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xtruss · 4 years ago

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Why Does Coronavirus Hit Hispanics Harder? Reasons Might Be Found In Wimauma

Ruth Martinez, center, tested positive for COVID-19 on June 22. The next day, test results showed that her mother, Isidra Medina, far right, and her oldest daughter, Carla, right, also had the virus. Her daughter Ashley, left, has been spared so far. This family photo was taken before they fell ill. (Juan Carlos Chavez | Tampa Bay Times)

In partnership with: The New York Times

— July 7, 2020 | By Juan Carlos Chavez

TAMPA — It’s hard for her to speak, her breathing is labored and she’s coughing a lot.

But Ruth Martínez is getting better every day. No more fever, muscle aches or fatigue, and she can taste and smell again.

It’s been two weeks since the 48-year-old mother of two was diagnosed with COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Her mother and one of her two teenage daughters, with whom she lives in a small apartment in Ruskin, have come down with the virus, too.

“We take good care of ourselves at home, we wash our hands and wear masks, but I did not stop working because someone has to make money in this house and that’s me,” said Martínez, who works with a lawn service company in Tampa. “It was on the street that I got sick.”

The family represents a disturbing trend among coronavirus patients in Florida and nationwide: Hispanics account for a disproportionately large number of them.

About half of the COVID-19 cases reported nationwide include data on ethnicity, or 1.06 million of them. Hispanics make up more than a third of these cases — nearly twice their share of the population as a whole. The number of coronavirus deaths among Hispanics as of Thursday was 14,572, about 18 percent of the total where ethnicity was reported. Hispanics account for about 16 percent of the U.S. population.

In Florida, where Hispanics are a larger share of the overall population at 26 percent, they account for about 30 percent of coronavirus cases. A third of state coronavirus hospitalizations, at 4,938, and a quarter of deaths, 843, are Hispanics.

Studies are underway to explain the trend, but biological factors likely are not a reason, said Dr. Marissa Levine, director of the Center for Leadership in Public Health Practice at the University of South Florida.

More likely are factors that were in place long before the COVID-19 pandemic was declared March 11, Levine said — factors like the limits experienced by many Hispanics in educational attainment, employment opportunities, transportation, healthcare access, food security and housing.

Plus, many Hispanics work in sectors of the economy that kept going during the pandemic, such as the service industry and food production.

“I don’t believe there is one simple answer,” Levine said.

What’s more, many Hispanics are taking risks to get their lives back to normal — in part, because the Hispanic population is younger than the general population, and in part because they’re poorer and need to get back to work, said Dr. Alexander García, emergency room medical director for AdventHealth Tampa and Brandon.

The prevalence of diabetes and asthma among Hispanics may also help explain the higher numbers, Garcia said.

Hispanics are twice as likely to visit the emergency for asthma as non-Hispanic whites, according to the Office of Minority Health with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office. And diabetes, associated with an increased risk of death from COVID-19, occurs in Hispanics at a rate of about 17 percent compared to 9 percent for the U.S. population as a whole.

The state of Florida is working with local faith-based organizations to educate hard-hit communities about staying safe during the pandemic, said Alberto Moscoso, communications director with the Department of Health. Updates are distributed in English, Spanish and Haitian Creole and the state COVID-19 Data and Surveillance Dashboard is available in English and Spanish.

Efforts by health authorities might have been more effective had they come earlier in the pandemic, said Ileana Cintrón, deputy director of Enterprising Latinas, a nonprofit in heavily Hispanic Wimauma.

“In a place like Wimauma, where the concentration of Hispanic is 75 percent and most work in the fields, the conditions have not been the best,” Cintrón said. “The masks arrived two months later. That was a perfect recipe for the virus to spread uncontrollably.”

The message about social distance, quarantine and isolation has been confusing, at times, too, she said.

“Many thought that the coronavirus problem was not really dangerous when they started to see others on the street,” she said. “And that increased the risk.”

In Wimauma, cases quadrupled in two weeks, from 63 June 16 to 263.

“Now there are more local testing centers and that is good for everyone,” Cintrón said.

Hillsborough County authorities also are working with Enterprising Latinas to provide Spanish speakers with up-to-date advice, cloth face masks for workers, and even more testing sites. One of the sites is at Enterprising Latinas, 5128 State Road 674 in Wimauma.

At least 15 Hispanic community organizations in Hillsborough’s South Shore region have joined together as the Wimauma COVID-19 Rapid Response Collaborative. They keep track of needs and share tips for stopping the spread of the coronavirus.

