Study finds COVID-19 infecting homeless in large numbers, with few ill effects
A CDC study that established universal testing for Wuhan virus antibodies at a homeless shelter in Boston has found that almost forty percent of those tested had been infected previously, with no symptoms.
The broad-scale testing took place at the shelter in Boston’s South End a week and a half ago because of a small cluster of cases there. Of the 397 people tested, 146 people tested positive. Not a single one had any symptoms.
“It was like a double knockout punch. The number of positives was shocking, but the fact that 100 percent of the positives had no symptoms was equally shocking,” said Dr. Jim O’Connell, president of Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, which provides medical care at the city’s shelters. [emphasis mine]
Not only does this reinforce results from previous studies (here and here) suggesting that the mortality of coronavirus is much smaller than so far measured and quite likely comparable to the flu, it shows that it is not a threat to the general population.
Think about it. The homeless population is usually unhealthy, with alcoholism and drug use prevalent. Yet, even here a large number got infected, exhibited no symptoms, and were unbothered by the virus. It is possible that their normal ill health disguised their symptoms, but nonetheless the Wuhan flu did not kill them.
If it couldn’t kill large numbers in this population, it means it certainly will not kill large numbers in the normal population. Which means that the lockdowns, social distancing, and coming economic crash, all imposed by government and media panic, were all unnecessary.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
A CDC study that established universal testing for Wuhan virus antibodies at a homeless shelter in Boston has found that almost forty percent of those tested had been infected previously, with no symptoms.
The broad-scale testing took place at the shelter in Boston’s South End a week and a half ago because of a small cluster of cases there. Of the 397 people tested, 146 people tested positive. Not a single one had any symptoms.
“It was like a double knockout punch. The number of positives was shocking, but the fact that 100 percent of the positives had no symptoms was equally shocking,” said Dr. Jim O’Connell, president of Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, which provides medical care at the city’s shelters. [emphasis mine]
Not only does this reinforce results from previous studies (here and here) suggesting that the mortality of coronavirus is much smaller than so far measured and quite likely comparable to the flu, it shows that it is not a threat to the general population.
Think about it. The homeless population is usually unhealthy, with alcoholism and drug use prevalent. Yet, even here a large number got infected, exhibited no symptoms, and were unbothered by the virus. It is possible that their normal ill health disguised their symptoms, but nonetheless the Wuhan flu did not kill them.
If it couldn’t kill large numbers in this population, it means it certainly will not kill large numbers in the normal population. Which means that the lockdowns, social distancing, and coming economic crash, all imposed by government and media panic, were all unnecessary.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Is this the same study where Wayne pointed out that they used BioMedomics’ COVID-19 IgM/IgG Rapid Test? The one for which “Positive results may be due to past or present infection with non-SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus strains, such as coronavirus HKU1, NL63, OC43, or 229E.” https://www.biomedomics.com/products/infectious-disease/covid-19-rt/
OC43 & 229E are responsible for about 15% of common colds. How is a test susceptible to so may false positives at all useful in an SARS-CoV-2 epidemiological study?
That could mean so many things. Perhaps we should consume more booze and drugs to protect us from C19. Perhaps they tested only the living homeless — those that died from C19 and who lie somewhere behind Walmart weren’t asked. And symptom-free doesn’t mean free from negative affects (though less severe than symptomatic cases).
Of 104 cases analyzed, 76 (73%) were asymptomatic, 41 (54%) of which had pneumonic changes on CT. Other 28 (27%) cases were symptomatic, 22 (79%) of which had abnormal CT findings.
“Chest CT Findings in Cases from the Cruise Ship “Diamond Princess” with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)” [Mar 17 2020]
https://pubs.rsna.org/doi/10.1148/ryct.2020200110
There are a few questions on this one I’ve been unable to find answers for:
1. Are the people getting into the shelter being selected for against symptoms of Covid-19, either self-selected – if they have symptoms they sleep elsewhere rather than risk anger from other people in the shelter (as I promise you happens if you go to a supermarket with a dry cough, other shoppers will not be happy to see you), or because they know the managers of the shelter would take issue with them staying there (I know cases of such establishments turning away people with symptoms).
