Corona Virus #7

[California]

Anyone hear of the train locomotive at full clip heading to Mercy Hospital Ship skidding across the parking lot?

Engineer intentionally derails train near Navy hospital ship, says SNS Mercy was suspicious

At first I thought April Fools?

Port of Los Angeles engineer suspected of intentionally derailing train near USNS Mercy

I read that too. Guy saw the ship and concluded we were under attack from the US military. Ran his train full speed off the end of the port track and made it halfway across the parking lot.

Maybe a 'Black Helicopters' conspiracy nut????? USA Today:

"Moreno told police he believed the Mercy had "an alternate purpose related to COVID-19 or a government takeover," according to the DOJ."

"You only get this chance once," Moreno told a California Highway Patrol officer, according to the DOJ. "The whole world is watching. I had to. People don't know what's going on here. Now they will."

 

[dragoneggs]

Anyone hear of the train locomotive at full clip heading to Mercy Hospital Ship skidding across the parking lot?

Engineer intentionally derails train near Navy hospital ship, says ‘USNS Mercy was suspicious’

At first I thought April Fools?

Port of Los Angeles engineer suspected of intentionally derailing train near USNS Mercy

Just saw that on the news... WTH?

 

[rswyan]

An hour ago, a team of 40+ medical experts & engineers from Israel released the #opensource blueprints for @AmboVent - a low-cost, medically tested #COVIDー19 ventilator device, made from off-the-shelf components, to answer worldwide #Coronavirus shortages

Twitter

GitHub - AmboVent/AmboVent: AmboVent 1690.108

:thumbsup:

 

[rswyan]

I read that too. Guy saw the ship and concluded we were under attack from the US military. Ran his train full speed off the end of the port track and made it halfway across the parking lot.

Maybe a 'Black Helicopters' conspiracy nut????? USA Today:

"Moreno told police he believed the Mercy had "an alternate purpose related to COVID-19 or a government takeover," according to the DOJ."

"You only get this chance once," Moreno told a California Highway Patrol officer, according to the DOJ. "The whole world is watching. I had to. People don't know what's going on here. Now they will."

Neurologists around the world say that a small subset of patients with Covid-19 are developing serious impairments of the brain. Some don't even have more typical symptoms like fever or shortness of breath.

Twitter

Some Coronavirus Patients Show Signs of Stroke, Seizures and Confusion - The New York Times

 

[Gale Hawkins]

I'm glad the track ended when it did. Hoping for better news from all fronts in this war against this Corona dude.

 

[California]

Neurologists around the world say that a small subset of patients with Covid-19 are developing serious impairments of the brain. Some don't even have more typical symptoms like fever or shortness of breath.

Oh J.... . Not what you want in a locomotive engineer.

 

[rswyan]

Oh J.... . Not what you want in a locomotive engineer.

Not what you want in any significant amount in a population ...

 

[IslandTractor]

Malaria Drug Helps Virus Patients Improve, in Small Study
Malaria Drug Helps Coronavirus Patients Improve, in Small Study - The New York Times

Although small, this study of hydroxychloroquine, done with appropriate control group, shows benefit for mildly ill patients with Covid-19 pneumonia. 25 of 31 in experimental treatment group improved compared to 17 of 31 in the control group. More importantly none of the treated group progressed to “severe” while 4 of the control group patients did. I’ve only seen the NYT write up but Bill Schaffner, a straight shooter like Tony Fauci, seems to think it’s action fits with theory that it modulates the overwhelming immune response which causes damage (cytokine storm). Good news especially if larger studies confirm the effectiveness. Of note this was studied only in mildly ill patients so not clear it will help in those who have progressed to serious pneumonia before treatment.

I hope there isn’t any serious shortage because “worried well” have convinced their doctors to write prescriptions and non infected people have stashed it at home. This should be reserved for those with documented infections at this stage until adequate supplies and further evidence is available on prophylaxis.

One more point: this was a Chinese study so those of you who routinely have knee jerk instincts to bash the Chinese might reconsider your biases.

 

[rswyan]

That’s some promising news Doc ... good to hear ...

 

[IslandTractor]

One element of the pathogenesis of Covid-19 that I find odd is that there is clearly more risk of severe disease in older patients and those with preexisting chronic disease, a group that in general would be expected to have weaker immune systems, but it also seems increasingly like immune overreaction (cytokine storm) is responsible for a lot of the severe pneumonia. Odd. Usually with poor immune function you’d expect overwhelming infection where viral growth cannot be stopped and virus spreads to involve other organs. In Covid-19, virus seems largely limited to the respiratory tract even in older patients with preexisting conditions. However if damage is done largely by overreacting or poorly controlled immune response (again cytokine storm), then why would an age group with declining immune function be the group at highest risk. ???