COVID-19 Megathread 5: The Trumps catch COVID-19

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

On the stimulus front:

Mitch McConnell is expected to release his base plan for the fourth (and by all likelihood, final) stimulus package sometime today .

McConnell has noted that this is not necessarily the final version of the package and that it will most certainly be modified when all is said and done.  

In addition to more funds for businesses, there are two items for which to look:

- Second stimulus checks:  In a turnaround from May, McConnell has recently expressed strong support for a second round of direct payments to Americans.  The amounts and who will be eligible still remain to be seen.  Bear in mind that this does not necessarily translate to an exact duplication of the CARES Act with regards to a second check.  Proposals have ranged from a travel credit to a back-to-work incentive.


- Unemployment bonus : Members of the Senate GOP have voiced their discontent with extending the weekly $600 unemployment bonus under the rationale that it de-motivates those on unemployment to return to work.  Proposals are few and far between, but a future unemployment bonus may exist in decreased form.  

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

Were you completely anti-mask before, Bandit?

Pretty much, except for medical workers. Now I can see masks have some use. I just don't fixate on it.

I've also tended to avoid indoor businesses lately, because things just aren't what they were before.

Supply chain is definitely still affected in grocery stores where I am. 

Regularly seeing empty shelves (especially in the meats and bread sections) -- a lot more than before the pandemic. 

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

Thursday jobs report dropped - unemployment up slightly from last week: 

https://mobile.twitter.com/WestWingReport/status/1286280344879104001

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

Forbes reporting that McConnell's stimulus plan remains "exactly the same" as the CARES Act with regards to a second round of checks: $1200, $500 per dependent under 17, income cutoff at $75,000.

After some negotiation this week with the White House and discussions with some House and Senate Democrats, The Hill reported that Treasury Secretary Mnuchin confirmed that the proposed second stimulus check will be the same as the first: “We're talking about the same provision as last time, so our proposal is the exact same proposal as last time.”

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

MLB is holding an "emergency meeting" later today re: Marlins

https://mobile.twitter.com/Grav1/status/1287784249299542017

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

Oh boy.  This just keeps getting worse.  I'm also seeing that the Phillies organization sent out a mass text to the players BEFORE the game on Sunday but also decided to play anyway.  

https://twitter.com/phillysport/status/1287786331125493760

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

78% of COVID-19 patients show signs of heart damage after recovery

The team tracked patients who had experienced a wide variety of outcomes after their diagnosis. Just two of the 100 patients had to undergo mechanical ventilation, for example, and oxygen supplementation was required in 28 patients.

All participants underwent cardiac MR imaging using “standardized and unified” protocols on 3T MRI scanners. The cohort was compared with 50 healthy control patients and 57 risk factor-matched patients.

Overall, the team found that 78 patients had abnormal imaging findings. Findings included raised myocardial native T1 (73 patients), raised myocardial native T2 (60 patients), myocardial late gadolinium enhancement (32 patients) and pericardial enhancement (22 patients). Three patients underwent a biopsy after severe abnormalities were detected; “active lymphocytic inflammation” was present in these patients, but “no evidence of any viral genome.”

https://www.cardiovascularbusiness.com/topics/cardiovascular-imaging/78-covid-19-patients-heart-damage-recovery

Myo. late gadolinium enhancement is absolutely fascinating - - good way to detect the presence of cardiac scar tissue.  

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

https://twitter.com/NPR/status/1288846073730039809

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

https://mobile.twitter.com/NBCNews/status/1289173985754624001

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

Cherokee County, Georgia, a few miles to my west, is opening schools today.  Some highlights:

Out of 43K students, 23% will be starting remotely.  Whichever option parents decided (home or remote), they have to stay committed to that for the first nine weeks for elementary schools, and the entire fall semester for middle and high school.

Face masks are mandatory for teachers and staff, but only recommended for students.

Due to space constraints, they will not be able to consistently maintain six feet of distance between students.

The district is not doing temperature checks. They ask parents to check their child’s temperature before coming to school and getting on the bus daily, and the same goes for school staff.

I expect this to be a disaster.

https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/this-1st-day-school-cherokee-county-will-look-very-different-than-other-years/SXIPJOW2JJG3VPJTMFBT3OJQEU/

Aug. 3 is much too early even in a normal year. Other than that, I don't think there'll be any problems. I guess somebody had to go back early just to prove school is doable.

A lot of people have already been interacting like normal this summer, so school probably doesn't pose any new risks.

Cherokee always seems to start a little earlier than anyone else in metro Atlanta, although in general I agree that GA schools do start way too early.  My county (Forsyth) was scheduled to start this Thursday (the 6th) but has delayed it by a week.

The early start in the South has to do with farming (at least ancestrally), no? (Or at least that's the way it was explained to us in Texas). 

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

The new cases started going down as soon as they switched from the CDC to HHS. I'm not saying there's a conspiracy or anything but if people wanted to make one there's plenty of fodder.

New cases aren't being reported to HHS, only hospital resource utilization is

My biggest concern isn't necessarily fudging of the numbers, it's more that hospitals were apparently given little time to prepare for the system switch.

I've heard thru the grapevine that PENN Hospital wasn't given advanced warning of the new data consolidation. 

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

The new cases started going down as soon as they switched from the CDC to HHS. I'm not saying there's a conspiracy or anything but if people wanted to make one there's plenty of fodder.

New cases aren't being reported to HHS, only hospital resource utilization is

My biggest concern isn't necessarily fudging of the numbers, it's more that hospitals were apparently given little time to prepare for the system switch.

I've heard thru the grapevine that PENN Hospital wasn't given advanced warning of the new data consolidation. 

If someone like you is in the dark, who knows what is happening. It's all really fishy.

I mean, I'm not an insider by any means.  I have an understanding of virus behavior, treatments, etc. just by trade, but I'm definitely not privy to everything that goes on when it comes to hospital administration (and so forth).

Still, if what I've been told is correct, it's troubling that major hospitals like PENN were not kept in the loop.