Wuhan Coronavirus: Megathread - Got too big

[6MillionCoofs]

Can I ask a favour, have their been any U.K. publications that have said places are marking any death down as Covid?

thank you.

 

[CeleryStalks]

Michigan, USA

No major developments today, so have some statistics on our death tolls, all from the state website, linked below.
Genesee County, home of lead-in-the-water Flint, is still our only county (outside the Detroit Metro Area) with a three figure death toll, and this despite several other counties having somewhat comparable four-digit case numbers.

Genesee (home of Flint, pop ~426K)	1758	224
Washtenaw (home of Ann Arbor, pop ~345K)	1182	81
Kent (home of Grand Rapids, pop ~603K)	2281	41

Average age of deceased: 75 years
Median age of deceased: 76 years

Sex	Percentage of Overall Cases by Sex	Percentage of Deceased Cases by Sex
Male	46%	53%
Female	53%	47%
Unknown	1%	<1%

Further evidence that the disease really is slightly deadlier to men than to women.

Race	Percentage of Overall Cases by Race	Percentage of Deceased Cases by Race
American Indian or Alaska Native	<1%	<1%
Asian/Pacific Islander	2%	1%
Black or African American	32%	41%
Caucasian	35%	49%
Multiple Races	8%	2%
Other	5%	2%
Unknown	18%	5%

Remember the majority of our cases are still in greater Detroit, which is much Blacker than the state as a whole.

Spoiler: Michigan Recap

SHUTDOWN SHOWDOWN
Shelter-in-place order from Tuesday March 24 to Monday April 13. Friday, May 1, Friday, May 15, May 28 May 1, maybe? (archive) (executive order saved on KF) . The Republican-controlled legislature has refused to extend Governor Whitmer's emergency authority. Governor Whitmer insists her emergency orders are all still in effect (Rundown on the laws).
State attorney general Dana Nessel (D) is also leaving enforcement of the stay-at-home order to local discretion until the courts weigh in on it (archive). She has stated Governor Whitmer's orders are valid and are to be enforced (archive). The legislature is not calling for civil disobedience at this time (archive).
The legislature has filed a lawsuit against the governor (archive). The defense must submit arguments by May 12, and oral arguments will be heard May 15 (archive).
State senate leader Mike Shirkey (R) is also supporting a petition drive to change the law. Such a petition would require 340,047 signatures to be collected by May 27th. It would be veto-proof if approved by the legislature, and would go on the November ballot if denied by them (archive 1, archive 2, archive 3).
U. S. Rep Paul Mitchell (R - The Thumb) has filed a lawsuit independently against Governor Whitmer, in federal district court. Link, pdf on KF.
There have been at least six other lawsuits against portions or the entirety of the shut-down order, in various stages of progress and in various courts (summary of eight lawsuits). However, "all deadlines applicable to the commencement of all civil and probate actions and proceedings" are suspended until the end of the states of emergency and disaster. Executive order, and thus in limbo. (archive).

OTHER SHUTDOWNS
Recap from NPR
Major protest at the State Capitol April 15 (A&N thread). Minor protest outside Governor's Mansion April 23 (archive). Protest at the State Capitol April 30 (A&N Thread).
The Big Three Auto manufacturers (Ford, GM, Chrysler) have closed all factories in the USA, putting well over 150,000 workers out of work. This figure does not include workers at supplier factories, which were also obliged to close. (archive) (archive) (archive). Auto manufacturing expected to resume May 18. (archive)

ECONOMY AND MISCELLANY
Over 1 million unemployment claims filed = 10% of the total population of the state, nearly 25% of the workforce (Archive - April 16).
Big Brother is watching, and he approves. Massive phone-tracking project reveals Michigan travel down by 45%, compared to 40% nation-wide (website) (news article archive).
Car crashes are down, fatal car crashes are down, and overall death is actually down. (archive - April 12)

FREE STUFF!
Evictions suspended while the state of emergency lasts (archive) Executive order. May or may not still be valid.
Water will be turned back on for all households while the crisis lasts (archive) Executive order. May or may not still be valid.

