global pandemic

[DaveC]

https://bleacherreport.com/articles...ay-off-60-of-employees-during-covid-19-hiatus

Sacrebleu!

hopefully all those former employees can take the experience they've earned and use it to step up a level and get a job in the big leagues with an NHL team.

 

[womanfish]

https://twitter.com/JasonSCampbell/status/1242589583185006594

Gotta say, I'm loving this trend of Republicans volunteering to die in order to "save the country" . They definitely would be saving the country, just not in the way they're thinking.

 

[womanfish]

"He should have ordered the ventilators, and he had a choice. He had a chance," Trump said.

"Because right here, I just got this out," he added, reading from a piece of paper. "That he refused to order 15,000 ventilators. I will show this to Bill."

The article Trump read to Hemmer -— and the Fox News audience at large — appeared to be from the Gateway Pundit, a fringe outlet with a long history of peddling right-wing conspiracy theories.


"NY Gov. Cuomo Rejected Buying Recommended 16,000 Ventilators in 2015 for Pandemic, Established Death Panels and Lottery Instead," was the headline Trump read aloud, the same as one posted on the Gateway Pundit's website Sunday.

"He shouldn't be talking about us," Trump then said. "He's supposed to be buying his own ventilators."

This is everything anyone needs to know about Trump. Tens of thousands sick in NY, hundreds dead, and he's carrying a little clipping of an article in his pocket to wave in people's faces that the Governor who dared criticize him should have helped save all these people by purchasing the things needed for global pandemic 5 years ago..

the rage i feel just gets greater and greater every day.

 

[dazzledbylight]

Cuomo replying to Dan Patrick on twitter.

Andrew Cuomo
@NYGovCuomo
·
9h
We are not willing to sacrifice 1-2% of New Yorkers.

That’s not who we are.

We will fight to save every life we can.

I am not giving up.
Andrew Cuomo
@NYGovCuomo
·
Mar 23
If it’s public health versus the economy, the only choice is public health. You cannot put a value on human life.

You do the right thing. That’s what Pop taught us
@ChrisCuomo

 

[LJT]

https://twitter.com/JasonSCampbell/status/1242589583185006594

His plan doesn't even make sense, like yeah all the old people we should go to work get sick and die while keeping the young at home.

If all the old workers get sick and die you are still tanking the economy.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Not if Jesus protects them duh

 

[anitram]

None of this makes any sense because of basic human psychology.

So we are all watching horror unfold on TV, people dying, countries on lockdown, hospitals overrun, food shortages at grocery stores, and in two weeks Trump will emerge to pronounce it's over and people can go back to work in states X, Y, Z and "pack the churches" for Easter.

Maybe his idiot voters would, but I think even then most people would be like "thanks, but no thanks." If my employer told me to go back to the office, I would refuse.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Side note - never hating on house arrest again

 

[DaveC]

i hate having to wake up and get on a streetcar in the mornings, i'm an introverted loner in normal times, and the only thing that demands my attention during the work day is a very needy cat.

the last week and a half working at home has been kinda nice for me.

 

[womanfish]

So serious question. Cuomo said something today that I disagree with, but wanted to see if I'm way off base.
He said that NY is the canary in the coal mine for the rest of the country. That whats happening in NY will happen all across the country.

Now, yes in some way I see that. But i do think that NY presents certain challenges that are not present in 95% of the rest of the country. I think that the high concentration of population (like NJ as well) and even more so, the high percentage of people that use public transportation and taxis have to make a significant difference from say a mid sized city like Nashville that is completely care dependent and has very little in way of public transit.

There has been some good signs out of California with several areas showing a downward trend on new cases already. WA is still rising but will be interesting to see what happens there by the end of next week. If they start to turn the corner on it, then I think that's a good sign, since they were hard hit early.

Anyway, just wondered what you all thought

 

[dazzledbylight]

I think someone pointed out that something like a third of Americans have some sort of underlying condition.

It's not just the elderly, it's anyone with Cancer, hypertension, diabetes etc all are more at risk, many people that are part of the economy and you may not realise have a condition that makes them more at risk.

Very sad, very scary .I have. dear friends and relatives like that.

