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Thread: China Quarantines Millions After Thousands Exposed To Mutating Virus That Has Killed Many

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    This has been in the news all over the place today

    Public Company Information:
    NYSE:
    MMM

    ST. PAUL, Minn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--3M issued the following statement in response to the announcements issued by the White House last evening:

    Over the last several weeks and months, 3M and its employees have gone above and beyond to manufacture as many N95 respirators as possible for the U.S. market. Yesterday, the Administration formally invoked the Defense Production Act (DPA) to require 3M to prioritize orders from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for our N95 respirators.

    We have been working closely with the Administration to do exactly that, and we appreciate the authorities in the DPA that provide a framework for us to expand even further the work we are doing in response to the global pandemic crisis. We look forward to working with FEMA to implement yesterday’s order.

    In the course of our collaboration with the Administration this past weekend, the Administration requested that 3M increase the amount of respirators we currently import from our overseas operations into the U.S. We appreciate the assistance of the Administration to do exactly that. For example, earlier this week, we secured approval from China to export to the U.S. 10 million N95 respirators manufactured by 3M in China.

    The Administration also requested that 3M cease exporting respirators that we currently manufacture in the United States to the Canadian and Latin American markets. There are, however, significant humanitarian implications of ceasing respirator supplies to healthcare workers in Canada and Latin America, where we are a critical supplier of respirators. In addition, ceasing all export of respirators produced in the United States would likely cause other countries to retaliate and do the same, as some have already done. If that were to occur, the net number of respirators being made available to the United States would actually decrease. That is the opposite of what we and the Administration, on behalf of the American people, both seek.

    We also continue to act on reports of price gouging and unauthorized reselling related to 3M respirators. This activity is unethical and illegal. We are working with the U.S. Attorney General and attorneys general of every state, making it clear that 3M has not and will not raise prices for respirators and offering our assistance in the fight.

    We look forward to working closely with the Administration to implement yesterday’s DPA order. We will continue to maximize the amount of respirators we can produce on behalf of U.S. healthcare workers, as we have every single day since this crisis began.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Godfather View Post
    This has been in the news all over the place today
    3M is in damage control mode. I thought the Florida Emergency Management guy seemed a bit out of line, but he's probably tired and frustrated. He has a valid point if it's not just market forces (as 3M spins it) but brokers moving product to the highest bidder, even if that is internationally.

    And notice that the 3M statements do not say anything about their master distributors. "3M has not and will not raise prices for respirators" - I'm sure they haven't changed the manufacturer price. That doesn't answer the question about the master distributors.

    And by the way, no company "looks forward to working" under a DPA order. And the feds are only using DPA orders when the companies are being complete dicks. So don't just believe the corporate spin.
    Last edited by RBP; 04-04-2020 at 10:44 AM.
    I wanted to be a Monk, but I never got the chants.

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    It's also time to start tracking the social impacts... I'll start a separate thread. Watch the crime rates, the overdose rates, suicide rates, and the biggest one... the domestic violence rates. I shudder at the people (kids especially) that the government has forced to stay home with their abusers.
    I wanted to be a Monk, but I never got the chants.

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    Hahah... get fucked AirBNB. AirBnB has a horrible, negative impact on housing and rental prices in cities, why the hell should we bail them out.

    Airbnb's request for tax breaks raises red flags for Vancouver advocate

    VANCOUVER -- Airbnb Canada has asked the federal government for a series of tax breaks to help short-term rental hosts make up lost income from cancelled bookings during the COVID-19 crisis.

    But one Vancouver resident who has spent years advocating for stricter rules to curb short-term rentals says Canadian taxpayers shouldn’t bail out Airbnb hosts. Instead, said Ulrike Rodrigues, hosts who are no longer getting Airbnb bookings should put their units on the long-term rental market.

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    I think the people of Barcelona would agree, no one could get accommodation for long term due to ABB.

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    Coronavirus might spread much farther than 6 feet in the air. CDC says wear a mask in public.

    Air contaminated with the COVID-19 virus might travel four times farther than the 6 feet the CDC asks we distance ourselves, according to a recent study.

    The study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that under the right conditions, liquid droplets from sneezes, coughs and just exhaling can travel more than 26 feet and linger in the air for minutes.

    Findings such as these may have some bearing on the CDC's recommendation on Friday that Americans wear non-surgical face masks in public — especially in places "where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain."

