Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Republicans in disarray!

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

You cannot shame the shameless.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

“woke” is the new caravan.

People are complicated. Love is not.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

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

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Usually wrong but never in doubt

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Bad news for Ron DeSantis is great news for America.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 Coronavirus / I Say Again

I Say Again

by | 172 Comments

This post is in: 

Now is a terrible time to have hypochondriacal tendencies and a chest cold. Had one of those “wake up feel fine, three hours later feel like shit and nap, rinse and repeat” colds for several days, now it is in my chest and throat and I am on meds. No fever, loss of appetite, or anything corona related, but still irritating as all hell.

Looks like April is going to be a real bad one this year. Do we all know anyone working in one of the hot zones who would could group together and help out?

Reader Interactions

172Comments

  3. 3.

    Martin

    Not great for those struggling with anxiety either. For me, sleeping is sorta not happening. I try to be awake when my daughter is since she needs the social support, and her sleep cycle is basically nonexistent. Most of her normal coping tools can’t be done during lockdown, so we’re slowly discovering new ones. Thank christ that Animal Crossing launched when it did.

  4. 4.

    WereBear

    @Martin: I am happy with every other night being a good one. Though the anxiety has abated when I realized it was up to the governors, and we have a good one in NY.

  5. 5.

    Origuy

    Santa Clara County has issued a new “shelter in place” order superseding the old one. It goes through May 3.  FAQ

  6. 6.

    Nicole

    I woke up with terrible stomach pain this morning.  I was able to breathe through it and go back to sleep for a bit; I’m unsure if the pain was anxiety-induced or a side effect of having moved to a coffee-based diet the past three weeks.

  7. 7.

    Soprano2

    I feel a little bit tired and achy today, but no fever or any other symptoms.  Could be because I got about 5 hours of sleep last night. I took some ibuprofen and it got better.  I hate this constant monitoring, wondering if this little strange thing is a symptom of COVID. I think the reason I feel a little off is because of the mental stress of all this.  I also found out that one of our customers at the bar is in self-isolation and thinks he has it, but he can’t get a test unless he has to go to the hospital.  This is so messed up. That makes two people I know personally who think they have it.  By the time this shit is over all of us will probably know at least one person who dies of it.  At least my 85-year-old mother is reasonable, and knows she needs to stay home.  She did Wal-Mart grocery pickup yesterday. I need to call her tonight and see how that went.

  9. 9.

    BeautifulPlumage

    Came into work this morning to the news that our co-worked had passed this morning. They had symptoms starting on the 12th and stayed home. Had trouble getting a test, isolated at home, was getting better, then went downhill very fast last night. Same age as me.

    I’m payroll/HR here and have been numbly getting together the necessary paperwork for the family. I am so raging mad at the orange piss-squatter right now. Fuck his lying, smarmy face

  10. 10.

    Martin

    This is infuriating.

    Ventilators in US possession, sitting unused because there’s no decision authority at the federal level. We have surplus ventilators in parts of CA as well, but nobody is coordinating how to get them to where they are needed. It’s almost as though the feds believe there is a literal invisible hand that will move these ventilators where they need to be.

  11. 11.

    BeautifulPlumage

    We desperately need infection testing & antigen testing so we know who actually needs to isolate and who can still keep our essential services going.

    I’m with a family-owned company supplying tents and other equipment to medical centers, and county and federal agencies. We’ve been distancing and working from home as much as possible, but my tasks require going in 2-3 days a week. And I’ve been the closest family for my older sister who is in the high-risk category. AAAAAAAAHHHHHHRRRRRRGGG!

  12. 12.

    PaulWartenberg

    Sounds a bit like a mix of allergies affecting your sinuses causing nasal drip (affecting the throat) and THE BOOGIE WOOGIE BLUES.

    …what?

  13. 13.

    Martin

    This is inspiring. 

    Less than 24 hours after the governor’s call to action, 25,000 medical professionals applied to join Californian’s new health corps as hospitals prepare for an expected surge in COVID-19 cases.

  14. 14.

    C Stars

    WOE, I’m sorry about the cold. I’ve been having allergy symptoms for the last month; it is so disconcerting.

     

    So, today I ventured to Costco in Richmond, CA. It was crowded as fuck and no one was practicing any kind of distancing. One woman stood with her head not a foot away from mine and yelled at her family who were completely on the other side of the aisle. I could feel her breath on my face. (I coughed at her and she backed away.) Another scene: a stockist in the fruit & veg section, clearly suffering from a cold, wiping his nose on his sleeve as he unloaded bags of sweet potatoes. Another scene…a family brought their toddler in a stroller for some reason. Toddler threw her bottle, it hit a food display, rolled on the ground. The mom rolled her eyes and looked at the dad, picked up the bottle, wiped it on her pants, and gave it back to the kiddo. Yikes.