HEALTH CARE
Hydroxychloroquine banned by governor's order (archive). Nevermind LOL! Now she's asking the federal government for it and claiming the ban was a mistake in the first place. (archive). Detroit-area hospitals are testing the drug's effectiveness as a preventative on first responders and health-care workers (archive). Article on results, May 8 (archive).
Elective surgeries are banned. Maybe? Who knows. If/when in effect, abortions were not included in the ban (thread).
At any rate, hospitals are resuming elective surgeries.
Up-to-date count of available hospital beds, etc. in the State (the Detroit area is "Section 2, North and South.")(government website)
State of affairs May 5 - about half as many hospitalized cases and ICU cases as on April 12 (archive).
Detroit field hospital, capacity 1,000, closed. Never had many more than 20 at any time. (archive, May 7).

LAW AND ORDER
All localities given more discretion to release prisoners early (archive). It was an executive order. Who knows if it's still valid?
Lansing (the capitol) police are not physically responding to minor crimes such as larceny, property damage, and break-ins to unoccupied buildings, including garages. Other police are adopting similar policies (archive) (archive).
Detroit shootings up, but most other crime down (archive - April 30); Muskegon police report crime is up (archive).
Breaking the lockdown is a misdemeanor, punishable by $1500 fines and 90 days jail time. (Still valid???) Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D) has stated there will not be a "ramp up" of police enforcement (archive). The attorney general has left it to local law enforcement to close businesses, as her hands are full with price-gougers and con artists (archive).
The police cannot, at present, pull drivers over simply for being out during the shutdown (archive). Local police in the rural north and in Detroit suburbs have alike stated they will not be enforcing parts of the order (archive).

OFFICIAL DEATH TOLL

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services reviews deaths and adds overlooked cases to the count three days a week: Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Recovery counts are updated on Saturdays.
67 deaths were added yesterday.

Regular reviews of death certificate data maintained in Vital Records reporting systems are conducted by MDHHS staff three times per week. As a part of this process, records that identify COVID-19 infection as a contributing factor to death are compared against all laboratory confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Michigan Disease Surveillance System (MDSS). If a death certificate is matched to a confirmed COVID-19 case and that record in the MDSS does not indicate the individual died, the MDSS record is updated to indicate the death and the appropriate local health department is notified. These matched deaths are then included with mortality information posted to the Michigan Coronavirus website.

Detroit Metro (pop. 3,860,000 total; 1,796/sq. mi.; 694/sq km):*

31,853 confirmed / 3,638 dead
31,671 confirmed / 3,620 dead yesterday
(i.e. 18 new deaths, down 6 from this day last week)
Normal Detroit Metro Death Rate: 104 per day.**

Other Michigan (6,120,000; 65/sq. mi.; 25/sq km):

15,285 confirmed / 913 dead
15,085 confirmed / 906 dead yesterday
(i.e. 7 new deaths, up 2 from this day last week)
Normal not-Detroit Death Rate: 167 per day**

All Michigan (9,990,000; 103/sq. mi.; 40/sq km):

47,138 confirmed / 4,551 dead
46,756 confirmed / 4,526 dead yesterday
(i.e. 25 new deaths, down 4 from this day last week)
Normal Michigan Death Rate: 271 per day.**

Death toll doubled since: April 17.
We have been (were?) locked down since: March 24 (until April 30?),
Masks have been mandatory in stores since: April 27 (until April 30?).

Detroit Metro Daily Deaths Last Seven Days:
51^ / 35*** / 45 / 70*** / 36 / 69*** / 18 = 360***

State Government site, daily - today's archive;
State Gov site, total, includes breakdowns by sex, age, race and ethnicity - today's archive.
*Here defined as the City of Detroit, and Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne Counties, minus state and federal prisoners, who are not counted towards any county's cases, but are kept in categories of their own.
** As of 2018.
*** 8, 38, and 67 statewide deaths, respectively, were added on these days upon State review. Presumably most were in Detroit, but I don't know exactly how many.
^Software problems caused a delayed count on this day.
One Ann Arbor man allegedly killed by his roommate in a Corona-related dispute (archive). The suspect has been released from custody while the investigation continues (archive).
One Flint security guard allegedly murdered for telling a woman that her daughter needed to wear a mask in a dollar store. (archive, A&N thread).

