COVID 19 GLOBAL

[john luke]

 

This one is doing the rounds on Social Media.  

[Ivan the terrible]

43 minutes ago, Bazle said:

And from the same source:

USFK service member from Japan tests positive for coronavirus; total infections at 27

SEOUL, May 8 (Yonhap) -- An American soldier who was recently assigned to the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) from Japan tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the military said Friday, bringing the total number of infections among its population to 27.

He arrived at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, some 70 kilometers south of Seoul, on Wednesday on a U.S. government-arranged charter flight and was under mandatory quarantine at Camp Humphreys while awaiting the results of his COVID-19 test.

He is the third active-duty USFK service member who has been confirmed to have contracted the virus so far, according to the U.S. military.

 

https://m-en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20200508011500325?section=news

in a similar vein 

1 case early April in an abbatoir / meat packing factory in Melbourne...unrecognised(other than the diagnosis) and  more importantly  untracked and no contract tracing until this last week...in a land of very very few cases ...now 71 cases ....it is so contagious

[Ivan the terrible]

10 minutes ago, john luke said:

 

This one is doing the rounds on Social Media.  

its scandalous that they persue the "gotcha" without paying any attention to the complexities...a plague on their leftie houses trying to score political points ... f**k them 

All  more northern NHemisphere  countries have not done well?vitamin D related

OPen access  with no border controls a bigger problem imo...what were they thinking not closing the borders and putting any arrivals into a mandatory 2 week quarantine..ENFORCED .. in a location outside their home...and policed 

Edited May 8, 2020 by Ivan the terrible

[Stillearly]

35 minutes ago, john luke said:

 

This one is doing the rounds on Social Media.  

Difficult questions still need to be asked , so much bullshit is being fed out , the PPE from Turkey etc .... personally I think if the Government spokespeople were just honest on testing capabilities and actual testing etc , the public would be understanding... but the continuous spin creates mistrust ..., the media news and print have been very easy on the Government imo 

Edited May 8, 2020 by Stillearly

[galenkia]

19 minutes ago, Stillearly said:

Difficult questions still need to be asked , so much bullshit is being fed out , the PPE from Turkey etc .... personally I think if the Government spokespeople where just honest on testing capabilities and actual testing etc , the public would be understanding... but the continuous spin creates mistrust ..., the media news and print have been very easy on the Government imo 

When has any politician told the truth?. 

[Ivan the terrible]

37 minutes ago, Ivan the terrible said:

its scandalous that they persue the "gotcha" without paying any attention to the complexities...a plague on their leftie houses trying to score political points ... f**k them 

All  more northern NHemisphere  countries have not done well?vitamin D related

OPen access  with no border controls a bigger problem imo...what were they thinking not closing the borders and putting any arrivals into a mandatory 2 week quarantine..ENFORCED .. in a location outside their home...and policed 

http://joannenova.com.au/2020/05/like-sabotage-the-uk-has-locked-down-its-people-but-still-has-open-borders/#comment-2325409

 

Like sabotage? The UK has locked down its people but still has open borders

Figure that UK residents can be fined for gathering in a group of three in the park across the road, but can legally travel to Tehran or Moscow if they reckon it’s essential (though the Russians might not let you in). Coronavirus is raging in Moscow but Russians can fly to Heathrow for a bargain next week.......

[Ivan the terrible]

46 minutes ago, Ivan the terrible said:

its scandalous that they persue the "gotcha" without paying any attention to the complexities...a plague on their leftie houses trying to score political points ... f**k them 

All  more northern NHemisphere  countries have not done well?vitamin D related

OPen access  with no border controls a bigger problem imo...what were they thinking not closing the borders and putting any arrivals into a mandatory 2 week quarantine..ENFORCED .. in a location outside their home...and policed ...even for their own citizens...commandere hotels /motels etc ...its what they did in OZ to amazing effcet

even ifs its late they should do now

they should close down now

Edited May 8, 2020 by Ivan the terrible

[Smiler]

1 hour ago, Stillearly said:

Difficult questions still need to be asked , so much bullshit is being fed out , the PPE from Turkey etc .... personally I think if the Government spokespeople were just honest on testing capabilities and actual testing etc , the public would be understanding... but the continuous spin creates mistrust ..., the media news and print have been very easy on the Government imo 

It's almost unbelievable to me how easy a ride the UK government have had from the media and I think many people are pissed off and starting to get angry about it. 

 

[Ivan the terrible]

4 minutes ago, Smiler said:

It's almost unbelievable to me how easy a ride the UK government have had from the media and I think many people are pissed off and starting to get angry about it. 

 

fucking garbage post

[code_slayer_bkk]

41 minutes ago, Ivan the terrible said:

http://joannenova.com.au/2020/05/like-sabotage-the-uk-has-locked-down-its-people-but-still-has-open-borders/#comment-2325409

 

Like sabotage? The UK has locked down its people but still has open borders

Figure that UK residents can be fined for gathering in a group of three in the park across the road, but can legally travel to Tehran or Moscow if they reckon it’s essential (though the Russians might not let you in). Coronavirus is raging in Moscow but Russians can fly to Heathrow for a bargain next week.......

