Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Corona Update from Vienna

First part published 2 days ago on HIVE

https://hive.blog/coronavirus/@thermoplastic/corona-update-from-vienna

additional Updates added March 26th

SARS-Cov-2 UPDATE FROM VIENNA


I blogged several times about the Corona Virus, and a good summary can be found on this one
SARS-Cov-2 - the dreaded Corona Virus

it has all the links on it to previous blogs.
Since March 10th I've been in Self-Quarantine, but did go out shopping for food and a short walk on March 20th. So here is a Update from that walk - I took a couple of photos and shot a video, which I processed yesterday and finally posted on YouTube today.
IMG_0020WEB600x900-4video.jpg
a ten minute walk from where I live in Vienna - Floridsdorf

SARS-Cov-2 - VIENNA - Floridsdorf, Franz Jonas Platz
20.3.2020 on location video by Otto Rapp
Music by David Fesliyan - "Villainous" - FesliyanStudios.com
A short walk in my neighborhood - I've been in self-quarantine for 10 days, except for shopping for groceries I pretty well stayed inside. This is about a 10 minute walk from my apartment. It is the transportation hub of our district.
Now if you compare the photo on top and the cover image of the video, you might see that the group of 5 police, I assume once they discovered I was taking a video, all of a sudden started paying attention to the people (regulars that usually hang out there, getting their beer from the grocery stores across the plaza). My first observation was that the police were just standing there in a group, certainly not keeping the prescribes "social distance", no protection and acting as if they were "immune" to the virus that our Government is warning about and enforcing restrictions on us mere mortals.

Again today, I checked the Johns Hopkins University Update and found something different in their reporting from previous days. The graph on the bottom right does not show the curve for China, nor for recorded cases, together with "the rest of the world" as previously, but now just one single curve of overall cases.
The orange curve represents China, the yellow curve the rest of the world, and the green curve the recovered cases.
On two previous occasions I had taken screen shot of the zoomed graph to compare. See below:
2020-03-16
Corona graph 2020-03-16.JPG

here I marked in red a significant rise in cases in China February 13th and correspondingly in the rest of the world a month later March 14th. At the time I thought that if things proceed like this, we could see a flattening of the curve for us the same way as for China. But this was not the case as you can see in the following screen shot three days later.
2020-03-19
CORONA graph 2020-03-19.JPG

as you can see here, the J-curve for the rest of the world is shooting up rapidly, no sign of flattening down! While I looked on subsequent days, I did not take screen shots, unfortunately. There was a slight slowing down, but barely noticeable. So today, I was surprised to see that the format changed and we no longer see the other curves, see the screenshot below.
2020-03-23
CORONA graph 2020-03-23.JPG

this is now a bare-bones graph that only shows the rest of the world, but not China, nor a curve for recovered cases - if they did, the contrast would be rather frightening to see, indicating how inadequate "our" responses were in comparison to China.
This is it for now - stay save everyone - avoid crowds, wash your hands often and follow the prescribed restrictions - if you are in a risk group, it would make sense to self-quarantine.



UPDATE SPECIFIC FOR VIENNA
March 26th 2020

PRAXISPLAN ÄRZTEKAMMER WIEN



A very informative note appears on the website of my Internist, very important if you are just looking to get a prescription, because now you won't have to visit the doctors office, but can do so electronically:



Liebe PatientInnen!

Auch während der Corona-Krise sind wir selbstverständlich weiterhin für Sie bzw. für Ihre Gesundheit im Einsatz und betreuen auch weiterhin PatientInnen.

Akute Beschwerden

Da sehr viele Spitalsambulanzen derzeit einen eingeschränkten Betrieb führen, übernehmen wir vermehrt die Betreuung von Patienten mit akuten Beschwerden. Idealerweise kontaktieren Sie uns vorher bitte telefonisch oder per e-Mail zwecks Terminvereinbarung.

Bestehende Termine

Bestmöglich können wir Ihnen helfen, wenn Sie zu Ihrem Termin persönlich erscheinen.
Sollten Sie zur Risikogruppe gehören und somit Befürchtungen vor einer Ansteckung haben und die Öffentlichkeit meiden, bieten wir Ihnen auch eine telefonische Betreuung an.
Grundsätzlich sind die Folgen von unerkannten oder nicht gut behandelten Herz-Kreislauferkrankungen immer noch schwerwiegender als bei einer Erkrankung durch das  Corona Virus.

