BBC: China pneumonia outbreak: COVID-19 Global Pandemic

[visionary]

 

 

 

Jesus.

Edited June 19, 2020 by visionary

[skinsmarydu]

Desantis blames Hispanic workers? 

 

 

 

Is he referencing the necessary or unnecessary ones? 

 

I can't keep track of what side he's on. 

[China]

Insurers May Only Pay For Coronavirus Tests When They're 'Medically Necessary'

 

In the wake of the massive turnout at anti-racism demonstrations around the country, public health officials are encouraging protesters to get tested for the coronavirus. As purely precautionary testing has become more common, some insurance companies are arguing they can't just pay for everyone who's concerned about their risk to get tested.

 

Lynne Cushing of Nashville, Tenn., says she had been pretty strict about social distancing until the recent protests, which she felt compelled to attend.

 

"I had hoped to kind of stay on the edge or the periphery a little bit," she says. "But I didn't think about the fact that everyone's going to be chanting. There's going to be all this forced air coming out of people at the demonstration."

 

So a few days after marching in her mask, she went to a curbside clinic for a COVID-19 test. Cushing knew health plans had to cover the test and can't even charge a co-pay.

"Because I have health insurance, I'm lucky in that regard," she says.

 

The Families First Coronavirus Response Act passed by Congress requires health plans to fully pay for testing deemed "medically necessary." But as testing expands enough to allow people without symptoms to be tested, a gray area is beginning to appear.

 

The coverage mandate can be up to interpretation.

 

"This is a very live and active debate right now," says health policy research professor Sabrina Corlette of Georgetown University.

 

"That requirement may only apply if you've been referred for a test by a health care professional after presenting with symptoms of the disease," she says.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[zCommander]

[TradeTheBeal!]

The whole “immigrants bring diseases” thing is so played out.  Been played out since 1619, I guess.

 

DeSantis can’t sink much lower.

[PCS]

 

 

 

 

 

 

On 6/17/2020 at 3:10 PM, visionary said:

 

 

 

[Hooper]

Infuriating and embarrassing.

 

Trump's message on masks... making this whole thing a political issue... the most impeachable thing he has done.

[BatteredFanSyndrome]

Saw a reporter on CNN masked up walking through what I guess is the Trump rally tailgate party in Tulsa.  So many proud Trumpers refusing to wear a mask.  The only mask in sight was on the reporter.

 

It’s one thing to be in a hurry to reopen the economy, but willfully disobeying something as simple as a mask and doing nothing to encourage the general public to do so, is damn near murder.  But having your own supporters sign a waiver that you aren’t responsible for the “hoax” while putting them at major risk of spreading the virus that he knows is legit, is something entirely else.  
 

Nearly everyday things get so much more real, yet it feels like it can’t possibly be real.

 

 

Edited June 20, 2020 by BatteredFanSyndrome

[skinsmarydu]

40 minutes ago, BatteredFanSyndrome said:

 

Nearly everyday things get so much more real, yet it feels like it can’t possibly be real.

 

 

I was 35 when 9/11 happened. I'm more freaked out with every passing day. 

[Renegade7]

54 minutes ago, BatteredFanSyndrome said:

 But having your own supporters sign a waiver that you aren’t responsible for the “hoax” while putting them at major risk of spreading the virus that he knows is legit, is something entirely else.  
 

Nearly everyday things get so much more real, yet it feels like it can’t possibly be real.

 

He is killing his base, quite literally.  Bringing all those Trump supporters to one place and them going back home to give it to their Trump supporter friends and family is basically believing they are expendable.  I don't know what its going to take for some folk to realize they are just pawns to him. 

 

Maybe when that whole front section that follows him to every rally dies they will call that fake news, too.  If Diamond or Silk die, they'll call that a hoax as well or claim they fell off anyway.

 

What's it going to take?  Some of these red states running out of hospital beds?  Trump claiming he's going to send the USS Comfort to Kansas or some **** to get it?  I'm convinced some folks are going to die laughing at folks with TDS, literally, they won't accept they are wrong, they will just die cursing George Soros or something.

 

Is what it is, at point of just riding it out and see if volume goes down when there's less of them.  Literally.  I don't wish that on them, just at the rate they are going it wouldn't require it anyway.

[COWBOY-KILLA-]

The Florida news is super disappointing and unsurprising. What do you think is gonna happen when leaders and thereby their people pretend the pandemic is not happening. De Santis is a moron Trump bootlicker. With ICU beds at 75% occupied as we speak, within this next 4-6weeks we could be completely spinning out of control and then wonder what has happened. The way we are headed, we as a country may have multiple NYC situations across the country. I'm so disappointed in those that thought they knew better, its despicable. There should be criminal repercussions for their ignorance and negligence. 

[Renegade7]

4 minutes ago, COWBOY-KILLA- said:

 There should be criminal repercussions for their ignorance and negligence. 