Yea, I was surprised when I read this a couple of weeks ago ... and also of all of the private flights that landed ( over 500 ) ... no quarantine .. nothing .. other than "just come on in" and have a good day mate" ....

Makes me wonder ... WTF type of politicians have people elected to these offices ...

[Bazle]

As the weeks go on, the news about this virus just seems to get worse and worse. Here is the latest lot I've seen:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/coronavirus-hijacks-the-body-from-head-to-toe-perplexing-doctors-11588864248?mod=hp_lead_pos5

 

Coronavirus Hijacks the Body From Head to Toe, Perplexing Doctors

 

More than a respiratory infection, Covid-19 wreaks havoc on many organs; inflammation and abnormal blood clotting are likely culprits

By 

Betsy McKay

 and 

Daniela Hernandez

May 7, 2020 11:10 am ET

 

Garvon Russell was having trouble breathing when he arrived sick with Covid-19 at a New York City emergency room. By the time he left the hospital two weeks later, he had battled the new coronavirus all over his body.

 

His lungs were inflamed, their tiny air sacs filled with fluid that made it hard for oxygen to get into his bloodstream. His kidneys failed with Mr. Russell in septic shock from his infection.

 

Then, when it looked like he had turned the corner, his bedside nurse noticed his left leg was swollen. Doctors found a blood clot in a deep vein.

 

Mr. Russell, a 67-year-old retiree, said he feels lucky to have survived: “It’s nothing to play with.”

 

As the number of Covid-19 patients grows, doctors are learning its damage can extend well beyond the lungs, where infection can lead to pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome, the sometimes fatal condition Mr. Russell had. The disease can also affect the brain, kidneys, heart, vascular and digestive system. Some patients have sudden strokes, pulmonary embolisms or heart-attack symptoms. Others have kidney failure or inflammation of the gut.

 

Infection can affect the nervous system, causing seizures, hallucinations or a loss of smell and taste. It may affect pregnancies, though the science is nascent: The placenta of a patient who miscarried during her second trimester tested positive for the virus and showed signs of inflammation, according to a paper published April 30 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

 

Lungs

SARS-CoV-2 replicates rapidly in lungs, damaging tiny air sacs. Immune cells set off an inflammatory response against the infection, but too much inflammation can damage lung cells and blood vessels. In blood vessels, inflammation can activate pro-clotting proteins that form blood clots.

 

Cardiovascular system

Clots in large blood vessels can lead to stroke or pulmonary embolisms. Microclots can make it hard for lungs to oxygenate blood; less oxygen can lead to multi-organ-system failure.

 

Heart

Some patients suffer heart-lining inflammation, heart attacks or abnormal heart rhythms.

 

‘Covid toe’

Clots can cause painful, purplish swelling in the toes.

 

Nervous system

Some studies have found SARS-CoV-2 in cerebrospinal fluid. Patients have lost smell and taste. Some patients experience seizures, which are caused by abnormal brain activity, and hallucinations. Even young patients have suffered strokes, caused by clots reaching the brain.

 

Musculoskeletal system

Some patients report mild muscle and joint aches; others' pain is severe. The CDC recently added muscle pain to its symptoms list.

 

Digestive system

Some patients report gastrointestinal issues, including diarrhea. Stool samples have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2.

 

Throat, nose, eyes

The CDC recently added sore throat to its symptoms list. Some patients report runny noses. Reports suggest conjunctivitis is a symptom; eye-fluid samples have tested positive for viral RNA.

 

Kidneys

Blood clots in capillaries may prevent blood from getting to kidneys, leading to acute kidney injury. Shock or a direct attack by the virus can also cause kidney injury.

 

Multi-Front Attack

The virus’s strange effects go beyond anything doctors say they usually see with other viral infections. “It seems to strike so many systems,” said Maya Rao, a nephrologist at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York who is treating Covid-19 patients with acute kidney failure. “We don’t understand who gets it.”

 

Doctors are trying to understand what about the infection predisposes patients to so many complications. The number of confirmed Covid-19 cases world-wide topped 3.7 million as of Thursday morning with roughly 260,000 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. accounted for more than 1.2 million cases and over 73,000 deaths.

 

“Sometimes with very severe infections you can see things similar to this,” said Magdy Selim, a neurologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, who is treating Covid-19 patients who have had strokes. “But not all this combination of things in one patient. These are really sick patients.”

 

Some patients are young and otherwise healthy. Some children, who generally don’t get very sick with Covid-19, have been hospitalized with symptoms similar to Kawasaki disease—an inflammatory condition typically affecting young children—with acute inflammation in their hearts and intestines.

 

The extreme inflammation that is a hallmark of the most severe Covid-19 cases is likely at play, doctors said. Inflammation can also cause blood clots, which doctors believe may be a common denominator spanning several complications. Physicians describe stunningly extensive and swift clotting leading to the strokes and pulmonary embolisms seen in even otherwise young, healthy patients.

 

The complications add to the mysteries of a virus that makes an estimated 10% to 20% of those who are infected severely ill, though more population-wide testing and studies are needed to know the true percentage. Most people who develop Covid-19 experience relatively mild symptoms—fevers, coughs, chills, fatigue, nausea, diarrhea, pinkeye—but for a minority, ailments can quickly escalate to a more serious stage.

