Coronavirus cases and deaths among UM members

[rms]

He downplayed it like so many others , I don't know what you're doing right now

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Article argues that Trump misused his platform and appointed some bad candidates at the very least, which is very fair.

And that paragraph was like third from the bottom. Think your own bias is too strong here , the testing angle is the biggest flaw here (since the mask drama is too new) and that's what gets the most attention.

The subtitle of the story identifies three causes (technical flaws, regulatory hurdles, and lapses in leadership) behind a single problem (a lost opportunity to prevent corona-chan's spread in the USA).

The technical flaw being the biggest reason for the problem is kind of a trivial deduction: a new, barely-understood virus requires time to develop a reliable assay to discover it. I mean, duh. There's a reason the article gets that out of the way first and dedicates the least text to it, because it's the only cause with both necessity and sufficiency.

The "regulatory hurdles" aspect is extremely vague in the story, except for the assay detail itself regarding what seems to be a false-positive third probe, and CDC preventing the use of what they believed to be a bad assay. Would simply using the two-probe German assay have been helpful? Seems likely, more test kits is certainly better than less, but how helpful? In all of that, nowhere does the story attempt to actually analyze the odds at play. First known carrier arrived January 15th, went to a hospital the 19th, first CDC test developed the 20th, first carrier confirmed the 21st. Doesn't get much faster than that, yet we clearly know that in those four days before he sought treatment, he had managed to infect others. Considering how no countries anywhere in the world have managed to stop the spread without hardcore quarantine/stay-at-home measures, what the fuck would the testing possibly do beyond maybe flattening the curve for a bit longer? The NYT certainly doesn't know, and didn't even mention any of those dates aside from the first CDC test.

Considering that the majority of the story speaks of characters rather than events or circumstantial realities, it's clear that the overall thrust of the story is just to shit on Trump. The funny thing is that your statement that the story argues Trump "appointed some bad candidates" is actually more your words than the story's own: the story doesn't even make it clear what the particular failings of Azar or Redfield are, though it is sure to make the reader think both of them are absolute incompetents that were too busy fighting each other to get anything done. And that, of course, must be Trump's fault, for not being leaderish enough.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

He downplayed it like so many others , I don't know what you're doing right now

He did and he was fucking stupid to do so, and I said so weeks ago, but only because it left him with egg on his face. The article, despite its obvious slant and many omissions, never even tries to say that Trump intentionally slowed testing for whatever purpose of downplaying the virus.

The biggest problem with the article is that its central premise, that the problem could have realistically be stopped by anyone, is totally unsupported. A naive but attentive reader would see the article and think, "Wow, Trump sure bungled this one, any other president would have had discovered a perfect assay within one week instead of two". It wasn't until the beginning of February that there was even a consensus that the virus could be spread via human-human contact, but somehow this could have all been prevented if some SUPER SCIENCE person had been appointed? lmao

 

[CiG]

The article is pretty much a lazily shat out TDS piece masked as COVID-19 coverage.

 

[Dak]

As I believe I stated before (if not here definitely elsewhere), is that all that has happened is that IMPEACHMENT coverage turned into COVID-19 IS TRUMPS FAULT type TDS bullshit.

 

[Carpe Mortem]

Pretty much my whole family is off work and have a big ol group text going about what everyone's doing every day and who's helping my grandma with what, which is getting to be annoying sometimes at work. But now its Sunday so I'm getting my payback by spamming PROTECT THE MATRIARCH AT ALL COSTS and LET'S ALL GET BIRDFEEDERS and DOES THIS LOOK LIKE A MOUSE OR A VOLE

 

[Dak]

I've been enjoying my quarantinorino. Getting more time with my kids, time to hit hobbies, time to fix some things around the house. If only I had a really good home gym set-up I'd have no complaints at all. As an introvert, social distancing comes naturally.

 

[Bourbon]

John Prine is in critical condition with it. Would be a blow to the music world to lose him to this shit.

 

[no country for old wainds]

glad he's keeping himself busy

 

[no country for old wainds]

 

[TechnicalBarbarity]

 

[TechnicalBarbarity]

 

[Satanstoenail]

As an essential service employee I’m still working out on the front lines, walking into people’s germy hellholes to fix their internets and their phone lines and sanitising like a madman. Pretty grateful to be employed at this point though.

 

[challenge_everything]

It's weird seeing who gets a bounce from all this. I was talking to one of my clients today, who designs signage/instore advertising, and I was pretty sure his business would be in the toilet. But no, turns out his major clients are pharmacies, so he's going gangbusters.

 

[Slammed]

Since ScoMo told everyone yesterday that his family bought jigsaws our local Toyworld has been inundated with phone calls asking if they are open and if people can come in and buy jigsaws. Fucken weird what people hear and don't hear from a public address like ScoMo's last night.

 

[Bloopy]

https://www.theguardian.com/austral...hile-inventing-coronavirus-device?CMP=soc_567

An Australian astrophysicist has been admitted to hospital after getting four magnets stuck up his nose in an attempt to invent a device that stops people touching their faces during the coronavirus outbreak.

 

[CiG]

Wow.

 

[Krow]

Power has been out for 17 hours and counting here. Power company is severely understaffed because of the ‘rona. Wind has been howling for days knocking out electric. My wife was feeling really bad yesterday and ended up taking an ambulance ride late last night. I was not allowed in the hospital whatsoever. I stayed huddled in my car for ~3.5 hours last night waiting for her to text me as she could because that was the only means of communication. She’s doing better today and has been discharged but this feeling of helplessness I felt last night... Goddamn.

I took the day off work and I’m sitting outside because my cel phone won’t even work indoors. Played with our dogs and did some garden work. Went to Walmart to get her some pepto and lidocaine patches. Pretty sure I was the only fucker in there without a mask on. This shit is so beyond weird right now.

 

[J.]

I'm still heading to work, as I'm "essential". Glad to be employed and not be stuck at home, tbh. Shit is getting boring.

Biggest thing I miss: the gym. I'm gonna gain weight, especially if they shut everything down until May.

 

[arg]

Hm maybe i should start letting people use my home gym. You can pay by venmo, or if you’re a hot female, you’d just have to do your squats naked on my face