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

[Skinypupy]

Trump had his little hate rallies on the following dates. But I'm sure these weren't a distraction at all...only the impeachment stuff, right Moscow Mitch?

- January 9
- January 14
- January 28
- January 30
- February 10
- February 19
- February 20
- February 21
- February 28

[$iljanus]

Antibodies would presumably stay in your system forever...isn't that what makes you immune to repeat infection? I wouldn't think it'd be a good indicator of active infection, only past exposure.

More specifically, it's the memory B cells (and T cells) that stick around and recognize the pathogen in question, mounting an immune response the next time it comes around. But I'd still take the vaccine in case my pool of memory cells isn't at a critical number to fight off the next visitation of Covid-19 to your body before complications arise. The immune system in older folks is not as robust as a 18-20 yr old and of course certain pre-existing conditions may impair a good immune response so a vaccine will be handy to give the body a leg up.

Of course, all bets are off when Covid-20 comes around. Is a future coronavirus different enough to evade your immune surveillance? Will the antigens on the new, shiny coronavirus be enough for the body to mount enough of a response so you're just a little under the weather vs needing a ventilator?

If you survive smallpox, there's enough of a pool of memory B and T cells generated to confer pretty much lifetime immunity. The common cold on the other hand has enough changes every season to make you miserable during cold and flu season. The holy vaccination grail for flu and a cold vaccine is finding those antigens (proteins on the virus that the immune system recognizes as "foreign" necessitating a response) that are common to all the viral strains. However, not all antigens are created equal and there can be antigens that signal a weak response or no response at all.

[LordMortis]

Oh, just fuck off Mitch.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says President Donald Trump's impeachment trial distracted the federal government from the novel coronavirus as it reached the United States in January, despite warnings at the time from public health experts and members of Congress about the spread of the virus.

McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Tuesday that the deadly virus "came up while we were tied down on the impeachment trial. And I think it diverted the attention of the government, because everything every day was all about impeachment.''

And what exactly was he tied down doing?

[Zaxxon]

Oh, just fuck off Mitch.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says President Donald Trump's impeachment trial distracted the federal government from the novel coronavirus as it reached the United States in January, despite warnings at the time from public health experts and members of Congress about the spread of the virus.

McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Tuesday that the deadly virus "came up while we were tied down on the impeachment trial. And I think it diverted the attention of the government, because everything every day was all about impeachment.''

And what exactly was he tied down doing?

9 rallies and 8 days golfing, I believe.

[LordMortis]

Oh, just fuck off Mitch.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says President Donald Trump's impeachment trial distracted the federal government from the novel coronavirus as it reached the United States in January, despite warnings at the time from public health experts and members of Congress about the spread of the virus.

McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Tuesday that the deadly virus "came up while we were tied down on the impeachment trial. And I think it diverted the attention of the government, because everything every day was all about impeachment.''

And what exactly was he tied down doing?

9 rallies and 8 days golfing, I believe.

I thought he meant himself. Not the president. Mitch seemed to be spending all of effort not spending any effort.

[Zaxxon]

Oh, just fuck off Mitch.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says President Donald Trump's impeachment trial distracted the federal government from the novel coronavirus as it reached the United States in January, despite warnings at the time from public health experts and members of Congress about the spread of the virus.

McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Tuesday that the deadly virus "came up while we were tied down on the impeachment trial. And I think it diverted the attention of the government, because everything every day was all about impeachment.''

And what exactly was he tied down doing?

9 rallies and 8 days golfing, I believe.

I thought he meant himself. Not the president. Mitch seemed to be spending all of effort not spending any effort.

I mean, they've been spending effort to not spend effort taking up bills coming from the House for well over a year now, so it's not exactly a stretch.

[Jeff V]

Take is easy on Moscow Mitch. After all, he's the punchline of Putin's favorite joke, "Is that a turtle in your pants or a senate majority leader?"

