Florida as state does not report current hospitalization. However, Seminole County FL (where I live NE suburbs of Orlando and Sanford with a total population of ~460,000) does.
sem county hosp.jpg
Entire Seminole County dashboard here. Cases in FL and Seminole started spiking the around June 10 and really started spiking around the 18th. The hospitalization graph shows hospitalized cases per day and is a few days behind. As of today, Seminole County has 121 COVID patients in hospital, another 41 probable (no positive test yet) and 15 in ICU (not shown here but confirmed by County update). So yes, the hospitalizations are rising here in FL and lagging about 10 days behind cases as House P showed above
Coach K on Kyle Singler - "What position does he play? ... He plays winner."
"Duke is never the underdog" - Quinn Cook
There is a very interesting political current running beneath this issue, not national politics per se, but the politics of hospital funding and administration.
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/ne...te/5365090002/
The study was performed by Henry Ford Health System, one of the big hospital systems in metro Detroit. This directly conflicts with studies at UM Medical system, and 2 of the largest hospital systems (Beaumont, St John's Mercy) do not offer the treatment. One other hospital system (Detroit Medical Center) provides it to anyone they can. I don't have individual numbers, but the areas serviced by Henry Ford and DMC are more urban and were much harder hit and had the highest death rates.
How much of the report of this new study about optics, policy justification, and/or funding?
Washington Post
Researchers retract study that found big risks in using hydroxychloroquine to treat covid-19
By Laurie McGinley June 4 at 6:36 PM ET
Three of the authors of a study that found the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine was dangerous for hospitalized covid-19 patients retracted it Thursday, saying they could “no longer vouch for the veracity of the primary data sources.” The retraction notice was posted by the medical journal Lancet, which had published the study on May 22.
Almost immediately after the study’s publication, critics raised questions about the data and analysis provided by a private company, Chicago-based Surgisphere, and its founder, Sepan Desai. Another study that also relied on the database — one that looked at the effects of blood-pressure medications on covid-19 patients — also was retracted Thursday, by the New England Journal of Medicine.
The retractions raised concerns in the medical and scientific community that researchers and even prestigious medical journals are lowering their standards in a rush to publish during the pandemic. “I’m concerned that the usual standards, both at the level of the journals and at the level of authors and faculty rushing to get high-impact work published, has meant that our usual standards have fallen,” said Steven Joffe, a medical ethicist at the University of Pennsylvania.
The authors of the Lancet study said in their statement that they launched an independent third-party peer review of Surgisphere, with the consent of Desai, to confirm the completeness and accuracy of the data and to replicate its analysis. But, they said, the company declined to provide the full data set to the reviewer, saying it would violate client agreements and confidentiality requirements. “As such, our reviewers were not able to conduct an independent and private peer review and therefore notified us of their withdrawal from the peer-review process,” said the statement by the lead author, Mandeep R. Mehra, a Harvard Medical School professor and physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and two other authors.
The authors apologized to the editors of the journal and its readers for causing “any embarrassment or inconvenience.” The study had a major impact, prompting the World Health Organization to temporarily suspend use of hydroxychloroquine in a clinical trial on covid-19 treatments, and France banned its use in covid-19 patients.
Overall figures are new cases at 54,000 and new deaths at 800.
Her are leaders in new cases per million population:
And the caveats include, so I understand, that Kansas reports only on alternate days. There may be other anomalies as well. Arizona numbers are exceptionally high. Louisiana peaked early, due apparently to Mardi Gras celebrations, but is having a resurgence. States outside the Sun Belt include Nebraska, Kansas, Idaho and Delaware.Code:AZ 609 FL 442 LA 372 AL 358 SC 356 NE 320 MS 307 KS 290 TN 267 GA 262 TX 253 ID 224 DE 197 NC 196
Ranking based on total cases yesterday. July 2:
The three most populous states are at the top of the list, followed closely by Arizona. All sun Belt, except that Ohio and New York round out the top dozen.Code:FL 9,488 TX 7,343 CA 4,509 AZ 4,433 GA 2,784 NC 2,054 SC 1,831 TN 1,822 AL 1,754 LA 1,728 OH 1,597 NY 1,134
Sage Grouse
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'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013
Clearly, this is an indoor-driven phenomenon. And is not the flu. It did not disappear miraculously when it warmed up. As us southerners moved indoors with the air conditioning, COVID came to visit. Any leader, all the way down to the county/municipal level, who does not mandate masks (which can be policed/enforced, I don't know how you do that with social distancing) is playing a fool's game. But this is not a game, people are dying.