I don't think that's what Cuomo meant- he meant we need to plan for when this is past- we have start planning how to get the economy back on track now. We can't wait for this to be over to plan-we need parallel planning.

I agree. He's been/and is so fierce trying to protect people, and get supplies for us, I know he's trying to think out how to restart but not UNTIL it's safe to do so.

He said today "we need 30,000 ventilators" and added we're not going to keep them - once the danger has passed here we will ship them to whomever needs them next. We are the canary in the coal mine. What happens here will happen to you later.

Yes, there has to be a strategy for an orderly return to "normal" life.

The problem with Trump and that idiot in Texas is that this is NOT the appropriate time to be discussing revving up the economy. We are realistically probably at least a couple of months away, if not longer. That doesn't mean that long-term strategic planning shouldn't be done - it should because this too, will end. But to discuss that at the cost of everything else right now is premature, idiotic, and ill-advised, which is basically the hallmark of the Trump presidency.

You forgot cruelty.

Good luck finding states that aren't "as affected" by Easter.

And yesterday he was on and on about Nebraska and Idaho as examples of where businesses could open up - yeah, real powerhouses of the US economy.

Snerk

He's apparently trashing Cuomo and Biden in the task force meeting as we speak.

I turned it off after a few mins, so I missed that.
(Good, I don't need to be yelling at the radio if I can help it)

Of course he is. Because a day simply can't go by without him acting like a petulant baby.

I'm begging somebody, anybody, to please throw his ass out on the lawn and tell him he's not coming back already. Please.

PULEEEEEEEEESEEEEEE!
(Let's say it with gusto!)

Liberty University is reopening this week. I expect nothing less from a place that thinks the Flintstones was a documentary.

Snerk.

Packed churches on Easter. Great idea!!!

The Pope cancelled The Vatican's big Easter gathering about 2 weeks ago.

I say this absolutely seriously - I don't see how after this, the US can continue to function as a country the way it does now. It is patently obvious that there are two kinds of people, that are mostly separated into different states, whose interests diverge too much to remain together.

We have some of that, to a lesser degree with Alberta, where the current PM is very unpopular, but the country has really come together to combat this pandemic. What is happening south of the border should not be shocking, yet it is.

It's not that simple.
The NYTimes had 2 maps after 2016 Electionthat in first one basically showed most metropolitan areas to be blue, while in the second one the vaster in geoorgraphy area, but less populated per sq mile (and maybe overall numbers wise) were red.
So it's like blue lakes sometimes clustered together, with a bit of river between them, with way many others scattered about the country. It was an amazing 2 maps!

This is everything anyone needs to know about Trump. Tens of thousands sick in NY, hundreds dead, and he's carrying a little clipping of an article in his pocket to wave in people's faces that the Governor who dared criticize him should have helped save all these people by purchasing the things needed for global pandemic 5 years ago..

the rage i feel just gets greater and greater every day.

I hear ya.
And yiu need to make sure you're getting some fun, funny, and beauty in your life (on line mostly for now) to counter that. Better for your imunine system.

I live in NYC. I know all about rage. I keep it to a minimum and get as much as I can above on line. Plus in touch on line, by phone with friends and family. And my creative activities.

 

[Hewson]

So serious question. Cuomo said something today that I disagree with, but wanted to see if I'm way off base.
He said that NY is the canary in the coal mine for the rest of the country. That whats happening in NY will happen all across the country.

Now, yes in some way I see that. But i do think that NY presents certain challenges that are not present in 95% of the rest of the country. I think that the high concentration of population (like NJ as well) and even more so, the high percentage of people that use public transportation and taxis have to make a significant difference from say a mid sized city like Nashville that is completely care dependent and has very little in way of public transit.

There has been some good signs out of California with several areas showing a downward trend on new cases already. WA is still rising but will be interesting to see what happens there by the end of next week. If they start to turn the corner on it, then I think that's a good sign, since they were hard hit early.

Anyway, just wondered what you all thought

Yeah its impossible to compare NYC area to what will happen in places like Montana and the Dakotas and such. But the warning given today by Dr. Birx and Dr. Fauci about all those who traveled from NYC to other areas of the country in recent weeks certainly gives pause.
I think bigger cities probably won't have quite the same issues as NYC but certainly will have ssignificant issues, especially those with a fair reliance on public transportation.

