COVID-19 updates – thread #1

62 thoughts on “COVID-19 updates – thread #1”

1. I think the number of test kits will run out before the peak, so we’ll see a fake leveling off, when really we’re SOL.

2. Looks like we won’t be a measly no. 3 for much longer:

   Italy 59,138 ↑ 5,560 (9.40%)
   United States 38,184 ↑ 13,913 (36.43%)

   MAGA!

   1. Don’t know what happened there, but suddenly the US number dropped from 14500 to 8000. Hopefully the update is the correct number.

      1. No…those are wrong. Per the updated Johns Hopkins Website there are 32,640 confirmed US cases with 404 deaths. There was a double counting issue which is why there was a drop but the numbers you cite are not the totals.

         1. Thanks, Tanner.

3. Accuweather is run by this hoopsteak whose whole business model is
   1. Get free info from NOAA
   2. Plug it into his site and monetize it
   3. Piss and moan that the same info should not be available for free to the public, as it hurts his business
   4. Trumpishly try to promote himself as a business-doer and brain-haver

   I’d trust anything they say about as far as I can toss a piano.

4. That was a really odd article about the temperature/humidity effects on transmission.
   It quoted a bunch of people from Accuweather!!!!, and the one infectious disease Dr. from Harvard basically told them to screw off.
   I have a feeling that article is going to get pulled down sooner or later.

   1. From MIT regarding warmer weather.

5. Fauci disputes Trump on available treatment drugs, says it’s about hope v. proof. Disagrees on hydroxycholoroquine and azithromycin combo.

6. People are just not that bright…

   The percentage of Americans who approve of President Trump’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak has ticked upward since last week, according to an ABC News-Ipsos poll released Friday.
   In the new poll, 55 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s management of the crisis, compared with 43 percent who disapprove.
   Those numbers are nearly reversed from just a week ago. At that point, 43 percent approved of Trump’s handling of the pandemic while 54 percent disapproved.
   Trump has taken on a more somber tone in recent days and is appearing more frequently at news briefings. Many Democrats argue that the change in tone has not been accompanied by a robust enough increase in actions from the federal government.
   In the same poll, 72 percent said their lives have been disrupted in some way by the coronavirus crisis, a huge jump from last week, when only about one-quarter of Americans said the same.

7. High temp and humidity slow the spread? Maybe Trump was actually onto something?

   1. Even a broken analog clock is right twice a day..

8. Wisconsin has the nicest people….”Wisconsin GOP senator says only small percentage of population might die of coronavirus.” “Getting coronavirus is not a death sentence except for maybe no more than 3.4 percent of our population . . . probably far less,” Johnson said in an interview with his home-state newspaper, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, published Wednesday. “We don’t shut down our economy because tens of thousands of people die on the highways.”

   If 3.4 percent of the U.S. population perished, that would mean millions and be 10 times the U.S. deaths in every war that America has fought.

   1. What an ass! Yeah, only ten million people. Only about double the Holocaust. No big deal.

      I pulled that up into a new thread.

   2. Well, from the Republican point of view, pretty much none of those people would be billionaires, so who really cares? Not Republican senators, that’s for sure. They aren’t supposed to say so out loud, of course, but Ron Johnson (the senator in question) is pretty dumb.

   3. Wisconsin people ARE nice, Tanner. When a real asshole like Joseph McCarthy or Ron Johnson crops up, we like to get rid of them by sending them to Washington. (Sorry about the effect on the rest of you.)

9. DOW futures down again.

   The stock market has basically become a Vegas casino. The power brokers are in pump and dump mode to get what they can out of it with people’s savings. They’re like sharks betting the line up or down.

   Everything has become one big parlay to bet on based on the day of the week ro recent news.

   1. I don’t know, Indy. With these kind of wild swings, the big boys may be getting hit hard too. In a casino, no one is sure to win except the house, which in this example are the Exchange and the stockbrokers.

      On the other hand, the collapse of big financial powers may spread ruin to many ordinary people as well. History is a lot more fun in hindsight than it is to live through.

   2. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard predicted the U.S. unemployment rate may hit 30% in the second quarter because of shutdowns to combat the coronavirus, with an unprecedented 50% drop in gross domestic product.