    But hey, I guess I’m one of those dumbasses ’cause I went in there and shopped for an hour and a half anyway. I had an n95 mask and gloves, at least.

    We’ve been completely isolating for the last two weeks and only getting groceries delivered in. But the kids eat like locusts and we were running low on so many necessary items and actually getting grocery delivery to work was such a stress that I decided to take the plunge today. If I come down with symptoms in the next week or so I’ll know exactly where I got it.

     

    But, I still keep thinking about all the old folks I saw there wearing no masks and taking no precautions. Why?

  15. 15.

    Mary G

    @Martin: I read an article in the OC Register where two professors from your neck of the woods said that Orange County’s curve is exactly like Italy’s, only 20 days behind. Then I saw another guy who says California is probably be very successful at flattening the curve and there should be no NYC-type of craziness here. Do you have any thoughts or is it too soon to tell? Doesn’t seem like there’s still very much testing going on.

  17. 17.

    Damned_at_Random

    Cancer surgery in November, radiation in December and January, knee replacement in late February followed by 6 weeks of physical therapy. I was just getting excited about the spring and summer, unencumbered by pain and depression when the Governor told us to stay home and my Physical Therapist shut down.

    Life pretty much sucks more in a pandemic with or without of hypochondiacal tendencies.

    Best wished to all the jackals. At least we are spared the Black Death (so far)

  19. 19.

    Damned_at_Random

    @Martin: This administration didn’t have a plan to reunite immigrant kids with their parents. Would you trust them with a 25K piece of equipment you will probably need returned within the next “short period of time”?

  20. 20.

    Eljai

    @BeautifulPlumage: That’s so sad!  I’m sorry you have to work under that kind of stress.  I found out this morning that a co-worker’s mother-in-law died from COVID-19 complications.  This co-worker told me that both her MIL and FIL had been diagnosed with the virus around mid-March.

  22. 22.

    Mary G

    @BeautifulPlumage: I’m so sorry, and it is just enraging that he’s out there fucking around with the My Pillow guy and having his minions treat him like the second coming of Christ when he’s a murdering  crook.

  23. 23.

    PST

    @Martin:

    Ventilators in US possession, sitting unused because there’s no decision authority at the federal level. We have surplus ventilators in parts of CA as well, but nobody is coordinating how to get them to where they are needed. It’s almost as though the feds believe there is a literal invisible hand that will move these ventilators where they need to be.

    I was talking this morning to a good friend of very long standing who was telling me about the stress and anxiety his son is suffering. The son handles procurement for hospitals in a large city. He is constantly contracting for vital equipment and then being told that it has become unavailable, presumably because some other group or unit of government has put in a higher bid. There is crazy competition (and presumably profiteering) because no central authority takes charge of procurement and prioritizes they way you would expect in a war.

  25. 25.

    C Stars

    @Damned_at_Random: Oh geez, that’s a trifecta. Is there any way you can do the physical therapy at home via teleconference? I’m sure it’s less effective than in person, but at least you’d be moving.

    (Also, you’re a tough cookie!)

  26. 26.

    Damned_at_Random

    @BeautifulPlumage: SO sorry about your coworker. This disease apparently progresses extremely rapidly. Every contagious respiratory infection doesn’t act like the flu. Fuck Trump and his misinformation

  27. 27.

    PST

    My phone just started buzzing noisily the way it would for an emergency like a tornado or alien invasion. It was a message from the State of Illinois asking for trained healthcare workers to sign up to help with the emergency. Are all states doing this?

  28. 28.

    Mai naem mobile

    So Mitch McConnell this morning said that Orange Menace was distracted by the impeachment. It got me thinking his wife is Orange Menace’s Sec of Transportation. She’s Taiwanese American and her family is a very wealthy family with Chinese shippong concerns. She has several sisters. Does it seem unbelievable that a family with shipping concerns would not know anything about COVID19 and pass it along to their sister and her husband both powerful power brokers in D.C.?  I don’t mean specifics about COVID19. I mean just a general family conversation.   Mitch McConell and Elaine Chao never picked up the phone and called Azar or whoever to tell them hey there’s a scary infectious disease in China and we need to get prepared for this?  McConnell didn’t even do anything after it was obvious there was something bad going on and Orange Menace was still denying it?.

  29. 29.

    BeautifulPlumage

    @Barbara:  and actively telling our UW researches to NOT test!

     

    And thank you all for the condolences. It sucks that we can’t provide emotional support for the family, as no public funerals are happening. I’m afraid this is going to hit a lot more jackals in the coming months.

  30. 30.

    cain

    @PST:

    This is how Trump rolls. This is how his advisors are too, fighting with each other in competition. Everything is playing out as he is used to.

