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CR: COVID-19 --Political Talk


Mrs Whiggins

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Dude. The russians had like 2 million casualties in the Battle of Stalingrad. Many of them fighting without even weapons. Why should you bitch about having to go to work with just a little ole’ Coronavirus? You should be willing to lay down your life for the sacrifice of the American economy and should be protesting your right to go back to work!! 

I demand to have the right to go back to work to reopen the American economy and reignite the American stock market! 

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Just now, David Dennison said:

2,000 Americans are dying every day from COVID 19 and the president of the United States is playing politics because he's scared of being a one termer.

And people on this site continue to defend his sorry ass.

"But we've been in lockdown for over a month." Well, maybe someone in the federal government should have resolved these fucking problems over the past month.

Seriously, there has been more than enough time for the Feds to come up with a practical phase II plan by now. This shit is absurd.

 

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First of all, as I’ve said maybe half a dozen times on this board, any opening is going to be phased as this one is. 
 
Secondly, let’s do some math people. I’m gonna walk you through it slowly. And I would question these numbers for sure but let’s go.  
 
San Antonio population, I’ll round up, 2 million people. The most aggressive estimates would say half those people could catch it in a big wave. 1 million people. Let’s say 1 percent mortality. 10,000 people dead. Again, I’d bet my left nut it wouldn’t come close, but still. 
 
THE NPR ARTICLE I LINKED SAID THE FOOD BANK SERVICED 60,000 EXTRA PEOPLE THIS WEEK. WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FUCK
 
I’m guessing some of those could be repeat customers, but again explain to me how there’s no room for a middle ground?!?! How we need to be locked down for another month. You are all out of your goddamned minds. Use your brains. Please. I’m just one fucking stupid poster coming here and saying hey we should open up slowly and y’all act like it’s the dumbest idea imaginable. Tell me how my numbers are wrong? I’ll hang up and listen. Ridiculous.
 
This board is beyond saving on this topic. Your hatred of Trump has blinded you like a bunch of lemmings. He has done nothing special handling this virus, but it doesn’t mean he and Abbott and others of their ilk are wrong to look at slowly transitioning back to whatever the new normal will be.
Get it together. 

Are you pro-life?
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45 minutes ago, burntorangebongos said:

Going earlier or finding this middle ground at the risk of our collective health doesn't guaranty that we will recover more quickly economically. It may alter our behavior going forward for a long time or at least until a vaccine is found. Don't believe me? Check out this article, are we going to act any differently? So grouse all you want about everyone having their heads up their asses, it won't make a difference. Shit has changed and no amount of pent up need to shop or party is going to override prudence until a vaccine is provided. 

 

I think you vastly overestimate the intelligence of our country.

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1 hour ago, cactusflinthead said:

How many dead bodies you want?

What multiple of the number of dead do you want to use the food bank? Because right now in San Antonio if you count 60,000 new people in line it’s 1621x.

1 hour ago, TexArcher said:

Using your own math...

U.S. population is 328 million, half of that is 164 million, 1% of that is 1.64 million human beings.

There will be a time to talk about going back to work and a balancing act of how to limit the damage for the most people.  It will be an uncomfortable calculus, especially with a narcissistic, money-obsessed sociopath at the helm.

But we are not to that time yet.

We’re talking Texas, numbnuts. Last I checked Trump didn’t decide if our schools were or if people here were going to be allowed to work.

1 hour ago, F250 said:

Asking for an actual plan absent a vaccine is middle ground. A plan includes specific details with objectives and metrics not vague guidelines.

Just opening up and seeing if people catch it is not a plan.

 

 

I respect that you have an actual rebuttal, but I disagree that what you say is a middle ground. I want better testing now too, but waiting another month or whatever doesn’t make sense with the numbers we’re dealing with here. Testing will keep increasing as we slowly open things up. As it does, utilize it more and more for tracking and decision making. While this is happening people will continue naturally distancing more than before, masks will be worn, and yes it is likely to be less transmissible in warmer weather. 

 

Edited by GRHorn
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3 minutes ago, GRHorn said:

What multiple of the number of dead do you want to use the food bank? Because right now in San Antonio if you count 60,000 new people in line it’s 1621x.

We’re talking Texas, numbnuts. Last I checked Trump didn’t decide if our schools were or if people here were going to be allowed to work.

I respect that you have an actual rebuttal, but I disagree that what you say is a middle ground. I want better testing now too, but waiting another month or whatever doesn’t make sense with the numbers we’re dealing with here. Testing will keep increasing as we slowly open things up. As it does, utilize it more and more for tracking and decision making. While this is happening people will continue naturally distancing more than before, masks will be worn, and yes it is likely to be less transmissible in warmer weather. 