The collaborative has established a hotline for questions about COVID-19 and topics such as help with food and rent. Available from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays, the number is (813) 773-7597.

For Ruth Martínez, the COVID-19 test came back positive June 22. The next day, test results showed her mother and daughter also had the disease. A few days later, her mother was hospitalized at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Riverview with respiratory complications and disturbances in her heart rhythm.

Before she fell ill, Martínez was working eight hours a day, four days a week with the lawn service, pleased that she found employment after losing her job in agriculture to the pandemic. Now, as she recovers, Martínez has gone three weeks without her $300 a week paycheck and can’t pay her $950 monthly rent.

Most of her coworkers have tried to maintain social distancing and use masks inside company facilities, she said, but this was almost impossible while working outside, she said.

“We share the tools and use the same transportation to get from one place to another. The risk of contracting the coronavirus follows you everywhere.”

— This story is part of a collaboration with the Tampa Bay Times through FRONTLINE’s Local Journalism Initiative, which is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

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vaniceseasonalgiftsdecor · 5 years ago

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Thanks; Quentin Fottrell

Published;May,4

Is 6 feet really the ‘magic number’ in public spaces?

**Airborne transmission is ‘plausible.’ ***‘Most face masks do not effectively filter small particles from the air and don’t prevent leakage around the edge of the mask when the user inhales,’ the CDC says.

Coronavirus appears to linger longer in certain public spaces.

While New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he may extend the lockdown to certain parts of the state beyond May 15, more than 30 states are preparing to reopen their economies. Businesses, including gyms and salons are reopening in Georgia, despite not demonstrating a downward trajectory of cases over 14 days as laid out by the White House’s benchmarks for states reopening.

Don’t miss: ‘We will not have a vaccine by next winter.’ Like the 1918 Spanish flu, CDC says second wave of coronavirus could be worse. So what happens next?

Health professionals warn people to exercise caution in restaurants (and with restaurant menus), elevators (and with elevator buttons), gyms (and with gym equipment) and grocery stores (and with trolleys/baskets), particularly as a dozen other cities have similar plans. Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming has also said they would start opening certain non-essential businesses.

High-traffic areas are best to be avoided, especially where there’s moisture, and researchers found more coronavirus aerosols in patients’ bathrooms and in changing rooms for doctors.

Some public spaces appear to be more hostile environments to the new coronavirus than others, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Research and carried out by a team of investigators, led by Ke Lan, professor and director of the State Key Laboratory of Virology at Wuhan University in the Chinese region where COVID-19, the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, was first reported.

High-traffic areas are best to be avoided, especially where there’s moisture. After setting up traps for small aerosols (airborne particles) in two hospitals in Wuhan, the researchers found more coronavirus aerosols in patients’ bathrooms and in changing rooms for doctors. “While the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 via human respiratory droplets and direct contact is clear, the potential for aerosol transmission is poorly understood,” the researchers wrote.

The study had some good news for hospitals: There were fewer aerosols in isolation wards and patient rooms with good ventilation and thorough sanitization, the study, published Monday, found. “Our results indicate that room ventilation, open space, sanitisation of protective apparel, and proper use and disinfection of toilet areas can effectively limit the concentration of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in aerosols,” they wrote.

Public transportation is also a hot spot, according to a working paper released on April 24 by Jeffrey Harris, professor at the Department of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “Maps of subway station turnstile entries, superimposed upon zip code-level maps of reported coronavirus incidence, are strongly consistent with subway-facilitated disease propagation. Local train lines appear to have a higher propensity to transmit infection than express lines,” he found.

The number of cases, meanwhile, continues to rise. As of Saturday, 6.8 million people had been tested in the U.S. for SARS-CoV-2. There were 1,138,690 confirmed cases, and 66,760 deaths in the U.S., of which 18,491 were in New York City. Worldwide, there were 3,476,021 confirmed cases and 245,531 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering.

Is 6 feet really the ‘magic number’ in public spaces?

However, the study only covers roughly half of the stops on the Flushing line that run through Queens neighborhoods with some of the highest rates of COVID-19. The findings that a drop in subway ridership is associated with a subsequent reversal of the COVID-19 cases could be a proxy for other concurrent social-distancing activities, Harris wrote. Health professionals say occupying enclosed spaces and not maintaining six-feed distances contributes to transmission, and recommend people go to open spaces like parks instead, if they just go out.

