Contra Costa County is reporting its first death due to coronavirus.
The patient died Thursday in a hospital in Contra Costa County. The Contra Costa resident was in their 70s and had a pre-existing condition that put them at higher risk of serious illness from COVID-19, and a history of recent overseas travel, according to the health department.
No further information was released.
It always sad when someone passes away and I am sorry for the loss of life and the impact on the family.
I have questions and they are going to be hard/impossible to answer.
If this individual had caught influenza, would they have survived?
Did they catch coronavirus through travel, family contact, contact by a delivery person or some other method?
Was this individual, who had a pre existing condition self-quarantined or did they go outside on walks, shopping, etc?
All of those questions are important in understanding the data. Just because we have a loss of life does not mean that all people who get it will die, or that staying at home will stop/slow it, or that the solution is to go about our daily lives because no matter what 56% of our state will get it.
Just questions … I just want data to better understand the picture that is being painter.
@parent
It is quite likely that this person wouldn’t have survived a flu or measles or Strep pneumonia. The difference is that we have vaccines against flu, measles, Strep and many other infectious diseases. We don’t have a vaccine against coronavirus.
So your questions are largely irrelevant – it’s not the question of whether half of the state population will get infected, it’s the question of whether they will be infected over a year or within days or weeks. And then those 20% of the infected who get a severe form of the disease will overwhelm our woefully unprepared health care system resulting in 10% death rate, like in Italy.
@ Dawg, my apologies for the spelling error.
@ Tashaj, not irrelevant. Even with a vaccine we still see 50,000 deaths a year in the United States. https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/index.html Let that settle in.
Pneumonia is preventable, yet people still catch it. What I am saying is, I do not think we should quarantine an entire nation over this. We did not do it for H1N1, no vaccine for that either, though it infected many more people and we do not do it for inluenza.
So either the government is not telling us all there is … or …
@parent
I see – so posting a link to CDC site (the content of which you obviously don’t understand) “settles” it? You must consider offering your services to the NIH – obviously with your solid background in epidemiology you’re exactly the person they are lacking.
Tashaj
Did you miss the point? Did you read the CDC website? Just asking. I also did not say that the CDC ‘settles it’ … I said let that ‘settle in’. You are trying to take my words and misuse them.
I actually understand the CDC website quite well. I spent many many years doing chemical and biological response, so if I did not understand that site (and others), I would have killed members of my team or the general public.
My new job requires me to look at data and make informed decisions. Actual, legitimate data. I am not an epidemiologist or even close to one, but I can read and make informed decisions. Are you one? Are you in the medical field? Do you research data for a living? What makes you the expert?
If someone has acute asthma, and they catch pneumonia, they will struggle to survive. Should we lock everyone up because of that and take away everyone’s freedom? Same with MERS (~10%) and SARS (34%), whose death rate FAR exceeds the current predictions of COVID19. Should we lock folks up for that as well?
The term “preexisting” is a pet peeve of mine. The prefix pre is redundant, the word “exist” without the pre added to it will suffice.
Another thing, The Mirriam-Webster Dictionary spells preexist without the hyphen.
The patient had an existing condition is the correct way to say it.
existing could mean it just exists with the current disease/infection. It doesn’t necessarily tell you if it started before, at the same time, or after the infection/disease. Pre specifically tells you that it existed before the current disease/infection.
Thanks for pointing that out Dawg. Let’s also add:
preventative instead of preventive
irregardless instead of regardless
Try it this way, Dawg:
“Ma’am, were informed by the coroner that your husband’s death was possibly accelerated by diabetes, yet there was no mention of this condition in the application for life insurance. Please tell us – was your husband aware of this condition prior the submission of his application?”
It’s a mechanism to determine the chronological order of events, etc – and it is relevant.
That was amazing!!! are you an INTP? INTJ? I love it when someone shows me something for the first time that was in front of my eyes all along lol. Accuracy on point!
Such sad news. My condolences to his/her family and friends.
Some strange wording going on here. (in their 70s) (and had a pre-existing condition that put them at) Are we talking one or more people or are we just trying to keep the gender secret?
Oh Claycord, how I love this site for information. The comments. I don’t have cable, so I don’t get regular news updates. I don’t have Facebook. I don’t really care what’s happening beyond close to home. I want to focus my attention and energy on local news and information. We still don’t use our names here on this site….cracks me up. I am interested in following the information around this soon. RIP for this death and all of the fatalities to come. And for the families that will be dealing with this. Potentially my own. I predict there will be more in our County and in our area. There’s a chance we might be worse than Italy. Iran. China. Lots of questions arise.
@ Colonial Park~
Fingers Crossed,….hopefully not worse than Italy, Iran, and China.
Hoping of all the cases as of now and down the road, will survive this virus.
@ Dawg; @ parent – Good point you guys. Why should we care about old people dying, am i right? I mean they’re old and would have probably died of something else anyways! /s
My condolences to his family and friends. Prayers said.