Happy Fathers Day!

I wish I could find an appropriate article to start the discussion with uplifting and inspirational thoughts – but as most fathers know its not the glory things that get you through fatherhood. There are just things you got to do to provide for your family.

So here I start with a sewage article noting that Italy would have seemed to have an issue before the Wuhan outbreak – https://www.news-medical.net/news/20200620/Italye28099s-sewage-water-shows-SARS-CoV-2-present-prior-to-reported-outbreak-in-Wuhan.aspx

“Italian researchers have found traces of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 in sewage wastewater that indicates that the virus may have been in circulation since December 2019. This controversial discovery shows that even before the first case was reported in Wuhan, China, in late December 2019, the virus had already arrived in northern Italy.”

“a study published in May 2020 by French researchers showed that there was a case of COVID-19 in France on the 27th of December 2019, nearly a month before the nation had reported the first case. The first confirmed case of COVID-19 was reported from Spain in late February, early March. A recent study revealed traces of the virus in sewage water in the country in mid-January in Barcelona.”

“This finding comes off the back of other shocking research out of Ecuador that found the SARS-CoV-2 virus in river water, creating a significant transmission risk in developing countries with inadequate sanitation facilities.”

It was shown that sewage testing seems to be a great way to understand the spread – as noted 5/26 – https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.19.20105999v1.full.pdf

I would hope we start investing/researching in using our sewage to understand coronavirus. I suspect you could also get a decent correlation with viral load measured to how many infected.

Given how covid spread and the asymptomatic nature of the virus – it should not be surprising that it is undetected for quite sometime before it hits someone that would ring the alarm bell. It would be more surprising that the point of sickness and detection is the start of the issue. It is interesting the North Italian and China connection….Googled – https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/videos/international/covid-19-did-you-know-about-italys-china-connection/videoshow/74694266.cms

“But what is the connection between Italy and the novel coronavirus considering the deadly virus is reported to have originated from China? The answer is fashionably simple. The northern part of Italy has been a traditionally prosperous region due to the flourishing fashion and garment industry. Most of the big global brands like Gucci and Prada have their base in this region. With China offering one of the cheapest manufacturing options in the world, it came as little surprise that most of these fashion brands were working with China. A large number of these Italian fashion and garment houses had outsourced their manufacturing to Chinese labour, specifically in Wuhan. Italy also has direct flights from Wuhan and reports suggest over 100,000 Chinese citizens were working in Italian factories. Chinese made a slow and steady move into Italy and many Italian fashion firms are now owned by them as well. As per a news report, there are more than 300,000 Chinese and over 90% of them work in the Italian garment industry. As per reports, there are thousands of small companies that are active in exports. This region is also very interconnected as well.”

It is déjà vu again in Beijing. Lockdown again – https://www.chron.com/news/article/Beijing-s-new-coronavirus-outbreak-carries-an-15354718.php

“In much of Beijing, life had returned to something like normal weeks ago. Restaurants welcomed diners, people went back to work, schools reopened. The pandemic seemed like something that was happening to the rest of the world, not China.

Then Beijing announced Thursday its first domestically transmitted coronavirus case in 55 days – a 52-year-old man surnamed Tang. Tang told officials that he had not left the city in more than two weeks and had not been in contact with anyone outside the city. Authorities soon discovered dozens more cases, mostly linked to a sprawling market in Beijing’s southeast. On Saturday, it reimposed strict "wartime" measures to prevent a second wave of infections. Residents, taken aback by a partial lockdown in the city, described something akin to deja vu.”

“The number of cases remains small for a city of 22 million. But authorities are taking few chances: 1,200 flights in and out of Beijing’s two airports were canceled on Wednesday. Schools closed just a month after reopening. Since Tang’s case was announced, the city claims to have tested more than 3.5 million people.”

“The new cases in Beijing raise worrying questions – not only about how the virus could have gotten to Xinfadi market, which is the obvious concern, but also about whether livestock or even fish carry the virus. Chinese officials said the virus could have been circulating near the market since April.”

Brazil approach? Perhaps lost in translation?

“"We are doing something that no one else has done," Pedro Hallal, an epidemiologist at the Federal University of Pelotas, told The Washington Post. "We’re getting near the curve’s peak, and it’s like we are almost challenging the virus. ‘Let’s see how many people you can infect. We want to see how strong you are.’"

No signs of going away….

“There have been other worrying signs from other nations. Singapore and South Korea, which both appeared to have battered back the first wave of the outbreak, have had worrying flare-ups that led them to reimpose some restrictions. New Zealand, which announced it was coronavirus-free on June 8, saw the virus return via travelers from Britain.”

“"I personally believe that over the next year or several years, this virus will take root in our society," Hitoshi Oshitani, a Japanese virologist and government adviser, said in a recent interview, adding that he doubted a vaccine would be effective and that a strategy of waiting for herd immunity was "nonsense."

Database issue today….