Coronavirus:

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Are mutations making it more infectious?

The crucial questions about this mutation are: does this make the virus more infectious - or lethal - in humans? And could it pose a threat to the success of a future vaccine?

Asked about every virus. We go through this every year with flu vaccines and there have been a few years where whatever mutations occurred rendered the vaccine sub-par.

So far, it's doing a good job of keeping itself in circulation as it is.

People are doing an excellent job of keeping it in circulation; diseases don't "go away". Immunizations block them from acting, but they are still around.

The notable mutation - named D614G and situated within the protein making up the virus's "spike" it uses to break into our cells - appeared sometime after the initial Wuhan outbreak, probably in Italy. It is now seen in as many as 97% of samples around the world.

Some of the newly developed antibodies are supposed to block that for an interdiction therapy. Hopefully they are not too specific and make themselves useless if/when that mutation shuffles a few AA's.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Apparently the World’s Greatest Hobby on Tour shows for 2021 are postponed into 2022...........

[robert.]

Apparently the World’s Greatest Hobby on Tour shows for 2021 are postponed into 2022...........

I’m running into this with a lot of art and antique shows. Most of the promoters can not get permits for 2021. They also feel that nobody will attend. It’s cheaper to say see you in 2022. Then to do all that leg work and cancel last minute.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Apparently the World’s Greatest Hobby on Tour shows for 2021 are postponed into 2022...........

I’m running into this with a lit of art and antique shows. Most of the promoters can not get permits for 2021. They also feel that nobody will attend. It’s cheaper to say see you in 2022. Then to do all that leg work and cancel last minute.

Simple reality. 2020 is probably lost and 2021 is a huge unknown. One of the professional conference that I might have attended in 2021 moved to 2022 maybe 2 months ago.

[Chris Webster]

Simple reality. 2020 is probably lost and 2021 is a huge unknown. One of the professional conference that I might have attended in 2021 moved to 2022 maybe 2 months ago.

The Transportation Research Board is moving its January 2021 Annual Meeting to an online format. Normally, it is a 4+ day event that fills the DC Convention Center.

[Roy]

Vaccine development. About eight minutes.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/what-we-know-about-the-search-for-a-covid-19-vaccine-and-what-we-dont

[Chris Webster]

In their July issue, Model Railroad Hobbyist says they have decided to sit out 2021 -- they're not going to any shows, not travelling to layouts nor having guests come into their studio.

[HONDO74]

This Hospital Cost $52 Million. It Treated 79 Virus Patients.
https://news.yahoo.com/hospital-cost-52 ... 37052.html

NEW YORK — The Queens Hospital Center emergency department has a capacity of 60, but on its worst night of the coronavirus pandemic, more than 180 patients lay on stretchers in the observation bays and hallways. Alarms rang incessantly as exhausted doctors rushed from crisis to crisis.

Less than 4 miles away, a temporary hospital opened the next morning, on April 10. The facility, which was built at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center to relieve the city’s overwhelmed hospitals, had hundreds of beds and scores of medical professionals trained to treat virus patients.

But in the entire month that the site remained open, it treated just three patients from the Queens Hospital Center emergency department, records show. Overall, the field hospital cost more than $52 million and served only 79 patients.

Doctors at the Queens Hospital Center, a public hospital in Jamaica, and at other medical centers wanted to transfer patients to Billie Jean King. But they were blocked by bureaucracy, turf battles and communication failures, according to internal documents and interviews with workers.

New York paid as much as $732 an hour for some doctors at Billie Jean King, but the city made them spend hours on paperwork. They were supposed to treat coronavirus patients, but they did not accept people with fevers, a hallmark symptom of the virus. Officials said the site would serve critically ill patients, but workers said it opened with only one or two ventilators.

Facing a projected shortage of 50,000 beds, federal officials spent more than $320 million to build facilities at two state colleges and the Westchester County Center, and the city spent about $20 million on a center at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, records show. In the end, reality never neared the dire projections, and none of those facilities opened.

