Covid-19 Stories.

[JackLuis]

It's All Fun And Games Until Coronavirus Starts Barebacking Through MAGA-Ville

Hey data nerds, wanna put on your data bikini and take a deep dive into the deep end of some data? If so, go find a science journal, NERD.

Just kidding, Wonkette is often mentioned in the same breath as the New England Journal of Medicine when people are talkiing about science publications, so let's #DoData. NBC News has released some (leaked) COVID-19 projection data from the White House coronavirus task force, data they didn't want us to see for some reason. Maybe it's because, while Donald Trump is out there lying and saying coronavirus numbers are going "very rapidly" down "almost everywhere," the truth is that their own data shows case numbers going up as much as 1,000 percent, specifically in the heartland with the white Trump voters who helped propel Trump to his historic negative three-million-vote "victory" in 2016.

Dr. John Ross, a medical professor at Harvard, pointed out a thing about this data, which was accurate as of May 7:

The fastest rising areas in the US for COVID cases are very white and very Trumpy, according to this slide somebody leaked to NBC News

 

[JackLuis]

Coronavirus may never go away: World Health Organization

The new coronavirus may never go away and populations around the world will have to learn to live with it, the World Health Organization warned Wednesday.

As some countries around the world begin gradually easing lockdown restrictions imposed in a bid to stop the novel coronavirus from spreading, the WHO said it may never be wiped out entirely.

The new coronavirus may never go away and populations around the world will have to learn to live with it, the World Health Organization warned Wednesday.

As some countries around the world begin gradually easing lockdown restrictions imposed in a bid to stop the novel coronavirus from spreading, the WHO said it may never be wiped out entirely.

Oh Shit!

 

[JackLuis]

Whistleblower Richard Bright uncovered ‘substantial likelihood of wrongdoing’: Office of Special Counsel



‘Lives were lost’: Dr. Rick Bright slams Trump administration over N95 masks during tense House hearing

Ousted U.S. vaccine chief Dr. Rick Bright testified on Thursday that “lives were lost” because the Trump administration failed to ramp up the production of personal protective equipment like N95 respirators.

Whistleblower Richard Bright tells GOP why it was wrong to hype hydroxychloroquine

Whistleblower Dr. Richard Bright, who was ousted last month from his position as the head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, told lawmakers on Thursday that he pushed back on promoting hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 treatment, and he explained to Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) that the drug never should have been hyped without significant study.

Your New Science Boyfriend Rick Bright Has Some Things To Say To Congress. A Liveblog!

Yes, Wonkette does hold Trumpublicunts in "Minimal High Regard" so you have to read between the snarks.

 

[JackLuis]

Texas has highest one-day death toll — while gyms set to open as Gov. Abbott says COVID-19 ‘leveling off’

Texas health officials on Thursday reported both the state’s highest one-day coronavirus death toll, and the state’s highest number of new COVID-19 cases. Those devastating results come two weeks after Governor Greg Abbott ordered the state to re-open on May 1.

Despite a steady upward trajectory Gov. Abbott says the rate of COVID-19 cases is “leveling off” and hinted other business might be allowed to re-open soon. He is allowing gyms to re-open Monday.

I guess there will be fewer Texans for Trump, in November.

 

[JackLuis]

Mitch McConnell’s push to shield companies from COVID-19 lawsuits dismantled by NYT editorial board

On Saturday, The New York Times editorial board excoriated the demand of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) that any new coronavirus relief bill include liability protections for corporations that get their employees infected.

“The biggest obstacle, as [McConnell] sees it, is not a deadly disease but rapacious trial lawyers, capitalizing on the virus to chase ambulances and bankrupt American businesses,” wrote the board. “As Congress gears up for the next installment of its stimulus package, Mr. McConnell has drawn a line: No more money for anyone until businesses get immunity from liability during the pandemic. The demands being debated include making it harder to claim that a business is at fault for a worker’s or customer’s infection, protecting businesses that are making personal protective equipment like masks for the first time, and protecting employers against privacy lawsuits if they disclose a worker’s infection.”

A case of Big Government usurping States Rights too!

 

[JackLuis]

HHS secretary says Trump’s ‘Warp Speed’ vaccine ‘may not be safe and effective but we’ll have it’

It may not be effective or safe, but at least Hair Furor can say, "What do you have to lose?"