 

Figuring out how to treat patients with Covid-19 is difficult because the virus is new, identified just at the beginning of this year, and its effects differ from those of other coronaviruses that infect humans. Patients are often admitted to the hospital when already very sick, significantly narrowing the window to save them, and there aren’t any medications approved to specifically treat infection with the new coronavirus. Some of these complications ultimately will be considered rare but appear more common now because so many people have gotten sick at once, doctors say.

 

Scientists are combing through piles of studies, and doctors are sharing experiences in real-time on Facebook and WhatsApp groups.

 

The inflammation at play in many complications is starting to come into focus. Immune-system cells rush in to kill infected cells. They also release molecules known as cytokines and chemokines that promote inflammation. The inflammation’s goal is to cordon off infected tissue, but too much can promote extra damage and create a “cytokine storm.”

 

Inflammation in the lungs can starve the blood of oxygen, depriving other organs, as it did with Mr. Russell, who spent eight days on a ventilator. Inflammation of the heart muscle, called myocarditis, can cause chest pain, shortness of breath and heart-rhythm disorders and scar the heart tissue.

 

Mark Gorelik, a pediatric rheumatologist and immunologist at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, has treated children and young adults with a condition resembling Kawasaki disease. While that condition involves artery inflammation, Dr. Gorelik said, these young patients have fevers, “a lot of cardiac inflammation” and sometimes a condition in their guts resembling colitis.

 

Genetic sequencing showed some patients have gene variants associated with a hyperactive immune response to viral infections, he said, yielding one possible clue into why some people develop serious complications, though such evidence is preliminary.

 

Researchers are also studying complications possibly caused by a direct attack by the virus. A recent study in the journal The Lancet found evidence the virus attacks endothelial cells, which form a layer lining blood vessels and the heart. That makes Covid-19 a vascular disease as well as a lung disease, said Mandeep Mehra, executive director of the Center for Advanced Heart Disease at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, an author of the study.

 

“It might be that this is a disease that requires a combination of therapy that attacks the virus and that also stabilizes the vasculature,” he said.

 

Strange complication

Among the strangest and most worrisome complications is how prone to clotting the blood of some Covid-19 patients seems to be. “Every time you have hyper-inflammation, you’re more prone to clotting,” said Andre Goy, a hematology oncologist and chair of the John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center. “This is not new…but what’s amazing is the extent of it.”

 

A study in the Netherlands found 49% of patients in intensive-care units developed clotting complications, mostly pulmonary embolisms but also some strokes. The risk of death for these patients with these complications was 5.4 times the risk for those  without those complications, according to the study, published in the journal Thrombosis Research. “We were very much surprised by what we saw,” said Erik Klok, an internist and vascular-medicine specialist at Leiden University Medical Center, and lead author of the study. “We’re not used to this in patients with the normal flu.”

 

Doctors have seen some patients’ blood clot during dialysis, or while circulating in life-support machines, clogging the circuits. “They’re clotting off things that don’t usually clot,” said Lee Schwamm, executive vice chairman of neurology at Massachusetts  General Hospital in Boston. “It’s as if you had sludge in your garden hose.”

 

At Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, a 44-year-old stroke patient’s blood started visibly clotting while surgeons were trying to remove a clot from his brain despite infusion with clot-busting drugs, according to Thomas Oxley, the interventional neurologist who treated the patient. The patient can’t speak or move his right side, he said.

 

Strokes happen when large clots in large blood vessels make their way to the brain, cutting off vital oxygen. About 5% of Covid-19 patients develop them, according to a study of 221 patients in China.

 

Patients are presenting not just with the more-common large clots that can lead to strokes and pulmonary embolisms, but also a constellation of small clots that block blood flow through the tiny blood vessels, known as capillaries, that deliver blood to all organs throughout the body. Some suffer from “Covid toe,” a painful, purplish swelling caused by clots in small blood vessels.

 

The International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis now recommends that any patient admitted to the hospital be evaluated for the risk of clotting and be given anticoagulants like heparin, according to Jeffrey Weitz, the organization’s president-elect. Thrombosis is the medical term for blood clots that form in blood vessels.

 

How Covid-19 infection makes blood more clot-prone isn’t entirely understood. But a growing body of studies suggests some patients have elevated levels of d-dimer, a protein produced when the body breaks down clots. D-dimer levels are a reliable indicator of Covid-19 severity, several doctors said. A study published by Chinese researchers in March in The Lancet found patients who died had higher d-dimer levels than survivors.

 

Clinicians think clots may be forming along walls of tiny and major blood vessels due to damage caused by inflammation or the virus itself. When the SARS-CoV-2 virus, as the new coronavirus is officially called, reaches the lung, it replicates rapidly, damaging cells of tiny air sacs called alveoli. That damage triggers inflammation, which leads the blood to coagulate, clinicians say. The damaged cells also release substances that activate coagulation.

 

A study of three patients who died from Covid-19 published in The Lancet showed evidence the virus can infect walls of capillaries that feed several organs, including the kidneys and small intestine. Pro-clotting proteins flood in to patch up the damage in a process similar to what happens when a scab forms—except the wounding persists internally, promoting more clotting.

