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

[Vander Blue Man Group]

I think pakuni is on your side. 

Or are you just arguing to argue with no real point?

Innocent mistake. I confused his response with someone else and edited my response to reflect that.

[Lighthouse 84]

Don't forget the swastikas, nooses and confederate flags carried by "these very good people."

If comments like this are going to continue and be unchecked by the mods, why not just bring the Politics Board back?  It's a farce to label this as a "Politics Free Zone".

And no, I don't think those who carry a swastika, noose or confederate flag are "very good people."  My comment cuts both ways.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

They just want to buy seeds.

The first thing the Revolutionary War minutemen did after taking over the airports was to enshrine in the Constitution the right to fish from powerboats.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

Ah, yes, let's putting unnatural carnal knowledgeing Jared in charge. Volunteers! Exceptional leadership.

Kushner coronavirus effort said to be hampered by inexperienced volunteers
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/kushner-coronavirus-effort-said-to-be-hampered-by-inexperienced-volunteers/2020/05/05/6166ef0c-8e1c-11ea-9e23-6914ee410a5f_story.html

"Although some of the volunteers have relevant backgrounds and experience, many others were poorly matched with the jobs they were assigned, including those given the task of securing personal protective equipment, or PPE, for hospitals nationwide, according to a complaint filed last month with the House Oversight Committee.

"The document alleges that the team responsible for PPE had little success in helping the government secure such equipment, in part because none of the team’s members had significant experience in health care, procurement or supply-chain operations. In addition, none of the volunteers had existing relationships with manufacturers or a clear understanding of customs requirements or Food and Drug Administration rules, according to the complaint and two senior administration officials."

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

Ah, yes, let's putting unnatural carnal knowledgeing Jared in charge. Volunteers! Exceptional leadership.

Kushner coronavirus effort said to be hampered by inexperienced volunteers
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/kushner-coronavirus-effort-said-to-be-hampered-by-inexperienced-volunteers/2020/05/05/6166ef0c-8e1c-11ea-9e23-6914ee410a5f_story.html

"Although some of the volunteers have relevant backgrounds and experience, many others were poorly matched with the jobs they were assigned, including those given the task of securing personal protective equipment, or PPE, for hospitals nationwide, according to a complaint filed last month with the House Oversight Committee.

"The document alleges that the team responsible for PPE had little success in helping the government secure such equipment, in part because none of the team’s members had significant experience in health care, procurement or supply-chain operations. In addition, none of the volunteers had existing relationships with manufacturers or a clear understanding of customs requirements or Food and Drug Administration rules, according to the complaint and two senior administration officials."

Jeez if this is true, this is just awful.  What a group we have in charge.

"The complaint, obtained by The Washington Post, was submitted by a volunteer who has since left the group and who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution from the administration. Key elements of the complaint were confirmed by six administration officials and one outside adviser to the effort, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

...

“Americans are facing a crisis of tragic proportions and there is an urgent need for an effective, efficient and bold response,” reads the complaint, which was sent to the committee on April 8. “From my few weeks as a volunteer, I believe we are falling short. I am writing to alert my representatives of these challenges and to ask that they do everything possible to help front-line health-care workers and other Americans in need.”

Supply-chain volunteers were instructed to fast-track protective equipment leads from “VIPs,” including conservative journalists friendly to the White House, according to the complaint and one senior administration official.

“Fox & Friends” host Brian Kilmeade, for example, called two people he knew in the administration to pass along a lead about protective equipment in an effort to be helpful, according to two people familiar with the outreach. Fox News Channel host Jeanine Pirro also repeatedly lobbied the administration for a specific New York hospital to receive a large quantity of masks, one of the people said."

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

Jeez if this is true, this is just awful.  What a group we have in charge.

"The complaint, obtained by The Washington Post, was submitted by a volunteer who has since left the group and who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution from the administration. Key elements of the complaint were confirmed by six administration officials and one outside adviser to the effort, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

...

