Octopus Overlords

Paingod wrote: Wed Apr 15, 2020 1:31 pm Okay, so... what would it look like with "Blue" states (West & East coast) states staying locked down to keep the curve low and slow the viral spread, but "Red" states (Southern & Middle) tossing open the doors to make the blood sacrifice for the gods of cash flow? Is there any kind of projection of how awesome that will be? That's what we seem to be moving towards.

gilraen wrote: Wed Apr 15, 2020 2:52 pm I'll be curious to see what happens in the next 10 days or so when we see any potential fallout from Easter Sunday - when all those "red" states (and some others) crowded into churches, to prove that they "won't be controlled by fear", or some such bullshit.

Also, new hot spots are apparently meatpacking plants in several states. Expect your prices for meat to go up soon...

“One of the negatives of living in a rural community is you think it protects you somehow,” says Leibrand, who for years has also been the health officer—a sort of local surgeon general—of the county, a sprawling expanse of rich alluvial farmland, exurban bedroom communities and steep Cascade peaks midway between Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia. “We get a little bit cavalier, a little lazy about social distancing.”

Complacency is fast fading, however, as rural residents realize that, far from being immune, they may be uniquely vulnerable when the epidemic reaches them. Even as Noem spoke, Covid-19 was spreading at a Sioux Falls meatpacking plant that subsequently closed after more than 300 workers fell sick, and local officials across the state begged her to issue shutdown and shelter-in-place orders.

As of press time, all but one of Washington’s 39 counties, most of them rural, had reported Covid-19 cases. Nationwide, more than two-thirds of rural counties had confirmed cases as of April 6, a New York Times analysis found, and across rural America, the per capita infection rate “was more than double what it was six days earlier.” That’s as fast as or faster than recent increases in Chicago, Miami, Boston, Los Angeles and New York.The country’s highest Covid-19 rate is in Blaine County, Idaho, home to 22,277 residents and the Sun Mountain ski resort.

The U.S. Forest Service has suspended controlled burns on public lands in wildfire-prone California because of the coronavirus pandemic, upsetting officials who see the program as key to preventing seasonal infernos like those that devastated parts of the state in 2018.

Max Peck wrote: Wed Apr 15, 2020 3:58 pm This will undoubtedly end well.

Trump administration halts wildfire prevention tool in California over coronavirus

The U.S. Forest Service has suspended controlled burns on public lands in wildfire-prone California because of the coronavirus pandemic, upsetting officials who see the program as key to preventing seasonal infernos like those that devastated parts of the state in 2018.

Suspending the work allows Forest Service employees to stay home to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and ensures that smoke from controlled burns does not make people in nearby communities more vulnerable to the symptoms of the deadly respiratory illness, said Kaari Carpenter, a Forest Service spokeswoman in Washington.

Sen. Collins says Trump has been "very uneven" on coronavirus

Smoove_B wrote: Wed Apr 15, 2020 3:42 pm

“One of the negatives of living in a rural community is you think it protects you somehow,” says Leibrand, who for years has also been the health officer—a sort of local surgeon general—of the county, a sprawling expanse of rich alluvial farmland, exurban bedroom communities and steep Cascade peaks midway between Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia. “We get a little bit cavalier, a little lazy about social distancing.”

Trump has just threatened to close both houses of Congress. Boy, I bet the Republicans are really glad they protected him from impeachment.

El Guapo wrote: Wed Apr 15, 2020 4:40 pm I mean, that's the Susan Collins equivalent of calling someone a fucking asshole.

Smoove_B wrote: Wed Apr 15, 2020 6:20 pm Just read an article on The Atlantic (still killing it) that suggests this is Trump's signature move. Every time the press gets him under the microscope and starts pressuring him on something and they have him in the corner, he does something completely outrageous to distract everyone and get out from being grilled. Sure enough it continues to work.

malchior wrote: Wed Apr 15, 2020 6:09 pm So if you haven't heard today's healthcare rally has so far included a threat by the President to close both Houses of Congress amidst whining they haven't confirmed many jobs. You know the ones he hasn't put names forward for. He is getting worse and worse in real-time.

https://twitter.com/RadioFreeTom/status ... 4487322624

Trump has just threatened to close both houses of Congress. Boy, I bet the Republicans are really glad they protected him from impeachment.

Enough wrote: Wed Apr 15, 2020 7:24 pm Still, huge alarm bells going off, sure hope the end game doesn't come to McConnell conspiring with Trump to shut down Congress and ensure elections are at best a total shitshow if they occur at all.

Another political rally played on cable networks. A full blown rally. Lies played without fact checks. He doesn’t let reporters answer questions. All partisan attacks. No news value. Why? I ask again. Why?

WTF? "The number of coronavirus tests analyzed each day by commercial labs in the U.S. plummeted by more than 30 percent over the past week."https://www.