 

“The high levels of d-dimer indicate the body is trying its darndest to break down the clot,” said Dr. Weitz. But “the forces to generate clots are overwhelming the capacity of the body to get rid of them.”

 

This runaway process wreaks havoc on the entire body. When micro-clots form in tiny blood vessels, they create a traffic jam. Blood can’t flow through the lungs’ alveoli, where blood picks up oxygen.

 

Clots can lead to heart problems, including reduced blood flow in coronary arteries. Some patients show signs of heart problems a week or so after developing blood clots that start in the lung, said Gian Paolo Rossi, chair of internal medicine at the University of Padua in Italy. The heart damage develops slowly, he said. “They do very badly.”

 

Clots are also one suspect in acute kidney failure, which is caused by inadequate blood flow and oxygen. Blood clots in capillaries may prevent blood from getting to the kidneys, said Dr. Rao, of Columbia. Other possible causes of acute kidney injury are shock or a direct attack by the virus, because the kidneys have the ACE2 receptor to which the SARS-CoV-2 virus binds to enter cells, she said. Patients include people who had healthy kidneys, she said.

 

As many as 30% of Covid-19 patients in the intensive-care unit at her hospital have required dialysis or consultation from a nephrologist, Dr. Rao said. That doesn’t include patients with kidney injuries that aren’t severe, she said. “We have seen an enormous amount of this in patients who are in the ICU with Covid-19,” she said.

 

Some people will fully recover. Others will need dialysis the rest of their lives, she said. “We’re not seeing a lot of recovery in the kidneys,” she said, “but we hope in the longer term people will get better.”

 

Mr. Russell’s clot

Other patients develop deep vein thrombosis, a life-threatening condition usually occurring deep in a leg vein. Mr. Russell, who has diabetes and high blood pressure, was improving in late March when doctors found the blood clot in his left leg. He had been on a prophylactic dose of a blood thinner, but it wasn’t enough, said Neha Dangayach, a neurocritical care specialist at Mount Sinai Hospital, where Mr. Russell was cared for.

 

He was put on a stronger dose of anticoagulants, Dr. Dangayach said. Given Mr. Russell’s health and the number of complications he suffered, she said, “he could have died.”

 

He is now at home in the Bronx. His kidneys recovered, but he is on blood thinners to prevent more clots.

 

A study published Wednesday by Mount Sinai researchers in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that treating hospitalized patients with blood-thinning drugs improved their chances of survival.

 

In a span of two weeks, Mount Sinai treated five Covid-19 patients under age 50 who had experienced a major stroke. None had clotting disorders, though one had a previous history of stroke. Normally, the hospital sees less than one such patient on average during that same period, according to a paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine in April.

 

Patients are often unsure when to call for help when they start experiencing symptoms such as numbness on one side of the body and trouble speaking, neurologists said. Some are waiting more than a day to call. The reason: Patients are being advised to call for help only if fevers or shortness of breath worsen.

 

Sagine Alexandre, 33, one of the patients described in the paper, had no history of stroke. She said she is slowly regaining movement in her left arm and learning how to walk again. She hasn’t seen her family in person since she went into the hospital on April 1.

 

“It’s hard to be going through something like this and not have any family or friends around,” she said. “I thank God for FaceTime. That’s all I have.”

 

Write to Betsy McKay at [email protected] and Daniela Hernandez at [email protected]

[code_slayer_bkk]

Privately decidedly by a world so undecided and theres no where to go

Except back to the sea .. and be happy .. get on with life ...

[Ivan the terrible]

17 minutes ago, Bazle said:

As the weeks go on, the news about this virus just seems to get worse and worse. Here is the latest lot I've seen:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/coronavirus-hijacks-the-body-from-head-to-toe-perplexing-doctors-11588864248?mod=hp_lead_pos5

 

Coronavirus Hijacks the Body From Head to Toe, Perplexing Doctors

 

More than a respiratory infection, Covid-19 wreaks havoc on many organs; inflammation and abnormal blood clotting are likely culprits

By 

Betsy McKay

 and 

Daniela Hernandez

May 7, 2020 11:10 am ET

 

Garvon Russell was having trouble breathing when he arrived sick with Covid-19 at a New York City emergency room. By the time he left the hospital two weeks later, he had battled the new coronavirus all over his body.

 

His lungs were inflamed, their tiny air sacs filled with fluid that made it hard for oxygen to get into his bloodstream. His kidneys failed with Mr. Russell in septic shock from his infection.

 

Then, when it looked like he had turned the corner, his bedside nurse noticed his left leg was swollen. Doctors found a blood clot in a deep vein.

 

Mr. Russell, a 67-year-old retiree, said he feels lucky to have survived: “It’s nothing to play with.”

 

As the number of Covid-19 patients grows, doctors are learning its damage can extend well beyond the lungs, where infection can lead to pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome, the sometimes fatal condition Mr. Russell had. The disease can also affect the brain, kidneys, heart, vascular and digestive system. Some patients have sudden strokes, pulmonary embolisms or heart-attack symptoms. Others have kidney failure or inflammation of the gut.