A study published in the peer-reviewed The New England Journal of Medicine last month from scientists at Princeton University, UCLA and the National Institutes of Health concluded that the virus could remain airborne for “up to 3 hours post aerosolization.” The scientists found that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the new disease COVID-19, was detectable in the air for up to three hours, up to four hours on copper, up to 24 hours on cardboard, and up to two to three days on plastic and stainless steel.

Proving that airborne particles lead to transmission, however, is less clear, but “plausible,” the researchers wrote. Regardless, it’s recommended that you remain at least six feet apart from other people, especially indoors, experts say, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends wearing masks or face coverings in public. “Studies have looked at how far spit and little droplets fly, and that’s the magic number,” said Luis Ostrosky, vice chairman of internal medicine at McGovern Medical School in Houston.

Another study suggested up to 13 feet. That’s according to an investigation carried out by researchers led by a team at the Academy of Military Medical Sciences in Beijing, was published in Emerging Infectious Diseases, an open-access, peer-reviewed journal published monthly by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many of the coronavirus droplets were found on the ground “perhaps because of gravity and air flow” and “half of the samples from the soles of the Intensive Care Unit medical staff shoes tested positive.”

‘Most face masks do not effectively filter small particles from the air and don’t prevent leakage around the edge of the mask when the user inhales,’ the CDC says.

The life span of the virus varies per surface

“It’s not certain how long the virus that causes coronavirus survives on surfaces, but it seems to behave like other coronaviruses,” the World Health Organization said. “Studies suggest that coronaviruses — including preliminary information on the COVID-19 virus — may persist on surfaces for a few hours or up to several days.” Higher temperaturesare likely to degrade it. But experts caution that as spring arrives in the Northern Hemisphere — which usually marks the end of the traditional flu season — coronavirus may not necessarily go away.

Its life span will also vary, depending on the type of surface, temperature and/or humidity. Bathrooms are a welcoming environment for coronaviruses. “Previous coronaviruses can remain viable in cold, moist surfaces up to nine days,” Ostrosky said. So if you are sharing a home with someone who has coronavirus, he strongly advises against sharing the same bathroom.

As for plane travel, in-flight oxygen is likely of higher quality than the air in your home. “If you have an infected person in the front of the plane, and you’re in the back of the plane, your risk is close to zero simply because the area of exposure is thought to be roughly six feet from the infected person,” according to Charles Chiu, professor of laboratory medicine at University of California, San Francisco.

“Ventilation rates provide a total change of air 20 to 30 times per hour,” the WHO says. “Most modern aircraft have recirculation systems, which recycle up to 50% of cabin air. The recirculated air is usually passed through HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) filters, of the type used in hospital operating theatres and intensive care units, which trap dust particles, bacteria, fungi and viruses.”

How COVID-19 is transmitted

As 30 states prepare to reopen, exercise extra caution in these public spaces Thanks; Quentin Fottrell Published;May,4 Is 6 feet really the ‘magic number’ in public spaces? **Airborne transmission is ‘plausible.’

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bigyack-com · 5 years ago

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Coronavirus Live Updates: Cruise Ship With Infected Passengers and Crew to Dock in California

Whether the edict can be enforced remains to be seen. But European leaders will be watching the effects of Italy’s tactics and wonder whether this is a harbinger of things to come. At the Vatican on Sunday, for the first time, Pope Francis did not appear in person for Sunday Prayer but live-streamed his blessing.The outbreak has now sickened more than 107,200 people worldwide, according to official counts.In the United States, which has more than 400 cases and 19 deaths, President Trump had told reporters that he was not inclined to let 21 people who tested positive for the virus on the Grand Princess cruise ship stranded off the coast of California onto American soil.His reasoning: “I like the numbers being where they are.” But as of Sunday the ship was scheduled to dock in Oakland.In New York, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo declared a state of emergency on Saturday as the number of coronavirus cases in the state rose to 89, including a Queens driver who worked for Uber and two unexplained positive tests of people 200 miles to the north.The outbreak has reached into the halls of power in other countries like Italy, where the leader of the Democratic Party said he had contracted the virus. In Iran, one of the country’s vice presidents, 23 members of Parliament, the deputy health minister and several other senior officials were among thousands of confirmed cases. The dead include a senior adviser to the country’s supreme leader and Fatemeh Rahbar, a member of Parliament, state news media reported.Mr. Trump, an admitted germophobe, said he was not worried about the outbreak getting closer to the White House after the news that a person who had attended a conservative conference outside Washington where he and Vice President Mike Pence spoke last week had tested positive.“I’m not concerned at all,” the president told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, where he was spending the weekend. He said he had no plans to curtail his campaign rallies even though other large gatherings of people are being canceled across the country.“We’re going to have tremendous rallies,” he said.The U.S. Army has suspended travel to and from Italy and South Korea for all soldiers and family members because of the coronavirus outbreak until May 6. The order, which affects 4,500 soldiers and family members, came a day after it was announced that an American sailor deployed to Naples, Italy, had tested positive for the virus.In Iran, which has been hit the hardest in the Middle East, with more than 6,000 confirmed cases, the health ministry announced 49 more deaths on Sunday, bringing the total to 149. Tehran also said it was suspending all flights to Europe indefinitely, state media reported.

