OT: COVID-19 thread #2

[musiqsoulchild]

The only thing that was stubborn during this whole ordeal was Trump's insistence that everything was perfectly fine...... until it wasn't.

What did you expect him to say in February? We're all going to die? Of course he could have handled this better but it's clear he did that to prevent a mass panic hoping the virus would just go away and the markets would stay strong. That didn't happen.

Just read what you wrote and you'll see how Trump has mismanaged the situation.

The BIGGEST gripe I have with him is that he has used the entire existential crisis as a political, re-election platform.

You cant Trump thus virus away. You have to Obana it. Or Merkel it.

Trumps approach works GREAT when negotiating with trade partners and the Congress. It doesnt work well against a virus. Any virus. Viruses dont listen to Trump. The approach has to be a LOT more scientific and a LOT LESS political.

[musiqsoulchild]

Trump has mismanaged this in so many ways

It's always Trumps fault aye?.

Fyi, I am not in that mindframe ever. I look at things for what they are.

For example: Prior to COVID, I was going to vote for Trump ( YUCK) if Bernie was the alternative. And vote for Biden, if Joe was the nominee.

I try to judge things impartially. You just have to watch his briefings every day to see how horribly he is handling this.

[HomoSapien]

Fighting emotion, Randy Brown struggled to find the right words.

But then the former Bulls guard, assistant coach and Chicago native settled on a theme close to Douglas Caridine’s heart.

“I have a big family. I have five brothers, blood brothers. And he was my sixth brother,” Brown said of his brother-in-law. “When you saw my brothers at the United Center, he blended right in. It wasn’t fake. It was real.”

What Brown, his wife, Tamara, and the rest of Caridine’s family is experiencing right now is as real as life gets.

On March 30, Caridine, 38, lost his quick battle with the COVID-19 virus. The graduate of Homewood-Flossmoor High School and Lewis University, who worked in the financial aid office at DePaul University, leaves behind a wife and two young children.

For those who think, ‘Oh, that’s not a big deal.’ Diabetes is a big deal. So I just want people to know that this virus is happening to younger people. And people need to listen to what the professionals are saying and do their social distancing and everything else that comes with that.”

Tamara Brown said her younger brother first showed cold-like symptoms of a runny nose and cough on March 23. Since he didn’t have a fever, Tamara Brown said a nurse remotely offered Caridine treatment advice. But three days later, his breathing had worsened to the point that his wife took Caridine to the hospital.

“When they listened to his chest, they could tell something was wrong. Immediately, he was diagnosed with double pneumonia and tested (for COVID-19),” Tamara Brown said. “They admitted him and sent him to ICU. They said they were going to sedate him because his body was really struggling. They put him on a ventilator.”

Two days later, according to Tamara, the test results confirmed he had COVID-19.

“I talked to him on (March 26) when he went in the hospital. He said he was scared. We joked around a little bit. I was like, ‘Dude, I’ll see you in a couple days. You’ll be fine,’” Randy Brown said. “Four days later, this kid was gone.”

https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/bulls/douglas-caridine-brother-law-ex-bull-randy-brown-loses-battle-covid-19

[Dresden]

This sums up very nicely why Trump is such a terrible person to have in charge during a crisis- our inspector general issues a report that mentions the severe shortages our hospitals are facing (verified by countless sources), and Trump's reaction is to fly into a rage, and imply that since this person was an Obama appointee, it must all be political, and must all be fake news. Just tell that to our brave hospital workers! :

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-rages-over-watchdog-report-230610629.html

"Asked by a journalist earlier in the briefing about the watchdog survey showing widespread complaints about dire shortages of supplies for testing and lengthy wait times for results, Trump interjected, “that’s just wrong.”

“Did I hear the word inspector general? Really? It’s wrong,” he claimed. “And they’ll talk to you about it. It’s wrong.”

According to the report, which covered the period from March 23 to the 27, “hospitals reported that severe shortages of testing supplies and extended waits for test results limited hospitals’ ability to monitor the health of patients and staff.”

Pressed further on the report that came from his own government, Trump repeatedly demanded reporters give him the name of the inspector general—and painted a rosy picture of his administration’s much-criticized handling of the pandemic.

