Wuhan Coronavirus is an Offensive Biological Warfare Weapon

[gaiusmarius]

reckon we could trade trump for their general? he IS a self-proclaimed "stable genius" you know... agree with you on studying dangerous shit in highest level safety labs. i just cannot wrap my head around even CHINA being stupid enough to fuck around trying to weaponize something that dangerous downtown in a huge fucking city, nor that we were funding that sort of work with them. we have a lab studying similar shit, and it is on an island off of the east coast...or was. have not looked into it lately.

those studies were you first create the fucking crzy deadly bio weapon to then study a way to defend against it was made illegal in the US. thats why they transfered those studies to other places. but up till recently it was just the way it was done, many think the anthrax leaks were from a similar facility in fort Dietrik (sp). China has no law against creating bio weapons to find ways to neutralize them.

 

[trichrider]

I've said this before. We don't have the technology to modify a virus. The best we got is stacking crates full of chickens, pigs and ducks on top of each other. That's the perfect laboratory to weaponize a virus.

you've said a lot of stupid things before too....


CRISPR can now target RNA - including coronavirus genome

23 March 2020
By Dr Jay Stone
Appeared in BioNews 1040
A new CRISPR-based technology can target RNA in human cells, including the RNA-based genome of the coronavirus.
Until now all CRISPR approaches have targeted DNA. Using a recently characterised CRISPR-associated enzyme called Cas13, which targets RNA instead of DNA, research groups in the New York Genome Centre and New York University have developed a novel editing tool that can target messenger RNA (mRNA).
The approach could be used to make changes to a cell's gene expression without altering the genome, sidestepping risks associated with off-target effects of genome editing. However mRNAs are also an integral part of how viruses highjack the body's own machinery to reproduce, and the authors hope this approach could be used in the RNA-based genomes of these retroviruses such as the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2).
'We anticipate that RNA-targeting Cas13 enzymes will have a large impact on molecular biology and medical applications, yet little is known about guide RNA design for high targeting efficacy. We set about to change that through an in-depth and systematic study to develop key principles and predictive modelling for most effective guide design' said Dr Neville Sanjana, senior author of the paper, which was published in Nature Biotechnology.
The researchers conducted a screen analysis, testing the gene knock-down efficiency of more than 24,000 Cas13 guide RNA sequences against mammalian mRNA codes. When genes are 'knocked down' they are deactivated or suppressed, rather than deleted completely. Through this testing the team created a machine learning-based predictive model, which can identify the most effective Cas13 guide RNAs.
The team also altered each of the Cas13 guide RNA codes they were testing, making them more or less well-matched to the target mRNA. This led to the identification of a critical 'seed' region of RNA required for specific binding and action of Cas13. This discovery could help reduce off-target activity, which is vital if CRISPR-Cas13 is to be used therapeutically.
Using their model, the researchers have gone on to identify optimal guide RNAs that could be used for future detection and therapeutic targeting of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The Cas13 guide RNAs for a strain of SARS-CoV-2 isolated in New York have been made available online.


https://www.bionews.org.uk/page_148670


04 February 2020
Step aside CRISPR, RNA editing is taking off

Making changes to the molecular messengers that create proteins might offer flexible therapies for cancer, pain or high cholesterol, in addition to genetic disorders.



https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00272-5


CRISPR System’s Optimized Guides Can Target RNA, Including Coronavirus RNA

Once overshadowed by DNA-targeting CRISPR systems, RNA-targeting CRISPR systems are stepping into the light. What’s more, RNA-targeting CRISPR systems are advancing on important applications for which they are uniquely well suited. For example, they can silence gene expression at the transcriptional level, which is advantageous if the corresponding targets at the genomic level are hard to access. Also, RNA-targeting CRISPR systems can be effective in targeting RNA viruses such as the coronaviruses or influenza viruses.


https://www.genengnews.com/news/cri...des-can-target-rna-including-coronavirus-rna/


if these tools can alter DNA/RNA for beneficial means, they are also capable of altering for nefarious purposes.

