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

[shoothoops]

Lindsey graham refuses to get tested before his next debate.

Pretty obvious that any senate republican, but especially on the judiciary committee, will not get tested or admit to positive test before confirmation.

[Galway Eagle]

To be fair they were wearing masks... but yeah get tested

[Hards Alumni]

To be fair they were wearing masks... but yeah get tested

Agreed.  It isn't ideal, but they're both masked and not making out.

This time.

[MU82]

Mitch McConnell says he hasn't visited the White House due to their lax policy on the coronavirus.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mcconnell-hasnt-been-white-house-early-august-lax-covid-rules

[jesmu84]

Mitch McConnell says he hasn't visited the White House due to their lax policy on the coronavirus.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mcconnell-hasnt-been-white-house-early-august-lax-covid-rules

I'm assuming the article says he's pushing hard for all the senators to be repeatedly tested with public results?

[SoCalEagle]

I'm assuming the article says he's pushing hard for all the senators to be repeatedly tested with public results?

Uh ..... no. 

But I see there are more questions regarding Barret's refusal to wear a mask.  She appeared in multiple places where masks were required and did not wear one.  Same for her entire family, including the kids.  Flaunts the rules, eh? 

[GB Warrior]

Uh ..... no. 

But I see there are more questions regarding Barret's refusal to wear a mask.  She appeared in multiple places where masks were required and did not wear one.  Same for her entire family, including the kids.  Flaunts the rules, eh?

She didn't think the founders intended it

[Galway Eagle]

Uh ..... no. 

But I see there are more questions regarding Barret's refusal to wear a mask.  She appeared in multiple places where masks were required and did not wear one.  Same for her entire family, including the kids.  Flaunts the rules, eh?

Could be a result of having had it already she probably feels invincible and that it'd be pointless. For example I have an uncle who tested positive for antibodies after he thought he had it in March and on 4th of July he was almost making a point to invade everyone's space and hug people against their will etc.

[SoCalEagle]

Could be a result of having had it already she probably feels invincible and that it'd be pointless. For example I have an uncle who tested positive for antibodies after he thought he had it in March and on 4th of July he was almost making a point to invade everyone's space and hug people against their will etc.

I hear you.  But, it doesn't explain spouse and kids, right?  And what about shaking everyone's hand at the super spreader event.  Even if she is immune (let's presume), she can easily pass it from one person to the next by touching multiple people (i.e. no social distancing).  Any way you cut it, she flaunted the rules (law???). 

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

No I don't think you are infectious if you have had the disease already.  The virus won't replicate enough for that.

[MU82]

She didn't think the founders intended it

Made me laugh.

[MU82]

Charlotte area residents should feel safe casting their ballots at early voting locations next week despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Public Health Director Gibbie Harris said Friday.

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article246338235.html?ac_cid=DM298554&ac_bid=-1812517297

The sites are designed to accommodate social distancing, Harris told reporters during a news conference. And health officials are planning to distribute a “significant amount” of personal protective equipment, intended for poll workers and voters who arrive without face coverings.

“Everyone is being encouraged to wear a mask and to socially distance,” Harris said. “At this point in time, we’re comfortable with the work that the (Mecklenburg County) Board of Elections is doing around these sites.”

I am very glad this is being said. I definitely plan to vote in person during early voting, which runs from Oct. 15-31. It will be no different than grocery shopping -- keep your distance, stand in designated spots, wear a mask, use hand sanitizer after touching anything, etc. The main difference is that at polling places, the mask-wearing mandate actually will be enforced.

[Hards Alumni]

No I don't think you are infectious if you have had the disease already.  The virus won't replicate enough for that.

Fomites.

[shoothoops]

A teacher and two students of the school attended by the children of Amy Coney Barrett have tested positive for COVID-19. (Her family attended the superspreader White House event.)


https://twitter.com/apoorva_nyc/status/1314621142062247938?s=19

[Jockey]

Fomites.