One reason for the drop-off may be the narrow testing criteria that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last revised in March. The agency’s guidelines prioritize hospitalized patients, health care workers and those thought to be especially vulnerable to the disease, such as the elderly. Health providers have been turning away others in part due to shortages of the swabs used to collect samples.

It’s not clear whether demand has peaked among the groups on the CDC’s priority list. But after being overwhelmed for weeks, commercial labs say they are now sitting with unused testing capacity waiting for samples to arrive.


The continued glitches in the U.S. testing system are threatening to impede attempts to reopen the economy and return to normal life. Expanding testing as much as possible is essential so officials have enough data to determine when it’s safe to lift social distancing measures and allow people to go back to work. Continued testing beyond that point will help officials detect — and stamp out — sparks that could set off new outbreaks.

FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn told POLITICO on Tuesday the White House Coronavirus Task Force is continuing to discuss whether changes to the testing criteria are warranted.

Hahn’s comments came as the American Clinical Laboratory Association reported that the number of samples commercial labs handle each day fell from 108,000 on April 5 to 75,000 by April 12. The group’s members, including commercial giants Quest and LabCorp, analyze about two-thirds of all coronavirus tests in the U.S.

“ACLA members have now eliminated testing backlogs, and have considerable capacity that is not being used,” ACLA President Julie Khani told POLITICO. “We stand ready to perform more testing and are in close communication with public health partners about ways we can support additional needs.”

The Department of Health of Human Services has also seen a downtick in the number of tests analyzed nationwide in recent days, a spokesperson said.

But the Association of Public Health Laboratories said its members, which have been analyzing a smaller portion of coronavirus tests, have not noticed a similar decrease in demand. The American Hospital Association said it is not aware of member hospitals conducting fewer tests, but added “it’s not something we have numbers on.”

Public health experts, including former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, have put forth several plans outlining how the U.S. could reopen, and all agree that the country needs to dramatically increase the number of Americans tested — in part by expanding who is eligible for screening.

malchior wrote: Wed Apr 15, 2020 8:15 pm Goddammit. The drop in positive cases since the last week might just be this. How is this still happening?

Holman wrote: Wed Apr 15, 2020 6:58 pm https://twitter.com/ebonybowden/status/ ... 38313?s=20

Holman wrote:https://twitter.com/EricBoehlert/status ... 58497?s=20

This shot isn't from a zombie movie but from the anti-lockdown protest in Michigan.

Holman wrote: Wed Apr 15, 2020 6:58 pm https://twitter.com/ebonybowden/status/ ... 38313?s=20

malchior wrote: Wed Apr 15, 2020 4:17 pm Assume malevolence.

UsulofDoom wrote: Thu Apr 16, 2020 2:17 am What hell are we paying them for.

The call for body bags came late Saturday.

By Monday, the police in a small New Jersey town had gotten an anonymous tip about a body being stored in a shed outside one of the state’s largest nursing homes.

When the police arrived, the corpse had been removed from the shed, but they discovered 17 bodies piled inside the nursing home in a small morgue intended to hold no more than four people.

“They were just overwhelmed by the amount of people who were expiring,” said Eric C. Danielson, the police chief in Andover, a small township in Sussex County, the state’s northernmost county.

The 17 were among 68 recent deaths linked to the long-term care facility, Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation Center I and II, including two nurses, officials said. Of those who died, 26 people had tested positive for the virus.

For the others, the cause of death is unknown.

Of the patients who remain at the homes, housed in two buildings, 76 have tested positive for the virus; 41 staff members, including an administrator, are sick with Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, according to county health records shared on Wednesday with a federal official.

Andover Subacute is not alone. The coronavirus has swept through the New York region’s nursing homes with devastating and deadly speed, killing thousands of residents at facilities struggling with staff shortages, increasingly sick patients and a lack of personal protective gear.

But with beds for 700 patients, Andover Subacute is, records show, the state’s largest licensed facility — and the risk of continued spread is terrifying to family members who have turned to social media and their local congressman, desperate for answers and extra personnel.

“The challenge we’re having with all of these nursing homes, is once it spreads, it’s like a wildfire,” said Representative Josh Gottheimer, a Democrat who got the call on Saturday, asking for body bags. “It’s very hard to stop it.”

One of the owners of the facility, Chaim Scheinbaum, did not return calls or emails. Staff members who answered phones at the facilities said they were not authorized to speak to the news media.

Even before the pandemic, the nursing home had struggled. Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation II recently got a one-star rating of “much below average” from Medicare for staffing levels, inspections and patient care.

UsulofDoom wrote: Thu Apr 16, 2020 2:17 am I'm a little confused why the WHO have not provided any help at all. They have know about this since last year. They have not given any defining ways to help in any way that countries have not found out by them selves. We are now in the US looking in to testing about people with immunity. The WHO should have that data by know. What hell are we paying them for.

The first thing on their web site is about scam alerts!

https://www.who.int/