I almost shudder to think how it will come roaring back this fall in the north and in classrooms (both elhi and college) across the country.
I heard a disquieting story on NPR this morning concerning OSHA. It asserts that OSHA has no enforceable regulations concerning COVID. When a complaint arrives they send a letter to the company involved urging them to try and do better. The company sends a letter back saying they will try. Then the case is closed without investigation.
Linky: Many Say OSHA Not Protecting Workers During COVID-19 Pandemic
Does anyone have any knowledge on this issue?
More than 200 new cases reported in Hampton Roads today:
https://www.wavy.com/news/health/cor...ase-statewide/
Bob Green
I don't really have much knowledge on the issue, but I can tell you from looking at www.osha.gov that there don't seem to be any specific regulations for COVID. On that site, there is some unenforceable "guidance" and also there is some discussion of how existing OSHA rules apply to covid-19 issues. I don't know enough to say whether the existing rules are sufficient or whether the agency should be doing more.
Just returned from a week at the OBX.
The beach was packed with people most days in Kill Devil Hills. Most restaurants were open and allowed indoor seating. Patrons were asked to wear masks indoors and I saw most people abiding.
For the most part, people did a good job at social distancing in public and at the beach. Restaurant seats and tables were spaced out appropriately. I did see lots of older (higher risk) folks out and about at the beach and in public which I was surprised at.
I don't know whether OSHA has any public health capabilities -- it does have the broad mission of protecting workers. The Mine Safety and Health Admin. is also in Dept. of Labor and has substantial role in health and, I beleive, medical officers and the like -- "black lung," e.g.
Sage Grouse
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'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013
This is really sad, but not at all surprising. Faced with a worldwide pandemic, there is naturally a rush to try to get any and all information as quickly as possible; this inevitably leads to poor quality studies. The internet, with all its online journals, had already weakened the quality of studies considerably a long time before the pandemic arose. The New England Journal of Medicine and other older publications had stayed above the fray until now.
As if the general public didn't distrust the "experts" enough already. This is not the first study to be retracted and it probably won't be the last, either.
"We are not provided with wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can take for us, an effort which no one can spare us, for our wisdom is the point of view from which we come at last to regard the world." --M. Proust
I am aware of that retraction. As rsvman noted, this is largely because of the rush to publish findings without thorough peer review, vetting of source data, or from retrospective studies being discussed in the same manner as double blind, placebo controlled studies.
They were several studies showing HCQ did not have a positive effect on COVID recovery and an association with increased cardiac issues in addition to the above retracted ones. Which is why the FDA revoked the Emergency Use authorization on June 15th that it put in place on March 28th. If it was just one flawed study why wouldn't the FDA restate the Emergency Use? There is a lot of partial, incomplete data against or for (Henry Ford study) HCQ as an effective treatment. In that case the regulatory agency should use caution and rule against of an unverified treatment in an ad hoc fashion outside of monitored clinical trials. The EUA revocation does not keep HCQ from being tested for effect against COVID in a approved trial
Perhaps, earlier administration of HCQ at more moderate doses such as the Henry Ford study would have great effect against COVID. I hope that it does. Put it should be shown more definitively before being the "standard" for treatment
Coach K on Kyle Singler - "What position does he play? ... He plays winner."