  31. 31.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @Martin: I feel you there. I sleep well maybe two nights out of three at best. One thing I wondered about…we have a dog. If we get this and have to self quarantine here in a suburb of DC…is it safe to send the pup to friends for walking? We don’t want to give them an infection vector, obviously, but I’m not sure I want to walk around the neighborhood with this even with maximal social distancing. What are people doing in that scenario?

  32. 32.

    Kattails

    A good friend called a little while ago to check on me. We were trading jokes seen online and his contribution was “God sent us Donald Trump because He ran out of locusts.”

    Just got a scamming email, it went straight into the junk folder. Bloody assholes. Also got one from a gallery that I’d been looking forward to being part of a show in this winter. The owner has decided to close indefinitely, it’s just not an art-buying climate right now.  I feel so badly for the director, a very nice young woman, who’s been laid off and had to write such a sad letter to upcoming artists after spending months putting together shows.

    @BeautifulPlumage: And yet my note (written before I’d checked the comments) sounds so trivial compared with this. Layers upon layers of hurt and sadness.

  33. 33.

    Damned_at_Random

    @C Stars: My PT has been in touch by phone and I had the other knee done last year, so I know the exercises. This isn’t my first rodeo, but my physical therapist was great and the highlight of my week. My spousal unit is tired of my whining, so I came here for sympathy. You filled the void. Thanks

  36. 36.

    C Stars

    @Mai naem mobile: If they did pick up the phone in response to any early information, it was no doubt in pursuit of a way that this crisis could profit them personally or politically, don’t you think? I mean, would it be remotely surprising to find out that Moscow Mitch or any other GOPer who had advance notice suddenly invested in ventilator technology?

  37. 37.

    Jeffro

    FYI folks there are plenty of good lists/timelines/resources out there about just how “distracted” trumpov was by impeachment earlier this year (the new TCNJ excuse for inaction)…lists of dates he went golfing, dates he held one of his hate rallies, etc.  It’s pretty impressive at about a dozen times each.  Guess he wasn’t all THAT distracted.

    (also: blaming Dems for ‘impeachment distraction’ is kind of like a getaway car driver saying “hey coppers, sorry I ran over that family in the crosswalk while trying to escape you after I robbed that bank, but you had your sirens on and everything!  Your fault!”)

    Post those far and wide, and add in that GOP Senators were apprised of the growing danger as early as late January.  And yet, they did nothing (but dump stock)

  38. 38.

    Martin

    @Mary G: We’re not on Italy’s curve. We started putting measures in place when we only had 3 cases, and a full lockdown at 53 cases. We may have hit our peak new cases last friday. We’re definitely high hospitalizations, but we still have open ICU beds and ventilators. They’re exploring sending some staff and equipment up to LA where things are a bit rougher. I think they’re planning on sending some down from UCSF to LA as well.

    So, there’s not much testing because they’re mostly just testing hospitalizations and front line workers, and some drive-through testing. The message has been ‘don’t get a test – you just expose yourself to the virus’. While this means there’s certainly more people here with the virus, the trend data is fairly clean, and the trend is what matters right now.

    The one big failure of California is having no statewide tracking of hospitalizations. They’re trying to fix that, but almost every other state is in better shape on that. So it’s hard to get a big picture of where things stand across the state in terms of hospital loads.

  41. 41.

    debbie

    @PST:

    Ohio is.

     

    @Martin:

    Gov. Cuomo was complaining about having to bid against other states for equipment, comparing it to ebay. Then FEMA stepped in and began bidding against the states. WTF?

  42. 42.

    JPL

    I guess the governor of Florida is gonna play the not me excuse..

    JUST NOW— Gov. Ron DeSantis says the White House task force hasn’t told him to issue a statewide stay-at-home-order: “The task force is not recommending this. If they do, that’s something that would carry a lot of weight with me.”

  45. 45.

    Tenar Arha

    I know people who work in non-medical but adjacent caregiving provision fields…like homeless shelters & domestic violence organizations. They’re doing their best to cope or working from home but covering calls all day. I’ll ask if they have any suggestions.

    Meanwhile…I feel like I’m fulfilling the role of the accident prone. I sprained my right ankle Friday evening by falling partway down the back stoop at my apartment carrying out clothes to donate. I knew immediately that I’d probably sprained it & did the usual RICE this weekend.

    Though I did still decide to pick up my hand sanitizer order (and a small bottle of their spring gin) at Short Path Distillery,  bc I knew it’d be worse driving with my ankle later.

    Seriously, having to drive while your Achilles’ tendon throbs with your pulse at you while you go to urgent care, just isn’t fun. But in case I do need to see an orthopedist better to get the accident documented.

    FYI MA residents: The urgent care I went to were already using a new process & a very careful series of COVID-19 screening questions before I ever entered the place. Had me call in from the parking lot when I got there, met me at the door & took my temperature, then let me in to do paperwork, insurance, & payment. By the time I was done with that they took me back to the exam room & for x-rays. Sent me off with a DVD of the x-rays & a packet of ankle strengthening exercises.

