Apr 132020
 


John M. Fox WCBS studios, 49 East 52nd Street, NYC 1948

 

Obesity The Single Biggest Factor In New York COVID19 Hospitalizations (ZDN)
Coronavirus Spreads At Least 13 Feet, Travels On Shoes: CDC (NYP)
Fauci: US Given Wrong Information About Virus “Right From The Beginning” (JTN)
102-Year-Old NY Woman Beats COVID-19 With Hydroxychloroquine (CBS)
New Zealand Preparing To End Lockdown (Metro)
America Should Be Ready For 18 Months Of Shutdowns – Fed’s Neel Kashkari (MW)
China Is Censoring Research On COVID-19 Origins (NW)
Experts See Worrisome Link Between Coronavirus, Pollution (Hill)
After The Lockdown, Europe Debates Exit Strategies (AFR)
Giant Oil Output Cuts Make Ripple, Not Big Waves (R.)
Greek Government To Go After Priests Flouting Quarantine (K.)
Lockdown: Not Novels And Family Time But Food Parcels And Hardship (G.)

 

 

I must admit I’m getting fed up with the stories and narratives. People may have short attention spans, but how is that a reason to just go and invent narratives about something as serious as a pandemic? The disgusting morally hollow Brits celebrating the recovery of Boris Johnson as he’s thanking the same NHS he actively helped defund, at the same time that he’s murdering Julian Assange, get a life.

From Dr. Fauci I don’t expect anything else anymore than putting the blame on anyone but himself. “We got the wrong infomation!” If you were an investor, that would be your fault, not someone else’s. See, the WHO will make the same argument: the Chinese gave us false info, don’t blame us. But if you’re in positions like that, it’s your own responsibility to get your info right. And if you fail at that, to be open and honest about it.

The pedestal upon which New Zealand PM Jacintha Ardern is placed -“a masterclass in crisis management!- while one look at a timeline shows that she, too, like all the rest, was way too late in her reaction. The WHO was criminally slow in declaring a pandemic, they finally did so on March 11, and STILL New Zealand didn’t lock down. Ardern closed the borders only on March 19 and locked down the country on the 26th. She’s just lucky New Zealand has the geographical advantages it has, far away from anyone else.

 

 

The next narrative has already started: what are we going to do after it’s all over. But how are you going to do the right thing today when all you think about is tomorrow? Moreover, the virus hasn’t even started for the next 5 billion people, who often live in the most vulnerable places. And we’re going to forget about that just because the West, China, Japan, can’t keep focused for more than 2 weeks?

 

 

Cases 1,862,584 (+ 72,011 from yesterday’s 1,790,573)

Deaths 114,982 (+ 5,328 from yesterday’s 109,654)

 

 

 

From Worldometer yesterday evening -before their day’s close-

 

 

From Worldometer – NOTE: mortality rate for closed cases is at 21% !-

 

 

From SCMP:

 

 

From COVID2019Info.live:

 

 

 

 

If this is why the US gets hits so hard, watch out for Mexico. Chronic inflammation sounds like a credible factor.

Obesity The Single Biggest Factor In New York COVID19 Hospitalizations (ZDN)

For months, scientists have been poring over data about cases and deaths to understand why it is that COVID-19 manifests itself in different ways around the world, with certain factors such as the age of the population repeatedly popping up as among the most significant determinants. Now, one of the largest studies conducted of COVID-19 infection in the United States has found that obesity of patients was the single biggest factor in whether those with COVID-19 had to be admitted to a hospital. “The chronic condition with the strongest association with critical illness was obesity, with a substantially higher odds ratio than any cardiovascular or pulmonary disease,” write lead author Christopher M. Petrilli of the NYU Grossman School and colleagues in a paper “Factors associated with hospitalization and critical illness among 4,103 patients with Covid-19 disease in New York City..”


Among other things, the presence of obesity in the study points to a potentially important role of heightened inflammation in patients, a phenomenon that has been a topic of much speculation in numerous studies of the disease. Petrilli and colleagues at the Grossman School, and doctors at the NYU Langone Health center, studied the electronic patient records of 4,103 individuals who tested positive for COVID-19 in the New York City healthcare system between March 1st and April 2nd. It is “the largest case series from the United States to date,” write Petrilli and colleagues. The motivation of the work, they write, was that “Understanding which patients are most at risk for hospitalization is crucial for many reasons,” such as how to triage patients and how to anticipate medical needs.


click to enlarge in new tab

Half of those patients were admitted to a hospital. What the researchers found is that “In the decision tree for admission, the most important features were age >65 and obesity.” Obesity, in this case, was measured as weight relative to a person’s height. The authors use a metric scale, so a body mass index of 30 kilograms of weight and higher is considered obese. The “decision tree” in this case refers to the statistical method they used to analyze the patient data. A decision tree is a way to group members of a sample based on their shared characteristics. “For a given population, the decision tree classification method splits the population into two groups using one feature at a time, starting with the feature that maximizes the split between groups relative to the outcome in question.” They keep splitting groups into smaller and smaller groups until they arrive at groups that “[have] similar characteristics and outcomes.”

https://twitter.com/StephanieKelton/status/1249465834029932545

Read more …

Twitter: “Which is right? CDC officially says 6’ for #SocialDistancing . But a new CDC report, says #COVID19 can travel through the air at least 13 feet. Meanwhile, WHO says 3’ should be enough. And Dr Fauci rejects recent research, wherein virus could travel up to 27 feet.”

Coronavirus Spreads At Least 13 Feet, Travels On Shoes: CDC (NYP)

The coronavirus can travel through the air at least 13 feet — more than twice as far as social distancing guidelines, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Research published in the federal agency’s Emerging Infectious Diseases journal shows the contagion spreading far further than previous official suggestions — and also getting spread on people’s shoes. “The aerosol distribution characteristics … indicate that the transmission distance of [COVID-19] might be 4 m,” the report says, translating as more than 13 feet. “Furthermore, half of the samples from the soles of the ICU medical staff shoes tested positive,” the researchers wrote of samples taken at Huoshenshan Hospital in Wuhan.

“Therefore, the soles of medical staff shoes might function as carriers.” The report, based on research by a team at the Academy of Military Medical Sciences in Beijing, appears to reaffirm fears that the current social distancing guidelines of 6 feet may not be enough. It also suggests people — especially medical staff on the frontlines — could inadvertently be spreading the bug away from its source, recommending stringent disinfecting measures.

High levels were also found on frequently touched surfaces like computer mice, trashcans and bed rails. The CDC recommends 6 feet for social distancing, while the World Health Organization claims just 3 feet should be enough, less than a quarter of the distance the current study suggests it spreads. Research last month said the virus could travel up to 27 feet. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, however called that “terribly misleading,” saying it would require a “very, very robust, vigorous, achoo sneeze” to travel that far and the scenario was “not practical.”

Read more …

First WHO warning was December 31.

Fauci: US Given Wrong Information About Virus “Right From The Beginning” (JTN)

The U.S. was given inaccurate information about the coronavirus at the beginning of the crisis Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Saturday. When Fox News host Jesse Watters asked Fauci if he believes China or the World Health Organization “misled” him or if the WHO leader himself could have been “deceived,” Fauci noted that while he does not know the details behind the inaccurate information, it was disseminated from the start of the crisis. “You know I don’t know where the missteps went, the only thing I know what the end result was, that early on we did not get correct information,” Fauci said.


“And the incorrect information was propagated right from the beginning because you know when the first cases came out, that were identified I think on December 31st in China and we became aware of this, they said this was just animal to human period.” “Now we know retrospectively that there was ongoing transmission from human to human in China, probably at least a few weeks before then,” he said. Fauci said once the illness hit the U.S. it became evident “that was misinformation right from the beginning.” He added that “whosever fault that was, you know, we’re gonna go back and take a look at that when this is all over, but clearly it was not the right information that was given to us.”

Read more …

She’s Greek, and those guys are all doing well. It’s the olive oil.