“We’ve done more testing and had more results than any country anywhere in the world,” Trump declared. “They’re doing (an) incredible job.”

Later during the briefing, the president grew increasingly hostile when pressed about the report and testing. He declared that hospitals and states should also “be doing testing.”

“We’re the federal government,” Trump said. “We’re not supposed to stand on street corners doing testing.” "

[Dresden]

If you can't even accept the facts that your own inspector general is telling you about the situation, and instead have to declare "it's just wrong" because it goes against the rosy narrative you are trying to paint about your own job performance, that's when Trump's behavior goes beyond just an ongoing joke, and becomes a serious threat to the health of the nation.

[moorhosj]

being an "washington insider" is considered bad. and being a senator is generally a negative because long-serving senators have to defend every controversial vote they ever made. and they all have them. which is why being a state governor (executive experience, washington outsider, lack of a vote trail) has typically been considered the ideal situation for running for president. carter, reagan and clinton were all governors. dubya tried to run as an outsider as texas governor (a position which has comparatively little power in the state), which was pretty hilarious given that his grandfather was a US senator and his father had the keys to the white house

This is a recent trend over the past 40 years. 17 Presidents served as Governors, 16 served as Senators, and 18 served in the House. Historically it's much more spread and ability to pass legislation was considered important. Look at LBJ, who served as Senate Majority Leader prior to being President, and got significant legislation passed while in office.

[Dresden]

Today Trump fires the DoD inspector general, who was just recently voted to head the committee overseeing how the Stimulus money is being spent- another move by Trump to get rid of someone who could potentially act as a check on his power. No doubt he'll be replaced by a Trump crony who will green light however Trump wants to disburse those funds. This is just blatant abuse of power:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-replaces-pentagon-watchdog-overseeing-164027127.html

[dougthonus]

Today Trump fires the DoD inspector general, who was just recently voted to head the committee overseeing how the Stimulus money is being spent- another move by Trump to get rid of someone who could potentially act as a check on his power. No doubt he'll be replaced by a Trump crony who will green light however Trump wants to disburse those funds. This is just blatant abuse of power:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-replaces-pentagon-watchdog-overseeing-164027127.html

Please take this type of stuff to the current affairs forum. This isn't a political forum. Keep political discussion to things directly related to coronavirus.

[Dresden]

Today Trump fires the DoD inspector general, who was just recently voted to head the committee overseeing how the Stimulus money is being spent- another move by Trump to get rid of someone who could potentially act as a check on his power. No doubt he'll be replaced by a Trump crony who will green light however Trump wants to disburse those funds. This is just blatant abuse of power:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-replaces-pentagon-watchdog-overseeing-164027127.html

Please take this type of stuff to the current affairs forum. This isn't a political forum. Keep political discussion to things directly related to coronavirus.

Well, it was sort of. But I get your point.

In other news, it looks like you can take your pick on whether to wear a mask or not, as the WHO now says healthy people don't need to wear masks, contradicting what the CDC put out a few days ago:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/says-no-healthy-people-wear-184300796.html

[coldfish]

Today Trump fires the DoD inspector general, who was just recently voted to head the committee overseeing how the Stimulus money is being spent- another move by Trump to get rid of someone who could potentially act as a check on his power. No doubt he'll be replaced by a Trump crony who will green light however Trump wants to disburse those funds. This is just blatant abuse of power:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-replaces-pentagon-watchdog-overseeing-164027127.html

Please take this type of stuff to the current affairs forum. This isn't a political forum. Keep political discussion to things directly related to coronavirus.

Well, it was sort of. But I get your point.

In other news, it looks like you can take your pick on whether to wear a mask or not, as the WHO now says healthy people don't need to wear masks, contradicting what the CDC put out a few days ago:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/says-no-healthy-people-wear-184300796.html

The WHO has been incredibly useless. They have probably made this whole thing worse. Regardless, masks are a positive healthy or not. Its almost silly to argue otherwise.

[transplant]

Good news should also be shared.

