple among dozens of major brands implicated in report on forced labour
How DuPont may avoid paying to clean up a toxic "forever chemical" known as PFAS
Chicago officers are under investigation after video shows police shooting a man at a train station
College recruiter fired for lining students up by skin color, 'nappiest hair'
Billionaire Tom Steyer quits Democratic primary race
Pope Francis Expels Kerala Priest Jailed For Raping 16-Year-Old Girl. Syro-Malabar Church priest Robin Vadakkumchery is currently serving a jail term for impregnating a 16-year-old girl in Mananthavady diocese.
Steven Seagal charged with illegally touting cryptocurrency offering
White supremacist was out of prison just 86 days when he stabbed man, 22, to death
Dance teacher sentenced to 9 months in prison after giving teenage student HIV
First COVID-19 death in the U.S. happens in Washington state
Two 10-year-old boys handcuffed and booked after playing with toy gun outside
UK NHS gender clinic 'should have challenged me more': 23yo woman who started transitioning F2M at 16yo taking NHS to court to challenge whether informed consent can be given by legal children.
Man in ICU after pharmacy accidentally gives him opioids.
Dramatic fall in China pollution as industrial activity slows
Surgeon General Urges the Public to Stop Buying Face Masks
Police investigate fatal hit and run inside resident's home
Jury rules Jeremy Christian callously disregarded life, lacks remorse in MAX train murders
Entangled right whale 'unable to close her mouth for months'
Some states make it harder for college students to vote
Chicago police, Lightfoot defend decision not to cooperate with ICE after DHS says Christopher Puente, accused in McDonald's child sex assault, previously deported | abc7chicago.com
Two women in Boston were charged after police say they attacked a mother and daughter for speaking Spanish
10 Workers Arrested for Producing Fake Medical Masks in Jakarta.
T-Mobile lays off Metro corporate employees as merger comes to a close, after promising more jobs
Malawi legalises cannabis amid hopes of fresh economic growth

Posted: 01 Mar 2020 08:00 AM PST

This post is updated daily.

Update: America has seen its first coronavirus death in Washington State. Read more here.

Additionally, the first case of COVID-19 in the United States which may involve community spread was confirmed by a CDC test on Wednesday. The case is in California.

The Trump Administration held a second press briefing about the coronavirus today. You can watch it here.

Update: The CDC is urging Americans to prepare for an outbreak in the United States. Read their preparedness memo here: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/php/preparing-communities.html

You can watch the press briefing here.

The World Health Organization has declared the Coronavirus a Global Health Emergency.

Today's situation report from the WHO.

The CDC's COVID-19 Situation Summary.

A novel coronavirus, likely transmitted from animals to humans at a market in Wuhan, China, has now infected more than 87,446 people. There have been 2,990 confirmed deaths and 42,670 confirmed recoveries attributed to the virus and it's now in more than 28 countries.

New Countries reporting cases this week:

Algeria
Croatia
Switzerland
Austria
New Zealand
Mexico
San Marino

Note: For the first time, since the onset of symptoms of the first identified case of COVID-19 on 8 December 2019, there have been more new cases reported from countries outside of China than from China.

Reputable Sources for Information:

The CDC's Dedicated Coronavirus Resource,

The WHO's Dedicated Coronavirus Resource,

And the University of Chicago School of Medicine's handy FAQ style resource.

You can also check out this live tracker/map of the spread of the coronavirus provided by John Hopkins University.

And for those too lazy to click on the University of Chicago Med resource, here are some of the answers to commonly asked questions:

What is a coronavirus? What is a novel coronavirus?

A coronavirus is actually the name for a set of illnesses, including the common cold and other respiratory infections. A novel coronavirus means it's a new virus that originated in animals, but has jumped to humans. This particular 2019 novel coronavirus from Wuhan is called COVID-19 or 2019-nCoV.

How does the Wuhan coronavirus spread?

So far, there's limited information about the Wuhan novel coronavirus, including how easy it is to spread and how dangerous it is. But we know the virus can be transmitted from person to person and it is passed by coughing and other close contact.

Close contact is a vague term that means a lot of things to different people. But in this case, it specifically means being within about six feet of someone for a prolonged period of time without wearing recommended personal protective equipment such as a disposable face mask. It could also be having direct contact with infectious secretions of someone who has a case of the virus (for example: being coughed on) while not wearing personal protective equipment.

That can sound scary, but it's important to know that influenza is also transmitted the same way.

What are the symptoms of the virus?

We're still learning more about Wuhan novel coronavirus, but we know it typically causes flu-like symptoms including a fever, cough and congestion. Some patients — particularly the elderly and others with other chronic health conditions — develop a severe form of pneumonia.

Are we all at risk for catching this new coronavirus (2019-nCoV)?

Yes. It doesn't appear anyone is naturally immune to this particular virus and there's no reason to believe anybody has antibodies that would normally protect them.

The lack of previous experience with this pathogen is part of the reason why public health officials around the globe are working so hard to contain the spread of this particular coronavirus from Wuhan. When viruses come out like this that are both new (which means the population is highly susceptible) and can easily pass from person to person (a high transmission rate), they can be really dangerous — even if here's a low percentage of people who die from them.

Why do some people with the Wuhan coronavirus get sicker than others?

It looks like only about 20% of people who contract this novel coronavirus actually wind up needing to be hospitalized. The other 80% get what feels like a really bad cold and they recover at home. A lot of it has to do with underlying medical conditions. People who are more vulnerable to any kind of infection — because of their age or chronic health conditions — are more at risk for getting really sick from this novel coronavirus too.

That said, some otherwise healthy people do seem to be getting more sick from this infection than we would expect. We don't understand why that is or what might be different about those people. Thanks to the work of scientists and doctors on the ground in China, which is really nothing short of heroic, we're learning a little more every single day.

Is this coronavirus deadly?

The numbers of how many people have been diagnosed or how many have died are changing rapidly. Without accurate numerators and denominators, the jury's still out. That said, we do know that more than 100 people in China have died from this virus. Based on the information I'm seeing, it looks very similar to SARS in a number of ways — except for the fact that it's likely less deadly, but more transmittable.

What kind of medical care do patients with the Wuhan coronavirus need?

About 80% of people who contract this new coronavirus will feel sick, but ultimately be just fine. It's the other 20% who get really, really sick that worry so many of us in the infectious diseases field. A lot of these critically ill patients wind up needing to be hospitalized for their pneumonia-like illnesses. They typically require critical care and ventilation — special machines that help them breathe. And some need to stay on ventilators for weeks at a time. It's that portion of patients that's most concerning. Depending how many cases develop here in the U.S., providing that level of care for that many people over a number of weeks runs the risk of overwhelming the nation's health care system pretty quickly.

How do you treat patients with this virus? Can you vaccinate against it?

Things like antibiotics are designed to kill bacteria, not a virus. So typically doctors can treat the symptoms, but not the virus itself. There's no vaccine yet.

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Nike, Apple among dozens of major brands implicated in report on forced labour

Posted: 01 Mar 2020 03:50 AM PST

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How DuPont may avoid paying to clean up a toxic "forever chemical" known as PFAS

Posted: 01 Mar 2020 04:54 AM PST

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Chicago officers are under investigation after video shows police shooting a man at a train station

Posted: 01 Mar 2020 05:28 AM PST

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College recruiter fired for lining students up by skin color, 'nappiest hair'

Posted: 01 Mar 2020 03:01 AM PST