Dr. Morrow:

Your WAGs about the number of cases of COVID-19 are not helpful. In your position, you could do a limited study (say, 100 random people) to assess the number of people who have had it, but didn't know, or have it now and don't know. As I understand, Stanford expects to publish the results of a similar study, with many more participants, at the end of this week. Until then, you should have kept your speculations to yourself.

Those people who are fearful currently will become more fearful after reading your unfounded guesses. Those people who are already skeptical will find you to be a non-credible source of information. How does that help us deal rationally with what is before us?

--Chuck Bernstein
444 Oak Court, Menlo Park

> your unfounded guesses.

Having a bad day, Chuck? Our local medical/health pro's are doing a great job. Just look at the hard numbers about excess mortality in NYC to get a picture of how bad it could have been.


Numbers: (yes, they're early and will be adjusted; from various sources - NYC, U of A study, etc..) Per NYC:

- 18,551 people died of all causes (March 11 thru April 13)

- COVID deaths: 10,367
- non-COVID death: 8,184
- expected/non-pandemic year (5 year avg): 5155.2 deaths

3,028 people dead, above normal mortality plus known Covid19.

How many of the 3,028 excess mortality died of delays, fear of going to the doc in the middle of the crisis, longer wait times, diagnosed Covid, etc..?

Dunno.

Other studies show similar 'excess mortality' in urban settings, with a higher multiplier in rural settings.

Dr. Scott needs lots more testing. The better comments, Chuck, would be to inquire as to WHY we haven't been doing more testing.

I am proud that the Bay Area led the nation by implementing the first Shelter in Place. Certainly it has enabled us, where the virus probably first landed from China, etc., to avoid the horrific experience that New York is having. Dr. Morrow's guess at 2-3% having been infected is certainly more educated than my guess would be, but I'd be ALOT more comfortable with a real study of a 100 or 1,000 of our residents so that we can get the facts. I also wish that the Almanac had inquired about the testing. Dr. Morrow says that we need significantly more testing. Why isn't it happening? You can only be tested if you show symptoms or know that you've been with someone who is positive. When are we going to start testing others and is there any strategy around tracing? South Korea seems to have been highly successful with their testing and tracing. I know that Stanford has initiated tracing at their Crown clinic, but we need a broad strategy to greatly expand testing and include tracing.

> Why isn't it happening?

The rest of the world started using WHO testing technology back in late January. The US declined and went it's own route. We were promised 4 million tests in February.

The guy who made that promise said in March there have been plenty of tests available for everyone who wants one. So, according to him, it's someone else's fault. Here we are in mid-April.

'tis a quandary...

"WHY we haven't been doing more testing."

Simple - The Federal government refused the proven WHO test, used its own flawed CDC test and then did not start ramping up the development and approval of non-CDC tests until well into MARCH !!!

My son, John, who has been in a 15 bed psych ward at the Long Beach VA since last July, tested positive for the coronavirus on Monday, March 30. Twelve days later, he retested positive. Sixteen days later he was free of the virus. He had no symptoms of the virus and was not treated for it by the VA. So, how many people like John, have hosted the virus without having symptoms? And, what about those rugged individuals, who don't have time to run to the doctor, and just tough it out? These people don't get counted. One anecdotal(but true) story does not prove anything, but neither do the flawed numbers being bandied about by the media.
John was a two pack a day Marlboro man until he was admitted to the VA psych ward last July. He has emphysema, and type 2 diabetes. Go figure. The VA did not treat him for coronavirus, because he lacked the symptoms.
John was a two pack a day Marlboro man until he was admitted to the VA psych ward last July. He has emphysema, and type 2 diabetes. Go figure. The VA did not treat him for coronavirus because he lacked the symptoms.

Undercounting the denominator because of missing asymptomatic people does change the death rate but does not change the number of deaths.

Our objective is to minimize the number of deaths.

The true death rate from Covid 19 won't be known for years as the epidemiologists get better and better data and then continue to refine their analysis.

These are some of the best comments I have read on an Almanac thread. Quality thinking, respectful (mostly), good direct responses. This is a good example of how these comment threads can expand and enrich the discussion.
Thanks to all the commenters above me here.

I found this link from a post on Nextdoor to be worth posting here.

Web Link

While seeing the current flatten in the Bay Area has been encouraging, the public response to closing parks and limiting recreation to a small radius in San Mateo county had been nothing short of a disaster. San Mateo county was among the first to close all of its parks, which lead to an uptick in usage at MidPeninsula parks. Then they became burdened by the increase and closed on weekends and completely closed Windy Hill. The latest move was to ban bikes, which now forces all of the remaining traffic into the few remaining city parks that have stayed open, and I think it's clear what will happen next...

Why has our response been so uncoordinated and draconian? Contrast this to Contra Costa county and East Bay Parks that have strived to stay open to provide people of all walks of life (not just those fortunate and wealthy enough to live close to nature) an opportunity to get outside, and have explicitly and adamantly refused to impose such a limitation.

We've made a bad problem much, much worse, which is affecting people's mental health too. Keep all parks open!

"On 28 March the Guardian exposed the missing six weeks lost as a result of Trump’s dithering and downplaying of the crisis when the virus first struck. Jeremy Konyndyk, another central figure in the US battle against Ebola, told the Guardian that the Trump administration’s initial response was “one of the greatest failures of basic governance and leadership in modern times”.

Now that the US is contemplating a shift into the second phase of the crisis – tentative reopening of the economy – scientists and public health officials are agreed that three pillars need to be put into place to manage the transition safely. They are: mass testing to identify those who are infected, contact tracing to isolate other people who may have caught Covid-19 from them, and personal protective equipment (PPE) to shield frontline healthcare workers from any flare-up.

A chorus of expert voices has also begun to be heard warning that those three essential pillars remain in critically short supply throughout the US. Less than a month after the Guardian’s exploration of the missing six weeks, the chilling recognition is dawning that the country is heading for a second massive failure of governance under Trump, this time on an even bigger scale."

Web Link