Covid-19 Stories.

[JackLuis]

The Trump Administration paid millions for test tubes — and got unusable mini soda bottles

If FEMA Wanted COVID-19 Tests To Be 'Sterile' or 'Usable' It Should Have Said So!

As part of the Trump administration's Very Be Best response to the coronavirus pandemic, a whole bunch of government agencies are shoveling money at contractors that have never provided medical supplies before. And as a jaw-dropping ProPublica story explains, the government is in some cases getting far less than it paid millions of dollars for. Like for instance COVID-19 "test tubes" that turned out not to be test tubes at all, but plastic tubes used in making soda bottles — not only are they the wrong size to be used in labs, they're also not sterile. FEMA has so far paid $7.3 million for three million of the tubes, which have been sent on to all 50 states, even though they're unusable. And if the company supplying them, "Fillakit LLC," fulfills its full contract for four million (unusable) tubes, the full payment will come to $10.16 million.

And that, kids, is why America is the best at everything.

 

[Articulate_and_Analytical]

“Everybody Is Sick”: ICU Nurse Quits After Almost Two Dozen Staff Members Test Positive for Virus in Florida Hospital

"Everybody is sick," ICU nurse Stefanie Davis told local outlet CBS 12. "We don't have enough people to take care of the patients and we're concerned about patient safety. And yet when we voiced those concerns, it's like nothing ... like you're silenced."

Davis, who left her job at Bayfront Health in St. Petersburg, Florida, told the outlet that many fellow nurses are out sick with the virus. She claims there are more than 14 ICU nurses out sick alone, while CBS says that, according to an internal memo, there are actually 21 staff members who have tested positive for the virus since the middle of May.

Davis reportedly sent a letter to the hospital asking for additional personal protective equipment (PPE), claiming that nurses use N-95 masks until they’re “soiled,” broken, or five shifts are up. She tells the outlet that nurses are also taking on three patients unlike the usual two, and that, “It makes you feel like a nonperson like disposable, just like the mask.”

Davis is far from alone in her concerns about health care workers not getting adequate PPE while facing COVID-19. In fact, she isn’t even the only person to quit her job over it. For example, Kelly Stanton, a nurse in the Washington, D.C., area, told NBC News that she ended up quitting after 28 years as a nurse. Why? “In the end,” she told the news outlet. “I could not accept that I could be responsible for causing one of my family members to become severely ill or possibly die." She added to the outlet that nurses were being asked to reuse masks. By late March, the changes in safety regulations were too much to bear, and she resigned.

https://buzzflash.com/articles/ever...o-dozen-staff-members-test-positive-for-virus

 

[JackLuis]

Brazil starts testing Oxford coronavirus vaccine

Researchers in Brazil began administering an experimental coronavirus vaccine developed by Oxford University to volunteers, the Federal University of Sao Paulo said Wednesday.

The vaccine, developed together with pharmaceuticals group AstraZeneca, is one of the most promising of the dozens that researchers worldwide are racing to test and bring to market.

Known as ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, it is already being tested in volunteers in Britain, and is due to start being administered this week in South Africa, as well.

This sounds promising.

 

[JackLuis]

‘MEDICAL USE PROHIBITED’: Silicon Valley investor had non-medical KN95 masks repackaged so he could sell them to Texas hospitals

Repackaging the defective masks so that the "NOT FOR MEDICAL USE" label is gone!

No wonder Texas is awash in covid!

 

[bodysong]

Texas Tribune ✓
Twitter › TexasTribune

Using TaskRabbit and Venmo, a Silicon Valley investor and his business partner
had workers repackage nonmedical KN95 masks so he could sell them to Texas
emergency workers. Via @propublica:

(link)

2 hours ago

 

[JackLuis]

After good start on virus response, California loses ground

When the coronavirus pandemic first snowballed in the United States, California was hailed for its handling of the crisis.

But now, the Golden State — like many others across the nation — is facing a worrying uptick in the number of cases, especially among young people.

California was the first state to order a sweeping lockdown in mid-March and moved quickly to ramp up its testing capabilities — a key to keeping the virus in check, experts say.

We were doing well out here, but Covid-19 is reemerging. Could it be due to the BLM protests or the fact that young people just want to screw? Months of only self abuse has created Self Distancing Fatigue.

Still Cali is way behind Texas, Georgia, Arizona and other Red states in fatalities and re-surging plague cases.