 

[TychoMonolyth]

you've said a lot of stupid things before too....


CRISPR can now target RNA - including coronavirus genome
....s.

CRISPR is far from controlled modifications.

We can replace genes about as much as a chimp can replace puzzle pieces and make a picture. That's far from modifying a gene with intended results. You Clown.

 

[trichrider]

man you just cannot accept being wrong....PATHETIC!!!!

 

[gaiusmarius]

Some won't like the source, but its an interestig read never the less....
there are some source links in the original that are not working in the copy paste.

Top Russian Scientist Explains Why 2nd COVID Wave Impossible in Moscow, Herd Immunity Approaching

https://russia-insider.com/en/top-r...e-impossible-moscow-herd-immunity-approaching



Moscow is back to normal, no masks, no social distancing, people using public transportation.

Pavel Volchkov, Russian leader in genomic engineering explains why the danger is past.

Pavel Volchkov is an exceptional voice among the Russian scientists now dealing with the corona virus (Covid-19) pandemic.

The current Covid-19 policy administrators in Moscow are of the same academic generation but they have trained as doctors; Volchkov is a geneticist. They have spent their formative careers inside Russian institutions; Volchkov spent more than ten years in the US, at the University of Chicago then at Harvard.

Volchkov is the head of the Genome Engineering Lab (GEL) in Moscow; it is one of more than fifty laboratories which are part of the Moscow Institute for Physics and Technology (MIPT). The institute is the third-ranked science teaching university in Russia.

Volchkov specializes in the technology known as CRISPR-Cas9. The first acronym stands for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats; the second for CRISPR-associated complex protein 9; for meaning and diagrams, click to open. The purpose of the technology is to engineer or edit genome sequences in living organisms, in the short run for defence against deadly viruses, and in the longer term to remodel medical diagnostics and the treatment of serious diseases; for background, read this.

In this interview, published on July 6 in Izvestia, Volchkov presents the evidence for his conclusion that a second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic is no longer possible in Moscow because, he argues, immunity has already reached between 40% and 60% of the population, and continues to grow as rapidly as testing reaches the limit of the city’s population.

The Swedish research paper on T-cell immunity to which Volchkov refers can be read separately here. According to the authors, “we systematically mapped the functional and phenotypic landscape of SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell responses in a large cohort of unexposed individuals as well as exposed family members and individuals with acute or convalescent COVID-19.” By “large cohort”, the Swedes meant a sample of 208. Within this sample, 31 had mild symptoms of Covid-19 infection but were not hospitalised; another group of 30 were family members exposed to infected individuals but not testing positive or showing symptoms; 80 were selected from voluntary blood donors without Covid-19 testing; 40 had been hospitalised for low-level treatment; 27 required intensive care.

– Pavel Yuryevich, from your point of view, how many people in Moscow already have immunity to SARS-CoV-2?

Recently, an article was published by Swedish scientists who conducted a study of T-cell immunity, the results which I personally have long been waiting for. They analyzed a large number of biological samples by conducting an expensive ELISPOT analysis (Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSpot – T-cell detection method). It turned out that even those who did not have IgG antibodies had T-cell immunity. And there are two to three times more such people in the population than those with antibodies.

– What does this mean?

If in Moscow 20% of people are officially recorded with high titers of IgG antibodies, then you can safely add another 20%-40% to this figure. It turns out that about half of Moscow residents are immune to coronavirus. They will not get sick anymore.

