Coronavirus in the United States - news and thoughts

I don't care about your work. Just answer the question: What solution(s) do you propose? What ideas have you? Describing the water as a commentator while someone drowns is neither virtuous nor of any value to anybody.

But I'll tell you about something that is not potential. I have worked in medical research. I have worked on drug design and drug discovery. Most projects fail for one myriad of reasons. The shortest time for al vaccine development in history was four years for mumps. Maybe we beat that this, maybe we don't. What's for certain is that people cannot wait for vaccine. I've already posted the cost of shutdowns in human lives: Millions of human lives. You want to discuss the complexity of the issue? There it is. You want to discuss the cost of human lives. It's there as well. So, what solutions do you have?

 

“Get back to normal.” Ie. Put others at risk so you can get some enjoyment.

maybe it’s just flat-out ignorance on why we just can’t all of a sudden “get back to normal”

 

Wonder which is more deadly to people under 24? If only we had data on that to make smart decisions...

 

I don’t see any of the libs ripping the protestors for not appropriately social distancing. Thousands in many cities. Guess it’s ok if it’s for something they believe in...

 

Yeah, sadly we're gonna see more cases because of it.

 

If only people were smart with available data and realized when flu season occurs.

 

that makes zero sense.

 

Goodness. What kind of rudeness is this?

 

Nice. How gracious for you to say you don't care for my work. Ironic that you then almost immediately make sure to give me your cv, this being the third or fourth time you made sure I/we knew what you do. So I'll be clear, I know you work on drug research. I get it. I recognize that you have real knowledge to bring to the table. But I'll also say this, I've been a researcher for two decades, numerous published peer-reviewed studies. Lead PI on a multi-million dollar public health grant, and I have taught research methods and statistics nearly every semester since 2001, and at all levels of university education. So yeah, I know a thing or two about science.Not bragging. It's what it is.

To answer your question, we follow CDC guidelines for reopening--but as guidelines they leave a lot of room because leaders at various levels have to make decisions particular to their situation. Generally though, we enforce mitigation measures where feasible, whether social distancing, lower-capacity building occupation such as restaurants, telecommuting where possible, limitations on large gatherings, testing, disinfecting, masks etc. These are so we can get back to increased, normalized activity, but the reality is that we will still have to contend with an uncontrolled virus that continues to spread with the potential to have a resurgence in cases and deaths, so it's not like we can do this without careful consideration.

So I've answered your question. Here's one for you that you avoided answering a few weeks ago:

Do you still believe hydroxychloroquine is an effective treatment for Covid-19?

 

they are too busy giving stimulus checks to illegal immigrants to notice, also, where were the masks?

 

Do not mischaracterize the context of what I wrote. A discussion without end about the difficulty of the situation at this point is the opposite of helpful. By 610 pages of discussion, if an individual has not managed to figure that, then I am saddened to say the likelihood is not a promising one. Continuing the discussion of difficulties is just a rehash of the previous 610 pages. Why not just go back and read those responses? At this point, my patience for such discussion is obviously thin.

Moreover, the context of working on the bench is vital. While I am hopeful that someone will produce a viable vaccine candidate, it will be first time in history. Personally, I have never seen a drug development project move that fast without failures. I would say I am cautiously optimistic, but I would certainly not plan on it happening soon.

With your experience in public health, I am curious why you have taken so long to actually give an opinion on a solution. Moreover, why have you not discussed the cost of human life while the shutdowns continue? Consider the following article (posted previously):

The COVID-19 shutdown will cost Americans millions of years of life

Re-opening is a serious concern. To be sure, I am not concerned with the politics of it (go ahead and deride me, I'm sure). Whether blue or red states are doing better or worse in-of-itself could not concern me less. At least, not from the political perspective. That people are going to suffer for years and maybe decades of much greater concern to me, however. Why are we not talking about this? To wit:

- Missed/late cancer diagnoses
- Vaccines
- Transplants

Those are just some of the medical procedures that been necessary, but are not taking place! That does not even include the permanent underclass this can create. To be fair, I am no economist. I would not wish to endeavor into a deep conversation regarding economic policies because of the obvious reason that I would be lost. However, I defer to the statistics of human years lost. This is something that needs to be counted in this conversation. We cannot limit this simply to number of deaths from/with COVID.

To be sure, these topics reach all of our lives. My family just had a member receive a late cancer diagnosis this week. He was supposed to have gone in for a check earlier, but for obvious reasons he was unable. Certainly, we have to deal with that now, and we would have liked to have found out sooner. Nevertheless, I am certain that my family is not anomalous in this regard. There are others in your communities experiencing a similar situation or who will.

While I agree with the opinion it is not a binary decision (either completely open or completely closed), still, many posters have already said as much. I do not understand why this misrepresentation continues to appear in discussion. I think that many from all political perspectives would agree that a reasonable solution includes sheltering the most vulnerable. The idea that there are people arguing that we just open the floodgates and return to normal is a disingenuous one. I could be wrong, but I have not seen anyone here argue for that. Actually, I cannot think of anyone arguing for that at all. So its appearance here as a straw man is frustrating. Added to the aforementioned rehash of discussion of the difficulty of the situation just makes for dumb conversation. It is not productive and most certainly fails to advance the conversation. Don't get me wrong, I love re-runs of some TV shows on Netflix or whatever, but I would like to see the conversation move forward at this point.

Regarding HCQ: I am pretty sure I already gave an at-length conversation of the drug. If you like, you may go through my previous posts for your answer. Because I believe in transparency, I do not obfuscate my profile. Admittedly, I have not kept up with the literature on it. Has something new been published recently?

 

I'll respond tomorrow, but let me correct the record. I don't and have never held myself out as a public health researcher. My discipline and a line of my research overlap with public health, which is how I came to be the PI on the grant.

 

This is bad news for poop eaters.

 

I think this is a fair observation. I can only speak for myself as I fit your complaint.

The anti-mitigation protests were largely bs. They were ginned up by some extremists (think e.g. proud boys in FL) and are based on a bad understanding of the constitution and they were a threat to public health. But the bottom line is that elected leaders have a constitutional duty to protect and have pretty wide authority to take some extreme measures to end the threat. This has always been the case.

These protests and riots pose a similar threat to public health, maybe even worse given the numbers, but the circumstances are way different and the anger far more righteous. I'd prefer there be no protests right now, but for me it is much easier to understand and accept despite any misgivings about the public health danger.

 

Do the same things Hong Kong, Greece, New Zealand, Taiwan etc. did. Drove the cases down to a manageable level where you can test and contact trace. But, certainly not reopen where cases are rising or steady and higher when we closed down. This particular poster does the same thing with everybody. His response will be, “how low? What numbers?” He has no solutions and ignores the empirical success elsewhere. So, exchange with him or her with that understanding in mind.

 

And sniffers like that school in the state just north of the St. Mary’s river.

 

At least Georgia didn’t explode up like many predicted.

 

The media forgot all about COVID-19 now. Just like that, the attention went away