Wait until the true magnitude sinks in. They’re out of several critical abx at my daughter's shop, a major state health magnet, and are told no resupply is in sight.

A corner was turned last Friday. All major epidemiologist and the CDC have said containment is impossible, expect a major outbreak in the US.

And do you know how many COVID19 diagnostic tests were processed in the last ten days in the US? Sixteen per day. Sixteen. That’s all CDC can do. No surge capacity either. They’re stretched at 16. South Korea has been averaging 1700 tests per day and can handle 4000/day surge.

Every once in a while a legitimate crisis reveals how corrupt things have gotten. We're there.

The twitterverse is abuzz with news of harsh Chinese crackdowns and the arrests of crematoria managers who yesterday reported that death figures were total fiction. They said each of 15 crematoriums have been processing 100 corpses per day, were running 24/7 for the last two weeks, and the equipment was breaking down and they can’t get spare parts.

Doctors and crematoria staff have been told any discussion of deaths will result in severe punishment.

There are reports, with pics, that 40 portable industrial incinerators have been emplaced in Wuhan that can process 5 tons/day each. The regime says to destroy medical waste.

Buckle up.

??? abx ???
" They’re out of several critical abx at my daughter's shop"

Assume "antibiotics"

:munchin

If Abx = antibiotics, SO WHAT???? This is a viral infection!

late to the thread
 

It's not just preparing for the virus but what the people around us are going to do because of the virus. I'm on the coast in Savannah and I've been telling people to prepare for a hurricane with a bigger % being medical focused.

The last place I will want to take anyone in my family is any kind of medical treatment facility, which is where everyone who is sick will be. Anything that can be stitched, bandaged, or set at home will be.

I'd continue to monitor all medical stores for shortages and not those just related to antivirals.

That was March 18, 2006. That's when I bought the N95 masks that are in our garage now.

I don't want to jinx your record of multiple wrong predictions, but, I've lived through so many of these and other dire predictions that I'm, to say the least, highly skeptical.

China makes the active pharmaceutical ingredients (API's) for approximately 97% of the antibiotics used in the US. They have the only factory that makes piperacillin.

They make the API's for approximately 50% of the drugs sold in the US. Some of them are the meds that go in crash carts.

As long as China isn't working, we aren't going to be getting a lot of our drugs. I'm personally not betting on China successfully getting everything working again anytime soon. Hence, likely the outage and lack of resupply anytime soon that mugwump is talking about.

It would be wise to stock up on an extra couple of months worth of any Rx meds one needs if one hasn't already as part of their normal preparedness planning.

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation...tories-economy

https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/he...a-659039226b5e

It’s amazing to me that nobody, at some point, didn’t say “Hey, If anything goes bad with China, we’re all screwed!” I’m assuming over a period of at least 50 years our government has decided they are A-Ok with China making the majority of our meds and medical supplies.

Yeah. The shortage in 2016 when the piperacillin plant exploded didn't change things.

Star anise, which was the main ingredient in Tamiflu, is pretty much only grown in China. Fortunately for us, in 2018 a method of synthesizing the ingredient from the plant by fermenting E. coli was adopted.

The main ingredient in Levaquin is only made in Japan.

A lot of the API's could be made in India, but China is 40-50% cheaper.

Almost all of our drugs come from China, India, or Puerto Rico.

I’m not an epidemiologist but I sure wish people would put this illness in perspective, and stop freaking out over it.

Really, unless you are over 80 and in decreased health to begin with this virus is not, I repeat not, likely to kill you and you will recover basically on your own as it runs its course. Much like the flu or a common cold. If it’s not affecting children and young adults...why is not affecting those age groups?

Second, it’s a political and business choice to shutter manufacturing, close businesses, schools and other public activities. Is it better and more productive to issue adequate PPE to employees and keep things moving, or send people home and close assembly lines or whatever the process is that can’t be done another way?

Instead of crashing the stock market how about a public health warning that says if you are sick, feeling sick, have a fever and cough stay home, cover your mouth and wash hands often. If you have been to or traveled to an area with an outbreak self quarantine for two more weeks at home before returning to work. If you are sick and test positive for the virus let the professionals know how to back track your travels.

If I’m wrong let the illness prove that to me, we’ve been down this road before and there are a lot more things that kill a lot more people than this had so far.

Maybe I’m wrong, YMMV

ODNT Sir,


Believe you are spot on with your post, and your summation rings true to many in our camp.

When in charge of kitchens in the past, my instructions to our team were to stay home and get well before coming back in to work. Not only are you not going to potentially contaminate the product, but you will prevent the spread of germs to the rest of the crew.

Sadly, common sense is not the case in all kitchens during cold/ flu season, which is why being very particular when "dining out" is prudent, IMHO.


Great posts on this subject! :munchin


Holly

Heh, now that's a blast from the past, thanks. I remember that one. While still drawing armyciv.mil $$ I was in a MASCAL planning cell next to a fine logistician who became a good friend to this day. (He wanted commo support from me to support the staging of reefer trailers for the zombies that didn't make it.) I don't think this is what Joni Mitchell meant when she wrote "The Circle Game."

Went to see my Cardiologist yesterday, one of the pre-screening questions was "Do you have the Coronavirus?" My wife works at the U of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and when I told her about the query she said that she was pretty sure the question was not asked in the proper context. How would I specifically know if I had it or not? Probably just asking how I felt in general would have been the best way to broach the topic. ODNT, I am with you, if folks who felt ill would stay home instead of going to work sick there would be a lot less illness in this country

A patient of mine on clinical trial tested positive for coronavirus and the company sponsoring the trial panicked. I had to reassure this was a typical coronavirus strain and not COVID-19. In the past month I've had patients come down with influenza A and B, rhinovirus, respiratory synctial virus, parainfluenza 1 and 3, and multiple non-Kung-Flu strains of coronavirus.

We're in the mist of respiratory viral season and that is a particularly ignorant screening question to ask.