– Recently, articles appeared that showed that antibodies are lost …

And that’s fine. They ought to be lost. This always happens. There is a half-life of IgG, IgM, IgA antibodies. Their volume in the blood begins to fall six months to a year after meeting with the infection. There are so few of them that their number is impossible to detect by any test. What is the purpose of antibodies? Here the virus flew into the respiratory tract, infected a group of cells, created a small local focus (with a mild course of the disease). The immune system recognized these cells and localized them – it is like the city of Wuhan that was closed in China. It turns out that a large number of antibodies do not seem to exist, but the immunity has formed and worked. However, it is concentrated in T- and B-memory cells. When the infection again occurs to a person, the immune system recognizes it, and the cells will begin to produce antibodies.

– Does it make sense then to test for IgG antibodies?

There is. This test is cheap and gives us a cut-off. This cut-off now is 20%. So we can multiply this amount by two to three times. It’s hard to say the exact number; for this you need to conduct a large-scale study using expensive ELISPOT analysis, as the Swedes did.

– Is it possible to say that the “herd” immunity that everyone has been talking about for so long has already taken shape in Moscow?

For the multi-million city, today’s figures in the region of 700 new infected cases per day indicate that [immunity] has formed.

If we really had only 20% of the residents with immunity, then when we opened restaurants and shops, we would expect a much larger number of infected people.

– But after all, at this figure (700-plus people per day) you can remain for a long time. Or not? What is your prediction?

I think this figure will now begin to decline and will reach zero at the end of August. It is clear that for quite a long time in the capital there will be cases imported from regions that began to “pick up” the coronavirus relatively late in the day.

– So there won’t be a second wave?

For Moscow, it is already impossible. Now people who have formed natural immunity in the capital are 40%-60%. If the dynamic continues, their number will increase by the end of August to 80%–90%.

– And in other cities of Russia, is the second wave a possibility?

Only in those which are quite isolated, and where there has been an extremely low level of infection. In the big cities, definitely not. If you have already burned the grass, then the burned-out areas cannot catch fire again. Do you know how firefighters fight fire? They take and burn the front of the strip to stop the fire. This strip is our immunity buffer.

– But what about the fact that the virus mutates and the body may simply not recognize it?

In any case, it does not mutate very quickly. Even the seasonal flu virus needs several years to re-infect you. And then in the event that part of its segments — and the flu has eight of them — will be re-sequenced, that is, replaced by parts from another influenza virus. Coronavirus is single-segment – it cannot change in that way.

– But can it recombine?

Maybe. But this event is much rarer. It must take at least a couple of years for it to be able to return and cause you some kind of pathology. And still, it won’t be comparable to the first time. Somehow at least the immune system recognizes it, which means it will work. And a secondary immune response will develop.

 

[armedoldhippy]

i call bullshit on russian claims. damn near ALL russian claims, same as i do China proclamations "no problems HERE. nothing to see. move along now please..."

 

[gaiusmarius]

i call bullshit on russian claims. damn near ALL russian claims, same as i do China proclamations "no problems HERE. nothing to see. move along now please..."

lol, that was easy eh? nothing to see here, lmao. thanks for clearing that up, what would we do without your summary judgement on the matter? so happy to know we have a resident expert on these matters. still, despite your ruling on this matter your honor, i posite that it's an interesting read and seems to be based on some logic.

just like here in Switzerland, people are going back to normal, they have lost the mind numbing fear of this thing. despite the months of no social distancing there has not been any massive spikes. this alone tells me there is more to this "herd resistance" then the propaganda organs would have you believe.

 

[Klompen]

Herd immunity to a virus that changes this much is absurd. Its just nonsense and bad science.

This page explains the issue of new mutations fairly well for beginners.

https://www.webmd.com/lung/coronavirus-strains

For a somewhat more advanced read, check this out:

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-07-freeze-framing-shape-shifting-sars-cov-spike-protein.html

 

[flylowgethigh]

those studies were you first create the fucking crzy deadly bio weapon to then study a way to defend against it was made illegal in the US. thats why they transfered those studies to other places. but up till recently it was just the way it was done, many think the anthrax leaks were from a similar facility in fort Dietrik (sp). China has no law against creating bio weapons to find ways to neutralize them.