“Americans are facing a crisis of tragic proportions and there is an urgent need for an effective, efficient and bold response,” reads the complaint, which was sent to the committee on April 8. “From my few weeks as a volunteer, I believe we are falling short. I am writing to alert my representatives of these challenges and to ask that they do everything possible to help front-line health-care workers and other Americans in need.”

Supply-chain volunteers were instructed to fast-track protective equipment leads from “VIPs,” including conservative journalists friendly to the White House, according to the complaint and one senior administration official.

“Fox & Friends” host Brian Kilmeade, for example, called two people he knew in the administration to pass along a lead about protective equipment in an effort to be helpful, according to two people familiar with the outreach. Fox News Channel host Jeanine Pirro also repeatedly lobbied the administration for a specific New York hospital to receive a large quantity of masks, one of the people said."

I can add some first hand experience here.  For the last 6 weeks I have been quoting flat aluminum wire for everybody and their brother who has gotten into mask making.  I've been negotiating with Walmart the last 2 weeks which is dragging out because of their ridiculous T&Cs.  The first 3-4 weeks basically no one wanted to pull the trigger on a PO.  I had one PO before Easter and it was a do-gooder in the North Philly suburbs.  Finally customers have started ordering last week.  No idea what was holding everyone back for so long? 

[GooooMarquette]

Ah, yes, let's putting unnatural carnal knowledgeing Jared in charge. Volunteers! Exceptional leadership.

Kushner coronavirus effort said to be hampered by inexperienced volunteers
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/kushner-coronavirus-effort-said-to-be-hampered-by-inexperienced-volunteers/2020/05/05/6166ef0c-8e1c-11ea-9e23-6914ee410a5f_story.html

"Although some of the volunteers have relevant backgrounds and experience, many others were poorly matched with the jobs they were assigned, including those given the task of securing personal protective equipment, or PPE, for hospitals nationwide, according to a complaint filed last month with the House Oversight Committee.

"The document alleges that the team responsible for PPE had little success in helping the government secure such equipment, in part because none of the team’s members had significant experience in health care, procurement or supply-chain operations. In addition, none of the volunteers had existing relationships with manufacturers or a clear understanding of customs requirements or Food and Drug Administration rules, according to the complaint and two senior administration officials."

Sad to say, but this was entirely predictable. Jared can't even run his own business effectively. There was no reason to believe he would be effective at negotiating peace in the Middle East, solving the opioid crisis, reforming the criminal justice system...or helping with the COVID-19 crisis.

[GooooMarquette]

A cautionary note in the rush to find new treatments:

This Drug May Cause Birth Defects. Japan’s Pushing It for Coronavirus.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/05/business/japan-avigan-coronavirus.html

The prime minister, however, has glossed over one crucial fact: There is no solid evidence that Avigan is actually effective against Covid-19. While the drug has shown potential for treating some deadly diseases like Ebola in animal studies, there are limited findings that it works for any illness in humans.

What Avigan, whose generic name is favipiravir, does have is a peculiar regulatory history and one dangerous potential side effect — birth defects. Mr. Abe himself noted in a news conference on Monday that the side effect was “the same as thalidomide,” which caused deformities in thousands of babies in the 1950s and ’60s.

________

Personally, I think it is terrific that many companies and academic medical centers are actively studying vaccines and drugs that might be effective in preventing or treating COVID. But we can't lose sight of the need to test these thoroughly - the requirements for thorough double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials are there for a reason.

As for the aforementioned thalidomide...fortunately, the FDA was wise enough not to approve it for treatment of insomnia, as it has been in approved in many European countries. This denial - the result of the FDA following its thorough requirements - may have prevented thousands of babies from being born with birth defects. I am especially appreciative of this, because my mom took (different) medications for sleep and anxiety. She may have taken thalidomide if it had been approved between the initial application in December 1960 and the eventual withdrawal of the application in March 1962. I was born in June 1962. So yeah - FDA following its scrupulous approval requirements is a big deal to me.

