Coronavirus in the United States - news and thoughts

We will see, but not sure how my "common sense" outweighs his experience as a scientist.

 

We've done double the amount of testing here than the 2nd highest country (Germany). 80% of those tests are coming back neg. There is not a widespread testing availability problem and even if there was, that would be the case in every other country as well, not just here. Just media and libs trying to make the situation way more dour than it is. People die. Viruses happen all the time. So is the course of life. Media will always blow everything way out of proportion to drive the clicks.

 

I have an employee that had a fever. (She tends to be a hypochondriac lol) She requested a test based on that symptom alone.
Had the (negative) result in 48 hours. Absolutely no problem. Doesn't mean it is the same everywhere, but here it is.

 

I think most Americans have the attention span of a pubescent gnat. They've already moved on to the next thing.

 

False narrative. Again, if we have a shortage of tests here, then every other country falls into that category as well. Even South Korea (aka the gold standard in testing) have only tested 1% of their population to date.

 

How and when Paul became a successful R/E investor has no bearing on him and therefore Nancy benefiting from those certain provisions of the CARES Act.

I just find it interesting there is an article written about the possibility of the Trumps benefiting from the changes in R/E loss treatment for tax purposes but no mention that the Pelosis will also likely benefit. Similarly, the individual posting the link to the article also failed to mention the how the Pelosis could also benefit.

 

Fair enough. I watch and read the news a lot (no not just one source as that can create bias) and hadn’t heard about it that much lately.

 

Trump is airing his grievances about judicial appointments in his presser today. Remarkable. He wants to make recess appointments of federal judges. What an ignoramous. And he is threatening to shut down Congress so he can make these illegal appointments. Demagogue. And a liar about the approval process. He can’t do recess appointments of federal judges.

 

Yes there is a certain segment that can overplay things. I like to use facts instead of opinions.

 

Iceland is the gold standard. They have tested 10% of pop.

 

We know what models were used. You don’t. Read the thread again.

 

I mean, there are traffic jams at rush hour in big cities on certain roadways, but collectively, 99% of roadways across the country function without traffic jams. Based on the narrative they continue to perpetuate, you'd think driving anywhere at any time would be impossible. It is a completely false and dishonest narrative and needs to be dismissed as such.

 

Well, most Americans have some common sense. Further, I’ve seen Facebook and Nextdoor posts regarding proper handling/cleaning of food upon returning from a trip to the grocery or market. There have been a number of segments on the Spectrum cable news channel on all matters concerning protection oneself from the virus.

I just don’t believe there’s a shortage of “how to” information on cable and the web. People just need to be smart and act responsibly. Perhaps too few are and do?

 

Analogy fail.

 

Is it January yet?

 

Lie exposed.

 

Looks like Fauci is not at the briefing again today. Maybe we will here from him.

 

Still some testing issues on the Navajo Nation, which encompasses much of NE Arizona, and spills into Utah to the North and New Mexico to the East. Area has been very hard hit. Governors of Arizona, Utah, and NM have come together to get some quick testing kits to the area, but they are still going to be limited to those exhibiting symptoms and those who have come in contact with someone who has tested positive.

While better, the area will likely not get back to normal until much more Navajos can be tested. While areas are sparely populated, the Navajo still tend to live in generational housing with extended family, and come together often as a community. If the only ones who can be tested are those already sick, or those exposed to those who have been sick, how do you hold community events? Too many people who were likely exposed without knowledge, asymptomatic at the moment, and as carriers, will infect others.

 

Many other countries are in shortage. Not all, but many are. However, what you are still missing with this is that testing need is partially a function of disease spread. For example, if we have 5 seeds in the country from which the disease spreads, then you need very little testing in order to isolate. You test the areas in which those people are and their contacts. You test incoming flights from hotspots, isolate, and prevent wide spread. Can be done with a very small percentage of the country being tested (see Australia's response). If you wait until it has completely spread to the entire country, you need a lot more testing. South Korea's strength was that they ramped the testing quickly to isolate early. We didn't. The further we moved up the curve, the more testing was needed to understand its spread, much less to isolate it.

South Korea is actually 30th in testing (excluding extremely small city-state or principalities). They just caught it fast. They can now begin to slowly re-open with restrictions and concentrated testing. We still have no clue about the degree of spread in this country because it took us well over a month to ramp up testing. So unless we can ramp testing considerably more, we will be re-opening essentially blind, which is the textbook manner in which a spike in cases will occur. If the goal is to actually save lives, this is not an adequate strategy. If the goal is to hide the deaths as best as possible, it could work.

 

I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic, but total population there is 1,000,000. We got a little more ground to cover here in the U.S., yet we're right on par with the gold standard, aka South Korea, with nearly 1% of our population tested to date. And a lot more ground to cover than the Koreans as well. The United States always sets the bar.