[Yojimbo]

I dislike the "public won't need masks" talk that we saw in the early days. It was untrue, I think the people parroting it knew that it was untrue.

I suspect the earlier lies about masks were to keep supplies in the warehouses until the medicos and elites could get a hold of them (good for the medicos, bad for the elites). The media almost blindly parroted the "you don't need masks" talk to our national shame.

I won't defend the administration in any capacity - quite the opposite. I will tell you the messaging early on was consistent with what I was taught and the policies/plans I worked on and trained under. The wrinkle this time was the insane shortage and being caught flat-footed.

As I said earlier today, wearing masks is primarily about protecting others, not yourself. There is some benefit to wearing surgical masks, but free-floating viral particles would sail through the cotton fabrics as if they didn't exist. Instead, these masks do give some protection then against inhaling larger balls of mucous and saliva that (in theory) are impregnated with the virus. When this first emerged (January-ish) having everyone wear surgery masks didn't make sense because we had no data to suggest it was wide spread. To further clarify, the general public should not be wearing n95 masks - not back in January and not now in April. But the evidence is mounting that having everyone wear surgical masks might be a good idea and if we had testing data back in January (if only), recommending widespread mask use might have made sense. However, given the shortages, that's also a tough sell. The other thing is that culturally it's not accepted here in the US to see people just freely wearing masks. I suspect there's going to be an uptick in violence in parts of the country if people are seen wearing them with the idea that they either don't trust 'Mericans or they are sick foreigners.

Anyway, I don't necessarily believe there was evil-intent up front with the masks. I do believe we were under-prepared and when the administration had advanced information, they did nothing - making it much worse. In short, so much of this could have been avoided if we had competent people running a national response. Instead, we have a reality show President and we're all on Survivor.

Its hard to be objective with hindsight (for me at least) but it seems like we all know that sharing spittle would spread a virus. I have some industrial N95s that are long expired but I am using them to go out to Barter-town for supplies (I had them for a metal grinding project). I don't think my government is trying to kill me, I just worry sometimes that they aren't really trying to keep me alive either. I see hydroxychloroquine and the masks the same way - the official position morphs over time toward the truth - AFTER the "more equal animals" get their share.

[Smoove_B]

Its hard to be objective with hindsight (for me at least) but it seems like we all know that sharing spittle would spread a virus. I have some industrial N95s that are long expired but I am using them to go out to Barter-town for supplies (I had them for a metal grinding project). I don't think my government is trying to kill me, I just worry sometimes that they aren't really trying to keep me alive either. I see hydroxychloroquine and the masks the same way - the official position morphs over time toward the truth - AFTER the "more equal animals" get their share.

Yeah, I am also getting more cynical in my old age and with the current administration they're actively going against everything I ever learned and was told would happen. The damage done to the public trust is real and I fully expect there to be some serious blow back once the CDC comes up with however it is they're going to message the mask issue.

Regarding transmission, this really could come down to a cultural issue as I'm not aware of any studies done in the United States demonstrating that for a closed community setting (hospital ward, nursing home, convalescent center, etc...) that having everyone wear masks had a measurable impact on something like influenza transmissions. The mantra since 2010 for influenza has been for everyone to get a vaccination and for the common cold, wash your hands. And when studies are done (as I suspect they will be), I am betting we'll find that having the general population wear masks does help with controlling droplets, but more importantly it stops people from unconsciously touching their mouth, nose and possibly eyes. Everything is just bonkers right now, I don't even know what to make of any of it.

Regarding the medication, that's outside my wheelhouse. I can only fall back on the science that says it's unproven, though they're trying to address it.

[Kraken]

Oh, just fuck off Mitch.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says President Donald Trump's impeachment trial distracted the federal government from the novel coronavirus as it reached the United States in January, despite warnings at the time from public health experts and members of Congress about the spread of the virus.

McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Tuesday that the deadly virus "came up while we were tied down on the impeachment trial. And I think it diverted the attention of the government, because everything every day was all about impeachment.''

