SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19

[St1ck]

9 min ago

Trump wants country "opened up and just raring to go by Easter"

From CNN's Kevin Liptak

 

  President Donald Trump speaks with Fox News Channel Anchor Bill Hemmer during a Fox News Channel virtual town hall, at the White House, Tuesday, March 24. Evan Vucci/AP

 

President Trump said he wants the nation "opened up and just raring to go by Easter," a date just over two weeks away that few health experts believe will be sufficient in containing the spread of coronavirus.

Speaking during a Fox News town hall, Trump reiterated he was eager to see the nation return to normal, even as doctors warn the nation will see a massive spike in cases if Americans return to crowded workplaces or events.

"I give it two weeks," Trump said earlier in the town hall, suggesting he was ready to phase out his 15-day self-isolating guidelines when they expire. "I guess by Monday or Tuesday, it's about two weeks. We will assess at that time and give it more time if we need a little more time. We have to open this country up."

Despite announcing the new guidelines under the banner "The President's Coronavirus Guidelines for America," Trump seemed to distance himself from the practices during the town hall.

"Somehow, the word got out that this is the thing we are supposed to be doing," he said, noting the country had "never done a thing like this before." 

"But we had to do it. It's been very painful for our country and very destabilizing," he said.

As his advisers prepare options for returning the country to work, Trump suggested that Americans would still be able to exercise good health practices while still returning to normal.

"We have to go back to work much sooner than people thought. People can go back to work and they can also pass it on my practice good judgment," he said.

Trump again compared coronavirus to the flu and auto accidents, despite warnings from his health advisers that such analogies make little sense.

"We lose thousands and thousands of people to the flu. We don’t turn the country off," he said, adding: "We lose much more than that to automobile accidents."

Last week, Dr. Anthony Fauci said comparing coronavirus to auto accidents was a "false equivalency" and said it was important to "face the fact" that coronavirus is more lethal than the flu.

[red321]

[Jason]

1 hour ago, Angel Oracle said:

The mortality rate seems to consistently stay around 1.2%. 

It has to be lower because I believe that actual number of infected people is significantly higher than what we’ve tested 

[Rico]

3 minutes ago, red321 said:

The extra long tie...  gets me every time.

[Jason]

1 hour ago, red321 said:

I think what also scares me is that we are still 2-3 weeks from really being slammed by this in places like NYC and SF. LA is probably a week or so behind that. We haven't made it through a week of shelter in place and you can see a number of people are pushing that people should start going about their business at a time when they need to be pushing the exact opposite.

Yeah I agree with your sentiment but the longer this drags out the more it’s going to devastate people financially. A sky rocketing poverty rate is going to mean higher crime rates, suicides, looting and all the other lovely stuff that goes with that. This whole thing is a terrible situation. My job and income is not impacted by this so it’s tough to put myself in the shoes of those that have no income now.  Another major economic depression may ultimately lead to more deaths than the virus. There really isn’t a good outcome either way. 

Edited March 24, 2020 by Jason

[Catwhoshatinthehat]

I think there's no doubt we surpass a country like Italy in total cases because we've got over 5x the population.  The NY metropolitan and Great Los Angeles areas alone have over 70% of the population Italy has.  Northern Italy had a strong connection with the Wuhan province including direct flights and an estimated 100K individuals from Wuhan working in factories in Northern Italy.  Hopefully we can avoid what's going on in parts of Italy but I think densely populated areas like NY City, LA, etc. could get ugly because like any area they can only help so many people at a time.  Contrary to what Trump says going forward state governors can step in and keep lock downs in place unless I'm mistaken.  Unfortunately if the dunce at the helm is pushing to get the economy going over people's safety so he can try to get re-elected I imagine some segment of the population that will crawl out of their double wide dwellings ignoring the lock downs and social distancing further dragging this out.

[Angel Oracle]

Edited March 24, 2020 by Angel Oracle

[Catwhoshatinthehat]

3 minutes ago, Jason said:

Yeah I agree with your sentiment but the longer this drags out the more it’s going to devastate people financially. A sky rocketing poverty rate is going to equal higher crime rates, suicides, looting and all the other lovely stuff that goes with that. This whole thing is a terrible situation. My job and income is not impacted by this so it’s tough to put myself in the shoes of those that have no income now.  Another major economic depression may ultimately lead to more deaths than the virus. There really isn’t a good outcome either way. 

Agreed as we can't afford to not trying to flatten the curve or this going on for too long.  A stimulus package that helps people and small businesses get through April/May or so is great but at a point neither the US nor the rest of the world can afford to print money while running their economies at 70% or less.  The long term financial impacts will be just as devastating if not worse when you add in social unrest and people who don't deal with isolation or social distancing the longer this drags on.  

[fan_since79]

18 hours ago, Fireball said:

I can get on board with that. Even though you hear about the Trump cut CDC, pandemic stuff, and it sure as shit didn't help, is their any proof it would be that much different. My kid got moved to Covid Nurse 2 and still has a fucking dust mask. Then you wonder if the hospital ever had any pandemic response in place CDC or not. This kind of shit has to be budgeted for across the board here on out.  

