Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

[Smoove_B]

https://twitter.com/GarrettHaake/status ... 1683660801

Hooooo boy. Pressed repeatedly by @jaketapper, the director of FEMA can’t give even a ROUGH number of masks they’re shipping out to states.

[Smoove_B]

Ok, it's 11:40 am and I'm done for the day.

https://twitter.com/BillyCorben/status/ ... 1343447040

Okeechobee County Commissioner Bryant Culpepper at emergency meeting says you can kill coronavirus by holding a blow dryer up to your nose after he saw it on “reliable source” OANN, warns “there’s a lot of baloney out there on social media”

At prior emergency meeting, Culpepper said his son discovered coronavirus “cure” on website that sells “nano ozone vapor” device hunters use to mask their scent from deer (he’s ordered 5 of them) and he hopes the White House is watching

[malchior]

If you start out the sentence with, "It might seems silly..." It is because your own brain is telling you this is bullshit. You can see the cognitive dissonance attempting to correct itself.

In any case, these are the types of people we've chosen to lead us. We've decided that mediocrity or bad/corrupt is acceptable. At this point we have no choice but see how it plays out and take care of ourselves.

Edit: Check this shit out. This poor woman is starting to lose it asking the question (you can hear her voice break twice).

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1241755425852272641

[Defiant]

Here’s Why Florida Got All the Emergency Medical Supplies It Requested While Other States Did Not
The Department of Health and Human Services has come under fire as several states’ requests for supplies from the emergency medical stockpile go unfulfilled. A chaotic distribution plan is buckling under a big problem: Nobody has enough.

https://www.propublica.org/article/here ... es-did-not

[malchior]

I wish I didn't read that article. Everything is stuff they have lying around since 2007!?! We can't figure out testing. We can't coordinate anything. We can't do anything right it seems. WTF is wrong with this country?

[Smoove_B]

In case people are wondering what the problem is:

https://twitter.com/Laurie_Garrett/stat ... 7146295297

LIVE presser @NYGovCuomo is demanding the fedl govt take over production of masks, ventilators and PPEs because all are in short supply and States are bidding against each other. Bids are up to $7/mask.

[malchior]

If you haven't seen the latest bailout news prepare for more "good" news, it appears the negotiations in the Senate are breaking down. Pelosi just announced the Democrats are going to introduce their own bill now and try to force the Senate's hand. The worst case really appears to be happening all across the board.

[LawBeefaroni]

I wish I didn't read that article. Everything is stuff they have lying around since 2007!?! We can't figure out testing. We can't coordinate anything. We can't do anything right it seems. WTF is wrong with this country?

CPD issued hand sanitizer to officers. No expiration date so some cops contacted the manufacturer. It went out of production 2012 and had a 3 year shelf life. No doubt some son in law or cousin of someone in city government was sitting on an unsellable pile of expired crap and saw an opportunity....

[LawBeefaroni]

I just got my "papers." In case I have to go into work, it informs the authorities that I am a hospital employee. I'm supposed to use this if I get called into the work pool and get stopped.

I'm not eligible for Sunday work pool so I started drinking at 11:00.

[malchior]

I wish I didn't read that article. Everything is stuff they have lying around since 2007!?! We can't figure out testing. We can't coordinate anything. We can't do anything right it seems. WTF is wrong with this country?

CPD issued hand sanitizer to officers. No expiration date so some cops contacted the manufacturer. It went out of production 2012 and had a 3 year shelf life. No doubt some son in law or cousin of someone in city government was sitting on an unsellable pile of expired crap and saw an opportunity....

Yeah. FWIW I just asked my chemist wife about this. She makes products like this. The expiration likely belongs to the fragrance. As long as it was sealed the alcohol should still be there and it will be efficacious for its primary purpose. If they weren't sealed then the alcohol could have flashed off and it'd be thick water. So while it's probably the usual bullshit it isn't necessarily all bad for once.

