Day 33

April 13, 2020 Monday and snowing. Is how this week started in Denver. Even with the virus known as Covid19 still spreading it's evil throughout the world, certain states are planning a reissue of stay-at-home orders to attempt to open commerce.  The CDC warns each state is it's own battleground.
Remote school is in session for most of the world and some are deliberating how to approach next year with the consideration that many students will lag behind after not receiving direct instruction for 6 months. That is if schools even open on time in September. There is still much to be determined regarding how the world will function even when the virus begins to slow it's attack.  Until a vaccine is created and distributed no one really knows how things will function even with restrictions. This morning Maren and I pontificated on how surreal this feels even after three weeks of isolation.
   The numbers around the globe are still in the upwards of 80,000 plus new cases. Spain saw it's death numbers decrease but at 517 that number is still ungodly. All around the world measures are being taken to prevent the spread, but unfortunately the spread occurred before these stay-at-home, social distance and mask-wearing orders were put in place and seriously adhered.  Though some states are seeing a leveling off of new cases the deaths are still happening as this virus affects people in different ways.  The virus as we know it has been around for five months and here is what we know about it:
It almost certainly originated from bats.  The bats with their evolved immune system causes the virus to replicate faster and the bats carries a reservoir of rapidly reproducing viruses.  The bat most likely passed it on to an animal with lesser of an immune system and that animal interacted with a human who then passed it on to others and so on.
The virus is passed through virus-laden particles inhaled into the mouth and throat. The virus has a surface protein that is primed to lock onto our Ace-2 receptor and then it proceeds to multiply itself and spread among cells. The body's immune system in most cases is able to locate the virus and snuff it out.  Because the virus is generally mild many carriers go around either asymptomatic and pass it on to others. However, when the virus moves down the respiratory tract into the lungs and because the lungs are richer in Ace-2 receptors the virus does greater damage causing patients to need intensive care. Much is still unknown about whether or not an infected person is immune for life (most likely not) and if this virus will continue to linger (most likely it will) and/or become less severe or more lethal. Finally, currently 78 vaccine projects are under way with another 37 to be launched. Human test trials will begin this year, but in a standard three phase trial this could take several months.  Some scientists have suggested a method that could expedite the trials by deliberately exposing healthy volunteers to the virus to test vaccines. This of course comes with risk as the coronavirus known as Covid19 has been known to occasionally slay the young and healthy.

The governor of Colorado addressed the media today and talked about sharing two new forms of information provided to the public (racial data and hospital discharges).