That explains China and Europe too. Go get 'em, Cochese.

You know that whiny fuck that is always conniving and moving goalposts as if to appear correct rather than actually being correct? Like on everything? From foreign policy to the difference between large and extra large eggs? That's McConnell.

Anybody else wondering what Guiliani is up to these days? Talk about dropping out of sight...I presume he's still working on framing Biden, but nobody's paying attention to that anymore.

[LawBeefaroni]

Oh, just fuck off Mitch.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says President Donald Trump's impeachment trial distracted the federal government from the novel coronavirus as it reached the United States in January, despite warnings at the time from public health experts and members of Congress about the spread of the virus.

McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Tuesday that the deadly virus "came up while we were tied down on the impeachment trial. And I think it diverted the attention of the government, because everything every day was all about impeachment.''

That explains China and Europe too. Go get 'em, Cochese.

You know that whiny fuck that is always conniving and moving goalposts as if to appear correct rather than actually being correct? Like on everything? From foreign policy to the difference between large and extra large eggs? That's McConnell.

Anybody else wondering what Guiliani is up to these days? Talk about dropping out of sight...I presume he's still working on framing Biden, but nobody's paying attention to that anymore.

He's still bein' Rudy.

Twitter removed a message by Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump's personal attorney, for spreading misinformation about the coronavirus and making groundless attacks on Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

In recent days, Giuliani has used his Twitter account and podcast to tout the stem cell treatment being developed by a New Jersey biotech company, Celularity, despite scant evidence to date that its therapy will benefit Covid-19 patients.

[abr]

Found something interesting today and thought I share it here: Apparently, Kinsa is a company manufacturing smart thermometers which report the measured temperatures to their servers. This means you get something like a real-time(!) view of the development of fevers in the population. They use that to calculate a map of influenza-like illnesses in the US as well as trends and atypical cases here:

https://healthweather.us/?mode=Atypical

[malchior]

You first, Ron. How about a GOP Senate Corona party to show us the way? Hat tip to USA Today for publishing this fine piece of neo-sociopathic economic gospel.

https://twitter.com/ArthurDelaneyHP/sta ... 8817486848

Fascinating column by Senator Ron Johnson downplaying death as "an unavoidable part of life"

[Holman]

Fascinating column by Senator Ron Johnson downplaying other people's deaths as "an unavoidable part of life"

FTFY

[El Guapo]

https://twitter.com/dfriedman33/status/ ... 3028800513

Details on this keep getting worse for Loeffler.

[Smoove_B]

You first, Ron. How about a GOP Senate Corona party to show us the way? Hat tip to USA Today for publishing this fine piece of neo-sociopathic economic gospel.

That is...wow. April Fool's joke? Yeah, that has to be it. Because otherwise...W in the the actual F is happening? Regardless, as all the cool kids are saying - ok Ron, you first. Holy shit.

[Smoove_B]

Details on this keep getting worse for Loeffler.

She was...distracted by Trump's impeachment and not thinking clearly? I mean really - how is this not a slam dunk?

[Unagi]

Details on this keep getting worse for Loeffler.

I’m not (by design) following the news the last couple weeks.

Are these insider tradings (profiteering) being investigated and prosecuted ? Or are they protected by the new world order?

[Holman]

Are these insider tradings (profiteering) being investigated and prosecuted ? Or are they protected by the new world order?

I'm sure McConnell will have the Senate Ethics Committee get right on it.

[El Guapo]

Details on this keep getting worse for Loeffler.

She was...distracted by Trump's impeachment and not thinking clearly? I mean really - how is this not a slam dunk?

I'm sure that the argument is going to be something like "oh, sure that company makes COVID-19 protective gear, but they make a lot of other things too, and it's a company I'd been tracking for a long time before this, it's not related to anything COVID-specific." Then it's a matter of what you can prove. I also imagine that getting the documents and materials that you'd need to prove the case when the subject is a sitting U.S. senator protected by McConnell is not a walk in the park either.

