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

[Omega21]

Scientists investigate possible positive effects of nicotine. It is being assumed that nicotine somehow (clinging onto the receptors the virus needs) has a positive shielding effect against the virus.  

https://m.oe24.at/coronavirus/Coronavirus-Wissenschafter-vermuten-positive-Wirkung-von-Nikotin/427320386

Obviously testing will be done with patches, not cigarettes.

The reason for the theory is that so far smokers have 80% lower infection rates than the General population.

[Omega21]

"I see the disenfectant knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we could do something like that? By... injection inside or... almost a cleaning, cause you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number and so I'd be interested to check that"

Denaturation and oxidation of healthy living cells.  Throwing off the very delicate pH balance of the blood and potentially inducing metabolic alkalosis.  A cascade of alkali necrosis as the agent enters the bloodstream.  

Good. Lord.  

You are Fake news!!!!

[Omega21]

"I see the disenfectant knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we could do something like that? By... injection inside or... almost a cleaning, cause you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number and so I'd be interested to check that"

Denaturation and oxidation of healthy living cells.  Throwing off the very delicate pH balance of the blood and potentially inducing metabolic alkalosis.  A cascade of alkali necrosis as the agent enters the bloodstream.  

Good. Lord.  

You are Fake news!!!!

I can't tell if this is ironic or not. If it is, bravo. If not, consider that you've just told a med student that she's fake news.

Bruh, seriously...

I'm a European Conservative, have things gone so far down the crapper in the US that my post can actually be taken in any way other than irony?

If so, then... GHAA, God Help America Again.

[Omega21]

https://twitter.com/ScottGottliebMD/status/1253321483402674178?s=20
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.04.20053058v1

Maybe what many places have done in banning outdoor farmer's markets even though grocery stores have continued to operate wasn't such a great idea.

Well considering the fact that UV seems to kill it pretty fast both on surfaces and in the air it's a logical conclusion.

I assume that's why we get the flu spikes in Autumn/Winter.

Plus, cold and dry air is heaven for viruses, and people tend to spend more time in closed spaces under those conditions.

[Omega21]

Uhh...is this not massively concerning to any of the lockdown forever folks?

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-prisons-testing-in-idUSKCN2270RX?taid=5ea4b672e153850001937bf4&utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

There are far fever 60+yr olds in Prison, than outside.

5% inside vs 21% outside.




https://www.citylab.com/equity/2014/09/prisons-are-facing-aging-populations-too/379972/

[Omega21]

Morning, y'all!

Went to the doctor yesterday and have been given a clean bill of health! Also volunteered to have some blood drawn that Penn will use for antibody research.  

Good to hear!

Btw. Do you just need to be the same/or other but compatible blood type as the receiver for someone to receive your blood, or is it like with organ transplants and more things come into play?

[Omega21]

https://twitter.com/agavedelacalle/status/1256734244522438656

Mmmmm, nothing like some anti-vaxxer loonies spitting into cops' mouths during a pandemic.

Seriously, some people reacted better during the damn plague, and that's despite the fact we were dumb and thought it was a punishment by God, miasma, or whatever other stupid stuff people thought of back then.

Then again, seems some didn't move on that much, or perhaps even regressed just a tiny bit.

[Omega21]

https://patch.com/img/cdn/users/22821259/2016/04/raw/201604571e8f034279b.JPG?width=725

[Omega21]

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1258782599918637057

What an egregious take.

Re-opening is primarily to benefit the 1%?? Have you seen the stock market lately? its up on the year. Its pushing new highs again. The 1% are doing just fine and most have plenty of savings to get them through this. The people who need to go back to work are the ones living paycheck to paycheck. People working jobs in the service industry or hospitality industry who have been furloughed, especially since we have no UBI bill passed.

My God....

[Omega21]

The petulant narcissist just can't handle women asking him smart questions, ran away like a coward.
https://twitter.com/axios/status/1259959091704799233

It also looks as if the reporter he told to ask China is Asian American? So her trying to get him to answer why he told her that specifically is a very important question.

Yes, it was Weijia Jiang. she works for CBS and was raised in WV.

Ah, brilliant PR, Mr. President!

I hate to say it, but I see nothing racist about his statement. He called it the "Chinese virus" multiple times, so whether he says it to a White, Black or Asian person makes no difference. His views on this being somehow "Chinese" is dumb, there's no other way around it, but I don't believe him saying that to an Asian American is any worse than him saying it to anyone else.

The man has made so many dumb statements and introduced so many ineffective policies that attacking him for this is just overshadows his real flaws.

Or in the words of Morgan Freeman: "Stop talking about it."

[Omega21]

https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1187829299207954437

A reminder that it didn't need to be this way.

Well of course no country on earth is prepared for a pandemic if you ask government epidemiologists and big pharma lobbyists.  How else would they get their $$$? 

