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Medicine United States

Los Angeles-Area Officials Declare Emergency After Confirming Six New Coronavirus Cases Over 48 hours (cnbc.com) 152

Los Angeles-area officials have discovered six new COVID-19 cases in the county over the last 48 hours, prompting them to declare a local emergency to help free up federal and state funding. From a report: Kathryn Barger, chairwoman of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, told reporters Wednesday that she just signed a proclamation declaring a local emergency. "I want to reiterate that this is not a response rooted in panic," she said. County Supervisor Hilda L. Solis said the proclamation allows local officials "to further draw down resources from both the federal and state level of government." Health officials for the City of Pasadena and City of Long Beach said they, too, plan to declare a local emergencies later Wednesday. The new cases in Los Angeles County bring the state's total to 35, more than any other state, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Washington state, where at least nine people have died, there are at least 27 cases. There haven't been any fatalities outside of Washington.
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Los Angeles-Area Officials Declare Emergency After Confirming Six New Coronavirus Cases Over 48 hours

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  • I'll be curious to hear how effective some of our antivirals are at fighting this. I know they have several trials currently in process. It might at least fill the gap until we can get a vaccine in a year or two.
  • Without vaccine, many more cases will chase us to the end.
    • by blue41 ( 6654018 )
      Are we human or are we dancers ? Remain Friends :)
    • by GuB-42 ( 2483988 )

      My understanding is that we have a vaccine, or at least a known recipe. The problem is that it has some nasty side effects. i.e. it will do more harm than good.

      • by hey! ( 33014 )

        There's some confusion out there because there are promising immunotherapy treatments in the works that *aren't* vaccines.

        Trump recently got some media heat for supposedly confusing a treatment with a vaccine in a briefing, but in fact what the industry representative was talking about was a monoclonal antibody treatment. That's pretty cutting edge stuff, and you wouldn't expect even a fairly scientifically literate layman to be familiar with it.

        The experts are saying that vaccine trials won't likely start

      • by gweihir ( 88907 )

        My understanding is that we have a vaccine, or at least a known recipe. The problem is that it has some nasty side effects. i.e. it will do more harm than good.

        Not anytime soon. If this turns out to be seasonal (and there are good reasons to believe it will), then a vaccine will be available next flu season if this thing is still a factor then. Some things really cannot be rushed.

      • by HiThere ( 15173 )

        No. Not unless you call immediate cremation a vaccine. And it will, at best, be months until there is an effective vaccine. There are treatments, but for severe cases they are things like vacuuming out the lungs repeatedly in an ICU.

        I still think widespread installation of UV emitting lights would slow down the spread significantly, but strongly decreasing it's persistence, but I can't find any evidence that this has been tried.

    • Damn, I'm sure nobody thought of that until now. I'll just whip up some vaccine out in my shed now that you enlightened us.

      Thanks for your contribution!

  • Why Worry? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 04, 2020 @01:40PM (#59796814)

    The US certainly has the best health care system on the planet. If any country is prepped and ready to deal with this pandemic, it's going to be us.

    Don't forget, Mike Pence is a fairly seasoned pandemic leader, having overseen the response in Indiana while he was governor during an HIV outbreak. Trump may not be a great guy, but Pence is a veteran at this.

    Not only that, but compared to say the fragile political situation in Italy, or the Xi's own fragile view of himself in China, the US is free from such political nonsense, ensuring that the pandemic will be delt with objectively and honestly. I really don't get why some people are so paranoid that there is a run on grocery stores and costco.

    • by Anonymous Coward
      We will have the best pandemic. It will be a beautiful pandemic. I am telling you. And it will not be expensive.
    • Pence oversaw the worst AIDS epidemic in his state's history. He botched the response horribly.

      • by quenda ( 644621 )

        Pence oversaw the worst AIDS epidemic in his state's history. He botched the response horribly.

        Wooossshhh!!!!

    • by Ungrounded Lightning ( 62228 ) on Wednesday March 04, 2020 @10:21PM (#59798320) Journal

      I really don't get why some people are so paranoid that there is a run on grocery stores and costco.

