2/27/2020
It's been a couple of days since I last wrote in this online journal. I had physical therapy and have been a little run down. My arthritis is really acting up and my blood work suggests I am about to have another auto immune flare so I am trying to get more rest.
To catch up with the news: S. Korea announced a total of 1600 cases as of last night, most of which can be traced back to that doomsday cult. They have been intentionally spreading it all over the place. They preach not to fight the virus and their leader says he is Jesus and Satan combined. Fun guy. I can't get over the fact that they had a site in Wuhan China until mid December. I don't know what it means but I am sure it means SOMETHING.
Everyday more countries announce cases. Sweden, Switzerland, Afghanistan, and all over the Mediterranean and Easter Europe are reporting that the virus is now in their country. Most of these new cases are coming from people who were in Italy or Iran. Travel is still being kept open in many places and some countries have flat out said they don't see a point in shutting it down.
In Italy more are confirmed infected everyday and people continue to die. It's too early for any true number to be given to the mortality rate as the virus takes on average 3 weeks to kill someone but right now Italy stands at a 3.7% mortality rate. That will fluctuate all over the place though as more are confirmed and die. A lot depends on healthcare for this. I find it strange that they keep focusing on the mortality rate of those who can get proper treatment. We need to know the mortality rate if you CAN'T get proper treatment. This number will be seen as supplies run out and healthcare is overrun. Considering 15-20% need inpatient care and 5-10% need to be on a ventilator, the true mortality rate of this thing could be much worse that the estimated 2-5% we see right now. I don't want that to happen and I don't want it to be true but I can't help looking at all the data together and seeing a truly horrifying "big picture."
The virus is out of control in Iran. They are reporting at least 95 dead but as they only have 1 lab in the country capable of testing WHO is only counting those few cases that can be tested. The real number is so much higher. The government sold most of their supplies to China for an enormous profit leaving the people with little to fight and protect themselves. I have sent messages to WHO and anyone else I can think of to send some help but I doubt anyone will. Even if you are evil enough not to care about the people of Iran, letting covid-19 rage out of control, especially in the middle east puts everyone at risk. I am tired of expecting things to make sense in all of this. Nothing does.
The president says it's fine and that the virus is contained in the US. A few hours later the CDC announced the first case in norther California that is community spread, no connection to china or travel. What that means is that it's spreading in the community and they don't know where or how bad. The part that really got to me was when I found out this morning that the man who the CDC just confirmed, has been on a ventilator for days, without proper containment as the doctors had to BEG for testing. I expected, no, I HOPED I would wake up this morning to find that they had locked down the area and were aggressively testing. I just can't understand why. The CDC has still only tested about 450 people, out of the thousands being kept in quarantine. The numbers don't match up no matter how you look at them.
I watched the senate request for 2.5 billion in emergency funding presented by the director of HHS. It was a mess. Many senators asked the right questions but were flat out lied to in response. He was asked about transmission and told them that it's droplet. When asked about the virus living on surfaces he tried to get out of it and in the end said that it "might" live for a few hours at most. We all know damned good and well that it can live on surfaces like steel and glass for 9 days! He told them NOTHING about fecal transmission and the papers from both China and India stating that uncontained waste and possibly even gas from infected individuals can spread the virus up to 200 meters. He kept saying that we don't have any information and we are waiting for WHO to investigate. I'm sorry WHAT? We have countless studies and papers put out by China and our own people. There are certainly unanswered questions and things we don't know but he was intentionally trying to conceal the severity of the situation from the senate. They weren't buying it. They told him that 2.5 billion was not enough and urged him to reconsider. Since when have you ever heard senators tell someone to ask for MORE money? When asked about the US medical supply stockpile the answer was grim. We have 30 million n95 masks but he then told them we NEED 300 million! So we have 10% of the masks we need. The answer was about the same in regard to ventilators and other supplies. It's not like we can just order more of this stuff. He said that some of the 2.5 billion was to set up markets and production of all the things we need but was surprisingly honest in stating that it was going to be hard and take a long time.
To top it off the VP Mike Pence was just put in control of the covid-19 situation. Great! The guy that doesn't believe in climate change and was involved with gay conversion therapy is running the US response to a viral pandemic. That's about par for the course considering all the rest.
Why can other countries do tens of thousands of tests but we can't get properly working kits out before mid March? Why do they refuse to test people unless they were in China when we know that other countries have the virus and that it is likely out spreading in the US already? ICU and ER nurses have begun talking openly about refused testing, pneumonia cases that test negative for flu and a lack of supplies. There is a hashtag now called #CDCwonttestme where people are speaking out about it.
I am tired and frustrated with the social media censorship. Even medical doctors talking about the virus are being harassed and trolled by people. I want to get this site a domain and listed on search engines but that takes money that I don't have. I don't dare ask for donations or set up a GoFundMe for it. I just asked for advice on it last night and had people telling me that I was trying to scam people and unfollowing me. I only need like $100 to get everything I need for the site but I can't even afford my own supplies right now. I have no idea what I am going to do about the situation. It's a problem to worry about tomorrow.
I'm going to stop procrastinating and look at the news for the afternoon and get back to work. I need to get an article up on caring for infected people at home and how to set up clean/contaminated spaces in people's homes. It's a bit more research intensive than the other guides and is taking me longer than I would like. Off to another adventure, as they say! Stay safe people.
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