An interesting final postscript: The medical reviewer at FDA who refused to approve the drug for insomnia was Frances Oldham Kelsey. This was her first assignment at FDA; it was given to her because superiors thought it would be an 'easy' drug to approve. But Kelsey was suspicious of the data, and her refusal to approve the drug despite immense pressure from the company earned her broad accolades including headline stories in The Washington Post and New York Times. Chapeau, Dr. Kelsey!

https://web.archive.org/web/20090512235601/https://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/2001/201_kelsey.html

[TSmith34, Inc.]

Sad to say, but this was entirely predictable. Jared can't even run his own business effectively. There was no reason to believe he would be effective at negotiating peace in the Middle East, solving the opioid crisis, reforming the criminal justice system...or helping with the COVID-19 crisis.

Not only do they pick a person who knows NOTHING to lead the effort, they then rely on frickin volunteers and Fox New hosts to try to source the stuff.

The sheer intentional incompetence here is stunning, yet some people see no problem with them.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

The "volunteers" line makes it look like this was your Aunt Mabel who also volunteers at the VFW meat raffle and the local election.  But it was actually on-loan executives from consulting firms and the like.  That's not necessarily bad.  But it looks like the skill-sets was more a mismatch than anything.

"About two dozen employees from Boston Consulting Group, Insight, McKinsey and other firms have volunteered their time — some on paid vacation leave from their jobs and others without pay — to aid the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, according to administration officials and others familiar with the arrangement.

Although some of the volunteers have relevant backgrounds and experience, many others were poorly matched with the jobs they were assigned, including those given the task of securing personal protective equipment, or PPE, for hospitals nationwide, according to a complaint filed last month with the House Oversight Committee."

[TSmith34, Inc.]

The results apparently weren't any better than Aunt Mabel could have produced. Sure, they were execs and consultants, but they had zero expertise in this area. And why did we have to rely on non-experienced non-experts in the first place? Oh, that's right, someone disbanded the global health security team:

"It's worth emphasizing that this is Trump's second explanation related to his decision to disband his global health security team. "I'm a business person," he explained two weeks ago in response to a similar question. "I don't like having thousands of people around when you don't need them. When we need them, we can get them back very quickly."

"As it turns out, the administration cannot actually reassemble such a team "very quickly," though Trump, still unfamiliar with how much of the executive branch works, may not have known that."

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trump-struggles-explain-why-he-disbanded-his-global-health-team-n1153221

[ZiggysFryBoy]

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trump-struggles-explain-why-he-disbanded-his-global-health-team-n1153221

Fox lies
Fox lies
Fox lies
Fox lies
Fox lies

Citing madcow is just as dumb as citing carlson as a legitimate source.

[MU82]

If comments like this are going to continue and be unchecked by the mods, why not just bring the Politics Board back?  It's a farce to label this as a "Politics Free Zone".

And no, I don't think those who carry a swastika, noose or confederate flag are "very good people."  My comment cuts both ways.

The Michigan protesters were carrying signs with swastikas, confederate flags and nooses. (And, of course, guns. Lots of guns.) And the president called the protesters "very good people."

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1256202305680158720

It's news about COVID-19. Facts. Not opinion at all. And quite tame compared to much of the stuff in this thread.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

The Michigan protesters were carrying signs with swastikas, confederate flags and nooses. (And, of course, guns. Lots of guns.) And the president called the protesters "very good people."

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1256202305680158720

It's news about COVID-19. Facts. Not opinion at all. And quite tame compared to much of the stuff in this thread.

There's a tweet identifying a photo that has been circulating of a man with a beard, bald head and without a mask who is screaming into two police officer faces.
Meet Rob Cantrell who lives in Los Angeles. Rob is a white supremacist who is being paid to attend protests in blue states all over the country.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

Fox lies
Fox lies
Fox lies
Fox lies
Fox lies

Citing madcow is just as dumb as citing carlson as a legitimate source.

This is just my recommendation so take it FWIW, but if I were you I wouldn't be so eager to show how stupid I could be.

The source is Trump's own words.

[MarquetteDano]

There's a tweet identifying a photo that has been circulating of a man with a beard, bald head and without a mask who is screaming into two police officer faces.
Meet Rob Cantrell who lives in Los Angeles. Rob is a white supremacist who is being paid to attend protests in blue states all over the country.