      Because they've been informed, by CDC, WHO, and lots of other officials, that they might need to self-quarantine for two weeks.

      That means everybody in their family will be stuck at home for two weeks. Maybe four or more, if somebody comes down with it. They won't be able to go out and buy food, so they better have some on hand. Also water (in case there's a power failure or contamination), toilet paper, paper towels, etc. If you'd run out in two to four weeks you'd better stock up now, while you can.

      Costco has name brand canned food by the box for cheap. (Not the 10-year stuff the Mormons use for their religiously-mandated year's supply, but it's good for a couple years easy. It's the regular stuff you'd normally use, so eat it over a couple years (and rotate in more) and it won't go to waste. Further: when there was a run on bottled water in their Fremont store (a silicon valley town) they brought in five truckloads - and didn't hike the price. Good place to stock up.

      Can't count on delivery from outside: Delivery folks might be down or busy with other quarantined. Also: That nursing home in Washington with all the cases is in Kirkland: The founding city of Costco (notice the name of their store brand?) Still very close to their headquarters and database ops, and lots of headquarters folk living there. Ditto Amazon: They just had their first case - in an office building two blocks from their Seattle H.Q. By the time YOU'RE quarantined, will THEY be too?

      Besides: In the event of any other disruption - earthquake, hurricane, big fire, flood, etc. - you're on your own for at least three days before out-of-state help can get there and get set up. Having some emergency supplies is recommended.

      So when a lot of people realize, all at once, that having more supplies is a good idea, they buy a bunch more than the regular stores have on hand. It's not panic. It's not paranoia. It's just the logical fallout of good common sense combined with a news-driven simultaneous shift of attention.

  • by Jerry ( 6400 ) on Wednesday March 04, 2020 @01:53PM (#59796838)
    https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/... [cdc.gov]

    and has infected between 32 and 45 million people. The 2009 influenza season, which was labeled a "pandemic", had 12,469 deaths.

    https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandem... [cdc.gov]

    For comparison the Coronavirus has killed, worldwide, 3,249 people as of 3/4/20.

    Why the lack of worry about the deaths of, perhaps, 46,000 people and such a large concern about the deaths of only 3,249 people?

    The influenza virus, in some form or another attacks every year, and every year kills 20,000 people, give or take a few thousand. It kills mainly the very young, because they lack the anti-bodies, and the very old, because their immunity is impaired due to old age. The Coronavirus started at about the same time as the 2019-2020 flu season, but its growth phase is still growing logarithmically. While its death rate is only around 3%, that could mean a potential death count of hundreds of millions unless the growth curve flattens out. The sooner the better.

    • by rldp ( 6381096 ) on Wednesday March 04, 2020 @02:18PM (#59796898)

      "More people die in cars than in airliner crashes so why all the hub bub about these 737s?"

      That's how your mind works. Like an anti-vaxxer's.

      • Bad example, since both the total number of people who die in crashes, and the rate at which people die (in person-miles and last I calculated it person-hours) is higher for cars than for airliners. So the statement "More people die in cars than in airliner crashes so why all the hub bub about these 737s?" is absolutely justified. Our brains exaggerate the possibility of extremely unlikely events with large consequences (i.e. when the small size of the probability more than cancels out the larger size of
      • You're feeding a troll. Going by the UID, I suspect he's gone senile, which would be an excuse for following the GOT Trump line, or he's died (which is still a great excuse) and some troll has hacked the dormant account.

        If we want to do mortality comparisons, then we shouldn't compare the orange coronovirus to the apple flu. We should compare the coronovirus Covid-19 to the coronovirus common cold. Sometimes people actually do die from the common cold, though the number is apparently so low I couldn't find

    • There is no way the COVID-19 deathrate is 3% or more. I mean 3% of the small percent of people who get sick enough to be in the hospital sure, but not of everyone exposed. I don't understand why WHO said this. Anyway, this NPR article gives some insight into how young people basically aren't very affected by this virus. If the 9 or 10 deaths in the US were healthy teens, I'd be worried. If it is only extremely sick old people, it's probably the same as the regular flu it seems like.

      https://www.npr.org/secti [npr.org]

