Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[froot loops]

From re-reading that article the main hold-ups on the testing front was the bad kits at the beginning and how the CDC standards slow down the testing.

From what I've been reading the drive thru testing has been really effective in South Korea.

The main lessons of China and South Korea is not that there is nothing to be done, quite the opposite you can do a lot. You take the lessons from how they dealt with it and you implement them to buy time. When Trump says it will magically disappear in April when it warms up, he might be right, the virus might not survive long in the heat. You're buying time in case that happens and for a vaccine. Worrying about the name of the virus as some of the GOP are doing shows it is fundamentally unserious about the problem until they come into contact.

[Hannibal]

crisis-prepping-economy-comic.png?fit=1500%2C500.png

[iam416]

The main lessons of China and South Korea is not that there is nothing to be done, quite the opposite you can do a lot. You take the lessons from how they dealt with it and you implement them to buy time. When Trump says it will magically disappear in April when it warms up, he might be right, the virus might not survive long in the heat

First, and I think this is important -- China's response was, intitially, reckless at best and shamefully malignant at worst. Their lockdown didn't start on December 30, 2019 when they NEEDED IT.

Second, the buying time argument is fair, but, again, this isn't going to regionalized in the US. You're can't get away with quarantining a province or small section. The US needs to be shut down to do "a lot" like the Chinese (eventually) and South Koreans did. And now, the Italians.

That's the choice. It's a nationwide shutdown or not.

[iam416]

I mean, honestly, it almost needs to be a Global Shutdown.

In any event, if the US were to follow China's lead then, at a minimum, no one is entering or leaving Washington State (and probably NYC).

[Dr. Strangelove]

Charmin is king right now.

South Korea ramped up testing almost immediately. Within a week of the first known case they had tested something like 100,000 people. It's too late to follow their example at this point as far as I've heard.

What really strikes me is that no one in the Federal govt can even give a rough estimate as to how many people have been tested. They've been asked repeatedly in recent days, HHS, the CDC, and the only response is "I don't know".There's apparently THAT little coordination between state-local-federal. Wouldn't it be really important to know these numbers if you want remotely accurate mortality figures?

[iam416]

What really strikes me is that no one in the Federal govt can even give a rough estimate as to how many people have been tested. They've been asked repeatedly in recent days, HHS, the CDC, and the only response is "I don't know".There's apparently THAT little coordination between state-local-federal. Wouldn't it be really important to know these numbers if you want remotely accurate mortality figures?

You'd want to know positives, which I'm assuming they do. Why would you want to know total tests for mortality figures?

[Dr. Strangelove]

And yeah China was wildly dishonest about the disease at the start and is probably still being wildly dishonest now. If you trust they've more or less eradicated it, you probably shouldn't.

Example being that article from two weeks ago that I posted where they are turning on factory equipment (without any employees inside) to burn energy just so they can claim industrial output is returning to normal.

[iam416]

And yeah China was wildly dishonest about the disease at the start and is probably still being wildly dishonest now. If you trust they've more or less eradicated it, you probably shouldn't.

Correct. It galls me to no end to see the whitewashing of their response with articles praising the Chinese response. That should work amongst Xi's poor subjects, but not amongst folks in the West that, presumably, can see through propaganda bullshit.

[Dr. Strangelove]

You'd want to know positives, which I'm assuming they do. Why would you want to know total tests for mortality figures?

Was thinking knowing the sample size of positive tests would add to confidence in the mortality rate being accurate but I don't really know if that matters at all now that you mention it.

[iam416]

In any event, my basement is slowly taking on the look of a Dry Goods store for when the inevitable lockdown comes. I feel confident in my ability to thrive when our currency becomes Charmin and canned meats.

[froot loops]

No the Chinese response was abhorrent early, but they did better as the situation progressed. You don't want to learn the wrong lesson from them which was to put their head in the sand for the first 3 or 4 weeks.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Sleepy Joe getting fired up at that MAGA autoworker and telling him he's "full of shit!" just sealed the election!!!

[THE_WIZARD_]

:::farts in Talent's general direction:::

[froot loops]

Was thinking knowing the sample size of positive tests would add to confidence in the mortality rate being accurate but I don't really know if that matters at all now that you mention it.

They are running a lot of projections based on the numbers they gather, you need accurate numbers for that. The Atlantic article mentioned the open source team of volunteers collecting the data of the US testing. So far this may be the best comprehensive source right now, in a perfect world the CDC would provide this.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Here is the DC Circuit Court's decision ordering the DOJ to turn over Mueller's grand jury materials to the House Judiciary Committee. The most interesting part of this starts on page 27, the Concurring Opinion, where Judge Griffith briefly takes apart Neomi Rao's dissent.

(It's the case at the bottom -- not sure why a direct link won't work)

https://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/intern...ount=4&scode=0