 

[Irvine511]

So serious question. Cuomo said something today that I disagree with, but wanted to see if I'm way off base.
He said that NY is the canary in the coal mine for the rest of the country. That whats happening in NY will happen all across the country.

Now, yes in some way I see that. But i do think that NY presents certain challenges that are not present in 95% of the rest of the country. I think that the high concentration of population (like NJ as well) and even more so, the high percentage of people that use public transportation and taxis have to make a significant difference from say a mid sized city like Nashville that is completely care dependent and has very little in way of public transit.

There has been some good signs out of California with several areas showing a downward trend on new cases already. WA is still rising but will be interesting to see what happens there by the end of next week. If they start to turn the corner on it, then I think that's a good sign, since they were hard hit early.

Anyway, just wondered what you all thought

This is what I’ve been basing my guarded optimism on. That and spring.

I sure hope it’s right.

 

[Moonlit_Angel]

At another point during the interview, Trump said he would "love" for the country to "open by Easter" on April 12.

Instead of challenging Trump, and noting that his deadline is at odds with what many medical professionals and infectious disease experts have said, Faulkner replied, "Oh wow. OK."

Hemmer added, "That would be a great American resurrection."

Wow.

Fucking wow.

I wish there were a way we could just shut Fox News down altogether. This shit is legit dangerous.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

https://www.instagram.com/tv/B-JMTMeJhi6/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

Prince Charles tested positive. If it helps people who don't take this virus seriously, then I'm all in favor of reporting high profile figures testing positive. I hope he recovers without complications.

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

This is everything anyone needs to know about Trump. Tens of thousands sick in NY, hundreds dead, and he's carrying a little clipping of an article in his pocket to wave in people's faces that the Governor who dared criticize him should have helped save all these people by purchasing the things needed for global pandemic 5 years ago..

the rage i feel just gets greater and greater every day.

I agree. And the article wasn't even from a legitimate source. But I'm sure the viewers of this Fox town hall loved it-that makes me feel rage too. I feel rage every day that I didn't vote for the fool and have to sit and watch his "handling" of this crisis.

 

[Vincent Vega]

[TWEET]1241505274814443521[/TWEET]

It won't be just five.

 

[Hewson]

Unfortunately it would take some of these college kids actually dying from Covid-19 to really curb their behavior. If that happens it will be far too late (it already is) anyway.

#covidiots

 

[anitram]

This is what I’ve been basing my guarded optimism on. That and spring.

I sure hope it’s right.

I think too many people are counting on spring to save us.

It's already spring and has been warm in Spain, Portugal, Israel, etc where you see wild numbers. Not to mention the US states in the south which actually have higher rates of increase in infections than New York.

The density of cities contributing to rapid spread definitely makes sense. Although Wuhan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan are all dense and managed to control their spread well with correct measures.

 

[MissCandyGirl]

I think too many people are counting on spring to save us.

It's already spring and has been warm in Spain, Portugal, Israel, etc where you see wild numbers. Not to mention the US states in the south which actually have higher rates of increase in infections than New York.

The density of cities contributing to rapid spread definitely makes sense. Although Wuhan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan are all dense and managed to control their spread well with correct measures.

You're right. I second your post.

 

[LJT]

Unfortunately it would take some of these college kids actually dying from Covid-19 to really curb their behavior. If that happens it will be far too late (it already is) anyway.

#covidiots

21 year old has just died here in the UK, no known underlying conditions. 36 year old nurse is in intensive care with no underlying conditions.

Most won't be like that but it doesn't mean the young will get a free pass with it.

Healthcare workers are also dropping with it, 3 anaesthetists in London are in ICU, then Spain there is a large part of their numbers are made up of healthcare professionals, more exposure higher viral load, also more exposure to people with the highest viral load.

 

[Jerry Dunk]

i watch cuomo being an actual leader and i can’t help but smile a bit at the memory that there are people who thought that cynthia nixon was going to be the governor of new york and that this would be a good idea because she rides the subway.