 

[JackLuis]

Senators Find Unspent $14 Billion After Trump Admits to Slowing COVID Testing

Following President Donald Trump’s admission during a campaign rally in Oklahoma over the weekend that he ordered administration officials to “slow the testing down” in response to the recent surge in Covid-19 cases, two leading Democratic senators on Sunday slammed the Health and Human Services Department for failing to spend $14 billion in funds Congress approved in April to expand coronavirus testing and tracing.

“While it has been months since these funds were first appropriated, the administration has failed to disburse significant amounts of this funding, leaving communities without the resources they need to address the significant challenges presented by the virus,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) wrote in a letter (pdf) to HHS Secretary Alex Azar on Sunday.

“The United States is at a critical juncture in its fight against Covid-19, and now is the time for an aggressive and fast response,” wrote Murray and Schumer. “This administration will put our country at grave risk if it tries to declare an early victory, leave lifesaving work undone, and leave resources our communities desperately need sitting untouched.”

 

[JackLuis]

Coronavirus and cancer hijack the same parts in human cells to spread – and some cancer drugs could fight COVID-19

Most antivirals in use today target parts of an invading virus itself. Unfortunately, SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19 – has proven hard to kill. But viruses rely on cellular mechanisms in human cells to help them spread, so it should be possible to change an aspect of a person’s body to prevent that and slow down the virus enough to allow the immune system to fight the invader off.

I am a quantitative biologist, and my lab built a map of how the coronavirus uses human cells. We used that map to find already existing drugs that could be repurposed to fight COVID-19 and have been working with an international group of researchers called the QBI Coronavirus Research Group to see if the drugs we identified showed any promise. Many have.

The cunning corona may be losing it's edge as Science finds out how it works it deadly dance against our immune system. Promising!

 

[JackLuis]

Global COVID-19 death toll reaches half a million

The death toll from Covid-19 reached half a million people on Sunday, according to a Reuters tally, a grim milestone for the global pandemic that seems to be resurgent in some countries even as other regions are still grappling with the first wave.

The respiratory illness caused by the new coronavirus has been particularly dangerous for the elderly, although other adults and children are also among the 500,000 fatalities and more than 10 million reported cases.

World Wide
Box Score

Coronavirus Cases: 10,296,143


Deaths: 505,478 USA accounts for over 25% of deaths!

Recovered: 5,586,839

 

[JackLuis]

Flu virus with 'pandemic potential' found in China

A new strain of flu that has the potential to become pandemic has been identified in China by scientists.

It emerged recently and is carried by pigs, but can infect humans, they say.

The researchers are concerned that it could mutate further so that it can spread easily from person to person, and trigger a global outbreak.

They say it has "all the hallmarks" of being highly adapted to infect humans - and needs close monitoring.

As it's new, people could have little or no immunity to the virus.

How are they going to mask the pigs????

 

[JackLuis]

Florida again breaks daily coronavirus case record at more than 10,000

Florida on Thursday reported a record of more than 10,000 new coronavirus cases, as it struggles to rein in the virus’s spread, blamed in part on young people congregating in the US state.

The exact figure of 10,109 cases — for a total of 169,106 — marks the second record since just Saturday.

Florida is a key focus of public health experts worried about a surge in several southern and western US states as the daily infection total has now surpassed 50,000 new cases.

 

[JackLuis]

WATCH: Florida beachgoer pushes new conspiracy theory of how COVID-19 got to the United States

On Saturday, a viral video showed Jacksonville, Florida attorney Dan Uhlfelder — famous for touring Florida’s beaches in a Grim Reaper costume to protest lax COVID-19 safeguards — confronting a beachgoer.

The other man offered a novel conspiracy theory of how the virus spread to the United States: that former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter were behind the whole thing.

Florida is currently experiencing one of the most dramatic outbreaks of COVID-19 in the United States, with 11,458 new cases reported in the last 24 hours.

Floriduh, making Mississippi brilliant!

 

[JackLuis]

Gov. Ron DeSantis still won’t reveal true COVID-19 data — so things are probably much worse

Florida reached 213,000 coronavirus cases on Tuesday, as Gov. Ron DeSantis continues to encourage the state to reopen at all costs.

According to CNN’s Randi Kaye, the numbers spell “trouble” for the state as it’s GOP leaders are opting for a simplistic approach to reopening.

“About a week ago [DeSantis] promised under pressure he’d be releasing the statewide numbers,” Kaye reported. “Miami-Dade releases its own number, but the state is not releasing the full picture, so we can’t let people know what the true number is here in the state of Florida.”

Florida
Coronavirus Cases: 223,783

Deaths: 3,890

Recovered: 29,425

New Cases today: 9,989