 

[Too Many Catgirls]

So... in conclusion. You muricans really will use just about fucking anything you can for measurement so long as it's not the metric system.

It's this secret game we play with all the rest of you.

 

[Barnard]

Nothing new in Polish numbers today, still more and more miners. There's some anecdotal evidence for the efficacy of tocilizumab (an immunosuppressive drug) in patients in serious condition, under ventilation and with cytokine storm. One of our hospitals treated 20 people matching these criteria and the doctors said they all responded very well and came off ventilation within days.

As mentioned earlier, there was an election today, but with no possibility of voting, so it was declared null and void, more or less. Now it's up to our equivalent of House speaker to call another election, to be held 60 days from now at the latest. The government flailed and screwed up a whole lot here, I hate how they handled things. But people who first said holding the election on time will kill people, and now complain because it wasn't held on time, are even more cringe-inducing. Make up your mind.

 

[I can't imagine]

And today on shit that has nothing to do with the wuhan flu but still makes you say WHAT THE FUCK? WHAT. THE. FUCK. IS. AN. IU?! No for real!! I checked:

How to convert International units (IU) to mcg or mg

Find out how to convert between International units and micrograms or milligrams.

www.thecalculatorsite.com

So it seems I was right about IUs being International Units. But I was wrong in how to interpret it. See. When they talk you about International Units over here in the peninsula of autism. They mean the Standard International System of Units. Which apparently you call the Metric System over there in burgerland. And which everyone else just refers to as SI. This system just so happens to use mgs and ugs for medicine. ug, btw comes from (greek letter "mu")g and is how we, alongside the rest of the known world outside of apparently burgerland and possibly some backwards 3rd world shitholes, refer to micrograms. Or what you call mcgs. Because why even. Here's a spanish multivitamin complex to showcase it:
View attachment 1283745

So my immediate question is: who is being weird here? Spain? Or burgerland. The answer may surprise you! For one spain's not the autism motherload! Yes that's right it's you fucking weirdos in burgerland having this issue.
Here's a british magnesium tablet. As you can see. They use the same system as everyone else. The SIUs, grams.
View attachment 1283747

So I can't avoid the immediate observation. Both you and the web claim american doctors have great issue dealing with IUs. But... what the fuck even are there and why are they being used?! I had literally never heard of them. And I both study biotech and help in a hospital. I can assure you we have no issue with them because we don't even know they exist! Well for one let me quote wikipedia:

International unit - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

So it seems the IUs are a system of units created by the WHO and which use a fairly subjective description varying wildly by substance. Who defines this metrics?

https://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=9650

Oh of course a commitee of the WHO itself. Of course. They literally define what IUs are on the fly for their own purposes. Yeah I can see why we ignored it. And checking online it seems almost all of the rest of the world has too. I can only find isntances of IUs being used by burgerlanders.

So... in conclusion. You muricans really will use just about fucking anything you can for measurement so long as it's not the metric system.

Actually, it's even more exceptional than you make it sound.

As I mentioned, IUs are only used for a handful of things in pharmacology at all, even in the U.S. Literally everything else drug-related in the U.S. is done using SI/metric. Suspensions used to be in fluid ounces/tablespoons, but they mostly use ml now (though tablespoons convert easily to ml, so it never really made a difference). Pill and powder treatments have been in SI for decades. It's this weird legacy thing that's left over as the only tiny trace of non-SI measure in the pharma biz. Nobody seems to like it and nobody knows why it's still there.

 

[Pokemonquistador2]

So the only real megacity in canada is basically your version of Barcelona. And it is given most of the ellectoral power and pandered as hard as Madrid. And they have the highest unemployment rate.

I am surprised Canada isn't constantly on fire.

It would be, but the weather's too cold.

 

[Quijibo69]

I went to a mall here in Florida for shits and giggles today. Looked like 90% of the stores were closed. There was a line up at 2 jewelry stores about a block long with all black people pawning jewelry. No joke! I would have token an image of it but there was more security around than stores open.

 

[JosephStalin]

Democratic governors continuing strict lockdowns into June are just engaging in economic vandalism at this point tbqh.

Yup.