Politics and leadership isn’t about putting people in office who most closely share your utopian fantasies and promise you a pony on christmas morning. It means getting people in power who are actually good at government.

[tweet]1242793381568245761[/tweet]

Politics is also about creating narratives that cover your ass when you were also part of the problem. Apparently Cuomo is very good at covering up all the shitty things he's done, because everyone loves him this week!

 

[LemonMelon]

This is making the rounds in UK media. Too early to feel one way or another about, but something to keep an eye on:

https://www.ft.com/content/5ff6469a-6dd8-11ea-89df-41bea055720b

The new coronavirus may already have infected far more people in the UK than scientists had previously estimated — perhaps as much as half the population — according to modelling by researchers at the University of Oxford.

If the results are confirmed, they imply that fewer than one in a thousand of those infected with Covid-19 become ill enough to need hospital treatment, said Sunetra Gupta, professor of theoretical epidemiology, who led the study. The vast majority develop very mild symptoms or none at all.

“We need immediately to begin large-scale serological surveys — antibody testing — to assess what stage of the epidemic we are in now,” she said.

The modeling by Oxford’s Evolutionary Ecology of Infectious Disease group indicates that Covid-19 reached the UK by mid-January at the latest. Like many emerging infections, it spread invisibly for more than a month before the first transmissions within the UK were officially recorded at the end of February.
The research presents a very different view of the epidemic to the*modelling*at Imperial College London, which has strongly influenced government policy. “I am surprised that there has been such unqualified acceptance of the Imperial model,” said Prof Gupta.*

However, she was reluctant to criticise the government for shutting down the country to suppress viral spread, because the accuracy of the Oxford model has not yet been confirmed and, even if it is correct, social distancing will reduce the number of people becoming seriously ill and relieve severe pressure on the NHS during the peak of the epidemic.

The Oxford study is based on a what is known as a “susceptibility-infected-recovered model” of Covid-19, built up from case and death reports from the UK and Italy. The researchers made what they regard as the most plausible assumptions about the behaviour of the virus.

The modelling brings back into focus “herd immunity”, the idea that the virus will stop spreading when enough people have become resistant to it because they have already been infected. The government abandoned its unofficial herd immunity strategy — allowing controlled spread of infection — after its scientific advisers said this would swamp the National Health Service with critically ill patients.*

But the Oxford results would mean the country had already acquired substantial herd immunity through the unrecognised spread of Covid-19 over more than two months. If the findings are confirmed by testing, then the current restrictions could be removed much sooner than ministers have indicated.

Although some experts have shed doubt on the strength and length of the human immune response to the virus, Prof Gupta said the emerging evidence made her confident that humanity would build up herd immunity against Covid-19.
To provide the necessary evidence, the Oxford group is working with colleagues at the Universities of Cambridge and Kent to start antibody testing on the general population as soon as possible, using specialised “neutralisation assays which provide reliable readout of protective immunity,” Prof Gupta said. They hope to start testing later this week and obtain preliminary results within a few days.

I had this very same thought when it was announced that there were US cases dating all the way back to January. Widespread antibody testing revealed some interesting truths about the virulence of H1N1 after the 2009-2010 pandemic, I'm sure the same will be true once it takes place for novel coronavirus.

 

[anitram]

I had this very same thought when it was announced that there were US cases dating all the way back to January. Widespread antibody testing revealed some interesting truths about the virulence of H1N1 after the 2009-2010 pandemic, I'm sure the same will be true once it takes place for novel coronavirus.

It would absolutely be vitally important if we could all get blood drawn to test for antibodies. Not just to see what the true infection/recovery rate has been but also as a first step to being able to confirm with certainty whether reinfection is possible.

 

[Irvine511]

[tweet]1242793381568245761[/tweet]

Politics is also about creating narratives that cover your ass when you were also part of the problem. Apparently Cuomo is very good at covering up all the shitty things he's done, because everyone loves him this week!

this is really helpful to the task at hand, entirely relevant, and completely undermines everything Cuomo has said and done this week. it is fair and correct to blame a commission created in 2006 by Gov. Pataki looking to make budget cuts on Andrew Cuomo, who wasn't elected until 2010.

you've made us well aware: centrists are worse than conservatives.