I saw a pic today of oboma and foochie being tour guided at the bioweapon lab in Wuhan. Foochie foretold Trump having to deal with a bad pandemic. He knew the plan because he is part of it.

 

[armedoldhippy]

lol, that was easy eh? nothing to see here, lmao. thanks for clearing that up, what would we do without your summary judgement on the matter? so happy to know we have a resident expert on these matters. still, despite your ruling on this matter your honor, i posite that it's an interesting read and seems to be based on some logic.

just like here in Switzerland, people are going back to normal, they have lost the mind numbing fear of this thing. despite the months of no social distancing there has not been any massive spikes. this alone tells me there is more to this "herd resistance" then the propaganda organs would have you believe.

not a ruling, lol. nor do i try to pass myself off as an expert on anything. merely a CRITICAL thinker with a decent education and a damn fine BS detector. all available science here(which i trust a hell of a lot more than Russias) says "herd immunity" is not happening because the antibodies disappear after a few weeks in studies so far. i doubt the Russians antibodies are any longer lasting than ours. both here and in China (China admitted it, GASP!) there have been individuals being infected more than once. how many times do you have to catch it before you are "immune", and why does that not work with the common flu? yeah, it WAS easy, lol.

 

[shaggyballs]

i agree to a point. but...it is rapidly becoming clear that it does NOT only kill the elderly/infirm. it kills them FIRST, because they are weaker. children, teens & folks in their prime are also dying. i understand there is a research lab in Wuhan studying these viruses & others, the US govt. was funding/aiding in this research. but other than conspiracy wingnuts assertions, i have read/heard NOTHING about it being a bioweapons lab. (please, no one needs to post a "tremendous discovery!" video from facebook or youtube. we got enough horseshit to sift through while hunting for nuggets of truth already.) somehow i seriously doubt our govt was funding/cooperating with a communist countries bioweapons development, sorry.

You did see the made several arrests suggesting just that right?

 

[shaggyballs]

CRISPR is far from controlled modifications.

We can replace genes about as much as a chimp can replace puzzle pieces and make a picture. That's far from modifying a gene with intended results. You Clown.

Dude they can put an email address on a DNA strand.
Are you clueless??

 

[shaggyballs]

lol, that was easy eh? nothing to see here, lmao. thanks for clearing that up, what would we do without your summary judgement on the matter? so happy to know we have a resident expert on these matters. still, despite your ruling on this matter your honor, i posite that it's an interesting read and seems to be based on some logic.

just like here in Switzerland, people are going back to normal, they have lost the mind numbing fear of this thing. despite the months of no social distancing there has not been any massive spikes. this alone tells me there is more to this "herd resistance" then the propaganda organs would have you believe.

This is just the constant dismissal without substance.
That is all we ever get out of these know it all nevertrumpers.

 

[shaggyballs]

Herd immunity to a virus that changes this much is absurd. Its just nonsense and bad science.

This page explains the issue of new mutations fairly well for beginners.

https://www.webmd.com/lung/coronavirus-strains

For a somewhat more advanced read, check this out:

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-07-freeze-framing-shape-shifting-sars-cov-spike-protein.html

Why did they lie to us in the beginning then.
No mask needed, heard immunity is the answer.

Why all the lies?

 

[shaggyballs]

I saw a pic today of oboma and foochie being tour guided at the bioweapon lab in Wuhan. Foochie foretold Trump having to deal with a bad pandemic. He knew the plan because he is part of it.

Do we have bio-weapons labs in the US?

Wonder what they use those for?

 

[Klompen]

Fauci sure is shady. Your hero picked him to be his pandemic guy. Just coincidence right?