[LawBeefaroni]

In case people are wondering what the problem is:

https://twitter.com/Laurie_Garrett/stat ... 7146295297

LIVE presser @NYGovCuomo is demanding the fedl govt take over production of masks, ventilators and PPEs because all are in short supply and States are bidding against each other. Bids are up to $7/mask.

This is off Trump's direction ro let the states compete for their own supplies. Total licence to profiteer. I have a few hundred N95 masks that I got for painting and woodworking a year ago. I think they were like $0.15 each. Have heard several stories of hospital employees in the city losing their jobs stealing these from supplies.

It's fucking absurd and totally unnecessary. All because of the incompetence of the presidential administration.

"Presidential administration." Is that an oxymoron now?

[malchior]

More fun - just saw that McConnell is playing chicken now. He announced a 3 PM procedural vote yesterday. He now is saying they'll hold it no matter what. I assume he will use it as a gun to the Dem's head to try to force an agreement in his (read plutocrats) favor. The Dems better get ready to be railroaded again.

[raydude]

Ok, it's 11:40 am and I'm done for the day.

https://twitter.com/BillyCorben/status/ ... 1343447040

Okeechobee County Commissioner Bryant Culpepper at emergency meeting says you can kill coronavirus by holding a blow dryer up to your nose after he saw it on “reliable source” OANN, warns “there’s a lot of baloney out there on social media”

At prior emergency meeting, Culpepper said his son discovered coronavirus “cure” on website that sells “nano ozone vapor” device hunters use to mask their scent from deer (he’s ordered 5 of them) and he hopes the White House is watching

Someone should ask him to "please demonstrate with live Coronavirus to show us its safe and it works".

[raydude]

My wife just got an email from the NY health system. They are looking for all NY certified nurses and doctors to answer the call if they are needed to help staff medical centers in NY. She's still registered to practice there. She's going to say yes and ask what they will do about housing, because she can't stay with her friends who have children.

I get it. I'd answer the call too if it were me. But goddamn I wish I could say she was going to be adequately protected.

[malchior]

Rand Paul positive. Will be used as proof this virus is nothing to worry about on the right.

https://twitter.com/RandPaul/status/1241780756617273345

[LawBeefaroni]

Rand Paul positive. Will be used as proof this virus is nothing to worry about on the right.

https://twitter.com/RandPaul/status/1241780756617273345

Why the fuck was he tested then? Is he wiping his ass with n95 masks and pissing in ventilators too? Out of an abundance of privilege?

[Defiant]

https://twitter.com/joebiden/status/1241416531684331526


tl/dw, what Joe Biden would do:
Increased testing & drive through testing
Creating emergency Hospitals
Increased support in the form of Protected Gear and research to find a cure
Financial Help

[stessier]

Another really good article on what we're dealing with here:

Some experts have written about a Catch-22 we may be facing. Essentially, as I understand it, with a certain level of social distancing, the virus could still come back. And with an extreme amount of social distancing over a period of time, long enough to get a vaccine, the economy and society would be irreparably harmed. How do you view that Catch-22, if you agree that it is one, and is there a solution?

I do. Here is the idea: those are your two terrible choices. We can just say we can’t do extreme social distancing for eighteen months because it will destroy our economy and the fabric of our society, so forget it, and then you are going to have hundreds of thousands—if not millions—of people dying, and many, many more times that getting very sick. And that has its own huge economic and social consequences. So it is not a your-money-or-your-life situation. We can either take a big economic hit, which has huge health effects, or create terrible health outcomes, which has huge economic effects. I think we are between two terrible places.

Regarding social distancing and the near future:

But the other thing is that, if we slow this down enough, we essentially get where China is today, where they are not having more infections—but the moment they let their foot off the brakes the infection will come back. And what a lot of people are predicting is that, if we slow things down enough and get testing, we can maybe get into the summer, and maybe during the summer months the virus will slow down and there will not be as much infection. But it will come back with a vengeance in the fall. That is what happened with the 1918 flu, and a lot of people are worried about that.