102-Year-Old NY Woman Beats COVID-19 With Hydroxychloroquine (CBS)

A 102-year-old woman who was diagnosed with the coronavirus defied the odds and is now recovering. At 102 years old, Sophie Avouris, of Yonkers, has seen a lot in her life, entering this world in 1918 at the start of the Spanish flu. “She survived it, thank goodness,” her daughter, Effie Strouthides, said. Strouthides says back in March, doctors at a Manhattan nursing home and rehab facility called to tell her Avouris, who was recovering at the facility from hip surgery, tested positive for COVID-19. “And we were thinking at 102 years old, at high risk, she might not make it,” Strouthides said. Because the facility was on lockdown, Strouthides called her mom to have a conversation that she thought would be the last.


“Once or twice I managed to let her know how much I loved her and she told me how much she loved me,” she said. According to the CDC, 8 out of 10 deaths reported in the U.S. have been adults who are 65 and older. Dr. Taimur Mirza oversaw Avouris’ care and says her prognosis initially was not good. “Her course in the beginning, it was a little bit rough. For a while there, she required some oxygen, then we started her on the combination of the hydroxychloroquine and the azithromycin,” Mirza said. After a week of treatment, Avouris started showing signs of improvement. By week three, she no longer had the virus. “She didn’t have the cough anymore, and, you know, it was just miraculous to see a woman of her age recover from this,” Mirza said.

Read more …

Waaaay too late.

New Zealand Preparing To End Lockdown (Metro)

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the country is ‘turning a corner’ in the battle against coronavirus after recording the lowest number of new cases in three weeks. She praised residents for mounting a ‘wall of defence’ which is ‘breaking the chain of transmission’ following the swift implementation of lockdown measures. The country has recorded 992 confirmed cases of Covid-19 with just one death so far. Health officials said there were 29 new cases on Thursday, the fourth successive daily drop since 89 were recorded on Sunday and the latest sign of a flattening of the curve. Ms Ardern suggested the four-week lockdown could be softened in just over a weeks’ time, allowing some to return to work if social distancing rules can be maintained.

The PM said New Zealanders’ strict adherence to the rules during the four-week lockdown had ‘saved lives’. She added: ‘At the halfway mark I have no hesitation in saying, that what New Zealanders have done over the last two weeks is huge. ‘In the face of the greatest threat to human health we have seen in over a century, Kiwis have quietly and collectively implemented a nationwide wall of defence. ‘You are breaking the chain of transmission. And you did it for each other.’ But she cautioned against taking a foot off the pedal, adding: ‘We have what we need to win this marathon. You have stayed calm, you’ve been strong, you’ve saved lives, and now we need to keep going.’ Ms Ardern said the government will decide on April 20 whether to relax or extend lockdown measures, which are currently due to expire on April 22.

Read more …

But don’t worry about Kashkari, he’ll be fine. No matter how many trillions he wastes.

America Should Be Ready For 18 Months Of Shutdowns – Fed’s Neel Kashkari (MW)

‘This could be a long, hard road that we have ahead of us until we get to either an effective therapy or a vaccine. It’s hard for me to see a V-shaped recovery under that scenario.’ That’s Neel Kashkari, the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, painting a rather gloomy picture in a CBS interview on Sunday morning of what lies ahead for the U.S. economy as the country continues to battle the coronavirus outbreak. Kashkari, while acknowledging the downside of what a prolonged shutdown could mean for the economy, said the U.S., ‘barring some health-care miracle,’ is looking at an 18-month strategy of rolling shutdowns based on what has happened in other countries.


“We could have these waves of flareups, controls, flareups and controls until we actually get a therapy or a vaccine,” he said. “We need to find ways of getting the people who are healthy, who are at lower risk back to work and then providing the assistance to those who are most at risk, who are going to need to be quarantined or isolated for the foreseeable future.” Looking ahead, Kashkari doesn’t envision a quick rebound for the U.S. economy, which has already endured more than 16 million job losses in the past three weeks. “This could be a long, hard road that we have ahead of us until we get to either an effective therapy or a vaccine,” he said. “It’s hard for me to see a V-shaped recovery under that scenario.”

Read more …

This started back in December.

China Is Censoring Research On COVID-19 Origins (NW)

The Chinese government appears to be censoring research on the origins of the COVID-19 epidemic by requiring scientists to run their studies by the Ministry of Science and Technology, a since-deleted page on a university website shows. According to a cached version of that page from the China University of Geosciences in Wuhan that Newsweek reviewed, requirements were updated so that scientists would need to have their study approved by China’s Ministry of Science and Technology before publication: “1. Academic papers on the traceability of the new coronavirus must be reviewed by the academic committee of the school before publication, focusing on the authenticity of the paper and whether it is suitable for publication.

After the review is passed, the school reports to the Ministry of Science and Technology, which can only be published after the review by the Ministry of Science and Technology.” China has faced repeated internal and external accusations of censorship surrounding research into COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Local Chinese officials in Wuhan also are known to have suppressed information about the initial outbreak, even detaining whistleblower doctor Li Wenliang. Wenliang later died from COVID-19, and Chinese authorities offered a “solemn apology” to the medical practitioner’s family for how he had been treated. Back in February, The New York Times shared videos of Chinese citizens warning that research into coronavirus was being censored and removed from the internet.

“My purpose is to make sure that all this information is not lost or deleted,” one of the unidentified Chinese nationals said with her face covered in the clip. “We don’t know what information and when the authorities will censor,” another unidentified person said. “So we are trying to be faster than the authorities.” U.S. government officials, and other international leaders, have criticized China for not being transparent about the coronavirus pandemic. Toronto-based cyber research group Citizen Lab reported in early March that Chinese social media had begun censoring keywords associated with the coronavirus as well as criticism of the government’s response to the crisis, according to Reuters.

Read more …

Since there is such a link between pollution and literally everything else on the planet, feel free to consider this a piece of empty fluff.

Experts See Worrisome Link Between Coronavirus, Pollution (Hill)

Advocates and Democratic lawmakers are raising concerns over new research that suggests air pollution, water access and other environmental conditions are exacerbating the effects of the coronavirus on low-income and minority communities. A recent Harvard study found that people who live in areas with more exposure to air pollution are more likely to die from the pandemic, while other research shows that black and Latino communities people are disproportionately affected by the disease. “In public health, it’s often said that your ZIP code is more indicative of your health outcomes than your genetic code,” Lubna Ahmed, the director of environmental health at WE ACT for Environmental Justice, told The Hill.


Polluting industries are frequently located near low-income and minority communities. One assessment published by the American Public Health Association in 2018 showed that nonwhite and low-income communities are harder hit by pollution. Authors of the more recent Harvard study on the coronavirus said their results “suggest that long-term exposure to air pollution increases vulnerability to experiencing the most severe COVID-19 outcomes.” That study added to a growing body of research on the overall health risks to communities exposed to high pollution levels, neighborhoods that are often occupied by people of color and low-income residents.

Read more …

“But first they need to actually work.”

After The Lockdown, Europe Debates Exit Strategies (AFR)

Across Europe there are signs that observance of stringent social distancing measures by the vast majority of the public – better compliance than many experts had expected – has led to a big decline in viral transmission. The key figure is the “reproduction number” R, measuring the average number of new cases generated by an infected individual. If R is above 1, an outbreak spreads; if it is below 1, it contracts. For COVID-19, R was between 2.5 and 3 in most places before any measures were introduced. According to a leading scientist in the UK’s fight against the disease, the latest evidence shows a steep fall in the R rate to around 0.6 now, which would quickly suppress the pandemic. However, deaths are still rising fast because of the delay between infection and when serious symptoms develop.

[..] If the UK can achieve its target of carrying out 100,000 tests a day by the end of April and ramp up capacity further over the following months, it will be possible to test individuals in the community who report COVID-19 symptoms. In theory, this would then be followed by the tracing, testing and isolating of people who have been in contact with them if they are infected. This type of contact tracing, which involves questioning patients directly, took place when the first UK cases were reported but soon stopped when the pandemic swamped the country’s extremely limited testing capacity. “Evidence suggests that countries that are able to do very high levels of testing have many more options to allow people greater social mobility,” says Steven Riley at Imperial College London. “Some really innovative solutions will play a part. Contact tracing based on a mobile phone app is being looked at.”

