Coronavirus thread

[Nephrology]

Scientists are supposed to be skeptics. It sounds like that you had a really awful situation though. My wife has family a little east of you, so if I ever make it there with my pistol again, maybe we can meet at the range and you can tell me the story in person. I've only had one brush with academic dishonesty, which was in my first year of grad school. Fortunately none of the data made it outside the lab and the technician who did the work had already left by the time I discovered it. My PI refused to believe it even happened, so maybe it never did. (Protip: If your instrument generates data to three significant figures, never record six significant figures in your lab book.)

Getting back to skeptics, when I was an undergrad, I read The Microbe Hunters. de Kruif made some interesting contrasts between Koch (thorough and meticulous) and Pasteur (self-promoting showman). They have become the Yin-Yang of my internal science monologue. In practice, I'm much more of a Koch than a Pasteur, and I'm not sure if that's good or bad. I often think I need a little more Pasteur. I have biographies of both of them that I just haven't gotten around to reading.

My experience could have been better. It was a little too close to home, in a professional stratosphere that was far higher than I ever expected to rise, and at a stage of my career where I was very young and naive. It did not help that this all happened while I was applying to MD PhD programs, either.

Still, I think it provided me with the kind of exemplar that is often under-appreciated: the model of who you do NOT want to be in your career. Just like a bad girlfriend, it teaches you who you should look for moving forward and what are your lines in the sand.

I'll have to look into the book. Seems up my alley! I've definitely been both a Koch and a Pasteur in my life - lately far more of a Koch. Both are still relevant today for good reason and would love it if you dropped me a line next time you're out this way!

[willie]

That's a question about which I am clueless. Please elaborate, wise members.

[TGS]

That's a question about which I am clueless. Please elaborate, wise members.

The Berry Amendment generally requires that the DOD purchase American made items, though there are some exceptions: https://fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/IF10605.pdf

This is periodically looked at by DOD. Here's an article from a couple years ago to describe such a process, though it's devoid of any details on the percentage of Chinese produced items used by DOD. It just gives one example, being the fuel for Hellfire missiles, which we originally bought from the Chinese until we got our own plant up and running:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...-idUSKCN1MC275

ETA: Personally, I would danger a guess that the majority of Chinese origin items used by DOD are the result of contract fraud, as opposed to DOD knowingly buying Chinese. With that said, it'd be virtually impossible to outfit the US military with 100% non-Chinese items. We're the breadbasket for the world, and China is the industrial hub of the world. No way around it at the current time.

[Borderland]

There are now 3 patients on the west coast with corona virus and no known contacts with infected patients.



https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.was...outputType=amp

One of them is about 10 air miles from me. The person here was a HS student who fell sick at school, went home for awhile then returned back to school. I'm betting that some others who were in contact with that person now have the virus. We have other cases that they have identified but travel was involved with those. This area is probably going to get hit pretty hard. I was talking to a person at dinner last night who works in Everett (where this case popped up) said he thinks eventually they will close his place of employment because of the virus. Two schools here have now been closed while they disinfect the school. I think they plan to reopen.

If I stop posting here you'll know what happened.

[Borderland]

I thought we were friends...

Yeah, that sounded like some kind of economic voodoo from the WH. I want to live until I get my new tax break and I have a new pistol on the way.

[Totem Polar]

The universities in my area have stated that closing decisions will be made off-site by regional health in combo with the CDC. The exception being study abroad programs; the flagship exchange with Italy has been closed down for obvious reasons. Students are being repatriated under emergency conditions with local staff—in some cases—packing their stuff up and shipping it back to the US for them.

[Nephrology]

Anthony Fauci - Head of the Natl. Inst. of Allergies and Infectious Disease - released a letter yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine that gives a concise summary of the current thinking by our nation's experts. Worth a read.

edit: also here is a case report on the first COVID 19 patient in WA state. Describes the illness in an otherwise healthy 35 y/o man. It's not clear if the investigational drug is responsible for the patient's recovery or not. Uses some medical jargon but gives you a snapshot of what their illness/hospital stay looked like.

[Caballoflaco]

Interesting news story about a guy in NYC who was refused testing by cdc for covid 19 after returning from Tokyo, presenting symptoms and testing negative for current strains of influenza.

At NYU Brooklyn, they put him in isolation, and ran a battery of tests for other things - all negative. Then, per protocol, they called the CDC, because NYU Suspect COVID-19, but the CDC said n

https://abc7ny.com/5974999/

[ccmdfd]

Anthony Fauci - Head of the Natl. Inst. of Allergies and Infectious Disease - released a letter yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine that gives a concise summary of the current thinking by our nation's experts. Worth a read.

edit: also here is a case report on the first COVID 19 patient in WA state. Describes the illness in an otherwise healthy 35 y/o man. It's not clear if the investigational drug is responsible for the patient's recovery or not. Uses some medical jargon but gives you a snapshot of what their illness/hospital stay looked like.

Interesting read.

ID is not my specialty, but after reading that, makes me feel like the uproar we are seeing is overblown.

cc

[Nephrology]

Interesting read.

ID is not my specialty, but after reading that, makes me feel like the uproar we are seeing is overblown.

cc

We'll see, I suppose. My concern would be hospital floor/MICU bed capacity being tested by demand, esp. among elderly, immunocompromised, and chronically ill.

Can you imagine if this tore through an outpatient hemodialysis center, for example?