 

It's a nationwide Flint-Katrina ****sandwich of epic proportions. 

 

Should be impeachable, I'm not convinced the House can't get evidence that Trump wanted certain folks to die to help him win the election. 

 

The GOP putting their party over people's lives is exactly what George Washington warned us about.

[EmirOfShmo]

2 hours ago, PCS said:

 

This country needs to kneel down everyday & pray for the Central Americans that keep the food supply working. I can't tell you how many food plants I've been to across the country that are staffed with 95-99% Central Americans who work in jobs that no American would think about doing. And not in the normal places you would think of - try Abbotsford, WI where almost 100% of the workers at the pork sausage & beef plants are Central Americans. Look at it on a map - lilly white America with a huge population of Central Americans who decided cold as **** WI is a great place to migrate to. Who knew?

To see Desantis degrade these people is disgusting. **** him. Especially in a state that depends so ****ing much on the migrant workers to work the fields to keep us fed. Someone needs to drag his ass out to the fields in Plant City, FL to pick the strawberries in the strawberry capital of the world. Maybe then he would appreciate the work of these people.

Seriously, **** him. 

Edited June 20, 2020 by EmirOfShmo

[visionary]

 

[mistertim]

2 hours ago, COWBOY-KILLA- said:

The Florida news is super disappointing and unsurprising. What do you think is gonna happen when leaders and thereby their people pretend the pandemic is not happening. De Santis is a moron Trump bootlicker. With ICU beds at 75% occupied as we speak, within this next 4-6weeks we could be completely spinning out of control and then wonder what has happened. The way we are headed, we as a country may have multiple NYC situations across the country. I'm so disappointed in those that thought they knew better, its despicable. There should be criminal repercussions for their ignorance and negligence. 

 

Isn't Florida also one of the states where the cause of death being pneumonia has somehow "mysteriously" gone up from under 1000 between Feb and May over the past several years to over 4,000 in 2020? The ****sticks are even cooking the books to make it seem like less people are dying from COVID.

[COWBOY-KILLA-]

@mistertim Yes. It is definitely a major factor and supposedly its going on in most Red States. But here it's that, on top of an outlandish Governor, flaunting his successes about a month ago on how they've crushed it. And now, blaming mostly hispanic migrant workers as the cause of the uptick is just more deflecting accountability and pure irresponsibility.  Presumptuous and petulant don't begin to describe him.  The deceit in exchange for the hope of getting back to normal is just...as I've said about these people from the beginning is, Criminal.

[purbeast]

We were planning on driving down to the Keys from MD starting yesterday but the cases rising in Florida this past week made us change our plans so we opted not to go.  We can always go down there at another time once things eventually get better.

 

I have a few of the dive masters I have done SCUBA with down there as friends on my Facebook and seeing some of the things they are posting makes me even happier that we didn't go if that is the attitude of some of the locals down there.

[China]

COVID-19: Straight Answers from Top Epidemiologist Who Predicted the Pandemic

 

We’ve been told alternatively to not wear masks, to wear masks, to stay home, and to get out and reinvigorate the economy. Hydroxychloroquine and remdesivir both got our hopes up but now have largely fizzled. We’ve heard estimates that as many as two million Americans will die and now, with 100,000 deaths, we’ve heard we’re near the end of the crisis. Is a vaccination forthcoming?  How likely are we to get the disease? What exactly should we do with our aging parents who are at the most risk?

 

To get some clear answers, I called Michael Osterholm, PhD, MPH, an internationally known expert in infectious disease epidemiology who has advised both Democratic and Republican Presidents. I know Dr. Osterholm from the University of Minnesota (our academic partner for the first Blue Zones explorations) where he serves as the Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. He has also served as interim Director of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

 

Here are the highlights of our conversation. But if you really want to understand this disease, read the whole interview.  This disease may be the biggest event of our lifetimes.

 - 3 months ago, COVID-19 was not even in the top 75 causes of death in this country. Much of the last month, it was the #1 cause of death in this country. This is more remarkable  than the 1918 Flu pandemic.
 - There is no scientific indication Covid-19 will disappear of its own accord.
 - If you’re under age 55, obesity is the #1 risk factor. So, eating the right diet, getting physical activity, and managing stress are some of the most important things you can do to protect yourself from the disease.
 - One of the best things we can do for our aging parents is to get them out into the fresh air, while maintaining physical (not social) distancing.
 - Wearing a cloth mask does not protect you much if you’re in close contact with someone who is COVID-19 contagious. It may give you 20 minutes, instead of 10, to avoid contracting the disease.
 - We can expect COVID-19 to infect 60% – 70% of Americans. That’s around 200 million Americans.
 - We can expect between 800,000 and 1.6 million Americans to die in the next 18 months if we don’t have a successful vaccine.
 - There is no guarantee of an effective vaccination and even if we find one, it may only give short term protection.
 - Speeding a vaccination into production carries its own risks.
 - The darkest days are still ahead of us. We need moral leadership, the command leadership that doesn’t minimize what’s before us but allows everyone to see that we’re going to get through it.

