Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[iam416]

fucking government employees

[froot loops]

My wife just got home from work and she said the hospital is a madhouse. Corona virus and Friday the 13th is not a good combination, thankfully it wasn't a full moon. That would have been a sign of the apocalypse.

[froot loops]

fucking government employees

Better late than never I say, the press conference was a vast improvement, the less he talks and has the experts talk the better.

[iam416]

[froot loops]

My allergies never go away, but I have Allegra, Sudafed and Advair at the ready.

[iam416]

[Jeff Buchanan]

This is a balanced read with a good take on both optimistic and pessimistic outcomes for the US economy. As most of us have been saying, still too much uncertainty about the course of the virus to know the future with much clarity. The testing approach is going to be helpful from a public health standpoint. The lowering of the height of the curve (Fauci's explanation) is something with the potential to have a big impact on return to normalcy. I like it. Yet to be seen, however, is how all the talk actually get's put into action. Also, apparently Congress has worked out a deal with Trump on fiscal stimulus plans. Need to see details though.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-economy-is-in-for-tough-times-but-heres-a-roadmap-for-recovery-from-the-coronavirus-2020-03-13?mod=nextup_bomw

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/pelosi-says-deal-reached-with-white-house-on-emergency-aid-package-for-coronavirus-2020-03-13?mod=newsviewer_click

[Jeff Buchanan]

Cruise companies are mostly shutting down world wide operations through mid-April - all part of contributing to social distancing and the attendant reduction of social interactions. A cruise I had planned for Sunday, March 15th is among the cancelled operations ...... I got a 125% refund!

Silver linings.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Not sure that this adds much to the discussion, not that anything the rest of you jackholes post adds to the discussion, but this is a first hand account of (most likely) having the virus.
It was posted on Facebook by my wife's cousin who is a high-end realtor in NYC so it is not a "friend of a friend "said type thing.
Take if for what it's worth

I hardly ever get sick unless it is allergy-related. I workout 3-5 times a week and mostly clean eat so I feel like I have a strong immunity. On Sunday, February 16th I started feeling sick like a cold with a sore throat. I usually wait 7 days to go to the doctor because I don't want to go and them to say you have a virus we can't do anything. By Wednesday I was so sick I couldn't take it anymore. I had the worst sore throat I have ever had in my life. I had a cough where I would start choking and felt like I could projectile vomit from the force. I would literally start wheezing walking from my kitchen to my living room. I had people say to me when they would talk to me that I sounded like I needed to be on a nebulizer. When I went to the doctor I tested negative for the flu and strep, had a clear chest x-ray and my white blood cell count checked out fine. The Doctor's words were, "We don't understand how you are testing negative for everything and your symptoms are so severe". They gave me antibiotics because they said it was starting to get respiratory and would probably get worse if I didn't get on antibiotics. It took two weeks for me to fully recover. During those two weeks I was pretty much lethargic and bedridden. The symptoms I had were like nothing I have ever experienced in my life. Pretty much all of the symptoms on the CDC website.

During the incubation period I was at a cheer competition with I'm guessing over 10,000 people, I conduct Open Houses where I shake pretty much every persons hand, and I come in contact with a lot of people that travel internationally. I was reading every article and information on the CDC's website yesterday and they didn't start testing until 2/20 and they think people had it earlier that were not diagnosed. It's most likely coincidental but a curiosity for sure. Luckily no one in my family has been sick. We have to worry about Lily with her suppressed immune system. Hopefully, no one that was in my vicinity tests positive. This time when I was sick I actually stayed home because I honestly was afraid of getting in a car accident from the coughing. Who knows how long you are contagious before you have symptoms.

Good to know ..... I guess. I prefer this:

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/coronavirus-keep-things-in-perspective-reasons-not-to-panic/?fbclid=IwAR2tJL8Y7ynnRWsoqs3RyYZmvpAEY_hQBghTo8R27wwinRYV639j-FwSQck

[Jeff Buchanan]

......... or this:

https://www.weforum.org/reports/outbreak-readiness-and-business-impact

[lineygoblue]

Not sure how accurate this is, but I found it interesting.

[froot loops]

[Jeff Buchanan]

Well, I'm realizing that the US government, in particular HHS faced enormous obstacles in getting the scope of COVID-19 testing required up and running that were not immediately self inflicted. I found the WHO Economic Forum article I linked to above informative about the world's tendency to have ignored the increasing risks of viral pandemics following an outbreak and all the talk of being prepared for the next one.

Something that has become the usual conduct of the press - hating on the Trump admin for any action or inaction it takes - has to be received by print and broadcast media consumers skeptically. It can't be ignored and I've stated my view that the presses role in questioning and criticizing what goes on in government is essential. I stand by that so, the Atlantic article has value. But, I can't lay all the blame on the Trump administration. I also think, if I understand the details of what's coming down the line from federal and state level re testing, that the issues that prevented the roll-out of sufficient testing capability have been addressed.

The author argues that the Trump administration and PDJT in particular treated COVID-19 in the US cavalierly "for months." This delayed testing. The first case of COVID-19 diagnosis occurred on January 20th, 2020 - that's 62 days from the date of the article. "Months" is a bit of an overstatement - clearly the Trump administration took action, such action diluted in it's effect by multiple factors not within it's control. I found this NEJM article very good in describing the clinical picture of the first US case of COVID-19, the cumbersome testing process in place at the time, and the clinical course - especially the response to the administrations of Remdesivir (IND) - of US patient #1

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2001191

Here's a link to a more robust description of this promising Gilead Pharmaceuticals drug. I also believe that the FDA has lifted some of the barriers that might slow the testing of IND so as to allow it to be available for routine use much more quickly than usual.

https://www.clinicaltrialsarena.com/projects/remdesivir/

[froot loops]

[Dr. Strangelove]

Not sure how accurate this is, but I found it interesting.

Liney - Not sure where the chart's info actually comes from but it's possibly not accurate. Is it supposed to be showing total deaths around the world or just in the US? Well, only two people died from Ebola in the US and less than a dozen ever had it. So that's possibly a worldwide figure (although I still don't know if accurate). So then if you look at COVID-19, Italy alone has had over 1,000 people die.

Maybe the chart is for worldwide deaths and is horribly outdated? It's certainly in more than 23 countries at this point. Quite a few ob which don't even know how many cases they have or are lying about it.

EDIT: Just noticed it does say the figures are of January 31, 2020