COVID-19 (Wuhan Novel Coronavirus) Pandemic Master Thread

[ExGingi]

Call the Gedalia Society hotline

They don’t really have clarity on this.

[NTorch]

And what are the guidelines for recovered families?

I asked my doctor the same question and unfortunately there are not any solid answers. So the question you need to ask yourself and that many of us who have BH recovered are asking is this - how much risk do I want to bear if this can be G-d forbid contracted again.

[CountValentine]

And what are the guidelines for recovered families?

AFAIK the guidelines are the same for everyone. That might change in the future.

[CountValentine]

Another thing you must realize. If you have not had a test you don't know if you had the virus.

[Yehuda57]

They don’t really have clarity on this.

Because no one does. I fail to see how posting on a forum such as this would help. The primary concern in my eyes is the people who will learn from you and make their own gatherings, without knowing the rules and guidelines you put in place.

[aygart]

Because no one does. I fail to see how posting on a forum such as this would help. The primary concern in my eyes is the people who will learn from you and make their own gatherings, without knowing the rules and guidelines you put in place.

And I guarantee people will hear.

[Lurker]

I asked my doctor the same question and unfortunately there are not any solid answers. So the question you need to ask yourself and that many of us who have BH recovered are asking is this - how much risk do I want to bear if this can be G-d forbid contracted again.

+1

Spoke to a doctor from Johns Hopkins earlier this week. He has a team that has been in Italy for the last few months. His advice was even if you've had it already, go nowhere and do nothing. He has doctors who tested positive, went through a full 14 day quarantine, presented post-quarantine with zero symptoms and still tested positive. They don't know enough about this virus regarding re-infection, symptoms reoccurring, or the contagion levels for post-symptomatic patients.

The way I'm looking at it: how much risk am I comfortable with before I put my own or someone else's life at risk? What's the magic number? 5%? 1%? .01%? To me, there is no number. I understand that there are many things in life that can kill, and we can't live in a box for the rest of our lives. But in order to give the science/medical community a few months to get some footing and be able to give some clarity, I'm willing to lock down and not take unnecessary risks. I'd rather look back at this time as a time in which I overreacted, went a little crazy, and maybe missed out on celebrating simchos in their usual ways, rather than a time where I took a small unnecessary risk and put someone in danger or worse.

[Mootkim]

Why? Shouldn't we all be immune at this point?

This was sent to me by someone in the hospital. It may clarify your question

Hi,
To those of you who don't know me - I've been a nurse practitioner for the past 10 years, 7 of which have been spent working in emergency medicine at Good Samaritan Hospital.
I have received numerous questions about the current situation and many questions about hosting ppl or going away for pesach, especially if everyone already had COVID-19...

I would like to take this opportunity to publicly BEG everyone to stay home and not invite any company to stay with them. This virus has already overwhelmed our state and local health care systems. It is more contagious than anything we’ve seen in the past and spreads very easily, even from those who are not showing any symptoms of infection.

The thought of "we all already had the virus, so we can all get together" is FALSE. Medical professionals do not understand everything about this virus yet. Although there is hope that once a person has it, they have developed immunity, there is no proof that they cannot get it again. In fact, there are suspicions among infectious disease and virology experts that there may be two strains to the infection and that the virus may be capable of mutating. We also don't know how long immunity lasts. There have been cases outside the US of patients having the infection more than once. Until there is better understanding about the nature of this virus, it is not safe to assume that once you have it, you are immune.

Based on recommendations from medical experts, Rabbonim in the Five Towns and Bergen County are BEGGING community members to "shelter in place", meaning stay home and do not host any company. EVEN IF EVERYONE HAS ALREADY HAD THE VIRUS AND RECOVERED. I have not seen any local rabbonim publish anything of the sort as of yet, but I am personally begging everyone to please STAY HOME and not host any company. I realize this is difficult for many, but it is necessary.

One final point to remember:
This disease is affecting adults of ALL AGES and is BH sparing most children. If this disease was affecting our young children, our parents and grandparents would do everything in their power to protect them. PLEASE LET'S DO EVERYTHING IN OUR POWER TO PROTECT OUR PARENTS, FAMILIES and COMMUNITY.

For those of you who have been on lockdown for the past few weeks, THANK YOU. I know how difficult it is to be stuck at home all day with a house full of kids. I am also stuck at home on my days off from work as I try to make pesach with cooped up kids running around and no possibility of having cleaning help. It is so challenging. But it can really make a huge difference.

Thanks for listening,
Dina Mounitz

[ExGingi]

This was sent to me by someone in the hospital. It may clarify your question

Hi,
To those of you who don't know me - I've been a nurse practitioner for the past 10 years, 7 of which have been spent working in emergency medicine at Good Samaritan Hospital.
I have received numerous questions about the current situation and many questions about hosting ppl or going away for pesach, especially if everyone already had COVID-19...

I would like to take this opportunity to publicly BEG everyone to stay home and not invite any company to stay with them. This virus has already overwhelmed our state and local health care systems. It is more contagious than anything we’ve seen in the past and spreads very easily, even from those who are not showing any symptoms of infection.

The thought of "we all already had the virus, so we can all get together" is FALSE. Medical professionals do not understand everything about this virus yet. Although there is hope that once a person has it, they have developed immunity, there is no proof that they cannot get it again. In fact, there are suspicions among infectious disease and virology experts that there may be two strains to the infection and that the virus may be capable of mutating. We also don't know how long immunity lasts. There have been cases outside the US of patients having the infection more than once. Until there is better understanding about the nature of this virus, it is not safe to assume that once you have it, you are immune.