 

Click on the link for the full article

Edited June 20, 2020 by China

[AlvinWaltonIsMyBoy]

Osterholm has unfortunately been pretty accurate on things so far. 
 

CNN reporting that six Trump staffers in Tulsa have tested positive.  Holding this rally is the most 2020 thing to date.

[China]

The Covid-19 pandemic has catapulted one mysterious data website to prominence, sowing confusion in international rankings

 

On April 28, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez stood alone on the stage of a bright but empty briefing room. As a CNN reporter asked a question via video link, the prime minister looked deep in concentration, scribbling notes and pausing to look at the monitor only once. As he launched into his answer, he looked directly into the camera to boast about Spain’s Covid-19 testing volume.

 

“We are one of the countries with the highest number of tests carried out,” Sánchez said.

 

Initially, the prime minister cited data from a recent Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) ranking that had placed Spain eighth in Covid-19 testing among its members.

 

“Today,” he added, “we have found out about another study, from the Johns Hopkins University, that […] ranks us fifth in the world in total tests carried out.”

 

There were just two problems: The OECD data had been wrong. And while some sources had ranked Spain fifth in total testing volume, Johns Hopkins was not one of them; the study Sánchez cited does not exist.

 

Yet two weeks later, the Spanish government is standing by the substance of its prime minister’s claim. Instead of citing Johns Hopkins, Spanish officials are now pointing to testing rankings from a data aggregation website called Worldometer — one of the sources behind the university’s widely cited coronavirus dashboard — and prompting questions about why some governments and respected institutions have chosen to trust a source about which little is known.

 

According to Worldometer’s website, its Covid-19 data comes from a multilingual team that “monitors press briefings’ live streams throughout the day” and through crowdsourcing.

Visitors can report new Covid-19 numbers and data sources to the website – no name or email address required. A “team of analysts and researchers” validate the data, the website says. It may, at first, sound like the Wikipedia of the data world, but some Wikipedia editors have decided to avoid Worldometer as a source for Covid-19 data.

 

“Several updates lack a source, do not match their cited source or contain errors,” one editor, posting under the username MarioGom, wrote on a discussion page for Wikipedia editors working on Covid-19-related content last month. “Some errors are small and temporary, but some are relatively big and never corrected.”

 

The editor, whose real name is Mario Gómez, told CNN in an email, “Instead of trying to use a consistent criteria, [Worldometer] seems to be going for the highest figure. They have a system for users to report higher figures, but so far I failed to use it to report that some figure is erroneous and should be lower.”

 

“Their main focus seems to be having the latest number wherever it comes from, whether it’s reliable or not, whether it’s well-sourced or not,” he said. “We think people should be wary, especially media, policy-makers and decision-makers. This data is not as accurate as they think it is.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[visionary]

 

[China]

Florida’s Covid-19 surge shows the state’s reopening plan is not working

 

It has been seven weeks since Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, took a coronavirus “victory lap”, pressing ahead with a swift reopening program while berating the media for a “doom and gloom” approach he said bore little relation to reality.

 

“We haven’t seen an explosion of new cases,” DeSantis insisted during a 29 April news conference, a day on which the state’s Covid-19 tally increased by 347.

 

“There is a light at the end of the tunnel,” DeSantis, a keen Trump ally, added.

 

This week, however, it became clear that the Republican governor’s garden of roses is wilting fast in the face of a resurgent virus.

 

A period that began with Florida’s daily record of new cases below 1,700 saw eight consecutive days above that figure, five of them topping 2,000 and both Thursday and Friday seeing the highest numbers of all: 3,207 and 3,822 cases, respectively, eclipsing the previous recorded high by more than 35%.

 

The staggering figures have caused experts at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and University of Pennsylvania to conclude that Florida has “all the markings of the next large epicenter of coronavirus transmission”. Such a consequence could be significant in a politically sensitive swing state that analysts agree Donald Trump must win in November to secure a second term as president.

 

“Governor DeSantis has lost control of Florida’s Covid-19 response,” said Nikki Fried, the agricultural commissioner and only Democrat elected to statewide office, who has previously complained at being shut out of DeSantis’s recovery taskforce.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[No Excuses]

This is demented and impeachable. What an awful person. 
 

 

[visionary]

 

[Renegade7]

That has to be against the law intentionally slowing down testing that's meant to save lives.

 

I would fully support impeaching him again, if for any reason some change of getting an actual federal response to this pandemic with Pence in charge.

 

Careening towards multiple hospital systems being overwhelmed in the coming months, it's only a matter of time before he gives a nugget proving he wants some Americans to die from COVID that can be admitted as evidence.

 

Edit: saw video in previous clip, crowd didn't cheer, they went "whoa".

Edited June 21, 2020 by Renegade7