 

You really believe this will happen which is hilarious. 

Edited by Wanker Bob
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10 hours ago, DigDug said:

Hell yes, every governor in this country needs to stop walking on egg shells and keep smacking that fat sack of shit with facts.  Quit letting his everyday lies go unchecked.

I think they will have a breaking point 

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9 hours ago, FondrenRoad said:

About as well as any of the rest of this shitshow is going.  My point is that you can't see if shelter in place works better than free roaming cattle because the cattle always wander into the quarantine zone.  Much like the Minnesota protestors left their small towns to go to St Paul and catch or spread the virus.  So they go back to their towns of Frozen Hellscape and Backdoor, MN, and infect half the town, and they also get a couple of St Paul PD officers infected who spread it to their families.  Neither the shelter in place nor the "do whatever you want" plan are effective.  Only way to get any type of control of the study is to fence those cattle out of shelter in place areas.

So what’s the problem then?

see it we win win for everyone 

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Maybe my brain is broken, but you can’t discuss this topic without discussing Trump and his failures to implement any plan. Politics is inextricably intertwined to this thing. 
 

Edit: the DT thread makes me want to run my car in the garage with the door down

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9 minutes ago, Pig Bellmont said:

Maybe my brain is broken, but you can’t discuss this topic without discussing Trump and his failures to implement any plan. Politics is inextricably intertwined to this thing. 
 

Edit: the DT thread makes me want to run my car in the garage with the door down

narrator: pig belmont's brain was not actually broken

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How to people go back to work if daycares and schools aren’t open?

It’s a pretty basic question. Phase 1 still has them closed and not everyone can telework.

I mean... just take them to the movie theaters or the gym and drop them off for the day?

This shit is whack.

These guidelines are so slapdickedly put together it’s almost laughable if, you know, it wasn’t life and death.

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6 hours ago, Pig Bellmont said:

Maybe my brain is broken, but you can’t discuss this topic without discussing Trump and his failures to implement any plan. Politics is inextricably intertwined to this thing. 
 

Edit: the DT thread makes me want to run my car in the garage with the door down

This is true because that orange shitbag  POLITIZED the response to a public health crisis. The political response is more important than creating and implementing a  plan that will save lives to him. That is too hard and costly.  Testing and continuing some social distancing measures  costs too much for the billionaires who influence him to agree to so we have to go rawdog with COVID. I know other crises became politized but every president before would work on the problem first, even if they bungled it, they focused on the next steps and let the chips fall where they may. We are not seeing that here. The priority is the political strategy to get a narrative in place and hammer it and focus on that over creating and implementing policy so he can win re-election. So he can appease his craven billionaire buddies who don't care about the poor or essential workers just as long as they keep getting theirs and not get us used to the government helping everyone out.  

Instead of the fine men and women of his own party calling this unconscionable and screaming to get him to help their people, they aren't saying anything except for a couple of governors. I would hope they are trying or have tried to have him change course behind closed doors,  but there is a time to go public with their criticisms and that is now.

The DT folks are right that the focus should be on plans and policy and that is what they want to discuss but this shitbag flipped the playbook and isn't putting that first. That is what they aren't acknowledging. Part of the plan for adults with hearts and concerns for their people is to call it out.

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1 hour ago, Chult86 said:

Will it? We seem to have a fairly linear trend line for testing since about 03.31. If you want to see something really awful in retrospect, look at the amount of daily tests we had during the during the third week of March when the shit began to really hit the fan. Yes, we slowly ramped up testing, but in the last 2.5 weeks we've basically said "this is a fine number of daily tests, no need to get crazy and start testing more people." Until we have a way to reliably and quickly test individuals, there's just no way to go back to normal. People in Wuhan aren't going out to eat even though they've been "re-opened", and I highly doubt that any conference outside of the SEC would be able to fill the stands of any CFB stadium.  Source Data

 

Anyone that thinks "well if the worst case scenario is only 1-2% mortality then that's ok we should reopen everything" obviously hasn't had this crises hit close to home for them. My wife and I are both extremely fortunate that we have both remained employed (even promoted!) during this, and along with our son, have been healthy. You know what? This is STILL HARD. There's no daycare, there's no schools. Work is stressful as hell, laying people off that have kids is one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. My wife works from home three days a week while watching our son (6mo) and when I get home I take him for the rest of the evening as much as I can since she's been with him all day trying to work. And again, we are fortunate compared to most. However, we are not sitting there thinking that "Gosh, if people would just be ok with some people dying that would have died someday anyways." 

