Coronavirus

[TPFKA@W]

HRH Prince of Wales joins HSH Prince Albert of Monocco in royals who got it. There was another one but I forget who that one was Prince of. Money will not save you. In fact it may prove to be a detriment to have been a jet-setter.

[ex-khobar Andy]

From the President, no less!





I don't disagree with any of the guidelines, and I don't think that it's a bad idea.

But has Trump read his own guidelines? It's dated March 16th which is a week ago. It seems so contrary to what Trump was saying a week ago and even yesterday.

[BoSoxGal]

Just parking this here.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMp058068

[BoSoxGal]

[Joe Guy]

Now I’m afraid to go outside.

[Lord Jim]

Senate passes $2.2 trillion emergency relief package

The Senate unanimously passed a $2.2 trillion emergency relief package late Wednesday, concluding a grim day in which health departments around the United States reported more than 200 coronavirus-related deaths.

The bill would deliver historic levels of emergency aid across the economy, including to households, businesses, cities and states. It would expand unemployment insurance benefits and direct more money to cash-strapped hospitals. The package now goes for consideration to the House of Representatives, which is expected to vote on it Friday. President Trump has said he is eager to sign it.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/20 ... test-news/

[ex-khobar Andy]

Just parking this here.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMp058068

Wow. Take the 5 minutes to read this.

[Gob]

How did Spain get its coronavirus response so wrong?

It is one of the darkest and most dramatic moments in recent Spanish history. In the chilling table of daily dead from the coronavirus pandemic, Spain has taken top position from Italy - with 738 dying over 24 hours.

Spain is now the hotspot of the global pandemic, a ghoulish title that has been passed from country to country over four months – starting in Wuhan, China, and travelling via Iran and Italy. As it moves west, we do not know who will be next.


What went wrong? Spain had seen what happened in China and Iran. It also has Italy nearby, just 400 miles across the Mediterranean and an example of how the virus can spread rapidly and viciously inside Europe.

Yet Spaniards cannot blame that proximity. There are no land borders with Italy, while France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia – all countries that are doing much better – do have them.

This may, in fact, be one of the reasons for the country’s late response. Spain thought it was far enough away. “Spain will only have a handful of cases,” said Dr Fernando Simón, the head of medical emergencies in Madrid, on 9 February. Six weeks later he gives out daily figures of hundreds of deaths. The number of dead per capita is already three times that of Iran, and 40 times higher than China.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... e-analysis

[Lord Jim]

Jobless claims soar past 3 million to record high

Americans displaced by the coronavirus crisis filed unemployment claims in record numbers last week, with the Labor Department reporting Thursday a surge to 3.28 million.

The number shatters the Great Recession peak of 665,000 in March 2009 and the all-time mark of 695,000 in October 1982. The previous week, which reflected the period before the worst of the coronavirus hit, was 282,000, which was higher than expected at the time.

Consensus estimates from economists surveyed by Dow Jones showed an expectation for 1.5 million new claims, though individual forecasts on Wall Street had been anticipating a much higher number. The surge comes amid a crippling slowdown brought on by the coronavirus crisis.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/26/weekly- ... laims.html

[BoSoxGal]

My primary client has returned home from post-surgical rehab, but his wife has banned his PCAs from returning to the home to care for him due to her alleged fears over coronavirus - somewhat understandable except if you know that she’s been wishing for him to go into a skilled care facility for a long time because she just wants him gone, and is angry that he doesn’t yet medically qualify for such a placement. I feel terrible for him because she doesn’t care for him well at all even though she’ll be working from home herself now - she’ll leave him to to wallow in his own crap for hours, and she is very emotionally abusive toward him. (The marriage has been effectively over for years at her behest, but she’s a Catholic so won’t divorce him.)

But anyway, I get to join the masses filing UI claims and hope there are some peanuts left over for me to keep rice & beans in the cupboard and kibble in the dog’s bowl.

[Burning Petard]

Just an opinion for those of you here that do not follow medical science. The New England Journal of Medicine is the most authoritative medical journal in the USofA. It is peer-reviewed and publishes better science than JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) which gets more mass media attention, probably BECAUSE it's science is not as good.

Note that BSG's article is dated 2005--and our POTUS still says daily that nobody had any idea this Chinese virus could be this bad.

snailgate

[RayThom]

The Orange Ignoramus speaks:


https://twitter.com/i/status/1241939633023471616

[Lord Jim]

I saw this ad on Morning Joe this morning...