    Unfortunately the clothes I collected were never getting picked up bc that’s “not essential.” NSFW link: Understandable, but still annoying since that’s how I sprained my freaking ankle!

  47. 47.

    sempronia

    @Mary G: I’m a frontline physician in a major Bay Area hospital treating multiple COVID-19 patients, and I can definitely say that we are cautiously hopeful. We are not seeing the calamitous tidal wave that NYC is (I have friends working in those hospitals too) . We remain under capacity, a combination of clearing the decks of all elective procedures, nobody wanting to come to the hospital for any other problems unless they’re dying, and the Bay Area’s social distancing measures. I think we may exceed our normal capacity soon just because COVID-19 patients stay hospitalized for a while, but we are not underwater like NYC and we will be able to expand capacity. Trauma volume is down because people aren’t driving, fighting (as much), shooting each other (as often), or falling off things at work. So yes, we were bracing for a tidal wave and have been happily surprised thus far. Very happy that we have prudent state leaders who have extended the shutdown another month, so we can get better control of this.

  48. 48.

    Kent

    Just got back from taking my wife to the drive-through COVID testing at Kaiser Permanente here in Vancouver WA.  She is a physician and has been coordinating care remotely for Kaiser in the Vancouver region (not seeing patients directly) and came down with a bad flu this morning.  She doesn’t think it is COVID but I’m not sure how rational she is about it.   We will know in 24 hours or so (hopefully).  Otherwise she is bed-ridden and the rest of the family is staying away.  Luckily we have a large enough house to isolate her safely.  She is 49 and healthy so not in the greatest risk group.  Kaiser is making her test so they know if they have to isolate any co-workers.

    It has been interesting to watch the data every day and see new states keep passing WA in COVID numbers.  So at least WA seems to be doing something right.  I think we were #1 at the start of this and now we are down to about #8 or #9 having recently been passed by FL and about to be passed by LA and PA.

  50. 50.

    Barbara

    @Kent:

    Kaiser is making her test so they know if they have to isolate any co-workers.

    Just imagine if this had been done on a widespread basis earlier in the cycle.  I hope your wife gets better soon.

  53. 53.

    Kent

    @debbie:

    @JPL:

    He’s also not letting that cruise ship with sick passengers dock. These fucking guys.

    It’s not an American ship and most of the crew and passengers are not American.  My mother-in-law from Chile actually had tickets booked on that exact ship for the leg from Chile to Ft. Lauderdale though the Panama Canal.  They were still running and boarding passengers in early to mid-March and not shutting down when all the other cruise ships were already getting quarantined.   She and we were smart enough to stay away.  Fucking inexcusable.  They should have tied the ship up then.  There are cruise executives (who are American) who need to be lined up and shot after this is over.

  54. 54.

    Mike in NC

    Fat Bastard just appeared on the TV. Mumbling his usual bullshit. Looks bigly bored and desperate to hop into a golf cart. Now they cut away.

  55. 55.

    Splitting Image

    @Mary G:

    it is just enraging that he’s out there fucking around with the My Pillow guy and having his minions treat him like the second coming of Christ when he’s a murdering crook.

    It helps to remember that to a lot of these three-dollar-bill Christians, Jesus himself is a murdering crook. He takes offerings from everyone even though he’s already decided who’s saved and who isn’t. And he’s gonna kill everybody who isn’t saved just as soon as the Rapture comes, which is gonna be any time now.

    It’s actually not surprising that they think Trump is the second coming, considering that they’ve spent decades turning Jesus into the first coming of Trump.

  56. 56.

    Feathers

    Harvard is grading the semester pass/fail. (Emergency Sat/Emergency Unsat). All the other schools followed them when they emptied the dorms and went remote, hopefully other schools will have some sort of grading relief. Of course, this could also be used as an excuse to not teach the students, which many students would not be able to push back as effectively as Harvard students can.

  57. 57.

    C Stars

    @Kent: I wish the best to your wife.

     

    Wasn’t there a recent comment that A Ghost to Most’s wife had also come down with a nasty illness this week, though not typical flu or COVID symptoms? Did anyone see an update about that?

    ETA: is there a way to search comments by commenter?

  58. 58.

    Kent

    @Barbara:Just imagine if this had been done on a widespread basis earlier in the cycle.  I hope your wife gets better soon.

    Yeah.  Seems like the cat is out of the bag now.  But technically there are only about 90 confirmed cases here in Clark County (pop 500,000).  They didn’t have the test kits earlier, and now they can’t afford to waste the PPE.  The nurse who came out to the car was dressed head to toe in PPE that will now be disposed of.

