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

[Blackhawk]

It's clearly based on ranges (each one is between the last and the next), but it is presented to mislead and make things look better than they are. After all, the best lie is the one that is based on the truth.

[malchior]

The numbers don't jibe. The 7-day average for North Dakota hasn't been below 49.64/100k since 23 Sep. Even just cherry-picking that specific date range, using the low counts from two weekends, doesn't bring the numbers close to that threshold.

The last time Utah was at 49.64 (a weirdly specific grouping) was Oct 22, according to this. We're currently sitting at 97.6, as of yesterday.

It does help me better understand why those who live in the Fox News bubble don't think it's nearly as big of a deal though.

Yes because they are being force fed bad data like this constantly. The data representation presents a false impression. There is no real idea what the data source is. They labeled blue as 0 instead of the actual minimum when there are 0 states in the United States with 0 news cases in this period. I could nit pick it all day. It is designed to misinform and I have every belief it is intentional because they made choices that aren't natural to begin with. In other words, they can't blame it on the incompetent intern because no intern would choose 6 classification labels or dedicate 3 buckets to 3 states. Even if they cared to defend it which they don't.

[LawBeefaroni]

And it says, "New Confirmed Cases" over an 8-day period (?), that covers 2 Sundays, ended 2 days ago (probably ended the day before that was published). Likely several states are lagging and hadn't reported or still had incomplete reporting. Lies, damned lies, and FOX News.

[Isgrimnur]

damned lies, and FOX News.

Redundant

[Ralph-Wiggum]

I think this might not be entirely accurate (D-Day should be on there?), but still. Oof.

https://twitter.com/sundae_gurl/status/ ... 79681?s=21

Spoiler:

Deadliest days in American history:

1. Galveston Hurricane - 8,000
2. Antietam - 3,600
3. 9/11 - 2,977
4. Last Thursday - 2,861
5. Last Wednesday - 2,762
6. Last Tuesday - 2.461
7. Last Friday - 2,439
8. Pearl Harbor - 2,403

[Blackhawk]

D-Day should be between Tuesday and Wednesday, knocking Pearl Harbor off the list.

[Ralph-Wiggum]

Also likely missing some days from the Spanish Flu, since almost 200K people died in October alone.

[Defiant]

To be pedantic, some of those that died in some of those events might not all have died on the same day (eg, people could have been trapped under the remains of their house destroyed in the hurricane and survive for days, or they were injured but succumbed to their wounds days later)

[Grifman]

D-Day should be between Tuesday and Wednesday, knocking Pearl Harbor off the list.

I'm pretty sure she's missing a number of Civil War battles.

[malchior]

Florida

State police raided the home of a former Department of Health data scientist who is accusing Florida officials of wrongfully firing her for refusing to manipulate COVID-19 statistics.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement served the search warrant at Rebekah Jones’ Tallahassee home Monday morning in connection with an investigation into who hacked the state’s internal notification system with a message urging state employees to come forward with information about Florida’s handling of the pandemic.

The alert read: “It’s time to speak up before another 17,000 people are dead. You know this is wrong. You don’t have to be a part of this. Be a hero. Speak out before it’s too late.”

Jones, a vocal critic of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ handling of the pandemic, tweeted a video of agents entering her home Monday morning with guns drawn.

https://twitter.com/GeoRebekah/status/1 ... 7900145665

https://twitter.com/RonGOPVet4Biden/sta ... 9374152704

BTW - if you haven't seen the details of the raid it is ridiculous. Someone sent a chat message to an 'emergency alert system' App the health department uses internally. They are claiming that person 'hacked it'. It uses a *SINGLE SHARED USERNAME AND PASSWORD*. They traced it to her IP address so they seized all her electronics. It looks to be a total overreaction.

[Little Raven]

Signs of the Thanksgiving Spike now emerging.

There are some hopeful signs that the third wave is ebbing in parts of the Midwest. The number of newly confirmed cases has declined for two straight weeks in 10 states, including hard-hit Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan and New Mexico.