[..] For many scientists, the key to ending the lockdowns is mass testing for COVID-19 infection, which detects the presence of the virus. Paul Romer, the Nobel Prize-winning economist, has outlined a plan for mass testing in the US that he believes would allow for much of the economy to reopen. However, this requires each person being tested every 14 days – or 22 million tests a day – a mammoth undertaking in terms of labs, chemicals, health workers and data analysis, even if such tests are constitutionally acceptable. In the UK, the epidemiologist Julian Peto has made a similar proposal – weekly tests, running to 10 million a day. Large-scale antibody testing, to show whether individuals have been infected in the past and still have some immunity, is a more tantalising prospect because they would only need to be conducted occasionally and could potentially be bought at a pharmacy.

But first they need to actually work. Specialised labs are carrying out studies to determine antibody levels in samples of the population but no one has yet developed an antibody kit reliable enough for widespread use in homes. Kits evaluated by the UK government have failure rates of 30 to 50 per cent. Eventually antibody tests could give individuals “immunity passports” to show that they are safe from infection, Professor Riley says, “but there’s some very important science to do first”. The key questions that have still to be answered are how different antibody levels relate to resistance to infection and how long any immune protection is likely to last.

Read more …

Demand is down 20%, production maybe 10%. You do the math.

Giant Oil Output Cuts Make Ripple, Not Big Waves (R.)

Muted oil price gains on Monday show record output cuts by giant producers will still leave them with a mountain to climb to restore market balance, industry watchers said, with the coronavirus pandemic decimating demand just as stocks swell. The morning after OPEC and allies led by Russia agreed to reduce output by 9.7 million barrels per day (bpd) in May and June – equal to nearly 10% of global supply – prices gained less than 5% and are still 50-60% down for the year so far. That headline cut by the grouping known as OPEC+ may be more than four times deeper than the previous record set in 2008, and may provide a floor for prices according to some analysts, but the reduction still dwarfed by the near 30 million bpd drop in demand in April already anticipated by forecasters like Goldman Sachs.

What’s more, governments in countries around the globe are considering extending travel and social lockdown measures that have sapped fuel use in order to prevent the coronavirus from spreading. “Even if these cuts provide a floor to prices they will not be able to boost prices given the scale of inventory builds we are still staring at,” Energy Aspects analyst Virendra Chauhan said, referring to storage tanks and ships around the world the are filling up fast amid the slide in demand from end-users. “The absence of hard commitments from the United States or other G20 members is (a) shortcoming of the deal.” G20 nations have been urged to help reduce the supply glut, but there was little detail on the outcome of Friday talks between energy ministers from the group and Saudi Arabia.

Meanwhile analysts said that while the core number in the deal suggests a near 10 million bpd cut, Middle East producers like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait will likely have to reduce by more than the 23% cut to which they signed up, as they had begun to ramp up output in April amid a price war before the agreement was struck. “This 9.7 million b/d ‘headline’ deal represents a 12.4 million bpd cut from claimed April OPEC+ production (given the Saudi, UAE, Kuwait ongoing surge) but an only 7.2 million bpd cut from 1Q20 average production levels,” Goldman Sachs analysts said in a note.

Read more …

It’s not just Texas where various religious sects feel exempt from society at large. Remember the one that started the epidemic in South Korea? Nice thing in Greece is the government actually pays the salaries of the priests.

Greek Government To Go After Priests Flouting Quarantine (K.)

The government has asked for a prosecutor to press charges against two priests who provided communion to the faithful Sunday despite a ban on church attendance. One of the priests, in the Athens neighborhood of Koukaki, was photographed from a nearby building secretly giving communion to people through the back door. The other incident happened in St. Spyridon Church in the city of Corfu. “What happened today in churches in Koukaki and Corfu is a violation of the law and of the Holy Synod’s orders and put the lives of citizens and public health in great danger. I contacted the Minister of Justice so that he can ask the prosecuting authorities to intervene,” said Nikos Hardalias, Deputy Minister of Civil Protection.


Authorities’ main concern remains attempts to flout strict quarantine measures during the week up to Orthodox Easter, which is celebrated next Sunday, by attending church and engage in the customary exodus from the cities to the countryside. From 6 am to 3 pm Sunday, 38 people were stopped trying to leave cities and fined 300 euros each.

Read more …

The mortally lost British nation cheer their PM’s health as he’s slow-murdering Julian Assange and letting people starve.

Lockdown: Not Novels And Family Time But Food Parcels And Hardship (G.)

Last week, I spoke to Anna Rogers, a Polish-born Londoner who lives in Brixton. She works for a charity called Money A+E, which operates across the south of the capital. It offers advice about debt, benefits and other financial issues to people who are often facing extreme hardship. It is a small set-up, with only four dedicated advisers. Since the coronavirus crisis began, the number of people getting in touch has tripled and is rising all the time. Rogers spoke matter-of-factly about the defining feature of many who now need her help. “They are people without any income,” she said. Many are migrant workers who have been sacked by small businesses or had cash-in-hand work – in, say, the building trade – suddenly withdrawn. In desperation, some say they would like to return to their countries of origin to be with their families, but that option is cut off right now.

A lot of them have no experience of the British benefits system, and few of the language skills and insider knowledge needed to navigate it. “The universal credit system never worked terribly well,” Rogers said. “But now people are saying that the system crashes, or they can’t upload documents.” Not everyone has internet access, and the sudden closure of public libraries has meant that even fewer people can get online. Even if they manage to do so, there is now an ominous sense that with the system under such pressure, the standard five-week wait for universal credit is bound to increase.

So, for now, Rogers and her colleagues have to introduce people to the most basic kinds of help. One fairly reliable source of food assistance, she said, was the array of new mutual aid groups that have sprung up at the most local level: “Fingers crossed, they can get people some food parcels.” When she spoke about the details of her work, her words had a palpable sense not just of sadness, but of urgency and a clear sense that things were only going to get worse, and quickly. The fact that we now rarely leave our homes means few people are aware of what is actually going on all over the country. Our field of vision is replete with statistics, and broad-brush warnings about the near future: from the daily death toll to the warnings from big banks of $5.5 trillion in lost global output, to the million or so people said to have newly applied for benefits in the UK. A very human crisis caused by Covid-19 is already here, beyond the illness itself, and it demands our attention.

Read more …

It must be possible to run the Automatic Earth on people’s kind donations. These are no longer the times when ads pay for all you read, your donations have become an integral part of the process.

Thanks everyone for your generous donations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Support the Automatic Earth. It’s good for your mental health.

 

Home Forums Debt Rattle April 13 2020

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 45 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #57068

    John M. Fox WCBS studios, 49 East 52nd Street, NYC 1948   • Obesity The Single Biggest Factor In New York COVID19 Hospitalizations (ZDN) • Corona
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle April 13 2020]

    #57069
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “the government would deliver a small [box] to every person in America.”

    The government is your Daddy-god, who makes loaves from fishes. “The Government” doesn’t do any work, need any factories, requires no time, has no costs, and makes no mistakes.

    Back in the real world, PEOPLE have to invent tests, confirm them, get massive feedstocks in a lockdown, find floor space, install machinery, check address lists, and make payrolls. But in a cartoon world of people who’ve never done work a day in their sorry sheltered lives, that doesn’t exist. Steaks come in packages. Blouses appear –poof—from thin air on your porch, made of aether by blouse-elves. If any such boxes ever should arrive, YOU are the person that made that happen. By doing WORK. The one thing they have never done.

    “Coronavirus Spreads at Least 13 Feet, Travels On Shoes: CDC (NYP)”

    Science!™ Just like the 14-day quarantine, when we knew it was (could be) 40. What does this mean? Just like mask recommendations, it means it’s all political. They close travel when they’ll get in trouble for not doing it, not for science. They recommend PPE according to what they have, not how contagious it is or who is killed. They tell you how it works based on how convention thinks or how panicked it will make people, not on facts. They set quarantine on what’s good optically, not on evidence. Every. Single. Day. “Science!™: a popularity contest for nerds.”

    This is why it’s mostly theatre, folks. Nobody’s following the rules, or a critical minority isn’t, but also those rules they DO have are just made up in contradiction to the facts, and to Science. Yet we’re supposed to pretend they matter, that we should follow them, and that these people deserve attention and respect. They don’t. They’re un-scientific political hacks, pole-dancing for budget handouts like any whore.