 

But maybe this is where GRHorn and I (and many others on this site) see things differently. I'm understanding of the need to make personal sacrifices right now, because even if it's not my Grandparents/Parents getting sick, the people that are getting sick are someone's Parents/Siblings/Friends/Spouses/etc/etc/etc. The 37,000!!! people that we have lost in this country were all important to someone. Just because they are a number in a column on a spreadsheet to some people doesn't make their pain and suffering any less tragic.

 

My hope is that as a country, and as a people of the world, we learn from this and forge ahead with new plans and ideas to ensure that something like this doesn't happen again. With all the modern medical marvels at our disposal, and for as much money as we collectively waste, there is no reason that any first-world country should have a COVID-19 graph that looks any different from South Korea's. It would be nice to live somewhere where logic, science and reason are the driving forces behind political decisions, not religion.

 

While the strip below isn't entirely about the matter at hand, it always made me laugh.

spacer.png

For the 57th time, I'm talking about Texas. 37,000 dead in the country is bad and where there's hundreds a day dying, of course they should still have restrictions. But it makes no sense in a country as big as ours, with such diverse conditions on the ground, to have us all living under the same conditions during COVID. There's zero reason for us to live under the same level of restrictions for as long as New York.

One of the very few positive things about this pandemic is I think (hope) it will shift people's focus more to local and state government, localism.

7 hours ago, Bama Chick said:

I see my simple question wasn’t answered.

[mention]GRHorn [/mention] are you pro-life?

I didn't answer because it was the kind of nonsense diversion that someone brings up when they have nothing else to offer. 

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1 hour ago, burntorangebongos said:

This is true because that orange shitbag  POLITIZED the response to a public health crisis. The political response is more important than creating and implementing a  plan that will save lives to him. That is too hard and costly.  Testing and continuing some social distancing measures  costs too much for the billionaires who influence him to agree to so we have to go rawdog with COVID. I know other crises became politized but every president before would work on the problem first, even if they bungled it, they focused on the next steps and let the chips fall where they may. We are not seeing that here. The priority is the political strategy to get a narrative in place and hammer it and focus on that over creating and implementing policy so he can win re-election. So he can appease his craven billionaire buddies who don't care about the poor or essential workers just as long as they keep getting theirs and not get us used to the government helping everyone out.  

Instead of the fine men and women of his own party calling this unconscionable and screaming to get him to help their people, they aren't saying anything except for a couple of governors. I would hope they are trying or have tried to have him change course behind closed doors,  but there is a time to go public with their criticisms and that is now.

The DT folks are right that the focus should be on plans and policy and that is what they want to discuss but this shitbag flipped the playbook and isn't putting that first. That is what they aren't acknowledging. Part of the plan for adults with hearts and concerns for their people is to call it out.

This is exactly right. There is no plan. Only press conferences and guidelines. But don’t dare discuss that on the fucking current events board...

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8 minutes ago, Message Board User said:

And no surprise that the Trump MAGAts are being manipulated by big money.

 

What pisses me off most about this is its exactly what they accuse REAL protests of being - “Soros is supporting them and paying protesters”. *These* protests are illegitimate bullshit propped up by billionaires and yet the press is giving them a narrative 

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On 4/16/2020 at 3:46 PM, Born to Run said:

Exactly. And they don't have enough hair dryers either. If you just blast yourself in the face with warm air the virus can't grow. Once summer hits we will all be safe.

- idiots who reject all science and then are suddenly scientific experts spouting nonsense that will kill people.

 

On 4/16/2020 at 4:09 PM, kevwun said:

New Orleans and Atlanta are glad that the virus doesn't like warmer temps.  Oh wait.

 

On 4/16/2020 at 4:33 PM, Dahobbs said:

What science supports that assertion? I've certainly seen discussions that it could become seasonal, which is distinct from the current outbreak "exhibit[ing] a seasonal pattern of behavior." It is possible the virus becomes something we have to live with long term. But, I don't see much of an indication that the current outbreak is going to be solved by summer. Maybe I've missed it. 

 

On 4/16/2020 at 4:43 PM, Dahobbs said:

But those aren't novel viruses. There are a variety of factors that potentially contribute to their lesser virulence in the summer. However, given that our population immunologically naive of sars-cov-2, those factors may not be enough to create any substantive reduction in the spread of the virus. And, so far, I'm not aware of any evidence that this particular outbreak will be reduced because of summer. 