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar on Sunday admitted that the Trump administration’s so-called “Warp Speed” vaccine effort could produce hundreds of millions of doses that are neither safe nor effective.

Azar made the remarks during an appearance on Face the Nation with host Margaret Brennan.

“Is the pledge 300 million Americans will be able to get a shot in their arm by the end of the year?” Brennan asked.

“That’s a goal,” Azar explained. “What happened is these drug companies and vaccine makers said it’s all going to take this amount of time because they’re using their traditional approaches.”

“The president said that’s not acceptable,” he continued. “We’re going to scale up commercial manufacturing and produce hundreds of millions of doses at risk. They may not pan out, they may not prove to be safe and effective but we’ll have it so we can begin administration right away.”

 

[JackLuis]

Puppy scammers target lonely Aussies during lockdown

Australia is suffering a wave of puppy scams as fraudsters target the lonely and locked down with fake online offers of cavoodles, French bulldogs and other popular pooches, authorities said.

The consumer watchdog ACCC said the scammers fleeced people looking for a new pet out of some Aus$300,000 (US$196,000) in April alone, fives times higher than the normal monthly average.

Diggers gold digging in the Down Under!

 

[JackLuis]

Red States Cooking Their Coronavirus Data? The F*ck You Say!

Numbers have a known liberal bias. You can't expect Republican governors to simply take coronavirus stats from medical examiners and county health departments at face value. And certainly not when they need to "prove" that sending people back to breathe all over each other in public spaces is a "good" idea. You have to expect a little fudging.

Or a lot of fudging. Let's round up all the data fuckery stories this morning, shall we? Stick around for Arizona at the end, which wins today's Coronavirus Chutzpah Prize in a walk.

I'm for shocked!

 

[JackLuis]

McConnell faces backlash from small business owners: Stop using our plight to push for COVID-19 corporate immunity

A coalition of more than 30,000 small business owners across the U.S. is urging Congress not to grant corporations sweeping immunity from coronavirus-related workplace safety lawsuits, warning that the move would harm Main Street and “undo decades of worker and consumer protections.”

“Corporate immunity is unnecessary to protect small business owners, as state law already protects responsible business owners who act reasonably,” advocacy group Main Street Alliance wrote in a letter (pdf) to Democratic and Republican congressional leaders last week. “Creating this type of blanket immunity from lawsuits by injured workers or consumers would give bad actors a competitive edge at the cost of people’s lives.”

“With this perverse cost-shift,” the group warned, “corporate immunity could result in only the most irresponsible corporations surviving the pandemic.”

Yes Moscow Mitch is only interested in getting the maximum corporate remuneration for his fuckery!

 

[JackLuis]

New evidence emerges that the CDC has been ‘distorting’ the stats on COVID-19 testing

President Donald Trump often likes to boast about how many COVID-19 tests have been conducted in the United States, but a new report from The Atlantic is calling those testing statistics into serious question.

According to the report, the Centers for Disease Control has been “conflating the results of two different types of coronavirus tests,” which has had the effect of “distorting several important metrics and providing the country with an inaccurate picture of the state of the pandemic.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he said. “How could the CDC make that mistake? This is a mess… The viral testing is to understand how many people are getting infected, while antibody testing is like looking in the rearview mirror. The two tests are totally different signals.”

 

[JackLuis]

5-21-20 AM
Box Scores

United States
Coronavirus Cases:
1,596,838

Deaths:
95,058

Recovered:
370,973

 

[JackLuis]

‘Clear-cut, significant and positive effect’: Anti-viral drug effective against coronavirus, study finds

Anti-viral drug remdesivir cuts recovery times in coronavirus patients, according to the full results of a trial published Friday night, three weeks after America’s top infectious diseases expert said the study showed the medication has “clear-cut” benefits.

Complete results from the research, which was carried out by US government agency the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), were published by leading medical periodical the New England Journal of Medicine.

On April 29, NIAID director Anthony Fauci, who has become the US government’s trusted face on the coronavirus pandemic, said preliminary evidence indicated remdesivir had a “clear-cut, significant and positive effect in diminishing the time to recovery.”