This is like when the American Academy of Civil Engineers every year gives the vast majority of states a bad grade on road infrastructure.  Serious risk-seeking and adverse incentives are at play.   

That's a great argument against the incentivized for profit prison system you guys love, as the contracts often include capacity clauses which state that the Govt must dish out some fines to the company if they're not at a certain capacity.

It's not such a good argument against state employed epidemiologists.

[Omega21]

Governor Andrew Cuomo takes action to require masks in stores:

https://twitter.com/NYGovCuomo/status/1266036686053613574

I really really hope this is already the case for public transport as well.

If yes, normal, sane decision.

If people can't be bothered to wear a thin piece of fabric for a short part of their day in certain spaces, I guess they can just use their own cars and order stuff online.

[Omega21]

Governor Andrew Cuomo takes action to require masks in stores:

https://twitter.com/NYGovCuomo/status/1266036686053613574

I really really hope this is already the case for public transport as well.

If yes, normal, sane decision.

If people can't be bothered to wear a thin piece of fabric for a short part of their day in certain spaces, I guess they can just use their own cars and order stuff online.

I continue to remain wary of mask mandates emanating from government, especially if they come attached with penalties of some kind. And as we move into summer, I am beginning to wonder whether or not they will truly be a permanent fixture of society until there is a vaccine.

I mean, would it really be that bad wearing a really thin mask while you're in the grocery store or in public transit?

That's basically where people wear them here, and it's not an issue.

Plus, it's not really jeopardizing anyone's right to free movement etc., it's just requiring people to have a 40 cent mask on in a few places lol

[Omega21]

https://twitter.com/GregHolmanNL/status/1266505699355439111

Hope the people were responsible and disinfected themselves with 40% Vodka at 15 min intervals.

[Omega21]

Just from the numbers we have as of now, today is gearing up to be a terrible day in terms of new cases. This probably is due to a combination of increased testing, and a possible mini spike from reopenings. If the second is true, cases will continue to look worse than they were 7 days ago throughout next week.

Just a comment on the second part, definitely not directed at you specifically.  But there seems to be a sense of surprise in some quarters that cases are ticking back up following reopening in some areas.  How could anyone not have expected that to happen?  The level of interpersonal contact is increasing while the population is just as susceptible as ever, except perhaps in a few places like NYC that may have achieved a limited degree of herd immunity.  Did some people expect the virus to give us credit for good behavior the past several weeks and become less infectious?

It's not really a given. It has not happened here in AT after the reopening.

[Omega21]

America is great at handling stuff like this, albeit only in movies.

[Omega21]

How Putin feels about his Corona response after taking a look at the US

[Omega21]

Yup, caught it from my roommate's ex-boyfriend.  He gave it to both myself and my roommate. 

I didn't follow his symptoms all that closely, but he was definitely under the weather for a couple of weeks (I haven't seen or spoken to him in person since then (a) because he's annoying and (b) because coronavirus). 

Just out of curiosity, I hope you are recovering well and feeling much better, but are you aware of any persistent effects that either you or anyone else you know who was infected is still feeling after having recovered? Just wondering due to various news reports that some patients are suffering from longer term/persistent effects if you have noticed anything at all. Of course, some effects (changes to lung tissue etc) may not be easily noticeable even if they are real, given that some asymptomatic patients have shown apparent lung abnormalities/other abnormalities without behaving any differently or knowing that there was any issue.

Just a little bit of wheezing here and there, but nothing egregiously worrisome. 

I also read the virus is harmful to male reproductive health and hormone production

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41585-020-0319-7

[Omega21]

I hope to God that they don't shut everything down again or I'm gonna be pissed.

Let those of us who don't give a sh**t take our chances. Possibly getting covid comes with the territory and we all know it.

The people who are so worried should just stay in their house. The Stasi aren't going to come to your house and force you to go to Red Lobster, damn.

Honestly there should be a deliberate infection program for people like you. If you want, you will  be deliberately infected but will be placed under house arrest (to prevent spread) as long as you test positive. Afterwards, you are free to do whatever you want no matter how many cases there are. The caveat is that you will be denied any medical assistance if needed. You will be in your home no matter how sick you get.

I'd be good with that tbh. I have weak lungs so I'm somebody who could probably be really in danger from covid but it's not like anybody cares. I can't allow myself to be stagnant.

The American 24/7 Hustle culture has really hit peak insanity.

I don't like putting s**t on hold either, but damn, saying you'd rather die than lose a couple of months of work is beyond me...

[Omega21]

If I die, I die.

There's no point shutting down society and ruining younger people's lives just to save a 47-year-old man like me who won't be around much longer anyway.

Now, because of the lockdowns, life is pretty much over for anyone in America between 18 and 45.

I don't get your arguments?

Most of the EU shut down for 2 months, opened with mandatory face masks in certain places (such as public transport) and obviously banned large gatherings and places such as night clubs but that's about it now.

