Covid-19 Stories.

[Polranny]

That orange arse is living in a dreamworld. I feel really sorry for USA generally but have no sympathy for the arses who voted him in.
Chinese proverb: we live in Interesting times

 

[JackLuis]

4-8-20 Box Scores

USA
430,271 Total Cases

+29,936 New Cases

14,738 Total Deaths

+1,897 New Deaths

22,356 Total Recovered

New York leads the nation in Cases, Deaths, and New Cases by many multiples!

 

[JackLuis]

New York’s coronavirus crisis tracked back to European travel — not China: scientists

The New York Times reported Wednesday that scientists have tracked the cases of coronavirus in New York back to travel from Europe.

The Times explained that genomes show the link to those who came down with the virus back in February.

President Donald Trump has been celebrating his decision to shut down some travel from China, though not all travel. A whopping 430,000 people have traveled from China to the United States since the coronavirus crisis.

It seems Trumpikins is WRONG again!

 

[JackLuis]

Kansas Republicans overturn governor’s order restricting crowd sizes in churches

On Wednesday, Republicans on the Kansas Legislative Coordinating Council voted to overturn Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s executive order restricting attendance at church and funereal services to 10 people or less.

The decision came after GOP state Attorney General Derek Schmidt warned that the order is unconstitutional. Schmidt declared the order to be “sound public-health advice that Kansans should follow” but advised state police not to enforce it.

Republicans argued that the order subjects churches to stricter rules than certain secular entities, specifically citing bars, restaurants and libraries. Democrats on the committee maintained that these entities all provide at least some services that have been deemed essential.

Churches and funeral services have been vectors for the spread of COVID-19. In Kansas alone, at least three local outbreaks have been attributed to religious services.

It's hard to fund a church with such a small offering plate.

 

[JackLuis]

California Leads, Trump Bleeds the Stimulas!

Gavin Newsom Has HAD ENOUGH​

California Gov. Gavin Newsom went on the "Rachel Maddow Show" last night and made some news: His state has joined with a consortium of nonprofits and manufacturers to make sure the state can get its hands on 200 million medical masks a month — mostly the top-quality N95 masks that are needed to protect doctors, nurses, and other medical workers from the novel coronavirus. Here's a guy who's committed to making sure his state — and smaller states, too — have the equipment necessary to get caregivers and patients through the outbreak.

Newsom said that the consortium would be able to get "upwards of 200 million masks on a monthly basis," and that he was confident that the deals would meet not only California's needs, but eventually the needs of other western states. The masks would be manufactured overseas and imported through a California-based manufacturer and the nonprofit groups, without the need to bid against other states or FEMA for scarce supplies. As the fifth-largest economy in the world, California can do a lot for itself and its neighbors, said Newsom, returning to a phrase he has every reason to be fond of:

"We decided enough is enough: Let's use the power of the purchasing power of the state of California as a nation-state. We did just that, and in the next few weeks, we're gonna see supplies at that level into the state of California, and potentially the opportunity to export some of those supplies to states in need."

The specific suppliers and nonprofits haven't yet been named, but Politico reports the high number of masks will come from

three sources to produce a total of 200 million masks monthly: a California-based nonprofit, which is providing a large quantity of masks; a California-based manufacturer with suppliers in Asia; and the third, a technology that the state is acquiring that allows N95 masks to be cleaned as many as 20 times in order to reuse them[.]

 

[JackLuis]

State by State Box Scores​

Do you want to know what your state is doing compared to New York? Click above Linky!
Tot Cases New Tot Deaths New Active
New York 159,937 +8,766 7,067 +799 136,855
New Jersey 51,027 +3,590 1,700 +196 49,235
Michigan 21,504 +1,158 1,076 +117 20,359
California 19,127 +297 508 +10 17,679
Louisiana 18,283 +1,253 702 +50 17,531

Florida 16,364 +666 354 +31 15,910

Stay Home, Stay Safe, Fuck Trumpski!