But new data shows other states experiencing substantial increases. In Alabama, where authorities reported about 14,000 new cases a week through middle and late November, case counts jumped to more than 22,000 in the first week of December. Georgia’s case counts rose in early December by about 50 percent from its November figures. Florida cases spiked to 65,000 last week, a substantial increase over its averages last month.

“At this point, we could be just picking up the beginning of the Thanksgiving surge, but surely in the following week we’re going to see it,” said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Prevention at the University of Minnesota. “We’re slingshotting this surge of cases into the holiday season in a way that is truly dangerous.”

[Max Peck]

Dear Amazon,

Fuck you for profiteering from these fucking price gougers.

Sincerely,
The World

[Malificent]

Dear Amazon,

Fuck you for profiteering from these fucking price gougers.

Sincerely,
The World

Is that actually Amazon or someone selling through the Amazon marketplace? People are always going to try and make a profit off shortages (real or perceived).

[Max Peck]

It's a third party seller, but Amazon is handling the warehousing and shipping for them, which makes them directly complicit. Even if they weren't, there is nothing that forces them to provide a marketplace for price gougers to hoard and sell pandemic-related supplies at that kind of reprehensible markup.

[Skinypupy]

BTW - if you haven't seen the details of the raid it is ridiculous. Someone sent a chat message to an 'emergency alert system' App the health department uses internally. They are claiming that person 'hacked it'. It uses a *SINGLE SHARED USERNAME AND PASSWORD*. They traced it to her IP address so they seized all her electronics. It looks to be a total overreaction.

Here's the 8-page affidavit for the search warrant. It raises so many questions...

[LawBeefaroni]

damned lies, and FOX News.

Redundant

[malchior]

BTW - if you haven't seen the details of the raid it is ridiculous. Someone sent a chat message to an 'emergency alert system' App the health department uses internally. They are claiming that person 'hacked it'. It uses a *SINGLE SHARED USERNAME AND PASSWORD*. They traced it to her IP address so they seized all her electronics. It looks to be a total overreaction.

Here's the 8-page affidavit for the search warrant. It raises so many questions...

FWIW this is a pretty standard search warrant for a computer incident. Computer crime investigations are often overboard. They argue everything could be involved, the judges are often technologically clueless, and often the investigator gets an all-clear to clean out a suspect. According to her lawyer they swept up offline storage devices as well. The chances that she browsed or has relevant browser history on an offline device are vanishingly slim but why not? The judges authorized a fishing expedition so Carpe Data. Anyway, computer civil liberties issues/wrinkles aside without seeing the logs it is hard to determine if they made any mistakes.

[Skinypupy]

BTW - if you haven't seen the details of the raid it is ridiculous. Someone sent a chat message to an 'emergency alert system' App the health department uses internally. They are claiming that person 'hacked it'. It uses a *SINGLE SHARED USERNAME AND PASSWORD*. They traced it to her IP address so they seized all her electronics. It looks to be a total overreaction.

Here's the 8-page affidavit for the search warrant. It raises so many questions...

FWIW this is a pretty standard search warrant for a computer incident. Computer crime investigations are often overboard. They argue everything could be involved, the judges are often technologically clueless, and often the investigator gets an all-clear to clean out a suspect. According to her lawyer they swept up offline storage devices as well. The chances that she browsed or has relevant browser history on an offline device are vanishingly slim but why not? The judges authorized a fishing expedition so Carpe Data. Anyway, computer civil liberties issues/wrinkles aside without seeing the logs it is hard to determine if they made any mistakes.

Yeah, it just seemed very excessive and unfocused. Then again, I don't really know anything about how these typically work, so...

Incredibly lax password security notwithstanding, it is a bad look for a former employee to log into a state system and send vaguely threatening messages to thousands of employees. That certainly doesn't justify a "we're going to raid your house and draw guns on your kids" response, mind you, but feels like an incredibly bad idea on her part to begin with.

