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CR: COVID-19 --Political Talk


Mrs Whiggins

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33 minutes ago, DixonHur said:

Go back and look at the posts...I was one of the ones throwing a shitfit.  

And that's why I'm no longer a member of the GOP.  

I'm against corporate welfare, and farm subsidies.  

 

Note: I am for Universal HC and free education because I think they're both net positives for the economy...not sure about basic income yet.  Still trying to learn more about how it would work in practice.

Kudos on you for seeing the economic positives of Universal HC. It's also a general quality of life positive. For the same reasons I've always compared it to basic education. I support UBI, but only if paired with universal HC and some other basic safety nets, like free substance abuse and mental health treatment. I suspect most of the people who would waste the UBI would do so for one or both of those reasons. Some would just be irresponsible assholes, but that's part of living in a society with lots of people. At least the kids of those assholes will still have access to healthcare and other basic benefits. 

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2 minutes ago, 'stache said:

Kudos on you for seeing the economic positives of Universal HC. It's also a general quality of life positive. For the same reasons I've always compared it to basic education. I support UBI, but only if paired with universal HC and some other basic safety nets, like free substance abuse and mental health treatment. I suspect most of the people who would waste the UBI would do so for one or both of those reasons. Some would just be irresponsible assholes, but that's part of living in a society with lots of people. At least the kids of those assholes will still have access to healthcare and other basic benefits. 

I'm on board with all that...with the previous caveat applied to UBI.  

Trickle up is the only way forward.

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Update on my HS friend who is a Trumpkin, a director of an elder care facility in ATX and who was downplaying the outbreak.  I sent an email to her CEO, he responded with a thank you, and she changed her tune in less than 24 hours.  No more Fox news hoax, media-inspired panic, etc...  Just links to solid scientific and medical journals with the occasional post outlining what additional steps they were taking at their facility to deal with the threat that all seemed reasonable to me.

Today she posted this on FB.  I've reached out to her directly, but have received no response.  I don't know how much of a crisis she may be in at the moment.

help.png
 

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Jesus, that ending was just so Trump. Have an Alex Jonesesque reporter in there to ask the dumbest question ever and then rant for 10 min about how you should only trust him and not the press. 

I hope he gets corona and dies a painful fucking death, very soon. What a piece of shit. 

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3 minutes ago, SmokeyTheBear said:

"do you consider the term Chinese food racist? Because the extreme left is taking Chinese communist propaganda and saying you are racist." 

@Pokoloco This is the type of shit that precludes him from obtaining the ordinary "leader in a time of crisis" bump from the electorate. Only his base cultists think it's presidential to shit on the press and liberals and to blame others at every corner. He blatantly fucking lied about the threat then lied about how serious he took it, and now is pulling this shit. He is not a leader. As much as I hated George W, he acted presidential after 9/11 even as I disagreed with his war decisions.

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3 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

LuLz @ at liberal media working with Latin gangs and cartels bwhahahahshahhahs

this country is reaching a point where trumpers need to locked up, for their own good 

Judging by the observable preexisting conditions that the vast majority of his rally-goers have, I'm guessing that Corona might take care of a decent check of Trump's base. 

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"Mr. President, you've been doing such a great job handling this crisis.  Shown such leadership.  Why don't you head down to SE Florida and get some fresh air and play some golf."

"You think I should, really?  Right now?  I mean, I guess this is the longest I've gone in office without playing.  But isn't there a lot of lack of social distancing down there, right now?"

"Nah, Mr. President.  That's a hoax, it's fake news.  Your resorts and the surrounding areas are perfectly fine."

 

In all seriousness, he is due for a trip to Mar-a-Lago.  Why not send him now with all those dumbass spring breakers down there?  

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4 hours ago, Hiphopopotamos said:

 

I don't want this to get lost in the press conference discussion. 

Couldn't this be insider trading? 

I wonder if the whole Trump denial of the pandemic was to give the big money boys a head start on getting ready for the economic consequences. Who does the GOP serve if not the very rich? How valuable would inside information be on this coming disaster?

Wow, I found a way to hate these guys even worse. So what if a few hundred thousand people die because of lack of response. Our rich friends got their money right!

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Don't let Trump set the narrative.. The Press will lap it up and wait for the next "red herring" from the President - because meaningless gossip sells. Keep it on the issues. Don't fall for the "Chinese Virus" controversy. It makes no difference in the battle. Notice what the Presidnt does when he is asked concrete issues. He waffles, provides meaningless platitudes, makes inappropriate comments to generate outrage, and dodges the concrete issue under question.