It's also interesting in that it's not like she has inside information specific to the company. She has inside information on the economy in general (that has implications for these companies, among others). Not sure how exactly that plays out as an insider-trading matter.

Either way, she should resign, but I very much doubt that she will.

[LawBeefaroni]

Details on this keep getting worse for Loeffler.

She was...distracted by Trump's impeachment and not thinking clearly? I mean really - how is this not a slam dunk?

Hey, you have to defend that appointed Senate seat some how. $20M don't come for free.


BTW, if there's any doubt that this was intentional any may have just been a fortunate coincidence, consider her history. She got an MBA from DePaul (financed by mortgaging her inherited farm), she worked for Citibank and William & Blair (investment firm) before getting a job at the Intercontinental Exchange (who bought the NYSE) where she eventually married the CEO and was promoted to a Sr VP job and eventually to CEO of a subsidiary. So not only does she have a lot of experience and history in investing and insider dealings, she has a history of success by any means necessary. So she knows stock investments, or her husband does at the very least, and is likely willing to use insider information. Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if several contacts at the various investment firms benefited from what she learned too. This is your ruling class, folks.

[Smoove_B]

Once again, the great Ed Yong on the mask debate:

When the World Health Organization asserts that the new coronavirus is “NOT airborne,” it’s claiming that the virus instead spreads primarily through the close-splashing droplets, which either land directly on people’s faces or are carried to their faces by unwashed, contaminated hands.

Such messaging is “really irresponsible,” argues Don Milton, an expert in aerosol transmission at the University of Maryland. The scientific community doesn’t even agree about whether aerosol transmission matters for the flu, so “to say that after three months we know for sure that this [new] virus is not airborne is … expletive deleted,” he says.

Everything I was taught is a lie

Milton and other experts who study how viruses move through the air say that the traditional distinction between big, short-range droplets and small, long-range aerosols is based on outdated science. Lydia Bourouiba of MIT, for instance, has shown that exhalations, sneezes, and coughs unleash swirling, fast-moving clouds of both droplets and aerosols, which travel many meters farther than older studies predicted. Both kinds of glob also matter over shorter distances: Someone standing next to a person with COVID-19 is more likely to be splashed by droplets and to inhale aerosols.

The question, then, isn’t whether the coronavirus is “airborne” in the tediously academic way the word has been defined. As the journalist Roxanne Khamsi puts it, the virus is “definitely borne by air.” The better questions are: How far does the virus move? And Is it stable and concentrated enough at the end of its journey to harm someone’s health?

To the point:

The coronavirus pandemic has moved so quickly that years of social change and academic debate have been compressed into a matter of months. Academic squabbles are informing national policy. Long-standing guidelines are shifting. Within days, an experiment that’s done in a hospital room can affect how people feel about the very air around them, and what they choose to wear on their faces. Masks are a symbol, yes, but not just of conscientiousness. They’re also emblematic of a world that is changing so quickly, no one has time to take a breath.

[Skinypupy]

Are these insider tradings (profiteering) being investigated and prosecuted ?

Only the Dem ones.

[El Guapo]

There's a community garden with a path, mini-dog park, and community garden plots across the street from my house. Yesterday the trustees that manage the place put up a big "closed" sign on it. But otherwise it looks normal - there's no gate (nor has there been). So, unclear what *exactly* that means as a practical matter - obviously no parties or big gatherings, but no one was doing that anyway. I assume people will still walk through on the main path, but who knows. Seems like I can't use the open grassy area to play catch with my son, even though it seems like there's no risk from that.

The other news is that my office sent around an e-mail that someone in our office has a presumptive case of coronavirus. They were on my floor, but not in my unit / division, so I wouldn't have been interacting with them much, and we haven't been together in the office since March 11th. No direct implications for me, at the moment, I suppose. But they apparently don't qualify for coronavirus testing under the guidelines, though they've been told to assume that they have it; so most likely the actual number of cases in MA is 1 higher than the official total, at least.