 

[JackLuis]

COVID-19 may ‘reactivate’ in a person believed to be cured

Because it is a new virus, many questions remain unanswered about the COVID-19 coronavirus — and a lot more research and analysis will need to be conducted. One question is: can someone who has recovered from COVID-19 be reinfected, or would that person develop an immunity to it? Medical experts can’t say for sure yet, though many have been hopeful that immunity would arise naturally.

But Dr. Jeong Eun-Kyeon, director of South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, believes that COVID-19 might reactivate in someone who has been considered cured, Bloomberg News reported Thursday.

In a briefing on Monday, April 6, South Korea’s CDC reported that 51 people who had been considered cured of COVID-19 tested positive again. A patient in South Korea is considered cured if that person tests negative two times during a 24-hour period.

Bloomberg News reporter Kyunghee Park explains, “South Korea was one of the earliest countries to see a large-scale coronavirus outbreak, but the country has seen just 200 deaths and a falling new case tally since peaking at 1189 on February 29. One of the world’s most expansive testing programs and a tech-driven approach to tracing infections has seen Korea contain its epidemic without lockdowns or shuttering businesses.”

This will all be over by October... maybe!

 

[JackLuis]

Why your local store keeps running out of flour, toilet paper and prescription drugs

Short Read: MBA's haven't mastered Supply Chain Management.

Retailers are frequently running out of everything from flour and fresh meat to toilet paper and pharmaceuticals as supply chains hammered by the coronavirus struggle to keep up with stockpiling consumers.

Although out-of-stock products are usually replenished within a day or two, the sight of bare shelves typically prompts more hoarding as people fear the supply of the goods they need may be cut off. This vicious cycle is a direct result of shortcomings of modern supply chains, which most companies, regardless of industry, now use.

1. Supply chains have become very complex.

2. A lean machine

3. Moving manufacturing offshore

Add the fact that MBA's of the Trumpikin variety believe their own bullshit and don't beieve "Experts" who warn of Impending DOOM!.

 

[JackLuis]

Medical staffing companies owned by rich investors cut doctor pay and now want bailout money

Medical staffing companies — some of which are owned by some of the country’s richest investors and have been cutting pay for doctors on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic — are seeking government bailout money.

Private equity firms have increasingly bought up doctors’ practices that contract with hospitals to staff emergency rooms and other departments. These staffing companies say the coronavirus pandemic is, counterintuitively, bad for business because most everyone who isn’t critically ill with COVID-19 is avoiding the ER. The companies have responded with pay cuts, reduced hours and furloughs for doctors.

Emergency room visits across the country have fallen roughly 30%, and the patients who are coming tend to be sicker and costlier to treat, the American College of Emergency Physicians said in an April 3 letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. The professional group asked the Trump administration to provide $3.6 billion of aid to emergency physician practices.

“Without immediate federal financial resources and support separate from what is provided to hospitals, fewer emergency physicians will be left to care for patients, a shortfall which will only be further exacerbated as they try to make preparations for the COVID-19 surge,” the organization said in the letter.

 

[JackLuis]

Box Scores for Friday AM:

USA
478,272 Total Cases

+9,706 New Cases

17,920 Total Deaths, so far

+1,229 New Deaths

26,106 Total Recovered, Maybe?

 

[JackLuis]

Yanomami indigenous boy infected with coronavirus dies

A Yanomami indigenous boy has died after contracting the coronavirus, authorities in Brazil said Friday, raising fears for the Amazon tribe, which is known for its vulnerability to imported diseases.

The 15-year-old boy, the first Yanomami to be diagnosed with the virus, was hospitalized a week ago at an intensive care unit in Boa Vista, the capital of the northern state of Roraima, officials said.
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“He died Thursday night. The cause of death has not yet been confirmed,” the Brazilian health ministry said in a statement.
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Indigenous peoples in the Amazon rainforest are particularly vulnerable to diseases that are foreign to them, because they have been historically isolated from germs against which much of the world has developed immunity.