[malchior]

Yeah, it just seemed very excessive and unfocused. Then again, I don't really know anything about how these typically work, so...

Yup welcome to intro to computer crime investigations. Leave all sense of proportionality at the door.

Incredibly lax password security notwithstanding, it is a bad look for a former employee to log into a state system and send vaguely threatening messages to thousands of employees.

I didn't find it threatening *at all*.

It’s time to speak up before another 17,000 people are dead. You know this is wrong. You don’t have to be a part of this Be a hero. Speak up before it’s too late.

That certainly doesn't justify a "we're going to raid your house and draw guns on your kids" response, mind you, but feels like an incredibly bad idea on her part to begin with.

I don't think it was wise but who'd think sending that message would lead to full on raid of their house? It is such an overreaction. The crazy thing is that there is a good chance she'll be strong armed into a plea. Defending this charge (if and when it comes) will be complicated and fraught with risk.

[LawBeefaroni]

I didn't find it threatening *at all*.

Of course not, you're not the governor, et al, arguably responsible for a large number of those deaths.

It's not threatening to the employees but it's scary as shit for their employer.

[Skinypupy]

Incredibly lax password security notwithstanding, it is a bad look for a former employee to log into a state system and send vaguely threatening messages to thousands of employees.

I didn't find it threatening *at all*.

It’s time to speak up before another 17,000 people are dead. You know this is wrong. You don’t have to be a part of this Be a hero. Speak up before it’s too late.

Given the heightened tensions, emotions, and lack of rational thinking around the pandemic, I guess I wouldn't simply brush off "You know this is wrong. You don't have to be part of this." as completely benign. Again, I don't think it in any way justifies the reaction it got, but it feels at least slightly threatening to me. YMMV on that point.

I don't think it was wise but who'd think sending that message would lead to full on raid of their house? It is such an overreaction. The crazy thing is that there is a good chance she'll be strong armed into a plea. Defending this charge (if and when it comes) will be complicated and fraught with risk.

Fully agree. The response is not even remotely in proportion with the (ill-conceived) action.

[malchior]

Washington Post

Minutes into a public health district’s virtual meeting to vote on a local mask mandate in Idaho on Tuesday evening, Ada County Commissioner Diana Lachiondo tearfully excused herself after getting a phone call that anti-mask protesters had surrounded her home.

“My 12-year-old son is home by himself right now, and there are protesters banging outside the door,” she told the Central District Health’s Board of Health, which serves four counties in the state’s most populous region. “I’m going to go home and make sure he’s okay.”

A visibly upset Lachiondo then disconnected from the video call, leaving her colleagues at the meeting stunned. They soon learned that protesters had gathered outside the Central District Health office and one other board member’s residence as well, targeting the public officials who were meeting virtually from their homes and private offices as a precaution amid the worsening pandemic.

“I’m a father and that’s just unbelievable,” David Peterman, a doctor who had been giving an update on the status of the coronavirus pandemic, said after Lachiondo left the meeting.

Hundreds of anti-mask demonstrators poured out to protest a public health order that would have limited gatherings to fewer than 10 people and required face masks be worn in public and private around non-household members when social distancing is not possible, among other restrictions. More than 3,000 public comments had been submitted on the order between Friday and Monday, the health district said in a statement. The health district board was set to vote on the order Tuesday evening.

The Idaho Statesman first reported the abruptly terminated public meeting a short time after it ended on Tuesday.

Police formed a barrier between Tuesday’s protesters and the Central District Health building as a precaution following a tense meeting last week. On Friday, when the health board met but decided to delay a vote on the public health order, anti-mask demonstrators tried to force their way into the building. No one was arrested.

[Skinypupy]

Co-worker's girlfriend started running a fever on Sunday night and got a positive test back yesterday. He's currently asymptomatic but figured that since he spent the entire weekend with her, he should probably get tested.

