Amateur Radio Newsline headlines for Ham Nation. March 18, 2020.

I agree, me too

Hi micheal,
everyone reads many things of this type for example: the virus was made to attack China, also that the Virus would have arrived in Italy because Italy is too friendly with China, la nuova via della seta (the new silk road). But honestly, in the current state of things, is knowing this useful today? Maybe at FOX when they do an unpublished series of X-files (I hope they will transmit it on Netflix).
Surely something is moving. In Italy, some virologists, are experimenting with the use of Tocilizumab, a medicine used in rheumatoid arthritis (I hope I have translated decently) and that has shown improvements in the treatment of pneumonia which complicates Covid infection 19.
As Nathan says, several tests are taking place

 

Latest headline on CNN-- TODAY-- is: 11,000 infected.

18 hours ago it was 7000. Now 11,000. What's wrong with this picture?

Interested students: if these numbers did not exhibit selection effect biases, how many days will it take for every American to be infected?

The only number that has any physical meaning is the death rate, which reflects infections from 2-3 weeks ago, That's the only number that in any way tells what is happening, and IT is 2-3 weeks behind....

 

I hope you can translate with google translator:
https://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2...473/?ref=RHPPTP-BL-I251736270-C12-P1-S1.12-T1

"Republica" is one of the most important newspaper (reliable)!

 

Anyone that is still thinking this is political, a conspiratory hoax, exaggerated, etc needs to take some time to think through this. I love all the toilet paper jokes and humor is much needed right now, but if your oh-sh#t meter isn't starting to swing to the right, check all the fuses, etc. Unless you are able to convince yourself that you are simply smarter than all the world leaders, you may want to focus on providing for and protecting your family. Most all countries are ruled by the upper class. Ask yourself why do they want to wreck the world's economy? Seems like they have a lot to lose, no?

 

I am throwing this info (below, from CNN) out here in case it might be useful.

Remember, the issue with CORONA is that it overwhelms the lungs of some patients very quickly. In doing so, the body doesn't have time to generate sufficient antibodies to normally overcome the infection.

IF the below is correct, it indicates the infection in severe cases correlates with early (pre-lung) infection(at least in part) into the body primarily through the digestive tract. It may enter through your nose, but your gut deals with it, apparently, early on.

When you have the runs, the alimentary canal is 'shedding cells' as an effort to dislodge the infection. So AN effort should be--IMO-- to degrade the alimentary infection by producing a better barrier within your gut. In other words, a healthy intestine and stomach. This gives your body more time to fight off a minor infection without a rapid 'overwhelmed' situation.

I am not physician. I CAN tell you that I had a history of alimentary problems for years. These WENT AWAY with two simple dietary aids: 1) raw carrots (or any roughage); 2) garlic tablets. IOW my gut let's fewer infections into my body, apparently. It has a longer time to fight things off as a result. THAT is my speculation. Yours may differ.

Again, that's me. You are you. I am NOT a physician. I am not making a recommendation, just an observation. But I do have a robust gut now and very few illnesses--respiratory or otherwise-- the last few years.

You should decide whether these or other minor changes to your diet, may help. And you should always ask your physician when contemplating any changes in diet or medical routine.

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"Not only could digestive issues be the first sign of illness, but the patients who reported them became more seriously ill than those who did not.

“Moreover, as the severity of the disease increased, digestive symptoms become more pronounced. Patients without digestive symptoms were more likely to be cured and discharged at the time of this study than patients with digestive symptoms,” the authors wrote, noting 60 percent of patients without digestive symptoms subsequently recovered and were discharged, compared to roughly 34 percent of those with digestive symptoms."

 

WARNING!

UPS and FEDEX are CLOSING DOWN

UPS and FEDEX are CLOSING DOWN

in the next two days these lifelines will STOP...except for MEDICAL SUPPLIES.

Keep in mind these are key delivery vehicles for AMAZON..

Sorry to deliver this.

Source is FEDEX delivery personnel.

 

Nothing as yet on the UPS site. I don't see anything yet on the Fedex site.

 

I hope the Fedex guys were wrong.

It was not posed to us as a rumor. They told us they wanted to refuse taking our package because the shut down was imminent, and the Feds met with the CEO's this morning to plan it.