The National Institutes of Health, of which the NIAID is a part, said Friday in a statement online that investigators found “remdesivir was most beneficial for hospitalized patients with severe disease who required supplemental oxygen.”

Well that's good news.

 

[JackLuis]

With just one ICU bed available, Montgomery, Alabama, is sending sick patients to Birmingham

(CNN)The city of Montgomery, Alabama, which has only one intensive care unit bed left, is sending sick patients to Birmingham, more than an hour away, officials said.
Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed said on Wednesday that of the four regional hospitals, one is short three ICU beds, two have no ICU beds, and one has just one bed.

"Right now, if you are from Montgomery, and you need an ICU bed, you are in trouble," Reed said at a press conference. "If you're from central Alabama, and you need an ICU bed, you may not be able to get one."
The health care system in the state's capital is "maxed out," Reed said.

Alabama had 13,288 confirmed Covid-19 cases as of Thursday afternoon, according to Johns Hopkins University data. At least 528 people have died. That's 2,358 more cases than reported the same time last week. At that time, 450 deaths had been reported.
Montgomery County has more than 1,000 cases and 28 people have died, according to the state health department's data.

Elect Jeff Sessions, A better Class of Peckerneck!

Ol' Jeff will surely support the Health Care of the white people of 'Bama!

 

[JackLuis]

Slosh! Slurp! Welcome to the 'Walktail' Party​

Earlier this month, as Texas was about to ease its stay-at-home restrictions, Pam LeBlanc pulled her wedding dress out of a vacuum-sealed box, put it on for the first time in 21 years, poured herself a glass of prosecco, strapped on some heels, walked out of her house in Austin, and began twirling in the middle of the street.

She’d been doing some version of this for about 40 days, a period during which she and most Americans were unable to hunker down at their favorite watering hole and let a professional bartender pour them a drink.

“I decided that every day we were going to shelter in place, I was going to put on some kind of dress and go out in the street with a cocktail,” said LeBlanc, 56, an outdoorsy freelance journalist not normally given to swanky garb. “It was my way of flipping off the coronavirus.”

With both bars and gyms closed, such drinking and walking — or “walktailing” — has been occurring at a seemingly unprecedented rate.

It’s not legal to saunter down sidewalks with open containers in the vast majority of American cities, but police have recently chosen to look the other way when it comes to issuing citations.

“That has just not been a primary enforcement focus for us,” said Lauren Truscott of the Seattle Police Department. “We’re really trying to limit exposure between officers and citizens, so I think that would fall into that nonemergent category where people aren’t harming themselves or other people.” (The website Eater recently called for the permanent legalization of takeout cocktails, adding that open-container enforcement has traditionally been racially biased.)

Drinks to go have become so prevalent in many cities that there is even a designer, in New Orleans, selling masks with straw holes in them, The New York Post reported.

“It’s tough to keep my dog on his leash, hold my drink and bend down to pick up his poop,” said Scott Cornick, 45, a bond trader who lives near the South Street Seaport. “City life.”

In Seattle, the site of America’s first coronavirus outbreak and one of its longest stay-at-home orders, Stephanie Huske, 42, and her husband, Dave Huske, 44, have been enjoying cocktails in their front yard starting at 3:30 every afternoon. When their dog requires walking, Dave Huske makes no effort to conceal his Crown Royal in a clear glass with ice.

“Less than 10% try to conceal it,” said Stephanie Huske, a freelance advertising producer. “The first couple weeks, you’d see people you’d never seen before walking by with their kid, dogs and strollers. And then, two or three weeks in, there was a marked switch to walking with cocktails.”

Dr. Richard Ries, the director of Harborview Medical Center’s addiction division at the University of Washington, theorized rather that Americans are now mimicking a French or Mediterranean mode of drinking, “built around having small to medium amounts of wine at lunch or snacks and dinner,” rather than compressing their drinking in evenings or weekends as they did pre-quarantine.

“The hypothesis is that if you drink it in a shorter period of time, you’re much more likely to get intoxicated,” Ries said. “And if you push a toxic level higher in your brain, you’re more likely to get a hangover. A hangover is essentially a bruise in your brain caused by alcohol.”