 

[Tudo]

FEMA Sends Faulty Protective Gear to Nursing Homes Battling Virus

FEMA Sends Faulty Protective Gear to Nursing Homes Battling Virus

FEMA Sends Faulty Protective Gear to Nursing Homes Battling Virus
Expired surgical masks. Isolation gowns that resemble oversize trash bags. Extra-small gloves that are all but useless for the typical health worker’s hands.
Nursing home employees across the country have been dismayed by what they’ve found when they’ve opened boxes of protective medical gear sent by the federal government, part of a $134 million effort to provide facilities a 14-day supply of equipment considered critical for shielding their vulnerable residents from the coronavirus.
The shipments have included loose gloves of unknown provenance stuffed into unmarked Ziploc bags, surgical masks crafted from underwear fabric and plastic isolation gowns without openings for hands that require users to punch their fists through the closed sleeves. Adhesive tape must be used to secure them.
Health regulators in California have advised nursing homes not to use the gowns, saying they present an infection-control risk, especially when doffing contaminated gowns that must be torn off.
Some nursing homes have received masks with brittle elastic bands that snap when stretched. None of the shipments have included functional N95 respirators, the virus-filtering face masks that are the single most important bulwark against infection.
“People hate to complain about personal protective equipment they’re getting for free but many of these items are just useless,” said Brendan Williams, president of the New Hampshire Health Care Association, which has been fielding a flurry of calls about the defective gear from nursing homes it represents. “It’s mystifying that the government would think this is acceptable.”
The Federal Emergency Management Agency began shipping the masks, gowns and gloves this spring to 15,000 nonprofit nursing care facilities whose limited finances have made it difficult to buy protective equipment on the open market. The first cache of shipments was completed in mid-June, and the second round will wrap up by early August.
In a statement, FEMA said it had addressed the complaints about the first shipment of goods and had asked the private contractor that is providing the supplies to replace the tarp-like gowns with models more familiar to medical personnel. The agency said, however, that the original gowns sent out meet federal and industry standards.
“We have received complaints on less than 1 percent of the total PPE shipments to nursing homes,” the statement said. “We continue to engage with nursing homes to keep lines of communication and feedback open at all times.”
FEMA subsequently acknowledged in an email that the contractor has been sending out a small number of the older gown models.
The controversy over inadequate and low-quality protective equipment has come to embody what public health experts and nursing home executives describe as a halting and haphazard federal effort to protect the 1.5 million Americans who live in nursing homes and long-term care facilities.
More than 40 percent of all coronavirus deaths in the United States have been tied to nursing homes, according to a New York Times analysis, which found that the virus had infected 316,000 people at 14,000 facilities as of July 15. The virus has been particularly lethal to those in their 60s and older, more so for those in poor health, and it can rapidly spread through buildings where residents live in close quarters and workers move from room to room.
“The federal response to protect one of the most vulnerable populations in the country has been a dismal failure,” said Tamara Konetzka, a health economist at the University of Chicago who has been studying the pandemic’s outsize impact on nursing home residents.
The Trump administration’s largely hands-off approach to personal protective equipment, or P.P.E., has forced states, cities and big hospital chains to compete for limited supplies, leaving nursing homes at a disadvantage as prices have soared.
The recent spike in caseloads across the South and the West has reinvigorated calls for President Trump to use his authority and compel domestic manufacturers to produce desperately needed gear.
“We’re extremely disappointed with the government’s response,” said Katie Smith Sloan, the president of LeadingAge, an industry group that represents nonprofit senior service providers. “Folks on the ground are desperately trying to save lives and protect their staff, but we’re leaving them in the dust.”
The crisis is likely to intensify as the virus gains a foothold in nursing homes across the Sun Belt. Infections at long-term care centers in hot-spot states have jumped by 18 percent since late June, according to an analysis by Kaiser Family Foundation. Florida recorded a 51 percent rise, and Texas saw its cases climb by 47 percent.