    “There is no virtual wall at this 3- to 6-feet distance” says Lydia Bourouiba, the study's author, who specializes in fluid dynamics and is an associate professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. These findings suggest the greatest risk is for health care workers working with infected patients, she says.

    As seen in this video, shot from different views and posted with Bourouiba's report, the invisible cloud can travel up to 26 feet:



    The study focuses on a turbulent gas, the cloud emitted when someone coughs, sneezes or exhales. Liquid droplets of various sizes drop onto surfaces, while others can be trapped in a cloud that can swirl around a room with a payload, in theory, of pathogen-bearing droplets.

    How cough and sneeze droplets travel



    A lot goes into how far the cloud and its droplets travel: a person's physiology, the environment, humidity and temperature. “The cloud can reach up to 26 feet for sneezes and less than that for coughs — about 16 to 19 feet,” Bourouiba says.

    According to a 2009 World Health Organization report, when someone coughs, they can spray up to 3,000 droplets. A sneeze could yield 40,000.



    Virus-filled droplets smaller than a human hair

    Bourouiba’s study did not look at gas clouds of patients infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus but it hypothesized: "The rapid international spread of COVID-19 suggests that using arbitrary droplet size cutoffs may not accurately reflect what actually occurs with respiratory emissions" and lead to inadequate recommendations and more sick people.

    These droplets can be very small — “ as small and invisible as the micron size to the ones that you can see that are on the order of the millimeter” says Bourouiba. A human hair is 60 to 120 microns thick.



    erosols: The smallest droplets may carry COVID-19

    Researchers don’t know how many virus-laden particles people infected with COVID-19 might expel in the average droplet, including the micron-size droplets — called aerosols — that linger in the air.

    "Aerosols are different," says Dr. Stanley Deresinski, clinical professor of medicine and infectious diseases at Stanford University. "Very small particles may be suspended in the air for a long time, sometimes for hours. They're suspended by air currents."

    Those floating airborne droplets — some shielded by turbulent gas clouds — can stay suspended long enough for someone to walk through and inhale the virus. Inside the gas cloud “the lifetime of a droplet could be considerably extended by a factor of up to 1000, from a fraction of a second to minutes,” Bourouiba's study says.



    Droplets containing virus reach air circulation systems

    Pathogens in the cloud could potentially reach air circulation systems inside buildings, says Bourouiba. “There was sampling done in air vents with positive detection of the virus.”

    A separate JAMA Network study found that exhaust outlets tested positive for SARS-CoV-2: “small virus-laden droplets may be displaced by airflows and deposited on equipment such as vents,” the study says.

    “Now, there are other questions about whether the detected virus particles are still live," says Bourouiba. "However, finding the virus in air vents is more compatible with that longer distance range that can be reached through the cloud.”



    Fresh air can help rid coronavirus droplets

    These findings heighten the dangers for those caring for COVID-19 patients. Without sufficient air circulation to disperse the cloud, its concentrated payload of droplets can linger in hospitals and homes.

    “Drops are trapped in the cloud for quite some time and they can remain locally concentrated,” says Bourouiba.

    The best defenses are the outdoors and open windows which dissipate the clouds or droplets.

    “When one is outside, with air circulation or wind, the cloud and its payload is easily dispersed and less concentrated. Making sure that indoor spaces are aired frequently also reduces the concentration,” Bourouiba says.

    Masks protect against floating droplets



    Surgical masks are helpful at blocking large droplets, but unlike respirators they do not provide a reliable level of protection from inhaling smaller airborne particles, according to the CDC.



    N95 respirators are tight-fitting and filter out at least 95% of airborne particles as small as 0.3 microns. They have a protection factor (APF) of 10, according to the CDC. That means the N95 reduces the aerosol concentration to 1/10 of that in the room — or blocking 90% of airborne particles.



    An elastomeric respirator is a reusable device with exchangeable cartridge filters. It fits tight against the user's face and also has a APF of 10. Before reusing the mask, all its surfaces need to be wiped down with a disinfectant.

    In addition to respirators, health care workers should wear personal protective equipment (PPE) to help limit exposure to the virus through their eyes or contaminated clothing.
    Should you make a homemade face mask?

    The CDC now recommends Americans wear cloth face coverings in public settings where it's difficult to stay at least 6 feet apart, such as grocery stores and pharmacies — especially in areas with high levels of community transmission.