[Jeff V]

So, unclear what *exactly* that means as a practical matter

Seems obvious...keep your cotton-pickin' pansies out of the park OR ELSE!

[LawBeefaroni]

"Closed" seems to mean whatever you take it to mean. Without any official ordinance to back it up or even an explanation on the sign, really all you can know for sure is that it says "Closed."

Everything is mostly voluntary at this point, other than closure of "non-essential" businesses.

[Tao]

There's a community garden with a path, mini-dog park, and community garden plots across the street from my house. Yesterday the trustees that manage the place put up a big "closed" sign on it. But otherwise it looks normal - there's no gate (nor has there been). So, unclear what *exactly* that means as a practical matter - obviously no parties or big gatherings, but no one was doing that anyway. I assume people will still walk through on the main path, but who knows. Seems like I can't use the open grassy area to play catch with my son, even though it seems like there's no risk from that.

The other news is that my office sent around an e-mail that someone in our office has a presumptive case of coronavirus. They were on my floor, but not in my unit / division, so I wouldn't have been interacting with them much, and we haven't been together in the office since March 11th. No direct implications for me, at the moment, I suppose. But they apparently don't qualify for coronavirus testing under the guidelines, though they've been told to assume that they have it; so most likely the actual number of cases in MA is 1 higher than the official total, at least.

While reading this I envisioned a set of small lasers rising out of the grass to vaporize some scofflaw pooch about to urinate on a tree.

[LawBeefaroni]

There's a community garden with a path, mini-dog park, and community garden plots across the street from my house. Yesterday the trustees that manage the place put up a big "closed" sign on it. But otherwise it looks normal - there's no gate (nor has there been). So, unclear what *exactly* that means as a practical matter - obviously no parties or big gatherings, but no one was doing that anyway. I assume people will still walk through on the main path, but who knows. Seems like I can't use the open grassy area to play catch with my son, even though it seems like there's no risk from that.

The other news is that my office sent around an e-mail that someone in our office has a presumptive case of coronavirus. They were on my floor, but not in my unit / division, so I wouldn't have been interacting with them much, and we haven't been together in the office since March 11th. No direct implications for me, at the moment, I suppose. But they apparently don't qualify for coronavirus testing under the guidelines, though they've been told to assume that they have it; so most likely the actual number of cases in MA is 1 higher than the official total, at least.

While reading this I envisioned a set of small lasers rising out of the grass to vaporize some scofflaw pooch about to urinate on a tree.

[Zaxxon]

Well played, LB.

[Octavious]

I find it kind of lucky that the timing of the doom numbers came right after end of quarter. I'm sure they wouldn't withhold information to try and prop up numbers where they can... Nope...

[Smoove_B]

Absolutely disgraceful.

https://twitter.com/racheljulie/status/ ... 9339852802

I’m a physician at a hospital in NYC and THIS IS THE “PPE” I WAS JUST HANDED for my shift. Our federal government has completely failed its health care workers.

[malchior]

Now we know what Trump called A-Rod about.

[Skinypupy]

Let the cries of "crisis actor" and "this never happened" begin!

[ImLawBoy]

Stop overdramatizing things. She's just a Mets fan, so she's ticked to have the Yankees poncho.

[LawBeefaroni]

Meanwhile, quarantined civilians are making PPE face shields for hospitals.

Blitz then reached out to the hospital’s chief medical officer and brought over Richie Beien’s prototype for inspection. By Sunday morning the medical team at Swedish gave the thumbs-up to the prototype and asked the Beien family for as many as possible.

Later that day they already had 10 face shields ready to go and delivered them directly to the hospital’s emergency room.

[Smoove_B]

Figured the sports fans could use a little humor.

In the years to come, I'm going to enjoy reading about the 7-layer taco dip of failure that was the response to COVID-19, but right now it's horrifying me and depressing to the core:

But instead of placing a massive order early, using the purchasing power of the government to accelerate production before the crisis hit, the White House is committing to purchases only after many manufacturers have already swung into action.