 

On 4/16/2020 at 5:11 PM, Wanker Bob said:

Seasonal virus, slow down in summer for 1 main reason

Changing behavioral patterns. 

In summer there is no school so the main distribution method of cold and flu viruses is gone. People also tend to spend more time outdoors and less time couped up together indoors. 

There's only a very slight lessening of spread due to outdoor surfaces heating up enough to limit the virus viability on them much quicker. Otherwise it's mostly about not sending little snot factories to congregate with each other 8 hours a day. 

Well, well, well

https://www.yahoo.com/news/sunlight-destroys-coronavirus-very-quickly-new-government-tests-find-but-experts-say-pandemic-could-still-last-through-summer-200745675.html

Spoiler

Preliminary results from government lab experiments show that the coronavirus does not survive long in high temperatures and high humidity, and is quickly destroyed by sunlight, providing evidence from controlled tests of what scientists believed — but had not yet proved — to be true.

A briefing on the preliminary results, marked for official use only and obtained by Yahoo News, offers hope that summertime may offer conditions less hospitable for the virus, though experts caution it will by no means eliminate, or even necessarily decrease, new cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. The results, however, do add an important piece of knowledge that the White House’s science advisers have been seeking as they scramble to respond to the spreading pandemic. 

The study found that the risk of “transmission from surfaces outdoors is lower during daylight” and under higher temperature and humidity conditions. “Sunlight destroys the virus quickly,” reads the briefing.

While that may provide some good news about the outlook for outdoor activities, the Department of Homeland Security briefing on the results cautions that enclosed areas with low humidity, such as airplane cabins, “may require additional care to minimize risk of transmission.”

In a statement to Yahoo News, the DHS declined to answer questions about the findings and strongly cautioned against drawing any conclusions based on unpublished data.

Photo illustration; Yahoo News; photos: Getty Images
Photo illustration; Yahoo News; photos: Getty Images

“The department is dedicated to the fight against COVID-19, and the health and safety of the American people is its top priority. As policy, the department does not comment on allegedly leaked documents,” the DHS said in a statement. “It would be irresponsible to speculate, draw conclusions, or to inadvertently try to influence the public based upon a document that has not yet been peer-reviewed or subjected to the rigorous scientific validation approach.”

The results are contained in a briefing by the DHS science and technology directorate, which describes experiments conducted by the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center, a lab created after the 9/11 terrorist attacks to address biological threats.

While the DHS describes the results as preliminary, they may eventually make their way into specific recommendations. “Outdoor daytime environments are lower risk for transmission,” the briefing states.

Simulated sunlight “rapidly killed the virus in aerosols,” the briefing says, while without that treatment, “no significant loss of virus was detected in 60 minutes.”

The tests were performed on viral particles suspended in saliva. They were done indoors in environments meant to mimic various weather conditions.

While the results of these tests have not been previously made public, Harvey Fineberg, head of the National Academies Standing Committee on Emerging Infectious Diseases and 21st Century Health Threats, broadly described plans to conduct the experiments in an April 7 letter to the White House.

In that letter, addressed to President Trump’s top science adviser Kelvin Droegemeier, Fineberg wrote that the DHS lab “is well suited for the kinds of studies they have planned, and the scope and relevance are noteworthy. In particular, they plan to create simulated infected body fluids, including saliva and lower respiratory secretions.”

Droegemeier’s office did not respond to a request for comment on whether it has received the latest results from the DHS. The National Academies also did not respond to a request for comment.

While the lab results are new, scientists for many weeks have predicted, based on available data on the disease’s spread, that warmer, wetter climates would be less hospitable to the spread of the coronavirus. An early analysis by scientists observed that the virus was spreading more slowly in countries with warmer climates. 

“We are not saying that at higher temperatures, the virus will suddenly go away and everything would be fine and you are going out,” Qasim Bukhari, a computational scientist at MIT and a co-author of the analysis, told Yahoo News in an interview. “No, we are not saying it. We are just seeing that there is a temperature- and humidity-related dependency, but I think many people now have started to realize this.”

Bukhari said that since he and his colleagues published that analysis, the numbers on the coronavirus’s spread continue to support their contention. “They are doing a lot of tests now in India. Also, when you look at the numbers in Pakistan it’s the same. There are more than 5,000 cases in Pakistan right now,” he said. “But the increase is not as rapid as you see in other countries.”

 
 

The question of the effects of sunlight and heat on the coronavirus has been particularly fraught, because there has been a tendency to misinterpret the relationship between good weather and disease spread. Early on, some politicians tried to encourage people to go outside, including to beaches, arguing that sunlight would kill the virus. The problem, however, is that without widespread immunity, people can still transmit the coronavirus to others, even in warm weather.