On the old thread, my brother-in-law had been taken off the ventilator for a short time and allowed to talk to my sister (his wife) on the phone. He's now just getting oxygen via the nose thing. Looking good. At least as important is that my sister's Covid-19 test came back negative, which pretty much confirms that he caught it at the rehab center.

Color me happy.

[dougthonus]

Good news should also be shared.

On the old thread, my brother-in-law had been taken off the ventilator for a short time and allowed to talk to my sister (his wife) on the phone. He's now just getting oxygen via the nose thing. Looking good. At least as important is that my sister's Covid-19 test came back negative, which pretty much confirms that he caught it at the rehab center.

Color me happy.

That's great news!

[bullsnewdynasty]

Good interview with Bill Gates on the pandemic:

https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=yfp-t&p=bill+gates+interview+Trevor+noah#id=1&vid=513457751497e12bde6004905b53d62a&action=click

Imagine how much better off we'd all be if we had someone like Bill Gates running the country? Why can't we elect people who are really smart, really knowledgeable, and really forward thinking as our leaders, rather than chosing people because they're famous, or have been on TV a lot, or have been in politics forever? It just doesn't make sense why we wouldn't want the brightest people running our country. Instead of celebrities, or people with "recognizable names" like Joe Biden or Hillary Clinton? We're just shooting ourselves in the foot with how we chose our leaders.

Then they should run for president. When this country was founded, people ran for office to serve their country instead of doing it to get rich.

donald trump is the only president in the history of the nation that i can think of that has blatantly run for personal financial benefit (other than the ego component, which certainly has played a part in a lot of them choosing the path that they did). which is not to say that many presidents haven't financially benefited as a byproduct of their presidency. you'd have to try pretty hard NOT to benefit financially from it, frankly...ironically, trump could have been one of them had he actually divested from his financial interests as prior presidents have done

Trump was already rich, whether he gets say 5% richer from the presidency isn't really the best example.

According to Forbes, the Clintons are worth $240 million from basically working in public positions their entire lives. Being president (or even a senator) increases your wealth exponentially. Without the presidency, they're at maybe 5 to 10% of that wealth at best.

[Dresden]

Please take this type of stuff to the current affairs forum. This isn't a political forum. Keep political discussion to things directly related to coronavirus.

Well, it was sort of. But I get your point.

In other news, it looks like you can take your pick on whether to wear a mask or not, as the WHO now says healthy people don't need to wear masks, contradicting what the CDC put out a few days ago:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/says-no-healthy-people-wear-184300796.html

The WHO has been incredibly useless. They have probably made this whole thing worse. Regardless, masks are a positive healthy or not. Its almost silly to argue otherwise.

The arguments against the mask are 1) it gives people a false sense of security, so that they may go out more and get closer to people than they should, 2) it would take masks from those that need them, and 3) people touch their faces more often when wearing a mask, which probably negates the benefits you get.

[Dresden]

Good news should also be shared.

On the old thread, my brother-in-law had been taken off the ventilator for a short time and allowed to talk to my sister (his wife) on the phone. He's now just getting oxygen via the nose thing. Looking good. At least as important is that my sister's Covid-19 test came back negative, which pretty much confirms that he caught it at the rehab center.

Color me happy.

That's great news!

Yeah, that's awesome news.

[TheJordanRule]

that's blatantly false. as evidenced by his poor fundraising. the party coalesced around biden only after it was down to him and bernie


the voters clearly wanted biden. and the reason is pretty obvious: the obama connection. the black vote went very heavily to biden for that reason. just as it went heavily to clinton last time around. and that became evident at about the same time the other candidates threw their support to biden


wtf does "lohan virus" even refer to? lindsay lohan? that's neither clever, nor does it make any sense


boy do i hope that's sarcasm. because it couldn't be farther from the truth

lohan virus is what joe calls it, and no it doesnt make sense because hes mentally gone, toast. Biden is half a step away from assisted living.

he actually called it 'luhan' instead of 'wuhan.' which i think any reasonable person would agree is hardly a sign of mental incompetence, particularly given that none of us had ever heard of wuhan, china prior to COVID-19. anyone who can't distinguish 'luhan' from 'lohan' is themselves worth of mental examination. loo-hahn and low-hann don't sound anything alike