Rezepte

Rezepte für Ihre Dauermedikamente können entweder telefonisch, per e-mail (office@internist-nord.at) oder über das Formular „Rezeptvorbestellung“ auf unserer Homepage (www.internist-nord.at) bestellt werden. Die Rezepte werden von uns in der Rosen-Apotheke (1210, Brünner Straße 37) hinterlegt, wo Sie dann Ihre Medikamente ab dem nächsten Werktag mit Ihrer E-Card abholen können. Alternativ können wir Rezepte per e-mail an Ihre Wunsch-Apotheke zuschicken.
Bitte halten Sie zu anderen Patienten in der Ordination möglichst Abstand (mind. 1 Meter) und desinfizieren sie Ihre Hände sofort nach dem Betreten der Ordination.
Gemeinsam verhindern wir mit dieser Vorgehensweise die weitere Ausbreitung der Corona-Infektion!

Ihr Team Gruppenpraxis Internist-Nord.at

Falls Sie befürchten, an Corona erkrankt zu sein, bleiben Sie bitte zu Hause und rufen Sie die Tel. Nr. 1450 an!

ENGLISH TRANSLATION:

Dear patients!

Even during the Corona crisis, we are of course still working for you and your health and continue to look after patients.

Acute complaints

Since a large number of hospital outpatient departments are currently running a restricted operation, we are increasingly taking care of patients with acute complaints. Ideally, please contact us in advance by phone or email to make an appointment.

Existing appointments

We can help you as best as possible if you appear in person at your appointment.If you belong to the risk group and are therefore afraid of infection and avoid the public, we also offer you telephone support. Basically, the consequences of undetected or poorly treated cardiovascular diseases are still more serious than those caused by the corona virus.

Prescriptions

Prescriptions for your long-term medication can be ordered either by phone, e-mail (office@internist-nord.at) or using the "Prescription pre-order" form on our homepage (www.internist-nord.at). We store the prescriptions in the Rosen-Apotheke (1210, Brünner Straße 37), where you can pick up your medication with your e-card on the next working day. Alternatively, we can send prescriptions to your desired pharmacy by e-mail. Please keep as far as possible from other patients in the ordination (at least 1 meter) and disinfect your hands immediately after entering the ordination.Together we prevent the further spread of the corona infection with this procedure!

Your team group practice Internist-Nord.at

If you are concerned about Corona, please stay at home and call 1450!


Friday, March 20, 2020

SARS-Cov-2 - the dreaded Corona Virus




I have posted about the Corona Virus several times - you will find links to my previous posts further down. I have been in Self-Quarantine since last Tuesday, leaving my apartment only a few times for grocery shopping (just across the street from my place). The last time I was further away was at my studio across town on Monday, March 9th. Everything seemed still normal at that time. But since then measures had been introduced that severely restricted peoples movements. Watching the news mainly on my laptop, I seen reports with photos and videos of near empty streets downtown Vienna, where normally large crowds (mostly tourists) are mingling, sidewalk cafes and restaurants filled with people. But now, everything is closed except essentials: grocery stores, pharmacies and "Trafik" (tobacco shops) - right, smoking seems to be essential; and booze you can get at the grocery store. So we are all set, yahoo!
But the images and videos of near empty streets and plazas reminded me of surrealist views, such as Giorgio de Chirico, or the artist that had a great influence on me, Max Ernst.
This sort of depressing, near deserted scenery I painted on many occasions, ruins of civilizations, a unreal nightmare of a dystopian future. It was to be a excursion into my inner universe, a sort of catharsis to paint my deep-seated fears away. In those days when these works were created, I did not imagine that I would actually ever live in such a reality. Nobody I know and had talked to in these past days and weeks has ever experienced anything like that. I grew up in the post-WWII streets of Vienna among ruins, and I was in Canada when SARS broke out 2002-2003, but I cannot remember anything like what we experience now.
Here are two of such paintings from the depths of my imagination
BOGOMILS TEMPLE.jpg
BOGOMIL'S TEMPLE - no date (around 2000) - acrylic on paper
BOGOMIL'S TEMPLE (detail)
Otto Scanned Paintings, Surrealism 023ps2nobrdrWEB.jpg
BOGOMIL'S LOST CITY
BOGOMILS LOST CITY 1200.jpg
acrylic on canvas . 51cm x 76cm - 1976