  60. 60.

    Barbara

    @Kent: Yes, it is inexcusable that the cruise occurred at all, but there has to be a way to allow people to not die.  If you or someone you knew were in a foreign country how would you feel to be denied medical care because you weren’t from around there?  Just chartering a plane and making their own countries pay for the repatriation would be appropriate, but doing nothing is just not right.

  62. 62.

    Martin

    @sempronia: That’s very good to hear and matches all of the other reporting and info I’ve gotten out of the Bay Area. We’re about a week behind you here down south, so I don’t think we’ll be quite as fortunate, but if the goal was ‘don’t break the hospitals’ I think we’ll achieve that even in LA.

    Thank you for taking care of us.

  65. 65.

    CarolPW

    @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: For the dog, it would seem to me the biggest transmission opportunity would be the leash (unless you coughed on the dog right before they picked up, and they pet it and touch their face). Maybe if you have a spare leash you could give it now to the potential walker or leave it outside somewhere for them to pick up. They could be 6 ft from the door, and if the dog will go to them unleashed they can leash it up and go, with the reverse on the return (and don’t cough on the dog).

  66. 66.

    debbie

    @Kent:

    Ah, the cruising executives: Assholes who registered out of country to avoid paying U.S. taxes, yet demand they get bail-out money because they’re essential. Fuckem.

  67. 67.

    raven

    Jesus, my wife’s nephew just got released from the joint after being busted on possession with intent to sell, guns, burglary and a few other felonies.The guy has been sliding for a while and I don’t think he’ll beat this without doing some serious time. This is not the time to be going to prison. He is white and it’s his first so maybe.

  69. 69.

    JPL

    @Sab: I have hepa vacuum filters , although only 24 and ordered scrunchies …  Seemed like the best alternative since I didn’t have the extra hundred for 1/4 elastic tape

  70. 70.

    Mary G

    @sempronia: @Martin: Thank you both for talking me off the ledge. Everyone I know is being extremely strict and obeying the precautions, and my neighborhood is dead quiet, so I thought it was OK, but then the lizard brain sees something and gets that jolt of WASF adrenaline…

     

    @Kent: I hope your wife’s test is negative and she gets some much needed rest while waiting for the results.

  71. 71.

    Chetan Murthy

    @WereBear: I’ve started writing letters to my mayor, state senator, governor, state public health dept.  I’m going to continue, sending them to all sorts of places.  The message:

    The Feds aren’t coming to save us.  Get moving on massive testing. If you have to, send planes to Korea to get ’em, have them met by state troopers, tell the FDA/CBP/FBI/whoever to pound sand.  This can’t want, it needs to start NOW.

    It’s good to feel that somehow, they might actually listen.  Unlike the gangsters who run our Federal government.

  72. 72.

    Kent

    @Barbara:@Kent: Yes, it is inexcusable that the cruise occurred at all, but there has to be a way to allow people to not die.  If you or someone you knew were in a foreign country how would you feel to be denied medical care because you weren’t from around there?  Just chartering a plane and making their own countries pay for the repatriation would be appropriate, but doing nothing is just not right.

    It is a Dutch-Flagged ship.  Although Holland-America is based in Seattle.  Can Fort Lauderdale absorb another several thousand COVID patients?  Most of whom aren’t American citizens or residents?  There is no good answer.

  73. 73.

    Comrade Scrutinizer

    @cain:

    This is how Trump rolls. This is how his advisors are too, fighting with each other in competition. Everything is playing out as he is used to.

    That was Hilter’s modus operandi.  It ensured weak underlings who could never quite put together a coalition powerful enough to bring him down.

  74. 74.

    Renie

    @Martin:  Anyone agree we should exchange friend requests on Animal Crossing?   I’m not really comfortable with exchanging with people I don’t know on FB but would be fine doing it with people here.  Interest?

  76. 76.

    CaseyL

    1. T* is telling states to buy PPE on their own.

    2. T* is then instructing federal agencies to bid against them to buy it all up themselves

    3. And then he’s sending the PPE to “loyalist” states, like Florida.

    Never mind impeachment.  Can we try him for war crimes or something?  And then shoot the SOB?

  77. 77.

    lamh36

    evening BJ.

    Another long day in the lab today. Regular patient workload is down, but with all the COVID patient processing, shipping and resulting, it’s more stressful. Having 3 lab techs testing positive also means less techs in the lab to work since the 3 techs came in contact with a number of folks. So everyone is on edge and cataloging every cough, sniffle, headache, etc and trying to see if it lines up with COVID symptoms.

    Even though lab doesnt’ see patients, with the nurses on edge, the doctors on edge, the city on edge the stress level is crazy high.

    I’m of tomorrow and then have to work through the weekend, but I got 4 days off next week to decompress and de-stress.