The only makeshift hospital the city opened was at Billie Jean King.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

A local patient infected with COVID-19 and in need of a hospital bed was unable to find one in the Tulsa metro all day Wednesday, according to the president of the Oklahoma State Medical Association.

Dr. George Monks posted on social media Thursday morning that the patient was in an emergency room at 8:30 a.m. but was unable to be placed in a hospital bed until after 5:30 p.m., when "the one and only bed in the entire Tulsa metro area became available."



Studies have shown many infected people show no symptoms or have symptoms so mild they may go undetected; those people can still transmit COVID-19 to others while asymptomatic.

Data from China show that about 20% of patients diagnosed with COVID-19 require hospitalization.

The disease can be fatal, especially for vulnerable populations: those older than 65, living in a nursing home or long-term care facility, and anyone with underlying health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, lung disease or obesity.

Unfortunately and perhaps sadly, just being amazingly stupid and irresponsible does not put one into a vulnerable population.

[HONDO74]

A local patient infected with COVID-19 and in need of a hospital bed was unable to find one in the Tulsa metro all day Wednesday, according to the president of the Oklahoma State Medical Association.

Dr. George Monks posted on social media Thursday morning that the patient was in an emergency room at 8:30 a.m. but was unable to be placed in a hospital bed until after 5:30 p.m., when "the one and only bed in the entire Tulsa metro area became available."

There is nothing unusual about waiting 6 hrs or more in an emergency room at a major hospital. I have personal experience with that. Big city emergency rooms are crowded all the time. Per the law you don't have to have insurance and you don't have to pay. The hospital will figure out how to charge the state medicaid for it...

[up148]

[quote"the one and only bed in the entire Tulsa metro area became available."][/quote]

This is the punch line and is most likely why it took so long to find a bed. This is bad news for the area. Entire area ramped up in covid after the Trump rally.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Question:
I've been toying with the idea of a short sojourn to Upstate NY, to the Syracuse area, specifically Cortland. That means I would be traveling thru NJ, thru PA (Scranton) ,and then into NY.

Would I get stopped along the way and prevented from the entire journey, due to the prohibition regarding the Virus?
And required to quarantine myself somewhere there?
Maybe I should continue to just stay home?

Does anybody know any facts about such traveling in this tri-state area?

PLUS, I am very, very reluctant to stay at my usual (or any) motel, due to the Virus consideration. I wouldn't go to any restaurants, of course, and would take a bit of food with me and/or patronize a grocery store I have been to in Cortland for years.

Eh? Huh?
daMurph

[chuck]

NY, NJ, Connecticut have coordinated travel advisories. I would check the NY/NJ sites for specifics. If you eliminate PA from your route plans you may not need to do the 14 day self quarantine. You could bypass PA by going up I 287 to Route 17/I 86 to Binghamton and then jump on I 81 to Cortland. I 86 is no longer "disconnected" and there are bypasses for most of the cities on the southern tier expressway. We tried this way to get from South East Michigan to Rockland County NY back in the 80's as an alternative to I 80 across Pennsylvania when it was being "reconstructed" (almost continuously). It was a pleasant drive even with the speed reductions to go through the towns. My wife and I drove the route about 5 years ago and with the bypasses installed make a huge difference in travel time.

Check the Pennsylvania Covid 19 site to see if they are now included in the "group". I just checked NJ and that is where I got the info on their "tri state" area. NOTE, they are explicitly listing states that they want you to be concerned about. There are a lot of states not on the list and I can't speak as to why (not much travel to/from, missing data, ...).

[healey36]

I would agree with Chuck's recommendation (I-287 to Route 17). While I-287 can be a bit of a fracas at rush-hour, it's generally pretty good during the day. I've done it a few times when travelling from my SIL's place in Yonkers to my sister's place in Aurora. Route 17, barring any construction, is not a bad drive.

Last I checked, NY had 30+ states on their self-quarantine list.

[robert.]

31 they added your home state