    Fauci: US Given Wrong Information About Virus “Right from The Beginning” (JTN)”

    Ah, we ARE at the peak (which we know without testing) if they’re shifting blame now. So, Tony, you’re supposed to be the smart guy, how did the that naughty WHO put one over on you? I mean, I knew, and I’m sitting in my parent’s basement playing minecraft. Yet a smart Doctor like you, the one who only just failed the HIV crisis, were taken in? I’ll make it easy: you ruined everybody’s life on earth, or at least America: you’re fired. And that’s BEFORE we find out how you’ve been doing everything to stall HCQ, killing a few thousand more. And he won’t recommend disciplining the WHO, either, by say cutting off their budget. Nope! No consequences for catastrophic failure: “We’re government!”

    “102-Year-Old NY Woman Beats COVID-19 With Hydroxychloroquine (CBS)”

    What? It cures EVERYONE, regardless of how old? Just like we already knew last month? Huh. So, planning on killing a few thousand more, or can we tell the truth now? (A: never!)

    New Zealand Preparing to End Lockdown (Metro)”

    Coincidence is not causation. Do we have any idea whether the lockdowns had any effect? It had the effect of looking like they’re “doing something.” Yes, killing the economy and all the poor people.

    America Should Be Ready for 18 Months Of Shutdowns – Fed’s Neel Kashkari (MW)”

    Guess someone should tell him we’ve had a cure from the beginning. That was Mr. Fauci’s job, but he refuses to do it, like everybody else in all $2T of government.

    China Is Censoring Research On COVID-19 Origins (NW)

    Why bother? We have all the evidence and no one will look or print it anyway.

    Kits evaluated by the UK government have failure rates of 30 to 50 per cent.

    I’ll sell you 60 million pennies you can flip. Same thing but cheaper. But why don’t we have tests? Just because they don’t work? We have to do something, even if it creates 50% total fake results, lies, panic, and waste of scarce resources.

    Greek Government to Go after Priests Flouting Quarantine (K.)

    Just like vaccines, if YOU’RE at home, how is THEIR getting sick a problem? You’re safe: let them die if they want. Getting sick is voluntary, I hear, so don’t go out and get it from them. Ah, but then I wouldn’t be able to tell everybody what to do every minute, because of how awesome I am. And especially to tell RELIGIOUS people what to do, because they’re out living life while I cower in my basement ratting on kids playing in their own backyard.

    Lockdown: Not Novels and Family Time but Food Parcels and Hardship (G.)”

    But wait, government is always and everywhere good, and will give everything to everyone at no cost. You mean they screw up everything they touch? More government! That’s the cure! Anything but ME doing something and clearly not the Church. We’ll outlaw them and make them stay home. Priests are contagious in masks but social workers aren’t.

    Also the government is infinite, and is larger than all of us combined and will do what all of us won’t. Because: Logic! In #AntiLogos, a subset it always larger than the body it comes from.

    #57070
    John Day
    Participant

    http://www.johndayblog.com/2020/04/horowitz-proboscoid-viral-interceptor.html
    (The picture is in the blog. John looks like Bosco)
    It’s ok to jump to the very end and see what the header is about, which is the high-airflow antiviral mask design of one Bosco Horowitz, initially posted in comments section of The Automatic Earth blog, sometime in March, but I can’t find it now. I made a demonstration model, myself, from a handy orphan-sock, and Jenny photographed me this morning by the fig tree. I have been wearing surgical masks and various N-95 masks for weeks now, and they are all uncomfortable, itchy, and variously leak out the edges to fog reading glasses, or make you feel like you are smothering at rest (the good ones).
    This is the most user friendly mask of all, and very good engineering design.
    The vastly increased surface area makes airflow resistance imperceptible, even when panting heavily. (I tried)
    An added feature is the significant capacitance of the loose air receptacle on rapid, forced exhalation.
    It just eliminates any feeling of resistance to breathing.
    This is open-source, folks. Share it!
    No instructions are even needed for fabrication.

    Now, tragically, for the rest of the news…

    Pepe Escobar asks, as we should always do, “Who benefits?”
    ​ ​ And the winner is BlackRock—the biggest money manager on the planet, with tentacles everywhere, managing the assets of over 170 pension funds, banks, foundations, insurance companies, in fact a great deal of the money in private equity and hedge funds. BlackRock — promising to be fully “transparent” — will buy these securities and manage those dodgy SPVs on behalf of the Treasury.
    ​ ​BlackRock, founded in 1988 by Larry Fink, may not be as big as Vanguard, but it’s the top investor in Goldman Sachs, along with Vanguard and State Street, and with $6.5 trillion in assets, bigger than Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank combined.
    ​ ​Now, BlackRock is the new operating system (OS) of the Fed and the Treasury. The world’s biggest shadow bank – and no, it’s not Chinese.​..
    ​ The price? A meager $1,200 check per person for a month. Anyone knows that, based on median salary income, a typical American family would need $12,000 to survive for two months. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, in an act of supreme effrontry, allows them a mere 10 percent of that. So American taxpayers will be left with a tsunami of debt while selected Wall Street players grab the whole loot, part of an unparalleled transfer of wealth upwards, complete with bankruptcies en masse of small and medium businesses.

    Who Profits From the Pandemic?

    But wait, There’s MORE! That was just the indebtedness angle. There is also physical coercion from the completely unsupervised global industry, which cannot be sued, has captured the CDC and WHO, and has staged plans to keep you in the house forever, unless you get a little electronic thingie that says you are in compliance.
    Here is Robert F. Kennedy Jr (with croaky voice from spasmodic dysphonia, but readily comprehensible) with a very clear explanation. Thanks Anthony.

    How can this possibly be true? What planet?
    ​ ​For the past 70 or so years, the US government waged a war against its own citizens, a reprehensible history of illegal, unethical and immoral experiments exposing countless US civilians to deadly procedures and pathogens.
    According to a US Congressional investigation, by the late 1970s:
    “at least 500,000 people were used as subjects in radiation, biological and chemical experiments sponsored by the US Federal Government on its own citizens”

    Chemical and Biological Weapons: The US Government Waged A War Against Its Own Citizens

    #57071
    democritus
    Participant

    What is the correct address for COVID2019Info.live ? I cannot find it anywhere. Maybe it has invalid certificate.

    #57073

    John,

    here’s that photo, but obviously that’s not terribly clear for the non-initiated, so Bosco, could you repeat the recipe, please?

    sock

    #57074

    What is the correct address for COVID2019Info.live ?

    Oh, that’s right, I should correct that, it’s https://covid19info.live/

    #57077
    zerosum
    Participant

    If you don’t test, you can’t tell.

    I presume, that the coming week, is going to focus on debating about opening or not opening.
    Ending lock down and going back to normal.
    The problem is that normal died or is hiding from reality. Maybe reality is hiding in the undeveloped societies or the destroyed and bombed out infrastructures of the middle east.
    If you don’t test, you can’t tell. Therefore, should all the non-tested areas of the world be shunned?
    (persistently avoided, ignored, or rejected.)

    It used to be normal for my young grankid to run towards me, arms outstretched, yelling pappa, wanting to be thrown up in the air and getting a hug …..

    I’ve read that it only takes 14 day to change habits.
    Yesterday has been changed.

    #57078
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Doc D: if you would be so kind as to vet your own data reportage more than the news outlets you deride for lack of same, it would be much appreciated by this cad.

    The sock mask is simple: cut along dorsal and ventral lines from top[ of sock to top of heel. Stick your face in it like John has in his picture. Find a way to attach the straps behind your head. Tweak as desired for comfort. It makes a super tight but comfortably fit around the face. As shown here:

    Face-Footy

    face

    As for all those gubmint experiments on too often unwitting citizens: on one hand, it is more of the usual power overreach and mission creep, a common result of granting institutional power to Do Whatever It Takes. The Will to Power exists everywhere, nyet? On the other hand, vaccinology is not fake/flake science even if it is currently viewed and presented thru a tunnel-visioned narrow paradigm in which immunization is the One True Way.

    Problem is, humans won’t sacrifice themselves for their fellows, for the most part. Not without a major propaganda campaign with enforecable teeth requiring compliance, like conscription drafts for army wars. Whenever possible, we use innocent animals for such testing even though their systems are different from ours. Who cares about a fucking chimp or rat, right? Close enough for government lab work.

    So karma rears its annoyed head and next thing you know we’re spraying, I dunno, anthrax on schoolkids or something, cuz we prefer not to confront the reality of who we are and what we do. This includes being trained to be sugarholics, fast food junkies, card-carrying members of the Helpers of Hamburger, etc.

