The Offline Report

In the fight against COVID-19, we've long had nasal swab tests. Last week news of a new saliva test broke into the mainstream and nobody flinched. Dogs are being trained to sniff out COVID . Now Someone is developing a cellphone censor that will detect COVID-19 from one respiratory droplet. Such a censor will take months to hit the market. But we need tests now. And in many places the nasal swab tests infrastructure was operating at less than full capacity as of last month. Sometimes it's people at the far end, processing the collected swab samples, who are holding up testing. Governors talk periodically of clearing testing "backlogs", indicating test lab processors are short on staff to handle the sudden influx of tests. Congresspeople talk of need for a "testing breakthrough". How about funding nasal swab tests and increasing staff for such backlog clearing? Would that require funding for private corporations like Labcorps and Quest diagnostics to hire ...

The first treatment of COVID-19 patients was intubating patients so they could rely on a ventilator, news reports show. The first innovation off that mainline treatment, aside from plasma infusions, was experimental delaying of intubation/ventilation. This medical site article urging intubation/ventilation delay consideration was pointed to from a mainstream news outlet, TalkingPointsMemo.com, on April 7th . Reader should note these treatments are available to post-symptomatic people. News reports hint of a smattering of asymptomatic people, including healthy people in their 50's, dying at home and posthumously testing positive for COVID-19. (Test and trace could save these lives.) ---- Timeline of treatment development, most procedural, some pharmaceutical : April 6, 2020: Procedural   - intravenous treatment via "convalescent blood plasma" blood plasma donated from recovered COVID-19 patients who now have antibodies. NBCNews reports people who recovered from COVI...

March 20 2020   Coronavirus Testing Chaos Across America   wsj.com   On Wednesday, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said its state lab was forced to temporarily stop processing tests because it ran out of the necessary supplies. Ms. Noem said they have been trying for weeks to get more of the chemicals used to process the tests from suppliers and had asked Vice President Mike Pence to help. Shortages:  Federal health officials have said in congressional testimony that they are aware there are possible shortages used in tests. April 15 2020   California’s coronavirus reopening: Gavin Newsom’s six-point plan will alter daily life   sfchronicle.com   Dr. Mark Ghaly, the state health and human services secretary, said the state is working to expand testing so that anyone with symptoms — not just the sickest people already at hospitals — can be tested. Ghaly said he hopes California will test tens of thousands of people each day by the end of April. The...