Here's an example, from the land of Nazi Whitmer. You KNOW she could give a flying fuck about these people.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/layoffs-start-turning-from-temporary-to-permanent-across-america/ar-BB13G1Yu?li=BBnbfcN&ocid=mailsignout

https://archive.vn/HPn8p

 

[Plague Dog]

So... in conclusion. You muricans really will use just about fucking anything you can for measurement so long as it's not the metric system.

Hate to interrupt a good fume, but more american vitamins use grams too. You'll notice the IU is only there for certain compounds and is the secondary measurement for people who might be used to the old system.

 

[Gustav Schuchardt]

BoJo made a speech on the process of opening up over the next few weeks. Good news he's opening up but then you realise he's talking about the process taking until July or more and any second wave means we go back into lockdown. Sounds great, Boris. Nothing would make me happier than to spend the next couple of months not being able to do the things I need to do but can't do right now because I'll get stopped by the police and fined.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8HC5sOHzus

https://archive.vn/aWB2x

Hate to interrupt a good fume, but more american vitamins use grams too. You'll notice the IU is only there for certain compounds and is the secondary measurement for people who might be used to the old system.

IU is a WHO invention.

International unit - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://archive.vn/dBCJx

Many biological agents exist in different forms or preparations (e.g. vitamin A in the form of retinol or beta-carotene). The goal of the IU is to be able to compare these, so that different forms or preparations with the same biological effect will contain the same number of IUs. To do so, the WHO Expert Committee on Biological Standardization provides a reference preparation of the agent, arbitrarily sets the number of IUs contained in that preparation, and specifies a biological procedure to compare other preparations of the same agent to the reference preparation. Since the number of IUs contained in a new substance is arbitrarily set, there is no equivalence between IU measurements of different biological agents. For instance, one IU of vitamin E cannot be equated with one IU of vitamin A in any way, including mass or efficacy.

Funny thing is the exchange rate from mass to IUs is not only dependent on what you're measuring it's been changed at least once

International unit - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

For some substances, the precise mass equivalent of one IU has been changed. When that happens, the former IU mass for that substance is officially abandoned in favor of a newly established mass. The unit count will often still remain in use.[clarify] Such a change has happened with the immunoassay standards for prolactin: as one batch of standard (84/500; 53 mIU ≈ 2.5 μg) was running out of stock, a new standard (83/573; 67 mIU ≈ 3.2 μg) was calibrated against the old one (as 67.2 mIU) and replaced the former.[6]

So the number of micrograms of a substance that make up one IU of that substance is arbitrary and for at least one substance the WHO-EG changed it. What a shitshow. Why not just quote the mass in (micro|milli)grams?

 

[I can't imagine]

So the number of micrograms of a substance that make up one IU of that substance is arbitrary and for at least one substance the WHO-EG changed it. What a shitshow. Why not just quote the mass in (micro|milli)grams?

There's a reason that it's an "international standard" that almost no nation uses, and the only nation of note that does use it only uses it for a handful of supplements.

Clearly, the WHO had its priorities in check when they came up with it.

Edit since we're going wildly off-topic here, and I feel like talking about something related to the actual topic:

I've been dealing with symptoms of what I suspect is the coof the last few days. Not super worried, though it's been pretty unpleasant. Of course, no hospital can verify if it's the case, and they don't even really want you to go in unless you're, like, in danger of dying, so I don't know for sure. My area does have a public testing facility, though, so I was able to get a test yesterday.

Really surreal experience, like something out of a disaster movie. Bunch of cars lined up, moving into a parking lot. You show your license to the National Guardsman at the entrance, then follow some other guys to an area kinda like a drive-thru. Another guy comes up in a haz-mat suit to swab your nasal passages, then they tell you to wait a few days for your results.

I'm not really sure what I expected, but it was definitely one of the more creepy moments I've had in recent memory.

 

[Overly Serious]

I went to a mall here in Florida for shits and giggles today. Looked like 90% of the stores were closed. There was a line up at 2 jewelry stores about a block long with all black people pawning jewelry. No joke! I would have token an image of it but there was more security around than stores open.

Smart people. Your average, Middle Class non-African American would have put all their savings in a bank. They trust gold. Even if your non-African American person had invested their money in gold it would be that virtual kind which you technically own but you know would vanish if there were ever a run on it because it's all over-sold.