Based on recommendations from medical experts, Rabbonim in the Five Towns and Bergen County are BEGGING community members to "shelter in place", meaning stay home and do not host any company. EVEN IF EVERYONE HAS ALREADY HAD THE VIRUS AND RECOVERED. I have not seen any local rabbonim publish anything of the sort as of yet, but I am personally begging everyone to please STAY HOME and not host any company. I realize this is difficult for many, but it is necessary.

One final point to remember:
This disease is affecting adults of ALL AGES and is BH sparing most children. If this disease was affecting our young children, our parents and grandparents would do everything in their power to protect them. PLEASE LET'S DO EVERYTHING IN OUR POWER TO PROTECT OUR PARENTS, FAMILIES and COMMUNITY.

For those of you who have been on lockdown for the past few weeks, THANK YOU. I know how difficult it is to be stuck at home all day with a house full of kids. I am also stuck at home on my days off from work as I try to make pesach with cooped up kids running around and no possibility of having cleaning help. It is so challenging. But it can really make a huge difference.

Thanks for listening,
Dina Mounitz

Thanks for posting that.

[aygart]

https://twitter.com/KatiePavlich/status/1245132689943998464

[Luvisrael]

Hospital in Italy where no medics were infected. It can be done...

[CountValentine]

Hospital in Italy where no medics were infected. It can be done...

...on a small scale.

[AsherO]

All my kids lost sense of taste and smell. Saying that kids don't get it is just wrong and irresponsible.

Its more accurate to say that most kids will have a mild case, but if that kid has ongoing problem (even asthma) the result could G-d forbid be tragic.

The only thing that was said is that it’s been observed that vast majority of kids who are infected have no/mild symptoms. Nobody ever said kids don’t get it, on the contrary it’s been stated a gazillion times that the fact that kids aren’t so affected can give people a false sense of security when in truth kids can be major spreaders of the virus R”L.

No offense NTorch, but it boggles my mind that on March 31st I still have to explain this to people in our communities. People who are active on online forums and all.

[CountValentine]

No offense NTorch, but it boggles my mind that on March 31st I still have to explain this to people in our communities. People who are active on online forums and all.

Where are they getting their info from?

[Luvisrael]

Crystal clear Explanation of Covid-19. Excuse the moderate language, I figured the benefit of people seei these out way that. Mods feel free to delete if you think is not appropriate.

[NTorch]

The only thing that was said is that it’s been observed that vast majority of kids who are infected have no/mild symptoms. Nobody ever said kids don’t get it, on the contrary it’s been stated a gazillion times that the fact that kids aren’t so affected can give people a false sense of security when in truth kids can be major spreaders of the virus R”L.

No offense NTorch, but it boggles my mind that on March 31st I still have to explain this to people in our communities. People who are active on online forums and all.

Sorry - that was not what he said. He did not say "vast majority of kids who are infected have no/mild symptoms."

What he actually said was

Considering that COVID-19 doesnt affect children, this is a bogus charge.

Then again, as soon as you need to start explaining you lost.

I stand by my response - saying point blank that it "doesn't affect children" is irresponsible.

[stooges44]

This is Dr Ellie  Bennett coming to you again from from Queens.
I spent   24  of the last 36 in my ER.
It's an absolute nightmare.
I personally intubated 3 patients in just under an hour.
We have over  400 patients admitted with coronavirus-  82 of them on ventilators. 
To put things in perspective, My ER which is built to have about 80-100 patients, had 172 people ADMITTED with covid 19- crammed into spots, corners and crevices. And all of our ICU and step-down units together can usually handle 50 patients. We are managing ventilators in hallways.

 In 22 years of medicine, I've never seen the staff look this tired-  physically and emotionally drained. At least twice an hour we hear the call overhead that somebody upstairs is in cardiac arrest. This acutely exacerbates our distress. People that we were caring for are dead 12 hours later.
30 year olds. 50 year olds. 70 year olds. Nobody is spared.
We are at the breaking point .
We are out of space in our hospital.
We are out of space in our emergency room.
I was caring for a woman with an oxygen level at 64%  and I had to have her sitting in a chair for an hour until I could find a stretcher.
Multiple doctors in the hospital are out sick with the virus.
I'm caring for patients in their homes and as long as their oxygen level is above 90% I'm trying to keep them from going to the hospital.

The community has been sending love , food and supplies. It is a sight to behold and it does lift our spirits.

But we need more. I'm still asked daily about people wanting to leave town for the holidays. I'm still asked daily  if parents can come for pesach to be with their children.
I'm begging you please try and understand the gravity of the situation.
Please stay home for the holiday.
Please do not travel.
For the love of everything holy, please stop going to secret minyamin.
Continue the prayers- don't stop for one second!!
But do it from home.
Do it with your children.
Have us in mind.
We need it.
We all need it.

Edward (Ellie) Bennett, MD

[CountValentine]

Considering that COVID-19 doesnt affect children, this is a bogus charge.

Then again, as soon as you need to start explaining you lost.

Doesn't affect children? Where did you get this wrong information from?

I stand by my response - saying point blank that it "doesn't affect children" is irresponsible.

I wonder where they get this info from? @avromie7

[avromie7]

I wonder where they get this info from? @avromie7

When I said it doesn't affect children I meant it doesn't harm children, so there is no reason for a child endangerment charge. I'm sorry if it was misunderstood.

[CountValentine]

When I said it doesn't affect children I meant it doesn't harm children, so there is no reason for a child endangerment charge. I'm sorry if it was misunderstood.

Yes it harms children!!!
I know exactly why you are trying to spin it this way but that is dangerous. If you want to call the charge bogus go right ahead but don't twist the facts about this deadly virus!!!