 

Infection can affect the nervous system, causing seizures, hallucinations or a loss of smell and taste. It may affect pregnancies, though the science is nascent: The placenta of a patient who miscarried during her second trimester tested positive for the virus and showed signs of inflammation, according to a paper published April 30 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

 

Lungs

SARS-CoV-2 replicates rapidly in lungs, damaging tiny air sacs. Immune cells set off an inflammatory response against the infection, but too much inflammation can damage lung cells and blood vessels. In blood vessels, inflammation can activate pro-clotting proteins that form blood clots.

 

Cardiovascular system

Clots in large blood vessels can lead to stroke or pulmonary embolisms. Microclots can make it hard for lungs to oxygenate blood; less oxygen can lead to multi-organ-system failure.

 

Heart

Some patients suffer heart-lining inflammation, heart attacks or abnormal heart rhythms.

 

‘Covid toe’

Clots can cause painful, purplish swelling in the toes.

 

Nervous system

Some studies have found SARS-CoV-2 in cerebrospinal fluid. Patients have lost smell and taste. Some patients experience seizures, which are caused by abnormal brain activity, and hallucinations. Even young patients have suffered strokes, caused by clots reaching the brain.

 

Musculoskeletal system

Some patients report mild muscle and joint aches; others' pain is severe. The CDC recently added muscle pain to its symptoms list.

 

Digestive system

Some patients report gastrointestinal issues, including diarrhea. Stool samples have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2.

 

Throat, nose, eyes

The CDC recently added sore throat to its symptoms list. Some patients report runny noses. Reports suggest conjunctivitis is a symptom; eye-fluid samples have tested positive for viral RNA.

 

Kidneys

Blood clots in capillaries may prevent blood from getting to kidneys, leading to acute kidney injury. Shock or a direct attack by the virus can also cause kidney injury.

 

Multi-Front Attack

The virus’s strange effects go beyond anything doctors say they usually see with other viral infections. “It seems to strike so many systems,” said Maya Rao, a nephrologist at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York who is treating Covid-19 patients with acute kidney failure. “We don’t understand who gets it.”

 

Doctors are trying to understand what about the infection predisposes patients to so many complications. The number of confirmed Covid-19 cases world-wide topped 3.7 million as of Thursday morning with roughly 260,000 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. accounted for more than 1.2 million cases and over 73,000 deaths.

 

“Sometimes with very severe infections you can see things similar to this,” said Magdy Selim, a neurologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, who is treating Covid-19 patients who have had strokes. “But not all this combination of things in one patient. These are really sick patients.”

 

Some patients are young and otherwise healthy. Some children, who generally don’t get very sick with Covid-19, have been hospitalized with symptoms similar to Kawasaki disease—an inflammatory condition typically affecting young children—with acute inflammation in their hearts and intestines.

 

The extreme inflammation that is a hallmark of the most severe Covid-19 cases is likely at play, doctors said. Inflammation can also cause blood clots, which doctors believe may be a common denominator spanning several complications. Physicians describe stunningly extensive and swift clotting leading to the strokes and pulmonary embolisms seen in even otherwise young, healthy patients.

 

The complications add to the mysteries of a virus that makes an estimated 10% to 20% of those who are infected severely ill, though more population-wide testing and studies are needed to know the true percentage. Most people who develop Covid-19 experience relatively mild symptoms—fevers, coughs, chills, fatigue, nausea, diarrhea, pinkeye—but for a minority, ailments can quickly escalate to a more serious stage.

 

Figuring out how to treat patients with Covid-19 is difficult because the virus is new, identified just at the beginning of this year, and its effects differ from those of other coronaviruses that infect humans. Patients are often admitted to the hospital when already very sick, significantly narrowing the window to save them, and there aren’t any medications approved to specifically treat infection with the new coronavirus. Some of these complications ultimately will be considered rare but appear more common now because so many people have gotten sick at once, doctors say.

 

Scientists are combing through piles of studies, and doctors are sharing experiences in real-time on Facebook and WhatsApp groups.

 

The inflammation at play in many complications is starting to come into focus. Immune-system cells rush in to kill infected cells. They also release molecules known as cytokines and chemokines that promote inflammation. The inflammation’s goal is to cordon off infected tissue, but too much can promote extra damage and create a “cytokine storm.”

 

Inflammation in the lungs can starve the blood of oxygen, depriving other organs, as it did with Mr. Russell, who spent eight days on a ventilator. Inflammation of the heart muscle, called myocarditis, can cause chest pain, shortness of breath and heart-rhythm disorders and scar the heart tissue.

 

Mark Gorelik, a pediatric rheumatologist and immunologist at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, has treated children and young adults with a condition resembling Kawasaki disease. While that condition involves artery inflammation, Dr. Gorelik said, these young patients have fevers, “a lot of cardiac inflammation” and sometimes a condition in their guts resembling colitis.

 

Genetic sequencing showed some patients have gene variants associated with a hyperactive immune response to viral infections, he said, yielding one possible clue into why some people develop serious complications, though such evidence is preliminary.

 

Researchers are also studying complications possibly caused by a direct attack by the virus. A recent study in the journal The Lancet found evidence the virus attacks endothelial cells, which form a layer lining blood vessels and the heart. That makes Covid-19 a vascular disease as well as a lung disease, said Mandeep Mehra, executive director of the Center for Advanced Heart Disease at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, an author of the study.