 

just this morning I saw a UPS van and a DHL passing by the house. Here they still work, and if they work here ...

 

Interesting to keep track of.

 

Obviously they were working today--that's how we were told!

Both DHL and UPS delivery guys knew nothing about it. But the Fedex guy showed us his van and there were no commercial packages being taken--except medical deliveries.

DHL is usually international deliveries.

I am in Middlesex county,MA. This is a 'hot zone'.

My crew spent the rest of the morning checking with vendors to 'delay shipments pending further instruction.'

Assuming the stoppage takes effect, I presume it is operative early next week.

 

IMO, the below link has a reasonable summary, but again, the data shown represents not the spread of the virus, but the selection of those 'allowed' to be tested. It is, at best, an incomplete snapshot of the effects of infection from, in the US case, the beginning of March. It doesn't give you a hint of what's happening NOW. In particular, the number of INFECTED is likely more than 10 times what the data SHOWS and the rate of infections is MOST CERTAINLY NOT the extraordinary exponential power shown--it is already 'flattening' (a bogus phrase used by those who don't really know how to model) because, as a physicist would say, the 'confinement via the boundary conditions is now hampering adiabatic expansion'.

In Italy's case, the problem is no longer the GROWTH of infection but the increasing (sadly and alarmingly) DEATH RATE increase caused by limited access to basic medical care. Please: no finger pointing. Our Italian colleagues are doing what they can and were not , and likely should not have been, prepared for an epidemic like this. Thus the death rate is now far in excess of 1%, IMO, and will likely increase in the next two or three weeks.

Words cannot describe our sadness on this!

In the US, our population is more scattered, and concentrated in smaller geographic regions, and these are the 'hot zones' WE need to worry about :-( That is why the President has, IMO, NOT declared a Federal 'shelter in place' and left it up to the individual governors and mayors....

Wishing all of us the best!

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https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/3/20/21179040/coronavirus-us-italy-not-overreacting

 

This interesting quote(below) from a new CNN story. It is the lack of available respirators(specifically) at a given time, that is the issue-- that absence is what is directly giving the rise of the death rate in Italy and, may I add, in Spain :-(

In the US, IMO, we are about to see a major logistical shift of hardware to and in 'hot zones'. Excess capacity is being re-distributed already, such as life science companies donating excess hardware for distribution at Massachusetts hospitals. But ultimately, due to pneumonia as the killer, it comes down to respirators and oxygen supplies :-(

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"The coronavirus outbreak in Italy -- whose health care system has more hospital beds per 1,000 people than the United States -- could signal a lack of preparedness in the US, according to commentary published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine.

"Though Italy's health system is highly regarded and has 3.2 hospital beds per 1,000 people (as compared with 2.8 in the United States), it has been impossible to meet the needs of so many critically ill patients simultaneously," Dr. Lisa Rosenbaum, a cardiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, wrote in the piece."

 

FYI - more hopeful news.

As reported in comments on this medicinal chemistry journal blog post,

“While the media is focused on the vaccine race and leaving the discussion of THERAPEUTICS almost completely neglected, a recent well controlled clinical study conducted by Didier Raoult M.D/Ph.D, et. al in France showed that 100% of patients that received a combination of HCQ and Azithromycin tested negative and were virologically cured within 6 days of treatment.”

Here is a link to the actual French study - Hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin as a treatment of COVID-19.

IMO (non-med-professional) while use for COVID-19 is technically "off label" at this time, these are NOT experimental meds, they are widely available, cheap, and they have lots of history and knowledge behind them in regards to safety, so while they can have serious side effects, used prudently under the care of a physician, they may be a game-changer.

To that end, my beloved YL-SO is a professional clinical pharmacist (PharmD) at our regional teaching hospital in FL. She informed me yesterday this drug combo, hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, has officially become their "standard of treatment" for patients presenting as positive for COVID-19.

Stay disciplined and healthy, be patient, avoid becoming a patient, and get OTA.

73, John, WØPV

 

UPS has sent out an email, today, 21 March, assuring continued pickups and deliveries. I am GLAD of this and this statement should be the one we assume is factual until further notice.

I can't speak for Fedex, but when they spoke to us, they warned on upcoming restrictions as above quoted....

We shall see...