I voted against trump in the primary and the general, but I'm willing to admit that I was wrong, hes the right man for the job right here right now.

have you been paying attention to the news like, at all during this pandemic? or even read this thread? trump is in WAY over his head. astonishing incompetence. one screw up after another. from prior post:



right man for the job, eh? WOW

Hillary? She cant handle the pressure of a pandemic, she couldnt even finish her dam campaign.

you're parroting alt-right conspiracy theories. her health was never an issue but for one incident during the campaign when she was battling a virus:

https://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/presidential-campaign/295393-yes-hillary-almost-fainted-im-a-doctor-and-its

hell, she sat and answered questions for ELEVEN HOURS in one day during the sham behghazi hearing. she has twice the stamina of donald trump, who spends half of his day in "executive time":

"he spends his mornings in the residence, watching TV, reading the papers, and responding to what he sees and reads by phoning aides, members of Congress, friends, administration officials and informal advisers."

https://www.axios.com/donald-trump-private-schedules-leak-executive-time-34e67fbb-3af6-48df-aefb-52e02c334255.html

Biden? give me a break, he was a favorite of mine when the primaries started but once he started talking I quickly realized he was about the 15th best candidate. and that's being nice.

you seriously hadn't heard biden talk prior to recently? he's been a gaffe machine for decades

for that matter, have you ever heard donald trump speak? he was practically falling asleep during his oval office coronavirus address, for starters

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

can you imagine if hillary had done any of this?

Watch on YouTube

This is the problem with the Republican base. They've been programmed and propagandized so hard that stats and facts no longer matter to them. Everything is fake news unless it agrees with the propaganda in some small way. They don't even realize when they're voting against their own economic interests. They treat politics like a casual sports fan rooting for their home team. Who's on the roster? What's the front office doing? Who cares? Let's go [insert local team name here]! And it's not their fault either. We have busy lives. It's a luxury to think about a candidate's policy prescriptions and how it would affect your own life. It's a luxury to look at a candidate's voting record, and determine the degree to which that record reflects good judgment, and determine what the candidate is likely to push for. Some people haven't even made it to the stage of becoming critical thinkers. If you are middle class or poor, supporting the Republican party is like amputating your leg for the sake of preparing for a track meet. I respect wealthy Republicans because they at least understand how to vote for their own interests. Trump bungling the management of this pandemic for months, and disbanding the nation's team of pandemic experts two years ago, doesn't have to matter to rich people, who are mostly insulated from the harsh realities facing the middle class. But if you're poor or middle class and voting for Trump, you are voting against your own healthcare (and during a pandemic, too), your own income, your own children's education.

On the flip side, Joe Biden is a walking corpse. He will not be able to stand up to Trump because he doesn't have the brain power any more. Corporate Democrats are essentially moderate Republicans, because they favor the interests of corporations over the interests of the citizens they are supposed to represent. That donor money that Joe Biden is taking controls his decision-making. Biden has told his donors that nothing will essentially change if he gets into office. Joe stands for nothing. He would probably govern better than Trump, but that bar is low. I will be voting for Joe because Trump is so bad and incompetent at the job, but I expect the turnout amongst Democratic voters to be more depressed than when Hilary ran. The reason people turned from Obama to Trump is because Obama didn't do enough for middle and lower income individuals.

[coldfish]

Well, it was sort of. But I get your point.

In other news, it looks like you can take your pick on whether to wear a mask or not, as the WHO now says healthy people don't need to wear masks, contradicting what the CDC put out a few days ago:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/says-no-healthy-people-wear-184300796.html

The WHO has been incredibly useless. They have probably made this whole thing worse. Regardless, masks are a positive healthy or not. Its almost silly to argue otherwise.

The arguments against the mask are 1) it gives people a false sense of security, so that they may go out more and get closer to people than they should, 2) it would take masks from those that need them, and 3) people touch their faces more often when wearing a mask, which probably negates the benefits you get.

#1 is hilarious on so many levels. First off, they don't know if this thing is aerosol or not. The whole "6 feet" thing was pulled out of their asses. They don't even know what appropriate distance is. By this reasoning, the surgeon general would recommend that seatbelts be removed from all cars because if someone has one on, they might drive faster.