 

“It might be that this is a disease that requires a combination of therapy that attacks the virus and that also stabilizes the vasculature,” he said.

 

Strange complication

Among the strangest and most worrisome complications is how prone to clotting the blood of some Covid-19 patients seems to be. “Every time you have hyper-inflammation, you’re more prone to clotting,” said Andre Goy, a hematology oncologist and chair of the John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center. “This is not new…but what’s amazing is the extent of it.”

 

A study in the Netherlands found 49% of patients in intensive-care units developed clotting complications, mostly pulmonary embolisms but also some strokes. The risk of death for these patients with these complications was 5.4 times the risk for those  without those complications, according to the study, published in the journal Thrombosis Research. “We were very much surprised by what we saw,” said Erik Klok, an internist and vascular-medicine specialist at Leiden University Medical Center, and lead author of the study. “We’re not used to this in patients with the normal flu.”

 

Doctors have seen some patients’ blood clot during dialysis, or while circulating in life-support machines, clogging the circuits. “They’re clotting off things that don’t usually clot,” said Lee Schwamm, executive vice chairman of neurology at Massachusetts  General Hospital in Boston. “It’s as if you had sludge in your garden hose.”

 

At Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, a 44-year-old stroke patient’s blood started visibly clotting while surgeons were trying to remove a clot from his brain despite infusion with clot-busting drugs, according to Thomas Oxley, the interventional neurologist who treated the patient. The patient can’t speak or move his right side, he said.

 

Strokes happen when large clots in large blood vessels make their way to the brain, cutting off vital oxygen. About 5% of Covid-19 patients develop them, according to a study of 221 patients in China.

 

Patients are presenting not just with the more-common large clots that can lead to strokes and pulmonary embolisms, but also a constellation of small clots that block blood flow through the tiny blood vessels, known as capillaries, that deliver blood to all organs throughout the body. Some suffer from “Covid toe,” a painful, purplish swelling caused by clots in small blood vessels.

 

The International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis now recommends that any patient admitted to the hospital be evaluated for the risk of clotting and be given anticoagulants like heparin, according to Jeffrey Weitz, the organization’s president-elect. Thrombosis is the medical term for blood clots that form in blood vessels.

 

How Covid-19 infection makes blood more clot-prone isn’t entirely understood. But a growing body of studies suggests some patients have elevated levels of d-dimer, a protein produced when the body breaks down clots. D-dimer levels are a reliable indicator of Covid-19 severity, several doctors said. A study published by Chinese researchers in March in The Lancet found patients who died had higher d-dimer levels than survivors.

 

Clinicians think clots may be forming along walls of tiny and major blood vessels due to damage caused by inflammation or the virus itself. When the SARS-CoV-2 virus, as the new coronavirus is officially called, reaches the lung, it replicates rapidly, damaging cells of tiny air sacs called alveoli. That damage triggers inflammation, which leads the blood to coagulate, clinicians say. The damaged cells also release substances that activate coagulation.

 

A study of three patients who died from Covid-19 published in The Lancet showed evidence the virus can infect walls of capillaries that feed several organs, including the kidneys and small intestine. Pro-clotting proteins flood in to patch up the damage in a process similar to what happens when a scab forms—except the wounding persists internally, promoting more clotting.

 

“The high levels of d-dimer indicate the body is trying its darndest to break down the clot,” said Dr. Weitz. But “the forces to generate clots are overwhelming the capacity of the body to get rid of them.”

 

This runaway process wreaks havoc on the entire body. When micro-clots form in tiny blood vessels, they create a traffic jam. Blood can’t flow through the lungs’ alveoli, where blood picks up oxygen.

 

Clots can lead to heart problems, including reduced blood flow in coronary arteries. Some patients show signs of heart problems a week or so after developing blood clots that start in the lung, said Gian Paolo Rossi, chair of internal medicine at the University of Padua in Italy. The heart damage develops slowly, he said. “They do very badly.”

 

Clots are also one suspect in acute kidney failure, which is caused by inadequate blood flow and oxygen. Blood clots in capillaries may prevent blood from getting to the kidneys, said Dr. Rao, of Columbia. Other possible causes of acute kidney injury are shock or a direct attack by the virus, because the kidneys have the ACE2 receptor to which the SARS-CoV-2 virus binds to enter cells, she said. Patients include people who had healthy kidneys, she said.

 

As many as 30% of Covid-19 patients in the intensive-care unit at her hospital have required dialysis or consultation from a nephrologist, Dr. Rao said. That doesn’t include patients with kidney injuries that aren’t severe, she said. “We have seen an enormous amount of this in patients who are in the ICU with Covid-19,” she said.

 

Some people will fully recover. Others will need dialysis the rest of their lives, she said. “We’re not seeing a lot of recovery in the kidneys,” she said, “but we hope in the longer term people will get better.”

