News for June 14 — Quarantine of 14 Days Too Short

14 days has always seemed too short a quarantine period when early studies said patients shed virus for an average of 23 days. Latest studies say 14 days is too short for 40% of patients: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/if-you-are-sick/quarantine.html (link replaced 6/15/21; prior content has disappeared from the web). Given that people take 4 or more days to become symptomatic and many apparently shed virus when pre-symptomatic, the information seems roughly consistent.

More danger in India: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-06-delhi-coronavirus-mount-hospital-beds.html (link replaced 12/13/20). And gee, the level of testing is only 1% of the population – but in a country of 1.3 billion, that’s 13 million tests, not that far from US numbers. And we’ve been at this much longer.

WSJ: Wartime measures in Beijing: https://www.wsj.com/articles/beijing-coronavirus-outbreak-tied-to-huge-market-sparks-resurgence-concerns-11592141786?mod=djemHL_t . China had 57 cases nationwide on Saturday, the highest since April 13. We had 158 on Saturday in Oregon … Note that when a new case was discovered in Wuhan, the Chinese tested 9 million people in the city in 10 days …

LA County: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-06-13/l-a-county-reports-1-568-new-coronavirus-cases-58-deaths (link replaced 6/15/21). And positive test numbers of 9% when the re-opening target recommended by public health experts is 3% …

And Florida: https://www.aol.com/article/news/2020/06/14/florida-hits-biggest-daily-covid-19-jump-as-it-gears-up-for-gop-convention/24523034/ . So the “bad numbers” reflect more testing at nursing homes and of farmworkers? God’s waiting room, indeed …

And we have no plan for sports either: https://www.tennessean.com/story/sports/college/SEC/2020/06/13/college-football-coronavirus-cases-impact/5338495002/ (link replaced 6/15/21). Because … “big money” is involved? What the hell are these people talking about? Will there be signed waivers before you enter the stadium? Will a running R0 be on the scoreboard?