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When you have the President tweeting LIBERATE MICHIGAN?

They shouldn't even be attempting to release "outlines" of how things are going to reopen right now but that's all they're talking about, and multiple states and governors are going along with it, including mine. They're even getting pushback from the businesses that they want to have reopen because the businesses know it is dumb. And yeah, there's a really good chance right now that things are still getting worse in places that can't be tested because the US is running out of testing supplies. I can't find a good article on it, but yesterday or two days ago (what is tiem now anyway?) the UK government outlined not a plan for reopening, but instead outlined what the situation needed to be before reopening was considered, including available tests, widely available hospital beds, ability to track and trace. That is what we should be releasing right now, not a reopening plan - the requirements we have to meet in order to actually open businessees, because you can't correctly plan reopening until you set the standard for when it is going to happen. Finally putting people on the streets, "Liberate virginia protect your second amendment rights" "Liberate Michigan" - those demonstrations and rallies that the President is now encouraging, they will serve as great transmission points to make this last even longer. This is a specific action that is going to do damage right now, making this worse, without even trying to reopen everything.

Keep the articles coming baby! A minimum of 5 a day out of you Caulfield. No less!

That would be extremely stupid long term because prospects are worth 4-5 times the amount of their bonus cost. Moncada got 40m while rutschman got like 9m, this should tell you how much a top prospect is really worth. Saving 5m in the draft means losing like 20-25m in surplus value that you have to buy on the open market then.

Because there aren't enough tests to actually do that. Best of luck man, some of us are in the same boat.

Governors it's on you. But no funds going to states. Now he's tweeting liberate Michigan, liberate Minnesota, liberate Virginia, apparently in support of the protesters. But, he will remind us not to make this political. Inciting his supporters to use this disease as a political weapon. Now bashing Cuomo, tells him to quit talking and go to work. The guy with 2 1/2 hour press conferences and hours on twitter.

Because the person in charge of 1 party and all of his loyal subjects will lose money and they're tired of that.

That's true, it could be placebo effect. I'd add though that doctors are doing everything they an to avoid respirators because they do damage in its own right and is basically the last stop to pull. So avoiding the point of needing respiration is a pretty big deal, but yes, it could be the body turning it around for all of them. I had hopes for remdesivir after reading about New Jersey's first coronavirus patient. He was at oxygen levels to the point he had written a letter to his daughter in case of death. He was accepted as a trial for remdesivir and recovered. It may turn out to be nothing but it's nice to have some hope.

I was out of work for 4 months and on Workers Comp until the Post Office finally offered me a job doing custodial work at the beginning of the pandemic. I was a letter carrier for 30 years until I had a 2nd herniated disc in my back . I also have COPD and RA so lung and immune system problems so naturally I get hired back to be a janitor cleaning toilets and sticking my face in other peoples garbage and being among the public despite being high risk for catching it and you can also throw in being over 60 years old yet I still don't qualify according to my health plan to get tested. Fun times. Have to have symptoms which I don't luckily. Don't understand the policy of waiting til you're sick to get tested since you can have it for a week or 2 and spread it without exhibiting symptoms . Doesn't seem to be the brightest way to stop the spread. Baseball would be a welcome enjoyment.

Suddenly I am much bigger Lightfoot fan.

us iowans don't want to fraternize with you people we're gonna get infected on our own schedule, thank you very much

so BA now has CJ Van Eyck and Masyn Wynn around sox 2nd round pick.

I disagree. Big Pharma has always put profits first. If it all was about the greater good, your insurance would be a lot cheaper. These are publicly traded companies whose concern is their shareholders. Making money isn't enough. You need to show growth and make more and more every year.

Not when those companies can’t be as productive when this is going on. Not to mention the PR boom for whatever company or companies deliver on this. All kinds of large companies are driving and making decisions to try and help the broader country. Stating that big pharma would rather burn down hospitals than help the cause is absolutely absurd and downright deplorable.

