COVID-19 day 93 : 📈 842,629 cases; 46,784 deaths : 22 April 2020
Day-to-day growth in both cases and deaths are slowing in the US; big cats and house cats test positive; CDC recommends keeping house cats inside; 50th anniversary of Earth Day
It’s day 93 since the first case of coronavirus disease was announced in the United States. And it’s the 50th anniversary of Earth Day (NASA photo). Climate change activists who had hoped to organize public celebrations are having to celebrate virtually instead.
News sites and social media have touted cleaner air due to fewer cars on the road as we all shelter at home. Ironically, Al Jazeera points out how COVID-19 threatens the Paris Climate Agreement. David Roberts suggests we retire the very old, gas-guzzling US Postal Service fleet (average, 28 years) and replace it with electric vehicles.
Scientific American shows how the “precautionary principle” that initially undergirded environmental regulation gave way to “market-oriented cost-benefit analyses” that President Georgie W.H. Bush called “economic precaution”.
That’s the same philosophy, short-term economics over long-term health, that is driving the “open doors now” movement that President Trump alternately scolds and supports.
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Wednesday, Johns Hopkins reported 842,629 (825,183) cases and 46,784 (45,070) deaths in the US, an increase of 2.1% and 3.8%, respectively, since Tuesday. A week ago, the daily numbers increased by 4.96% and 18.92%, respectively.
That case rate is 254.57 per 100,000; the death rate is 141.34 per million.
One week ago, the case rate was 193.24 per 100,000; the death rate, 93.61 per million.
🤓Recommended reading
Developing a National Strategy for Serology (Antibody Testing) in the United States. Johns Hopkins, 22 April 2020.
🔬Research and medical news
With no clear patterns in terms of age or chronic conditions, some scientists hypothesize that at least some of these abnormalities may be explained by severe changes in patients’ blood.
The concern is so acute some doctor groups have raised the controversial possibility of giving preventive blood thinners to everyone with covid-19 — even those well enough to endure their illness at home.
A mysterious blood-clotting complication is killing coronavirus patients. Washington Post, 22 April 2020.
🎦Recommended viewing
From the UK, interviews with public health researchers, asking what does ‘following the science’ mean?
💃🏼Life hack
Zoom fatigue is real and rooted in “cognitive and psychological frictions".”
⓵ Around the country
This county-level map from Johns Hopkins shows cases on a per capita rate. Notice that some of the darkest spots are rural. For example, in Washington state, the highest per capita county is Yakima, a major agricultural center. In Georgia, the southwest county cluster continues to grow. What’s the per capita case load in your county?
National Geographic reports that four more tigers and three lions have tested positive for coronavirus, this time using fecal samples.
The CDC and USDA announced today that two house cats (living in separate parts of NY state) have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19). They are the first pets to test positive in the US but they are not the first pets to test positive in the world.
Until we learn more, the CDC wants us to practice physical distancing with our cat and dogs. And keep indoor-outdoor cats indoors. If someone in your household tests positive, they should avoid contact with pets. No snuggles when sick is bummer.
Dr. Rick Bright led the effort to develop a coronavirus vaccine as the former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (HHS). He was re-assigned Tuesday. In a statement to media he said:
I believe this transfer was in response to my insistence that the government invest the billions of dollars allocated by Congress to address the COVID-19 pandemic into safe and scientifically vetted solutions, and not in drugs, vaccines and other technologies that lack scientific merit.
Georgia: In Atlanta, the World Congress Center has been set up as an auxiliary hospital, and Emory University has ICU doctors who have tested positive.
Nevada officials condemned comments Wednesday by Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman after she called for casinos and other nonessential businesses to reopen and suggested the city could serve as a test case to measure the impact during the coronavirus pandemic.
Washington: The east-west divide at play; Spokane wants to open sooner than the greater Seattle area. “We’re not Puget Sound.” Which is true, but the county with the highest per capita case rate (352.36 per 100,000) is in eastern Washington.
All 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands have identified COVID-19 cases and all have at least one death.
⓶ Around the world
Europe is ahead of the US on the COVID-19 timeline of case load and deaths. Germany allowed small shops and car dealers to reopen this week. Barbers and beauty salons will need t wait until 04 May, that’s far more intimate-space interactions.
France won’t lift its lockdown until May 11.
In Denmark, some families are objecting to schools being re-opened; they started a Facebook group, "My Child Will Not Be a Guinea Pig for COVID-19".
Digital tracking: in China, it’s been widely reported that officials look at a cell phone app to confirm to determine if someone is free to move about.
South Korea is using cell phone data to track people who have been exposed. New: electronic wristbands to ensure those directed to self-quarantine do remain home.
The number of affected countries/territories/areas jumped from 29 at the end of February to 208 today. Although early reports tied the outbreak to a seafood (“wet”) market in Wuhan, China, analyses of genomic data suggest that the virus may have developed elsewhere.
⓷ Politics, economics and COVID-19
⓸ Case count
There is a lag between being contagious and showing symptoms, between having a test and getting its results. The virus was not created in a lab.
🌎 22 April
Globally: 2 471 136 confirmed (73,920 - new) with 169 006 deaths (6,058 - new)
The Americas: 925 291 confirmed (32 172 - new) with 44 775 deaths (2,089 - new)
Johns Hopkins interactive dashboard (11.30 pm Pacific)
Global confirmed: 2,629,801 (2,565,059)
Total deaths: 183,454 (177,496)
Recovered: 713,537 (686,634)
🇺🇸 22 April
CDC: 802,583 (776,093) cases and 44,575 (41,758) deaths
Johns Hopkins*: 842,629 (825,183) cases and 46,784 (45,070) deaths
State data*: 829,168 (776,215) identified cases and 42,217 (40,097) deaths
Total tested (US, Johns Hopkins): 4,482,434 (4,163,464)
View infographic and data online: total cases, cases/100,000 and deaths/million.
* Johns Hopkins data, ~11.00 pm Pacific.
State data include DC, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands
See US (state/territory) total cases, cases/100,000 and deaths/million as infographics.
⓹ What you can do
Stay home as much as possible, period.
Digestive problems may be a symptom.
Resources
👓 See COVID-19 resource collection at WiredPen.
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🦠 COVID-19 @ WiredPen.com
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