Hadn’t heard the word before. Thanks.

[GooooMarquette]

No I don't think you are infectious if you have had the disease already.  The virus won't replicate enough for that.

CDC says we still don't have enough information to know for sure.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/if-you-are-sick/end-home-isolation.html

CDC recommends that all people, whether or not they have had COVID-19, take steps to prevent getting and spreading COVID-19. Wash hands regularly, stay at least 6 feet away from others whenever possible, and wear masks.

[SoCalEagle]

No I don't think you are infectious if you have had the disease already.  The virus won't replicate enough for that.

You don’t have to be infectious to pass on the virus. If I’m immune, but you’re sick and I shake your hand, I can then pass the virus (that is now on my hand) to someone else. This may have happened with Barret who shook lots of hands. She was the focus of the event after all.

[GooooMarquette]

Nine coronavirus cases tied to Trump Minnesota rally

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/09/trump-minnesota-rally-coronavirus-cases-428425

Nine people who have contracted the coronavirus reported attending a Donald Trump rally in Bemidji, Minn., last month, state health officials said Friday, including two who were hospitalized.

One of them remains in an intensive care unit.

——————

Just the flu....

[shoothoops]

To be fair they were wearing masks... but yeah get tested

None of them were wearing masks for the 90 minute Senate Judiciary Committee meeting immediately following this photo. Lee, who had symptoms, tested positive the next day.

[Galway Eagle]

None of them were wearing masks for the 90 minute Senate Judiciary Committee meeting immediately following this photo. Lee, who had symptoms, tested positive the next day.

The important thing is the commoners in the background are wearing masks. Everyone knows Covid doesn't hit the elite

[forgetful]

Harris County Texas, (Houston) population 4.7 million, over half of which are registered to vote, has one drop off location for early voting.

This is a COVID issue for two reasons.

1. Because of COVID more people will be submitting ballots at these drop off locations than ever have before.
2. If people cannot easily drop off a ballot somewhere, they may instead vote in person. In these high population density areas then, voting would have the capacity to be a super spreader event.

Now, why the "one drop off location" is absurd. If 1 million people tried to vote by drop of ballot in Harris county, and if it only took 5 second per drop off, it would take 57 days for all of them to vote. Let's say it was only 250,000, or 10% of the registered voters. It would still take 14.5 days for them all to vote, that is assuming drop-off 24-hours a day. It also assumes that these drive through drop off sites would only take 5 seconds to drop-off.

Don't forget, depending on where you live it may take hours round trip to get there.

The situation is ripe to cause a potential rapid rise in COVID in already hard hit areas due to an increase in in person voting.

[MU82]

The New England Journal of Medicine delivers a scathing rebuke of American leadership in regards to the pandemic:

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2029812

I'll let folks read the article and draw their own conclusions, but a few of the "highlights" (or lowlights):

Covid-19 has created a crisis throughout the world. This crisis has produced a test of leadership. With no good options to combat a novel pathogen, countries were forced to make hard choices about how to respond. Here in the United States, our leaders have failed that test. They have taken a crisis and turned it into a tragedy.

The magnitude of this failure is astonishing. ... Why has the United States handled this pandemic so badly? We have failed at almost every step.

Although we tend to focus on technology, most of the interventions that have large effects are not complicated. The United States instituted quarantine and isolation measures late and inconsistently, often without any effort to enforce them, after the disease had spread substantially in many communities. Our rules on social distancing have in many places been lackadaisical at best, with loosening of restrictions long before adequate disease control had been achieved. And in much of the country, people simply don’t wear masks, largely because our leaders have stated outright that masks are political tools rather than effective infection control measures.

The United States came into this crisis with enormous advantages. ...  Yet our leaders have largely chosen to ignore and even denigrate experts. ...