10. In a perverse way, there’s a sort of Darwinism here.

    The people who accept Trump’s lies and absorb Fox News’ validation of those lies, are going to be the ones that place themselves in the greatest peril through sheer ignorance.

    The fact that Trump voters and Fox News viewers skew to the elderly, means that some of the most at risk in the community are potentially behaving recklessly based on politically motivated propaganda.

    Is Trump attacking his base?

    1. It’s perverse, Steve, and yet evil always has a way of damaging itself. Nazi Germany is a prime example of that – their racial policies alienated potential allies, and concentrating all decision-making in Hitler was a disaster, because he was both overwhelmed and incompetent to start with.

       Here, we see that the willingness to believe obvious lies needed to be a Trump supporter is actively bad for the very lives of Trump supporters. It could be called perverse, ironic (what isn’t ironic any more?) or poetic justice.

11. #trumprecession

    So where’s are the Trump supporters saying their investments are so great, and they don’t care about anything else now?

    Hope you lost your damn savings, asshats.

    1. They are still supporting Trump, Indy, because the coronavirus is a Democrat hoax. As soon as they get some more money (can you still sell blood plasma? I don’t seem to see those places any more) they will be back in the market, ready to recoup all their losses and then some in the inevitable Trump victory rally!

       1. Poe’s Law again.

          I assume you are fuckin’ with us, but there’s no way to tell because you’re probably 100% correct.

          1. I have to remember to put “See Poe’s Law” after the end of such posts. Thanks for the reminder!

12. No low, too low for Trump…

13. I wonder when Russia is going to attack. They seem to be practically unaffected, just like North Korea.

    1. They don’t need to…the “problem” is resolving nicely all by itself.

    2. Because they are lying about it as much as the Chinese are. No way does Putin let the true number of cases get published. Their economy is already teetering because of the Saudi action on oil and the reduced demand because major areas of countries have stopped all economic activity.
       This is just the beginning, and it is only going to get worse.

       1. The US isn’t doing enough testing to expose the extent of the problem here either.

          1. True. It isn’t really possible to lie about the stats here, thanks to the fourth estate, but it is possible to bury one’s head in the sand, which serves the same purpose.

14. Not good…

    A Japanese man who apparently recovered from the coronavirus two weeks ago has again fallen ill and tested positive, public broadcaster NHK reported on Sunday.
    The man, who is in his 70s, first tested positive for the virus on Feb. 14 while on board the quarantined cruise ship, the Diamond Princess.
    He recovered and was discharged from a medical facility in Tokyo on March 2, NHK reported. It has been standard practice in Japanese hospitals to demand at least two negative tests before releasing patients.
    He then returned to his home in Mie prefecture in central Japan by public transport.
    But he came down with a fever of 39 degrees Celsius (102.2 Fahrenheit) on Thursday, NHK reported. He went to hospital on Friday, took a test and was shown to have the virus on Saturday.

15. Spade is the only one of that group that I find funny. I watched a little of the one audience-free Colbert show. Without his theater full of barking seals to tell us what parts of his tired, puerile schtick are the “jokes,” it was embarrassing and deathly unfunny, like watching an obnoxious guy at an office party with a lampshade on his head who thinks he’s hilarious. I could readily understand why the CBS suits took one look at that abomination and ordered up reruns, “for the good of humanity.”

    1. HHFi said “I could readily understand why the CBS suits took one look at that abomination and ordered up reruns, ‘for the good of humanity.'”

       Even as sarcasm, this does not seem to fit with your previous remarks.

       Also, I guess I don’t find people I disagree with politically funny either, but I try to admit it is because of the political difference, and not because they lack comedic talent.

       1. He’s referring specifically to that one audience-free show. I have to agree with him. Stephen Colbert is a brilliant and multi-talented man, but that one show was just awful. I don’t know whether he was drunk, or all the writers had already gone home, or what, but I can see why CBS wanted no more of that.

          1. Naw…don’t make excuses for him…he says: “ Without his theater full of barking seals to tell us what parts of his tired, puerile schtick are the “jokes,” it was embarrassing and deathly unfunny, like watching an obnoxious guy at an office party with a lampshade on his head who thinks he’s hilarious.

             The reference to “tired, puerile schtick” isn’t limited to the one show.

