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

[GP270watch]

The treatment front:

-Remdesivir
Status: Very Promising

-Plasma treatments
Status: Very Promising

-Hydroxychloroquine
Status: Questionable

-Colchicine
Status: Interesting

-Malarial Drugs
Status: Losing battle

-Nitric Oxide
Status: Interesting

-Baricitinib
Status: Interesting

 What about Ivermectin? I've read some promising stories mostly anecdotal though.

 Also Avigan(Favipiravir) the Japanese flu drug has been used in China and Japan for treatment.

[GP270watch]

Very sad this incompetent bozo wasn't removed.

[GP270watch]

Today is turning out to be the deadliest day of the pandemic so far in the U.S at 2,800 deaths

 This would mean that the projected peak of April 15th was wrong. I am less optimistic this week from what I've seen than I was last week.

[GP270watch]

Today is turning out to be the deadliest day of the pandemic so far in the U.S at 2,800 deaths

 This would mean that the projected peak of April 15th was wrong. I am less optimistic this week from what I've seen than I was last week.

Deaths typically occur two weeks after infection, so I think these numbers would be reflecting new cases from April 7th.

 The only good news is that hospitalizations and intubations are down in hotspots like NYC. The new case data means nothing because the testing has been so shoddy. But there is also the fact that many people are dying before they even get to the hospital in nursing homes or at home. We saw this in Italy and Spain. I am really tracking deaths, deaths are the ultimate telltale until we get a better testing standard.

[GP270watch]

The virus apparently causes blood clotting. In at least one young patient, the first symptom was a stroke. NY doctors are now prescribing blood thinners as standard care.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-blood/alarmed-as-covid-patients-blood-thickened-new-york-doctors-try-new-treatments-idUSKCN22421Z

Yes this was witnessed in many patients where they're getting a lot of little clots.

[GP270watch]

 1 in 5 New Yorkers hospitalized for Covid-19 die with the underlying conditions of high blood pressure, obesity, and diabetes being common risk factors found among severe cases. 88% of people put on a ventilator eventually don't recover.

 New York Times also showed how many countries have a huge spike in deaths currently not being counted as Covid-19.

28,000 Missing Deaths:
Tracking the True Toll of the Coronavirus Crisis

[GP270watch]

He hires the best people.

https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1253075681908531200

I had to read this article just to see if maybe there was more to it and maybe the guy had some at least tangible background in public health prior to raising Labradoodles. Nope. When Azar was a deputy secretary of HHS way back in 2006, this dude worked as his confidential assistant, whatever that means, for one year. He spent 2012 through 18 breeding labradoodles. And now he's heading up the response to the coronavirus within HHS.

Un-freakin'-believable. This is what happens when you have a mindset that all government spending outside the Pentagon is BS, so the least you can do is promote your family and friends because, who's going to be really harmed by poor government service anyway? This is exactly the spirit we saw when Bush appointed his buddy, heck of a job brownie, to head FEMA, when his prior work experience was being president of the American Quarter Horse Association, from which he was fired!

I guess one can still support Trump if one assumes that coronavirus is still blown vastly out of proportion so having a grossly unqualified crony to the former healthcare industry lobbyist running the department is an okay sacrifice rather than seeing (gasp!) A democrat in the White House.

Demote one of the world's leading experts in vaccines but promote a breeder to important leadership in a scientific agency.

 Heck of job Brownie indeed...

[GP270watch]

 Social distancing was supposed to buy us time to formulate a plan and produce resources, conduct testing and research, develop and test therapeutics and vaccines. These serological studies which quite frankly are not definitive yet are not proof that social distancing was wrong, they're the very result of the social distancing planning.

[GP270watch]

It’s not a good analogy at all. Increased security didn’t exactly shut down the economy.

The shoe bomber didn't kill 45,000 Americans and thousands more each day and cause lasting damage to thousands more, not even if he'd been successful.

Stupid analogy, actually.

Now that hurts my feelings, Donald Trump's Toupe.

You know what’s a better analogy. Iraq’s WMD. How did that fear mongering on faulty intelligence turn out?

 Not even a good analogy. The intelligence failure that's provable so far is that Trump and other Western countries were warned that something was out of control on the ground in China and they failed to heed that warning.

[GP270watch]

 It was a huge mistake to not give direct stimulus money to every American person monthly for the next few months. All the moves to support corporate debt, bailouts, and small business loans have been wrongheaded or bungled and disorganized. Small businesses are very important because they employ majority of Americans but every small business owner is an individual and the program rollout has been a disaster. The money should have gone to individuals first and businesses second.

 As part of future disaster preparation we also need a way to instantly disperse money to every American individual or a targeted group of individuals. This should be done through the Treasury and not the the IRS. The IRS is an organization that is a politcal piñata and is often starved of resources so as to be purposely be inefficient.