And if anyone's about to talk about interest, have you seen how gold has done vs. average return on savings? Yep, smart people now able to trade it in when times are hard.

Really sucks it's come to this, though.

 

[Gustav Schuchardt]

Clearly, the WHO had its priorities in check when they came up with it.

Clearly it's a CCP plot to make sure we're all vitamin D deficient while overdosing on other vitamins like A.

Incidentally, I found out how much Vitamin D you need to get hypervitaminosis and the answer is 'a lot'. Maybe even 'a fucking lot'.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypervitaminosis_D#Recommended_supplement_limits

The recommended dietary allowance is 15 µg/d (600 IU per day; 800 IU for those over 70 years). Overdose has been observed at 1,925 µg/d (77,000 IU per day).[citation needed] Acute overdose requires between 15,000 µg/d (600,000 IU per day) and 42,000 µg/d (1,680,000 IU per day) over a period of several days to months.

Suggested tolerable upper intake level (UL)
Based on risk assessment, a safe upper intake level of 250 µg (10,000 IU) per day in healthy adults has been suggested by non-government authors.[5][6] However, no government has a UL higher than 4,000 IU.[citation needed]

Over-the-counter vitamin D where I comes in in 10 or 25ug pills, 100 to a bottle. So it's pretty hard to overdose, though I suppose if you necked a whole bottle of the 25ug that's 2500ug which would give you an overdose (>1925ug). But you'd need much more than that to get an acute overdose and do it over several days.

Still stay under 100ug per day and it seems like you're pretty safe.

 

[HTTP Error 404]

https://twitter.com/DanielKuper8/status/1258341051959513088

https://archive.vn/0rLTH

So when all this is said and done... We're having people at the WHO hanged shortly after we hang Xi the Pooh, right?

The President of Tanzania didn't trust the WHO, so he sent random bits of Papaya fruit, sheep, goats, etc to them for testing.

Magically, they all came back positive for Wu Flu.

 

[Dog-O-Tron 5000v5.0]

View attachment 1284379

https://twitter.com/DanielKuper8/status/1258341051959513088

https://archive.vn/0rLTH

So when all this is said and done... We're having people at the WHO hanged shortly after we hang Xi the Pooh, right?

The President of Tanzania didn't trust the WHO, so he sent random bits of Papaya fruit, sheep, goats, etc to them for testing.

Magically, they all came back positive for Wu Flu.

Never thought I'd say this, gg Based Tanzania.

 

[eternal dog mongler]

Incidentally, I found out how much Vitamin D you need to get hypervitaminosis and the answer is 'a lot'. Maybe even 'a fucking lot'.

I've never even seen vitamin D toxicity. And I've seen all sorts of weird shit.

So that's about how common it is.

 

[FuckedUp]

So when all this is said and done... We're having people at the WHO hanged shortly after we hang Xi the Pooh, right?

What about all the democrats and European leaders sans Boris Johnson and whoever runs Sweden?

 

[HTTP Error 404]

What about all the democrats and European leaders sans Boris Johnson and whoever runs Sweden?

We'll have to set up a queue, I think.

 

[AlexJonesGotMePregnant]

I've never even seen vitamin D toxicity. And I've seen all sorts of weird shit.

So that's about how common it is.

Water-soluble vitamins typically require extreme amounts to cause any toxicity since your body is pretty efficient at flushing anything water-soluble.

 

[MrBlueSocks]

Vitamin D is fat soluble though. Just not as dangerous as the other fat soluble ones for some reason.

View attachment 1284379

https://twitter.com/DanielKuper8/status/1258341051959513088

https://archive.vn/0rLTH

So when all this is said and done... We're having people at the WHO hanged shortly after we hang Xi the Pooh, right?

The President of Tanzania didn't trust the WHO, so he sent random bits of Papaya fruit, sheep, goats, etc to them for testing.

Magically, they all came back positive for Wu Flu.

Story seems legit, but the media sources aren't mentioning the WHO, that was added by the tweeter. ,Media are calling it a problem at the Tanzanian lab and the test kits . (prob Chinese?)

Breitbart . archive
Reuters . archive
aljazeera . archive

Also, story seems to be a week old. Surprised we haven't seen it here before .