I think it's an excellent and powerful ad with elegant simplicity, and apparently the Fascisti on Team Trump think so too, because they are threatening to sue any media outlet that runs it:

Trump campaign threatens legal action over liberal super PAC ad

President Trump’s reelection campaign is threatening legal action against television stations in key battleground states if they continue airing an ad cut by the liberal super PAC Priorities USA alleging that the president called the coronavirus a “hoax.”

Alex Cannon, the legal counsel for Trump’s reelection campaign, sent a letter to television stations in key battleground states where the ad is running demanding they “cease and desist” from airing the ad if they want to “avoid costly and time consuming litigation.”

“Given the foregoing, should you fail to immediately cease broadcasting PUSA’s ad ‘Exponential Threat’, Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. will have no choice but to pursue all legal remedies available to it in law and in equity” the letter states. “We will not stand idly by and allow you to broadcast false, deceptive, and misleading information concerning President’s Trump’s healthcare positions without consequence.”

Priorities USA is putting $6 million behind the ad, which is running on television stations in Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

The ad, which is titled “Exponential Threat,” splices together different audio clips of Trump downplaying the virus over a graphic showing the number of cases on the rise.

"The coronavirus, this is their new hoax,” Trump says in the ad. “We have it totally under control. It's one person coming in from China. One day it's like a miracle, it will disappear. When you have 15 people and within a couple of days is gonna be down to close to zero. We really think we've done a great job in keeping it down to a minimum. I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand. No, I don't take responsibility."

More:

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4 ... per-pac-ad

[dales]

Now I’m afraid to go outside.

Stopped up toilet?

Have you been flushing those MAGA Hats down the toilet in lieu of tp?

Call Rotor Rooter
That's the name
And away go troubles down the drain
Rotor Rooter...

[BoSoxGal]

Here’s the ad LJ is referring to - I didn’t see a link in the Hill article, so wanted to make it readily available for peeps to see.

[BoSoxGal]

Just an opinion for those of you here that do not follow medical science. The New England Journal of Medicine is the most authoritative medical journal in the USofA. It is peer-reviewed and publishes better science than JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) which gets more mass media attention, probably BECAUSE it's science is not as good.

Note that BSG's article is dated 2005--and our POTUS still says daily that nobody had any idea this Chinese virus could be this bad.

snailgate

I kept trying to post a follow up this morning, but the internet kept eating it and I got very frustrated.

Anyway, the epidemiologist and public health expert who penned that 2005 piece also has a recent book out that should have been a wake up call to anyone in government responsible for this stuff - it’s called Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs and you can get it on kindle or maybe your library has an ebook of other format for rent. I put my library’s physical copy on hold but they’re closed for the indefinite future so I’ll have to wait to read it.

He was interviewed by Chris Hayes on MSNBC last night which is how I learned about that piece. He’s worked for several governors and presidents of both parties over the years and really knows his shit - but basically it appears for decades our government officials have just blown it off. The creation of the pandemic response team under Obama after Ebola came here in 2014 is the closest we got to a really useful way forward - and of course that got chucked by Trump. But honestly, they didn’t apparently do anything about preparing us materially for a pandemic, nor doing the one thing we’ve needed more than anything - for the federal government to fund the research and development of a universal coronavirus vaccine, something that was set aside in the early 2000s because Big Pharma couldn’t see it as a reliable profit vehicle.

This little fucker virus is with us forever now, and it has many bastard cousins out in the wild just itching to murder us - and with the horrific ways we are raising livestock industrially and with greater and greater encroachment into the habitats of wild animals, we are basically inviting the killer viruses to a dinner party - main course, humans.

We really need to get our collective heads out of our asses, ASAP.

[BoSoxGal]

Here’s an apparently excellent (based on reviews, haven’t heard the whole thing yet myself) long interview with Osterholm that might be a good quarantine time killer.

[Bicycle Bill]

Senate passes $2.2 trillion emergency relief package

The Senate unanimously passed a $2.2 trillion emergency relief package late Wednesday, concluding a grim day in which health departments around the United States reported more than 200 coronavirus-related deaths.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/20 ... test-news/

Well, now we know how much the Republicans think they need to spend to buy an election — two trillion dollars.
But I gotta give 'em credit ..... they've figured out a way to buy YOUR votes with YOUR OWN money.

-"BB"-

[BoSoxGal]

Here’s Dr. Osterholm’s institute website - a great source of coronavirus info.

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/

[RayThom]

Here’s the ad LJ is referring to - I didn’t see a link in the Hill article, so wanted to make it readily available for peeps to see.

My twitter link above that LJ checked out is the exact same as your YouTube link.