We need concrete progress on a wide range of issues.  Deaths from the Coronavirus are ghastly when there is adequate capacity. When those deaths occur without adequate treatment due to shortages, they will be horrifying .

Ask anyone who lost a loved one to Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. 

We need to start preparing to treat health care workers for PTSD. It is one thing to read about it in a textbook; it is quite another to see those deaths in real life. 

 

 

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2 hours ago, Bama Chick said:


Yep - used to be GRID, “gay related immune deficiency”.

Now it's going to be "gRay related immune defiency"

2 hours ago, Bookman said:

The National Guard and Army Corps are idle because this administration has no idea what to do. Unlike all his other jams, Trump can't lie his way out of this one (despite trying to), take control of the narrative, or file for bankruptcy.

He put Pence in charge for fuck's sake.

Nor can stall COVID19 in the courts, his usual go to.

2 hours ago, Stilicho said:

Exactly.  Fuck means testing.  Get the money in people's hands now.  If you don't need it, whether due to paid sick leave or personal savings or whatever, give yours to someone who does (like your local supermarket checkers).  This isn't difficult.

If more Americans were wired like this situation wouldn't be as grave.  But no, we have way too many "Fuck you, I got mine" running around.

37 minutes ago, RomaVicta said:

NauticalDentalLacewing-size_restricted.g

No way Trump has the balls or honor to go down with the ship.  That's what Pence is for.  On the other hand, he might drown due to the inept tardy response.   

What's really amazing through all this, intensified by this CV19 response is how ONE person can be such as completely controlling asshole, and no one stops him.  But then we have had more in history (Hitler, Stalin, etc.).   Just seems positive leaders (ghandi, mandella)  that push humanity  in the right direction are so outnumbered by the anti-heroes.    Basic human nature of fearfulness and greed, I guess.

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1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:

It's 100% clear that this is the new GOP talking point and strategy: distract from how poorly Trump has handled flying the damaged plane to demanding -- WHILE THE PLANE IS STILL IN THE AIR AND NEEDS TO BE LANDED SAFELY -- that we must investigate the geese who hit our engines.

Fuck them.  Fuck their narrative.  Nobody should engage it.  I don't give a fuck who or what started the goddamned fire -- what are you incompetent jackwagons doing to put it out?  Oh, blowing each other about how awesome you look in firefighting gear?  GTFO.  Remove these clowns from office.  Now.

Crossing posting my thoughts on this from the DT thread:

While China certainly didn't act perfectly with regard to the virus, saying another country "caused this entire situation" is over the top. The virus caused it, not the country. China didn't cause SARS2-Cov anymore than we caused H1N1. Their reaction to the growing situation wasn't perfect and resulted in more infections and spread. Our reaction to the situation was objectively worse because we had China and other countries telling us this shit was real and didn't listen. 

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The press needs to stop live covering these press conferences.  No news is actually imparted to the public.  It's just a bunch of fellating to trump by his cabinet and OAN.

Cover what's going on in communities and hospitals across the country, and what medical professionals and governors are saying.  This is just pure nonsense that helps no one.

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Last night a suburban city counselor posted a bunch of nonsense boasting pride in their vote to not issue a shutdown order for restaurants, etc. The mayor of Tulsa today called them out for it, including that people who get sick there will be using the resources at hospitals within the city. Bunch of fucking yokels. I seriously can't understand why they won't take this seriously.

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30 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

 

 

Holy shit - just got the video to come through with sufficient detail to confirm that OAN did, in fact, trot probably their only Asian reporter out there to ask that question.  "See - it ain't racist!  That was one of them thar O-reeee-ental types asking that question.  Caaaan't be racist now." 

I refuse to get sucked into the "racist or no" debate, but had to chuckle that their tactics are so fucking transparent.   

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4 minutes ago, lemonlime said:

The press needs to stop live covering these press conferences.  No news is actually imparted to the public.  It's just a bunch of fellating to trump by his cabinet and OAN.

Cover what's going on in communities and hospitals across the country, and what medical professionals and governors are saying.  This is just pure nonsense that helps no one.

this is what happens when you starve the press and have only one voice coming from the administration - trump's.  they've gone over a year without a white house press briefing - something that has been a daily (or more) occurrence for decades.  now that they have something going on that the public actually needs constant updates on, of course they're fucking it up.  they don't know any other way to do it. 

if we had a president with any type of leadership ability, it would actually comfort the country.  he/she would say a few inspiring words, then turn it over to the experts.  then there would be actual updates and news vetted and presented by experts, who would take questions, and then it would end.  you wouldn't have the president popping back on and off, and you wouldn't have off-the-cuff declarations that turn out to be almost fucking exclusively incorrect.

