Bear Pit: now the sole domicile of politics at LuLa

[TechTalk]

What does this have to do with the discussion about what Fauci said in the senate meeting?

Everything

[Robert Roaldi]

What does this have to do with the discussion about what Fauci said in the senate meeting?

Well, to be strictly accurate, you are the ONLY person who has been fixated with the details of that Senate meeting.

[Alan Klein]

Well, to be strictly accurate, you are the ONLY person who has been fixated with the details of that Senate meeting.

That's because I was listening to the source, the expert, about what's going on.  And his response did not match what I've been hearing and reading.  That's very instructive as well as confusing.

[Robert Roaldi]

That's because I was listening to the source, the expert, about what's going on.  And his response did not match what I've been hearing and reading.  That's very instructive as well as confusing.

Fantasy thinking, but I give up. Every other place on earth is a shit hole, you're free to believe that.

4% of the population, 20% of the deaths. If you think that's ok, then it's ok.

[Alan Klein]

Trump's Warp Speed policy placed America into a position to outpace Europe to get more people vaccinated quicker.  To the chagrin of the EU, independent Britain outpaced even America. 

Where Europe Went Wrong in Its Vaccine Rollout, and Why
...In short, the answer today is the same as it was in December, said Dr. Slaoui. The bloc shopped for vaccines like a customer. The United States basically went into business with the drugmakers, spending much more heavily to accelerate vaccine development, testing and production.

“They assumed that simply contracting to acquire doses would be enough,” recalled Dr. Slaoui, whom President Donald J. Trump hired to speed the vaccine development. “In fact what was very important was to be a full, active partner in the development and the manufacturing of the vaccine. And to do so very early.”

The result in Europe is a stumbling inoculation effort that has led to political fallout, with leaders pointing fingers over why some of the world’s richest countries, home to factories that churn out vast quantities of vaccine, cannot keep pace with other wealthy nations in injecting its people.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/20/world/europe/europe-vaccine-rollout-astrazeneca.html

[jeremyrh]

Trump's Warp Speed policy placed America into a position to outpace Europe to get more people vaccinated quicker.  To the chagrin of the EU, independent Britain outpaced even America. 

Where Europe Went Wrong in Its Vaccine Rollout, and Why
...In short, the answer today is the same as it was in December, said Dr. Slaoui. The bloc shopped for vaccines like a customer. The United States basically went into business with the drugmakers, spending much more heavily to accelerate vaccine development, testing and production.

Another failure of the free market :-)

[Alan Klein]

Glad to see Biden's spine is strong and that he can set aside domestic politics to do what's really important for America.

U.S.-China trade relations remain strained as Biden team takes tough stance similar to Trump
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/20/us-china-trade-relations-strained-biden-team-keeps-trumps-tough-stance.html

[Alan Klein]

Another failure of the free market :-)

How did the free market fail?  After the last storm here in NJ when we lost power for four days, my next door neighbor gave an order to install an emergency generator.  I dragged my feet just getting proposals.  Meanwhile, his generator is installed protecting his power.  Me?  We haven't even given the order out yet and prices are going up. 

Customers are part of the free market.  How they act affects things as well.  Europe can't blame markets, Trump, Britain, or America.  Trump was smart enough because of his business experience to know how to operate with speed and involvement.  That's how free markets work.  Obviously, your GB was smarter than him and America. Take a bow.

[LesPalenik]

Trump's Warp Speed policy placed America into a position to outpace Europe to get more people vaccinated quicker.  To the chagrin of the EU, independent Britain outpaced even America. 

That was after the turtle speed of Trump's initial incompetent and irresponsible response which made USA the most affected country in the world.

[PeterAit]

The border's a disaster, the North Koreans won't talk to him, he's pissed off the Chinese, he pissed off Putin who won't talk to us, he's damaged our relations with our old friends the Saudis, he screwed you Canadians with the XL pipeline cancellation, he's making America dependent on the Middle East again for oil and the need to protect it militarily, he's giving you Canadians and Mexicans a crap vaccine to pump into your arms at your peril, and is continuing a path to bankrupt America with more printing and higher taxes.   All in two months.  Did I mention destroying our fossil fuel industry with the green revolution? That's next.

I must say, Alan, that you are amusing. But you forgot to mention how Biden is allowing the Jovian spore-people to infest honest god-fearing Republicans and turn them into evil money-printing trolls.

[Alan Klein]

That was after the turtle speed of Trump's initial incompetent and irresponsible response which made USA the most affected country in the world.

Why do you keep repeating that lie?  When Trump shut down visitors from China at the end of Jan 2020, Biden called him xenophobic. Other Democrats called him racist.  Warp speed was set up very quickly, early on and it accounts for why we have so much vaccine while your Canada has only vaccinated a very small percentage compared to America. Also, America is not the most affected country in the world based on deaths per million. Also, keep in mind that the USA had hundreds of thousands of visitors from China and Europe that carried the disease here. We're not a little country in some backwater where no one visits.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ 
 

[digitaldog]

Why do you keep repeating that lie?  When Trump shut down visitors from China at the end of Jan 2020, Biden called him xenophobic.

