Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

American History and Black History Cannot Be Separated

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 Coronavirus / COVID-19 Coronavirus Update – Friday/Saturday, March 27/28 (International / Informational)

COVID-19 Coronavirus Update – Friday/Saturday, March 27/28 (International / Informational)

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22Comments

  1. 1.

    David C

    Good morning, and thanks for my go-to morning read. In an intranet interview (NIH only) with Francis Collins, Tony Fauci put the kibosh in intentionally infecting healthy volunteers – the risk of death is not zero. He said that it was an idea that came up early, but that it was pretty much shot down.

    Stay safe.

  2. 2.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s daily numbers. Most Malaysians are complying with the movement control order, as it’s called here. The new-case count and new death count numbers appear to be heading in the right direction. But neighbouring countries Thailand and Indonesia are cause for concern. Thailand’s government appears to be in denial. Indonesia’s medical infrastructure is less developed than ours, they don’t have the capacity to test or treat as much of their population, and and could wind up being overwhelmed by COVID-19.

  3. 3.

    Tony Jay

    Interesting but depressing piece in the Shitbag Guardian by Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet medical journal.

    Basically, the British Government’s determination to ignore the warnings until it was too late and subsequent refusal to follow the WHO guidance on testing means the NHS will not be able to cope and Britain is about to take a brutal egg-pounding. Johnson’s oh so convenient diagnosis at least spares him having to smear his puffy, ‘condom in a washing machine’ face all over the PR disaster to come. Priorities!

    OTOH didn’t we all do so well by standing outside and clapping? Sorted out all of the problems, that did. Undoubtedly the Greatest National Moment of People Power since the Paedogeddon Militias scourged the country clear of kiddie-fiddlers (and paediatricians) back in the 90’s.

    Why the British Press isn’t hounding the fuck out of these blinkered spunk-buckets on the topic of testing – should – be a mystery, but it’s not. This is the Government they worked so hard to install, it’s their bastard offspring, they can’t bash it too hard without risking a national rejection of the brand, and then who will protect their owners from.a slightly higher rate of taxation?

    These fucking people.

  5. 5.

    Amir Khalid

    @Amir Khalid:

    Correction: The Thai government has not appeared to be in denial as I stated, but it has been criticised for its inept management of the situation. Per Wikipedia:

    The government has been sharply criticized for various aspects of its response to the crisis. In early February, in response to concerns over hoarding and price gouging of face masks, the government issued price controls and intervened in their distribution. The move failed to prevent shortages among hospitals, and became a scandal over perceived corruption and siphoning of supplies. Criticism was also aimed at the government’s inconsistent policy over international travel and quarantine requirements, indecisiveness and slowness to act, and poor communication—many official announcements were made available to the public, only to be quickly retracted or contradicted by other government units, and later changed. The abrupt closure of Bangkok businesses prompted tens of thousands of workers to travel to their hometowns, risking further spread and reflecting the failure among agencies to coordinate a unified response.

  6. 6.

    Amir Khalid

    Re the thermal cameras: U of Malaya Medical Centre’s security was using them to scan people at entrances when I was there for my medical appointments.

  7. 7.

    teacherryan

    @Amir Khalid: I assumed I was the only balloon juice reader in Malaysia.  I’ve been very impressed by how well the gov’t and citizenry have done during this crisis. From watching out my window, though, I thought there were a lot more cars out today than I’ve seen in 10 days.

  9. 9.

    raven

    The United States is expecting a severe shortage of ventilators to help people suffering from the most serious cases of COVID-19. On March 16, 2020, a team of more than 40 engineers, doctors, medical professionals, designers, and manufacturing experts from industry launched an Apollo 13-style project to help address that need.

    The team focused on designing a device that could help the sickest patients to breathe, by plugging into the oxygen source available in most hospital rooms or into a tank of oxygen. Less than one week later, the team demonstrated a working prototype.

  11. 11.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @raven: Collage engineering project and not reality. I work in the medical tech industry and good god, who will touch building that because of the liability without clinical trials? The families of anyone who dies on those machines will sue the f out of the manufacture when this is done and over.

    :

  12. 12.

    Amir Khalid

    @teacherryan:

    I’ve been commenting here for about a decade. I’m currently in USJ18. Whereabouts are you? I know you’re somewhere in the Klang Valley but I’m not sure where.

  13. 13.

    Tony Jay

    @Geminid:

    If they can find anyone that stupid (and they will be looking) I’m sure the BBC’s senior managers will Breaking News it and fly over their Chief Political Flack to sing “I Don’t Know How To Love Him” in front of a closely packed phalanx of flag-waving Brextremists.

    For the good of the nation, you understand, and not because they’re in the least biased towards the Party that appointed them to their positions of propagandasmic power.

  16. 16.

    Skepticat

    The emergency order for a total lockdown here in the Bahamas is scheduled to expire Tuesday, but the minister of health has just said parts of it probably will be extended. As of this morning, the Bahamas, with a population of a bit over 392,000 (not including foreign property owners like me), has ten cases, all but one in New Providence (Nassau). To avoid tempting the gods, I hesitate to mention Abaco has none—yet. The 24-hour curfew and strict controls seem to be working, and the inconvenience is minor compared to the alternative. Besides, it’s astonishingly beautiful here and I still can work online when I’m not demolishing rubble (a project that’s going well).

  17. 17.

    danielx

    Good friend’s daughter is a Navy nurse on the hospital ship going to NYC, Not treating covid-19 cases, as I understand it, but rather all the OTHER stuff that hospitals can’t deal with right now. Coronaries, car crashes, etc tc.

  18. 18.

    teacherryan

    @Amir Khalid: I’m in Ampang.  I’m a US citizen who moved here last year for work.  So far, it’s my favorite place I’ve lived – and I’ve lived on 4 continents, 19 States, and one US territory.  I’m very happy to be here right now instead of in the States.

  19. 19.

    Another Scott

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Necessity is a mother, but people need to think about what a ventilator actually does.  It forces air into the lungs of people who have trouble breathing on their own.  It has to be at the right rate, it has to be at the right pressure, and it has to be **clean** for weeks on end.  Lungs are the perfect breeding ground for infectious agents – dark, warm, wet, with teeny, tiny crevices.

    A bad ventilator will kill people faster than COVID-19.

    I’m sure the people working on these new designs know this, but those demanding that they cut corners to get them out NOW NOW NOW need to understand the issues.

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  20. 20.

    Origuy

    A friend of mine works on diagnostic systems at a competitor to Abbott. He posted about their announcement yesterday. He agrees it is a very big deal. Their systems are all over the place; urgent care clinics and doc-in-a-box facilities use them to diagnose flu. If Abbot can put out 50,000 of the cartridges that test for COVID-19 a week, that will bring testing capability to a lot more places.

  21. 21.

    VOR

    There is a lot of innovation happening. The Abbott rapid test. South Korea creating a rapid test. Different groups working on new ventilator designs. I have no doubt the entire medical community is shifting to focus on this. Good things are happening in the world, they are just drowned out by the wind tunnel of dis-information coming from the White House.

  22. 22.

    germy

    How how our proud species faces that last good night— with a six-pack of toilet paper tucked under each arm.

    — Barbara Ehrenreich (@B_Ehrenreich) March 15, 2020

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