The Grand Princess, turned away from San Francisco, will dock in Oakland.

The Grand Princess cruise ship that has been held off the coast of California after 21 people onboard tested positive for the coronavirus was on its way to dock on Monday at the Port of Oakland, the vessel’s operator said.Passengers on the ship who require “acute medical treatment and hospitalization” will disembark first and be taken to facilities in California, according to the boat’s operator, Princess Cruises. California has emerged as an early center for the virus in the United States, with about 100 cases in all.Other guests onboard who are California residents will be quarantined in a federal center in the state, the statement late Saturday said. Non-Californians will be taken to federal facilities in other states, the company said.Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia said in a statement “34 Georgians and additional American citizens from the eastern United States who are currently on the Grand Princess cruise ship off the California coast will be securely transferred to Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta” for testing and be quarantined if necessary.The ship is holding more than 3,500 passengers and crew members; 19 crew members have tested positive for the virus, Vice President Mike Pence said on Friday. They will be quarantined aboard the vessel. Several other passengers who were on the ship on earlier legs of the voyage have also tested positive.Princess Cruises initially said on Saturday that the ship would dock in Oakland on Sunday. It later amended that statement after what it called a change in planning by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Concern over the Grand Princess, which traveled to Hawaii before returning to California, began last week after the death of a 71-year-old man who had been on a previous leg of the cruise, a round trip from San Francisco to Mexico last month.Princess Cruises also runs the Diamond Princess, the coronavirus-stricken cruise ship that was quarantined off the coast of Japan last month. The virus circulated among the more than 3,700 crew members and passengers who were waiting out a two-week isolation period in the port city of Yokohama, with more than 700 cases identified from that ship.On Saturday, Japan said that a man from Hong Kong who was a passenger on the Diamond Princess had died of the coronavirus on Friday in Japan, the eighth death associated with the ship.

Italy orders a lockdown affecting 16 million people.

Italy’s government had said it would take the extraordinary step of locking down entire sections of the country’s north, restricting movement for a quarter of the population in a sweeping effort to fight the coronavirus.“We are facing an emergency, a national emergency,” Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said in announcing the government decree in a news conference after 2 a.m.The move is tantamount to sacrificing the Italian economy in the short term to save it from the ravages of the virus in the long term. The measures will turn stretches of Italy’s wealthy north — including the economic and cultural capital of Milan and landmark tourist destinations such as Venice — into quarantined red zones until at least April 3.They will prevent the free movement of roughly 16 million people.Funerals and cultural events are banned under the measures. The decree requires that people keep a distance of at least one meter from one another at sporting events, bars, churches and supermarkets.The Italian outbreak — the worst outside Asia — has inflicted serious damage on one of Europe’s most fragile economies and prompted the closing of Italy’s schools. The country’s cases more than doubled last week from about 2,500 infections on Wednesday to more than 5,800 on Saturday. Deaths rose to 233.Amid the backdrop of the growing restrictions to contain the virus, Pope Francis on Sunday for the first time live-streamed his Sunday Prayer, an event that usually draws thousands to St. Peter’s Square.Henrietta Kampp and Olivia Studd, students from Denmark, said they had come to St. Peter’s Square — where the prayer was shown, in addition to being available online — because few many people were there.“Had it been crowded, we wouldn’t have come close,” Ms. Kampp said.The Vatican also said on Sunday that it, like Italy, would close its museums and pontifical villas.On “Fox News Sunday,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that he doubted the United States would have to impose measures as “draconian” as Italy has done to halt the spread of coronavirus, but he added, “Anything is possible.”“If we continue to get cases like this, particularly at the community level, there will be what we call ‘mitigation,’ where we have to essentially do social distancing, keep people out of crowded places, take a look at seriousness, do you really need to travel, those kinds of things,” he said.In other parts of Europe: Germany said on Sunday that the number of coronavirus cases had risen to 939; Switzerland had 281 confirmed infections; and Britain’s health department said that two people with the virus had died and that the number of cases in the country had jumped to 273 by Sunday. The Finnish armed forces announced that troop exercises planned for Mar 9-19 with Norway would be scrapped because of the outbreak.