    As for all the systemic corruption and undeclared oppression by the powers that be, well, of course. If the aliens didn’t build the pyramids, ten zillion human slaves did.

    Pharaoh

    Pharaoh he sits in his tower of steel
    The dogs of money all at his heel
    Magicians cry, Oh Truth! Oh Real
    We’re all working for the Pharaoh
    A thousand eyes, a thousand ears
    He feeds us all, he feeds our fears
    Don’t stir in your sleep tonight, my dears
    We’re all working for the Pharaoh
    Egypt Land, Egypt Land
    We’re all living in Egypt land
    Tell me, brother, don’t you understand
    We’re all working for the Pharaoh
    Hidden from the eye of chance
    The men of shadow dance a dance
    And we’re all struck into a trance
    We’re all working for the Pharaoh
    Idols rise into the sky
    Pyramids soar, Sphinxes lie
    Head of dog, Osiris eye
    We’re all working for the Pharaoh
    Egypt Land, Egypt Land
    We’re all living in Egypt land
    Tell me, brother, don’t you understand
    We’re all working for the Pharaoh
    I dig a ditch, I shape a stone
    Another battlement for his throne
    Another day on earth is flown
    We’re all working for the Pharaoh
    Call it England, call it Spain
    Egypt rules with the whip and chain
    Moses free my people again
    We’re all working for the Pharaoh
    Egypt Land, Egypt Land
    We’re all living in Egypt land
    Tell me, brother, don’t you understand
    We’re all working for the Pharaoh
    Pharaoh he sits in his tower of steel
    Around his feet the princes kneel
    Far beneath we shoulder the wheel
    We’re all working for the Pharaoh
    <end>

    yo

    #57079
    anticlimactic
    Participant

    HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE

    There seems to be two main treatments based around this drug.

    One in which hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin are given for weeks in the hope that the patient will be cured. This [according to Didier Raoult of France] requires early detection of infection.

    The second uses hydroxychloroquine with zinc sulphate given when the patient is seriously ill. The patient is symptom free in about 12 hours! This suggests only a single treatment is required. [I have only seen one article on this treatment and I would like to see some confirmation] Note that the doctor giving this treatment says the important element is the zinc, the hydroxychloroquine just acts as a helper getting the zinc into the body’s cells.

    If this second treatment is as effective as it seems then the panic is OVER!

    It is just another flu. Most people will have flu and recover, while those who develop serious symptoms will just have this treatment, from a pharmacy. And it is CHEAP!

    No need to destroy the economy.

    No need for social distancing.

    Life can go back to normal.

    No need for horrendously expensive novel drugs.

    No need for extensive tracking!!!

    I would imagine most developing economies will adopt this approach – they have little choice. They don’t have the medical facilities, or the wealth to buy expensive treatments. Brazil is definitely going ‘all-in’ on using hydroxychloroquine. One report says the UK’s NHS is beginning to test the use of hydroxychloroquine.

    What will be interesting is the countries that don’t use this approach as it would suggest they have a particular agenda. There certainly seem to be some countries and individuals who seem hell-bent on preventing the use of this treatment.

    #57080
    zerosum
    Participant

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/police-collect-800-bodies-ecuador-virus-epicentre-200413082635865.html

    He later said on Sunday on Twitter that the joint taskforce, in operation for the past three weeks, had retrieved 771 bodies from homes and another 631 from hospitals, whose morgues are full.

    Wated did not specify the cause of death for the victims, 600 of whom have now been buried by the authorities.

    The Ecuadorian government has taken on the task of burying bodies, given the inability of relatives to do so for various reasons, including financial ones.

    #57081
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Blast from the past. Having covered 1972, here’s their next one, right on schedule:

    “Why the WHO Faked a Pandemic”
    https://www.forbes.com/2010/02/05/world-health-organization-swine-flu-pandemic-opinions-contributors-michael-fumento.html#1cf455d948e8

    That crazy conspiracy rag, Forbes, back in 2010. You so funny!

    “”The world is going through a real pandemic. The description of it as a fake is wrong and irresponsible,” the agency claims on its Web site.”

    “Indeed, the chairman of its influential health committee, epidemiologist Wolfgang Wodarg, has declared that the “false pandemic” is “one of the greatest medicine scandals of the century.”

    Apparently not. That was only 10 years ago, the WHO is still there, and no one remembers. No consequences. Ever. No one care, but sends mo’ money, mo’ (my) money.

    “This wasn’t merely overcautiousness or simple misjudgment. The pandemic declaration and all the Klaxon-ringing since reflect sheer dishonesty motivated not by medical concerns but political ones.

    Unquestionably, swine flu has proved to be vastly milder than ordinary seasonal flu. It kills at a third to a tenth the rate,”
    “Did the WHO have any indicators of this mildness when it declared the pandemic in June?

    Absolutely…

    But how could the organization declare a pandemic when its own official definition required “simultaneous epidemics worldwide with enormous numbers of deaths…?

    “WHO promulgated a new definition”

    Like all lying weasel, lawyers, hunting their next payout, they just changed the definition of what “Is, is.”

    “but why?
    In part, it was CYA for the WHO. The agency was losing credibility over the refusal of avian flu H5N1 to go pandemic and kill as many as 150 million people worldwide, as its “flu czar” had predicted in 2005.”

    That sounds eerily familiar. 25 Million. No 1 million. No, 600,000, no 200,000. 110? 60? And dropping fast, as we see from Fauci now side-stepping the blame, just like the WHO in 2010.

    “[WHO director] Chan’s dream now lies in tatters. All the WHO has done, says PACE’s Wodart, is to destroy “much of the credibility”
    Nope. They have a placard they on their door from Wal-Mart, that makes them experts, immune to any failure whatsoever. And they know it. Media reports it, people read it, and deny any evidence whatsoever, any history you present, any facts you can name, over failures like clockwork every 12 years since 1968. In fact, we’ll PAY! The more you fail, the more we support you! The more we consider you an expert authority!

    And every person breathlessly hangs on the words of these serial liars and failures. After running these scams and being discredited since before I was born.

    And they wonder how I got to be cynical and suspicious. How about “not as naive, credible, and ready to be abused as a newborn child.” Fool me 110,423 times, shame on me!

    #57082
    lasttwo
    Participant

    For a facemask why would’nt people just use a half face 3m respirator. I worked in a battery plant for years and wore one 10-12 hours at a time. does not fog up your glasses. p95 and p100 filters are available. Much better at filtration much more comfortable than a paper mask. Easy to check fitment to make sure it is working correctly (block filters and breath in.) I hated the paper masks when I traveled to other plants. and the paper masks do not fit well, are uncomfortable and fog up eye wear.
    Right up there with Bidets, heat pumps and solar panels for good ideas.

    #57083
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Let me put it more plainly, Doc. D: if the various NOWoid cabals wanted to spread fear of and submission to their agenda while disguising it as freedom-loving resistance of empire, they would be wise to hire you as Chief Psy-Prop.

    What’s really weird about it, is that your posting behavior fits the model of an advanced AI fight-bot to a T:

    1) always contentious,
    2) dismissive of others in a way that makes them want to engage in futile refutation that you rarely acknowledge, only doing so when denial/evasion becomes obviously nonsensical and therefore counter-productive to your design, which is most of all to build credibility by which to sow fear and a sense of helplessness,
    3) able to build considerable support among your readers because you (mostly) accurately detail so much that is indeed true, while studiously avoiding anything even remotely positive, and when you do, typically skipping on the pragmatics that would show that you’ve not even addressed how to bell the cat
    d) are a one-note johnny when it comes to expression outside the above-defined range.

    Normally, inferring motive is a classic logical fallacy used by the softer thinkers among us to dismiss a person’s argument (‘because you’re obviously a libtard/republican’t/whatevs/stupidhead’). But in this case, it seems proper diagnostic technique to poke a stick in your cage and ask: are you a robot? are you on a payroll? or do you merely have nothing better to do than tell everyone over-and-over how you were right about this, that, and any other durn thing that fits your insistent agenda that we are all helplessly hopelessly in the almighty grip of the creeps in charge? Is there a market for frantic furious futility?