If the virus has hit such an isolated community, it looks like we can not restrain it at all!

 

[JackLuis]

PSA

Stay the Fuck at home!

 

[JackLuis]

Trump Country braces for heavy weather!


Easter weekend could see the most dangerous weather outbreak yet this season

The most dangerous severe weather outbreak of the season is possible this weekend, especially on Easter Sunday in the southeastern United States. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Storm Prediction Center is warning of long-lasting supercell thunderstorms and strong tornadoes in Texas and the southeastern states.

A vigorous storm that has been parked over Southern California for days is moving eastward Saturday. As it does, it will invigorate a strong subtropical jet stream over Texas and mix with unstable air from an abnormally warm Gulf of Mexico.

The combination will make for potentially violent severe weather from Texas eastward into the Deep South. Scattered storms are expected to develop in Texas on Saturday and become more widespread during the afternoon and evening.

Dallas, Abilene, Austin and surrounding areas should be on alert. The main threat will be large hail, but a couple of tornadoes in those areas are also possible.

Easter Sunday weather

A second round of storms is expected to begin overnight Saturday in eastern Texas, powered by an intensifying jet stream with winds 100 mph or stronger. Storms will continue in eastern Texas before daybreak Sunday, moving into Louisiana early Sunday morning. Hail, damaging wind gusts and a few tornadoes are possible.

As Easter Sunday unfolds, energetic air will stream north from the Gulf of Mexico and spread over Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia and the Florida Panhandle. Simultaneously, a storm in the Plain States will intensify rapidly and the jetstream will reach speeds of 150 mph.

 

[JackLuis]

Mississippi hit with two ‘catastrophic’ EF5 tornadoes at the same time: ‘This is flattening everything in its path’

The southeastern United States is being pummeled with tornadoes, but the largest storm, an EF5 tornado, has already killed at least six people in Mississippi.

One person suggested it was the most destructive tornado since Joplin, Missouri in 2011, but Oklahoma had two EF5 tornadoes after that in May 2011 in El Reno and May 2013 in Moore/Newcastle.

It must be "God's Will", eh?

 

[KeithD]

Mississippi hit with two ‘catastrophic’ EF5 tornadoes at the same time: ‘This is flattening everything in its path’



It must be "God's Will", eh?

We're on a 6:00 a.m. today (four hours from now) tornado watch here in central Virginia.

 

[JackLuis]

We're on a 6:00 a.m. today (four hours from now) tornado watch here in central Virginia.

Sorry to hear that. But that's what you get for being so close to Trump, Ground Zero for God's Wrath!

 

[JackLuis]

Jared Kushner's PPE Follies

The story starts off with one lovely example of how the feds are "helping," explaining that chemical giant DuPont recognized early on in the pandemic that it would be selling a hell of a lot of protective suits made from its patented material Tyvek. The company increased production of the fabric in the US, so it could be sent off to factories in Vietnam and made into suits that sell to hospitals for about $5 per unit.

Then along came the federal government with a deal that would have made Milo Minderbinder grin:

It usually takes up to three months to ship the material to Vietnam, where it is sewn into body suits, and get it back. When the federal government offered to pay for chartered flights to reduce the round trip for 750,000 items to 10 days, DuPont agreed.

Then DuPont sold 60 percent of the protective equipment, commonly called PPE, to Uncle Sam while keeping 40 percent for its other customers. The company refused to say how much the Department of Health and Human Services paid for 450,000 suits, but a spokesperson noted that they sell for up to $15 apiece, three times what they fetched before the virus pandemic.

"We actually helped get raw materials supplied from Richmond, Virginia, and we flew that s--- to Vietnam, all so that DuPont could sell us" their products, said a senior federal official involved in the coronavirus effort.

And everyone has a share!

But it got much-needed stuff back to the US faster, and isn't that a wonderful thing? So please don't harp on about the expense, because you liberals love spending taxpayer money, don't you?