 

Mr. Russell’s clot

Other patients develop deep vein thrombosis, a life-threatening condition usually occurring deep in a leg vein. Mr. Russell, who has diabetes and high blood pressure, was improving in late March when doctors found the blood clot in his left leg. He had been on a prophylactic dose of a blood thinner, but it wasn’t enough, said Neha Dangayach, a neurocritical care specialist at Mount Sinai Hospital, where Mr. Russell was cared for.

 

He was put on a stronger dose of anticoagulants, Dr. Dangayach said. Given Mr. Russell’s health and the number of complications he suffered, she said, “he could have died.”

 

He is now at home in the Bronx. His kidneys recovered, but he is on blood thinners to prevent more clots.

 

A study published Wednesday by Mount Sinai researchers in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that treating hospitalized patients with blood-thinning drugs improved their chances of survival.

 

In a span of two weeks, Mount Sinai treated five Covid-19 patients under age 50 who had experienced a major stroke. None had clotting disorders, though one had a previous history of stroke. Normally, the hospital sees less than one such patient on average during that same period, according to a paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine in April.

 

Patients are often unsure when to call for help when they start experiencing symptoms such as numbness on one side of the body and trouble speaking, neurologists said. Some are waiting more than a day to call. The reason: Patients are being advised to call for help only if fevers or shortness of breath worsen.

 

Sagine Alexandre, 33, one of the patients described in the paper, had no history of stroke. She said she is slowly regaining movement in her left arm and learning how to walk again. She hasn’t seen her family in person since she went into the hospital on April 1.

 

“It’s hard to be going through something like this and not have any family or friends around,” she said. “I thank God for FaceTime. That’s all I have.”

 

Write to Betsy McKay at [email protected] and Daniela Hernandez at [email protected]

The issue seems increasingly one to be one of oxygen free radicals aka oxidative stress

 

 

[Ivan the terrible]

14 minutes ago, Ivan the terrible said:

The issue seems increasingly one to be one of oxygen free radicals aka oxidative stress

 

 

this is why people with obesity,hypertension,diabetes,heart disease get preferentially killed by this bastard virus 

It kills because its a blood vessel disease...not JUST because its a lung disease...the lungs are a portal of entry to the circulation not necessarily the mechanism of death 

[Ivan the terrible]

20 minutes ago, code_slayer_bkk said:

Privately decidedly by a world so undecided and theres no where to go

Except back to the sea .. and be happy .. get on with life ...

you are a skinny f**k...you should be ok 

[Ivan the terrible]

smokers and copd patients seem to  at no significant extra risk ...who would have thunk it

 

[Evil Penevil]

I know this is a stretch, but I couldn't find a more appropriate thread in which to post this rather amusing article about an apparent shortage of strippers and strip clubs in New Zealand- and the solution.  I just hope the out-of-work hostesses on U.S. airlines get the same idea.  🤮🤮🤮

Evil

 

NEW ZEALAND

 

Covid 19 coronavirus: Kiwi air hostesses 
grounded over coronavirus strip for cash

7 May, 2020 12:09pm

 4 minutes to read

Calendar Girls gentlemen's club says more than half of its online applications last month came from former air hostesses.

By: Kurt Bayer  (NZ Herald reporter based in Christchurch)

Kiwi air hostesses made redundant during the global coronavirus pandemic are increasingly swapping runways for jobs as strippers.

Hundreds of cabin crew at New Zealand airlines have lost their flying jobs after Covid-19 closed borders, locked down nations, and grounded flights.  In April, Air New Zealand confirmed nearly 1500 cabin crew faced redundancy. But the Herald can reveal that some former flight attendants are now taking their clothes off to supplement their sudden lost income.

Calendar Girls, which closed all three of its R18 strip joints in Christchurch, Wellington and on Auckland's Karangahape Rd on March 23 and is moving is shows online this weekend, say it's been inundated with job applications from ex-air hostesses.

More than half of Calendar Girls' online applications last month came from redundant cabin crew, a club spokesman said. He wouldn't give exact numbers but did say pre-coronavirus, they would get around 10-15 job applications a day. They had seven approaches from ex-flight attendants yesterday alone. Calendar Girls closed all three of its R18 strip joints in Christchurch, Wellington and on Auckland's Karangahape Rd, on March 23.

One former air hostess who has become an exotic dancer since losing her job with a New Zealand airline told the Herald job seeking had turned up limited options. With her savings running low, she was considering what other skills she had when she saw a strippers advert posted online and thought, 'Why not give it a go and try something new?' And here I am".

"Right now there will be so many thousands of flight attendants, pilots, and ground staff that are in the same situation as me and will need to look at other options and careers to be able to put dinner on the table for their family," said the dancer, who wanted to remain anonymous.

"Now is a good time to reflect on the other skills you may have and think about what else you could do to be financially stable."

Having worked in the aviation industry "for several years", as well as having experience as a painter, and in hospitality and banking, she saw striptease as an opportunity to use the skills she's picked up along the way. Ominous signs first appeared in February, she said, when her and her colleagues started hearing talk of the coronavirus and the impact on the airline industry. As she saw jobs being lost in other countries, she knew she could be impacted in New Zealand. While "devastated" to hear their jobs were at risk, she took a grounded, philosophical approach.

"I knew it wasn't personal and that the company wanted the business to flourish but the coronavirus was impacting the company financially and they have to do what they have to do," she said.

