CDC director’s thoughts:

https://www.npr.org/sections/health...o-come-this-virus-is-going-to-be-with-us

Sample quote

Let's take transmission...this virus does have the ability to transmit far easier than flu. It's probably now about three times as infectious as flu.

One of the [pieces of] information that we have pretty much confirmed now is that a significant number of individuals that are infected actually remain asymptomatic. That may be as many as 25%. That's important, because now you have individuals that may not have any symptoms that can contribute to transmission, and we have learned that in fact they do contribute to transmission.

And finally, of those of us that get symptomatic, it appears that we're shedding significant virus in our oropharyngeal compartment, probably up to 48 hours before we show symptoms. This helps explain how rapidly this virus continues to spread across the country, because we have asymptomatic transmitters, and we have individuals who are transmitting 48 hours before they become symptomatic.

End quote

Scares me.....

https://news.yahoo.com/suspected-sa...s-chinas-biosecurity-risk-144526820.html

Another article

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/mar/30/china-researchers-isolated-bat-coronaviruses-near-/

Reasons why the elderly, and particularly elderly men, are having trouble fighting this virus:

https://www.boston.com/news/health/2020/03/30/coronavirus-covid-19-elderly

Sample quote

Our immune systems have two sets of defenses against viruses and other pathogens: a first-line army of cells, called leukocytes, that attack invading microbes within minutes to hours, and a second-line force of precisely targeted antibodies and T cells that surge to the battle front as late as several days after.

With advancing age, the body has fewer T cells, which produce virus-fighting chemicals. By puberty, the thymus is producing tenfold fewer T cells than it did in childhood, Nikolich-Zugich said; by age 40 or 50, there is another tenfold drop.

That leaves the body depleted of T cells that have not yet been programmed to defend against a specific microbe. Fewer such “naïve T cells” means fewer able to be deployed against a never-before-seen microbe.

“We just have fewer soldiers dealing with attackers we’ve never experienced before, like the new coronavirus,” Nikolich-Zugich said. (The body does retain the “memory T cells” that learned to fight attackers in youth, which is why immunization against smallpox and many other viral disease lasts decades.)

Another age-related change keeps T cells away from battle. Even before T cells enter the fray, other cells recognize invaders and dispatch natural killer cells and other soldiers to destroy as many as possible in the first few hours after infection. Then these same front-line cells literally show the virus to T cells, saying in essence, this is the enemy; produce virus-killing compounds.

“But this communication doesn’t work as well as we get older,” Nikolich-Zugich said. The instructor cells grow scarce and start to do the biological equivalent of mumbling. T cells therefore respond too late and too little.

Antibodies are made by B cells, and their decline is less precipitous than the fall-off in T cells. But old B cells, like old factories, can’t produce as much of their product — antibodies — as when they were new. Specifically, they have lower levels of the molecule that rearranges their genome so as to produce never-before-seen antibodies to a never-before-seen virus.

As if old age weren’t cruel enough, it brings one more change to the immune system: It slows down how quickly natural killer cells and other first responders hand off the defense to activated T cells and B cells. “This initial response remains in overdrive,” Nikolich-Zugich said. The core of that response is a fusillade of inflammatory molecules called cytokines.

That fusillade attacks the lungs and causes acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a common cause of Covid-19 deaths.

The cytokine barrage varies somewhat by sex, however. In a study published last month, Kuchel and colleagues showed that older men had, on average, more cytokine-producing cells than older women, who had more and better B cells and T cells.

That might explain the apparent, but still tentative, sex-based differences in the Covid-19 epidemic, with elderly men generally faring worse than elderly women. Hobbled B and T cells leave the body with fewer anti-coronavirus defenses.

End quote

Yea, that would be as popular today as health care for all is today.

Or if you can't pay, you die.

Interesting evolution:

at first reported:
don't wear masks, they don't protect
we need masks to protect health workers

now reported and may be implemented:
wear masks when going out, they help by reducing the droplets exhaled by you after you are infected and not yet symtomatic

Blind leading the blind.

We are all going to die.

Nobody has yet to address the lack of the real isolation of the valve style masks.