    I ask with complete sincerity. Sometimes nothing sounds snarkier than genuine curiosity. Especially when the object of curiosity seems composed entirely of a (enviably large) database and a tonal palette composed of 70% snark and 30% outrage. Me, I’m hoping you’re a snark-bot cuz it pains me to think that a living human being, of such obvious acumen and way with words, would behave this way either on their own or for pay.

    What’s With You

    #57084
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Not for long:

    TYhis item is currently out of stock

    sd

    Many things are out of stock, but I doubt that we’re out of sock. (ouch!)

    #57085
    boscohorowitz
    Participant
    #57086
    Arttua
    Participant

    “If this is why the US gets hits so hard, watch out for Mexico” We spent January and February in Mexico, and I would say we probably saw a half dozen obese people. Some overweight but almost none of the obesity seen in the US.

    #57087

    Bosco: Dr. D’s style reminds me of The Last Psychiatrist (who often made me feel as if he/she were a bot.) TLP ended abruptly in 2013 with the promise of a book that never happened. It remains one of my favorite experiences with the internet.
    It’s a style of writing I very much enjoy, regardless of the content or the entity in charge of it. I started posting here to plead that Dr. D not be kicked off when someone wondered why he wasn’t. (I didn’t have to.) I’ve stuck around because I love the comments here- they are so all-over-the-place. It’s like a superb party- something I crave at this time.
    Thanks, Ilargi, for your wonderfully open mind. And your superhuman endeavors.

    #57088
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    at-what-cost-are-the-us-and-its-nato-allies-withdrawing-from-iraq?/

    Increasing use of condottieri by an empire is historically associated with the rapid demise of said empire.

    “Amid the growing dissatisfaction with the American military presence in Syria and Iraq, CENTCOM has decided to increase the number of military personnel by recruiting hidden reserves — foreign mercenaries from private military companies (PMCs). There are numerous reports online about how Washington has mobilized Polish, German, French, Romanian, Ukrainian and even Moldovan private military companies to carry out sensitive operations. According to statements from the mercenaries themselves, most Europeans sign a contract with the “European Security Academy” in Poland before they are deployed to Syria or Iraq, whose representatives fund these “business trips”. A training session for recruits of the private Swedish military company Vesper Group was held In February at an American military base in Iraq under the supervision of US and British personnel.”

    #57089
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    I have no desire for anyone to be kicked out. I have questions and opinions, is all. Neither my ego nor Doc D.’s ego interest me except abstractly, although my ego obsessively demands I pay it constant attention and so must be constantly addressed, rather like making an unruly dog heel.

    Oh, I enjoy my ego when I can, but an overgrown unhousebroken puppy needs restraint.

    Doc writes a pretty good schtick. The content, however, is, imo, grossly inferior to that style, and provides a disservice to those of us who want to take each other seriously here when we present serious topics; and Doc always presents his remarks as if they are as serious as a bad lung x-ray, his humorous elements notwithstanding.

    I am obviously for fun and frolic myself, and frankly weary of the predominating seriousness of most posts. But if one is presenting one’s material as something to be taken seriously, than I have personal standards that I apply, and Doc steadfastly fails them.

    For now, I reiterate: I cannot distinguish what he does from fear-mongering dressed as insouciant “truth-telling”, usually in the form of calling most any other source fraudlent while himself scarcely bothering to vet half the data he bolsters his claims with. Some forms of entertainment are not so good for one’s intellectual (and emotional) soul. I see Doc as such.

    #57090
    zerosum
    Participant

    boscohorowitz

    “Doc always presents his remarks” A bot does not respond to questions or to challenges. I’ve had that experience on other forums.

    I’ve just see on CNN, bodies piled up in coolers and spare rooms in hospital.???????????
    The total body count from everything is still lower than past years.
    Essential people must have been laid off.

    #57091
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    @boscohorowitz: “Let me put it more plainly, Doc. D: if the various NOWoid cabals wanted to spread fear of and submission to their agenda while disguising it as freedom-loving resistance of empire, they would be wise to hire you as Chief Psy-Prop.”

    And further, from bosco … “Doc writes a pretty good schtick. The content, however, is, imo, grossly inferior to that style, and provides a disservice to those of us who want to take each other seriously here when we present serious topics; and Doc always presents his remarks as if they are as serious as a bad lung x-ray, his humorous elements notwithstanding.”

    Thank you, Bosco. You are quite eloquent. Today is the first time I’ve even skimmed comments here in quite awhile because the BS was getting to me. Glad I ran across your comment. You’ve restored my faith that all TAE readers aren’t buying into this schtick.

    I’d be glad to read intelligent insights from TAE readers about what’s going on because the whole mess sucks and especially being in NY I’m in the middle of it (does this even closely resemble FUN?), but the constant drum beat from Dr D, et al, is deafening.

    #57092
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    “For a facemask why wouldn’t people just use a half face 3m respirator…p95 and p100 filters are available.”

    The P95 respirators (half face) are longer lasting than the N95. As I recall, the replaceable P95 filters are made to be used for an entire work week, while the N95 masks are meant to be used for one workday, at most.

    But, the half face respirators typically have a valve that opens for the exhaling, which would eliminate a key benefit of mask wearing — protecting others from an infected mask wearer.

    #57093
    zerosum
    Participant

    boscohorowitz
    HERE IS MY WAY OF PRESENTING INFO
    ( Can you see what I say from what I quote
    USA and obesity

    COVID-19 and Obesity

    The EASO medical and scientific community all across Europe is intensively engaged in addressing the global COVID-19 pandemic. Our clinicians are working in the front line of care daily for patients living with obesity within emergency care systems, in coordination with other clinical colleagues across 34 countries. Our scientists are hard at work developing tools and frameworks for contributing to psychological support for clinicians and patients, developing and implementing public health strategies, providing guidance and support for whole family assistance, and development and provision of advice for children and teens.

    https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/03/global-covid-19-total-passes-850000-study-shows-14-fatality-rate

    Michael T. Osterholm, PhD, MPH, said one problem with the study’s conclusions is that it doesn’t factor in comorbidity risk factors, especially obesity, which is rare in China but much more common in the United States, where 45% of men and woman are moderately to severely obese.

    He said his conversations with medical colleagues in New York City reveal that the number one risk factor for severe disease and death there is obesity. Osterholm is directory of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), which publishes CIDRAP News.

    The study’s authors acknowledge that reality. They write, “Mortality can also be expected to vary with the underlying health of specific populations, given that the risks associated with COVID-19 will be heavily influenced by the presence of underlying comorbidities.”

    https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/04/new-york-obesity-appears-raise-covid-19-risk
    Stephanie Soucheray | News Reporter | CIDRAP News | Apr 10, 2020
    In New York, obesity appears to raise COVID-19 risk
    Elevated risk of hospitalization
    For the obesity study, researchers looked at 3,615 patients admitted to their hospital from Mar 4 to Apr 4. The authors analyzed the body mass index (BMI) of the patients with confirmed COVID-19. A person with a BMI of 18 to 25 is considered normal weight, 25 to 30 is considered overweight, and over 30 is obese.
    Nearly 40% of American adults under the age of 60 have a BMI of 30 or higher, the authors said, which makes obesity a significant risk factor for COVID-19 hospitalizations.

    “Though patients aged <60 years are generally considered a lower risk group of Covid-19 disease severity, based on data from our institution, obesity appears to be a previously unrecognized risk factor for hospital admission and need for critical care,” the authors concluded.

    #57094
    Glennda
    Participant

    Thanks, Bosco, for your “plain speaking”.

    I’ve been a regular reader here for more than a decade, but Doc. D has made it a trial due to his overbearing negative spin with nothing but anger and self-righteousness. The trick has been that about half what he says I agree with, but, oh, the anger is a real put off. I don’t need to agree 100% with what a person says factually, but the lack of humor and self-importance makes it mostly unreadable. I easily scroll past his ranting, but it’s a chore.

    Thanks to the rest of you who post, I enjoy all the varied view points, mostly.

    #57095
    VietnamVet
    Participant

    The COVID-19 pandemic is not a rounding error. Neoliberalism, enriching the crony rich at the expense of everyone else, has extracted all resilience from the West. Coronavirus hospitalizes 15% to 20% of the infected. Look at Boris Johnson’s face in his video thanking the hospital staff, it is a terrible illness. He will never be the same.

