No longer true: CDC Confirms Possible Instance of Community Spread of COVID-19 in U.S.
https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2020/s0226-Covid-19-sprea...
The US is shown has having "local transmission". "Community transmission" is defined as "the inability to relate confirmed cases through chains of transmission for a large number of cases, or by increasing positive tests through routine screening of sentinel samples".
Maybe this is just a terminology issue... "spreading freely in communities" could refer to "community transmission" defined above.
Testing it should be free (based on symptoms) if US wants to stop the disease from spreading.
Hello,
Just giving a heads up to what I and my doctor both considered a very fucked up situation. I just spent a week in Japan, a country at high risk for COVID-19. I wore a mask and essentially tried to stay away from most touristy places (not my first time there), but trains and stations are still packed with people, so there's really not much you can do.
On arriving back to America (3 days ago), I developed a 102F fever, coughing, and aches. I went to a local hospital in Brooklyn's ER. I informed them of my travel, they provided me a mask, and redirected me to a private room and followed infection protocols (full face covers, gloves, aprons, etc.). I had a chest x-ray and testing for flu/cold/pneumonia/and about 25 other viruses. They all came back negative.
At this point, the hospital called the CDC requesting permission to perform the COVID-19 testing. The CDC denied the request on the ground that I did not have the most life-threatening symptoms: chest pain and shortness of breath. According to everything I read it's very likely not to have these symptoms if you're in your 30's and relatively healthy.
And... that was that. They discharged me, said I don't have Corona virus, since they didn't test me for it, and said I can ride the subway, return to work, do whatever I want.
Of course my doctor disagreed. She said I should treat myself as if I am infected. My partner is currently staying in a nearby hotel since we live in a studio apartment. I've performed a self-quarantine for 14 days. Fortunately I can work from home and my partner can deliver me groceries if I run out.
But I don't think that many people are aware of the fact that they're actively not testing people for COVID-19, even people who have travel history to high-risk places.
Do I still have symptoms? Yes, Fever is current 101.6 (as of a couple hours ago), aches, and a cough that is persistent. I'm taking Tylenol and drinking a lot of water.
Do I just have the flu? Well, not according to my screens I don't.
Is this real? It's as real as I said it is. I returned from Japan. I'm sick. The symptoms are similar to COVID19 and I was refused testing.
You can believe whatever you want, I don't care.
A channel NY1 reporter reached out to connect with the individual, so perhaps if validated, it won’t “stay hidden very long”. And to your point, it’s not a cluster. But how would you have a cluster if each given patient is handled this way?
The individual case is less interesting than the protocol.
EDIT: Now reported by media: https://abc7ny.com/5974999/
That’s 7.0 miles from where I am, so of course I’m concerned.
The Santa Clara County health department
You mean if everyone took this seriously. Which is obviously a lot more difficult. It would probably not be possible to get everyone to agree that the sky is blue or 2+2=4.
From the long incubation time my gut feeling is that it probably couldn't have been. International airtravel speeds things up, it also didn't make a difference in 1918 when intercontinental traffic was by boat. Lindbergh didn't make his flight until 1927.
Instead there's a discourse vacuum where people seem to decide what's going to happen more on the basis of pre-existing narratives than reality. Examples; People mistrust the US believed it's all exaggerated to hurt China, for a while some "journalists" wrote more about racism and stigma than the actual ongoing development, politicians kept ringing the everything's OK alarm, and finally, mindless optimists are the worst.
The Chinese government decided to establish an economy-crippling quarantine on January 23rd with only 1000 confirmed cases. Something was awry. And in the following week all the warning sings have been available (the quick spread, reports of CCP measures and life in Wuhan, research papers about the spread, incubation, etc). But for a month now the WHO refused to read the writing on the wall, only god knows why.
That just means the upper bound of the potential quality of the Chinese numbers is better, not that the actual quality of the numbers is better. Just because they are gathering more information doesn't mean they are publicly reporting it accurately.
That is, the Chinese potentially internally have more complete data, because they are doing more surveillance. That doesn't mean that the numbers they are reporting are more trustworthy.
As a case study, for some days half of all confirmed cases outside of China were in the Diamond Princess, and the proportion held until very recently with 1000+ cases worldwide (sans China). Why? Sampling bias. Even arguing that a cruise is more virus-friendly cannot possibly account for a single ship holding half of the world's cases. And then came about Iran and Italy, with no clear path of spread. It's hurtfully evident that there are so many more cases and there's a huge visibility issue, and the WHO delaying measures aggravates the matter dramatically.