What we are saying is to use the time that social distancing is buying you to essentially ramp up production of personal protective equipment and ventilators, and get ubiquitous fast testing available, so that if we can make it into the summer months without too much damage we can use that time to get ready for the fall. And then, in the fall, when the virus comes back, if you have aggressive testing you can identify people quickly, you can isolate them, you can quarantine them, you can do the contact tracing. Essentially, you get a do-over from the time that we lost in January. But we will be much, much better prepared, and when we are better prepared we can stay ahead of it. You won’t have to have mass school closings. You can imagine in some communities there might be outbreaks that get bad, and you shut down schools for two weeks, you test everybody and isolate people, and then you can open the schools back up. So we may have some of those periods during the fall, but we don’t have to go through what we are going through now, where we have extended periods of social distancing and really destroying our economy. So we think there is a way to thread this needle.

Is it too early for scotch?

This actually seems like good news. The idea we might have normal school in the fall was something i had given up on.

[Smoove_B]

This actually seems like good news. The idea we might have normal school in the fall was something i had given up on.

So much of it is couched in the belief that people will stay home and follow recommendations for the next 30+ days. I wish I had faith in my fellow humans to believe it will happen.

[malchior]

This actually seems like good news. The idea we might have normal school in the fall was something i had given up on.

So much of it is couched in the belief that people will stay home and follow recommendations for the next 30+ days. I wish I had faith in my fellow humans to believe it will happen.

I get people looking for hope but this is America. This article lays out what is basically the best case considering we already took the worst path. So now we should expect people to have learned from it? Who are we kidding here? We've only been able to land damn near the worst case over and over for years. Hope for this for sure but damn well be prepared for the worst case because it is much more likely.

[Daehawk]

Good for him. Rand that is.

[stessier]

This actually seems like good news. The idea we might have normal school in the fall was something i had given up on.

So much of it is couched in the belief that people will stay home and follow recommendations for the next 30+ days. I wish I had faith in my fellow humans to believe it will happen.

Oh, well that's a problem. We are distancing here in SC, but all the manufacturing is still up and running with only a few exceptions. Even NJ appears to allow all manufacturing to continue. I'll still keep my fingers crossed.

[malchior]

This actually seems like good news. The idea we might have normal school in the fall was something i had given up on.

So much of it is couched in the belief that people will stay home and follow recommendations for the next 30+ days. I wish I had faith in my fellow humans to believe it will happen.

Oh, well that's a problem. We are distancing here in SC, but all the manufacturing is still up and running with only a few exceptions. Even NJ appears to allow all manufacturing to continue. I'll still keep my fingers crossed.

Our manufacturing here in NJ running actually makes sense. It is largely pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and soaps/cosmetics. You can also change over a pure cosmetics operation to life saving soaps/sanitary products pretty quickly if need be.

[Daehawk]

Still amazes me we've had anitbiotics for almost 100 years but nothing for viri. Guess the rna / dna thing really stumps the work.

[Jaymann]

Still amazes me we've had anitbiotics for almost 100 years but nothing for viri. Guess the rna / dna thing really stumps the work.

I think it is because viruses mutate. Today's vaccine is no good against tomorrow's virus.

[Kraken]

Viruses are hard to kill because they aren't exactly alive in the first place. They don't metabolize or reproduce outside of a host.

[Daehawk]

Any bets that China stops eating dogs or having wet markets after this passes...if it does? Didn't think so.

[Holman]

Any bets that China stops eating dogs or having wet markets after this passes...if it does? Didn't think so.

Don't play that game, man.

[Blackhawk]

My new word, finally giving the 'Chinese' pandemic in America it's proper attribution: COVFEFE-19

[malchior]

Stimulus bill Senate vote now moved to between 3-6 PM but the Democrats are already saying they have 'serious issues' with it. Oh imagine that. McConnell cooked up a bill all his own to 'speed it up' and that didn't work that out. Since he doesn't have a history of incompetence this is probably part of some game of his. Weighing against that is he has blown several deadlines now so the idea he is using the votes to put pressure on the Dems is beginning to look unsupported.

