PLAYPEN: Covid-19 Everything Political

[faberryman]

Trump is stranger than fiction.

Another way to minimize the effects of COVID-19 is to stop issuing death certificates. Problem solved.

[Robert Roaldi]

I read this hilarious headline: "Trump praises scientists for developing AIDS vaccine that doesn’t exist".

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/16/trump-praises-scientists-for-developing-aids-vaccine-that-doesnt-exist.html

He would be better off if he stopped talking and just stood around silently holding borrowed books. That worked out ok the other night.

[Robert Roaldi]

Florida bars and restaurants close just a week after reopening. Note that these closings are voluntary. Governor DeSantis is plowing ahead with reopening notwithstanding record new cases. He attributes the new cases to expanded testing. He and Trump think that the less testing you do, the fewer cases there are.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/florida-bars-restaurants-close-coronavirus-spike-outbreak-a9568631.html

The fact that cases are going up is not so surprising, but Texas is worried about large increases in hospitalizations and they're asking people there to stay home if they don't have good reasons to go somewhere (https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/503005-texas-hits-new-high-for-coronavirus-cases-hospitalizations). It was always going to be two steps forward, one step back. From the virus's point of view, nothing has changed.

My wife's hairdresser had to send one of their employees home because she refused to abide by disinfection and distancing rules. The employee said that she didn't believe in Covid-19. Believe? The mind boggles.

[Paulo Bizarro]

Florida bars and restaurants close just a week after reopening. Note that these closings are voluntary. Governor DeSantis is plowing ahead with reopening notwithstanding record new cases. He attributes the new cases to expanded testing. He and Trump think that the less testing you do, the fewer cases there are.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/florida-bars-restaurants-close-coronavirus-spike-outbreak-a9568631.html

If the number of tests increases, the chances of identifying positive cases increases also. The big challenge is then to identify and test ASAP infection chains and infected contacts, to prevent resurgence of comunity cases.

[William Walker]

I did that for Joe's benefit, as I said in the post, he has a "theory" about that....

It seems to me that the countries that acted early with strict lockdowns - at the very least - were able to buy time.... other countries wasted the time they had.
The other thing that seems to be coming through with regards to the severity of the individual's symptoms is the size of the "dose" you get...and that is where population density plays it's part too. i.e. the more people you come into contact with, the more doses you're  likely to get, the more severe your infection.

Having said that, Australia also has high-density areas and still they have done very well.

Time was bought! This should help reduce deaths worldwide and one wonders how many Swedish lives could have been saved?

"LONDON - Dexamethasone, a cheap and widely used steroid, has become the first drug shown to be able to save lives among Covid-19 patients in what scientists hailed as a "major breakthrough".

https://www.iol.co.za/news/world/scientists-hail-dexamethasone-as-major-breakthrough-in-treating-covid-19-49448721

[jeremyrh]

Time was bought! This should help reduce deaths worldwide and one wonders how many Swedish lives could have been saved?

"LONDON - Dexamethasone, a cheap and widely used steroid, has become the first drug shown to be able to save lives among Covid-19 patients in what scientists hailed as a "major breakthrough".

https://www.iol.co.za/news/world/scientists-hail-dexamethasone-as-major-breakthrough-in-treating-covid-19-49448721

Trumpeted by Boris "Johnson" Johnson as a British discovery, but reported in February by a Spanish team:

https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lanres/PIIS2213-2600(19)30417-5.pdf

[Jeremy Roussak]

Trumpeted by Boris "Johnson" Johnson as a British discovery, but reported in February by a Spanish team:

https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lanres/PIIS2213-2600(19)30417-5.pdf

Have you read that paper? It doesn't mention covid-19, which given its date of publication is unsurprising. If you're going to make spiteful political comments, try to get at least some of your facts right.

Jeremy

[John Camp]

Have you read that paper? It doesn't mention covid-19, which given its date of publication is unsurprising. If you're going to make spiteful political comments, try to get at least some of your facts right.

Jeremy

Did *you* read it, or look at the dates? The Lancet had a piece in the middle of February describing ARDS in a patient who died in China in December. Perhaps jeremyrh had no difficulty linking ARDS/Covid-19 discussions taking place in December-January-February with an ARDS-specific paper in the Lancet in February...which would not seem to warrant your disparaging tone.

[Jeremy Roussak]

Did *you* read it, or look at the dates? The Lancet had a piece in the middle of February describing ARDS in a patient who died in China in December. Perhaps jeremyrh had no difficulty linking ARDS/Covid-19 discussions taking place in December-January-February with an ARDS-specific paper in the Lancet in February...which would not seem to warrant your disparaging tone.