Because he is asymptomatic, he had to call 12 different testing centers this morning before he could find one that would schedule him for a test. He finally had to tell them that he "feels a little crappy" before they reluctantly agreed to test him in the one open slot they had available today.

I feel like that is a microcosm of why Utah is where it is in regards to COVID.

Also, Little B 11.9 started running a fever last night and said she was achy. While I think it's just some generic gunk and not COVID (lots of head congestion but no coughing), she got tested last night and will be staying home from school rest of the week. I'm sure she'll be fine, but it still makes me panic a little bit.

[Jaymon]

Co-worker's girlfriend started running a fever on Sunday night and got a positive test back yesterday. He's currently asymptomatic but figured that since he spent the entire weekend with her, he should probably get tested.

Because he is asymptomatic, he had to call 12 different testing centers this morning before he could find one that would schedule him for a test. He finally had to tell them that he "feels a little crappy" before they reluctantly agreed to test him in the one open slot they had available today.

I feel like that is a microcosm of why Utah is where it is in regards to COVID.

Also, Little B 11.9 started running a fever last night and said she was achy. While I think it's just some generic gunk and not COVID (lots of head congestion but no coughing), she got tested last night and will be staying home from school rest of the week. I'm sure she'll be fine, but it still makes me panic a little bit.

Skinypuppy, I wish I had more to offer than positive vibes. Healthy wishes for you and your family.

[Paingod]

Washington Post

Is it wrong to want to load all these people into a rocket and shoot them off into space?

[LordMortis]

Interesting. In a meeting right now about the nature of "essential work" I guess MIOSHA is pickup where the legislature/courts decided Whitmer can't tell people to stay home.

https://www.michigan.gov/leo/0,5863,7-3 ... --,00.html

https://www.michigan.gov/coronavirus/0, ... --,00.html

MIOSHA don't do the we'll make rules and then not enforce them game.

[Default]

In the county in PA where I live, you can get free covid testing. You have to make an appointment and it is for everyone, symptoms or not. You get a link texted to you and it will tell you your results in about two days.
I am home sick, and have symptoms, but opted to to go with an urgent care because of better documentation. Had a fever spike on Sunday, but was so quickly over that I wasn't to worried. Today, I'm running about 101. Not really pleased with any of this, especially after talking to coworkers who are coming to work sick, and just assuming that it probably *isn't* covid.

Jeebus. In other news, my Trumpette boss is out sick. The scuttlebutt is it's covid and pneumonia since she is still going to bars and large parties, with nary a mask in site...

[malchior]

3000 deaths from COVID-19 recorded today - we are at a 9/11 death toll a day from this virus.

Just one week after the United States broke a daily record for coronavirus deaths, it did so again on Wednesday, when officials across the country reported at least 3,011 new fatalities.

Last week’s record — 2,885 deaths reported in a single day — was a milestone because not since the pandemic’s first peak, in spring, had so many deaths been reported. The high point then was 2,752 deaths, on April 15.

As a brutal surge gathers speed across the country, the country went on last week to record its most coronavirus-related deaths over a seven-day period.

With a seven-day average of 2,249 deaths, the U.S. broke the previous mark of 2,232, set on April 17. Seven-day averages can provide a more accurate picture of the virus’s progression than daily death counts, which can fluctuate.

And all the while, the United States is speeding toward another stunning total: 300,000 total deaths since the coronavirus slipped into the country at the beginning of the year and began laying siege. At least 288,000 deaths have been recorded, according to a New York Times database.

[Paingod]

...we are at a 9/11 death toll a day from this virus.

And the same people who wanted to start a war over 9/11 and proudly hung "Official Terrorist Hunting License" stickers on their trucks now rage against the concept of being ask to simply wear a mask to help save lives.

[Skinypupy]

So, I missed a call from the doc’s office last night. They left a message giving me a number to call back to get my daughter’s COVID test results.

I call the number, and get an automated message telling me I need to log into their "MyHealthPlus" app to get Little B's results. Wife already has the app, and she requests to have B added so we can see results. Ggets a message that it takes up to 48 hours add any other people to your account. So we’re out of luck there.