An attendee at a conference where Trump and Pence spoke tests positive.

A person who attended a conservative conference where President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence spoke last week has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to the conference’s host.The American Conservative Union, which hosts the annual Conservative Political Action Conference outside Washington, said the attendee was exposed to the virus before the four-day event and tested positive for it on Saturday.“This attendee had no interaction with the president or the vice president and never attended the events in the main hall,” the group said in a statement. “The Trump administration is aware of the situation, and we will continue regular communication with all appropriate government officials.”The attendee has been quarantined in New Jersey, the statement said.Stephanie Grisham, the White House press secretary, said in a statement that there was “no indication that either President Trump or Vice President Pence met with or were in close proximity to the attendee.”Others who spoke at the conference included Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia. Also in attendance were Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and adviser, and Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son.

What everyone wants to know: What’s the fatality rate?

Understanding how deadly the coronavirus can be is a central factor for governments to gauge how drastic their countermeasures should be and for individuals to adjust their own anxiety.But the real rate is elusive.The World Health Organization’s estimate last week of 3.4 percent seemed to shock experts, some of whom said that 1 percent was more realistic.There are several reasons the right number remains unclear.Not enough people have been tested. Incomplete testing means the reported death rates probably skew high; if many more cases were detected, the rates would fall. Until last week, people in the United States were tested only if they had traveled to China or had contact with other ill people. Many infected people in the country were not being counted.The number of coronavirus deaths could be incomplete. Cases where infected people died without being tested might be missed. And people can be infected for a while before becoming sick enough to be at risk of death — which can throw off a short-term calculation.The rate won’t be the same everywhere. Experts say differences in populations and health systems can raise or lower the death rate by country. For example, there is strong evidence that older people are at a higher risk of dying, so countries with more older people may end up with a higher rate.

The death toll rises after a quarantine center collapses in China.

Ten people died in the collapse of a hotel that was being used as a coronavirus quarantine facility in Quanzhou, a city in China’s southeastern Fujian Province, the government said on Sunday.Government officials said that about 70 people had been trapped inside the building when it collapsed on Saturday. Thirty-eight people had been rescued as of Sunday afternoon and taken to the hospital. Officials said 23 people were still trapped insideThe People’s Daily, a Chinese state-run newspaper, said that the hotel had collapsed during renovations and that the owner of the building was under police custody.The five-story hotel, which opened in summer 2018, was designated a quarantine center for people who have been in close contact with suspected coronavirus patients. Of those trapped inside the hotel when it collapsed, 58 had been placed under quarantine, officials said.

Saudi Arabia cordons off Shiite towns to contain the outbreak.

Saudi Arabia cut off access on Sunday to Shiite Muslim towns and villages in the east of the kingdom, cordoning off an area in Qatif Governorate in an attempt to contain the outbreak. All 11 of the country’s confirmed coronavirus cases have occurred in Qatif, the center of Saudi Arabia’s Shiite population.The government’s announcement did not appear to affect any Sunni towns or villages. Shiites were left wondering whether they would be able to go to work or to travel outside the area.The move was cast as a public health measure, but it also touched on delicate political matters for the kingdom, where the Shiite minority has long faced discrimination. In recent days, the group has come under greater scrutiny because the first coronavirus cases occurred in people who had returned from Iran, the site of the biggest outbreak of the virus in the Middle East.Flights and trade links have been cut since 2016 between Saudi Arabia and Iran, the kingdom’s regional enemy and rival. But Saudis have continued to visit Iran in secret by transiting through other countries, abetted by the Iranian authorities, who refrain from stamping their passports.The kingdom assailed Iran over the practice last week, accusing it of contributing to the coronavirus threat in Saudi Arabia. The government asked Saudi citizens who had been to Iran in secret in the previous 14 days to turn themselves in.Residents said that towns and villages in the municipality of Qatif, on the kingdom’s eastern coast north of the headquarters of Saudi Aramco, were surrounded by security vehicles on Sunday. The government announced that entry and exit into the area was “temporarily” suspended, the official Saudi Press Agency reported, though it said that residents would be allowed to return to their homes.All government departments and private institutions would also suspend operations, other than essential businesses including gas stations and pharmacies, the announcement said. Schools in the area were closed.

