Coronavirus in the United States - news and thoughts

Stop the spread!! It's turning out to be some sort of sick joke.

 

This is Trump talking with reporters about reports they were going to phase out the Coronavirus task force.

"I thought we could wind it down sooner. But I had no idea how popular the task force is until actually yesterday when I started talking about winding down."

Do folks grasp the insanity of that response? In what sane world does any conversation about whether to have, or not have, a taskforce have a single bleeping thing to do with the popularity of the taskforce. It either serves a purpose in moving the country forward or it doesn't.

For Trump, the press briefings were about TV ratings until his advisors convinced him that having a lot of folks watch him talk about exploring injecting disinfectant was harmful to his election chances. The task force's future is tied to its popularity, instead of its efficacy.

Now, I don't think they are going to make a meaningful change to that task force based on the lunatic discussion of its popularity. They were going to shift to focusing on reopening in their messaging. The discussion of disbanding the task force was always about messaging. The docs and scientists were always going to keep working.

But so much of this has always been a branding exercise, as with most things Trump.

When he thought it served his political need to run doctors out to talk science, that was the focus. Now he thinks he needs to convince the American people is it safe to return to work and dining and the like so that will be the messaging. Closing down the task force was part of the messaging plan - let's dial back the communication of the problems and the solution seeking and dial up the talk of opening back up.

That's your President. He says the quiet stuff out loud. He says I was going to make a show of winding down the task force to change the messaging but the vibe that news produced was "wait we like hearing from docs and scientists" so he says he's keeping it open.

The incompetence and self interest would be stunning if we hadn't seen it at work for years at this point.

 

I think townhall, and you, are misinterpreting these findings.

It seems to me that Cuomo said most people who are infected were at home, and you guys are hearing most people at home are getting infected. These are very different things.

 

The most alarming coronavirus numbers in some states are in prisons and nursing homes - CNN

 

The US military is banning anyone who had COVID-19 from enlisting, according to a new memo

This seems odd to me. Maybe they are worried about undiscovered long term effects (respiratory issues, increased stroke chance....)? I don't know, i was surprised.

 

Not misinterpreting anything. It appears to me these 'social distancing nazi's' are just talking out their asses.

Cuomo says it's 'shocking' most new coronavirus hospitalizations are people who had been staying home

 

I could understand live virus. But wouldn't those with anti-bodies actually be beneficial for providing herd immunity? At the least they would be unlikely to get sick again.

Seems like this would be very limiting in recruiting down the road. My guess is they will revisit this rule in CY-21

 

Below is an interesting twitter thread on our "it's too hard" sentiment and how other countries have done a much better job than the trump administration. Warning, it's opinion supported by experience and anecdotal observations.

 

If you've got a fever, you've probably been lookin' at too many of Unc's 'fishing' pictures...

 

I agree with all that.

What it really comes down to though is what value we put on a life... or extending a life by some amount of time. This is a major issue in health care period not just for this pandemic.

How much money do we as a society spend on an individual life when the people involved cannot self fund that care? Difficult question, but it really needs to be addressed if we're ever going to manage health care spending effectively.

 

Well if you are not misinterpreting this data, I’m rather confused about how you are using it to come to the conclusion that social distancing is a cruel joke and that the cdc doesn’t know anything about epidemiology.

 

I believe we are significantly under reporting covid19 deaths. Research excess deaths.

 

Makes no sense at all, unless there were long term health effects or the virus was “permanent” like HIV. Is there something they are not telling us? Or is this just more irrational dysfunction from the administration?

From what we know this virus leaves the body after a few weeks. So people that HAD the virus should be good to go, and like you say, may even have some limited immunity. But at worst they should be no worse than anyone else.

 

We are still early in this and still developing our understanding of the virus and how it works, but there is evidence of long term damage to the heart and lungs and other organs.

 

Yes, I believe that is for people with severe symptoms, those that survive may have lung or cardio damage.

Even with that in mind, wouldn’t “lung damage” cause a person to fail their physical? The issue for that enlistee would be the lung damage impacting their physical fitness, but if they were asymptomatic and had no damage I don’t see why a mere “positive test” should matter, obviously so long as the virus is gone.

 

Two nursing home facilities have more deaths from covid. A total of 29.

One has 21, 20 residents and one nurse. This is the most of any facility in Florida.
The other has 8.

As of May 4th Pinellas county Florida residents can get tested at no cost and without restrictions.

 

I’m reading a lot of reports of mental health decline due to the quarantine. Humans need socialization. There are a lot of ill-effects of keeping everything shut down, which are being ignored. I hope that is not because certain people have an agenda. That would be unfortunate.

 

And what about the undercounts? For example, in Florida, MEs being Tom to not release causes if death? Have you analyzed the suppression of numbers in GOP states to push reopening in the face of increases in cases all over the country except the New York area? Any idea why numbers are being suppressed? Maybe it is to feed the conspiracy theories who think that determinations of cause of death are to make Trump look bad and those desperate to discover the “lies” in the numbers?