I install the app, put in all my info, and it tells me there is a problem with my registration and I have to call their service line to get registered. I call their service line. “If you are calling to get your child’s COVID results, please press 1”. I press 1. “Our service hours are 8am to 8pm Monday through Friday. Please call back during these hours.” Click.

We call back this morning, right at 8:00. "Due to a high volume of calls, your expected hold time is 60-90 minutes." 53 minutes later, we finally get through to someone who gives us the result. Negative, thankfully.

I mean, I'm grateful that we did finally get a result, but the hassle to do so seems incredibly extensive and time consuming.

[Dramatist]

Glad it’s negative but that was a whole lot of hassle.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[GungHo]

Skiny: that's absurd. Sorry y'all had to go thru that. Imagine all the ppl who have to jump thru those same hurdles but can't for whatever reason, and they're positive just walking around.
Just


Wasnt happy to see that there have been reactions to the vaccine and from what I've read those few ppl in England who had anaphylactic-like responses are doing well, but I am glad to hear everything is being reported on seemingly above-board. And it sounds like everyone with a reaction were known to suffer from anaphylaxis d/t other reasons, so while I feel for them they aren't a red flag. Haven't heard any spin doctoring going on from Big Pharma and I appreciate the YouTube video that shows the FDA hearing on Thursday.

I did read the white house coronavirus task force assessment of vaccine effectiveness however, as it relates to actually making a dent in this thing. And according to the TF, we'll need 100 million vaccinations before it starts knocking down hospitalizations and deaths.
I don't know what the best case scenario for that is: maybe May? Ughh

[LordMortis]

Glad it’s negative but that was a whole lot of hassle.

+1

Also I empathize with you patient portal miseries. I can only assume this is somehow a HIPPA thing because no one has more screwy portals the just don't work and need human intervention than do the medical. And for me, what's mind blowing is that I'm in medical system with a PCP and 3 different specialists. None of their offices are connected through an SSO and the hospital system's portal is different than all four offices and the labs aren't connected to each other or the system of the offices.

They always ask for an email address and I've gotten to where I decline. So now they text me when I never signed up for texting. Only my phone is SMS and they text using smart phone protocols.

[LawBeefaroni]

Ran into a hospital chaplain today, asked how things were going. Got a one word answer: "Depressing."


That's not good.

[Kraken]

My niece, the nurses aide who was drafted for ICU duty, said she can't remember the last time they had a day with no deaths. Their worst day was this week, with seven dead of Covid. She mostly just keeps her head down and does what she has to do, but allows as how "sometimes it gets to you" -- especially since they started rationing PPE yesterday. She's just 30 years old.

[pr0ner]

Virginia is going to a stay at home order that requires being at home from...midnight to 5AM each day. Wooo?

[GungHo]

Virginia is going to a stay at home order that requires being at home from...midnight to 5AM each day. Wooo?

Yeah pretty silly. I imagine that's just their work around to closing bars.
I don't know what's sadder: that we are a country full of spineless, cowardly politicians or that we're a country full of selfish assholes.

[Daehawk]

I think its a tie.

[Skinypupy]

I don't know what's sadder: that we are a country full of spineless, cowardly politicians or that we're a country full of selfish assholes.

Representative government, indeed.

[Kraken]

Virginia is going to a stay at home order that requires being at home from...midnight to 5AM each day. Wooo?

Yeah pretty silly. I imagine that's just their work around to closing bars.
I don't know what's sadder: that we are a country full of spineless, cowardly politicians or that we're a country full of selfish assholes.

Effective Sunday, Mass. is rolling back to phase 3 stage 1...which amounts to tinkering at the edges and will make no measurable difference. A recent survey found that 65% of Massholes (including 50% of Republicans) support an immediate stay-at-home order thru the holidays -- which we all know is what's needed to flatten this curve. The governor won't go there because, absent a federal aid package, we can't pay people to stay home.