The Trump administration sends mixed messages on who can get a test kit.

President Trump said that “anyone who wants a test can get a test” on Friday as he toured the Atlanta headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But Alex M. Azar II, the health and human services secretary, later clarified Mr. Trump’s promise and defended his phrasing.Mr. Azar said that only those who had gone through a doctor or medical professional could be approved for a test. Mr. Trump’s phrasing, he said, reflected a recent shift in federal regulations.The C.D.C. lifted all restrictions on testing for the coronavirus on Wednesday. Instead of federal regulators and those shipping the test kits, doctors and professional public health officials now decide who can be tested.Mr. Azar said Mr. Trump had used “shorthand” to make that point.Dr. Stephen Hahn, the F.D.A. commissioner, said that more than 5,860 samples had been tested. In addition, more than 1.1 million tests have been shipped to private health labs and hundreds of thousands more are being surveyed for quality at the C.D.C., he added.Despite Mr. Azar’s assurance that any ill person with a doctor’s recommendation can readily obtain a test, health professionals and patients across the United States have clamored for tests believed to be in short supply.In California, only 516 tests had been conducted as of Thursday. Health officials in Washington State have more cases than they can process. In New York City, officials have pleaded for more test kits from the C.D.C.

A Starbucks shuts down in Seattle after an employee tests positive.

After a Starbucks employee was confirmed to have the virus on Friday, the company immediately closed the downtown Seattle store and issued a statement saying that it was following health authority guidelines to protect customers and employees.The company, founded in Seattle in the early 1970s, also said it was taking additional steps to reduce the risk of exposure at its stores, including barring customers from using their own coffee containers.The coronavirus has hit the Seattle area harder than anywhere else in the United States, with 16 deaths in Washington State, most from a nursing home northeast of the city. The virus and its public health implications have rippled through the community, affecting how and where people work and gather.Many employees and students at the University of Washington, for example, are working and taking classes remotely.“Seattle is freaking out,” said Lenny Galaviz as he stopped to take a photograph through a window of the closed store, a Starbucks Reserve.

The Chinese version of the W.H.O. website omits a key mention of traditional medicines.

Those looking to the World Health Organization’s website for guidance on what not to do during the coronavirus outbreak are finding different answers, depending on where they are and which version of the website they visit.In a Q. and A. about the coronavirus published on Feb. 23, the W.H.O. listed four answers to the question “Is there anything I should not do?”“The following measures ARE NOT effective against Covid-2019 and can be harmful,” the website reads, before listing smoking, taking traditional herbal remedies, wearing multiple masks and taking medications like antibiotics.But in the Chinese-language version of the webpage, the reference to “taking traditional herbal remedies” is omitted. The reference also does not appear when a user visits the English-language webpage from within China, though it is listed on the Arabic, French, Russian and Spanish versions of the site.The discrepancy comes amid a concerted push by the Chinese government to promote traditional Chinese medicine as an effective treatment to the coronavirus alongside antiviral drugs, though there is little clinical proof that the ancient remedies can help combat the disease. In recent years, China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has held up traditional Chinese medicine as a source of national pride, and the multibillion-dollar industry has become a valuable soft power export for China.Lifestyle:The Handshake Is on HoldCoronavirus Puts a Wrinkle in Wedding IndustryHelp:How Deadly Is Coronavirus? What We Know and What We Don’tWhat Should My Building Be Doing to Prevent Coronavirus?How to Help Protect a Family Member in a Nursing HomeHow to Quarantine YourselfHow to Stock a PantryReporting and research were contributed by Jason Horowitz, Vivian Yee, Motoko Rich, Amie Tsang, Yonette Joseph, Pat Lyons, Kirk Johnson, Andy Parsons, Thomas Fuller, Amy Qin, Tiffany May, Elisabetta Povoledo, Choe Sang-Hun, Eric Schmitt, Tess Felder, Claire Fu, Noah Weiland and Michael Levenson. Read the full article

#California #Coronavirus #Crew #Cruise #Dock #health #HealthNews #Infected #live #Passengers #Ship #updates

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seniorbrief · 6 years ago

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8 Times You Should Call 911—and 7 Times You Shouldn’t

Everyday Wellness

Kimberly HollandAug 08

Emergencies are confusing: It’s not always clear when you need to dial 911. Here’s what the experts advise.

