Coronavirus in the United States - news and thoughts

Yesterday I defended Trump somewhat. So I now I am maga hat wearing fox news idiot. Today I am going to be a commie.
This crisis points out another problem with capitalism in medicine. Capitalism is efficient by design. Having extra hospital rooms, ventilators and medicine are antithetical to capitalistic system. But this crisis shows that having excess built in to the system is absolutely necessary.
We live in a global society now. Pandemics will come again. We have to be ready. When we redesign our health care system this has to be accounted for. Sorry Bernie backers Italy pretty much proved that just going single payer isn't going to solve everything. But socialism has to be part of it.

 

We are about two weeks behind Italy, and they haven't hit the top yet. What makes you think we will hit the top in 10 days?

 

Interesting if true. Good news for those of us with type O.

New Research: Coronavirus Vulnerability Could Be Partially Determined by Blood Type

 

THIS I agree with. If we constantly saw live numbers of Flu and car crashes we would be much more uptight. I think everyone would agree with that.

It doesn't change the fact this needs quick attention.

Statistics lead us to solve problems.
Ie: seat belts for all those aforementioned car wrecks.

No question the media is sensational with the constant metric data in our faces. But the problem is still real.

 

I've been wondering what California, especially LA, was going to go about their homeless residents.

Some 60,000 California homeless could get coronavirus in coming weeks, governor says

 

I guess what drives me nuts is we didn't do this for more recent pathogens that will have definitely killed more people in the US than this. And we had enough info when it started really moving here to know it wasn't doing some quick crazy mutations to make it more deadly. That Asian area early were the only areas that had a valid reason to go into lockdown mode imo.

 

You are not allowed to switch teams here. You are expected to stick with one no matter how ridiculous your position becomes.

 

Well, if you start releasing a vaccine that has skipped part or much of the normal safety testing process it could actually end up doing far more harm than good to those who get it. If that happens, I think I'll join the anti-vaccine movement for that one since the overall number of people who are severely affected is still low for my subgroup. There's a reason you don't rush vaccines into the market. And 18 months is ALREADY rushed. These things used to take what . . . 10-15 years to develop?

In other words, if you accept inoculation with an early vaccine (one rushed into the market without all the normal safety protocols) you essentially become part of a test group and I'll wait a while to see how those vaccinated people react before taking it myself.

 

Definitely? Really?

 

This is true. I've read arguments that the Spanish Influenza was as bad as it was in part because we used unsafe treatments that ended up killing a lot of people. We need to be careful.

 

For anyone that truly believe that China has this virus "under control," I have a bridge in Brooklyn for sale. The only thing I believe they have under control is the news media.

 

You have a point. A private, for-profit system is never going to be effective in preparing for something that may not occur. It's not set up for that. To have a lot of supplies on stock is additional expense. Building a lot more beds and having more beds that mainly sit unused is an unnecessary expense. To be more efficient our system purposely limits the supplies it keeps on hand and excess equipment and beds. This inherently sets up a potential disaster when a terrible event hits. Planning for "acts of God" has never been great with our system which can't make assumptions for such unknowns in an effective manner. That has to be done on the Federal level.

Hopefully the lesson we learn from this is to prepare for other potential world changing events in the future. Well, at least until future generations forget those lessons and are once again caught unaware.

 

I expect most of these virus experts would love nothing more than to successfully beat this thing without it killing a lot of people. One typically doesn't go into that career path because they're looking for fame.

 

I noticed that as well.
Spain is closer to Italy.

Interesting how it varies so much.

 

Ilhan Omar
@IlhanMN
·
12h

.
@AyannaPressley
always says, unprecedented times require unprecedented leadership and we are seeing that in our country right now. I have faith that we will survive this as a nation and build together.


149

168

2.5K







Ilhan Omar
@IlhanMN
·
12h

Finally, we should never let politics get in the way of good policy. This is a great start and hope others will be part of a united front to push for good policies that will help us work through the economic anxiety the country is feeling right now.


Ilhan Omar
@IlhanMN
·
12h

.
@AyannaPressley
always says, unprecedented times require unprecedented leadership and we are seeing that in our country right now. I have faith that we will survive this as a nation and build together.


149

168

2.5K







Ilhan Omar
@IlhanMN
·
12h

Finally, we should never let politics get in the way of good policy. This is a great start and hope others will be part of a united front to push for good policies that will help us work through the economic anxiety the country is feeling right now.

 

And the Gov run systems have the same issue, there is no impetus to make people happy thus high tech scanners (MRI/CT) are not as available.

I run clinical trials the UK has almost no capacity to do PET scans due to a severe lack of scanners just one example.

 

Even she can admit Trump's getting some things righ . But it's a bridge too far for too hot libs.

 

The Flu statistics are valid as taken in the current moment. The real key will be that what happens if Covid-19 infects as many people as the flu or maybe more (since no one has immunity while many people have full or partial immunity to various flu strains). What do the numbers look like then?

When you see the staggering potential deaths, that's when you need to start hoping for the best but preparing for the worse.

That being said, I don't know if this attempt at locking down or limiting exposure for the masses will work and we must still end up with a tragic loss of life anyway. I worry that when family budgets get tight people will no longer voluntarily abide by these restrictions. The risk of mass unrest in China is much smaller than in the US or any country that is used to exercising a lot of individual freedoms. Maybe we can have a portion of the country not work (25% . . . 50%???) but is there a point where people won't accept further hardship for something that might not affect them directly.

IMO, an effective treatment can't come soon enough. At least something to bridge us from now until when a vaccine is ready.

 

It's that Germanic Aryan DNA!!!!

 

Once researchers are able to get a look at the demographics of who was infected that might help clear things up. If German victims were younger and healthier versus in Spain and Italy it can explain a drastically different death rate (since the elderly are FAR more susceptible to this thing).

And maybe we can identify other issues. Maybe (cross your fingers) certain populations have better resistance than others?