             1. I don’t need anyone to “make excuses” for me. You’re right, my criticism isn’t limited to the one show; it’s just that that show demonstrated in such stark relief the problem I’ve been pointing out for a long time.

                I used to think Colbert was brilliant when he was on Comedy Central, but since moving to CBS, he has become a one-note hack, hammering away at the same repetitive schtick night after night, and we’re deep into year three of it. If you can’t go to bed without hearing someone lazily mock Trump for 10 minutes, then he’s your Lenny Bruce. He’s winnowed down his viewers to that niche, and luckily for him, the audience for late night has dwindled to the point that that’s enough eyeballs to make him #1 in the ratings. The tiredness of that routine has been obscured by his undemanding, hooting studio audience. Bereft of their support, the material had to sink or swim on its quality, and I think the CBS suits were shocked to realize how deadly it was. Like a bad ’60s sitcom, you need a laugh track to tell viewers what the “funny” parts are.

                It is entirely possible to be laugh-out-loud funny without a studio audience. For example: Bob & Ray, Ernie Kovaks, the Marx Brothers, and people across the political spectrum from Marc Maron to Greg Gutfeld (who did fine this weekend without a studio audience.) I have written jokes for talk show hosts ranging from a nationally-known Christian conservative to a far-left wildman host on a gay cable TV channel. But whenever I say Colbert needs a new routine, I get accused of being a right-wing partisan. No, I’m a professional comedy writer, and I know coasting when I see it.

                I also thought the conservative-oriented comedy “An American Carol” sucked, and that was from one of the “Airplane” guys, but it made the same mistake as Colbert: prioritizing preaching to the crowd over being funny. I’m curious to see what happens when Trump leaves office. Will Colbert go back to being funny and creative again, or will his comedy muscles be too atrophied from lack of use?

16. Read here regarding the weird seasonality of viruses.

17. Ironically, that Utah Jazz player was not only determined to have it, he was at the same time reluctant to.

18. worldometers.info/coronavirus/

    If everyone in this thread could just keep this link handy that’d be great.

    Current numbers from the WHO updated daily. It’ll save the dumbest among you from wasting too much of our time with numbers arguments. Before you debate any numbers, check this. If it conflicts with this and you think you’re right, go back to watching Alex Jones or whatever wackadoodle outlet that told you the bogus info and stop bothering regular people.

    Also, Scoop NOBODY IS THE NEXT ITALY.

    So sick of seeing that.

    We know what caused Italy. It was explained in a Time article a few days ago, and again in others after.

    Italy has the oldest population on earth. I didn’t know that till last week. More people over 65 than any other nation on earth.

    They were in the tail end of a very bad flu season. Hospitals in the north full of elderly pneumonia patients. Then came some last minute flu patients.

    Only it wasn’t flu, it was COVID-19.

    The hospitals became infection centers. Those not sick with the virus, got it. Including doctors and nurses. Those sick with pneumonia from flu died fast.

    The average age of the dead in Italy? 81! That’s the average!

    Before long the hospitals in the north were overrun with elderly patients. They lacked enough doctors and nurses because they were infected and couldn’t treat patients.

    They’re fixing it now. Doctors from elsewhere are being sent in to relieve. Nursing students are being rushed to graduate two weeks early to relieve sick nurses. Critical cases are dropping.

    But the president is panicking because he botched the initial response and he’s locked down EVERYTHING. All commerce, all movement, everything. Despite only having 1500 elderly deaths out of 61 million people. He’s telling his people things like “you can all expect to lose a family member”. What leader says that??? That can’t be true, it would mean millions of dead. They’re not aiming for numbers remotely near that?

    So cut off from the world, his people are in a frenzy, and they’ve taken to social media to tell every other nation “YOU ARE NEXT, YOU WILL BE US IN TWO WEEKS” even though their own claims of apocalypse aren’t supported by numbers, WHO reports, or journalism from within the country.

    So no, Spain isn’t the next Italy, Germany isn’t, we aren’t, NOBODY IS THE NEXT ITALY. There is no next Italy, because they are a unique worst case scenario.