"Duke is never the underdog" - Quinn Cook
No, this was MUCH worse than you appear to understand. These now-shamed MDs and scientists committed outright fraud. The data was falsified. It was all a bunch of bs and lies. Read the following article:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/forbetterscience.com/2020/06/05/would-lancet-and-nejm-retractions-happen-if-not-for-covid-19-and-chloroquine/amp/
Virtually all of the incorrect idea, propagated by the media and the general public, that hydroxychloroquine commonly has significant negative health effects came from this bogus “study”.
In reality, hydroxychloroquine, which has been widely used for over 60 years, is one of the safest medications in the history of medicine.
One of the safest? Really? Do you have any authority to cite for that proposition?
My understanding is that it can cause heart problems, which is precisely the reason it wasn't given to Covid-19 patients with pre-existing heart issues in that "study" at Henry Ford Hospital mentioned recently in this thread.
I am FULLY aware of the issues with Surgisphere. It was extremely negligent or potentially fraud. It did negatively affect perception of HCQ as a potential treatment
However, there are other studies that should give pause for efficacy and safety (as dosed for COVID treatment). Here is an article from Science (a reputable source) published on June 9th that describes 3 studies distinct from the retracted ones (UK, University of Minnesota, and Spain) that show no positive effects on mortality (UK) or post-exposure prophylaxis (late stage treatment) from HCQ.
There was also another retrospective trial from the VA that showed no benefit from and potentially increased mortality from HCQ. The VA trial was a retrospective trial which limits its ability to pinpoint its findings directly to HCQ (in the same manner that it difficult to pinpoint the positive effects toward HCQ in the Henry Ford study). The VA paper also references a study from Brazil now published in JAMA Open Network that shows that "a higher dosage of chloroquine diphosphate for 10 days was associated with more toxic effects and lethality" than the lower dose option and the trial was halted.
The Science article does suggest that the publicity over the retracted papers will make it more difficult to carry out future HCQ trials, particularly for pre-exposure prophylaxis. That is unfortunate but I think there are many studies that suggest to think judiciously about HCQ use as a COVID treatment, particularly in post-exposure prophylaxis settings. Which I believe led the FDA to remove the Emergency Use authorization.
Coach K on Kyle Singler - "What position does he play? ... He plays winner."
"Duke is never the underdog" - Quinn Cook
The drug could be very safe for routine use and still be dangerous when used in certain conditions. The two things are not mutually exclusive. For example, we know that this virus can impact the heart negatively. Perhaps the QT prolongation the drug causes could be well tolerated by otherwise healthy people but could be dangerous if you already have myocarditis from the infection.
Definitely a lot to learn yet about its role, both in prophylaxis and in treatment.
COVID-19 IN VIRGINIA
Positive COVID-19 Cases: 65,748 (+639 from Saturday)
People Hospitalized: 6,418 (+13 from Saturday)
COVID-19-Linked Deaths: 1,853 (+4 from Saturday)
Total Tests: 782,984 (+10,429 from Saturday)
You answered you own question with the rest of your post. Findings from flawed studies are not always wrong. That said all the partial, incomplete, flawed data does not provide good evidence for allowing emergency use. The rush to find an answer has muddied the waters too much and now we have to take a step back and do the randomized controlled trials on HCQ properly. Emergency use is off the table, we gotta do the science the right way now.
Florida seems to be moving forward with reopening all business, with the exception of bars and the beaches around Miami-Dade.
I’m seeing lots more masks being worn but no step back from people getting out. The Sarasota Dog Track Poker room I was at yesterday was packed,(masks required).
I think intuitively, the younger and generally healthy people realize they have a greater chance of dying from an unintentional accident than from the virus so they are moving forward, taking precautions, and going about life, despite the risks.
The good news is, overall, people seem to be much more aware of social distancing and wearing those masks than a couple of months ago. That message is sinking in, at least for indoor situations.
Those i’ve talked to have been paying attention to being as safe as possible while out. They also know to be extra careful around older folks and those with other health issues.
But people are going about their life as best they can down here.