Is “close contact” a medical term? I see in Singapore’s contact tracing a difference between contact and close contact. Why?

Close contacts mean people that you have prolonged interaction with, i.e. not just saying hello. But perhaps working in the same office, having a meal together, and of course household contacts.

I don't know, I'm assuming the Italians are washing their hands...doesn't seem to be doing much good. Also, remember that unless you are _amazing_ at not touching your face, washing your hands will only protect you until the next time you touch a surface, and then touch your face. A) masks reduce face touching behaviour, and B) if someone is infected, but wearing a mask outside of the home, the number of surfaces that they contaminate (which others will touch) decreases drastically..

[response to deleted comment removed by moderator]
tb

PS the major issue with masks for everyone, and it's a REAL issue is that we just don't have enough masks in the West...if we all have 2 masks and re-use every other day, that's still 600M needed in the US alone...which is 10x more than what's actually available...

I have not read much other than a few anecdotes about whether serum from survivors is proving helpful to those experiencing severe cases. Any news on that front?

Right. But perhaps, if we had better (more) test data, we'd get the biggest benefit from everyone-wears-a-mask by limiting that strategy to areas with widespread community spread (Seattle) and not, say, Rapid City, SD, to reuse Artemis' example. Then again, the areas with lots of cases are (naturally?) densely populated areas of the country, so the 75k masks saved in Rapid City SD don't get us very far. Plus it would annoy the citizens of that city if they don't get masks. I'd try to fashion my own mask from a coffee filter (size 4) if I didn't have a box of N95s from two years ago.


Edit: that didn't age well...

"5 new cases, including 1 death in South Dakota (Pennington County)"

County seat of Pennington County is ... Rapid City.

It has the benefit of warning people who have mild symptoms to think twice, so they may not enter the place (e.g., hotel, store)

Untrue

True

I was in a uber the driver was a young lady. I asked her if she worries a passenger may be infected but does not have symptom. She replied "the viruses do not scare me, I am young and healthy, and even if I got so unlucky to be one of the very few young people killed by this virus, I am not afraid to die."

I then said: What if that passenger without symptom passes virus to you, you also have mild or no symptom and recover later, but during the interim you can pass the virus to passengers my age?

She immediately said, oh no, I don't want to do that.

What you show is a typical seasonal cycle. We all hope the coming warm season will suppress the viruses. But one cannot use this figure to argue for a relationship. If you draw a time series of temperature of US it will show the opposite relationship with case number, To identify a temperature association one has to isolate all the non meteorological factors, including the counter measures such as healthcare infrastructure, behavior change of the masses and social distancing etc which clearly change with time.

The paper has not been published, I can only read the linked article. The authors appear to be naive in going to the second digit of temperature values. They collected data from different locations and environments where other factors are not the same. There was no mention of any effort to stratify the data to remove these other factors. I know SYSU quite well, I was there in early December, organizing a WMO conference at School of Atmospheric Sciences. They have a strong medical school. But based on the linked article if I were the journal editor I will not send it out to peer review.

Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates foundations are stepping up philanthropy funding to combat Coronavirus testing inadequacies by USA government.

https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/3/10...e-philanthropy
�The outbreak offers tech billionaires a chance to change the narrative about themselves�.

My understanding is that Alaska has been extending their testing kits to cover more people. AFAICT the method is to aggregate samples from a lot of relatively low risk individuals and run the test together. If it's negative, all of them have been "proved" to be negative and if it's positive, the test would be rerun individually or in smaller groups to identify who is infected.

BTW a couple days ago in a USA hotel, not in an area with lots of cases, I was waiting for the elevator and heard someone coughing severely as she walked down the hall. In the elevator lobby, the guest continued to cough and made no attempt to cover her mouth. When the elevator arrived, I said that I would wait for the next one, at which point she sarcastically insisted that she didn't have corona. I wish I had thought to ask her whether she had been tested as it was extremely unlikely that she "knew" that she didn't have COVID-19.

What happens if you show up at the hotel or store with a slight fever?

yup. I am not super concerned about myself, though I don’t want to catch it even if I were to only suffer mild symptoms. But like many others, I have family and friends who are in the “danger” categories either due to age or other medical conditions. It’s not all about me.