Why does Alan keep repeating that lie; no, Trump didn't shut down visitors from China.
https://www.factcheck.org/2020/03/the-facts-on-trumps-travel-restrictions/

Trump has referred to the travel restrictions as a “travel ban.” There isn’t an outright ban, as there are exceptions, including for Americans and their family members.
Trump said he was “bold” in imposing travel restrictions even though “everybody said, it’s too early, it’s too soon” and “a lot of people that work on this stuff almost exclusively” told him “don’t do it.” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said the decision stemmed from “the uniform recommendations of the career public health officials here at HHS.”
Trump said Democrats “loudly criticized and protested” his announced travel restrictions, and that they “called me a racist because I made that decision.” Trump is overstating Democratic opposition. None of the party’s congressional leaders and none of the Democratic candidates running for president have directly criticized that decision, though at least two Democrats have.

I'm not saying you're a liar. I'm just saying you've got bad luck when it comes to telling the truth.

[faberryman]

As an American, do you feel proud that out of the 195 countries in the world, the only countries with per capita death tolls worse than ours were Gilbraltar, San Marino, Czechia, Belgium, Slovenia, Montenegro, Hungary, UK, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, and Italy?

[Alan Klein]

As an American, do you feel proud that out of the 195 countries in the world, the only countries with per capita death tolls worse than ours were Gilbraltar, San Marino, Czechia, Belgium, Slovenia, Montenegro, Hungary, UK, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, and Italy?

Who can be proud of deaths? But trying to blame the president for them is just politics.

[digitaldog]

Who can be proud of deaths? But trying to blame the president for them is just politics.

The buck never stopped with this clown:

[jeremyrh]

How did the free market fail?  After the last storm here in NJ when we lost power for four days, my next door neighbor gave an order to install an emergency generator.  I dragged my feet just getting proposals.  Meanwhile, his generator is installed protecting his power.  Me?  We haven't even given the order out yet and prices are going up. 

Customers are part of the free market.  How they act affects things as well.  Europe can't blame markets, Trump, Britain, or America.  Trump was smart enough because of his business experience to know how to operate with speed and involvement.  That's how free markets work.  Obviously, your GB was smarter than him and America. Take a bow.

Did you actually read the article you quoted? The point was that the US and UK governmentd took part in the vaccine development and were successful. The EU relied on the market and failed.

[digitaldog]

Did you actually read the article you quoted?

Historically, no he didn't. Or he did and his comprehension, maybe due to (as he accuses Biden) cognitive inabilities, results in an utter misunderstanding of the text, with a post soon to follow.

[John Camp]

As an American, do you feel proud that out of the 195 countries in the world, the only countries with per capita death tolls worse than ours were Gilbraltar, San Marino, Czechia, Belgium, Slovenia, Montenegro, Hungary, UK, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, and Italy?

In fairness, those are the countries with death tolls higher than our own who probably did a more or less accurate count. You'll notice no South American or African countries are on that list, and some of them (like Brazil and South Africa) and Russia had rather notable disasters. What that list suggests is that the most countries for per capita death tolls were all in Europe, and given Europe's pretty good medical care, that seems seriously unlikely. In other words, I suspect that list, um, blows.

[TechTalk]

I just posted this in the Covid Vaccine thread, but it may be of interest here as well.

A country that has had great success in getting vaccines administered is Chile. They rank third in the world for per capita vaccination behind only Israel and the UAE.

It is not all good news, however. They are currently experiencing a massive spike in cases and hospitals are nearly full.

Chile sets daily record for coronavirus cases even as vaccination drive plows ahead - Reuters - March 20, 2021

https://www.reuters.com/article/chile-sets-daily-record-for-coronavirus-cases-even-as-vaccination-drive-plows-ahead

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Chile broke its single day record for new cases of the coronavirus on Saturday, health officials said, leaving hospitals on the verge of collapse even as the South American nation races on with a mass vaccination program.

Cases have been ticking up for weeks following the end of the southern hemisphere summer holiday, but soared to 7,084, above the previous high of 6,938 last June, the data shows.

The fast rising caseload has filled critical care wards north to south, leaving Chile with just 198 beds available for new patients. All of the capital Santiago, the economic engine, is in strict lockdown this weekend.

Chile, a comparatively small but wealthy Andean nation, is at the forefront of a global inoculation drive on a per capita basis. It ranks third globally, behind Israel and the United Arab Emirates, for most doses administered per population, according to a Reuters tabulation.

But officials say the holiday infections, the arrival of more contagious variants of the virus and a relaxation of sanitary measures amid the successful vaccination program have prompted a more vicious second wave.

Chile was the first in South America here to begin vaccinating its citizens, with an early shipment of the Pfizer vaccine on Dec. 24.
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[dreed]

I must say, Alan, that you are amusing. But you forgot to mention how Biden is allowing the Jovian spore-people to infest honest god-fearing Republicans and turn them into evil money-printing trolls.

What's even more amusing is that Republicans now prefer communist Russia's leader, Vladimir Putin, to Biden. Got to love that: Republicans are now fans of communist Russia.