All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

‘If we can overcome coronavirus, we can overcome the occupation’ – +972 Magazine

“This is the first time we feel we are in the same boat as our political leadership,” Manasra continues. “The first time we can decide when to impose a curfew and when to lift it. It’s not the Israelis controlling us — we are controlling ourselves, in our own city, our fates. If we can overcome the coronavirus, we can overcome the occupation too.” Lucy Thaljiyeh, a city council member and a feminist political activist, joined the emergency committee and the aid committee, “Isnad.” She says that soon after the first cases were discovered, an emergency meeting was held at the municipality. “We immediately reached a decision to disinfect central locations in the city: the Church of the Nativity and its plaza, bus stops, markets, mosques, churches, and hotels,” says Thalijieh, “We haven’t left out a single street or alleyway in the Bethlehem district (which includes Bethlehem, Beit Jala, Beit Sahour, the Dheisheh Refugee Camp, Aida, and 40 other villages).” “We started with the most basic disinfectant we had,” continues Thaljieh. “We collected garbage. We gave sanitary workers an expedited course on how to disinfect and safeguard themselves with masks, protective suits, and disinfec

Source: ‘If we can overcome coronavirus, we can overcome the occupation’ – +972 Magazine

NY Doctors Get Creative As Ventilators Run Scarce – Gothamist

So Cassiere adapted the BiPap machine. He attached a filter and a regular breathing tube, used with ventilators, to the BiPap machine, using a little connecting piece. When supply of that connector ran low, the hospital began 3D printing its own, and now they’re using the innovation across the system, when an individual hospital is running low on ventilators and is waiting for backup.

Source: NY Doctors Get Creative As Ventilators Run Scarce – Gothamist

COMMENTARY: Masks-for-all for COVID-19 not based on sound data | CIDRAP

Sweeping mask recommendations—as many have proposed—will not reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission, as evidenced by the widespread practice of wearing such masks in Hubei province, China, before and during its mass COVID-19 transmission experience earlier this year. Our review of relevant studies indicates that cloth masks will be ineffective at preventing SARS-CoV-2 transmission, whether worn as source control or as PPE.  Surgical masks likely have some utility as source control (meaning the wearer limits virus dispersal to another person) from a symptomatic patient in a healthcare setting to stop the spread of large cough particles and limit the lateral dispersion of cough particles. They may also have very limited utility as source control or PPE in households. Respirators, though, are the only option that can ensure protection for frontline workers dealing with COVID-19 cases, once all of the strategies for optimizing respirator supply have been implemented.

Source: COMMENTARY: Masks-for-all for COVID-19 not based on sound data | CIDRAP

British American Tobacco working on plant-based coronavirus vaccine | Business | The Guardian

Cigarette maker says tobacco plants offer potential for faster and safer drug development

Source: British American Tobacco working on plant-based coronavirus vaccine | Business | The Guardian

In 2014, the tobacco firm bought KBP, which has previously worked on a treatment for Ebola. BAT said its work was “potentially safer [than conventional vaccine technology], given that tobacco plants cannot host pathogens which cause human disease”.

COVID-19 HAS CREATED A PIVOTAL TIME WHEN THE FUTURE MAY BE DECIDED: – Jane Fonda

I’ve heard that there are lines around the block at gun stores. I’m told people have gotten into fights in supermarkets. But what I’m seeing and feeling as I walk my dog and go to the small community gym (with gloves, handwipes and spray) is different. I’m seeing more smiles from folks, more “How are you’s” and “stay safe’s.” I watch Rachel Maddow (religiously) and learn about the 10’s of thousands of military veterans, retired doctors and nurses and others who are volunteering to help in hospitals and clinics, building health facilities, sewing masks, and my heart melts. And I am reminded of the 1940s, during WWII. Yes, I was a young child, but trust me, children remember these things—these feelings—of everyone pitching in. There were the Victory Gardens that millions planted at home, or on public land. At my home in the Santa Monica hills, we had a huge one. The purpose was to safeguard against food shortages and reduce pressure on the commercial farmers working hard to feed troops and civilians overseas. We rationed food and didn’t complain. It was for the ‘greater good.’ Many Hollywood celebrities sold war bonds. People felt united in their desire to pull together in the countr

Source: COVID-19 HAS CREATED A PIVOTAL TIME WHEN THE FUTURE MAY BE DECIDED: – Jane Fonda

How to Fight Coronavirus With High-Speed Rail – CityLab

France’s latest weapon in the fight against Covid-19 is a high-speed train. This week, the French government adapted a five-car TGV (Train a Grande Vitesse) to serve as a mobile hospital. It’s intended to shuttle patients from the hardest hit region to hospitals with more capacity, easing the stress on resources. Equipped with ventilators and medical staff, the train started service Thursday, transporting 20 patients from the cities of Strasbourg and Mulhouse in the country’s northeastern Grand Est (“Greater East”) region to hospitals in the currently less-affected Loire Region.

Source: How to Fight Coronavirus With High-Speed Rail – CityLab

Italy Continues to Flatten The Curve

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While the numbers being reported out of Italy are sobering, over the past week we’ve see a significant reduction in daily case counts, dropping from more than 6,500 ten days ago to just over 4000 a day for the past two days. 

Three weeks after entering into a nationwide lockdown, this is clear evidence that their social distance strategy is working. 

Deaths, however, are always a lagging indicator, and over the past two days Italy has averaged more than 800 fatalities per day, raising their official death toll to 12,428. As high as that is, there are media reports suggesting that the actual toll could be considerably higher, as many non-hospital  deaths may not have been tested.

Even so, the preliminary CFR (Case Fatality Rate) in Lombardy is an astronomical 16.67%, and for Italy as a whole, 11.7%.  Both numbers clearly several times higher than anything we’ve seen reported anyplace else in the world. 

While it is probable that many mild and moderate cases have not been counted – and adding those in would substantially lower the CFR – there are also numerous reports of overwhelmed hospitals, and a lack of staffed ICU beds, which has likely also contributed to Italy’s case fatality rate. 

The after-action report from hard hit countries – including Italy – after this pandemic wave has passed, should tell us a great deal more about how, and why differing numbers of pandemic deaths occurred. 

And while Italy’s numbers look huge today, they could easily be surpassed by other nations in the days and weeks ahead. 

The situation in Italy: March 31, 2020, 6.00 p.m.

CURRENTLY POSITIVE     77635
DECEASED                           12428
HEALED                                15729

Press conference at 6 pm on March 31st

105,792 total cases, currently positive people are 77,635, 12,428 dead and 15,729 recovered.

Among the 77,635 positives:

  • 45,420 are in home isolation
  • 28,192 hospitalized with symptoms
  • 4,023 in intensive care

Read the tables
Italy situation as of March 31stBreakdown by provinces as of March 31st