The federal government has not said whether it plans to provide nursing homes with additional personal protective equipment in the months ahead.
The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare, which oversees nursing homes, earlier this month said it would supply every adult care facility in the country with rapid, point-of-care test kits but the rollout is expected to take months. In the meantime, the vast majority of nursing homes in the United States are unequipped to regularly screen their employees and residents for the coronavirus.
Without widespread testing, health experts say medical-grade gowns, single-use gloves and respirator masks are among the few tools that can protect nursing home residents from devastating outbreaks that often begin with asymptomatic staff members who unknowingly introduce the virus from the surrounding community.
“It’s really mind-boggling and frustrating that five months into this pandemic we still can’t get facilities the P.P.E. they need,” said David C. Grabowski, a professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School. “I don’t know whether it’s a matter of incompetence or just indifference about older adults and the people who care for them.”
In a call with nursing home providers last month, Col. Brian Kuhn, director of operations at the Defense Logistics Agency, blamed Federal Resources Supply Company, the private contractor that is providing the goods.
The contract calls for the provision of 1.2 million pairs of protective eyewear, 13 million medical gowns and 66 million pairs of nitrile gloves.
“They just kind of carte blanche shipped them all out,” Col. Kuhn said, according to a recording of the call posted online. He said that the masks made from underwear fabric were not intended to be used by staff members — only by nursing home visitors — and that the expired respirator masks should never been distributed. “It was one of those things, I’ll be honest, that just slipped through the cracks,” he said.
In response to the complaints, FEMA directed the Federal Resources Supply Company to produce an instructional video explaining how the gowns should be donned and doffed. The contents of each shipment are determined by the number of employees at each care center.
Federal Resources, which is based in Stevensville, Md., did not respond to questions sent by email.
In interviews, nursing home executives and employees that have received their second shipments say the contents are an improvement over the first batch but that many problems remain.
Nursing homes in New Hampshire have received face masks with flimsy paper ear loops instead of elastic bands. In Arizona, some facilities have been sent gloves that are either all large sizes or all extra small.
At the Los Angeles Jewish Home, workers were heartened two weeks ago to receive about 1,000 disposable gowns, 187 pairs of eye goggles and 12,000 gloves in a range of sizes. But they were dismayed to also find 2,000 of what employees dismissively referred to as “trash bag gowns.”
“It’s outrageous that they are still sending these gowns,” said Dr. Noah Marco, the chief medical officer of Los Angeles Jewish Home, which has 1,200 beds and 50 employees. “And it’s insulting and inappropriate for the federal government to say we just don’t know how to use them.”
Even nursing homes expressing gratitude for the supplies say they are often mismatched to their needs, while others say the amounts are paltry given how quickly nursing home employees churn through single-use protective gear as they tend to dozens of patients a day.
“If I’m being totally honest, I’d describe these as a token offering,” said Sondra Norden, the chief executive of St. Paul’s Elder Services in Wisconsin. “If we had a major outbreak, we’d burn through these supplies in a few days.”
Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community, a 120-bed nursing home in Harrisonburg, received its second shipment two weeks ago. It contained a mix of gowns — several hundred of the standard and highly coveted isolation gowns and a similar amount of the problematic gowns.
“I’m not sure how we would even use those,” said Jan Emswiler, a nurse educator who trains employees on the proper use of protective gear. She was especially confounded by a packing slip claiming the boxes contained 3,500 pairs of gloves. There were only 1,000 pairs, she said.
“Oh god, even before Covid, we were going through 3,000 pairs in a day,” Ms. Emswiler said. “We appreciate what we’ve gotten but we could really use a lot more.”
As for the gowns without arm holes, Ms. Emswiler said they had been placed in a storage closet.
“I hope we never have to use them,” she said.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/f...g-homes-battling-virus/ar-BB179jcE?li=BBnb7Kz