...

In late February, the government announced it would buy hundreds of millions of protective face masks, an order that has since been finalized. The Department of Health and Human Services noted that its order gave manufacturers "the guarantee that they will not be left with excess supplies if private sector orders are cancelled once the Covid-19 response subsides."

But February and much of March passed without any such guarantee for ventilator makers.

When the government did act, the announcements were confusing and sometimes contradictory.

On March 18, President Trump said his administration was ordering "thousands and thousands" of ventilators.

But no orders had yet been placed. Three more days passed before HHS started to request information from companies, as the first step toward placing an order. By then multiple manufacturers had already started to increase output.

[El Guapo]

Stop overdramatizing things. She's just a Mets fan, so she's ticked to have the Yankees poncho.

To be fair, that is like being handed a poncho with a swastika on it.

[LawBeefaroni]

So get this. A Chicago Police Commander ordered officers to enforce a checkpoint zone around a fairly violent part of the west side to prevent social gatherings (apparently they've been having parties there). Officers are instructed to check IDs and only let residents enter the area.

Some Chicago police officers Tuesday were assigned to check the identification of anyone who wanted to enter four historically violent West Side blocks in an effort to tamp down gang gatherings.

Under the order, issued by Harrison District Cmdr. Darrell Spencer, only people who live on those blocks would be able to enter them.

(Remember that name, Darrell Spencer)


But of course not all cops are authoritarian goons.

Several police officers said they were hesitant to follow those orders out of concern that the directive was not constitutional.

“I don’t want to be in a courtroom six months from now because someone with a video camera decided to sue all of us,” one officer said.

“Essentially, we are showing a police presence but that’s it,” said another.

It's a bad block but not the only bad one in the district, and certainly not the worst.

In other areas of the Harrison District where the order was not in place — including a stretch of Chicago Avenue — drug dealers were openly selling to customers as police cars drove by.

So why would a commander risk violating the US Constitution to keep people out of a small four-block area in a largely ineffective effort to stop open air drug sales?

Good question.

Lets go back to a 2001 Tribune article...

Another Chicago police officer, Darrell Spencer, acknowledged skirting a federal requirement that prohibits program participants from owning other residential property. He transferred ownership of his house to his wife about three weeks before buying an apartment building through the program, property records show. She deeded it back to him after the HUD purchase.

Other cases demonstrate lax enforcement of rules by HUD and its local contractors.

Powe, Spencer and at least one other participant were able to buy apartment buildings, even after an August 1999 rule change that limited the discounts to single-family homes. All three rent out their Officer Next Door properties, even collecting additional government subsidies for renting to low-income tenants.

Well look at that. Any guess as to where one of Darrell Spencer's apartment buildings is? If you guessed "in the 4-block checkpoint zone ordered by Commander Spencer" you'd be correct.

So Spencer is using the COVID-19 chaos to order cops to protect private property he acquired at a huge discount by cheating HUD and that he probably still collects low-rent subsidies on.

[El Guapo]

https://twitter.com/timkmak/status/1245331045966381057

I would assume that they are or will be looking into Loeffler too.

[Yojimbo]

Absolutely disgraceful.

I’m a physician at a hospital in NYC and THIS IS THE “PPE” I WAS JUST HANDED for my shift. Our federal government has completely failed its health care workers.

OK, I can agree, but before that your Chief Medical Officer failed, your Supply/Logistic Manager failed, your hospital foundation failed, your Mayor failed, and your state failed you. We have a Federal system of government - it's not supposed to be all things to all people. A government big enough to do all the things some of my fellow Americans want it to do would be big enough to squish us all like so many grapes.

Why call out Fed.gov and let everyone else off the hook here? Scientists and Doctors have been saying for years that pandemics are normal human events - how can an organization run and staffed by doctors not have buildings FULL of supplies for a pandemic?