A collection of key developments in the fight against COVID-19 (the actual virus is SARS-COV-2), posted throughout the week for those who just want the signal and not the noise. If there’s something you think we should include, sound off in the comments thread attached to the post.
Visit our Wuhan coronavirus status page and learn how to prepare for possible spread to your area. Scenarios, shopping lists, background info, and everything else you need, all in one place.
Previously: The previous day’s key developments post is here.
It’s now two full weeks after I and everyone everyone else had been told we’d be ramping up testing, and it hasn’t happened. President Trump held a press conference today to declare a National Emergency, and to say that the testing will increase, soon. But we still have no timetable — nothing but promises of a website where people can go through a questionnaire to apply for testing.
I am going to go ahead and predict that at the end of next week, the testing situation will still be relatively unclear — we won’t know how many tests have been run by the government, and many people who want testing still will not be able to get it. I’d love to be proven wrong, but I don’t think I will be.
Global cases have increased by over 10,000 to 145,304 since yesterday. There have been over 5,000 total deaths.
The National Guard has been broadly activated to assist in fighting the pandemic. They will begin to assist in 6 states.
WHO says Europe is now the world’s COVID-19 epicenter. More cases and more deaths are reported daily in Europe than in China at the peak of its crisis.
Italy is suffering a heavy toll, but that doesn’t stop some from staying lively:
Justin Trudeau’s wife Sophie tests positive and she is now in quarantine. Trudeau and his children are in self-isolation.
Jared Kushner, ever resourceful, looks to a Facebook group connected to his brother’s in-laws for good ideas about stopping the pandemic. Who knows what advice the Senior Aide to President Trump will receive?
Trump appoints a new testing Health and Human Services testing czar in an effort to increase the access to and number of COVID-19 tests. Once again, more tests are promised “in about a week.”
UNESCO estimates that over 400 million children are impacted by school closures world-wide.
Preppers are having a moment — I’ve seen so many articles on the phenomenon and the businesses in the past few weeks. Here’s a good one from WIRED, with some quotes from The Prepared’s own John Ramey. The Prepping Industry Wasn’t Prepared for the Coronavirus
Brazil’s president has Schrodinger’s coronavirus: first it was announced he tested positive, then that he tested negative. He was recently rubbing shoulders with Trump and other US officials in Florida, so the COVID-19 positive news was kind of a big deal when it broke (then un-broke).
Louisiana postpones Democratic primary over coronavirus, the first state to do so. “The state will push back its presidential nominating contests until June.”
This is a grim thread:
1/
March 10,2020“This is from a front-line ICU physician in a Seattle hospital
This is his personal account:
* we have 21 pts and 11 deaths since 2/28.
* we are seeing pts who are young (20s), fit, no comorbidities, critically ill. It does happen.— 👩🏻⚕️Hi, I’m Dr Chen and older than I look (@Chenbariatrics1) March 13, 2020
Chinese officials are accusing the US of having introduced the coronavirus into Wuhan. Obviously, that is completely crazy, and it’s alarming that they’re willing to push this nonsense publicly.
Italian medical chief dies from coronavirus
Ultimate medical hackathon: how fast can we design and deploy an open source ventilator?
There’s a lot of good info in these notes from a UCSF medical panel — much of it quite grim. The Twitter thread that made these notes go viral was deleted, and I strenuously objected to that deletion. These notes are not wrong, nor are they alarmist or lacking context. They corroborate plenty of other data points we have.
The National Guard Is Responding to COVID-19 Coronavirus National Emergency. “National Guard units in 54 states and territories as well as the Federal Emergency Management Agency are gearing up to assist with the declaration of a “National Emergency” that was made Friday afternoon at a Rose Garden press conference by President Trump as the United States tries to mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus across the country.”
Trump administration rolls out new coronavirus push, names HHS testing czar
Delta won’t be the last, either:
DELTA AIR LINES CUTTING 40% OF CAPACITY
DELTA SUSPENDING ALL FLYING TO CONTINENTAL EUROPE FOR 30 DAYS
DELTA PARKING UP TO 300 PLANES
DELTA HAS HELD DISCUSSIONS WITH WHITE HOUSE AND CONGRESS ON SUPPORT$DAL
— *Walter Bloomberg (@DeItaOne) March 13, 2020