2. Does that shelter have mostly the same guests each night, if so, what about their (hypothetical) friend who was coughing all over them 2 days ago and is now in hospital, if he infected them all then they would be presymptomatic, they wouldn’t be asymptomatic until after the usual incubation period. In short the whole lot of them could easily have been exposed recently to a super spreader, in such close confines the R0 in that case could have been 100+.
While there are unknown issues around selection in the example Mr. Zimmerman offers above (and other cases he’s mentioned), I prefer to look at examples with more knowns like this one:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-military-sympt-idUSKCN21Y2GB?utm_source=Nature+Briefing&utm_campaign=ff928b9a9f-briefing-dy-20200417&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c9dfd39373-ff928b9a9f-44762053
Roughly 60 percent of the over 600 sailors who tested positive so far have not shown symptoms of COVID-19, the potentially lethal respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus, the Navy says. The service did not speculate about how many might later develop symptoms or remain asymptomatic.
So again, as with the Diamond Princess where unknowns are small there’s a 50-60% asymptomatic rate.
Sound case studies with small unknowns: 50-60% asymptomatic, the questionable case studies Mr. Zimmerman is now selecting for: 98 – 100% asymptomatic.
Just spoke to a customer who had the bug.
I asked if he took Hydroxychloroquine, he said no, he was given Azithromycine and it worked well for him. And he was given a Welbutrine inhaler. Looks fine and is fully functional.
Had a 108 degree fever, he refused to go to the hospital.
Contour, I see Cuomo wants people wearing masks in public, is everyone complying?
Thanks.
“Hundreds of thousands in L.A. County may have the coronavirus, study finds”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/hundreds-of-thousands-in-la-county-may-have-the-coronavirus-study-finds/ar-BB12WsmD
“Hundreds of thousands of Los Angeles County residents may have been infected with the coronavirus by early April, far outpacing the number of officially confirmed cases, according to a report released Monday.
The initial results from the first large-scale study tracking the spread of the coronavirus in the county found that 2.8% to 5.6% of adults have antibodies to the virus in their blood, an indication of past exposure.
That translates to roughly 221,000 to 442,000 adults who have recovered from an infection, according to the researchers conducting the study, even though the county had reported fewer than 8,000 cases at that time.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-serology-idUSKBN22234S
More or less, most all are wearing a mask and are very aware and generally staying away form each other. Their are basically 2 executive orders that relate. 1. Any business owner must provide their essential workers with safety PPE and they must wear masks if dealing with the public. and #2 relates to people in public who might find themselves closer than 6 feet from others, in which case you need a mask. On public transportation, outside on the street, etc.
Just spoke with an EMT who works in the Bronx, working 60 hours a week and is very busy with Covid patients in extreme distress hauling them to the hospital.
Col Beausabre: This is the same study I posted about on April 17.
Both MSN and Reuters are simply an amateur news organizations, getting to stories days after real news sources, such as BtB, have posted them and provided intelligent commentary. :).
intelligent commentary
Why thank you, I do my best. :-)
Sorry about the auto correct on the phone Cotour, back to the desktop now.
From the real world: Just spoke with an ICU nurse who works in the Montefiore hospital system which is a mega medical organization. She was going back to work today and was nervous because in her hospital which is deep in the Bronx they are still very busy with Covid people.
The homeless are outdoors. You are less likely to catch a respiratory virus outdoor than indoor.
It’s still cold in Utah. 94 out of 205 homeless men test positive.
https://www.deseret.com/utah/2020/4/17/21225058/south-salt-lake-shelter-94-covid19-positive-homeless-coronavirus
Comments at the bottom of the article are interesting, here’s one of them.
“Can we please report flu deaths as well. Side by side, we’d find that COVID isn’t the killer everybody thinks it is.”
“353 from last year (1534% more than covid19). 1806 total hospitalizations (740% more than covid19).”
That’s assuming that those being tested are accurate, which they are not.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8211427/Government-demands-money-China-3-5-million-antibody-tests-faulty.html
Drifting off topic, but I’m having a hard time making it past the photo at the start of the Deseret News story, where the South Salt Lake Men’s Resource Center advertises that they welcome “All Gender Identities”. Is it possible to truly welcome ALL gender identities and still be a “Men’s Center”? So confused.
Anyhow, 2 tested positive a week ago, 94 positive this week. “That 46% attack rate is consistent with rates found at other congregant living settings that have confirmed exposure to this virus. … Transmission rates in large households tend to be between 25% and 50%.“