But then, people were still getting on cruise ships in the first week of March, and now complaining no ports will disembark their infected passengers in the US.

Go find a private cruise ship island in the Bahamas to hang out on, with a supply of body bags.

% who will need to go to the hospital by age

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-03-comprehensive-covid-hospitalisation-death-countries.html

Only one out of five 80 year olds will get sick enough to go to the hospital.

Blood plasma treatment begins in Texas

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-03-fda-plasma-therapy-houston-methodist.html

Let us hope this rolls out fast in many areas

Sample quote

The process for donating plasma is similar to donating blood and takes about an hour. Plasma donors are hooked up to a small device that removes plasma while simultaneously returning red blood cells to their bodies. Unlike regular blood donation in which donors have to wait for red blood cells to replenish between donations, plasma can be donated more frequently, as often as twice a week.

"Convalescent serum therapy could be a vital treatment route, because unfortunately there is relatively little to offer many patients except supportive care, and the ongoing clinical trials are going to take a while. We don't have that much time," Salazar said.

End quote

All the effort and expense involved in developing treatments and therapies for ill people would be unnecessary should the populace heeded early warnings and stay in place orders implemented and enforced. It's time for everyone to realize mistakes were made from day one by those in positions to influence activities and actions of populace around the world.
Lets hope the time has come and self serving opinions and actions of populace are put away and the interest of nations and their protege (likely for generations). The toll is not only the body bags and mass graves (imagine India) as it seems the long term economic effects is being paled by the headlines. Everyone is watching the numbers of ill and dead with occasional glances at the stock market.
Click for U.S. Debt Clock -> OMG what is going on
What time is it? Time to Stay Home!

as of a couple days ago, jefferson, elk, and forest counties in pa. had no confirmed cases.
my sister's father in law passed, and his body wasn't released to the family until after he was tested for the virus.
she lives in virginia, [now a stay at home state] and was apprehensive about coming for the funeral. that consisted of a graveside service only, with 15 persons allowed to attend because it was outside, and distancing was required.
usually when my sister is here, we set at the kitchen table or on the deck to visit.
this time, my wife and i sat at each side of the one garage door, while my sister and brother in law sat under the garage door overhang, which is a 15x24 foot roof over the driveway. it was strange for sure, but the weather was very nice.

Moparx, I just now got off a tele appointment (changed from a face to face b/c of cv19) with my Doctor. I too live in a rural County with 3 or 4 adjoining with no reported cases. I asked about no illness here and she said "it's here". She explained there are many asymptomatic carriers distributing the virus and lack of test kits are lulling a sense that daily activity can continue. She expects test kits will be appearing and in the next 1 to two weeks we will be riding the wave. I did get her to say (hipa) that she's seen patients that need testing. Beware.

srt...Here is my dilema. I am scheduled for a CAT scan of the brain on April 2nd to see if the aneurysm is growing or stable. The county I have to go to has around 8 or 9 cases of the virus. On the 16th of April I am supposed to have my appointments with neurosurgery and radiation oncology. That county has had around 70+ cases. I really don't know what to do. One or the other could be deadly to me or my wife who has stage 5 renal failure...

Staying home, social distancing, flattening the curve, etc DOES NOT mean that less people will get exposed to the virus or get sick from it. It's purpose is to slow down the rate of infection and extend it over time, so that the health care system does not get overwhelmed with a huge, steep spike of cases all at once. Instead, there is a gradual amount of infections over time that they can deal with.

Hiding in our homes is not a cure. Eventually we all need to gain "herd immunity" and develop antibodies. That only happens 2 ways: an effective immunization (working on it, but still a long way off), or getting exposed to the virus and recovering (this is already happening).

I agree with what you write wingman, with the caveat that should the virus mutate (shear numbers of hosts = better chance). the experts will continue to chase vaccine(s).
I'm not hiding in my house, I have a big yard (acres) I have a shop and garage. There are other things we can do beside returning to life as usual and perhaps unintentionally become a host or carrier. Remember too, as time goes on the doctors are finding it's not simply the old/infirm that are critical. Is it better reporting, or is the virus mutating?
Edit- Experts say social distancing a must <- Click
p.s. Is moparts clock off?