Call: You or someone else is experiencing a severe allergic reaction

Ksu_m/Shutterstock

If anyone begins showing signs of a severe allergic reaction—increased heart rate, difficulty breathing, swelling tongue—call 911. Severe allergic reactions can lead to death quickly—in under an hour—so you may not have enough time to get to the emergency department. Emergency responders can give immediate treatment with epinephrine.

“Parents and caregivers are not trained medical professionals, so making a medical decision as to whether an allergic reaction is 911-worthy can be challenging,” says Gerald Lavandosky, MD a pediatric critical care doctor at Pediatric Critical Care of South Florida. “Factors that need to be considered when calling 911 include distance to the nearest emergency department, traffic, weather conditions, and transportation capabilities of the family.” Dr. Lavandosky says mild allergic reactions can be brought to a doctor’s office or emergency department by a family member, but when respiratory symptoms, swelling of the mouth, drooling, or difficulty breathing show up, it’s time to call 911.

Don’t call: You have food poisoning

Viktor Kochetkov/Shutterstock

While uncomfortable and important to treat properly, a call to 911 is not necessary. You can treat the symptoms—often vomiting, nausea, and stomach cramps—at home. Call your doctor’s office and speak with a nurse. On the weekends, most offices have an answering service that can provide basic information.

If you can’t get in touch with your doctor’s office and need guidance for properly treating conditions, including food poisoning, you don’t have to resort to calling 911. You can ring your police department’s non-emergency line. “The difference between 911 and the non-emergency number is how the phone system works in the dispatch center,” says RJ Beam, a police officer, volunteer firefighter, and blogger at rescuehumor.com, “911 calls come in on a special phone linked to a computer.” They also demand the attention of a 911 dispatcher, he says; taking up the line for a non-emergency could prevent someone in a life-and-death situation from getting timely help. Here are some of the craziest things 911 operators have heard on the job.

Call: You or someone else is experiencing breathing problems

SofikoS/Shutterstock

If you can’t catch your breath or someone is showing obvious distress when trying to inhale, it’s time to call for help. “If someone is having significant difficulty breathing, especially if they’re having severe symptoms, such as turning blue, severe wheezing, or what’s called ‘stridor,’ high-pitched breathing sounds, then call 911,” says Darria Long Gillespie, MD, a certified emergency department physician in Atlanta. “They need medications or treatments immediately that 911 can offer so they do not worsen on the way to the hospital.” Have a medical emergency? You need these 8 things to handle it on your own.

Don’t call: You think you have a concussion

chainarong06/Shutterstock

A bump to the head doesn’t automatically mean a 911 call—even if you think there may be a concussion. Most people can remain at home—as long as they’re closely monitored—and report to their doctor the next day for follow-up care. If, however, a loved one hits their head at a high speed—a fall or a car accident, for example—and begins bleeding from the head or face, has a seizure, cannot stand, begins vomiting, or loses consciousness, call 911. These are signs of a serious head injury. Don’t attempt to drive them, either: They’ll need paramedics to attend and move them. Likewise, if a person who’s had head trauma earlier begins to complain of a headache, shows signs of slurred speech, begins vomiting, or loses consciousness, seek emergency medical attention. Find out the secrets emergency room staff won’t tell you.

Original Source -> 8 Times You Should Call 911—and 7 Times You Shouldn’t

source https://www.seniorbrief.com/8-times-you-should-call-911-and-7-times-you-shouldnt/

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djgblogger-blog · 7 years ago

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Why giving cash, not clothing, is usually best after disasters

http://bit.ly/2w14Zoa

Unless you live near a disaster area, sending money may do more good than a mountain of toilet paper. AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez

Between the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other government entities, nonprofits large and small, and contributions from concerned individuals, a massive Hurricane Harvey relief effort is taking shape.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh’s “Help for Houston” drive and countless other community collections illustrate the American impulse to help people whose lives have been upended by catastrophic floods. But like his campaign, these well-intentioned bids to ship goods to distant locales in Texas are perpetuating a common myth of post-disaster charitable giving.

As a researcher with the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, an interdisciplinary center at Harvard University dedicated to relieving human suffering in wartime and disasters by analyzing and improving the way professionals and communities respond to emergencies, I’ve seen the evidence on dozens of disasters, from Superstorm Sandy to the South Asian Tsunami. It all points to a clear conclusion: In-kind donations of items such as food, clothing, toiletries and diapers are often the last thing that is needed in disaster-affected areas.

