tray

I vehemently disagree with going after conservative churches over their non profit status I don't for several reasons but I am going to heed Kyle's admonitions to stay on topic since we are straying a bit here. Suffice it for me to admit that I prefer public schools (over private or charter schools) for big city (Chicago) neighborhoods and I am something of an agnostic non-church goer. That is enough of a clue as to what my positions would be on that.

That shitstorm is the easiest one to resolve. The Fed should print another shitload of money, send out another round of Stimulus checks, and fund States so they can cover massive unemployment claims. Then start opening businesses as each State's Covid-19 benchmarks are met and continue to require social distancing, masks, and the prohibition of mass gatherings. There was an opportunity to demonstrate leadership during this crisis. Some have taken responsibility for it and risen to the occasion.

Fox News talking heads have been pining to open up the economy. I find that their decision to focus on that in the midst of a pandemic to be kind of strange, especially given the average age of Fox viewers. OTOH maybe old Fox viewers just want the young uns out there working to get their retirement accounts back up and to get Trump elected. Really the focus should be on halting the spread of the pandemic and seeking a vaccine or treatment, but it is an election year so we can't even unite behind a strategy to deal with this.

There wasn't really a "lock down"in Illinois . People have been out shopping like crazy at Lowes, Home Depot, Walmart, Target.... Fast food places (other than Chinese ) and restaurants that remained open for carry out are screaming busy. Other businesses will gradually open, but they will have to adhere to sanitation standards to prevent the spreading of the disease. What is and should remain closed or prohibited are large public gatherings. This doesn't have to be a big divisive issue or a blame game.

clipped from another forum and pasted here. This is for those who equate the standard flu bug to Covid-19:-------- For anyone who knows that one person who just can’t seem to get on board with this- feel free to share. ***Let me introduce myself: I am a practicing ER doctor with a Bachelors degree in cell and molecular biology/genetics and a Masters degree in public health in addition to my doctorate. COVID is not a flu. Not even a little. Here are reasons why: 1. It is a separate species. It is no more like influenza than you are like a hippo. DIFFERENT SPECIES. 2. It is an airborne virus. This means the tiny droplets can stay in the air for a full 2 hours. So if a person coughed in aisle 4 of Target 1.5 hours ago, they may be home now but their covid cloud is still hanging there just waiting for you to walk by and take a breath. Influenza is not an airborne virus. It is droplet spread- meaning someone has to directly crop dust you with their sneeze to get you sick. Covid is much more contagious. 3. Covid is more virulent. Virulence factor is a measure of how catchy something is. For example, the flu is like beer. It takes a bunch to get you drunk. Covid is more like tequila - A little goes a long way. You need to suck up a lot of flu particles to actually catch the flu; with covid, even a few particles is enough to infect you. 4. Covid has a longer incubation than the flu. When you catch the flu, you typically get sick in the next 1-2 days. This is awesome because it means you stay at home while contagious because you feel like a heap of fried garbage. Covid has a blissful 5-9 days of symptom free time during which you are well enough to head to the movies, gym or mar-a-lago while also being contagious enough to infect everyone you encounter. 5. Covid has a longer duration of illness than flu. With covid, you have a 5-9 days of blissful asymptomatic contagiousness. This then turns into about 1 week of cough and overall feeling like hell but still surviving. Week 2 is when things hit the fan and people end up unable to breathe and on a ventilator. Many stay on the vent for up to 15 days. 5 days incubating+7 kinda sick days + 15 days on a ventilator makes for 27 days of virus spreading illness, (assuming you don’t just die of massive asphyxiation and body-wide collapse from overwhelming infection somewhere in that last week).The flu has an average incubation of 1-2 days and sick time of 7 days for a total of 9 infectious days. In the world of deadly viruses, that 18 extra days might as well be a millennia. 6. Covid is more deadly. A LOT more deadly. The flu has about a 0.2% mortality rate, meaning 2 of every thousand people who get sick with flu will die. On the contrary, the death rate from covid is reportedly 2%, so 10 times more deadly than flu. Ten times more death seems like a lot more death to me. Whats more worrisome is that 2% is actually incorrect because it doesn’t usually kill kids so that skews the average. With covid, age is a major factor in survival. If we don’t include people under 30, the death rate for adults is on average 4.5%. 9 out of every 200 adults that get this will die from it. Do you know 200 adults? Do you think losing 9 of them is no big deal? Since mortality increases with age in covid, the risk gets worse as you get older so if we put 100 grannies in a room with covid, only 85 would make it out alive to make pies and tell great stories of the old days... and that just sucks. I hope that helps to clarify why covid is in no way a flu, why you are in no way a hippo, and why staying home is the only way for non-essential people to do their part while I spend my days at work covered in a plastic poncho, sucking air through a stuffy respirator mask, leaving my scrubs in my driveway, showering the covid off at 4am when I get in, and thinking to myself “now do u still think it was just a flu?” as I risk my own life with my face 2 inches from their highly contagious, gasping mouth while I slide the plastic tube down their throat and start up the ventilator.