Who pays the price when they turn out to be wrong? Definitely not the President, Trump children or Fox News headliners like Carlson, Hannity and Ingraham. I don’t want an authoritative response like here in China, but they at least have the technological means through cell phone app tracking and contract tracing to be able to pinpoint who was/is responsible for putting themselves, their families and others at risk. Even if all the GOP governors were to issue back to work orders, roughly 60-65% would be unwilling to go back voluntarily. Good luck firing them or taking away their unemployment benefits. Let’s not forget a situation was created to reward a significant percentage of employees more money for staying at home to prevent exactly these types of my health and that of my family vs. economic survival decisions. This policy was agreed to by both the Senate and the President. https://www.biospace.com/article/gilead-shutters-covid-19-trial-in-china-stocks-drop-3-percent-/ Abrahams interprets all this to suggest limited efficacy of the drug, writing, “We continue to believe that while remdesivir showed a promising signal of activity in the recent open label compassionate use published data, the fact that no data has been revealed from the truncated severe study in China—the only randomized study thus far—despite today’s update also indicated it had enrolled a reasonably robust number of patients (n=237), suggests any benefits observed were likely inconclusive and maintains our view that the likelihood of remdesivir demonstrating substantial activity remains at best 50/50.” The limited data on the 53 patients receiving the drug on compassionate use basis had no controls and, as a result, made it difficult to draw any definitive conclusions. The study of the 53 patients in the U.S., Europe and Canada who required respiratory support showed that about two-thirds benefited from the drug.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/coronavirus/ct-nw-coronavirus-protesters-trump-20200417-7oad7qhicrc53eywjaclwdsaoq-story.html I didn’t realize there were more groups than just the small protest in Michigan. Interesting how the protests aren’t just in battleground states too.

Some people on this thread need to step away from the internet for about 36 hours

That's one where I can say I'm a little content for our government to not be involved, at least this government. Every company that has expertise in doing those things is already racing on this, with some plausibly hopeful signs that they might be able to cut time off that 18 month schedule.

England is putting together a task force to come up with a vaccine. The US is forming one to reopen the economy. Meanwhile the President is encouraging treason. Happy Friday.

There's a concerted effort by a small but very loud group who wants to just turn the economy back on right away and have begun/restarted downplaying that COVID was a serious threat at all in the first place. These people have a lot of money, power, and media influence. We're already seeing political groups funding anti-social distancing protests, and we're seeing some states already starting with bad opening back up measures (Florida is reopening beaches!)

Some more info on the remdesivir trials, definitely reason to be cautious and skeptical of results so far. https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2020/04/17/whats-happening-with-remdesivir To put it clearly, the comparison in the trial that got leaked is a 5-day treatment of Remdesivir vs. a 10-day treatment of Remdesivir. Gilead's stock jumped nicely today, though *dons tinfoil hat*

I don't know how not planning makes sense. How about this plan? We open when we have a better understanding of where we are at with this virus. Virtually all of the unknowns are known. We know how many have had it, whether those who had it are now immune and if so for how long, what drugs treat it, at what point patients should be placed on a ventilator, and how long the virus is surviving on certain surfaces. The search for a treatment or a vaccine is focused and in reach . The tests for anti-bodies are reliable. How does that plan not make sense? Without a plan we're just wandering around aimlessly. Goals and a plan create action and focus.

Literally every disaster movie ever made starts with the government ignoring a scientist. A critical difference between the parties is this, Corlette says: Democrats believe that “the healthy should subsidize the sick—the young, the old—because we all get older and sicker at some point in our lives. “On the flip side,” she continued, “if you look at what’s underpinning many of the more conservative health-reform ideas … [it’s that] what people pay toward their insurance or their care should reflect their level of risk.” ..... The biggest paradox in the health-care fight was that the Republican efforts to unravel risk-sharing hurt the material interests of their electoral coalition. The reason is that all their plans raised costs on older people with greater health needs at the same time as their base was becoming older and whiter. Their plans lowered prices for younger people, who now lean reliably toward the Democrats. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/03/what-covid-19-debate-has-common-aca-fight/608797/

The Michigan protestors are not really bright. A crowd and no one is wearing masks. All they are doing is endangering themselves. If they get infected they are not only risking their lives, they are proving the governor is right with her stay at home orders. And this "lock her up" chanting. Hilary Clinton's political career is over, and she has no effect on what is happening now. They complain about a too powerful government, but want to lock someone up just because they don't like her. Yes, we always have to be concerned about an over-reaching government, but this is energy wasted.

Dang. Good luck and hope things get better. One of our nurses who worked in the COVID ward had to have a fever for 4 days before they tested her. She tested negative twice . Then after she had a fever for 9 days she finally tested positive. It's weird. You are right any baseball in any form would be welcome.

Wuhan Update Pretty much no changes here. My wife has been working for almost three full weeks, and she was just required to do a nose swab (very painful) and blood test this past WED. The government has recently announced they are not going to pay for foreigners’ Covid-19 treatment, so we are looking at getting supplemental insurance that would cost about $500-600. Without it, the full cost for treatment here might be something like $25-40,000. Planes, subway and buses are now running, but still at only about 30-40% capacity of normal levels. Are waiting on official announcement about school reopening and social distancing guidelines, as most classrooms are pretty cramped to accommodate 30-35 students. Mock exams scheduled the week of May 11-15. Just found out Grade 10/11 might not be back until May 18. Rumors we might go 1-2 weeks longer until end of June, we normally have only IB, AP, A Levels exams from May through early June (exam supervision), but 11th graders will now go until end of June since their official exams were all cancelled (AP has online version and shortened format.) Some schools are going into July or only paying 50% of normal salaries so we’re pretty fortunate so far. Still plenty of questions about asymptomatic transmission and those who were originally recovered getting sick again (S. Korea). Chinese applications to US schools could fall 15-25% next year, so there is growing concern on the part of teachers unable to return to China that their positions could be cut in order to save money, especially after students return in May and online classes are suspended. SAT will be offered online in US, probably not Asia. Students thinking about Boston area are already freaking out about Boston U. making contingency plans for Jan 2021 start, fall classes online.

No doubt. Same to you.

At least you’re not punching walls and connecting with beams! Godspeed, brother.

Exactly. Lot of people acting really smart about death rates, infection rates, immunity rates, how infectious it is, how much lockdowns are helping etc. It’s ALL up for grabs. Nobody knows a damn thing. Even deaths aren’t necessarily correct since a lot of the normal things that kill people like heart disease haven’t disappeared, but somehow have statistically. The one thing people MUST do is question it all, since the science isn’t there yet. The science doesn’t have actionable data yet. Asking questions is crucial and the smart scientists and journalists are out there asking questions, playing devil’s advocate, even with themselves. Good on you for your post- healthiest one I’ve read on here in a while. I agree- what have we actually learned? Not too much. Those people out there blaming and saying all these people are going to die if we open are total idiots, simply because they think they aren’t guessing. Similarly, the people out there saying this is harmless and shit needs to open up are total idiots, simply because they think they aren’t guessing. Everybody is guessing and it’s super healthy as long as we admit that. Certain data points suggest certain things but other data points can point to the opposite. As long as somebody acknowledges they don’t know what any of this means yet then they are a quality human being worthy of entering discussions. I think you are right to say it’s early to open up since closing was the path we chose. Changing course messes with our control. We need data. Personally, I think the best data will come from Sweden over the next few weeks. It sort of kinda represents the best controlled exposure over a big population to date. But I don’t know that for sure since tons of Swedes are probably hiding out. But overall, they said “screw containment” so we’ll see. It looks like it might be the FIRST time science can get their hands on real, actionable data. If we don’t see crazy exponential death in Sweden in the next few weeks...then hell yea. That would be great for humans. I think we’re going to get real data, good or bad.

Been busy getting all online courses designed due to college closing and working in the hospital because they needed help . I know many are out of work but my work has doubled. Haven't had much time. Busier than when I was traveling with teams.

They're going to kill a lot of people.

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.

You rang?

I want to apologize for being overly cynical yesterday. I'm going to try to stay out of the COVID threads unless I have something positive to say. It was inappropriate and I get it now.

Noooo. Here??

Jeeze so many pessimistic people here

Thanks for the warm welcome, we look forward to bringing our league to your site and I'm sure all of us Sox fans will venture around the boards and participate as well. Appreciate 102605 for putting in all the work to get this set up! Previously JohnTucker0814 on WSI

Franco is the only guy I think I'd even consider. But in the end, I'm keeping Robert, for a few reasons. First, honestly, a bit of emotional attachment (this is for me, not saying how a franchise should operate). I have been very heavily invested in following the path of Robert ever since the Sox were rumored to be interested. I'd hate to throw all that emotional attachment away. And for the record, no I am not John Paxon. Secondly, he fits perfectly. Robert is basically the perfect addition to this team right now. He fits positionally. He fits the window. He fits the lineup. He even fits the White Sox legacy of great Cuban players. He just fits. Third, is the contract. The Sox have already extended their control for 2 more prime years on Robert. Their ceilings are pretty darn close. The both have great potential to be star players with the bat and the glove in premium positions. They both have physical tools that are off the charts. They have both obliterated minor league pitching. Could Wander be better? Sure. Could Luis? Sure. And right now, quite simply, Robert is safer. When the season starts, he'll be in the bigs. He has arrived. He also signed an extension, which removes some uncertainty. His contract includes options, so that safeguards the team. Franco carries a little more risk, in that he is further away and in terms of contract status when he arrives. To me, even emotional attachment aside, I'm taking Robert.