The response of our nation’s leaders has been consistently inadequate. The federal government has largely abandoned disease control to the states. Governors have varied in their responses, not so much by party as by competence. But whatever their competence, governors do not have the tools that Washington controls. Instead of using those tools, the federal government has undermined them. ... The Food and Drug Administration has been shamefully politicized, appearing to respond to pressure from the administration rather than scientific evidence. Our current leaders have undercut trust in science and in government, causing damage that will certainly outlast them. Instead of relying on expertise, the administration has turned to uninformed “opinion leaders” and charlatans who obscure the truth and facilitate the promulgation of outright lies. ...

When it comes to the response to the largest public health crisis of our time, our current political leaders have demonstrated that they are dangerously incompetent.

[GooooMarquette]

The New England Journal of Medicine delivers a scathing rebuke of American leadership in regards to the pandemic:

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2029812

I'll let folks read the article and draw their own conclusions, but a few of the "highlights" (or lowlights):

Covid-19 has created a crisis throughout the world. This crisis has produced a test of leadership. With no good options to combat a novel pathogen, countries were forced to make hard choices about how to respond. Here in the United States, our leaders have failed that test. They have taken a crisis and turned it into a tragedy.

The magnitude of this failure is astonishing. ... Why has the United States handled this pandemic so badly? We have failed at almost every step.

Although we tend to focus on technology, most of the interventions that have large effects are not complicated. The United States instituted quarantine and isolation measures late and inconsistently, often without any effort to enforce them, after the disease had spread substantially in many communities. Our rules on social distancing have in many places been lackadaisical at best, with loosening of restrictions long before adequate disease control had been achieved. And in much of the country, people simply don’t wear masks, largely because our leaders have stated outright that masks are political tools rather than effective infection control measures.

The United States came into this crisis with enormous advantages. ...  Yet our leaders have largely chosen to ignore and even denigrate experts. ...

The response of our nation’s leaders has been consistently inadequate. The federal government has largely abandoned disease control to the states. Governors have varied in their responses, not so much by party as by competence. But whatever their competence, governors do not have the tools that Washington controls. Instead of using those tools, the federal government has undermined them. ... The Food and Drug Administration has been shamefully politicized, appearing to respond to pressure from the administration rather than scientific evidence. Our current leaders have undercut trust in science and in government, causing damage that will certainly outlast them. Instead of relying on expertise, the administration has turned to uninformed “opinion leaders” and charlatans who obscure the truth and facilitate the promulgation of outright lies. ...

When it comes to the response to the largest public health crisis of our time, our current political leaders have demonstrated that they are dangerously incompetent.

But what does Dr. Demon Sperm say?

Seriously, an excellent piece. Unfortunately, the people who need to hear it the most will disregard it....

[GooooMarquette]

Extra Pounds May Raise Risk of Severe Covid-19

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/10/health/coronavirus-obesity-weight.html

Obese Americans are more likely to become dangerously ill if they are infected with the new coronavirus. Now public health officials are warning that a much broader segment of the population also may be at risk: even moderately excess weight may increase the odds of severe disease.

The warning, reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week, may have serious implications for Americans. While about 40 percent of U.S. adults are obese, another 32 percent are simply overweight, among the highest rates of obesity and overweight in the world.

By the new calculus, nearly three-quarters of Americans may be at increased risk of severe Covid-19 if infected with the coronavirus.

[ZiggysFryBoy]

Extra Pounds May Raise Risk of Severe Covid-19

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/10/health/coronavirus-obesity-weight.html

Obese Americans are more likely to become dangerously ill if they are infected with the new coronavirus. Now public health officials are warning that a much broader segment of the population also may be at risk: even moderately excess weight may increase the odds of severe disease.

The warning, reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week, may have serious implications for Americans. While about 40 percent of U.S. adults are obese, another 32 percent are simply overweight, among the highest rates of obesity and overweight in the world.

By the new calculus, nearly three-quarters of Americans may be at increased risk of severe Covid-19 if infected with the coronavirus.

1) that explains North Korea being covid free.