This new coronavirus may turn out to be a yearly visitor, but much less deadly going forward as it evolves. At least that's the current thinking from the scientists.

What is much more terrifying is if another new virus comes along someday that mutates wildly and tends towards more deadly variants. Then we're screwed.

There's no guarantee our species will be here in a hundred years or a thousand. And it may not be global climate change that will render us extinct, but an invisible, half-alive germ.

 

[well_red]

I thought it was suspected early on that Pangolin or "Scaly Anteater" was the probably source at the Wuhan market.  Evidently its meat is considered a delicacy, its scales have therapeutic properties, and it is the most heavily trafficked mammal in the world!  Can't believe this thing exists. 

[tdawg87]

"Damn, I wanna eat that spiny little armored dinosaur" 

-Some guy in China

[Redondo]

3 minutes ago, tdawg87 said:

"Damn, I wanna eat that spiny little armored dinosaur" 

-Some guy in China

Sounds like they eat anything. Literally. 

[Crampknees]

27 minutes ago, well_red said:

I thought it was suspected early on that Pangolin or "Scaly Anteater" was the probably source at the Wuhan market.  Evidently its meat is considered a delicacy, its scales have therapeutic properties, and it is the most heavily trafficked mammal in the world!  Can't believe this thing exists. 

I prefer these

 

[red321]

 

[yk9001]

6 hours ago, fan_since79 said:

This is a medical problem, not a political one. The main reason the market has been crashing the past few days is the senators have been playing politics with this virus which threatens the future of this country. The market is way up today because it appears they are getting the message and coming to an agreement. Imagine that, a compromise! 

Putting that aside, my fervent hope is we can close this thread within weeks from now and not months. 

the market went up because they are getting a few trillion in aid

[angelinkc]

48 minutes ago, Fireball said:

I prefer these

 

How is your daughter? they ever get her the stuff she needs?

[yk9001]

2 hours ago, arch stanton said:

We're now on curfew here. 7 PM to 6 AM with a fine equivalent to about $2,700 for a first offense. I'll be getting an exemption letter to go to the base and back but until then I'm not chancing it

Where is here?

I can't understand why people can't state where they are.

Should we all know where Arch Stanton lives?

[wopphil]

On 3/22/2020 at 10:52 PM, calscuf said:

Never having to hire a plumber.  

This made my LOL.

[Blarg]

6 minutes ago, yk9001 said:

Where is here?

I can't understand why people can't state where they are.

Should we all know where Arch Stanton lives?

We all do, you just don't pay any attention to ongoing conversations then bust out all angry because you feel left out. Well, it's because you left yourself out. Next you will b e complaining you don't know why everyone kids Tank about Drakkar Noir. 

[red321]

12 minutes ago, Blarg said:

We all do, you just don't pay any attention to ongoing conversations then bust out all angry because you feel left out. Well, it's because you left yourself out. Next you will b e complaining you don't know why everyone kids Tank about Drakkar Noir. 

I know it's hard...but you don't have to be a dick all the time...I don't know where he lives either. 

[the dude abides]

2 hours ago, Rico said:

The extra long tie...  gets me every time.

The tiny hands are a nice touch as well.

[red321]

1 minute ago, Vladdylonglegs said:

For the social distancing thing to be worth it won't it have to be in place until there is an effective vaccine/cure? The virus is always going to be out there. If after 2 months we all go back to normal all it takes is one person to catch the virus and we're back to hiding in our homes and closing down the economy. What is the long-term goal of all of this? What's the plan next month or the month after or the month after?

I think the general idea is as follows

1) you hopefully find a drug that combats the disease, so that when people do catch it, it can be treated

2) you try and flatten the curve, basically trying to spread out the period of time so you aren't inundating the health system with sick people at once. Let's say 1,000,000 people catch it. Rather than have that over a short period of time, you spread that out over a longer period of time so the health system can treat those people

3) people who have caught this, and recovered, are immune...though they don't know all the details, if there is a limit of time (are they immune forever, a few years?)...this starts to build out herd immunity

4) after the initial wave, yes, you will start to have pockets of outbreaks...but with effective testing and tracking you can then go in an isolate those pockets and treat them. So you may have localized closures for hopefully short durations of time

5) At some point, hopefully sooner rather than later - they are suggesting a year, you end up with a vaccine and hopefully anti-vaxxers shut the hell up

 

Broad generalizations here, but a general synopsis of what I've seen

[red321]

1 minute ago, the dude abides said:

The tiny hands are a nice touch as well.

gar...I missed the tiny hands...awesome

 

 

[Adam]

1 minute ago, calscuf said:

If the rest of us get vaccinated, who cares? Let the anti-vaxxers die.

But then the yoga pants industry goes under and we all get fewer boners

[Crampknees]

55 minutes ago, angelinkc said:

How is your daughter? they ever get her the stuff she needs?

Still just trying to get by with regular masks.  They don't know is the prob.  She says the hospital just says the CDC says we don't need them.  Somebody just "says" down the line is the problem.  I have a brand new auto painters respirator in the garage with filters I am ready to take her, it beats a dust mask. Thanks for asking.