Covid 8/28/20 | COVID 19 Information Page

Now the BBC is picking up on ventilation/HVAC as being the key – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/explainers-53917432

“According to workplace regulations set up before the pandemic , everyone should get 10 litres of fresh air every second, and that matters more than ever now.

So if a place seems stuffy, just turn around and leave, says Dr Hywel Davies , technical director of the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers.

He says that it’s vital to have a flow of clean air:

"If you’ve got someone who’s infected in a building, and you’re bringing in plenty of outside air, you’re diluting whatever infectious material they’re giving off. You’re reducing the risk of other people becoming infected."”

“"Having 100% outside air or close to 100% is a good thing," says Prof Cath Noakes of the University of Leeds and chair of the environmental panel of the government’s SAGE advisers, speaking in a personal capacity.

"The more fresh air, the less you’re running the risk of recirculating the virus through the building."

The precise mix is decided by the building’s managers, who may be working for the owners or the tenants. .

The drawback to running 100% fresh air is the cost – the incoming air has to be heated in winter and cooled in summer, all of which requires energy.”

“…swabbing the filters could reveal if there’s someone infected working in a building.

In South Korea, a call centre on the 11th floor of an office building saw one person infect more than 90 others.

If the filters had been checked more frequently, the presence of the virus might have been spotted sooner.

Prof van den Wymelenberg says data from filters can "show us where to punch and when to punch" in tackling infections.”

Now that’s a good idea – check the filters for virus therefore you know if someone has/is infected in your building.

Treatment for Covid could have been already around – perhaps cats are just as useful as dogs – https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-08-antiviral-cat-coronavirus-sars-cov-.html

“Researchers at the University of Alberta are preparing to launch clinical trials of a drug used to cure a deadly disease caused by a coronavirus in cats that they expect will also be effective as a treatment for humans against COVID-19. "In just two months, our results have shown that the drug is effective at inhibiting viral replication in cells with SARS-CoV-2," said Joanne Lemieux, a professor of biochemistry in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry.

"This drug is very likely to work in humans, so we’re encouraged that it will be an effective antiviral treatment for COVID-19 patients."

The drug is a protease inhibitor that interferes with the virus’s ability to replicate, thus ending an infection. Proteases are key to many body functions and are common targets for drugs to treat everything from high blood pressure to cancer and HIV.”

Continued analysis of the data from https://healthdata.gov/dataset/conditions-contributing-deaths-involving-coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19-age-group-and

Previously we looked at Death per Capita by State and Age Group Finding Risk of death in the 45-54 or under is quite limited relative to other risk in life even if multiplying current deaths by 4. https://covid19mathblog.com/2020/08/covid-8-26-20/

We also showed different states still produce very similar death profile by age category – other than NY showing much higher deaths in the older category. https://covid19mathblog.com/2020/08/covid-8-25-20/

Today we look at the death by condition. This data set I believe is the confirmation covid patients and the associated death attribution. Many are concerned that covid is being over attributed to deaths. The data doesn’t show it is extremely overreported. However missing from the condition group I find interesting is cancer related deaths but likely this rolled up into the other issues e.g. lung cancer – respiratory disease. The data says only 26.6% of confirmed covid patients older than 45 deaths is directly attributed to covid. I could be wrong on deciphering the data but that seems to be the only reasonable interpretation of the data. Total deaths for US for all category 580K (too low for total deaths as 2.8 Million people die a year – just covid 153K which is ball park to the 180K number – likely timing).