"It was devastating but there are many things in my life that I've always wanted to take up, and I guess this is one of them. When a door closes, another one opens."

Calendar Girls is offering any dancers who perform in their old air hostess uniform an exemption from paying club fees online or on stage until there is a Covid-19 vaccine. But the dancer spoken to by the Herald says she handed in her company clothing when she left.

"As much as the customers would love a girl in uniform, that won't be happening unfortunately," she said.

Calendar Girls is launching a new live webcams site this weekend, with dancers filming from their own homes.
And while it'll normally be a $9 per month subscription, it's free for customers while New Zealand is locked down at alert levels 3 or 4. The website will feature "real girls from Calendar Girls" along with other international showgirls and have options for chatting in a public chat room or a two-way video streaming in private.

Subscribers can even tip the dancers, by either buying tokens on the site or through purchasing their very own merchandise, with each dancer selling photographs, videos, signed clothing or other merchandise on their profiles.

Club bosses say an online site and app had been in development for months but was fast-tracked by the pandemic.

They hope it will bring welcome relief for their dancers who are seen "tremendous loss of income".

"I think we all know how much entertainers like money," the club spokesman said.

Calendar Girls has been teasing the online shows through its social media channels for weeks. More than 2800 people have already signed up.

"It is a great way to be entertained in the comfort of your own home with the chance of subscribers also coming to meet the girls at our clubs not just online," the company spokesman said.

The Herald understands that the site is going live this weekend but the exact day and time is being kept under wraps for now. Calendar Girls say they will reveal the launch time through social media.

[Bazle]

I've just had a telecon with a Japanese friend living in London who told me I need not worry as the pandemic will be over in the next couple of months. I asked her for the source for that statement, and she sent me an email with this in it:

I asked what it was and where it came from, but she didn't know, just that the chart was being widely distributed on social media.

I think I have found the source here: https://ddi.sutd.edu.sg

but underlying it is information from here: https://covid19.healthdata.org/united-states-of-america

I'd be interested to know if any knowledgeable person here (we seem to have 2 or 3!) gives any credence to that information.

[code_slayer_bkk]

1 hour ago, Ivan the terrible said:

you are a skinny f**k...you should be ok 

What ... 6'2 and 190 lbs .... I guess that is kinda skinny ... or "wirery " !

Edited May 8, 2020 by code_slayer_bkk

[code_slayer_bkk]

1 hour ago, Ivan the terrible said:

smokers and copd patients seem to  at no significant extra risk ...who would have thunk it

 

I smoke gigs and ganja like a mega-factory discharging .... I can understand the THC .. but, nicotine ... could be though .....

Jeez.. I would like to give up the cigs though ... last time I tried .. I put patches on my arms .... Beach gal saw me rip them off ... I was gonna roll them up and smoke them .. she went and got me a pack ...

f**k me ... not so sure why I so got addicted to these f***kers ... I never smoked a cig in my life until I lived in Shanghai ..... and I was about 35 .. maybe ...  

It is not easy to quit ... and I say f**k it .. something is gonna kill me .. not the Wuhan virus though !

Dark Necessities ...

 

Edited May 8, 2020 by code_slayer_bkk

[Thai Spice]

3 hours ago, Bazle said:

Coronavirus Hijacks the Body From Head to Toe, Perplexing Doctors

The title says it all concerning the credibility of the article....

FFS, pure sensationalisme press. And me who thought the WSJ was better than the Sun or Daily Mirror ....🤔🤔

 

[Thai Spice]

1 hour ago, Bazle said:

I've just had a telecon with a Japanese friend living in London who told me I need not worry as the pandemic will be over in the next couple of months. I asked her for the source for that statement, and she sent me an email with this in it:

I asked what it was and where it came from, but she didn't know, just that the chart was being widely distributed on social media.

I think I have found the source here: https://ddi.sutd.edu.sg

but underlying it is information from here: https://covid19.healthdata.org/united-states-of-america

I'd be interested to know if any knowledgeable person here (we seem to have 2 or 3!) gives any credence to that information.

Anybody giving any credibility to this kind of shit should stop reading any form of media, sit back and have a beer while watching a porn movie.

 

[Kathmandu]

6 hours ago, Evil Penevil said:

 

I didn't know that @Thai spice lived in Oregon. 

[Smiler]

3 hours ago, Ivan the terrible said:

fucking garbage post

Ask someone who works on the frontline in the UK what their opinion of the situation is. I have a junior doctor and a retired doctor who has returned to work during the crisis in my family along with a neighbour who is a care worker. 

It's the bullshit promises on PPE and testing numbers they have gone from being frustrated to getting angry about. 

I agree the crisis should not be politicised, however the only way that can be achieved is through transparency and setting achievable goals.

Pushing a 3 week old story in the media about an advisor breaking the lockdown on a tragic day when it's revealed the UK has recorded over 30,000 deaths is simply a diversion tactic and an insult to the NHS.

Edited May 8, 2020 by Smiler
Rant not over :)

[Kathmandu]

2 hours ago, Ivan the terrible said:

smokers and copd patients seem to  at no significant extra risk ...who would have thunk it

 

According to French studies, nicotine kills the virus...lol