FILE PHOTO: A man wearing a face mask walks next to barriers set up to block buildings from a street in Wuhan, Hubei province, the epicentre of China's coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, March 29, 2020. REUTERS/Aly Song

reuters.com - by Cate Cadell, Yawen Chen - April 8, 2020

As the world grapples with the escalating coronavirus pandemic, China reopened the city of Wuhan on Wednesday, allowing its 11 million residents to leave for the first time in over two months, a milestone in its effort to combat the outbreak.

But while the operation to contain Wuhan’s coronavirus outbreak has been hailed as a success by China and many international health experts, it didn’t come easy.

Using virus case data, official reports and over a dozen interviews with officials, residents and scientists in Wuhan, Reuters has compiled a comprehensive account of how the military-style quarantine of the city unfolded.

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Researchers in Shanghai found low levels of coronavirus antibodies in some people who had recently recovered from Covid-19. Photo: DPA

Scientists in Shanghai say some recovered patients show no signs of the neutralising proteins

Early-stage findings could have implications for vaccine development and herd immunity, they say

CLICK HERE - RESEARCH - medRxiv - Neutralizing antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 in a COVID-19 recovered patient cohort and their implications - April 6, 2020

scmp.com - by Stephen Chen - April 7, 2020

Researchers in Shanghai hope to determine whether some recovered coronavirus patients have a higher risk of reinfection after finding surprisingly low levels of Covid-19 antibodies in a number of people discharged from hospital.

A team from Fudan University analysed blood samples from 175 patients discharged from the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Centre and found that nearly a third had unexpectedly low levels of antibodies.

An expanding list of instructions and information resources on contact tracing . . .

CDC/CFCF - General illustration of Contact Tracing based off of CDC-material.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contact_tracing#/media/File:Contact-tracing_adapted.svg

CDC - MMWR - Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Surveillance and Containment Measures for the First 100 Patients with COVID-19 in Singapore — January 2–February 29, 2020 - Published March 13, 2020
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6911e1.htm

WHO - Contact Tracing
https://www.who.int/features/qa/contact-tracing/en/

ECDC (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control) - Contact tracing: Public health management of persons, including healthcare workers, having had contact with COVID-19 cases in the European Union – first update - March 31, 2020
https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications-data/contact-tracing-public-health-management-persons-including-healthcare-workers

In just ten minutes, Gauthier used extra tubing to multiply the number of patients that could be ventilated.

themindunleashed.com - by Elias Marat - March 23, 2020

As health care facilities across the globe continue to grapple with a general shortage of supplies to help them with the devastating coronavirus pandemic, one doctor in Canada has managed to use a bit of creativity, ingenuity, and an idea inspired by YouTube to help future patients.

Dr. Alain Gaithier, an anesthetist at the Perth and Smiths Falls District Hospital in Ontario, was worried about the possibility that his rural hospital’s one ventilator would hardly be able to carry the load that the CoViD-19 outbreak could entail.

So Gauthier, who has a Ph. D. in respiratory mechanics, borrowed an idea conceived by American doctors Greg Neyman and Charlene Babcock in 2006 to double the capacity of a single ventilator.

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Screenshot from a YouTube video on how to make a medical face mask. (Photo: Screen capture from YouTube)

courierpress.com - by Thomas B. Langhorne - March 18, 2020

Citing shortages, Deaconess Health System, including Henderson's Methodist Health, has asked the public to sew face masks for staff fighting coronavirus.

"This does follow CDC protocols that you can find on their website that if all other supplies are not available, that handmade masks that meet certain criteria are acceptable," Deaconess spokeswoman Becca Scott said.

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CLICK HERE - CDC - Strategies for Optimizing the Supply of Facemasks

President Donald Trump at a Monday news conference on the Covid-19 pandemic.  Doug Mills / The New York Times

nytimes.com - by Sheri Fink - March 17, 2020

Sweeping new federal recommendations announced on Monday for Americans to sharply limit their activities appeared to draw on a dire scientific report warning that, without action by the government and individuals to slow the spread of coronavirus and suppress new cases, 2.2 million people in the United States could die.

To curb the epidemic, there would need to be dramatic restrictions on work, school and social gatherings for periods of time until a vaccine was available, which could take 18 months, according to the report, compiled by British researchers. They cautioned that such steps carried enormous costs that could also affect people’s health, but concluded they were “the only viable strategy at the current time.”

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Image/Phil Jones, Senior Photographer, Augusta University

outbreaknews.com - March 20, 2020

The Georgia Esoteric and Molecular Laboratory at the Medical College of Georgia Department of Pathology has developed a novel, accurate coronavirus test that can tell patients if they are infected within about two hours instead of waiting typically days to hear from remote testing facilities.

