COVID-19 (f/k/a "the Coronavirus")

[jesmu84]

What's being said at White House press briefings is annoying.

What's being done on the floor of Congress is criminal.

[Mutaman]

Go ahead and doubt it no reason for my cousin to make it up

Maybe the condo neighbor made it up. I heard from my best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend who heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with a girl that no doctor has left NYC to move to Madison. At least not any competent one.

[Mutaman]

This country will drown without a leader. May already be too late.

"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help. "

[Jockey]

What's being said at White House press briefings is annoying.

What's being done on the floor of Congress is criminal.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help. "

This is such bullsh*t. It’s part of the reason why we are in this mess to begin with. “Bureaucrats” have been ridiculed and mocked for their expertise and experience for years.

It’s a pandemic. Outside of a war, I can’t think of something more appropriate for the federal government to help with.

[GooooMarquette]

What's being said at White House press briefings is annoying criminal.

What's being done on the floor of Congress is criminal too.

FIFY

In times of national crisis, the message from leadership is essential to maintaining the pease and confidence of the citizens. Without that, chaos may erupt...and Congress can't do much to stop that.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

I found this article over the weekend from The Atlantic.
Lots of info on the virus itself as to what is known and unknown.

Why the Coronavirus Has Been So Successful
We’ve known about SARS-CoV-2 for only three months, but scientists can make some educated guesses about where it came from and why it’s behaving in such an extreme way.

ED YONG
MARCH 20, 2020

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/03/biography-new-coronavirus/608338/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=masthead-newsletter&utm_content=20200321&silverid-ref=MzEwMTU3Mjg5Mzk2S0

[Golden Avalanche]

What's being said at White House press briefings is annoying.

What's being done on the floor of Congress is criminal.

For me, it's the reverse.

Congressional grandstanding is annoying (maybe it wasn't a good idea for McConnell to take a long weekend last week and shut down the Senate) but with the Fed keeping things afloat right now it's simply a matter of time until a nearly $2 trillion stimulus is pumped into the country. So long as it's done this week it can still be effective.


As for the WH, deliberately pumping misinformation into the discussion so as to create political cover has accelerated the virus and certainly had a hand in people dying. If you weigh political benefit and Americans dying and come out on the side of political benefit, that belies a criminal taint to the response.

[WarriorDad]

And today we are well over 25,000.  I don't see your point.  We are going to blow past Italy's numbers, and this isn't a race we should be trying to win.

My point is you should be looking at this in context.  Cases per 1M would be a good example to follow.

On 3/21 the US had 24K cases and Italy had 12.5K.  That tells an incorrect story if population is not factored in.  Those same numbers normalized for population show Italy has 206 cases per 1M of of their population.  The US has 73 cases per 1M of our population.  Both are alarming, but the United States has five times the population as Italy, we are a free society, with means to travel the world.  We are a prime target for this type of thing, and using absolute numbers without addressing total population is misleading.

[Frenns Liquor Depot]

Ugh — we are not even out of the starting gates. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-signals-growing-weariness-with-social-distancing-and-other-steps-advocated-by-health-officials/2020/03/23/0920ea0a-6cfc-11ea-a3ec-70d7479d83f0_story.html?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook
   

[WarriorDad]

What's being said at White House press briefings is annoying.

What's being done on the floor of Congress is criminal.

100%.  The games both sides play and at this hour.

[Hards Alumni]

My point is you should be looking at this in context.  Cases per 1M would be a good example to follow.

On 3/21 the US had 24K cases and Italy had 12.5K.  That tells an incorrect story if population is not factored in.  Those same numbers normalized for population show Italy has 206 cases per 1M of of their population.  The US has 73 cases per 1M of our population.  Both are alarming, but the United States has five times the population as Italy, we are a free society, with means to travel the world.  We are a prime target for this type of thing, and using absolute numbers without addressing total population is misleading.

My point is you ignored the context.  We aren't Italy now, we are Italy TWO WEEKS AGO.  That's why we are going to blow by their numbers, and make them look like geniuses in comparison.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

Ugh — we are not even out of the starting gates. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-signals-growing-weariness-with-social-distancing-and-other-steps-advocated-by-health-officials/2020/03/23/0920ea0a-6cfc-11ea-a3ec-70d7479d83f0_story.html?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook
 

His tweet in the linked article was parroting a tabloid-style show on Fox that had run minutes earlier.  That's where we are--Executive policy being determined by what he sees on TV.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

My point is you ignored the context.  We aren't Italy now, we are Italy TWO WEEKS AGO.  That's why we are going to blow by their numbers, and make them look like geniuses in comparison.

Here's a cool and terrifying time lapse graph.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=Dbi59kz8CT4&feature=emb_logo

[GooooMarquette]

That's where we are--Executive policy being determined by what he sees on TV.

Yup. It was appalling from January 2017 until about January 2020. It's absolutely terrifying now.

[forgetful]

The UK has a test, which costs $25, can be done at home, and takes only 30 minutes. It requires no special equipment, just have to heat the sample to above 150 degrees F, for 30 minutes and watch for a color change.

http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2020-03-18-oxford-scientists-develop-rapid-testing-technology-covid-19

[shoothoops]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/22/health/coronavirus-restrictions-us.html#click=https://t.co/7cy71sKLVG

This is a good public health expert summary that came out yesterday.

[jesmu84]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/22/health/coronavirus-restrictions-us.html#click=https://t.co/7cy71sKLVG

This is a good public health expert summary that came out yesterday.

Other experts are saying it's time to drop any restrictions and get back to work.

Tough to know who's correct

[WarriorDad]

The UK has a test, which costs $25, can be done at home, and takes only 30 minutes. It requires no special equipment, just have to heat the sample to above 150 degrees F, for 30 minutes and watch for a color change.

http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2020-03-18-oxford-scientists-develop-rapid-testing-technology-covid-19

False Negatives are the current problem with testing across the world

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/health/2020/03/why-mass-testing-coronavirus-isn-t-easy-solution

[shoothoops]

Other experts are saying it's time to drop any restrictions and get back to work.

Tough to know who's correct

Would you name some of these other experts that are suggesting drop restrictions and get back to work and life as usual?

[jesmu84]

Would you name some of these other experts that are suggesting drop restrictions and get back to work and life as usual?

They work mostly in the economic and business community

[mu03eng]

This is such bullsh*t. It’s part of the reason why we are in this mess to begin with. “Bureaucrats” have been ridiculed and mocked for their expertise and experience for years.

It’s a pandemic. Outside of a war, I can’t think of something more appropriate for the federal government to help with.

Government at the local levels yes, government at the federal level, not so much. There are broad strokes the federal government can pursue but it's going to.take the citizens, companies, and local.governments to resolve this.

[mu03eng]

My point is you ignored the context.  We aren't Italy now, we are Italy TWO WEEKS AGO.  That's why we are going to blow by their numbers, and make them look like geniuses in comparison.

In some parts of the country, this is a possible outcome, but not even all of Italy is seeing the impact like they are in the Lombardi region

If I'm in NYC or Seattle I am 100% panicked. If I'm in Utah or Tennessee or maybe Alabama I'm concerned but not overly so.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

Government at the local levels yes, government at the federal level, not so much. There are broad strokes the federal government can pursue but it's going to.take the citizens, companies, and local.governments to resolve this.

Sorry the problem with that is we have dipsh*t local governments in places like Florida.  And other states can't close the border to and from Florida.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

St. Louis fed has an interesting proposal.

https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2020/march/bullard-expected-us-macroeconomic-performance-pandemic-adjustment-period