Novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV/COVID-19)

[Xtrema]

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If you got Covid early and got through it airfares are stupidly cheap right now. Sure, its even more of a hassle to get through the airports, but if you want to save money now is the time.

All depends on quarantine policy. Airfare may be cheap but what's the point if you are quarantined for 14 days at destination and another 14 days on return.

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Borders are not closed. never really were.
https://www.yyc.com/en-us/travelleri...tschedule.aspx

Calgary still has dozens of international flights per day.

https://www.cp24.com/news/55-flights...d-19-1.5076884

[ExtraSlow]

I'd say at this point, the health risks to Canadians are from other canadians, not from travelers. I'd also say the public health risk of a closed economy (poverty and suicide) are higher than the risk or reopening and having a manageable spike in cases, but nobody asked me.

[Buster]

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I'd say at this point, the health risks to Canadians are from other canadians, not from travelers. I'd also say the public health risk of a closed economy (poverty and suicide) are higher than the risk or reopening and having a manageable spike in cases, but nobody asked me.

You matter.

We all matter.

[Masked Bandit]

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"energy workers" can travel freely to USA and back. As can people in "transport" and a whole bunch of other industries.

Make no mistake, the border is open.

There are plenty of Canadians that are still travelling to Mexico for beach vacations, I think the travel restrictions are really just on the honour system if you're flying. I've heard that land crossings are different but flying doesn't seem to be an issue.

[ZenOps]

Hawaii has the crazy enforced 14 day quarantine on arrival. And they have the technology to enforce it. Everywhere else is pretty meh, even a lot of european shoulder shruggers out there.

[msommers]

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Topical: https://finance.yahoo.com/video/not-...184307653.html

"I'm really disappointed, in fact, that the FDA is succumbing to so much political pressure and anxiety from the population and not being guided by medical and scientific rigorous principles... the science behind there being specific targeted immune complexes in the plasma, which would be specifically helpful to an individual patient, are not identifiable and not predictable.. without prospective randomized analysis... it's not quite a hail mary, but it's pretty close to it."

She's not alone.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02324-2

https://www.cochrane.org/CD013600/HA...duals-covid-19

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...stract/2766943

[The_Rural_Juror]

Pro-Buster article

https://www.barrons.com/articles/don...ec=coronavirus

Hong Kong University scientists released a paper Monday describing what they said was the first documented case of a person developing consecutive laboratory-confirmed Covid-19 infections, raising fears that herd immunity won’t stop the pandemic.

But a top U.S. infectious disease expert tells Barron’s that it’s too early to be worried.

“This is one of the big, big questions in the field, whether one infection protects from a second infection,” acknowledges Dr. Bruce Walker, director of the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard, a biomedical research institute. “The implications if natural infection are not protective are large.”

While the data from the Hong Kong University scientists is interesting, he said, it is impossible to rule out the possibility that a sampling mix-up may have led to the finding that the man described in the paper was infected twice. And he says that, even if a natural infection doesn’t offer protection from Covid-19 infections, that doesn’t mean that vaccines won’t work.

[Buster]

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Pro-Buster article

https://www.barrons.com/articles/don...ec=coronavirus

It's very difficult to determine epidemiological impacts based on one patient. I haven't read the paper, but for the authors to be saying things like it challenges the notion of herd immunity, then that is a pretty questionable conclusion.

[Nakadah]

Does anyone know how come BC has 2.5x fewer confirmed cases than Alberta?

[Xtrema]

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Does anyone know how come BC has 2.5x fewer confirmed cases than Alberta?

We have done 900k tests and BC has done just shy of 400k. But the 900k test is administrated on only 700k ppl, so there are probably multiples tests as well for high risk individuals.

At this point, there is really no point in counting absolute number of confirmed cases, tests are basically giving you a general idea how healthy the population is and detecting outbreaks and focus efforts on them. IE, if 144 confirmed out of 8800 tested, expect 2 in 100 ppl you meet daily are infected.

[pheoxs]

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She's not alone.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02324-2

https://www.cochrane.org/CD013600/HA...duals-covid-19

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...stract/2766943

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/f...+%28TPMNews%29

Even the FDA head is backpeddling

Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn conceded on Monday night that he had exaggerated the effectiveness of convalescent plasma therapy as treatment for COVID-19 the day before.


“I have been criticized for remarks I made Sunday night about the benefits of convalescent plasma. The criticism is entirely justified,” Hahn tweeted. “What I should have said better is that the data show a relative risk reduction not an absolute risk reduction.”

[Misterman]

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You matter.

We all matter.

Whoa man. Looks like we got a racist here.

[ZenOps]

You might be matter, but I'm pure energy baby.

[Xtrema]

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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/f...+%28TPMNews%29

Even the FDA head is backpeddling

TLDW.


There is no peer review or randomize control trial to prove convalescent plasma to be effective.

The study in pre-release only shows that low vs high antibody plasma has a 5-7% spread in reduction in mortality but it's statistically insignificant. The only other study is from China and they also have concluded that it also doesn't really help. So like A790 said, it's a hail marry.

The only reason it's on the news cycle at all is Trump looking for a win somewhere and FDA probably got political pressure to do something.

That's probably why it lead to the walk back by Hahn today.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/fda-hahn-trump-1.5699323

This will lead to more anti-expert sentiment in the general population. The experts are already having a tough job trying to figure this shit out without political meddling.

[Buster]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvmtT_XV4aw

Edit: FU @Xtrema

[Xtrema]

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvmtT_XV4aw

Edit: FU @Xtrema

I would have posted it yesterday but I wasn't paying much attention to it so I may have misunderstood it. And I did until I rewatched it just now.

[Buster]

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TLDW.


There is no peer review or randomize control trial to prove convalescent plasma to be effective.

The study in pre-release only shows that low vs high antibody plasma has a 5-7% spread in reduction in mortality but it's statistically insignificant. The only other study is from China and they also have concluded that it also doesn't really help. So like A790 said, it's a hail marry.

The only reason it's on the news cycle at all is Trump looking for a win somewhere and FDA probably got political pressure to do something.

That's probably why it lead to the walk back by Hahn today.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/fda-hahn-trump-1.5699323

This will lead to more anti-expert sentiment is the general population. The experts are already having a tough job trying to figure this shit out without political meddling.

It's also too expensive, and too inconvenient. This type of treatment will likely go down the road of monoclonal antibodies. Either way, the political pressure is just dumb.

The biggest thing that Trump could force the FDA to do would be to approve the Michael Mina strip testing. I'm starting to wonder (to my horror) if the political pressure is actually preventing these tests from being approved. If we get millions and millions of test strips out to the public, it will start to reveal millions of positive covid cases - which I doubt Trump wants right before the election.

[Xtrema]

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The biggest thing that Trump could force the FDA to do would be to approve the Michael Mina strip testing. I'm starting to wonder (to my horror) if the political pressure is actually preventing these tests from being approved. If we get millions and millions of test strips out to the public, it will start to reveal millions of positive covid cases - which I doubt Trump wants right before the election.

Or false positives that happened in one NJ lab testing NFL players:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sport...ew-jersey-lab/

Yeah, those strips would be a no brainer for schools/offices to reopen.

[nzwasp]

https://edmontonjournal.com/news/loc...-899e6f54f179/

30% of students signed up for online hub learning: what the article doesn’t talk about is the hundreds of teachers that have been allocated to support those students.

Super keen to know the percentage of Calgary kids opting for stay at home learning

[Masked Bandit]

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https://edmontonjournal.com/news/loc...-899e6f54f179/

30% of students signed up for online hub learning: what the article doesn’t talk about is the hundreds of teachers that have been allocated to support those students.

Super keen to know the percentage of Calgary kids opting for stay at home learning

As of yesterday I can tell you that a random K-6 school in suburbia had 5% of it's population signed up for online. I suspect the percentages go up as the ages do.