I am proposing a new topic (with apologies to G.Garcia Marquez and to moderators) to address some disturbing elements that have arisen in other threads relating to COVID-19. Among other doozies, one poster encouraged readers to request CT scans to “test” for COVID (topic " Covid 19 as a guest") and another stated that “you don’t get COVID from touching things”. (cannot find that thread - poster’s name was Heather)
Potentially harmful advice needs to be countered with science and reason .
Please continue to step up and shoot this crap down @GardenFairy,@Helsi and others
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It seems to me that they are being addressed/discussed pretty well in-thread so far. I am not sure what the point would be in debating them in a separate thread where people might not see the discussion.
I think we can all agree with this sentiment, but it would be more useful to respond to questionable advice in the thread where it crops up.
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@RobbyG Thanks for the shout out. I am a hospital based physician on the front lines in one of the most highly affected states in the US, so will likely see more and more of this virus first hand over the coming weeks. Between working constantly and trying to keep up with the rapidly changing situation through the physician Facebook groups I belong to, I haven’t had time to keep up with all the posts here but certainly will chime in if I see any misinformation. You’re right though, asking guests to get a CT before arrival is ludicrous.
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Just saw a community FB post where a member said that the virus is in the throat for 3 to 4 days prior to it travelling to the lungs. That gargling with salt water will kill it?
Sounds misleading to me.
Your thoughts GardenFairy?!
You are right. Salt water will absolutely not kill the coronavirus.
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No-one who quotes (almost) Marquez needs to apologise to me. 
I haven’t read most of the COVID posts - they make me rather angry. There’s so much erroneous information all over the internet and I could easily get angry with a lot of it.
At one time I used to say that there’s more misinformation on the internet about search engines than any other subject. Then I discovered that there’s actually more nonsense about Airbnb. Now it seems that COVID is producing the most nonsense.
And leading to the postponement of the start of the F1 season… 
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Pleased to meet you @GardenFairy.
I 'm an emergency doc in a city tertiary hospital in Australia . My daughter is a junior doctor currently working in the emergency department of a different smaller hospital in this city which is located near to a significant cluster (including 3 deaths). Yesterday a confirmed COVID patient died in the only isolation room of her ED after a prolonged stay awaiting an inpatient bed. The decision had been appropriately taken that this patient was not for critical care/ventilatory support but there was not enough isolation capacity.
I believe we are at the calm- before -the -storm stage here.How catastrophic it will be depends on how quickly the storm rolls in. In my facility all elective surgery was cancelled more than a week ago , leave has been cancelled and there is a Fever clinic set up to divert the "not unwell "from the Emergency Dept.
I shudder when I read accounts from places that have been hit hard and where critical care demand has rapidly swamped capacity
The truth is our system has very little surge capacity. Most if not all EDs are chronically overcrowded and bed-blocked. We already work in indecent haste.
Critical care facilities are finite. What if a significant number of front-line staff at a given facility all get sick at once?
Fervently hoping for the flattened sombrero
On a happier note I believe Tom and Rita are doing well and delighted with the care they are receiving at Gold Coast Hospital.
BTW I am (?was)booked to attend the Essentials Of EM meeting in SF in May - have not heard anything from the organisers re cancellation. Everybody probably too busy at the front line just now…
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That can quickly happen almost anywhere. Our hospital, medical community, and emergency planning folks here are as prepared as they can be. Since we are relatively isolated from everywhere except by air or boat, our emergency planners have been sure to prepare advance plans for many disaster contingencies including an epidemic.
All large events have been cancelled, schools are closed for at least 2 weeks, cruise ships cancelled until July, travel is restricted for all government employees and military, and our hospital has triage tents at both entrances. Emergency field hospital units have been but not yet installed where they will be needed. Our biggest problem will be not having enough personnel.
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This is not “work friendly” and contains sweary words.
JF
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And it’s Australian 
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I love this. Thank you
These are sensible measures on the part of your authorities. Hopefully they, and your geographic isolation will protect your community.
Best of luck Dennis .Please let us know how it’s going.
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The authorities are going to need to shut everything down. I can see from reading here on the forum that too many people just don’t get it: “it’s not in my area” and “they aren’t coming from a restricted area,” and other inanities. So, so dumb.
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If they tried to shut down bars on Wednesday night (St Patrick’s) the bars and taxi companies would be screaming. My limo permit also lets me drive a cab, and one of the cab company owners wanted me to drive for him this past weekend, and I said “Hell NO.” I’m happy to be relatively isolated here in the house.
My guest for Wednesday for a week cancelled. She decided to wait a while to fly from Denver to see a new grandbaby. So I’ll have even more time for recaulking bathroom, waxing and buffing floors, deep cleaning the B&B kitchen… Our first crocuses just popped, but snow is not all melted yet, and nights are still well below freezing, but soon yard work will call. Maybe this year I’ll have the time to plant my salad garden.
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Bars not shutting down for St Patrick’s sounds like a good way to drive another nail in our collective coffin. Then all the hungover bros can deliver your Uber Eats the next day. No thanks.
Our authorities have put a 10 pm curfew on bars, restaurants and nightclubs and they have to reduce their capacity by 50% during operating hours. The beach is closed and there are cops and K9 patrols to stop people entering. Even this morning before dawn.
People going to bars for St. Patrick’s is a recipe for disaster and hopefully all authorities everywhere will move today to stop it before it starts. Buckle in, it’s going to be a ride.
This doesn’t seem very helpful. The nightclubs I’ve been in would still not have nearly enough distance between people even at 50% capacity. And exactly how does closing at 10 PM help?
I think that the idea is to prevent spring breakers partying. The authorities can’t force spring breakers to go home but maybe that and the fact that the beach is closed, could make a lot of them decide it’s not worth being here.
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