We're coasting on almost no cases living normal lives. Sure, you can't go to a crammed club or go to a football game, but that's not exactly having a profound effect on me. And that's after a lot of the EU countries screwed up their response big time.

A Biergarten and a cold one will have to do for now.

Now, the fact that the US is incapable of having a coordinated federal response that brings the virus down back to manageable levels nationwide and is unable to introduce anything mandatory (like mandatory masks or actually forbidding any large gatherings such as rallies or crammed indoor spaces) is a completely different story.

[Omega21]

COVID-19 deaths in Vietnam = 0.

That is bordering on unbelievable.

Even Australia has 108 deaths, but i guess the majority of our outbreaks were through rampant stupidity.

This just in from North Korea

07:07 - Confirmed active Cases: 1
07:08 - Confirmed active Cases: 0
7:25 - Confirmed active Cases: 1
7:26 - Confirmed active Cases: 0

Looks like they have a cure??

[Omega21]

The updated numbers for COVID-19 in the U.S. are in for 7/28 per: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

I'm keeping track of these updates daily and updating at the end of the day, whenever all states finish reporting for that day.

New - Substituting the Δ Change metric as of 7/13 on dates starting from 7/5:
ΔW Change: Comparisons of Weekly Day-to-day Growth or Decline of COVID-19 Spread/Deaths.

• IE: Comparing the numbers to the same day of last week, are we flattening the curve enough?

Σ Increase: A day's contribution to overall percentage growth of COVID-19 cases/deaths.

• IE: What's the overall change in the total?

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7/19: <Sunday>

• Cases: 3,896,855 (+63,584 | ΔW Change: ↑8.97% | Σ Increase: ↑1.66%)
• Deaths: 143,269 (+392 | ΔW Change: ↑3.43% | Σ Increase: ↑0.27%)

7/20: <M>

• Cases: 3,961,429 (+64,574 | ΔW Change: ↓1.40% | Σ Increase: ↑1.66%)
• Deaths: 143,834 (+565 | ΔW Change: ↑21.51% | Σ Increase: ↑0.39%)

7/21: <T>

• Cases: 4,028,569 (+67,140 | ΔW Change: ↑2.36% | Σ Increase: ↑1.69%)
• Deaths: 144,953 (+1,119 | ΔW Change: ↑24.85% | Σ Increase: ↑0.78%)

7/22: <W>

• Cases: 4,100,875 (+72,306 | ΔW Change: ↑0.89% | Σ Increase: ↑1.79%)
• Deaths: 146,183 (+1,230 | ΔW Change: ↑23.37% | Σ Increase: ↑0.85%)

7/23: <Þ>

• Cases: 4,169,991 (+69,116 | ΔW Change: ↓11.70% | Σ Increase: ↑1.69%)
• Deaths: 147,333 (+1,150 | ΔW Change: ↑17.59% | Σ Increase: ↑0.79%)

7/24: <F>

• Cases: 4,248,327 (+78,336 | ΔW Change: ↑4.47% | Σ Increase: ↑1.88%)
• Deaths: 148,490 (+1,157 | ΔW Change: ↑22.30% | Σ Increase: ↑0.79%)

7/25: <S>

• Cases: 4,315,678 (+67,351 | ΔW Change: ↑6.47% | Σ Increase: ↑1.59%)
• Deaths: 149,395 (+905 | ΔW Change: ↑11.32% | Σ Increase: ↑0.61%)

7/26: <Sunday>

• Cases: 4,371,839 (+56,151 | ΔW Change: ↓11.24% | Σ Increase: ↑1.30%)
• Deaths: 149,849 (+454 | ΔW Change: ↑15.82% | Σ Increase: ↑0.30%)

7/27 (Yesterday): <M>

• Cases: 4,433,392 (+61,553 | ΔW Change: ↓4.68% | Σ Increase: ↑1.41%)
• Deaths: 150,444 (+595 | ΔW Change: ↑5.31% | Σ Increase: ↑0.40%)

7/28 (Today): <T>

• Cases: 4,498,343 (+64,951 | ΔW Change: ↓3.26% | Σ Increase: ↑1.47%)
• Deaths: 152,320 (+1,876 | ΔW Change: ↑67.65% | Σ Increase: ↑1.25%)

Only thing getting thiccer than those numbers is Donnie's head.

[Omega21]

https://twitter.com/ElectMarkCurran/status/1288669534661074944

Yes, Mark Curran is the winner of the GOP primary and is running against Sen. Durbin.

That's essentially a suicide bomber's logic.

"I'm not afraid to die because I know paradise awaits me."

Isn't it 20 virgins or something like that? lol

[Omega21]

About that V-shaped recovery.

https://twitter.com/bopinion/status/1289981302272188416

Looks like the US flattened the wrong curve