[Daehawk]

Now that Rand Paul has it maybe Mitch and Lindsay can too.

[malchior]

Mitch is definitely playing games for some reason. He is on the floor bitching about the Democrats not being honest partners. He says he passed their house bill and deserves reciprocity. They negotiated it within his own ranks and then had a few sessions across a couple of groups. He had to know this would happen. He is up to something and people are hurting. He is bringing the normal dysfunction into the crisis.

https://twitter.com/ericawerner/status/ ... 7121639424

McConnell on floor, not happy. After he passed Pelosi's bill he wants that reciprocated.
But multiple Dems saying they will vote "no" on upcoming cloture vote.

[Zaxxon]

I'm beginning to understand why a neighbor punched Mr. Paul in the face...

https://twitter.com/seungminkim/status/ ... 51456?s=19

[Kraken]

"Pelosi's bill" was $100B. McConnell's is in the neighborhood of $1T, of which half goes to corporations. Not exactly a one-for-one exchange.

[malchior]

"Pelosi's bill" was $100B. McConnell's is in the neighborhood of $1T, of which half goes to corporations. Not exactly a one-for-one exchange.

Based on the way he was acting I believe they were trying to pull a fast one. I'm pretty confused on the strategy here. It is really looking like McConnell may have flat out misplayed his hand. It is very odd.

Edit: I'm trying to get a concise list of the issues but the fast one they tried to pull is pretty ugly. Here is a quick summation I've found - $500B for corporations. Weak buyback language that can be waived by the Treasury Secretary. No student loan support. Unemployment support for only 3 months. No aid to states/local government. No SNAP support. No money to treat uninsured. If you didn't file in 2018 you are overlooked for direct support. It really was a stick up attempt.

Certified Cynic's analysis: They think they might be getting blown out in November and are lining up what's next for many of them.

[Zaxxon]

Based on the way he was acting I believe they were trying to pull a fast one.

They are literally always trying to pull a fast one. It is literally all this party does for some time now.

[Smoove_B]

10 minute test developed in South Korea. Can't wait to see how long it takes to be distributed here in America. But this is exactly what we need to start getting a handle on this. HOPE

https://twitter.com/Laurie_Garrett/stat ... 5134190592

South Korean company Sugentech is going into mass production of an immunoassay for #coronavirus #COVID19 that can determine whether you have ever been exposed to the virus. Takes 10 minutes.

[Daehawk]

Based on the way he was acting I believe they were trying to pull a fast one.

They are literally always trying to pull a fast one. It is literally all this party does for some time now.

Par for the course. McConnell writes up something thats totally mean, evil, and bullshit then screams "It's for the American people!" and tries to shove it through fast..."Go go go! No dont look at it!!!.....go go go move it move it gogogogogogogogogo!!!!!!

Then if someone sees it for what it is its all their fault for slowing it down and not helping the American people. Im not sure how 95% of the people dont realize this. Especially old folk who were supposed to be a better generation.

[Jeff V]

I get it. I'd answer the call too if it were me. But goddamn I wish I could say she was going to be adequately protected.

Is that even possible?

It would be best if separate housing could be supplied to front line medical workers, including quarantine facilities where they can ride out the illness once they catch it. Sad to say, it's probably in the nation's best interest for front line health workers to get and get over it sooner rather than later so we have a high availability of immune healthcare workers when the worst happens. The reason separate facilities are need is, case in point, my wife is in a low-mortality risk group however I am not and she surprisingly claims she really doesn't want to be the death of me. She even threatened to move the kids to the Philippines if I die. That I've enough insurance right now to pay off the house and all debt didn't seem to register with her.

[malchior]

Schumer just announced that 0 Democrat Senators support McConnell's bill.

Edit: Fun procedural note - 5 Senators are now quarantining themselves (Lee, Romney, Scott, Gardner, and COVID-19 positive Paul). There is no process for remote votes right now and with those 5 gone it is 48 Rs and 47 Ds!