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cdc.gov

Older adults and people who have severe chronic medical conditions like heart, lung or kidney disease seem to be at higher risk for more serious COVID-19 illness. Early data suggest older people are twice as likely to have serious COVID-19 illness.  This may be because:

    As people age, their immune systems change, making it harder for their body to fight off diseases and infection.
    Many older adults are also more likely to have underlying health conditions that make it harder to cope with and recover from illness.

If a COVID-19 outbreak happens in your community, it could last for a long time. Depending on the severity of the outbreak, public health officials may recommend community actions to reduce exposures to COVID-19. These actions can slow the spread and reduce the impact of disease.

If you are at increased risk for COVID-19 complications due to age or because you have a severe underlying medical condition, it is especially important for you to take actions to reduce your risk of exposure.

The Ameren microgrid. S&C Electric

microgridknowledge.com - by Elisa Wood - August 2, 2019

Severe heat and storms across the US this summer have strained the electric grid and caused extensive power outages. But the microgrids are working.

Consider the following examples . . .

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In an OP-ED in the New York Times, the director of the Rockefeller Family Fund states that EXXON systematically lied to the public and to its stockholders about the risks of climate change and EXXON's major contributions to the catastrophic damage climate change will inflict on humanity and on biodiversity.  

 

 To read the complete article, see:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/21/opinion/exxon-climate-change.html

CLICK HERE - LETTER - Mayors Support the Solar Investment Tax Credit (7 page .PDF document)

solarnovus.com - 22 October 2019

A bipartisan group of 231 mayors from Tacoma, Wash to Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. sent a letter to Congress today urging them to pass the Renewable Energy Extension Act (HR 3961/S. 2289), a five-year extension of the solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC).

“More than 200 mayors from 39 states are stepping up to defend the ITC,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). “Mayors are increasingly turning to solar energy to fight the effects of climate change and generate millions of dollars of private investment in their cities.

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CLICK HERE - HR 3961

AN EXPANDING LIST OF NEWS AND INFORMATION RESOURCES RELATED TO HURRICANE DORIAN . . .

CLICK HERE - NOAA - Watches, Warnings or Advisories for Florida

CLICK HERE - Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM)

CLICK HERE - FDEM - Emergency Info

CLICK HERE - FDEM - Open Shelters

CLICK HERE - Orange County Shelters

CLICK HERE - Red Cross - Find Open Shelters

CLICK HERE - Housing - Airbnb - Hurricane Dorian - Southeastern United States

CLICK HERE - Ready.gov - Hurricanes - Preparedness

CLICK HERE - CDC - Preparing for a Hurricane or Tropical Storm

Greta Thunberg addresses thousands of demonstrators in New York. Photograph: Lucas Jackson/Reuters

Young and old alike took to the streets in an estimated 185 countries to demand action

theguardian.com - by Sandra Laville and Jonathan Watts - September 20, 2019

Millions of people demonstrated across the world yesterday demanding urgent action to tackle global heating, as they united across timezones and cultures to take part in the biggest climate protest in history.

In an explosion of the youth movement started by the Swedish school striker Greta Thunberg just over 12 months ago, people protested from the Pacific islands, through Australia, across-south east Asia and Africa into Europe and onwards to the Americas . . .

 . . . Trade unions representing hundreds of millions of people around the world mobilised in support, employees left their workplaces, doctors and nurses marched and workers at firms like Amazon, Google and Facebook walked out to join the climate strikes . . . 

U.S. government researchers found that vibrio cases could increase with changing climate conditions.

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Warming Climate Could Increase Bacterial Impacts on Chesapeake Bay Shellfish, Recreation

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Impact of Climate Change on Vibrio vulnificus Abundance and Exposure Risk

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Vibrio vulnificus Infections From a Previously Nonendemic Area

khou.com - by Melissa Correa - August 27, 2019

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report vibriosis causes 80,000 illnesses and 100 deaths in the U.S. annually. People become infected one of two ways -- either by consuming raw or under-cooked seafood, or by exposing a wound to seawater. The CDC reports a majority of the infections happen from May to October when water temperatures are warmer.

The boom in fracking for shale gas has dramatically increased global methane emissions. Photograph: Andrew Burton/Getty Images

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Ideas and perspectives: is shale gas a major driver of recent increase in global atmospheric methane?

Researchers say boom in shale oil and gas major contributor to climate emergency

theguardian.com - by Jillian Ambrose - August 14, 2019

The boom in the US shale gas and oil may have ignited a significant global spike in methane emissions blamed for accelerating the pace of the climate crisis, according to research . . .

. . . Researchers had previously assumed the “non-traditional” methane was from biological sources such as cows and wetlands, but the latest research suggests unconventional oil and gas from fracking may be playing a significant part.

The theory would support a correlation in the rise of methane in the atmosphere and the boom in fracking across the US over the last decade . . .