Moderator: 3ne2nr Mods
paid_influencer wrote:good numbers today. downward trend
hoping this isn't because they ran out of reagent or somesuch
edit: hrm. 45 positives out of 145 tests. 33% positive, maybe not so good
redmanjp wrote:Minister say there is no longer a backlog in testing, just a backlog in reporting
death365 wrote:https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/09/21/cdc-covid-aerosols-airborne-guidelines/For months, scientists and public health experts have warned of mounting evidence that the novel coronavirus is airborne, transmitted through tiny droplets called aerosols that linger in the air much longer than the larger globs that come from coughing or sneezing.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agrees. The CDC recently changed its official guidance to note that aerosols are “thought to be the main way the virus spreads” and to warn that poorly ventilated indoor spaces are particularly dangerous.
“There is growing evidence that droplets and airborne particles can remain suspended in the air and be breathed in by others, and travel distances beyond 6 feet (for example, during choir practice, in restaurants, or in fitness classes),” the agency stated. “In general, indoor environments without good ventilation increase this risk.”
While the CDC has not called for any new action to address the airborne threat of a virus that has now killed nearly 200,000 Americans, experts said the change should help to shift policy and public behavior.
“It’s a major change,” Jose-Luis Jimenez, a chemistry professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder who studies how aerosols spread the virus, told The Washington Post. “This is a good thing, if we can reduce transmission because more people understand how it is spreading and know what to do to stop it.”
The CDC shifted its guidelines on Friday, but the change was not widely noticed until a CNN report on Sunday. Where the agency previously warned that the virus mostly spreads through large drops encountered at close range, it now cites “small particles, such as those in aerosols,” as the most common vector.
“These particles can be inhaled into the nose, mouth, airways, and lungs and cause infection,” the guidance says. “This is thought to be the main way the virus spreads.”
Since the pandemic began, arguments have raged over how the virus travels — and how to best halt it. At first, widespread fear of contaminated surfaces led some to bleach their groceries and mail. But the CDC soon concluded that person-to-person transmission was a much more pressing threat. Instead, the agency focused its guidance on avoiding the larger droplets hacked up by sneezes and coughs, which are thought to be mostly limited to a six-foot radius.
But researchers long suspected that the virus could travel much farther, especially indoors and in places where people talk loudly or sing. Infamously, one infected person in March unknowingly passed the coronavirus to 52 others at a choir practice in Washington state. Similar indoor “superspreader” events added weight to the idea of an airborne threat.
The World Health Organization recognized the threat of aerosols in July, after hundreds of scientists urged the international body to address airborne spread. It’s not clear why the CDC finally followed; Jimenez said high-ranking CDC officials were still arguing publicly against airborne transmission as a major vector as recently as late August.
“Evidence has been accumulating for some time. Those of us who have been studying this were frustrated that the change was slow, but it finally came,” Jimenez said.
While the CDC didn’t make any major changes in its guidance on how to prevent the spread of the virus, some scientists suggested it should drive a major rethink of public policy — particularly at a time when students in many areas are returning to indoor classrooms.
“We have been saying 'wear a mask’ and ‘6 feet apart’ for months,” tweeted Abraar Karan, a physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and Harvard Medical School. “Cloth masks are not designed to block aerosols. And 6 feet apart may be insufficient, esp indoors w/ poor ventilation.”
The change should drive people to adopt concrete solutions to slowing airborne transmission, Jimenez said, such as wearing more tightly fitting masks, improving ventilation and keeping as much distance as possible from others when indoors.
But the CDC’s shift can also help experts and lawmakers better communicate why those measures are needed.
“If we tell people rules they don’t understand, it doesn’t work. We need to tell people why these rules work. Then they can understand, and many more will comply,” Jimenez said.
CDC abruptly removes guidance about airborne coronavirus transmission, says update 'was posted in error'
By Jamie Gumbrecht, Jen Christensen, Elizabeth Cohen and Naomi Thomas, CNN
Updated 2116 GMT (0516 HKT) September 21, 2020
CNN)The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday abruptly reverted to its previous guidance about how coronavirus is transmitted, removing language about airborne transmission it had posted just days earlier.
"A draft version of proposed changes to these recommendations was posted in error to the agency's official website. CDC is currently updating its recommendations regarding airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19). Once this process has been completed, the update language will be posted," Jason McDonald, a CDC spokesman, said in a response emailed to CNN.
The guidance pertained to the way the novel coronavirus is spread. While it's known it can spread through droplets among people standing less than 6 feet apart, research has continued to explore how the virus suspends in aerosolized particles in the air and transmitted to people more than 6 feet away.
The CDC transmission guidance acknowledging airborne transmission had been quietly posted on Friday, according to the agency's website. CNN was first to report the change on Sunday. The CDC responded to CNN just before noon on Monday to say it was reverting to the previous guidance.
A federal official familiar with the situation said there was no political pressure involved in the change.
"This was totally the CDC's doing," the official said. "It was posted by mistake. It wasn't ready to be posted."
The official said the guideline change was published without being thoroughly reviewed by CDC experts.
"Somebody hit the button and shouldn't have," the official said.
The agency tried to further clarify what it meant by aerosol transmission, the official said. "It can occur, but it's not the way the virus is primarily being transmitted," the official said. But in the effort to say that, it was written in such a way "that it's being understood to mean it's more transmissible than we thought, which is not the case."