Hey it's Spring! Why not get some light exercise on a cool Spring morning with an Irish Coffee? Or a warm afternoon stroll with a Long Island Iced Tea?

 

[JackLuis]

Dutch ban transport of mink after farm workers infected

Dutch authorities on Thursday announced a nationwide ban on the transport of mink after mink farm workers were believed to have contracted coronavirus from the small mammals.

The infections in the south of the Netherlands could be the “first known cases of animal-to-human transmission”, the World Health Organization had said on Tuesday.

The Dutch government had previously made COVID-19 testing mandatory on all mink farms in the country, where the animals are bred for their fur.

 

[Just4AFriend]

At what point in the HiSTORY of the CDC did they start to put out health directives with... “if convenient”

W T F!!

Science is dead!! Long Live the Trump Age. It will be darker moving forward

 

[JackLuis]

John Roberts joins liberals as Supreme Court rejects challenge to Newsom’s COVID-19 limits on California church attendance

In a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court on Friday rejected an emergency appeal from the South Bay United Pentecostal Church in Chula Vista, California. The San Diego area church tried to challenge the state’s limits on attendance at worship services:

Roberts wrote in brief opinion that the restriction allowing churches to reopen at 25% of their capacity, with no more than 100 worshipers at a time, “appear consistent” with the First Amendment. Roberts said similar or more severe limits apply to concerts, movies and sporting events “where large groups of people gather in close proximity for extended periods of time.”

Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in dissent that the restriction “discriminates against places of worship and in favor of comparable secular businesses. Such discrimination violates the First Amendment.” Kavanaugh pointed to supermarkets, restaurants, hair salons, cannabis dispensaries and other businesses that are not subject to the same restrictions.

 

[JackLuis]

Justice Roberts took ‘clear swipe’ at Kavanaugh in opinion siding with liberals in religion case: report

But the ruling was dramatic in a key way. As court watcher Mark Joseph Stern wrote for Slate, Justice Brett Kavanaugh “falsely accused the state of religious discrimination in an extremely misleading opinion that omits the most important facts of the case” in his dissent — and was so dishonest that Roberts went out of his way to rebuke him in the Court opinion.

That argument was so ridiculous, wrote Stern, that Roberts took a “clear swipe at Kavanaugh” in his opinion, writing: “The notion that it is ‘indisputably clear’ that the Government’s limitations are unconstitutional seems quite improbable.”

 

[JackLuis]

Sweden admits virus response could have been better

Sweden’s top epidemiologist said Wednesday there was room for improvement in the country’s controversial softer approach to curbing the spread of COVID-19, but maintained he still had faith in the strategy.

Anders Tegnell, the public face of Sweden’s virus response, defended the decision not to impose the strict lockdowns seen in other countries. But as more information had become available, adjustments to the strategy could have been made, he added.
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“If we were to encounter the same disease with everything we know about it today, I think we would end up doing something in between what Sweden and the rest of the world has done,” Tegnell told Swedish Radio.

Sweden has so far reported 40,803 confirmed cases and 4,542 deaths, a toll far greater than neighboring countries and described by Tegnell as “absolutely” too high.

Sweden's mortality % seems to be less than America's, so good job there.

 

[JackLuis]

Cuba declares coronavirus pandemic ‘under control’

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has declared the coronavirus pandemic “under control” after the island nation registered an eighth straight day without a death from COVID-19.

It paves the way for an announcement next week on Cuba’s strategy to gradually lift its lockdown.

The country of 11.2 million has recorded just under 2,200 cases and 83 deaths from the virus.

With 1,862 people having recovered, Cuba has only 244 active cases.

Known for their health care system Cuba shows the world that health care is fundamental to a properly organized State!!!

Cuba
Coronavirus Cases: 2,200

Deaths: 83

Recovered: 1,868

Deaths per Million 7

USA Deaths per Million 340

 

[JackLuis]

Joyful PM Ardern declares New Zealand virus victory

New Zealand lifted all domestic coronavirus restrictions on Monday after its final COVID-19 patient was given the all clear, with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern revealing she danced around her living room when told about the milestone.

While strict border controls will remain in place, Ardern said restrictions such as social distancing and limits on public gatherings were no longer needed.