      • I think WHO didn't say that. The actual quote is something like about 3% of diagnosed cases have died. That's just (number died to date) / (number diagnosed to date). While not what you might want, that does seem to be the standard for ongoing reporting of disease outbreaks (the case fatality rate). I think an actual death rate would be more like (number who don't survive after many weeks) / (number definitely exposed). Looks like there are some useful links on the wiki article [wikipedia.org]. Even with asymptomatic
    • by kbahey ( 102895 )

      The overall mortality of H1N1 in 2009 are as follows:

      Total infected in the USA: 60.8 Million cases
      Total deaths in the USA: 12,469

      Source is CDC [cdc.gov].

      This means that mortality is 0.02%. Compare that to Covid19, which is 3.4%, per the WHO, and you realize how serious it is. It also has not peaked, so no one knows how long it will take to subside.

      • No, mortality is not 3.4% according to WHO. Stop spreading that misquote.

        https://talkingpointsmemo.com/... [talkingpointsmemo.com]

        • by kbahey ( 102895 )

          The data that is available is here [arcgis.com].

          As I said in another post, data from China and Iran are suspect. They may have fudged it. Either they fudged the overall infections, the number of deaths, or both. By how much, we don't know, and may never know.

          But if you take Italy's data, which should have some degree of transparency and accountability, it is 4.24% (197 deaths / 4636 cases).

          And yes, that is an overall rate. We don't have the raw data for age distribution of infections and deaths, but

          • But even in Italy's case that's people with symptoms, were tested, etc... unknown the number in populace carrying it without knowing. It seems to hardly affect most children too.

            • by kbahey ( 102895 )

              How it affects children is unknown.
              A poster here on Slashdot today said he took his kid to hospital, and they diagnosed pneumonia (which is a symptom of Coronavirus as well as a dozen other pathogens). When he asked for a Coronavirus test, they told him that Alabama does not do testing for that virus, unless you traveled to China or South Korea! Where is the logic here ... what about Italy or Washington State?

              As for it affecting younger people, there is anecdotal data on this. For example Wenliang Li, the C

    • and we have a vaccine for it. Those 46k deaths were completely preventable. The 3,249 were not. The corona virus is also around 30 times more lethal (3.4% mortality vs .1%). Finally it has a much longer incubation period, up to 14 days, during which it's communicable but there are no symptoms.

      This is the problem with disaster & problem management. Nobody remembers all the disasters you adverted. It's like the 2008 market crash, which happened because of rampant deregulation going on since the 80s. E
    • Viruses do no "attack". What kind of maroon are you?

    • by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Wednesday March 04, 2020 @06:13PM (#59797704)

      Why the lack of worry about the deaths of, perhaps, 46,000 people and such a large concern about the deaths of only 3,249 people?

      Because you're comparing a disease in its peak to a disease well and truly still in massive growth. COVID has all the marks to be far more contagious than influenza and has already proven to be significantly more fatal.

      I hope you are still alive in 6 months when we can discuss how horrid this thing *turned out to be*.

    • Covid-19 has a average mortality rate of about 2%. If only spreads as far as 2009's influenza and infects 32 to 45 million people, then you're looking at 640,000 to 900,000 deaths.

      It's not the 3,249 people who have died that we're worried about. It's the other 896,751 people who haven't died yet that we're worried about saving.

  • Time to escape from la!

  • Wait until this thing hits Florida.

  • Live in the Los Angeles area again???
  • The time for us to consider thinking about the possibility of panicking has arrived. Repent!

  • It's a beautiful virus. A perfect virus. Nothing to worry about while Mike Pence is busy praying the bad stuff away.
  • We also declared an emergency, but they won't let us meet in gatherings larger than 9 people, so nobody knows about it.

    They even canceled the public health committee meeting for the city, so nobody knows at all.

    Wowsers.

  • Like a miracle, in April, when it gets warmer, it'll just disappear! Mostly because our Savior(tm) Mike "Christ" Pense will have prayed it away like he did the HIV epidemic when he was governor.

    I feel safer already knowing our best and brightest are in charge everyone!

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