  

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From French Medscape as translated by UK Medscape - https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/927033 (paywall, but cached version may work for you):
 
Spoiler

 

  1. COVID-19: Could Hydroxychloroquine Really Be the Answer?
  2. Aude Lecrubier
  3.  
  4. March 18, 2020
  5.  
  6. Could the old generic malaria drug hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil, Sanofi-Aventis, among others), which is also used for the treatment of rheumatic disease, be an essential treatment for COVID-19?
  7.  
  8. This hypothesis, put forward by some, including Professor Didier Raoult of the IHU Méditerranée Infection in Marseille, was dismissed by other eminent infectious disease specialists and dismissed as fake news recently by the Ministry of Health.
  9.  
  10. Yet it resurfaced yesterday with the presentation on YouTube by Prof Raoult of positive results in a non-randomised, unblinded trial of 24 patients.
  11.  
  12. This follows encouraging in vitro results obtained by a Chinese team led by Xueting Yao, from Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, China, which were published online by the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases on March 9th. However, the data were deemed insufficient by the infection community to recommend the compound as a treatment.
  13.  
  14. Moreover, chloroquine is not listed among the four treatments studied as part of the recently launched European clinical trial piloted by Inserm, which includes 3200 severe hospitalised patients, including 800 French patients.
  15.  
  16. Chloroquine was ruled out due to the risk of interactions with other medications for common comorbidities in infected patients, and because of possible adverse effects in patients undergoing resuscitation.
  17.  
  18. The Marseille Study
  19. The European Union Clinical Trials Register shows that the Marseille study was accepted on 5th March by the National Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM). It could include up to 25 COVID-19 positive patients, comprising five aged 12–17 years, 10 aged 18–64 years, and 10 more aged 65 years or over.
  20.  
  21. While the data have not yet been published, and should therefore be interpreted with caution, this non-randomised, unblinded study showed a strong reduction in viral load with hydroxychloroquine.
  22.  
  23. After 6 days, the percentage of patients testing positive for COVID-19 who received hydroxychloroquine fell to 25% versus 90% for those who did not receive the treatment (a group of untreated COVID-19 patients from Nice and Avignon).
  24.  
  25. In addition, comparing untreated patients, those receiving hydroxychloroquine and those given hydroxychloroquine plus the antibiotic azithromycin, the results showed there was "a spectacular reduction in the number of positive cases" with the combination therapy, said Prof Raoult.
  26.  
  27. At 6 days, among patients given combination therapy, the percentage of cases still carrying SRAS-CoV-2 was no more than 5%.
  28.  
  29. Azithromycin was added because it is known to be effective against complications from bacterial lung disease but also because it has been shown to be effective in the laboratory against a large number of viruses, the infectious disease specialist explained.
  30.  
  31. "Everyone who died from COVID-19 were still carriers of coronavirus. To no longer have the virus changes the prognosis," Prof Raoult said.
  32.  
  33. More detailed results of the study have been submitted for publication in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents.
  34.  
  35. Study Splits Infectious Disease Community
  36. The announcement of positive results from this small study split medical opinion.
  37.  
  38. Professor Gilles Pialoux, an infectious disease specialist at Tenon Hospital, was cautious in his response. He told Medscape's French Edition: "The idea is interesting but we need large, randomised, controlled trials. We should not communicate this kind of information on YouTube, it is not meaningful.
  39.  
  40. "Don’t forget, this compound has not been included in Inserm’s trial because there are more interesting avenues, such as remdesivir or Kaletra [lopinavir/ritonavir]. We must be careful not to repeat the story with cyclosporin in HIV."
  41.  
  42. Christian Perronne, head of infectious diseases, University Hospital Raymond Poincaré, Garches, Paris, was more enthusiastic.
  43.  
  44. "I really believe in hydroxychloroquine. It is a drug I find rather fascinating, that has been used for decades. There have been positive results in an in vitro study and a preliminary Chinese study in 100 patients which showed that hydroxychloroquine reduced the viral load, the symptoms lasted for less time, and they are not as severe. This could reduce the number of carriers, which I find interesting from an epidemiological perspective.
  45.  
  46. "I think from an ethical point of view, we should suggest it to all patients with severe disease who are hospitalised, under surveillance and on short treatment, paying attention to drug interactions, especially with drugs that prolong the QT interval. Afterwards, in terms of adverse effects, at increased doses, it is possible that patients will have pain or fever, but it seems that the treatment is effective at lower doses, according to the Chinese data. In any case, the adverse effects of this compound are not dangerous."