Before I go any further, here are links to previous blogs about the subject of SARS-Cov-2 - called Coronavirus. The first one began as a spoof when I found some silly postings concerning the Mexican Corona Beer, but while writing (and updating) it, I became more serious and included a lot of useful information.
Drinkers are confusing Corona Beer with the Corona Virus
on this post, I included a link to my Blogger which initially just mirrored the Steemit post, but later on,
I kept updating the blogger with additional information.
18 days ago, I posted a update (using a Bosch painting as the lead image):
CORONA VIRUS - UPDATES
I refrained in that one to joke about it, I was all serious for a change
A week or so ago, I posted this in the Austrian Community - it is in German only, so you might want to use Google Translate:
Angst und Schrecken - das Coronavirus geht um - und somit auch die Volksverdummung
Finally, again in the Austrian Community I could not help myself and put up a spoofy post in reaction to the announcement of our Government that put in severe restrictions:
WARNUNG - SARS-Cov-2 - CORONAVIRUS
in German again, but on this one I included a English translation on the bottom.

Before I get to the vital information, I want you to be aware that there is a lot of misinformation going on - up to the point of total stupidity and even frightening radical theories so far removed from sanity and reality you'd wonder who could believe this - but from the messages I receive, and postings I see on social media, I am beginning to question the sanity of some (or even a large number of) people. Even some people I know and never before suspected that they might be mental!
Hysteria, Conspiracy Theories and Fake News
First of, the nastiest and scariest one:
Far-right QAnon nutcases see Tom Hanks' coronavirus diagnosis
as sure sign of looming mass arrests


Getty images via Daily Kos
There are many more, but let it be at that. There are quacks around, and they are well known to most but there are also a lot of people that eat out of their hands and believe anything they say (or peddle):
NY Attorney General Orders Alex Jones To Stop Peddling Fake Coronavirus Treatments

Getty Images via Forbes
A Televangelist Peddling Silver As A Fake Cure For Coronavirus
Has Been Warned By Officials To Stop


Facebook / Vital Silver Wellness via Buzzfeed News

This was just a small sampling of what crazy shit is out there. Now lets get to the serious stuff that is of interest.
For those of you who want PROPER Information - but it may be a bit hard to follow, since it is geared toward medical professionals and medicine students.
Roger Seheult, MD
here is his YouTube channel MedCram - Medical Lectures Explained CLEARLY
particularly one video I found very interesting (not the latest one):
Coronavirus Pandemic Update 37: The ACE-2 Receptor
The Doorway to COVID-19 (ACE Inhibitors & ARBs)


there is a whole series on the Coronavirus Pandemic, so check the Playlist
by the time you did, you would be ready to write your medical exam!


You could also compare what is in this video about ACE Receptors to this information from Belgum (in German) about research into Antibodies against Covid 19:
Gute Nachricht: Belgische Forscher finden Antikörper gegen Covid-19

Image: Das VIB-Gent hat einen Erfolg im Kampf gegen das neuartige Coronavirus verbucht. | Foto: belga
Coronavirus myths and misinformation, debunked
(CNN) As the novel coronavirus -- and panic about the coronavirus -- continues to spread around the world, so too are bogus claims, conspiracy theories and misinformation about the disease.
There's so much inaccurate information floating around out there that the World Health Organization is calling it an "infodemic." In perhaps the clearest sign of the times, WHO has joined TikTok to help set the record straight.
Links in this quote: coronaviruscontinues to spread and infodemic - read the entire article and watch the CNN video HERE
In all this bleak scenario, there are some glimmers of hope:
Interview

Corona Is Slowing Down, Humanity Will Survive, Says Biophysicist Michael Levitt

Michael Levitt. Photo: Reuters
Coronavirus: Five Reasons for Optimism

A bus in Israel getting disinfected. Photo: Motti Kimchi
The Single Most Important Lesson From the 1918 Influenza

St. Louis Red Cross Motor Corps workers and ambulances waiting to receive influenza patients in 1918.Credit...via Library of Congress, via Associated Press

Update - Important Link

COVID-19 CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC