caulfield12

Would much rather have Y. Cespedes than Colas...

They’re going to have to be really careful about studying air conditioning impacts...especially centralized systems...as many are under the assumption 100 degree temps in south Texas could/should be “killing off” the disease when it’s ultimately leading to greater spread indoors. Wuhan is extremely hot and humid from late May through the first two weeks of Sept. Buses, subways, restaurants, cinemas, gyms...nobody can survive this time of the year without air conditioning. Florida, Georgia, South Carolina...heck, most of the Southeast, has that similar weather pattern in the summer months, stretching from KC/StL to Balt/DC and then everything across the south from Florida over to east Texas. We’ve already seen issues with airplanes...and there was also that well-publicized case in southern China where a restaurant fan (this was at least two months ago) spread it from 1 to 6-7 others in the same concentrated seating space.

Tedros Adhanom-Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, on Wednesday said that more cases had been reported to the agency in the last 24 hours than any time since the novel coronavirus outbreak began. “We still have a long way to go in this pandemic,” Tedros said at a briefing in Geneva. “In the last 24 hours, there have been 106,000 cases reported to WHO – the most in a single day since the outbreak began. Almost two-thirds of these cases were reported in just four countries.” Those four countries, WHO infectious disease epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove confirmed to CNN in an email, are: the United States, Russia, Brazil and India. https://www.yahoo.com/sports/korean-soccer-team-hit-with-record-fine-over-placing-sex-dolls-in-stands-195721079.html This might be the funniest thing of the week.... $80,000+ fine? I guess all sense of humor is going out of the world, since they’re not anything close to provocative, at least compared to real life fashions in K-pop and nighttime dramas. Ozzie/Swisher-Gate...this is not.

It doesn’t help that American and United are blatantly lying about not selling middle seats. Many of the flights that are going out, people are ending up stuffed together like sardines. Only Delta seems to be following the guidelines (that are mere suggestions and not enforced, or enforceable, by TSA or FAA) of only 60% capacity in cabins, 50% in first class, no middle seats sold, no seats sold in bulkhead areas or in close proximity to flight attendant jump seats. In the beginning, they were brazenly attempting to monetize your health (fears) by encouraging passengers to pay various fees not to have someone sitting next to you (let’s say, $47 on a typical domestic flight) but that was quickly seized upon as being in terrible taste and junked. Trump on H1N1/Obama response In 2009, then-businessman Trump said, "I think it's fine. It's the flu. It's the flu," noting that mankind has had epidemics and flus before. "It's going to be handled. It's going to come. It's going to be bad. And maybe it will be worse than the normal flu seasons. And it's going to go away. I think it is being handled fine. I think the words are right." "But, you know, you're letting people in from countries that have bigger doses of it, and everybody's coming into the country, and the Mexicans aren't stopped and nobody's stopped," before immediately noting, "I'm not saying they should be stopped." "It's called the flu. Have you had the flu many times, Neil (Cavuto)? Probably. You know, we all have." https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/20/politics/obama-trump-swine-flu/index.html

Athletes During the Pandemic Are Learning What Fans Have Always Known As players return to empty arenas, they are discovering a basic truth: Live sports is an act of social imagination. https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/05/bundesliga-sports-return-pandemic-athletes-fans-shared-imagination/611857/

Real dictators are never reasonable. Neither is climate change/Mother Nature...see central Michigan flooding. Good luck social distancing in shelters.

https://theathletic.com/1822361/2020/05/19/what-tyler-saladinos-kbo-experience-can-tell-us-about-pandemic-baseball/?source=dailyemail Tyler Saladino’s experiences this spring in South Korea with KBO Covid-ball, culture shock...definitely reinforced trepidation about those nasal swabs.

https://sports.yahoo.com/not-believe-mlb-claims-much-130928627.html They leave out large chunks of revenue MLB and its owners will realize. They include costs, such as spending on the amateur draft, that that have already been deferred to the future. The AP article neglects to mention that the money MLB claims it will lose due to broadcasters holding back broadcast rights money for games not played is, often, money being saved by the same businesses which own teams because a lot of teams have interests in their cable network. Sure, SNY might not be paying the Mets for some games, but every penny SNY saves is a money Fred Wilpon saves. Which is to say a great deal of what MLB is claiming as a loss can be characterized very differently depending on how one accounts for it. Which is something anyone who is familiar with the history of Major League Baseball’s economic landscape knows has long been a part of the game’s creative approach to finances.

I guess that explains Utah and Florida...being among top states for prescriptions. This was from way back in March. State pharmacy boards in Texas, Ohio, Idaho and Nevada in recent days moved to restrict who can be prescribed the malaria treatments chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, and how much of the drugs can be prescribed, according to documents filed by the boards. Texas has also limited prescriptions of the antibiotic azithromycin as well as another anti-malarial drug, mefloquine. ..... The Nevada and Ohio rules dictate that the drugs can only be used for treatment not prevention of COVID-19. Texas and Idaho said that the prescription needs a diagnosis “consistent with the evidence for its use.” https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-pharmacies/states-work-to-limit-prescriptions-of-potential-coronavirus-drugs-idUSKBN2190XC

Everyone on Morning Joe speculating that there’s pretty much no way he’s even taking it. Too desperate to change the subject from IG firings, Pompeo and super shady Saudi arms sales. Of course, the last time he did this in March, prescriptions spiked by a factor of 46x and lupus patients couldn’t get their hands on it. “I'm not only the Hydroxychloroquine Club president, but I'm also a client." Making it more amusing is his obliviousness about The Hoarse Whisperer’s ongoing mockery campaign when he retweeted this one. Trump not only ripped the host but also the entire Fox News network, claiming he was “looking for a new outlet.”

“That seems to me to be a crazy thing to do,” said David Juurlink, head of clinical pharmacology at the University of Toronto. “If the drug had no side effects, it would be a reasonable thing to do.” ...... Even before Trump's comments, the head of the FDA’s drug office earlier Monday expressed concern for vulnerable (lupus, my add) patients who depend on the drug. “It's a necessary drug for them and not having access would have terrible consequences," tweeted Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. Trump's former secretary of Veterans Affairs, David Shulkin, expressed worry on Twitter that Trump's touting of the drug would influence the public to take hydroxychloroquine without data to support its use. Other health experts worried that patients would gravitate toward hydroxychloroquine, even as another experimental drug — Gilead's remdesivir — has shown promise in hospitalized patients. Aneesh Mehta, an infectious disease doctor at Emory University, said that some patients didn’t enroll in a trial of remdesivir he helped run because they wanted to take hydroxychloroquine after seeing media reports. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/18/trump-hydroxychlrorquine-health-experts-267066

Yes, Greg, pretty much every foreigner is tracked. My ex's boyfriend (believed that he was) was contacted and recruited for the Chinese version of the CIA because of his proficiency in Chinese. They were a bit more opaque or ambiguous, they don't pop up at the Ivies and loudly announce "we're recruiting you for the Farm/Clandestine Service/Langley!" This time, the public service announcement fell to Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto, who had a warning for viewers after playing the tape of Trump's remarks on Monday. "If you are in a risky population here, and you are taking this as a preventative treatment to ward off the virus or in a worst-case scenario, you are dealing with the virus, and you are in this vulnerable population, it will kill you," Cavuto said. "I cannot stress that enough. This will kill you." ..... “Is the risk of him dying from this drug higher than the risk of him dying from the virus?" Reiner said to CNN's Erin Burnett, in what was an extraordinary conversation given that it was about the health and mortality of the President of the United States. "It's a very complicated question, and I feel for Dr. Conley. I don't know how I would come down on it," Reiner said, though he reiterated that other Americans should not take the drug. ..... I'm not going to get hurt by it. It's been around for 40 years for malaria," the President said Monday. His decision put Republican senators in a tough spot. "He, obviously, is a believer in it. And there have been some previous indications that it could be helpful, but I would wait for the clinical trials," said Sen. John Cornyn of Texas. https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/19/politics/donald-trump-hydroxychloroquine-coronavirus/index.html

Then we should be worried about India as well, 70% of the pharmaceutical production is centered there...whereas most of the active ingredients come from China. But Greg, how does it help the US RIGHT NOW to solve the current crisis...it's like doing to the 9/11 Commission in December of 2001. 100+ countries are working together to ATTEMPT to confront China through the WHO/WHA. What do you propose? A nuclear attack? Assassination? The way to beat China is to out-innovate them, to out-think them, to put aside short-term profits for long-term strategic thinking. How can a country without our rights and freedoms be such a threat to the United States? It only seems logical that the majority of students around the world would choose the US to study, or to work in the US after graduation. That's the strength of the US, the American Dream. We've lost sight of that....it's now the American Dream for only a small subset of our population (many are going to do worse than their parents, financially, for the first time), and we've also lost sight of all the benefits that immigration can bring. It's, not coincidentally, one of the major weaknesses of China...diversity of thought/opinion/political and religious belief.

You're absolutely right. I think it's why both parties need to start thinking more like entrepreneurs. And it's a huge weakness for the Biden campaign, breaking through. What is our country going to look like 5, 10 and 25 years down the line? What can we start doing now in terms of infrastructure investment, 5G, internet broadband/wireless access build-out, investments in the next generation of start-ups, chemists, biologists, AI, data scientists, etc. We have the best public universities in the world....the best environment (still) for innovation and experimentation, the best and brightest scientists and engineers....many aspects of a capitalistic system that work extremely well and incentivize hard work as well as risk-taking, but we've got to get this figured out fast before we get behind over the next generation, and looking inwardly for all the answers, closing off borders to where 40% of next billion or trillion dollar enterprises are originating, that's just cutting off the nose to spite and face. If we had formed a multinational group of EU countries, working along with Canada/Mexico, Australia, Japan, South Korea and the ASEAN countries that were not directly aligned with China, we would have been able to use that leverage to settle a lot of these ongoing issues with China 2-3 years ago. As it stands now, we're just stuck in a status-quo situation...and there are too many countries around the world that need China as a trading partner as much or even more than they need the US (German auto exporters, for example.)

But this is also the same reason we don't have an AIDs/HIV vaccine even though that particular disease has been around since the 1980's. Science is REALLY hard. Just wishing something into reality...Trump can make all the aspirational/hopeful/hopelessly optimistic comments he wants, it's not going to compress the normal timeline from 18-24 months down to 6 months. And pushing through all the normal safeguards just to get a product out or at least announced before November 3rd isn't going to make our country any safer....it could likely have disastrous health consequences. Even then, it would still take XXX amount of time to extend the dosages beyond first responders to a global population of 7.8 billion people.

Which clearly disqualifies hydroxychloroquine.

So it should be relatively easy to understand why China (mostly) learned from the mistakes of SARS from 2002-2003, where they hid evidence and cases for 2-3 months rather than 2-3 weeks...because it already happened in their own backyard. Combined with the previous experience in southern China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore....those countries also have some innate advantages: A) universal/government-subsidized health care systems B) ubiquitous adoption of masks for pollution/public safety/common colds or flus C) universal adoption of mobile phone apps which add in tracking/tracing (here in Wuhan, you could go neighborhood by neighborhood and district by district viewing the number of cases on an interactive map, including warnings when someone who had been in close contact with someone with a temperature was in proximity to you) D) the fact that locking down Westernized countries with individual houses as opposed to apartment blocks or grids is much more difficult logistically and politically E) the fact that the privacy/security rights in most Asian countries cede data/information to those national governments and/or tech companies already F) complete embrace of online economy for buying of groceries as well as cheap/affordable delivery system already in place G) manpower in public health already training and dedicated to tracing/tracking H) infrastructure/built-up resources for PUBLIC health testing....not over reliance on more expensive, private lab tests that are not going to be affordable or desired by much of the population I) longevity from healthier diets and more exercise, as most people don't own cars and have to exercise more frequently....walk to subways, morning exercise culture, etc.

7. Scientists require observable data, not _______________, to support a hypothesis; sound science is grounded in _______________ results rather than speculation. A) induction…diminutive B) experimentation…pragmatic C) intuition…fiscal D) bombast…theoretical E) conjecture…empirical

Italy has more issues with underlying conditions, smoking and a decaying health care infrastructure and general economic malaise. Finland and Norway have done much better...compared to Sweden. It’s completely fair to compare those three countries, as they have multiple layers of similarity. UK had a mostly political response, and panicked. Spain does have more tourism, so increased travel is a factor there. Same with France.

Except Trump has completely decapitated the “head of the snake” of the supposed deep state lurking in every agency...and replaced them with political operators. Even Dr. Birx is perfectly suited for that role, failing to call out the disinfectant/UV comments right away. Her only success has been getting Trump to reverse his support of the GA reopening. Last time I checked, UK/Italy/France reached their peaks between 1850-1945. We spend far more than any country in the world on health care, but across the board outcomes are right in line with our world public education rankings, between late 20’s and mid 30’s. US Inspectors General Fired in last six weeks=4 Covid Deaths in Vietnam, New Zealand, Taiwan and Hong Kong=32

He does want negative interest rates (Trump, not Powell) for the first time in US history. Not working well in Japan or Germany. Politically, saying they’ve bankrupted the government so why vote for someone we hamstrung financially is smart politics...the problem is that people are going to begin to demand a better health care alternative to ObamaCare, and the GOP has nothing. Except the likelihood of future cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and food/nutrition security for the poor (WIC/TANF) and children. That’s why Trump has lost his huge margins in senior voters. Covid threat, cost of living threat with 0% Fed rates, health care insurance threat, SS cuts threat....the combination of those four threats, simply killing Trump right now with older Americans and then there’s that trust factor.

Criticizing your own CDC is like Joe Scarborough going on twitter to criticize Mika and Willie Geist. There’s a direct line from Trump to Redfield. He appointed a political hack who just happened to have DR. in front of his name. You can say the same thing for Alex Azar at HHS. https://www.ft.com/content/97dc7de6-940b-11ea-abcd-371e24b679ed It was Trump who chose Robert Redfield to head the CDC in spite of widespread warnings about the former military officer’s controversial record. Redfield led the Pentagon’s response to HIV-Aids in the 1980s. It involved isolating suspected soldiers in so-called HIV Hotels. Many who tested positive were dishonourably discharged. Some committed suicide. A devout catholic, Redfield saw Aids as the product of an immoral society. For many years, he championed a much-hyped remedy that was discredited in tests. That debacle led to his removal from the job in 1994. One of the CDC’s constraints was to insist on developing its own test rather than import a foreign one. Dr Anthony Fauci – the infectious disease expert and now household name – is widely known to loathe Redfield, and vice versa. That meant the CDC and Fauci’s National Institutes of Health were not on the same page. “The last thing you need is scientists fighting with each other in the middle of an epidemic,” says Dr Kenneth Bernard, who set up a previous White House pandemic unit in 2004, which was scrapped under Barack Obama and later revived after Ebola struck in 2014. The scarcity of kits meant that the scientists lacked a picture of America’s rapidly spreading infections. The CDC was forced to ration tests to “persons under investigation” – people who had come within 6ft of someone who had either visited China or been infected with Covid-19 in the previous 14 days. Most were denied. Few could prove that they had met either criterion. This was at a time when several countries, notably Germany, Taiwan and South Korea, gave access to on-the-spot tests, including at drive-through centres – an option most Americans still lack. Advising Trump was like ‘bringing fruits to the volcano . . . You’re trying to appease a great force that’s impervious to reason’ An administration official

And they did the same in Beijing and Shanghai, especially to protect the capitol. Months later, airplanes were still diverted to other cities despite the completion of yet another massive airport...there were about 12-13 second tier airports where if you wanted to eventually enter Beijing, you started off with a 14 day quarantine outside in another city...and perhaps even went through another quarantine upon entering the city. At any rate, all these things will eventually come out in public/international investigations...but don’t particularly lead to any bipartisan solutions or trust right now in the US. As far as MSM vs. Conservative Media, Benghazi and the email servers/“lock her up” are child’s play compared to the treatment Obama or Biden would get from Fox if the situations were reversed. Very few read newspapers anymore. Fox always outdraws CNN and MSNBC. And Trump has about 6-8x as much money as Biden now. Ironic, because he won in 2016 spending about 15-20% as much as the Clinton campaign.

For the perhaps the tenth time here, AP and Reuters reported 42,500 urns at the time of Qingming Festival, which literally means tomb sweeping/cleaning. Conservative websites went by some theoretical satellite imagery with sulphur dioxide in the air. The numbers in that first 4-6 weeks were undoubtedly 60-80% to even 100% off because the hospitals were overrun and many older people died at home....there was no bus or taxi or subway, they were all shut down and shortages of ambulances. Only private cars could get you there, which are only owned by 15-20% of population. It was also miserable, cold rainy winter weather at that time. Many got sick going out in in the rain and returning home after being turned away from hospitals, yet thrir time waiting had exposed them and eventually entire families. If you count the number of normal deaths over a 3+ month timespan in NYC, you would end up with roughly 30,000-32,5000 “expected” or naturally predictable deaths. Once again, everyone was take away immediately be teams in haz mat suits, no funerals, they were all immediately cremated and ashes put in storage. So those 42,500 urns were there to take the ashes that had been piling up in crematoriums (we have just 2-3 major ones that deal with the entire city) for three plus months before the urns could be interred and people could actually go out for the first time. So sure, instead of 4000 reported Covid-19 deaths....8-12,000 is definitely possible, but the same story applies to Italy, Spain, UK, France and the US undercounts as well.