  47.  
  48. On the adverse effects, Professor Thomas Papo, from Bichat Hospital, the University of Paris, confirmed via email: "Hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil, which is not chloroquine), vaunted by Didier Raoult as an anti-viral, has been used for decades in tens of thousands of patients, for several decades, so we have a huge follow-up and lots of data. This drug is remarkably well tolerated and we give it to all patients with lupus (for example), including in pregnant women. The main complication (retinal toxicity) is rare and does not last beyond 5 years of continuous use."
  49.  
  50. Hydroxychloroquine Tested in Other Hospitals
  51. At the end of Tuesday’s Council of Ministers, Sibeth Ndiaye, a government spokesperson, discussed the results published by Prof Raoult. "The clinical trial in Marseille is a promising start; we are extending it because science requires the experience to be validated and repeated several times to be able to say whether or not it works," she warned. Other tests will be carried out at Lille Hospital to confirm, or not, Prof Raoult’s results.
  52.  
  53. Chloroquine is currently being examined in a number of clinical studies in China and elsewhere, and some in France have also decided to suggest it following Prof Raoult’s findings.
  54.  
  55. This is the case for Dr Alexandre Bleibtreu, an internal medicine specialist at Pitié Salpêtrière Hospital, Paris, who was initially not persuaded by the in vitro data but has changed his opinion after having seen the results of the study carried out by Didier Raoult.
  56.  
  57. Contacted by CheckNews, the on-demand journalism service from Liberation, he explained that the compound was now used in almost all (approximately 50) hospitalised patients in their service, except those who refuse it or who have contraindications.
  58.  
  59. "I heard about the results, which changed my mind. We followed the Marseille protocol, and there are surely others who will use it. It is not the most obvious treatment; it works in vitro but we didn’t have data in vivo.
  60.  
  61. "The aim is not to be right but that our patients get better. No treatment is magic and the publication of the results raises questions but between doing nothing and repositioning drugs based on their adverse effects, interactions, etc, we try things as we go."
  62.  
  63. Scientific Rationale
  64. In the UK, Robin May, Professor of Infectious Disease at the University of Birmingham, explained that there is a scientific rationale for the use of hydroxychloroquine in the treatment of COVID-19, based on its mode of action in malaria.
  65.  
  66. In a statement through the Science Media Centre, he explained that, as chloroquine is a "weak base" and so helps to neutralise acids, it makes the environment "less suitable" for the malaria parasite to live in when it diffuses into red blood cells.
  67.  
  68. While the mode of action against COVID-19 is not established, Prof May said, he pointed out that many viruses enter host cells via endocytosis, as a result of which they are initially taken up into an intracellular 'compartment that is "typically fairly acidic”.
  69.  
  70. "Chloroquine would alter the acidity of this compartment, which can interfere with the ability of viruses to escape into the host cell and start replicating.”
  71.  
  72. He continued: "Another possibility is that chloroquine may alter the ability of the virus to bind to the outside of a host cell in the first place,” adding that the drug "has subtle effects on a wide variety of immune cells…and it may be that one of these effects helps stimulate the body’s ability to fight off COVID-19.”
  73.  
  74. Crucially, the drug is also "cheap and relatively easy to manufacture" and so could easily be put into clinical trials and, eventually, treatment, May underlined.
  75.  
  76. The study by Yao et al was supported by the "13th Five-Year" National Major New Drug Projects of China, Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China, and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
  77.  
  78. Two of its authors have patents pending for an anti-microbial infection pharmaceutical composition and its application.
  79.  
  80. Professor Pialoux has been a board member or attended meetings for Gilead, MSD, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Janssen, Abbvie, AstraZeneca.
  81.  
  82. Clin Infect Dis. 2020 Mar 9. pii: ciaa237. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciaa237
  83.  
  84. Translated and adapted from Medscape's French edition.
  85.  
  86. Editor's note, 18th March 2020: This article was updated to include Prof May's comments.

 

 
Edited by washparkhorn
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2 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

Missed it.  What's the deal?

Still on. 

Texas Gov. now has quarantine authority.

We have to get back to business quickly.

Accelerated the UI process. 

Waiting for Federal benefits.

. . . good ole boy - Situation Normal - All F'd Up (SNAFU). 

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  • immamac changed the title to CR: COVID-19 --Political Talk


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