blogforiowa: Recap Of Iowa City Outbreak Of CORONA-19

[rurallib]

https://blogforiowa.com/2020/03/27/recap-of-iowa-city-outbreak-of-corona-19/
(note to ( I can't remember what the watchers are called) I have permission to post from blogforiowa)

UPDATE: Iowa City Mayor says he’s prepared to issue shelter-in-place order if Kim Reynolds won’t. Link

Follow more Coronavirus posts by Dan Shaw on Facebook

I realize that some of you may not have been tracking this local Coronavirus outbreak closely until recently, and are looking for information. We have been trying to investigate and confirm the outbreak these past few weeks in Iowa City, and we did get confirmation of it back on March 14th (a case of community-acquired transmission).

Here’s a quick re-cap to catch you up:

The 21 Egyptian Cruisers who arrived back in Iowa City on March 3 were highly contagious when they travelled around Johnson County from March 3-7. We know this based on when their symptoms popped and they sought medical attention. Testing subsequently revealed that 16 people had been walking around the community spreading infection since March 3. They were seen at local public events during this window.

Unfortunately, contact tracing and containment efforts by local officials were inadequate with these 21 Cruisers, because they did not realize that asymptomatic people could be highly contagious before their symptoms first appeared. The CDC guidelines they were using had not been updated to reflect the most current scientific understanding about just how contagious and slippery the novel Coronavirus is, even with carriers who are not showing symptoms.

If you can believe it, it was Dr. Fauci himself who announced on January 31st: “There’s no doubt after reading this paper that asymptomatic transmission is occurring.” (link below) Our local protocol did not account for this type of asymptomatic transmission in early March, and the virus escaped into our community.

These tragically flawed CDC guidelines did not prepare our local officials to cast a wide enough containment net. From the start, the United States has underestimated our foe, and that is why the virus is wide-spread in our community right now.

Evidence to confirm this outbreak came when a local DJ courageously announced that he had tested positive on March 14, with a case of community-acquired transmission. He wanted to get the word out that he had been unknowingly contagious in public spaces. The DJ company alerted five bars/restaurants in town where he had hosted events in the past 12 days, his potential exposure window.

This confirmed that we have an uncontained, unmeasured Coronavirus breakout in Iowa City/Johnson County. People all over Johnson County with full symptoms and a doctor’s order for a Coronavirus test were told they could not be tested, because they had not travelled abroad. We never had enough tests to give them, anyway.

But how cruel: their government (CDC) told them they could not get tested, even with a doctor’s order, for a potentially fatal disease that their other government (Iowa Department of Public Health) had inadvertently allowed to escape into their community. Their governments—local, state, and federal—failed them mightily these past 2 weeks.

This is day 23 of the Iowa City outbreak, 23 days since the March 3 exposure window first opened. And here we wait.

Why our local hospital business leaders at UIHC and Mercy think it’s OK to leave us out here to die in those circumstances, I couldn’t begin to imagine. Either they don’t understand the threat, or they are saying it’s OK to weigh human life against logistical planning concerns. I’m not OK with either.

India just locked down 1.3 billion people today.

Johnson County Iowa and our ‘amazing” local hospitals can’t seem to lock down a mere 200,000.

[Frustratedlady]

1. Is there any info on how many have been tested in Iowa?

Reynolds seems to be listening to Trump and following him in his slow reaction to the problem. Granted, they received obsolete info from the CDC, but that should be traceable to the Trump actions, as well, by cutting CDC's funding. She hasn't done anything to impress me, but then I have pretty much ignored her. My bad?

Just curious if anyone in Iowa has received a call from "Congress" with the phone number of Harkin's office? (I checked it out online.) I assume it is from Ernst? I didn't answer the calls (I've had 2) but am curious if she was campaigning...maybe polling about something? I don't think campaigning would be legal from her office for her or her staff.

[UpInArms]

2. Here

https://coronavirus.1point3acres.com/en/test?state=IA

[Frustratedlady]

4. Thank you!

[rurallib]

3. I found this link on tests + that phone call

https://covidtracking.com/data/#IA

Positive
235
Negative
3,740
Pending
N/A
Hospitalized
50
Deaths
3
Total test results
Positive + Negative
3,975
Iowa dataLast updated: 3/27 15:40 ET Last checked: 3/27 15:02 ET
Best current data source for Iowa.

Historical data for Iowa.

Data quality grade: C

If no timestamp was given, time = 00:00. Not all commercial labs report negatives to Iowa, as per their guidance.
(much better at link)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That phone call was from Ernst's office inviting you to a telephone town hall. I listened in on the first. No one was asking any real questions. The second on I got a call after it was over.

I assume this is her campaign replacement. After all she cares for Iowans.

[Frustratedlady]

5. I was referring to the Hatch Act.

She could probably say she wanted to get the opinion of her constituents, but if she did any campaigning...even a few minutes during the town hall...she would violate the act, because she used governmental phone lines to contact people when to attend. Just thinkin'.

Thanks for the info.

[Iterate]

6. A similar cruise brought the first cases to Germany, on about the same day.

Coronavirus: Is Egypt suppressing the true outbreak figures?

In Egypt, the first person to die of the novel coronavirus was a 60-year-old German man who visited tourist hotspots during a Nile cruise trip. While traveling from the historic city of Luxor to the Red Sea resort town of Hurghada, he started running a fever.

He went to a nearby hospital on March 6, where he tested positive for COVID-19 and, within days, succumbed to respiratory failure caused by acute pneumonia. His case was one of many linked to Nile cruises in Upper Egypt.

Egyptian authorities eventually tested dozens of people aboard cruise ships operating in the area and discovered 45 positive cases of coronavirus, including 12 staff members. None of them had purportedly shown symptoms of the deadly pathogen.

Yet, weeks before Egyptian authorities started waking up to the magnitude of the epidemic in early March, public health officials as far as the US, Taiwan and Canada were piecing together a severe albeit unreported outbreak deep in the Egyptian heartland.
...
https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-is-egypt-suppressing-the-true-outbreak-figures/a-52801568

Germany is now testing 300,000-500,000 samples per day. That's about one test for every 200 citizens, per week. By that measure, Iowa should be running about 16,000 per week. The number of total cases Iowa has had over the past few days is nearly the same each day as Italy had one month before.

I hope rural states can break out of this naive stupor, the idea that somehow distance between small towns is protective. It's not. Surface contact:the virus doesn't care how far you drove to fondle fruit in the grocery isle. The more surface you share, the higher the risk, and it doesn't matter if it's the checkout lane at Walmart in the county seat, or a pump handle at a gas station, or a church pew. The only advantage Iowa has is less total virus food and more room in the cemetery.

#staythefuckhome