    When asked about the CDC recommendations for people the general public to wear masks or other improvised devices, Bourouiba offered a qualified response:

    “The efficacy of those homemade solutions need to be quantified. Exhalations or violent exhalations such as coughs or sneezes would be deflected to the sides of these masks — as they are not perfectly sealed....

    "It is important, therefore, to understand that such masks are not necessarily protective for the wearer in terms of preventing inhalation of the residual droplets in the air, which enter from the sides unfiltered, but they can provide a way to reduce the range of contamination from the droplets-laden cloud.”

    The CDC press release says that cloth face coverings fashioned from household items or made at home from common materials at low cost can be used as an additional, voluntary public health measure. They recommend that critical supplies such as surgical masks or N-95 respirators continue to be reserved for health care workers and other medical first responders. Top trends on Google Friday were face mask patterns and bandanas.

    The start of allergy season could also hasten new infections. Bourouiba warned that asymptomatic carriers could spread COVID-19 through any sneezing and coughing triggered by allergies.

    Contributing: George Petras and Jim Sergent


    https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/ne...hs/5086553002/

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    The Queen's coronavirus address to the nation




    As a filthy colonist, I enjoyed this.

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    Africa bracing for ‘complete collapse of economies’ as coronavirus takes its toll

    By Bradford Betz | Fox News




    African leaders are warning of an economic collapse if financial assistance isn’t provided to the millions of people out of work because of the novel coronavirus.

    More than half of Africa's 54 countries have imposed lockdowns, curfews, travel bans or other measures in a bid to prevent local transmission of the virus.

    "The African labor market is driven by imports and exports and with the lockdown everywhere in the world, it means basically that the economy is frozen in place,” Ahunna Eziakonwa, the United Nations Development Program regional director for Africa, told The Associated Press. "And with that, of course, all the jobs are gone."

    With some governments saying they're unable to offer direct support, the fate of Africa's large informal sector could be a powerful example of what experts predict will be unprecedented damage to economies in the developing world.

    Unless the virus' spread can be controlled, up to 50 percent of all projected job growth in Africa will be lost as aviation, services, exports, mining, agriculture and the informal sector all take a hit, Eziakonwa said.

    "We will see a complete collapse of economies and livelihoods. Livelihoods will be wiped out in a way we have never seen before," she warned.

    U.N. Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) chief Vera Songwe said in March that Africa may need up to $10.6 billion in unanticipated increases in health spending, and revenue losses could lead to debt becoming unsustainable.

    The International Monetary Fund said it has received requests for emergency financing from some 20 African countries, with requests from an additoinal 10 or more likely to follow. The IMF has since approved credit facilities for at least two West African nations facing virus-related economic disruption.

    UNECA has called for emergency actions to protect 30 million jobs immediately at risk across Africa, particularly in the tourism and airline sectors, saying the continent will be hit harder than others with an economic toll that will exacerbate "current fragilities."

    Noting that "the rich countries are unlocking staggering sums" to stimulate their economies, Benin's President Patrice Talon said that his West African country, "like most African countries, does not have these means."

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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    If only we could help
















    Perhaps ask the Chinese

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    Quote Originally Posted by Godfather View Post
    The Queen's coronavirus address to the nation




    As a filthy colonist, I enjoyed this.
    Our Queen






    Quote Originally Posted by DemonGeminiX View Post
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    Effectiveness of Surgical and Cotton Masks in Blocking SARS–CoV-2: A Controlled Comparison in 4 Patients

    Seongman Bae, MD *; Min-Chul Kim, MD *; Ji Yeun Kim, PhD *; Hye-Hee Cha, BS; Joon Seo Lim, PhD; Jiwon Jung, MD; Min-Jae Kim, MD; Dong Kyu Oh, MD; Mi-Kyung Lee, MD; Seong-Ho Choi, MD; Minki Sung, PhD; Sang-Bum Hong, MD; Jin-Won Chung, MD; Sung-Han Kim, MD - Annals of Internal Medicine


    Background: During respiratory viral infection, face masks are thought to prevent transmission (1). Whether face masks worn by patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) prevent contamination of the environment is uncertain (2, 3). A previous study reported that surgical masks and N95 masks were equally effective in preventing the dissemination of influenza virus (4), so surgical masks might help prevent transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome–coronavirus 2 (SARS–CoV-2). However, the SARS–CoV-2 pandemic has contributed to shortages of both N95 and surgical masks, and cotton masks have gained interest as a substitute.

    Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of surgical and cotton masks in filtering SARS–CoV-2.

    Methods and Findings: The institutional review boards of 2 hospitals in Seoul, South Korea, approved the protocol, and we invited patients with COVID-19 to participate. After providing informed consent, patients were admitted to negative pressure isolation rooms. We compared disposable surgical masks (180 mm × 90 mm, 3 layers [inner surface mixed with polypropylene and polyethylene, polypropylene filter, and polypropylene outer surface], pleated, bulk packaged in cardboard; KM Dental Mask, KM Healthcare Corp) with reusable 100% cotton masks (160 mm × 135 mm, 2 layers, individually packaged in plastic; Seoulsa).

    A petri dish (90 mm × 15 mm) containing 1 mL of viral transport media (sterile phosphate-buffered saline with bovine serum albumin, 0.1%; penicillin, 10 000 U/mL; streptomycin, 10 mg; and amphotericin B, 25 µg) was placed approximately 20 cm from the patients' mouths. Patients were instructed to cough 5 times each onto a petri dish while wearing the following sequence of masks: no mask, surgical mask, cotton mask, and again with no mask. A separate petri dish was used for each of the 5 coughing episodes. Mask surfaces were swabbed with aseptic Dacron swabs in the following sequence: outer surface of surgical mask, inner surface of surgical mask, outer surface of cotton mask, and inner surface of cotton mask.

    The median viral loads of nasopharyngeal and saliva samples from the 4 participants were 5.66 log copies/mL and 4.00 log copies/mL, respectively. The median viral loads after coughs without a mask, with a surgical mask, and with a cotton mask were 2.56 log copies/mL, 2.42 log copies/mL, and 1.85 log copies/mL, respectively. All swabs from the outer mask surfaces of the masks were positive for SARS–CoV-2, whereas most swabs from the inner mask surfaces were negative (Table).



    Discussion: Neither surgical nor cotton masks effectively filtered SARS–CoV-2 during coughs by infected patients. Prior evidence that surgical masks effectively filtered influenza virus (1) informed recommendations that patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 should wear face masks to prevent transmission (2). However, the size and concentrations of SARS–CoV-2 in aerosols generated during coughing are unknown. Oberg and Brousseau (3) demonstrated that surgical masks did not exhibit adequate filter performance against aerosols measuring 0.9, 2.0, and 3.1 μm in diameter. Lee and colleagues (4) showed that particles 0.04 to 0.2 μm can penetrate surgical masks. The size of the SARS–CoV particle from the 2002–2004 outbreak was estimated as 0.08 to 0.14 μm (5); assuming that SARS-CoV-2 has a similar size, surgical masks are unlikely to effectively filter this virus.

    Of note, we found greater contamination on the outer than the inner mask surfaces. Although it is possible that virus particles may cross from the inner to the outer surface because of the physical pressure of swabbing, we swabbed the outer surface before the inner surface. The consistent finding of virus on the outer mask surface is unlikely to have been caused by experimental error or artifact. The mask's aerodynamic features may explain this finding. A turbulent jet due to air leakage around the mask edge could contaminate the outer surface. Alternatively, the small aerosols of SARS–CoV-2 generated during a high-velocity cough might penetrate the masks. However, this hypothesis may only be valid if the coughing patients did not exhale any large-sized particles, which would be expected to be deposited on the inner surface despite high velocity. These observations support the importance of hand hygiene after touching the outer surface of masks.

    This experiment did not include N95 masks and does not reflect the actual transmission of infection from patients with COVID-19 wearing different types of masks. We do not know whether masks shorten the travel distance of droplets during coughing. Further study is needed to recommend whether face masks decrease transmission of virus from asymptomatic individuals or those with suspected COVID-19 who are not coughing.

    In conclusion, both surgical and cotton masks seem to be ineffective in preventing the dissemination of SARS–CoV-2 from the coughs of patients with COVID-19 to the environment and external mask surface.

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    More testing needed. However, very notable what it did find. great article.

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    Better study would be to test those who are positive but asymptomatic, and determine if the spread they cause can be lessened by the wearing of any style of mask.
    Same size of 4 is quite amazingly low.
    And the final patient had nothing in the air around her, yet had he on the outside of her mask not the inside.
    Really doesn't seem to make much sense at all.

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