“We are confident we have eliminated transmission of the virus in New Zealand for now,” she said in a televised address, saying Kiwis had “united in unprecedented ways to crush the virus”.

The South Pacific nation, with a population of five million, has had 1,154 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 22 deaths.

 

[JackLuis]

Dr. Fauci’s bleak remarks: His ‘worst nightmare’ has occurred — and it ‘isn’t over yet’

Dr. Anthony Fauci delivered a bleak assessment of the state of the world’s coronavirus outbreak on Tuesday while speaking to leaders in the biotechnology industry, even while many in public life act as if the pandemic crisis has faded.

“In a period of four months, it has devastated the whole world,” the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and one of the leading American experts on the crisis said of the virus, according to a New York Times report. “And it isn’t over yet.”

At the same time, the worst result — sudden, severe spikes comparable to the outbreak that tore through New York City early on — has not yet occurred because of the reopenings. That may mean that we’re getting a handle on how to operate our economy without the most extreme outbreaks of the disease. But our course of action also may set us up for a second wave of infections in the fall, which has the potential to be worse than the first wave.

 

[bodysong]

Claim that asymptomatic transmission 'very rare' was 'misleading', says WHO official – as it happened

WHO expert backtracks after saying asymptomatic transmission 'very rare'

Maria Van Kerkhove says she accepts models show up to 40% of infections come from asymptomatic people

* Coronavirus – latest updates

9 June 2020

Dr Maria Van Kerkhove maintained that real world data suggested it could still be a rare event when she took part in a social media Q&A to explain herself, saying she was not referencing the modelling studies when she spoke.

Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s Covid-19 technical lead, said that on asymptomatic transmission “we don’t have the answer yet”. Her comment at the WHO’s Monday press briefing about its rarity was based on two or three studies following up the contacts of asymptomatic people, and unpublished data shared by countries or experts with her organisation.

“I used the phrase ‘very rare’ and I think that it’s a misunderstanding to state the asymptomatic transmission globally is very rare. What I was referring to was a subset of studies. I was also referring to some data that isn’t published,” she said.

She said she did not mention the estimates of up to 40% because “those are from models”.

It was certain that asymptomatic infection happened, she said, but how often was still one of the great unknowns about Covid-19 that scientists were investigating. One of the complications is that some people who appear to be infected but asymptomatic are in fact pre-symptomatic – they can go on to, for instance, experience a mild course of disease. “They may not register that they are sick,” she said.

One of the critical issues is how long people are infectious before they develop symptoms and how infectious they are in the days before they are clearly ill. “It is not only who is transmitting to others, but when,” she said. “The data is very preliminary.” They were working with countries to get answers, she said.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...er-saying-asymptomatic-transmission-very-rare

 

[JackLuis]

Number of Texans hospitalized with coronavirus hits all-time high as experts say cases are likely to continue increasing

For the third day in a row, Texas has reported a record number of patients hospitalized with the new coronavirus, a metric Gov. Greg Abbott has said he’s watching as businesses continue reopening and limits on their operations are loosened.[/QUOTE


Coronavirus infections in younger people are skyrocketing — here’s why


Governors decide they don’t care about spike in coronavirus cases — reopening will continue

Arizona, in particular, has seen a dramatic increase in coronavirus cases, though it could be attributed to the state actually testing, when before it was difficult to get a test. Texas, where Trump is headed to a fundraiser Wednesday, had its worst week of hospitalizations and an increase in cases.

Politico reported that the GOP governors don’t care about the increase in cases and the danger it poses to their state. They’re reopening everything, even if it means their own citizens will die.

 

[JackLuis]

Hundreds of Orlando International Airport employees test positive for COVID-19

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said this week that an alarming number of employees at the Orlando International Airport tested positive for COVID-19 after nearly 500 of them were tested for the disease.

Orlando’s News 6 WKMG reports that 260 Orlando airport workers came back with positive novel coronavirus test results, which is a positive rate of around 52 percent.

Florida so far has recorded more than 80,000 COVID-19 infections and around 3,000 deaths resulting from the disease.

Despite the recent eruption in cases in the state, President Donald Trump chose the city of Jacksonville as the site where he will accept the Republican Party’s 2020 nomination for the presidency.

"Next week in Tulsa"