 

[GP270watch]

So what are the chances schools don't meet in the fall?

Low, I could see schools in certain districts being suspended if there is another bad outbreak but around early June we should start seeing death rates drop in most of the country. If anything I bet some places start the school year earlier to makeup for lost school days.

[GP270watch]

This should be done through the Treasury and not the the IRS.

The IRS is part of the Treasury.

 What's your point? The IRS is the arm of the treasury that collects taxes. It shouldn't be done through the IRS, the IRS's funding is used as a politcal club by anti-tax crowd and a reward for big dollar donors. Unexpected stimulus like this for disaster relief should be something we plan for going forward and the IRS is not the best government agency to do this. The Treasury itself would be better.

[GP270watch]

https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1253451487415619586

[GP270watch]

 This is such an embarrassment. What the hell is this crap?

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1253455713034211328

[GP270watch]

Dr. Birx's reaction!



https://twitter.com/Daniel_Lewis3/status/1253482576699969537

[GP270watch]

Unfortunately, in this instance, Trump said something (as was correctly quoted by Arch) completely stupid, and none of the reporting of the actual real scientific results are being discussed.

This is the real Trump Derangement Syndrome, right here folks.

[GP270watch]

Starting to forget what it's like to not have a brain dead president who recommends we look into injecting bleach on live TV.

Somebody on Twitter posted a split between Trump and Angela Merkel explaining Covid-19 related topics, I had many thoughts but no words.

[GP270watch]

FDA cautions against use of hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine for COVID-19 outside of the hospital setting or a clinical trial due to risk of heart rhythm problems

Why is no one taliing about the fact that remdesivir has been proven to be snake oil?

 Outside of Wallstreet I think most people were skeptical of this drug.

[GP270watch]

Their leader thinks injecting disinfectants could work to cure covid and windmills cause cancer. What do you expect?

 Trump has said a lot of stupid things because he's a moron but this is the worst.

 It's even dumber than sweep the forest floor to prevent forest fires or Puerto Rico's "an island, surrounded by water, big water, ocean water."

[GP270watch]

Why did NY cut off a lot of its testing?

Like Trump and all New Yorker politicians it seems Cuomo is only concerned with optics and making things look like they're getting better, no matter how much it contradicts reality.

In a recent conference Cuomo said they don't have enough resources for tests. He wanted to do more testing and said there was bottleneck with processing time and chemicals.

[GP270watch]

.I just mostly went off topic on OP's line that its impossible for Americans to work meatpacking jobs when they literally did a quarter century ago.

 Meat packing jobs have historically always been done by immigrants, second generation Americans, and African Americans(who didn't have many other options). You're not being realistic about the history of these jobs.

 Also the mistake Trump is going to make of absolving the plants from liability doesn't change that workers will sick and it will be nearly impossible to replace them. The plants needed government resources and best practices to stop illness spreading. Not bogus executive order from Trump that won't magically solve anything.

[GP270watch]

.I just mostly went off topic on OP's line that its impossible for Americans to work meatpacking jobs when they literally did a quarter century ago.

Meat packing jobs have historically always been done by immigrants, second generation Americans, and African Americans(who didn't have many other options). You're not being realistic about the history of these jobs.

And I didn't say it was impossible, just that most Americans aren't willing. If wages were doubled out tripled, then yes, Moore folks would be willing. But the companies can't afford that kind of jump right now, and neither can American consumers, because their own wages have stagnated and meat is seen and used as a staple to the American diet rather than an add-on or luxury.

It's basically impossible. I've seen this with farming, they can double wages and it doesn't matter. They hire too few people, the ones they hire can't hack it, the few who stick with it are nowhere near as productive as the immigrants who are farmers in their native country and are used to the labor and productivity for their basic survival. These immigrants also earn/work their way out of these jobs to better jobs in construction or factories but they have a replaceable group of workers from their native or similar countries coming right behind them.

[GP270watch]

 Worldometer is reporting UK new deaths today at 4,419, hope it's a hack or website error and not a backlog.

edit

 seem the UK government is now starting to add figures from outside sources and UK will surpass Italy to be second overall in Covid-19 deaths.

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-sharp-rise-in-covid-19-deaths-in-uk-as-care-homes-included-in-total-for-first-time-11980475

[GP270watch]

Worldometer is reporting UK new deaths today at 4,419, hope it's a hack or website error and not a backlog.

Apparently today they added deaths that happened in care homes that were not previously reported

Yes, I updated the post. Very awful news.

[GP270watch]

Florida medical examiners were releasing coronavirus death data. The state made them stop.

When the medical examiners’ list was available, it showed more deaths than the state’s count.