    1. Italy has about 20,000 Chinese in Milan that work in the garment industry. Likely a good portion of them traveled to a China for the lunar New Year. And then started to come back. Eventually, Italy banned flights from China but its likely that some returned indirectly via third countries once that ban was set up. Coincidentally, the Milan area was a center of the Italian outbreak.

    2. Thanks for the explanation, Mr. Dark.

       1. Spain may be the next Italy….Mr. Dark: Spain reports 2,000 new coronavirus cases; death toll doubles.

    3. The median not the average age is the important number.

    4. surgeon general warns “we could be Italy.” Apparently he’s not in total agreement with Mr. Dark.

19. Given that around 100,000 have it worldwide, Ohio is goofy.

    1. No… way more than 100k are infected worldwide. Those are how many people have been tested.

    2. I’m in Ohio, about 30 min south of Cleveland. I don’t know anyone who is even sick, other than my stepmom & nephew about a week ago, and they’re both fine now.

       1. Hey “genius,” the virus has an up to about 14 day incubation period and is shed even when folks are still asymptomatic. Let’s revisit this in about a week.

          1. So, Tanner, you call me “genius” because I said I don’t know anyone who is sick?

             Did that actually offend you somehow?

             You said revisit this in a week…well, it’s been about a week (6 days), and I still don’t know anyone who is sick.

             You’re just a typical “sky is falling, woe is me” liberal piece of shit cocksucker.

             Now you can be offended.

             1. Grow up…

             2. Confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. double in two days
                The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States doubled Thursday compared with two days before — a dramatic increase that stems in part from more testing but also indicates just how much the virus has continued to spread.
                On Tuesday, there were just over 5,700 confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States. That number surpassed 11,500 on Thursday, and officials indicated the number will continue to rise sharply as more test results become available. Early Thursday, New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) attributed a surge of new cases in his state to thousands of newly available tests.
                In a Wednesday briefing, Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, explained that new, high-speed platforms will allow for “tens of thousands of tests per day.” An increase in the number of positive results will follow, she added.
                “So we will see the number of people diagnosed dramatically increase in the next four to five days,” she said. “To every American out there, it will be five to six days worth of tests being run in 24 to 48 hours. So our curves will not be stable until sometime next week.”

20. SOL? Virus is contagious while a person is incubating it.

21. I know you used to get a kick out of the name, so I have heartbreaking news: Beat Me in St. Louis is cancelled.

    Silly though it might sound, I’m a vendor of kink equipment, and this was one was one of my big events. This is taking a huge financial hit on my small business. As well as the other vendor businesses that are getting screwed by all this. Events all over the country are shutting down. Even with Etsy, everyone is struggling.

    So pour one out for Beat Me In St. Louis.

    1. I swear to god, there used to be a post about the unusually low fatality rate of COVID-19 in Norway.

       1. It’s still there. You just accidentally responded to the wrong post.

          One thing I can’t do is to spoof your posts, so I can’t move it, but if you respond to the correct thread, I can delete the ones that don’t seem to belong.

          Honestly, I don’t think it matters much. We all knew where you meant it to be. But it was a good comment, so follow your heart and mind.

    2. C’mon Scoopy… a real pro sadist knows the best way to spread the trauma is to stand outside the plastic bubble and beat up a different person while the masochist watches from their sick bed. Only amateurs rely on being some kind of Typhoid Mary.

22. Talking about human dog waste other than the Orange Buffoon:
    “Jones has been marketing toothpaste, dietary supplements, creams and other items as preventing or curing the virus, James’s office said in a news release, even though the World Health Organization says there is no particular medicine to treat infections and the Food and Drug Administration has yet to approve any vaccine or cure. Jones claimed, for example, that a toothpaste “kills the whole SARS-corona family at point-blank range,” authorities said.”
    The Jones in question is of course Alex. (WAPO)

23. Not only no crowds in the park, but they’ve shut down the Clevelander and moved the Home Run Monstrosity outside. All pre-virus moves.

24. MLB season opener in two weeks and not much noise coming from leadership. Given the amount of coast to coast travel into what are now hots pots, it’s inevitable that they delay opening day. It will be just like one of the strike seasons.

    1. Empty crowds? Thats like a normal Marlins home game.

25. John Brennan died from coronavirus a couple days ago.

    That’s John Brennan, the horse jockey.

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