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bolverk

Certifiably Surly
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Posts posted by bolverk

  1. 8 minutes ago, Captainant said:

    So far, their playbook has been to lie and hide behind their toadies in the house and senate to block and tackle for him with disinformation and bad-faith arguments. CV-19 don't give a shit about truth or lies or politics. It's gonna infect us all, while trump is worried about how it'll affect his poll numbers and the economy, as well as his hotel properties.

     

  2. One mildly comforting thought is the hit this virus will have on all of Trump's hotel properties, which makes me wonder if that was part of his decision-making in downplaying the threat in the first place.

    • Like 1
  3. 5 minutes ago, Goredho said:

    Yep, something like that is what I was thinking.  I am not going to doxx her here, but I agree that she can’t be allowed to maintain her willful ignorance and remain in the position of responsibility she is in.

    One of our mutual friends works for Texas Monthly.  This friend has told me the facility she directs and that they are going to lunch tomorrow.  Depending on how that goes you may hear something about this in the local news.  The parent company is being notified regardless.

    You're performing a real public service with this decision.

  4. 32 minutes ago, Goredho said:

    Yep, I’ve been thinking about that.  I don’t remember the name of the facility, but I’ll ask around.  We have some mutual friends that are also shocked by her attitude.  She’s taken down the whole post now, after others besides me started questioning her “professional opinion.”

    Once you find out the name of the facility, I'd recommend getting in touch with their corporate parent so that they can be notified that one of their employees is a real liability to their business.

    • Like 1
  5. 21 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

    So wait, CDC not only dropped testing numbers off the main US page, on the testing page, they are not testing at all?

    https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/testing-in-us.html

    Again, that's what it sounded like from the interview with the KUT reporter I listened to on the way home this evening. Not to fuck up the quote, but the reporter said something along the lines of "the CDC is getting out of the way and is going to let the states lead the way." She was reporting on the committee hearing from the Texas Capitol that was held today.

    Edit: She reported that the state was no longer sending samples to the CDC and that we were now going to do all the tests on our own, which Texas currently has the capacity of performing 100 per day though "we're ramping up."

  6. I definitely caught a nasty cold about three weeks ago and, as they are wont to do, it went straight to my chest. Fortunately, I finally quit smoking for good last year (sorry, the Mickey Mouse ashtray has been forever retired).

    I don't think it was Covid as I was feeling better after only a couple days, but it's hard to discern illness from fucking allergies anytime between Xmas and April nowadays with the constant sneezing, coughing, chest congestion, and just overall miserable feeling this time of year.

  7. 11 minutes ago, Skipper said:

    Thanks.  Government Bureaucracy at its finest. Disgusting read.

    It's almost as if we should have some sort of specialized pandemic response team, headed by someone seated on the National Security Council, who would be able to cut through that bureaucratic red tape so that we'd be able act with some urgency to such crises when needed. I guess no one could've foreseen the need though, which is a shame.

    • Like 6
  8. This primary has been largely about a choice between Restoration (Biden), Reformation (Warren), and Revolution (Bernie). Democrats appear to have chosen the first option (albeit a little more progressive than what might yet be restored).

    Thanks, Bernie.

  9. 20 minutes ago, Deej said:

    Does C3 step in and buy the SXSW name for pennies on the dollar?

     

    17 minutes ago, ChiTownDoc said:

    That's probably spot on.  They'll manage to make it even more corporate.  #winning

    Had lunch at the Texas Chili Parlor today, across the street from the brand spanking new SXSW building, and was making small talk with the manager while sitting at the bar. He told me he'd just heard SXSW laid off 50 of their staff yesterday (1/3 of their workforce).

  10. Just now, gmr548 said:


     

     


    ... why?

     

    They didn't say (in the interview), but my presumption was that they're trying to decentralize testing to get faster results, which would make some sense. Still, it seems we're being spread really thin in capacity at a critical time. That 100 per day in Texas ain't going to cut it by this time next week, I fear, unless they can add a zero or two to that 100 in the next few days.

  11. Just heard on KUT, Texas isn't sending samples to the CDC in Atlanta anymore,  and we currently have the capacity to test a grand total of 100 patients per day in this state. They said we're ramping up, but that seems exceedingly low for a state of about roughly 30 million souls.

  12. Just heard an interview with this reporter on the radio. She said state health officials at this meeting implied that the CDC is getting out of the way and that the states are being left to handle this on their own. I think she also said Texas is no longer sending samples to the CEC in Atlanta for testing.

    While we're ramping up, our capacity seems rather low compared what assuredly will be needed.

    Also, apparently, there's a new case in Montgomery County -- a man in his 40s.

    'Texas Must Show The World How This Is Done,' Official Says About Containing Spread Of Coronavirus

    https://www.kut.org/post/texas-must-show-world-how-done-official-says-about-containing-spread-coronavirus

    It’s mostly up to Texans right now to prevent widespread transmission of the coronavirus, the commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services told lawmakers Tuesday.

    “Texas must fight back,” Dr. John Hellerstedt said during a meeting at the state Capitol. “[This] is a challenge everyone must take seriously. Texas must show the world how this is done.”