    Latest Louisiana Info: Louisiana coronavirus tracking map: 5,237 cases | 239 dead | 1,355 in hospital

  78. 78.

    Citizen Scientist

    I haven’t watched any IPT* press conferences for about 4 days.  Tuned in today,  and you can see their new narrative (according to Dr. Birx:  keep saying that things are getting better,  and keep showing a graph that shows “# of deaths if we hadn’t done anything” vs “this is the actual # of deaths we’ll have due to our awesome response.  Nevermind that there’s still nowhere near the mass testing needed.”  Also,  everything will be good in 30 days.

    *impeached president trump

  80. 80.

    Mary G

    Welp, they’re admitting it’s true:

    So someone in the White House is admitting Trump is prioritizing helping states like Florida over others, for electoral calculations. https://t.co/N8XWm7P2ob pic.twitter.com/PnaGbmQNEQ— Frederick Deknatel (@freddydeknatel) March 31, 2020

    Our governor got 172 broken ventilators because CA will never vote to reelect Twitler, and “I don’t want to shut down beaches or let ships full of sick people land” DeSantis gets everything he wants because Florida is a swing state.
    Republicans are the Scum.Of.The.Earth.

  81. 81.

    Kent

    @Martin:@Kent: They don’t have a choice. You can’t leave them on the ship to die.

    I agree with you.  But they should also seize the damn ship and sell it at auction to cover the expense.

  83. 83.

    Brachiator

    A suggestion. Maybe we will need a thread category in the future for how close the corona virus is reaching us, our friends, our family.

    My brother-in-law, who lives in Texas has two cousins, sisters. One is the care-giver to her wheel-chair bound sister. The caregiver got the virus first. Now the other sister has it as well.

    I think that it was probably impossible for the sisters to maintain any kind of social distance.

  84. 84.

    piratedan

    @Mary G: if the media documents this in very plain language that the President is in fact doing this and people actually see it, I wouldn’t be surprised if some 2nd amendment nutcase tries to shoot his ass dead.

    So, I fully expect them to continue to sell this line of bullshit that its the fault of the Dems and the impeachment process in the media, because that’s what they do.

    If there is a reconciliation set of hearings, I would really like those responsible to pay a price.

  85. 85.

    different-church-lady

    Some time tomorrow I hope to post a description of my stay in the hospital last week.

    In the meantime, enjoy every sandwich.

  86. 86.

    Anne Laurie

    @Damned_at_Random: my Physical Therapist shut down.

    Hardly the same thing, I know, but I understand some Physical Therapists are doing one-on-one video sessions for clients.  Maybe contact yours, and see if there’s stuff you can do with only on-line supervision?  Or at least discuss interim methods to help towards recovery?

  87. 87.

    otmar

    @Brachiator: in a similar vein: a second co-worker of mine tested positive today. He has actually recovered by now and started with work-from-home.

    I was sick pretty much in parallel with him, but I’m waiting for the antibody tests myself.

  89. 89.

    Dan B

    @BeautifulPlumage:  You got the news many of us are fearing.  It’s completely different when it’s people you know well.  The media does a lousy job of communicating the full sweep of emotions.

    My partner’s ex has it, or it seems so absent a test.  He’s 65 and had a heart attack six months ago complete with open heart surgery.  He’s supposed to be at urgent care now but has not wanted to go so it could get scary fast.  And he lives in my partner’s rental house.  On top of that the bathroom plumbing is leaking onto the new carpet.  It’s a daylight basement bath with carpet on the concrete slab so…. threat of mold.  Not good if there is someone with lung issues in the master bedroom next to the wet carpet.  Hopefully we won’t be next with terrible news.

    On the bright side Washington state’s weekly hospitalization rate has dropped from previous weeks so we may be out of the woods soon  or at least out of the worst.

    Hand in there and virtual hugs to you!

  90. 90.

    Brachiator

    @Mary G:

    So someone in the White House is admitting Trump is prioritizing helping states like Florida over others, for electoral calculations

    Trump can’t help acting like a third rate criminal.

    I caught a bit of Sunday’s Meet The Press. Too lazy to switch it off.

    On of the idiot pundits in the round table discussion had the gall to declare that Trump showed himself to be “presidential” in his handling of the pandemic.

     

    BTW: A comment you made about jumping up and down to Jack Lalane exercising after your recovery from a childhood illness reminds me to try to find something to laugh at as we deal with this madness.

  91. 91.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Mike in NC:

    Fat Bastard just appeared on the TV. Mumbling his usual bullshit. Looks bigly bored and desperate to hop into a golf cart. Now they cut away. 

    What a sack of shit.  What network irresponsibly carried his bullshit live?

  94. 94.

    Immanentize

    @Feathers: Your analysis is crap.  Harvard only does something when everyone else has made the same decision.  When Harvard acts, that act has jumped ten students and two sharks.