The story details how, in typical Trumpy fashion, Mike Pence's coronavirus task force bypassed all the established emergency experts and systems the government already had in place, so the supply chain could be managed by Jared and his team of entreprenerd buddies. In the process, the supply chain unit "has favored some of the nation's largest corporations and ignored smaller producers of goods and services with long track records of meeting emergency needs," according to NBC's anonymous sources in government agencies, as well as a number of emergency-contracting experts who went on the record.

Deep State vs Derp State?

 

[JackLuis]

Monday Box Scores
USA
577,311 Total cases

+17,011 New Cases

23,070 Total Deaths, so far

 

[KeithD]

Sorry to hear that. But that's what you get for being so close to Trump, Ground Zero for God's Wrath!

It missed us (just a heavy thunderstorm) but did hit D.C., I think. Not the tornado part as far as I have heard. I'm on the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge, so most of the bad weather coming from the west is knocked down by the mountains or sails over us and lands in D.C.

 

[JackLuis]

Pastor dies from coronavirus — only weeks after he defiantly held packed church service

A Virginia pastor who defiantly held a packed church service on March 22 has passed away after being infected with the coronavirus, the New York Post reports.

During the service, Bishop Gerald O. Glenn told his congregation at Richmond’s New Deliverance Evangelistic Church to stand, defiantly showing the world how many were willing to show up the despite stay-at-home orders meant to help curb the virus’ spread.

“It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of our beloved Bishop Gerald O. Glenn, the Founder and Pastor of New Deliverance Evangelistic Church on Saturday, April 11, 2020 @ 9:00 PM,” the church wrote in a Facebook post.

The Lord givith and the Lord taketh away.

 

[KeithD]

Pastor dies from coronavirus — only weeks after he defiantly held packed church service



The Lord givith and the Lord taketh away.

The Lord giveth us science and the ability to have and exercise common sense.

 

[JackLuis]

FDA approves first saliva test for coronavirus

Researchers at Rutgers University now have a new tool to diagnose cases of COVID-19. With the authorization of the Food and Drug Administration, the school said on Monday, they now have clearance to use a new saliva test for coronavirus, which both expands the current testing options available and potentially signals a safer path forward for health care workers.

The test, which will initially be offered through hospitals and clinics affiliated with Rutgers, has the patient spit several times into a plastic tube, with that tube then analyzed for coronavirus at a laboratory. Compared to the current approach to testing, which involves a swab from the patient’s nose or throat, this test is both more convenient for patients and better for workers at risk of being exposed to the virus.

“This prevents health care professionals from having to actually be in the face of somebody that is symptomatic,” said Andrew Brooks, director of the Rutgers lab that developed the test, to NBC.

 

[JackLuis]

Harvard scientists predict ‘intermittent social distancing periods’ will be necessary until 2022

A one-time lockdown won’t halt the novel coronavirus and repeated periods of social distancing may be required into 2022 to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed, Harvard scientists who modeled the pandemic’s trajectory said Tuesday.

Their study comes as the US enters the peak of its COVID-19 caseload and states eye an eventual easing of tough lockdown measures.

Widespread viral testing would be required in order to determine when the thresholds to re-trigger distancing are crossed, said the authors.

Unfortunately testing requires test kits and Trump isn't a shipping clerk, so....

 

[JackLuis]

4-15-20 AM
Box Scores


USA
615,406 Total cases

+1,520 New Cases

26,164 Total Deaths, so far

+117 New Cases

38,879 Total Recovered

Meanwhile over Two Million cases World wide

 

[JackLuis]

‘Trump is killing us’: New protest urges Americans to be ‘outraged’ over coronavirus blunders

Americans are urged to be organize against President Donald Trump in a new protest display projected onto a building in Washington, DC.

A video posted on Twitter shows the message “we are obliged to be outraged” projected onto one side of the building.

A different side featured multiple messages projected upon the brick.

“Trump is killing us … time to organize … change the system … never forgot,” the messages read.