It’s unlikely Pataki or state lawmakers will nix the downsizing plan because the federal government has promised to give New York $1.5 billion to modernize its health-care system – but only if eliminates waste through restructuring.

The state has until June 30, 2008, to implement all the commission’s recommendations.

Pataki and commission officials said New York no longer can afford to subsidize failing hospitals. Most of the hospitals are propped up by Medicaid, which now costs $46.8 billion and eats up a staggering 41 percent of the state budget.

Even the powerful hospital-workers union, Local 1199 SEIU, warned its members to expect the worst.

“It will be much, much harder for our voice to be heard this time,” the union said in an emergency newsletter.

The union also told its members not to expect help from Gov.-elect Eliot Spitzer because he supports hospital closings.

Some of the hospitals are getting millions of dollars from the state Health Department to downsize.

https://nypost.com/2006/11/28/panel-plan-sending-6-hosps-to-morgue/

meanwhile, back in the world of adults, there's some cautious good news:

As the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in New York continued to grow — reaching more than 30,000 — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Wednesday that there were early signs that the state’s stringent restrictions on social gatherings could be slowing the virus’s spread.

The scale of the epidemic in New York City has led White House officials to advise people who have passed through or left the area to quarantine themselves for 14 days.

In a briefing on Wednesday, Mr. Cuomo said there were indications that social distancing measures put in place in New York appeared to be helping — but that more needed to be done. “The evidence suggests that the density control measures may be working,” he said.

On Sunday, for example, the state’s projections showed hospitalizations doubling every two days. By Tuesday, the estimates showed hospitalizations doubling every 4.7 days, he said — adding the caveat that such a projection was “almost too good to be true.”

He cited encouraging news from Westchester County, where the rate of infection has slowed. “We have dramatically slowed what was an exponential rate of increase,” Mr. Cuomo said. “That was the hottest cluster in the United States of America. We closed the schools, we closed gatherings, we brought in testing, and we have dramatically slowed the increase.”

New York State, which has tested more people than any other state, now has 30,811 confirmed cases, an increase of more than 5,000 since Tuesday morning. New York City has 17,856 confirmed cases.

But Mr. Cuomo said that more needed to be done, particularly to make it easier to maintain social distancing in New York City, the most densely populated major city in the United States.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/25/world/coronavirus-updates-maps-usa-world.html

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

this is really helpful to the task at hand, entirely relevant, and completely undermines everything Cuomo has said and done this week. it is fair and correct to blame a commission created in 2006 by Gov. Pataki looking to make budget cuts on Andrew Cuomo, who wasn't elected until 2010.

you've made us well aware: centrists are worse than conservatives.




meanwhile, back in the world of adults, there's some cautious good news:

 

[BEAL]

The mayor of Los Angeles and the governor of Ohio have both come out and said to keep the isolation policies going. They are saying May 1st could be the peak of this.

I get the feeling that with a lot of states not bothering to enforce or even recommended the social distancing (the red states...) we will see multiple peaks

Bill Gates said it well.

The economy is much easier to bring back from the dead. Humans can’t

 

[Irvine511]

The mayor of Los Angeles and the governor of Ohio have both come out and said to keep the isolation policies going. They are saying May 1st could be the peak of this.

I get the feeling that with a lot of states not bothering to enforce or even recommended the social distancing (the red states...) we will see multiple peaks

Bill Gates said it well.

The economy is much easier to bring back from the dead. Humans can’t

My worry is Florida. Lots of elderly in gated communities. And no one tells old white people what to do.

And, to add, I’ve had a handful of NYC friends test positive (can count on one hand) — they are all fine, not hospitalized (except one), and all described a curious lack of sense of smell for 4-5 days.

Best case scenario, of course, is that lots and lots of us have it and have mild-to-no symptoms, and we don’t spread it.

I have both lived in NYC and traveled abroad in the past month. I feel completely fine, take my temp every morning, but am still not leaving my house except to walk the dog and get groceries for 2 weeks.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

https://twitter.com/JLCauvin/status/1242515702688485376