  95. 95.

    BobS

    @Kent: In the absence of availability of universal testing, I’d be advising anyone with viral symptoms like John Cole or your wife to assume it is COVID-19 (which your wife appears to be doing). There’s a variety of symptoms, some more common than others, and a spectrum ranging from asymptomatic to death.

  99. 99.

    Damned_at_Random

    @Anne Laurie:

    I have illustrations of the exercises and she called me to tell me not to overdo it – I have been known to push too hard. They are available for questions and and advice  by phone. I’m doing fine- ahead of schedule- already made the Dr’s flexibility requirement and working on strength. My problem is more social. I live in a tiny town 40 miles from the therapist (or dentist or MD) so aside from visiting with the therapist and ladies at the desk, it was an opportunity to lunch at a restaurant and do some shopping.  Now it’s just me and the spousal unit and the cats and the phone and the internet.

  100. 100.

    geg6

    @Feathers:

    My university went Emergency Satisfactory/Emergency Unsatisfactory last week, with a third category, Z grade, which students can opt for even after grades are posted.  Students can choose regular grades or S/U.  If they choose the Z grade, it’s like a late drop.  Trying to preserve GPAs as much as possible.

  101. 101.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Martin: Massachusetts has almost as many cases as California with one-fifth the population, I think because the Biogen conference gave the virus a huge boost early on and we didn’t lock down until quite a while after that.

  103. 103.

    joel hanes

    @JPL:

    Gov. Ron DeSantis says the White House task force

    Would that be the WH task force headed by Jared fucking Kushner, the one focused on opportunities for grift?   Or the other one, the one with the real doctors but much less influence on policy?

  105. 105.

    Brachiator

    @PST:

    My phone just started buzzing noisily the way it would for an emergency like a tornado or alien invasion. It was a message from the State of Illinois asking for trained healthcare workers to sign up to help with the emergency. Are all states doing this?

    California is asking for the health of all kinds of people with background and training, including new graduates and retired people.

  106. 106.

    Mary G

    @mrmoshpotato: I have already seen at least eight reporters or other people on Twitter say he’s being serious and doing a good job and today is the day he became president.

  110. 110.

    terry chay

    @C Stars: Went to Costco in SF on Sunday. Line had clear markers for social distancing both to enter (to limit traffic) and to check out. They removed a lot of stuff from the food court (all seating, most of the menu, all condiments, refills had to be in new cups), they were wiping down every register after each customer went through and had plexiguards everywhere (in the food court, at each register, etc). Clearly posted signs of what they were out of/not selling, etc.

    @Mary G: Both are probably true. Lots of California might be able to avoid failing medical system. OC is among the worst but social distancing measures, while “late” were implemented earlier in the process than in Italy. Might see the numbers there diverged (L.A. is very different than the Bay Area though and I don’t know if the Bay Area will avoid failing (it’s looking good though).)

  112. 112.

    japa21

    I know Martin will be giving us his nightly update later and will provide some reassurance.  But looking at JH, today does seem pretty bad.  Looking at 25000 new cases and over 800 deaths.  And still with time for new numbers to come through.

  113. 113.

    The Thin Black Duke

    So my wife’s mammogram has been cancelled until further notice because the clinic doesn’t have any medical personnel who is available right now. And they have no idea when the situation is going to change. COVID-19 is the gift that keeps on giving, isn’t it?

  114. 114.

    Mary G

    Florida’s new poll tax still being struck down:

    BREAKING: Court of Appeals affirms district court decision that Florida cannot disenfranchise plaintiffs who cannot afford to pay LFOs!!! #Amendment4— Julie Ebenstein (@JulesTwitted) February 19, 2020

  115. 115.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @The Thin Black Duke:

    That happened to me too. I needed a 3D mammogram, so I had to schedule the appointment 3 months ahead. It was set for March 19 and they called the day ahead and cancelled. I’ve been trying to reschedule, but all the sites say no appointment is available. If I have to wait 3 months again, I can’t imagine when this will happen.

  116. 116.

    Another Scott

    @japa21: It looks like the JH numbers are being updated slightly faster than the worldometers.info numbers:

    worldometers.info:

    USA
    186,046
    +22,258
    3,807 total deaths
    +666 deaths

     

    JH:

    186,265 US cases, 3810 deaths.

    It’s horrible.  :-(

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  119. 119.

    White & Gold Purgatorian

    @Sab: A sewing friend informed me last Wednesday that both 1/4” and 1/8” elastic were basically ungettable because of all the people making masks. So, it may be tough to find either one. I’ve been using elastic cord for mask ear loops and it works well.  You might still be able to get hold of that. I’d try WAWAK or Nancy’s Notions. Also, there is a product called Fantastic Elastic that can be carefully cut lengthwise to whatever width you like. That might be an option if it is still available.