 

[Tudo]

I had to reread that a couple of times. But we're going to build 10 more aircraft carrier battle groups? This is all so disgusting

 

[mean mr.mustard]

Sure.

We just need to print some more money.

Military spending is all the rage.

Where have you been?!

 

[Gry]

FEMA Sends Faulty Protective Gear to Nursing Homes Battling Virus
Expired surgical masks. Isolation gowns that resemble oversize trash bags. Extra-small gloves that are all but useless for the typical health worker’s hands.
Nursing home employees across the country have been dismayed by what they’ve found when they’ve opened boxes of protective medical gear sent by the federal government, part of a $134 million effort to provide facilities a 14-day supply of equipment considered critical for shielding their vulnerable residents from the coronavirus.
The shipments have included loose gloves of unknown provenance stuffed into unmarked Ziploc bags, surgical masks crafted from underwear fabric and plastic isolation gowns without openings for hands that require users to punch their fists through the closed sleeves. Adhesive tape must be used to secure them.
Health regulators in California have advised nursing homes not to use the gowns, saying they present an infection-control risk, especially when doffing contaminated gowns that must be torn off.
Some nursing homes have received masks with brittle elastic bands that snap when stretched. None of the shipments have included functional N95 respirators, the virus-filtering face masks that are the single most important bulwark against infection.
“People hate to complain about personal protective equipment they’re getting for free but many of these items are just useless,” said Brendan Williams, president of the New Hampshire Health Care Association, which has been fielding a flurry of calls about the defective gear from nursing homes it represents. “It’s mystifying that the government would think this is acceptable.”
The Federal Emergency Management Agency began shipping the masks, gowns and gloves this spring to 15,000 nonprofit nursing care facilities whose limited finances have made it difficult to buy protective equipment on the open market. The first cache of shipments was completed in mid-June, and the second round will wrap up by early August.
In a statement, FEMA said it had addressed the complaints about the first shipment of goods and had asked the private contractor that is providing the supplies to replace the tarp-like gowns with models more familiar to medical personnel. The agency said, however, that the original gowns sent out meet federal and industry standards.
“We have received complaints on less than 1 percent of the total PPE shipments to nursing homes,” the statement said. “We continue to engage with nursing homes to keep lines of communication and feedback open at all times.”
FEMA subsequently acknowledged in an email that the contractor has been sending out a small number of the older gown models.
The controversy over inadequate and low-quality protective equipment has come to embody what public health experts and nursing home executives describe as a halting and haphazard federal effort to protect the 1.5 million Americans who live in nursing homes and long-term care facilities.
More than 40 percent of all coronavirus deaths in the United States have been tied to nursing homes, according to a New York Times analysis, which found that the virus had infected 316,000 people at 14,000 facilities as of July 15. The virus has been particularly lethal to those in their 60s and older, more so for those in poor health, and it can rapidly spread through buildings where residents live in close quarters and workers move from room to room.
“The federal response to protect one of the most vulnerable populations in the country has been a dismal failure,” said Tamara Konetzka, a health economist at the University of Chicago who has been studying the pandemic’s outsize impact on nursing home residents.
The Trump administration’s largely hands-off approach to personal protective equipment, or P.P.E., has forced states, cities and big hospital chains to compete for limited supplies, leaving nursing homes at a disadvantage as prices have soared.
The recent spike in caseloads across the South and the West has reinvigorated calls for President Trump to use his authority and compel domestic manufacturers to produce desperately needed gear.
“We’re extremely disappointed with the government’s response,” said Katie Smith Sloan, the president of LeadingAge, an industry group that represents nonprofit senior service providers. “Folks on the ground are desperately trying to save lives and protect their staff, but we’re leaving them in the dust.”
The crisis is likely to intensify as the virus gains a foothold in nursing homes across the Sun Belt. Infections at long-term care centers in hot-spot states have jumped by 18 percent since late June, according to an analysis by Kaiser Family Foundation. Florida recorded a 51 percent rise, and Texas saw its cases climb by 47 percent.