From what I've gathered, it just takes longer for younger folks to hit the critical point where they need hospitalized.

oh yeah, i'm SURE it's here, just not REPORTED.
as you said, there are asymptomatic carriers EVERYWHERE, so why wouldn't it be here ?
a few days ago, i was talking to a lady that is a hairdresser. she said in late february to mid march, she had clients cancel with symptoms that mimic the symptoms described this virus has. at that time, the docs said it wasn't the flue, but they were not sure exactly what it was.
as no tests were available, it's entirely probable it was here then.
this exit on I-80 is the busiest exit in pa.
you just KNOW travelers have stopped here with it !

If there is any "shame in hiding in the house", paint me bright red guilty.

IF I cared blindly what others thought, I wouldn't have taken the effort to make 18K+ replies here.

I'll wait for the vaccine while others work out the herd mentality thing.

Good Luck to all of us.

At the start of this thread I wrote on 3/15, 2 weeks ago:

"I've been sequestered at home with my wife because of her knee replacement in early feb, and am glad I have.
I've finally talked sense to three of our adult children, while the other two (smokers) continue throw caution to the wind.
As I understand from reading and talking with two doctors is the virus effects ones lungs. Reduced lung capacity and scarring are the immediate effect and residual diminished lung capacity may likely be the toll on any individual. Effects seem to balance on the condition of ones lungs going into an infection.
Lets all be safe and considerate of others. Taking an attitude of "young enough" may cost one their life. I'll respect the experts and hope a majority of us get through this.
Let's also hope it was not created in some lab to be a super bug. Whatever it is, it appears to be widespread and well rooted in the populace. How the heck did that happe? Humanity has been forever changed, we will wake up tomorrow and this will be worse. It's real and frankly it's scary. I have not yet wrapped my head around economic effects and can only think dark thoughts on that.
I hope with additional tests there may be a way to corral hot spots to give science time to develop a vaccine. That is the best for now. "

I could write the same today, but... cut and paste was easier.
As a retired engineer playing nurse it gave me plenty if research time.
I found there is a lot of bad info floated on the www, even some here, where as a community we should be able to civilly banter and share. There is no winner in these topics, only shared hope there will be a vaccine and a way to heal society. After the victims are laid to rest and the mourning is done will we have scarred lungs and a way to live life that was somewhat similar to last year?

With a vaccine not predicted to be tested and available until next year, how is hiding in the house until then even practical?
The whole shelter in place plan is not to ride the storm out until it goes away, it is to flatten the curve so that the medical system won’t be overwhelmed.
When all is said and done somewhere between 30 and 60% of Americans will likely catch it regardless of what you do. Somewhere between 1 and 2% of those infected will likely pass away, though hopefully the mortality rate will diminish as treatments are developed.
In the meantime how is the stress being put on people by this going to affect their health, how many heart attacks, strokes etc is this causing?
Increases in drinking, overeating? Mental health? When all is said and done, perhaps these side effects will lead to the deaths of more people than Coronavirus?
Personally I know my blood pressure is high since around a month ago when it became apparent this was going to be more serious here than initially thought, and when the stock market where I’m heavily invested started crashing. And in only a week and a half of working at home, my back is stiff from sitting at an old desk with a less than optimum chair. Another month and my back will probably be trashed!
I’m trying to figure out ways to destress some, and cutting back on news is one thing that will help. Seeing the same half dozen people posting 24/7 in this thread makes me question if they aren’t endangering their health obsessing on this subject?
I’m not intending to trivialize the virus, but I do think constantly thinking about it might well be as much or more dangerous to ones health than the epidemic.

If it were me in that situation I would put off the CAT scan and appointment on 16th off for 90 days.

It is a personal choice based on trading off risk.

Were there previous CAT scans?
Was the aneurysm stable in previous scans?

90 days from now the medical staff and MD’s you are going to interact with will have probably gotten the virus and recovered, making them much less dangerous to you.

Can you stay virus free for 90 days ?
Unknown, but it is possible.

It is almost certain 90 days from now medical research teams will know a lot more about successfully treating patients.