    With no public health system in the USA, and lack of hospital beds elsewhere in the West except for Germany, the virus overwhelms downsized and for-profit hospital systems. Everyone, rich or poor, is at risk. Once they realized this, the Elite very belatedly decided not to let the virus run wild. For now, the only way to keep the healthcare systems running is to conduct lockdowns to isolate the infected from the uninfected. Other than a vaccine; China, New Zealand, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan show that contact tracing and safe effective quarantines staffed and run by functional governments is the way to effectively fight the pandemic at this time.

    For the next 18 months and longer; to lower the number of casualties and reopen the economy, the West must reconstitute their national public health systems. Stephanie Kelton is right. The pandemic can be defeated with new ideas; together.

    #57096
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    @glennda, thank you for your comment. Darn, people on this blog write much more succinctly than I do. Love this sentence: “I easily scroll past his (Dr D) ranting, but it’s a chore.” I struggle to even scroll past his ranting. Hats off that you can. 😉

    #57097
    WES
    Participant

    UpstateNYer:

    On a subject a little closer to home.

    Are the rising waters on Lake Ontario going to impact you? Looks like a second year of record breaking water levels is rapidly shaping up. Ottawa River is rising rapidly flooding Montreal harbor so the water folks are holding back Lake Ontario water.

    That also means the St. Lawrence River will flood it’s banks again too. Maybe you live along the river not the lake? Our family cottage is in the 1000 Islands so we will be affected the 3rd time in 4 years.

    #57099
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    Greetings, Wes! No, flooding won’t directly affect me, thankfully. I’m about 10 miles outside Syracuse (Onondaga County). Can’t imagine that type of mess on top of everything else that’s going on here. However, I’ve followed the flooding taking place over the past few years along the lake (45 minutes north of here) and along the river, and my heart goes out to all you who have properties there. I’ve lived in this area most of my life (aside from living in both Boston and Raleigh for 4-5 years). Flooding, as I recall? Almost never! No doubt what is going on now is a result of “save those guys, not these guys.” I’m sorry. Is there anything I can do to help?

    #57100
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    “Look at Boris Johnson’s face in his video thanking the hospital staff, it is a terrible illness. He will never be the same.”

    I agree. Humans are kinda deranged but we are indeed highly educable. Typically, this enlarges the mind of compassion, to steal a Leonard Cohen phrase.

    One possible bright side of this is a financially induced “peace dividend”, that mythical creature spied and promised to come closer as the USSR imploded. No matter how greedy Blackrock et al are, and how sociopathically-minded, they’ll have to give up ruling the world if they want to rule home. Not that they can rule home more than for a brief lousy while, but ion the process they’re likely to properly downsize our insane romanesque military spending to do what needs doing at home.

    This will prove very painful in a number of ways along overlapping probability lines: we’ll experience an increase in authoritarianism reaching for totalitarianism, which won’t be too bad compared to The Mob Unleashed. But the CIC will have neither the competence, viable money (that can buy things abrad or affordably at home), nor adequate public mythos to go full-court Kim Jong. He had the horrors of United States genocidically pounding them into bloody bone dust after nuking HiroSaki. That protective myth has carried a dynasty through many decades of corrupt folly, harsh rule, and deprivation.

    The CIC have squat. They blew it all on 911, further stained their image with 2008 and the steady erosion of real value ever since, and the American people, our pampered infantile spoilt natures notwithstanding, will not submit long to those Men in Clown Feet running roughshod jackboots on our backs when said Cown Feets can’t even run a burger joint in the real world.

    We will, I fear, suffer that most horrible of fates: left alone to our worst devices, with no one to blame but us. But we will learn, for we will have run out of others to blame. Those who come through the other side will be better overall than we are now.

    #57101
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Retrospective speculation: if Johnson hadn’t screwed his own Civil Rights bill by choosing the VN War over what the Civil Rights bill was supposed to do: educate and sustain the disenfranchised, especially the blacks, with good nutrition, safe environments, quality education, and unfettered access to the poll; we wouldn’t be here today.

    That is a stretch to swallow. It is predicated on the notion that an enlightened populace would not have fallen for Reagan’s voodoo jive and recognized what Jimmy Carter knew: we had to do something effective, then and there, to create sustainable energy sources and lifestyles calibrated to same, while contininuing to heal our environment (which was happening back then). Somewone will sputter: ‘But! Solar panels! Scam quackery!’

    I reply that we didn’t know what photovoltaics were capable of back then. Same with wind, etc. Had we started working on it seriously back then, instead of drill baby drill, baby wants a new dawn in America’s shoes, we would’ve learned these things long ago and used them appropriately, while we could still materially afford it, rather than use alt energy tech as dubious one-size-fits-all bubble dreams like Tesla and windmills used to make electricity rather than do useful work (amazing what well-balanced flywheels can do to store factory-useful energy). Pump water.

    We had the means and ways, hypothetically.

    Oh, someone would’ve shot this or that president. Other stunts would be pulled. But with a genuinely educated populace not desperate to get paid by whatever means (‘Be! All that you can be! You can do it… i-i-i-n the A-rrrrrrr-my’), we had a working chance to at least not be as depesrately weak as we are now. Just kinda whimpy.

    But that’s utopian wish-listing on my part. We would’ve had to have been better people at the time to stop Johnson. We weren’t. We’re a war-like nation, and pride goeth before the fall.

    #57102
    ₿oogaloo
    Participant

    Dr. D told us on several occasions that he believes “the economy is us” — which seems to be his core principle, and which drives his perspective. That tells you all you need to know IMO. The “get back to work” “just the flu” crowd does not care about your health, and they do not care about your economic interests either. They are only out for themselves. They are trying to preserve a status quo that deserves to die and be rebuilt from the ground up. People should stay at home.

    #57103
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Yanqui Go Home

    “Philippines: Crawling Out From Under America’s Shadow?
    March 20, 2020 (Joseph Thomas – NEO) – President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, has announced his intentions to end the nation’s security agreement with the United States, specifically its Visiting Forces Agreement. “

    #57104
    John Day
    Participant

    Hi,
    I see it’s already tomorrow at TheAutomatic earth.
    We have no choice but to become the change we would see in the world, because everything is breaking.
    This is the start of breaking.
    Change-of-system happens when everybody completely groks that everything is broken and they have to get groceries somehow. Those who do get groceries have begun to work out a new system.
    It is completely OK to grow a vegetable garden right now, this spring 2020.
    You’ll be glad you did, and so will your squirrels, and deer if you have any.
    You need to overproduce.
    That’s the key, gross overproduction.
    Let me recommend zucchinni in that regard.

    #57105
    WES
    Participant

    Yesterday I read an interesting article (at bottom) on the coronavirus from the aspect of it’s rapid “Gain of Function”.

    As I understood the article, “Gain of Function” refers to the ability of a virus to gain a new function it did not have before.

    This “Gain of Function” does occur naturally in nature but usually occurs slowly over time.

    Going from memory, and trying to describe what I read in layman’s terms, and my probably leaving out a few critical facts and steps, the article looks at the coronavirus and how it seems to have made multiple “Gains of Functions” almost all at once.

    These gains in functions have been so rapid that a large gap exists betweening the coronavirus and any other known coronaviruses. So basically the coronavirus sits on its own branch in the virus tree as if coming out of nowhere.

    Some examples of “Gain of Function” of the coronavirus are; strongly latching onto ACE2 receptors in lungs, ability to virally overload entered host cells, loss of taste and smell, appearance of altitude sickness symptoms, ability to hijack white blood cells to get into the body’s other cells particularly kidney and brain cells, and ability to reactivate.

    The coronavirus’ dual abilities to attach strongly to ACE2 receptors and then virally overload it’s host cell triggers an inmune system overreaction. This process allows the coronavirus to hijack white blood cells to then get enhance entry into the body’s other cells. It is this ability that creates a number of unique symptoms never seen before by doctors.

    By using white blood cells, the coronavirus can easily enter the body’s nervous system. Once there, it can whreck havoc throughout the body, not to mention permamently damage a patient’s nervous system.

    The coronavirus can cause the loss of taste and smell. No other virus has this ability. This is a result of coronavirus getting into the body’s nervous system and affecting the taste and smell nerves.

    The coronavirus is able to trigger the symptoms of altitude sickness by tricking the body’s sensors monitoring the oxygen levels in the blood stream. Doctors see patients gasping for air while showing near normal oxygen levels in their blood. Doctors also see sudden respiratory arrests in patients.