The official added that the guidance is "getting revised," but didn't say when the revision would be posted to the CDC's website.
How CDC's guidance changed
Despite several studies that have shown the novel coronavirus can spread through small particles in the air, the CDC page now says that Covid-19 is thought to spread mainly between people in close contact -- about 6 feet -- and "through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs, sneezes or talks." This is the same language the agency posted months ago.
In language posted Friday and now removed, CDC said Covid-19 most commonly spread between people who are in close contact with one another, and went on to say it's known to spread "through respiratory droplets or small particles, such as those in aerosols, produced when an infected person coughs, sneezes, sings, talks or breathes."
These particles can cause infection when "inhaled into the nose, mouth, airways, and lungs," the agency said. "This is thought to be the main way the virus spreads."
"There is growing evidence that droplets and airborne particles can remain suspended in the air and be breathed in by others, and travel distances beyond 6 feet (for example, during choir practice, in restaurants, or in fitness classes)," the page said in the Friday update, which has since been removed. "In general, indoor environments without good ventilation increase this risk."
In the Friday update, the CDC had added new measures to protect yourself in others, including recommendations to use air purifiers to reduce airborne germs in indoors spaces and clear guidance to "stay at least 6 feet away from others, whenever possible." The updated CDC page had also changed language around asymptomatic transmission, shifting from saying "some people without symptoms may be able to spread the virus" to saying "people who are infected but do not show symptoms can spread the virus to others." That language has now been removed.
Scientists pushed to acknowledge airborne transmission
Many researchers and doctors have said for months that coronavirus can be transmitted through small airborne viral particles. In July, 239 scientists published a letter that urged the World Health Organization and other public health organizations to be more forthcoming about the likelihood that people could catch the virus from droplets that were floating in the air.
Donald Milton, an author of the letter and a professor of environmental health at the University of Maryland, said he had been "encouraged" when he saw the revised CDC guidance over the weekend, but he said he suspected it was a work in progress since the rest of the CDC's site wasn't updated to reflect the changes.
"I think that the science behind what turned out to be a draft statement is strong and agrees with my understanding of the data," Milton said. "I'm very happy to know that CDC is working on incorporating the latest science in its public statements about transmission. Today, we know a lot about aerosols and how to control them to prevent transmission."
Dr. Mike Ryan, the executive director of World Health Organization Health Emergencies Programme, said that while the United States waits on final advice from the CDC, the world cannot wait to find ways to stop the spread of the disease.
"Based on the evidence, [WHO] believes there is a wide range of transmission modes," Ryan said. "We believe the disease is predominately or primarily spread through droplets spread and through larger droplet nuclei. But we have always said that smaller droplet nuclei can spread this disease -- and that is very context driven."
Ryan explained that people who are in a small indoor area with poor ventilation can become infected through aerosol-based transmission. It's all about knowing risk and "managing the frequency, intensity and duration" of time spent around others in crowded spaces, he said.
"We've got to become able to accept that there are very few absolutes in this response," Ryan added. "We've got to be able to be smart, and make smart decisions, the smart decisions are made based on understanding risk, minimizing risk, and then being aware of the residual risk, and as best we can to avoid that."
Concerns about political pressure
Some were concerned that the rapid updates from CDC might be linked to earlier reports of political pressure and interference at the agency.
On Friday, CDC updated its coronavirus testing guidance to stress that anyone who has been in contact with an infected person should be tested for coronavirus. An earlier, controversial update was not written by CDC scientists and was posted online before it had undergone the normal scientific review process, two sources confirmed to CNN last week.
CNN also reported last week that US Health and Human Services communications officials had recently pushed to change language of weekly science reports released by the CDC so as not to undermine President Donald Trump's political message, according a federal health official told CNN. CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield said last week "at no time has the scientific integrity" of these reports been compromised.
On Monday, Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician at George Washington University and CNN medical analyst, said she worried that the sudden changes to CDC guidance could be motivated by politics, rather than science.
redmanjp wrote:Minister say there is no longer a backlog in testing, just a backlog in reporting
pugboy wrote:icu locally private is around starting $2500/day room and board only, add extra for drugs, consumables and doc fees
2WNBoost wrote:Think about this, even without COVID not many patients survive a stay at the ICU of a public hospital. Especially if they are there for a week or more.
Ask yourself why aren’t private hospitals jumping to cash in on the COVID ICU business.
Do your part to protect yourself, your loved ones and your fellow man.
Stay Safe Everyone
An entire nation of PNM ppl got fooled and tricked into voting PNM .jhonnieblue wrote:I don't know how to say it again but govt manipulation of numbers is comparable to what trump is doing in the states now.
Only difference is trinidad way more corrupt and it's telling to see doctors involved in this said corruption.
All of them deserve to get Covid for the way they handling this situation
Phone Surgeon wrote:Is it corruption by doctors or under their contracts they cant say anything unless they willing to lose license and pay massive fines?
And then can trinidad really handle the panic of knowing the truth about what really going on in the hospitals?
MaxPower wrote:Trinis failed to manage Covid.
The Govt can only do so much.
From Day 1.....
DO NOT CONGREGATE....allyuh remember?
No one listened.
But yeh blame the Govt.
You Trinis really are Stupid AF people living in a beautiful country.
Do Better T&T.
matix wrote:redmanjp wrote:Minister say there is no longer a backlog in testing, just a backlog in reporting
That is bulltutu. Fresh out the bison ass