    When asked how prepared the state is for the potential spread of the virus, Hellerdstedt said the preparedness “that really matters” is what people can do to prevent transmission in their own communities. For example, he said, people should wash their hands, cover their coughs with their arm and stay home when they are sick.

    “If we take steps to protect ourselves, our loved ones, our neighbors and our co-workers, we will all benefit,” he said. “This plan will work if we just do it.”

    State Rep. Senfronia Thompson, the chair of the House’s public health committee, asked Hellerstedt about the state’s capabilities in testing for the virus, which has been a growing concern nationwide.

    Hellerstedt said his agency, the lead state agency in the matter, is “ramping up” the state’s capacity to do laboratory testing.

    He said there are already several public health labs connected to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “up and running” in Austin, El Paso, Lubbock, Dallas and Houston.

    “They are capable of performing the tests,” he said.

    Hellerstedt said the state can process about 100 tests a day at this point. The lab in Austin alone can currently process about “10 to 20” people a day. He said private labs have also started being able to test for the virus.

    When asked if he thought Texas currently has adequate testing available to deal with the potential spread, he said "yes, I do."

    Hellerstedt said the health agency is holding daily calls with state health officials and is also frequently in communication with federal agencies like the CDC.

    In terms of when certain large gatherings or schools would be closed to try to stop the spread of the virus, Hellerstedt said there'd still be local control – meaning, local health officials would make all the key decisions on what to close and when.

    Nim Kidd, chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, said he also believes the state is ready to meet this challenge.

    He said the method it will respond with “is not new” – it is the same protocols for natural disasters and terrorist attacks.

  13. 14 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

    Sorry, I keep seeing the "Italy is out of hospital beds" and "they're picking who to treat and who will die in Italy" stuff coming up. Is this based on the tweets from the one guy last night? Or are there articles or stories somewhere else? If so, can someone link those? It would be helpful to anchor this position in something better than a random "friend of friend" Tweetstorm from yesterday. 

    Similarly, for people referencing that Kirkland, WA is out of hospital beds and overwhelmed, are there articles you can point to that highlight this? 

    It feels like there's a lot of shit being said on tv or somewhere else that isn't making it to this thread, based on the matter of fact way in which some of you guys are referencing these things, which is usually not the case on the live-update Daily Texan threads of crisis. 

    Obviously, none of us is in the position to verify the triage tweet from last night, but here is a story pointing out that Lombardy was indeed running out of beds as of yesterday.

    Some snippets:

    Quote

     

    Hospitals in the locked-down Italian region of Lombardy are beginning to run out of beds as the country recorded its highest day-on-day rise in deaths from coronavirus.

    Twenty days into its outbreak, Italy is grappling to contain the spread of the virus and find space and beds in intensive care units, which are dwindling day by day. To manage the emergency, the sick are being placed in operating rooms or in hospital corridors.

    “I am very concerned,” said Prof Massimo Galli, the director of infectious diseases at Sacco hospital in Milan. “The pressure on hospitals in Lombardy these days is enormous. I am very, very worried about the impact the virus will have on our health system.”

     

    Quote

     

    There are about 500 available beds for intensive care in Lombardy’s public health sphere, with another 160 in private care facilities. Despite a massive effort to locate additional space there are still not enough.

    The emergency commissioner and civil protection chief, Angelo Borrelli, announced that 13 patients had been transferred or were on the way to neighbouring regions for their care.

    Negative-pressure isolation rooms, designed to contain airborne contaminants, are needed to treat coronavirus properly, to protect doctors and medical technicians from contracting the virus from the patients in their care.

    “Just a small portion of the patients affected by Covid-19 in Lombardy are hospitalised in negative pressure rooms,” said Galli. “The majority is not, and this is a dangerous problem because it can lead to transmission to other patients and medical staff throughout an entire hospital.”

    Authorities in Lombardy are attempting to free up beds as quickly as possible. According to new guidelines, if a patient infected with Covid-19 has been without a fever for three days and appears to be getting better, then he or she will be released from intensive care and placed in a dedicated rehabilitative pulmonary ward for coronavirus patients.

    “Beds in intensive care units and in hospitals in general must be freed quickly to make room for more patients,” the health minister for the Lombardy region, Angelo Garra, told the Corriere della Sera.

     

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/09/italian-hospitals-short-beds-coronavirus-death-toll-jumps

    They've since add 150+ cases in the last 24 hours.

    • Like 2
  14. 26 minutes ago, hopkinsnhorns said:

    I can't imagine the legal battle that would ensue if our government tried to prevent US citizens from returning to USA, pandemic or not.

    If we did something like that, I'd bet we'd follow Israel's lead in how they're handling it.

    Quote

     

    Israel says anyone entering the country must self-quarantine for 14 days
    From CNN’s Oren Liebermann

    Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that anyone entering the country from abroad  —Israeli citizens and foreign nationals alike — must self-quarantine for 14 days. 

    Those foreign nationals who are unable to demonstrate to Israeli border authorities that they will be able to self-quarantine for two weeks will not be allowed to enter the country.

    “This is a difficult decision, but it is necessary to protect public health — and the public health comes before everything,” Netanyahu said in a video statement on Monday. 
    “This decision will be in effect for two weeks; at the same time, we are making decisions in order to protect the economy of Israel,” he added. 

     

     

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