2020 line-up may have been better than all of them.

2005 by a mile because of clutch hits (Iguchi, AJ, Dye), clutch home runs (Crede, Konerko, Pods and Blum), incredible defensive plays (Uribe in Game 4), key starts (Garland, Fast Freddie, etc), bull pen performances (Big Bad, Buehrle, Cotts, El Duque etc) and Ozzie.

I see a culling of the herd,,,those over 60 for the most part. The younger folks will eventually consider Covid-19 like just another seasonal flu outbreak. No biggie. This virus is a grim reaper for the Woodstock generation. We are stardust we are covid.

The "Trump is the lesser of two evils" argument is not going to work this time. Hopefully your vote is based on more sound reasoning.

The tests do not appear to be accurate based on your analysis. The concept of herd immunity is based on a presumption that those who have been exposed to Covid-19 have developed some degree of useful immunity. That has not been determined which is why I cringe a bit when I hear herd immunity discussed as a potential strategy. I feel the same way when I hear Hydroxychloroquine and the orphan drug Remdesivir touted as silver bullets in the fight against this virus.

Holy crap was that an ugly protest, and there were more just like it in several States. "Nurses from a hospital in Denver were determined that this would not be repeated, so they had to take vital time from their duties to peacefully stand in a line to keep the roads clear for emergency vehicles. The Trumpers WERE FURIOUS, and sat on their excessively loud horns while literally screaming at the health care workers. The lady screamed at the guy to go to China, because there’s always an excuse for racism." Read the rest of this story here, and as always place things into context, consider the source of the story, arguments pro and con, and do your own research: https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/watch-nurses-stand-in-the-street-to-silently-protest-anti-lockdown-demonstrators-in-colorado/ In this case, Alternet is a liberal media outlet, but much of the reporting on this story seems to be borne out by other sources, and pictures and videos do not lie.

I am glad you called that out as a dog whistle. I was shaking my head in disbelief as I watched a video of protestors in Michigan protesting and holding Gadsen flags and a Confederate flag. I thought, what are they liberating themselves from? Common sense ? Decency ? Humanity ? I would like to see Trump boil his Pressers down to one day a week for a half hour max...perhaps on Thursday at noon. Then perhaps bi-weekly status meeting conducted by Fauci without Trump and his cabal looking over his shoulder. ALL of us are anxious to have the facts and none of us want to be manipulated with baloney, not with a potential life and death matter like this.

I saw more people out shopping at Lowes today than I have ever seen there. More than half were not wearing masks. I think Trump called this shot, at least with Republicans. I think the stay at home order has effectively been lifted. We shall see how that works out.

I am interested in Remsividir, which as i understand it, can only be administered intravenously. Gilead Sciences, LTD, a manufacturer of this drug, is apparently affiliated with Gilead Sciences Israel Ltd.. Gilead stock pops 8% after report says coronavirus drug trial shows encouraging early results From Zerohedge "...none of the patients on the Chicago trial had been on invasive ventilation, which tends to be an indication of a more serious condition and worse outcomes. In short, the observed response could have been nothing more than a placebo effect." Jeezus, is this going to be another hyrdrochloroquine that turns into a partisan shitstorm but doesn't amount to much? I hope not.. I am not trying to be negative or latch on to conspiracy theories, but I have to remain skeptical. We desperately need reliable scientific data and peer reviewed medical research. No more anecdotal "studies," partisan politicking, or market manipulation by the greedy. I hate to quote Ruth from Ozark again but boiling this down as she would, "We don't know sh1t about fvk."

I thought that by mid April we would have a better understanding of where we are at with this virus. Instead, virtually all of the unknowns about it remain unknown. We don't even know how many have had it, whether those who had it are now immune and if so for how long, what drugs might treat it, at what point patients should have certain experimental drugs administered or be placed on a ventilator, or even how long this virus is surviving on certain surfaces. The search for a treatment or a vaccine seems like it is all over the place . The tests for anti-bodies seem like they are not as reliable as once thought. I don't know how a plan to "Open America" makes sense until we get a better idea where we are at with it and how bad the pandemic could get.