If true, astroturfing at its finest.  Democrats do it do.  It is maddening to me.  One of the scariest trends in our democracy.  I would not be surprised at all to find out that foreign actors are playing a role here as well.

[Pakuni]

There's a tweet identifying a photo that has been circulating of a man with a beard, bald head and without a mask who is screaming into two police officer faces.
Meet Rob Cantrell who lives in Los Angeles. Rob is a white supremacist who is being paid to attend protests in blue states all over the country.

Maybe he was just in town to buy paint at the local Home Depot and was outraged to learn that he couldn't.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

If true, astroturfing at its finest.  Democrats do it do.  It is maddening to me.  One of the scariest trends in our democracy.  I would not be surprised at all to find out that foreign actors are playing a role here as well.

https://twitter.com/stonecold2050/status/1257032454088478720?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1257032454088478720&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailykos.com%2Fstory%2F2020%2F5%2F4%2F1942636%2F-Michigan-Protestors-Again

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

On another subject, I see there are several articles this week on how Coronavirus is changing office layouts.

The open office is probably dead and shorter cube farm partitions will go back to being tall.
Also, that the trend was for companies to head to downtown locations and the thought is they will head back out to the suburban office park. 
Smaller office spaces in that suburban park and have more people work from home.

[Warriors4ever]

Rob Cantrell is a ‘Proud Boy’ who apparently was one of the guys in MAGA hats who threatened the bookstore in Berkeley a couple of years ago in a video that went viral.
Unfortunately in googling him I also found there is a comedian in NYC with the same name -I feel for him right now. 

[WarriorDad]

For someone like yourself who has only ever voted left, your posting sure seems like we're in a period of time with cooperation and bipartisanship.

I vote for candidates that I think can help the country work together.  As I said, if Warren or Bernie had won they would not get my vote.  I find the pulling on both sides to their ideological beacons bad for this country.

My voting for Democrats only in the presidency is correct.  Not always the case in other offices. 

[WarriorDad]

I have been critical of DeSantis’ approach here.  Maybe he got lucky or right, but Florida did better than the doomers predicted by a long shot.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/smart-or-lucky-how-florida-dodged-the-worst-of-coronavirus-11588531865

[WarriorDad]

Rocket- I wholeheartedly disagree. Experts are vetted by learning, more info/data and more experts testing hypotheses to an accepted conclusion.  Yes you need to find out who you are listening to.  That is up to the consumer and the platform presenting to vet. 

I’m not sure what this has to do with one drug treatment. It got the access to trials and emergency use. If it worked better we would be using it more.

I wish it wasn’t politicized and promoted by the media.  I wish there wasn’t the backlash of ‘I told you so’ when it didn’t rise to the top.  Wasted effort- distraction - dust storm when we need concrete actions.

Is WHO, the World Health Organization made up of experts?  In late January did they not say COVID 19 had shown no evidence passing from human to human contact?  Their own twitter account suggests they did.  They were wrong.

I, too, have found experts have been wrong on any number of areas with COVId, flipped positions, modified opinions, said one thing only to change and then return back to their original position months later.  Not that surprising as this is not something the world was ready to deal with.  As usual here, it then becomes politicized based on which side wants to push an approach, strategy, treatment and it becomes our expert vs your expert.  Some are cheering for one side to fail.  It really is something.  Social media and even on TV these days is more dire than ever.  People actively wishing people die because they don’t choose their side’s path on a solution.  Both sides doing it. 

United America we are not.  Haven’t been for many years.

[pbiflyer]

I have been critical of DeSantis’ approach here.  Maybe he got lucky or right, but Florida did better than the doomers predicted by a long shot.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/smart-or-lucky-how-florida-dodged-the-worst-of-coronavirus-11588531865

Mainly because he’s been successful on suppressing state numbers. Most all Florida numbers in the last week have been from private labs.

[tower912]

https://www.freep.com/story/news/2020/05/05/michigan-capitol-building-protest-picture/3084192001/

Nah, the screamer is home grown.    We don't need to import them.    We have plenty home made ones.