Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Dr. Strangelove]

Simply not true that hospitalizations aren't up. They bottomed out at around 28,000 in the latter half of September but as of yesterday there 37,000 hospitalized around the US and that number is rising fast in certain places.

Now if you want to say hospitalizations are nowhere near as high as the dark days of April, that's entirely true. What is NOT TRUE is to say they aren't currently heading in the wrong direction,.

https://covidtracking.com/data/national

[THE_WIZARD_]

You really just need to shut your big YAPPER

[Dr. Strangelove]

You really just need to shut your big YAPPER

Why don't you make like a tree...and get the heck out of here?

[Dr. Strangelove]

This has been long anticipated but finally here...USA v. Google

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/20/doj-antitrust-lawsuit-against-google.html

[iam416]

Now if you want to say hospitalizations are nowhere near as high as the dark days of April, that's entirely true

Or even July and August.

I know you're just responding to Buchanan, but I'll reiterate -- deaths are what matter.

[Jeff Buchanan]

DSL is right. Hospitalizations have increased but the rate of increase is significantly less than the rate of increase of new cases. Another important matter is that hospitals code for COVID if a 45yo shows up at the ED, gets routinely tested for COVID, is positive and asymptomatic. He came to the ER with chest pain had an abnormal EKG in there. He gets admitted over-night for observation and a second set of cardiac labs. But he's a COVID admission. There's no way to know how many of these there are but I tend to think it's a fairly large percentage. Why? Because the reimbursement rate for those two admit codes is way better than getting admitted for observation ..... wayyyy better. I seriously doubt the validity of absolute hospitalization data. Trends are better.

Look, you had I have two very different views of the pandemic. A lot of people that I come in contact with are afraid of the virus and are immobilized by it. I don't think you are in that group, just a guess, because you are a reasonable person but my take is that there are people who are not reasonable, live by the nightly news and social media and are filled with fear. It's stupidly wrong but people are stupid and the media is feeding that fear and taking advantage of stupid people. Also feeding this fear is the politicization of the pandemic and how scaring people about it and how badly Trump handled it (and he fucked it up mightily) is a way to topple him. No matter to the left the terrible cost of doing this.

It's possible to not get this virus. Places of business are taking drastic and costly measures to make their businesses safe and for the most part, there are few indications that places like restaurants, even bars with good mitigation discipline, are spreading the virus. I've flown 4X in the last month - 2X with Jet Blue and 2x with Delta. The health, safety and infection control measures are unprecedented. Not a single COVID case, to my knowledge, has been traced back to a flight acquired infection on any airline. If there was one, the press would have been all over it. Cruise ships are operating in Europe and Asia. To my knowledge, and I'm watching this carefully, not a single COVID case can be traced to having occurred aboard ship in the last two months of cruise ship operations. If a passenger or crew member becomes infected off the ship, and that has occurred, the protocols for dealing with that when they return to the ship are preventing spread. Famously, an Italian couple on a cruise strayed from a group tour off the ship, returned, tested positive on a rapid test and were denied boarding, told to go home on their own and quarantine. Tough shit, you didn't follow the rules. Good bye, no refund. Companies are serious. We should feel safe flying or cruising.....except we are told by the CDC that cruising from US ports isn't safe and has shut down a trillion dollar industry responsible for millions of jobs, billions in wages world-wide and globally. Utterly and shamelessly stupid.

One can assess what level of risk they are willing to take, wear a mask, distance, wash hands and don't touch your face and pretty much resume activities they enjoy ...... except the ones that some "expert" has declared causes the spread of the virus and are fucking closed. In too many cases there's no basis for such declarations and closings. I've seen them here in S. FL. I've commented on them here. Yet the sheeple are falling for this bull-shit and are scared shitless to fly on a commercial flight, go out to eat, go to the gym, send their kids to school, responsibly socialize with friends and family, boat ..... the list is long. I'm sick of and saddened by what's happening to the fabric of our lives, to friends I know, most of them reasonable people, that are afraid.

We absolutely need to confront the virus, respond to the virus. It's dangerous in the face of doing nothing about it. That's just as stupid. But there are options to respond to the current increase in community spread. Lots of them that don't involve scaring people and shutting things down.

[iam416]

Geraghty with a nice little blog entry on the perplexing messaging of PDJT: https://www.nationalreview.com/corne...as-interested/

More or less, PDJT has a lot to celebrate over the past 4 years. He could talk about a plethora of different things accomplished while he was President. Instead he does what he does which, most recently, involves picking a fight with Dr. Fauci of all people.

[Hannibal]

Day 216 of "15 days to flatten the curve"

[Dr. Strangelove]

Jeff- If you tell people that the media is lying to them, and that doctors and hospitals can't be trusted either, it's small wonder if they think it's fine to ignore those same authority figures when they get told to wear masks, wash hands, and distance.

I go out to eat less than I used to, but since June, I do eat out again. I don't feel like I'm living my life in total fear. But I don't particularly want to catch this thing either even if I had a guarantee it wouldn't kill me. 2 weeks laid up in bed, losing a paycheck (I don't know if there's any covid relief left for missed time), doesn't sound so hot either. If you knew a highly contagious flu was going around your neighborhood, would you spend every free moment you had out in public with strangers?

Incidentally a couple weekends ago I was out at Easton for the first time since covid hit (the Columbus area's largest outdoor mall). The place was pretty busy. Mask-wearing pretty universal. I only noticed one or two businesses that had closed.

[THE_WIZARD_]

"FLATTEN THE CURVE" was Democrat Code for "FLATTEN TRUMP"

[Dr. Strangelove]

Stay in place order issued for UM campus

https://www.wxyz.com/news/coronavirus/stay-in-place-order-issued-for-university-of-michigan-students-in-ann-arbor-after-covid-19-surge

[lineygoblue]

Stay in place order issued for UM campus

It was just a matter of time before that happened. The positive number are going to increase for a while because, .. well, .. college students. They've had similar results in Ingham, Kalamazoo and Isabella counties, the home(s) of MSU, Western Michigan and Central Michigan respectively.

One piece of local Michigan covid news that is not reported by the MSM, is that the "major outbreak" back in July at the bar in East Lansing which 'infected more than 160 people in a super-spreader event", .. the wrap on that story is nobody was ever hospitalized, and all are now numbered in the "recovered" category.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Michigan Tech too I've heard. The infection rates in the western UP are pretty bad, although some of that is spilling over from Wisconsin.

[CGVT]

And nursing homes in Kansas...

[Jeff Buchanan]

On the stay in place order at UM: First, reduce positives so as not to "strain testing and tracing capability." I read that to mean they don't have enough contact tracers, the infrastructure to do it correctly and/or insufficient testing kits in Washtenaw Co.. WTF. You've know about the need to rigorously test and trace this since, when, April, May?

That may be a bit harsh but still. It's true that there are big problems testing and tracing nationally. I've advocated know for about a month to stop the hand wringing, nationalize US based production capacity and order the production and distribution of test kits just like every other nation has done. Organize a Peace Corps like operation to recruit data managers and tracers and pay them well. I'll give the county a pass but not getting their shit together at the state level, joining other states in pressing for federal action to get the stuff they need then whining about rising case numbers and restricting social mobility is pretty shameful shit.

Second, as I read the thing, it won't affect M practicing this week and traveling to Minnesota. Good thing.