Asians and many others have studied this. Wearing a mask in public cuts down on the odds of getting sick by 60-80%. The CDC and WHO recommendations are so brutally stupid on this I question their standings as experts on this or any other topic.

In general, the CDC has performed so horrifically on this that the agency should be dissolved and reformed. They have made mistake after mistake after mistake and its going to cost a lot of lives. They are somewhat lucky that Trump is in charge and is providing cover for them.

[Dresden]

The WHO has been incredibly useless. They have probably made this whole thing worse. Regardless, masks are a positive healthy or not. Its almost silly to argue otherwise.

The arguments against the mask are 1) it gives people a false sense of security, so that they may go out more and get closer to people than they should, 2) it would take masks from those that need them, and 3) people touch their faces more often when wearing a mask, which probably negates the benefits you get.

#1 is hilarious on so many levels. First off, they don't know if this thing is aerosol or not. The whole "6 feet" thing was pulled out of their asses. They don't even know what appropriate distance is. By this reasoning, the surgeon general would recommend that seatbelts be removed from all cars because if someone has one on, they might drive faster.

Asians and many others have studied this. Wearing a mask in public cuts down on the odds of getting sick by 60-80%. The CDC and WHO recommendations are so brutally stupid on this I question their standings as experts on this or any other topic.

In general, the CDC has performed so horrifically on this that the agency should be dissolved and reformed. They have made mistake after mistake after mistake and its going to cost a lot of lives. They are somewhat lucky that Trump is in charge and is providing cover for them.

You have to draw a line somewhere. Based on the models they had, 6' was roughly the distance when most droplets would fall to the ground before they reached another person. And a lot of studies seem to back this up. Yes, they are based on non-aerosol transmission, but even then the odds go way up in your favor if you only have to worry about the aerosols (which are much smaller and contain many fewer viruses), and not droplets. Saying stay 6' is away is much better than giving people no guidelines at all. This at least avoids the most likely means of transmission.

And yes, some people do feel like they can stand closer together, or that they are immune from infection if they are wearing a mask, whereas if they aren't, they will be much more cognizant of maintaining distance.

I'd like to see the study that shows that wearing masks in public will cut down your risk of getting the corona virus by 60%-80%. If there was definitive evidence for that, there wouldn't have been such ambiguous guidance on whether to wear one or not.

I have a lot of respect for the scientists and public health officials in the CDC and The WHO. If you don't trust them, you may as well just say you don't believe in science. Unless, of course, their executives are saying things based more on political reasons (which I will grant, do come into play in any organization of that stature), than on what their own scientists are saying. I haven't seen a l whole lot of that going on though. If anything, they have been a valuable counterweight to the more politically motivated pronouncements being made by Trump, Pence and their ilk.

[Dresden]

They are discovering the a factor in COVID 19 morbidity is air pollution. A new Harvard study confirms this:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/research-links-air-pollution-higher-190410211.html

“This study provides evidence that counties that have more polluted air will experience higher risks of death for COVID-19,” said Francesca Dominici, a professor of biostatistics at Harvard who led the study.

Counties with higher pollution levels, Dominici said, “will be the ones that will have higher numbers of hospitalizations, higher numbers of deaths and where many of the resources should be concentrated.”

...Last week, the Trump administration announced a plan to weaken Obama-era regulations on automobile tailpipe emissions, asserting the rollback would save lives because Americans would buy newer, safer vehicles. But the administration’s own analysis also found that there would be even more premature deaths from increased air pollution.

In weakening a regulation last year on carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants, the Environmental Protection Agency similarly acknowledged that the measure was likely to result in about 1,400 additional premature deaths a year because of more pollution."

[tedwilliams1999]

Good news should also be shared.

On the old thread, my brother-in-law had been taken off the ventilator for a short time and allowed to talk to my sister (his wife) on the phone. He's now just getting oxygen via the nose thing. Looking good. At least as important is that my sister's Covid-19 test came back negative, which pretty much confirms that he caught it at the rehab center.

Color me happy.

Fantastic news! Thank you for sharing