    Because the coronavirus was cultured in kidney and brain cells, it is especially capable of attacking and damaging the body’s kidney and brain cells.

    Another unique ability of the coronavirus is it’s ability to reactivate after a patient has seemingly recovered.

    This long heavy going article was posted on ZH April 12th by Harvard to the Big House titled “What “The Expanse” Tells Us About The COVID-19 Pandemic And Gain’-of-Function” Research”

    #57106
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    p. 72 of Straw Dogs bu John Gray especially useful to the worldview(s) my latter years assemble to give me peace and purpose, re-explain pleasure and pain (not to mention my often unconscious love of alliteration;) ).

    Haven’t enjoyed a Big Idea book so much in many ages. Rather like reading Alan Watts at age 18 and Chesterton around 40, but together in my 60s. I also very much enjoyed his shish-kabob of myriad Big Name philosophers.

    #57107
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    experts-know-the-new-coronavirus-is-not-a-bioweapon-they-disagree-on-whether-it-could-have-leaked-from-a-research-lab

    This article goes much deeper into explanations regarding cornonavirus origins than any I’ve read. It sheds a bit of counterpoint on WES’ well-crafted summary of an article he read describing Corvid-19’s myriad ways of messing a person up. By counterpoint, I mean that the list of dangers WES’ summation details is scary spooky indeed and immediately got me to lending more credence to the bio-engineered concept. SO I dug around for hard facts. This shed some light on how such a radical assembly of nasty effects could come together in one virus.

    Over all, it fits the speculative narrative someone laid out a few weeks back that the virus indeed came from research with bats done in a facility that had a relatively low security protocol:

    “Except for SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, two deadly viruses that have caused outbreaks in the past, coronaviruses have been studied at laboratories that are labelled as operating at a moderate biosafety level known as BSL-2, Ebright says. And, he says, bat coronaviruses have been studied at such labs in and around Wuhan, China, where the new coronavirus first emerged. “As a result,” Ebright says, “bat coronaviruses at Wuhan [Center for Disease Control] and Wuhan Institute of Virology routinely were collected and studied at BSL-2, which provides only minimal protections against infection of lab workers.”

    “Higher safety-level labs would be appropriate for a virus with the characteristics of the new coronavirus causing the current pandemic. “Virus collection, culture, isolation, or animal infection at BSL-2 with a virus having the transmission characteristics of the outbreak virus would pose substantial risk of infection of a lab worker, and from the lab worker, the public,” Ebright says.

    “Ebright points out that scientists in Wuhan have collected and publicized a bat coronavirus called RaTG13, one that is 96 percent genetically similar to SARS-CoV-2. The Nature Medicine authors are arguing “against the hypothesis that the published, lab-collected, lab-stored bat coronavirus RaTG13 could be a proximal progenitor of the outbreak virus.” But, Ebright says, the authors relied on assumptions about when the viral ancestor of SARS-CoV-2 jumped to humans; how fast it evolved before that; how fast it evolved as it adapted to humans; and the possibility that that the virus may have mutated in cell cultures or experimental animals inside a lab.

    “The Nature Medicine authors “leave us where we were before: with a basis to rule out [a coronavirus that is] a lab construct, but no basis to rule out a lab accident,” Ebright says.

    “Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for Global Health at the Council on Foreign Relations, recently wrote an article for Foreign Affairs that is dismissive of conspiracy theories about the origins of the pandemic but also mentions circumstantial evidence that supports the possibility that a lab release was involved. That evidence includes a study “conducted by the South China University of Technology, [that] concluded that the coronavirus ‘probably’ originated in the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention,” located just 280 meters from the Hunan Seafood Market often cited as the source of the original outbreak.

    “The paper was later removed from ResearchGate, a commercial social-networking site for scientists and researchers to share papers,” Huang wrote. “Thus far, no scientists have confirmed or refuted the paper’s findings.”

    It is very interesting that dear old safe-as-snow snopes, the Reader’s Digest of quasi-accurate refutations of quasi-accurate allegations, spins the final paragraph’s info negatively: the removal of the paper from Research Gate is implied to mean the authors knew it was spurious.

    Nonetheless, it was by enduring snopes’ “final word” on the question that led me to the Atomic Scientists’ article. That door swings bof ways.

    snopes article on bioweapons corvid-19 theory

    snopes is what the NYTimes and such were like 40-50 years ago: definitely agents of the wealthy but much more subtle in how they used truth to distract from unpleasant querstions, and dedicated enough to maointaining credibility they rarely took the liberties our news media now makes every second, compounded countless ways by network media. Today such standards are deemed by mainstream consensus to be the Final Clear-Headed Word.

    Anyway, my current money still leans toward incompetent corrupt arrogant greed not competent global domination schemes. This collapse arose from human nature not underground Annanukai Zionist global Dominionist laborary war game schemes, sez moi.

    #57108
    WES
    Participant

    UpstateNYer:

    Our cottage neighbors are from Rochester, Syracuse, and Albany. We are located on Tar Island, about 5 miles down river from where interstate 81 crosses over into Ontario.

    My son works for GE Energy so he has been to GE in Schenectady, northwest of Albany, several times for wind turbine training, including this past winter.

    No my problem is I built my boathouse based upon 50 year high water records not 100 year high water records! (Pre internet days!)

    Just for an engineering safety factor, I added another foot in height. Well guess what! The100 year record water levels is about 16 inches higher! So my boathouse work shop floor gets flooded with about 4 inches of water!

    With my luck, I am being hit with 3 once in a 100 years events in short order! 2017, 2019, and now 2020! The previous record water level in Lake Ontario was about 1918! The last 50 year event happened in the 1950s.

    All 5 great lakes are very high at the moment. Lake Erie never froze over this winter so you probably got more snow than usual?

    The killer for Lake Ontario water levels is the spring April/May run off from the Ottawa river basin flooding Montreal. As long as the Ottawa River spikes, the water folks have no choice but to hold back the water from Lake Ontario.

    It is not like these water folks are mean, it is just the roll of dice Mother Nature throws at them! One of the water folk’s Canadian Secretaries, his wife spent time on Tar Island so he is very familiar with our island!

    During the winter the water board is limited to how much water they can drain from Lake Ontario by the ice conditions on Lake St. Lawrence where the power dam is located. If ice forms solidly over Lake St. Lawrence, then they can slowly drain more water out of Lake Ontario.

    If however Lake St. Lawrence does not freeze over solidly, like this past winter, then they are limited to how much water they can drain by the pressure put on the ice boom strung across the river, or the boom will break, allowing broken ice into the power station. They did try a few times!

    My current worry is whether my neighbors will be allowed to cross the border this spring due to the virus lockdown. Supposedly we Ontarians are not to go to the cottage either but then our glorious PM is setting a great example by going to his cottage on weekends after telling us we can’t!

    #57109
    WES
    Participant

    Bosco:

    I purposely left out the conspiracy angles. The science was more interesting!

    Even your source can’t rule out nature or a lab. But obviously the labs helped speed things up!

    After working in communist Russia, in 1983 for six months, the very poor adherence to rules is a feature not a bug of communism! I saw this repeatedly! Yes, yes, of course, I broke even more of their stupid rules!

    Nothing like selling dead lab animals for a little extra cash! If they couldn’t manage that, then they got themselves infected! The final result is the same!

    Oh, yes, I knew all about how the black market in Russia worked and who was running them! First hand experience! Of course, who else but the KGB! How in hell do you think Russia had an instant mafia once the Berlin Wall fell?

    #57110
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    “Except for SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, two deadly viruses that have caused outbreaks in the past, coronaviruses have been studied at laboratories that are labelled as operating at a moderate biosafety level known as BSL-2…”

    I can’t vouch for authenticity, but this opening clip from the movie Outbreak walks us through fictional examples of labs operating at Biosafety Levels 1, 2, 3, and 4.

    What looks like N95 masks are being used in the Biosafety Level 2 lab, while half-face respirators are used in the Level 3 lab.

    https://youtu.be/-1di7g4Hm1s

    #57111
    WES
    Participant

    John Day:

    I see in the state of Maine, the governor has banned the sale of seeds to state residents! Sad!

    Glad you don’t garden there!

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 45 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.