The real question now, Bukhari said, is whether enough people have already been infected that the summer temperatures won’t prevent continued transmission. 

“So let’s say 50 percent of the population is already infected, and then those temperatures arrive and then those humidity levels arrive, then what difference can those temperatures and humidity levels be? Probably none. That’s the thing.”

While the new lab results are important, the science behind how sunlight kills the virus is fairly well established, says Arthur Anderson, former director of the Office of Human Use and Ethics at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md.

“[Ultraviolet] light breaks DNA into fragments. If the virus is floating around in the air and there’s bright sunlight, the UV component in sunlight will break the DNA or the RNA into pieces,” he told Yahoo News.

Infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has become the leading face of the White House response, has provided cautious statements about what the summer months might mean for the coronavirus, saying recently, “It’s almost certainly going to go down a bit.” He has stopped far short, however, of saying that good weather alone would have an impact.

 

“Does this give a little more hope about the virus potentially decreasing?” said Dr. Kavita Patel, a Yahoo medical contributor and nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution. “Yes. I would say even Dr. Fauci has alluded to that.”

Colds and flus don’t disappear in the summer, even if they are less common, Patel noted. “We do have cases of the flu in the summer,” she said. “That’s why all of us in medicine are being a little more guarded.”

The lab’s work was done in a controlled environment, according to the DHS briefing, and tested how long the coronavirus survives on stainless steel in a droplet of saliva from a cough or sneeze under conditions related to temperature, humidity and sunlight. The lab is now doing additional testing, such as experimenting with low-tech techniques for sterilization of protective equipment, which would include using rice cookers, clothes steamers and electric pressure cookers. 

The National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center, which conducted the experiments, has traditionally kept a low profile because of its classified work on biological warfare defense and bioterrorism. Fineberg, in his letter to the White House, did not go into detail on the planned experiments, noting that the lab shares its findings with the interagency task force on the coronavirus. 

It is unclear for now whether the center intends to publish in a peer-reviewed journal or choose some other route for making its results known. Patel said she could understand government concerns about releasing preliminary results, but in general she leans toward openness.

“As a clinical doctor, we want to learn as fast as possible anything that works clinically. You want to be able in the first line to say: This is preliminary, with caveats. But why hold back the information?” she said.

It may be that the government wants to control how the message is released, she suggested. “I would say in a global pandemic, that’s less of a priority.”

 

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On 4/16/2020 at 4:36 PM, trauma babe said:

@GRHorn is a doctor? My man, want to come in for a shift or two? Non-ICU trained docs are being retained as ICU nurses to help with staffing. You'll get your own PPE, such as it is (but you better not bring an N95 from home—that's not allowed).

You fucking idiot. Texas hasn't even peaked yet.

Little did Trauma Babe know, it had peaked the day before...

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10 hours ago, GRHorn said:

 

First of all, as I’ve said maybe half a dozen times on this board, any opening is going to be phased as this one is. 
 

Secondly, let’s do some math people. I’m gonna walk you through it slowly. And I would question these numbers for sure but let’s go.  
 

San Antonio population, I’ll round up, 2 million people. The most aggressive estimates would say half those people could catch it in a big wave. 1 million people. Let’s say 1 percent mortality. 10,000 people dead. Again, I’d bet my left nut it wouldn’t come close, but still. 
 

THE NPR ARTICLE I LINKED SAID THE FOOD BANK SERVICED 60,000 EXTRA PEOPLE THIS WEEK. WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FUCK
 

I’m guessing some of those could be repeat customers, but again explain to me how there’s no room for a middle ground?!?! How we need to be locked down for another month. You are all out of your goddamned minds. Use your brains. Please. I’m just one fucking stupid poster coming here and saying hey we should open up slowly and y’all act like it’s the dumbest idea imaginable. Tell me how my numbers are wrong? I’ll hang up and listen. Ridiculous.
 

This board is beyond saving on this topic. Your hatred of Trump has blinded you like a bunch of lemmings. He has done nothing special handling this virus, but it doesn’t mean he and Abbott and others of their ilk are wrong to look at slowly transitioning back to whatever the new normal will be.

Get it together. 

Phased how?

How can you rationally phase without testing?

Open restaurants like in Wuhan where nobody goes?

Send the population back to work in places where social distancing is impossible to maintain? And people are constantly touching things?  Give them so much of that PPE we've got?

Open craft stores?  WTF?

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