The federal government has not said whether it plans to provide nursing homes with additional personal protective equipment in the months ahead.
The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare, which oversees nursing homes, earlier this month said it would supply every adult care facility in the country with rapid, point-of-care test kits but the rollout is expected to take months. In the meantime, the vast majority of nursing homes in the United States are unequipped to regularly screen their employees and residents for the coronavirus.
Without widespread testing, health experts say medical-grade gowns, single-use gloves and respirator masks are among the few tools that can protect nursing home residents from devastating outbreaks that often begin with asymptomatic staff members who unknowingly introduce the virus from the surrounding community.
“It’s really mind-boggling and frustrating that five months into this pandemic we still can’t get facilities the P.P.E. they need,” said David C. Grabowski, a professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School. “I don’t know whether it’s a matter of incompetence or just indifference about older adults and the people who care for them.”
In a call with nursing home providers last month, Col. Brian Kuhn, director of operations at the Defense Logistics Agency, blamed Federal Resources Supply Company, the private contractor that is providing the goods.
The contract calls for the provision of 1.2 million pairs of protective eyewear, 13 million medical gowns and 66 million pairs of nitrile gloves.
“They just kind of carte blanche shipped them all out,” Col. Kuhn said, according to a recording of the call posted online. He said that the masks made from underwear fabric were not intended to be used by staff members — only by nursing home visitors — and that the expired respirator masks should never been distributed. “It was one of those things, I’ll be honest, that just slipped through the cracks,” he said.
In response to the complaints, FEMA directed the Federal Resources Supply Company to produce an instructional video explaining how the gowns should be donned and doffed. The contents of each shipment are determined by the number of employees at each care center.
Federal Resources, which is based in Stevensville, Md., did not respond to questions sent by email.
In interviews, nursing home executives and employees that have received their second shipments say the contents are an improvement over the first batch but that many problems remain.
Nursing homes in New Hampshire have received face masks with flimsy paper ear loops instead of elastic bands. In Arizona, some facilities have been sent gloves that are either all large sizes or all extra small.
At the Los Angeles Jewish Home, workers were heartened two weeks ago to receive about 1,000 disposable gowns, 187 pairs of eye goggles and 12,000 gloves in a range of sizes. But they were dismayed to also find 2,000 of what employees dismissively referred to as “trash bag gowns.”
“It’s outrageous that they are still sending these gowns,” said Dr. Noah Marco, the chief medical officer of Los Angeles Jewish Home, which has 1,200 beds and 50 employees. “And it’s insulting and inappropriate for the federal government to say we just don’t know how to use them.”
Even nursing homes expressing gratitude for the supplies say they are often mismatched to their needs, while others say the amounts are paltry given how quickly nursing home employees churn through single-use protective gear as they tend to dozens of patients a day.
“If I’m being totally honest, I’d describe these as a token offering,” said Sondra Norden, the chief executive of St. Paul’s Elder Services in Wisconsin. “If we had a major outbreak, we’d burn through these supplies in a few days.”
Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community, a 120-bed nursing home in Harrisonburg, received its second shipment two weeks ago. It contained a mix of gowns — several hundred of the standard and highly coveted isolation gowns and a similar amount of the problematic gowns.
“I’m not sure how we would even use those,” said Jan Emswiler, a nurse educator who trains employees on the proper use of protective gear. She was especially confounded by a packing slip claiming the boxes contained 3,500 pairs of gloves. There were only 1,000 pairs, she said.
“Oh god, even before Covid, we were going through 3,000 pairs in a day,” Ms. Emswiler said. “We appreciate what we’ve gotten but we could really use a lot more.”
As for the gowns without arm holes, Ms. Emswiler said they had been placed in a storage closet.
“I hope we never have to use them,” she said.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/f...g-homes-battling-virus/ar-BB179jcE?li=BBnb7Kz

Would explain why the numbers are soaring.
Had hoped by now that there would be an abundance of quality PPE gear available for all.