The Lancet paper describes the results of a study carried out between March 2013 and December 2018; that is, a study which ended a year before coronavirus had ever been heard of. ARDS has a multitude of causes.

My tone was eminently justified. The sole purpose of his comment was to give vent to his dislike of the Prime Minister. "Johnson has said it, therefore it must be false".

Jeremy

[faberryman]

My tone was eminently justified. The sole purpose of his comment was to give vent to his dislike of the Prime Minister. "Johnson has said it, therefore it must be false".

Isn't that permitted in this thread?

[jeremyrh]

Isn't that permitted in this thread?

Yeah, but the opportunity to take a pop at me and at the same time split medical hairs was too much of a temptation.

[jeremyrh]

"Johnson has said it, therefore it must be false".

That's a pretty good rule of thumb, apparently.

[Jeremy Roussak]

Isn't that permitted in this thread?

Of course it is; and I didn't suggest otherwise. I merely pointed out that it might be a good idea for him to ascertain the facts (I refrained from suggesting that he understand them; one must be realistic) before indulging.

Jeremy

[jeremyrh]

Of course it is; and I didn't suggest otherwise. I merely pointed out that it might be a good idea for him to ascertain the facts (I refrained from suggesting that he understand them; one must be realistic) before indulging.

Jeremy

More personal attacks, Jeremy? - you might want to report yourself to the moderator.

(The "facts" by the way, are on the other thread.  But you only responded with abuse there also.)

[kers]

Enough! Or 

[Robert Roaldi]

Trump doesn't like Supreme Court rulings so expresses desire for new judges, https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/503413-trump-calls-for-new-justices-on-supreme-court-after-unfavorable. I guess he thinks everyone in government is his employee and should do his bidding. He really doesn't seem to have a clue, does he.

[kers]

He gets away with anything until now...also the Bolton book makes that clear .. again...
meanwhile the covid deaths are still going up 25.000 a month...What is he doing about that ? apart from blaming everyone else..

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

... I guess he thinks everyone in government is his employee and should do his bidding. He really doesn't seem to have a clue, does he.

If someone doesn't have a clue, it is you.

Which part of "If given the opportunity" don't you understand?

[John Camp]

Trump doesn't like Supreme Court rulings so expresses desire for new judges, https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/503413-trump-calls-for-new-justices-on-supreme-court-after-unfavorable. I guess he thinks everyone in government is his employee and should do his bidding. He really doesn't seem to have a clue, does he.

Quite a few news outlets have gotten copies of the book, a tactic I suspect is an effort by the publisher to make moot a court challenge that would attempt to bar publication. (Most authorities believe the challenge would ultimately fail, but if taken before a friendly Trump-appointed judge, who knows what would happen at the district court (lowest) level?)

In any case, I wasn't surprised by most of Bolton's revelations, because I've gotten used to that kind of thing with Trump. The most appalling thing was his approval of the Chinese concentration camps. And his solicitation of help from Xi in his reelection was fairly humiliating. Maybe Americans have been cruising too long on hubris not to see this kind of thing coming, in the political wars we're going through. Again, the depths of Trump's ignorance is astounding -- the insistence on going through with the Tulsa rally amidst spike of covid-19 in...Tulsa.

I am almost (but not quite) willing to give him a tiny bit of slack on the Finland question -- Finland was part of Russia (the Grand Duchy of Finland) for more than a hundred years, until about 1917, and after WWII, was really part of the Russian zone of influence until the collapse of the Soviet Union. So, in his pea-sized brain, Trump might have heard something about that and become confused, or perhaps Bolton was confused about what Trump thought. So, there's that, although Trump's knowledge of geography is widely acknowledged to be dim, to say the least.

I was an American Studies major in college, and a history buff all my life, and I have to say that I think Trump has established himself as the worst American president in history. He might have some challengers from the years before the Civil War, but that challenge was so intractable those guys (Pierce, Buchanan and Fillmore) had some slight excuse for their badness.


 

[kers]

...
I am almost (but not quite) willing to give him a tiny bit of slack on the Finland question -- Finland was part of Russia (the Grand Duchy of Finland) for more than a hundred years, until about 1917, and after WWII, was really part of the Russian zone of influence until the collapse of the Soviet Union. So, in his pea-sized brain, Trump might have heard something about that and become confused, or perhaps Bolton was confused about what Trump thought. So, there's that, although Trump's knowledge of geography is widely acknowledged to be dim, to say the least.
..

Just as i thought that New York was a Dutch colony...