That is pretty much the conclusion I came to after reading the SCMP article. I don’t know the authors or the school, but the “accuracy” of the temperature was a red flag. And then not considering that all other things aren’t equal just seems like a very big problem. I could probably quickly write a paper that correlates the mortality to altitude.

You are not allowed to enter. You may also be directed to contact one of the 912 public health clinics, many of them private but enlisted by the govt. https://www.flugowhere.gov.sg/

​​​​
"After touching down in Hanoi on 2 March on Vietnam Airlines flight VN54 � where they sat two rows behind the woman, 26, from Hanoi who was carrying the virus � the couple visited attractions in the capital before moving on to Sapa in north-west Vietnam. They were contacted on Saturday and told that someone on their flight had tested positive for coronavirus.

He said: �Last night [Sunday] we were told that we had the virus, although my wife and I do not have symptoms. I asked how can that be? I was told 80% of people carrying the virus do not have symptoms. So it�s like catching a ghost if that�s correct.

�Before we left Lao Cai I had a call from the district foreign office official who said that everywhere we had been we had left people with infection. He emphasised it was not our fault but one of the reasons he wanted us out of the Lao Cai hospital was to accommodate 54 more suspected cases.�"

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...row-to-vietnam

Lyft sent this tonight to their customers, at least they are being proactive in seemingly supporting their drivers, which should enhance safety.

"Caring for the Lyft community

The health and safety of Lyft's community is our priority. With recent news around coronavirus (COVID-19), we know you may have questions about how we can all do our part to keep the community healthy. We want to share the actions we're taking to help protect riders and drivers � and what you can do to help. What Lyft is doing

• Closely monitoring the situation and taking action. We're following updates on COVID-19, including guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and local health officials. We'll continue to take actions necessary to help protect the community. Specifically, if we are notified of a rider or driver testing positive for COVID-19, they will be temporarily suspended from using Lyft until they are medically cleared.
• Helping with prevention. We've partnered with EO Products, makers of Everyone, to distribute more than 200,000 bottles of hand sanitizer and other cleaning supplies to drivers, at no cost to them.
• Supporting drivers. We will provide funds to drivers should they be diagnosed with COVID-19 or put under individual quarantine by a public health agency. This helps support drivers financially when they can't drive, while also protecting our riders' health.

What you can do

• Practice good hygiene. Wash your hands frequently. Cover your nose and mouth if you have to sneeze or cough. And use hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol content. Please stay home if you are sick.
• If you need to see a doctor, work with a medical professional to discuss transportation options. Per the CDC, if you have been diagnosed with COVID-19 or suspect you may have it, you should not use ridesharing, public transportation, or taxis.
• Stay informed. The CDC and the World Health Organization (WHO) are updating their sites with the latest information.

If you have any additional questions, please visit our online resource. Small actions can make a big difference when everyone helps out � thanks for doing your part."

Sorry, I missed that.

If you got a pat down at TSA in SJC recently, this might be of interest...

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/artic...o-15119444.php

Social distancing is seemingly actually happening in the West right now at increasing speeds.

Vanderbilt in Nashville, TN is considering this issue since it's a large campus with more than 90% of students on campus (I had to get special permission to live off campus):
https://www.tennessean.com/story/new...rs/5011762002/

I was unaware of #1 . So there is some case law on the subject--interesting.

For #2 , I would consider AIDS much more of a 'killer' than the current pandemic since the odds are about 100% that AIDS would reduce your life expectancy.

So I'm currently in Alabama with my father. The surrounding states of Georgia and Tennessee seem to have infections in two major metros--Nashville and Atlanta. My thinking is that since these are also the biggest airports in each state, that these cases may have either arrived by air or by some other transport to these metros.

Alabama has 2 major Interstates that directly link with both cities, so if by car, I would expect a case in North Alabama or Central Alabama in the next 3-5 days. If by air, the larger airports are in the central part of the state so the likelihood would be there first.

Now, here's the interesting part. There are many people that literally live in the country where even the nearest walmart would be a 30 minute drive and the nearest neighbor would be over a mile away. Hypothetically, what would their odds be on never getting the virus if they never left their property? (self-quarantined indefinitely)