Delivering things that people need on the ground simply doesn’t help disaster-struck communities as much as giving them – and relief organizations – money to buy what they need. What’s more, truckloads of blue jeans and cases of Lunchables can actually interfere with official relief efforts.

If you want to do the greatest good, send money.

What’s wrong with in-kind donations

As humanitarian workers and volunteers have witnessed after disasters like Haiti’s 2010 earthquake and Typhoon Haiyan, disaster relief efforts repeatedly provide lessons in good intentions gone wrong.

At best, in-kind donations augment official efforts and provide the locals with some additional comfort, especially when those donations come from nearby. When various levels of government failed to meet the needs of Hurricane Katrina victims, for example, community, faith-based and private sector organizations stepped in to fill many of the gaps.

How can in-kind donations cause more harm than good? While ostensibly free, donated goods raise the cost of the response cycle: from collecting, sorting, packaging and shipping bulky items across long distances to, upon arrival, reception, sorting, warehousing and distribution.

Delivering this aid is extremely tough in disaster areas since transportation infrastructure, such as airports, seaports, roads and bridges, are likely to be, if not damaged or incapacitated by the initial disaster, already clogged by the surge of incoming first responders, relief shipments and equipment.

Dumping grounds

At worst, disaster zones become dumping grounds for inappropriate goods that delay actual relief efforts and harm local economies.

After the 2004 South Asian tsunami, shipping containers full of ill-suited items such as used high-heeled shoes, ski gear and expired medications poured into the affected countries. This junk clogged ports and roads, polluting already ravaged areas and diverting personnel, trucks and storage facilities from actual relief efforts.

After the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, many untrained and uninvited American volunteers bringing unnecessary goods ended up needing assistance themselves.

In-kind donations often not only fail to help those in actual need but cause congestion, tie up resources and further hurt local economies when dumped on the market, as research from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies determined.

From Joplin to Japan

Research confirms that a significant portion of aid dispatched to disaster areas is “non-priority,” inappropriate or useless.

One study led by José Holguín-Veras, a Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute expert on humanitarian logistics, found that 50 percent to 70 percent of the goods that arrive during these emergencies should never have been sent and interfere with recovery efforts. After the 2011 Joplin, Missouri tornado and the Tōhoku, Japan earthquake, for example, excessive donations of clothing and blankets tied up relief personnel. The situation was similar after Hurricane Katrina.

Relief workers consider these well-meaning but inconvenient donations as a “second tier disaster” due to the disruption they cause.

And yet Americans are organizing this kind of donation drive in places like Sea Bright, New Jersey, Pleasant View, Tennessee, Escondido, California, Florida’s Treasure Coast, Chicago and Madison, Wisconsin.

What else can you do?

Instead of shipping your hand-me-downs, donate money to trusted and established organizations with extensive experience and expertise – and local ties.

Give to groups that make it clear where the money will go. Choose relief efforts that will procure supplies near the disaster area, which will help the local economy recover. Many media outlets, including The New York Times and NPR, have published helpful guides that list legitimate and worthy options. You can also consult Charity Navigator, a nonprofit that evaluates charities’ financial performance.

Many humanitarian aid organizations themselves have increasingly adopted cash-based approaches in recent years, though money remains a small share of overall humanitarian aid worldwide.

Evaluations of the effectiveness of such programs vary and are context-dependent. Nonetheless, emerging evidence suggests that disbursing cash is often the best way to help people in disaster zones get the food and shelter they need. What’s more, the World Food Program and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees say that people affected by disasters tend to prefer cash over in-kind aid due to the dignity, control and flexibility it gives them.

Exceptions

There are a few notable exceptions to this advice on avoiding in-kind donations.

If you live in or near the affected area, it is helpful to consider dropping the specific items victims are requesting at local food banks, shelters and other community organizations. Just make sure that the items won’t perish by the time they can be distributed. Examples of some locally requested items in Houston include diapers, cleaning and building supplies, and new bedding.

Charity is a virtue. Particularly when disaster strikes, the urge to help is admirable. Yet this impulse should be channeled to do the greatest good. So please, if you would like to help from afar, let the professionals procure goods and services. Instead, donate money and listen to what people on the ground say they need.

And don’t stop giving after the disaster stops making headlines. A full recovery will take time – and support long after the emergency responders and camera crews have moved on.

Julia Brooks does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.

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