  120. 120.

    Aleta

    @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: Our vet, who’s taking direction from a public health nurse, has us remove everything from the dog (collar, harness) in the car.   Assistants come out to get him, bringing their own leash.   (We have to stay in the car.)   The vet also says that a pet’s fur can act as a reservoir of virus.

  122. 122.

    C Stars

    @terry chay: The SF Costco must be better managed than the Richmond one, as none of those precautions were in place (though I didn’t visit the food court). They weren’t checking receipts at the exit, which is usually a big bottleneck, so that was good. But no plexiglas guards for the checkers, unfortunately, and no guidance on staying away from other shoppers. There was a store manager who came by to bitch at my poor checker about how the floors by her station should be shinier right now (though I’m not sure how shiny floors would do anyone any good right now, or why the checker, who was clearly busy checking, would be responsible for that). I think I’m done with the Richmond Costco at least until this thing is over, maybe for good. It’s such a hideous experience. In the past I’ve deemed it a necessary evil but I dunno.

  124. 124.

    WereBear

    According to the group’s website, all volunteers, including health care workers, should read and adhere to a statement of faith, in which marriage is defined as “exclusively the union of one genetic male and one genetic female” and the unrighteous are sentenced to “everlasting punishment in hell.”

    https://gothamist.com/news/samaritans-purse-franklin-graham-anti-gay-evangelical-central-park

     
    The truth about Samaritan’s Purse. Franklin Graham Jr.

  125. 125.

    Immanentize

    @NotMax: One of us is.  One is a chilled thin  teen who wants his life to GET GOING.  Preferably where it is warm.

  126. 126.

    NotMax

    FYI.

    A Texas ban on abortions during the coronavirus pandemic is back on, at least for now.

    By a 2-1 vote, a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday granted a request from Texas to put the ban back in place while an appeal moves forward. Source

  127. 127.

    mali muso

    Blerg. So I heard from the parents today that apparently my mom (early 60s) was definitely exposed to someone confirmed to have C-19.  She was doing a good deed by taking this elderly person to the hospital because the person’s family couldn’t/wouldn’t do so.  Thankfully, mom was cautious and wore a mask and had the person sit in the back of the car.  Only found out about the positive test a few days after the exposure.  So now we wait to see if mom (and by extension, dad) come down with any symptoms.  I hate this timeline.

  130. 130.

    Duane

    @mrmoshpotato: It’s sickening to hear Trumpov saying we might not need more ventilators, how much they cost. Never stops us from buying more tanks and bomb. Take some money from the bloated military budget, like you did for the border wall and buy the damn ventilators.

  132. 132.

    White & Gold Purgatorian

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    @The Thin Black Duke:

    Having to put off a mammogram because the medical community is busy with a pandemic is unsettling, to say the least. It’s the sort of thing you could never imagine, but here we are living it. If it helps, I’ve been told that even if a mammogram finds something bad, most times you have a couple of months to work out a course of treatment without increasing risk, so hopefully there will be no lasting ill effects, and really hoping everyone gets a clean bill of health when the imaging facilities are operating again. Was just thinking last week how lucky I was to have discovered I had BC last April instead of this year. All options were open then. Now, almost any of the treatment options would seem risky as hell.

    i blame Trump.

  133. 133.

    Jay

    It's amazing how many stories there are around labor organizing and mutual aid right now, and even more amazing that so many haven't been told! I've been looking at mutual aid groups from @IGD_News, and every one of these is waiting for good reporting: https://t.co/PtiOQnrM2K— Dean Dettloff (@DeanDettloff) March 31, 2020

  134. 134.

    joel hanes

    @Duane:

    The money for Wall was not taken from the funds for tanks and bombs and planes.   It was taken from the funds for renovation of military personnel living quarters.

  137. 137.

    Another Scott

    https://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2020/03/march-31-update-us-covid-19-tests-per.html

    There is still far too little testing in the U.S.

    Test-and-trace is a key criteria in starting to reopen the country. My current guess is test-and-trace will require around 300,000 tests per day at first since the US is far behind the curve.

    When I first started posting this data (thanks to the COVID Tracking Project), testing was so low, that just tracking the number of tests made sense.

    The percentage positive is also critical. Unfortunately some states and labs don’t report all negative tests, although that is supposed to change soon.

    The real key is to have enough tests that the US can test all people with symptoms (even mild), all close contacts of those testing positive (aka Test-and-Trace), healthcare workers and first responders fairly regularly (upon request), staff at retirement communities and nursing homes, and those people that regularly visit those facilities (it is a burden on older people not see their families).

    Notes: Data for the previous couple of days is updated and revised, so graphs might change.

    Also, I include all tests in the total including pending.

    The percent positive excludes the pending tests.

    There were 98,264 tests reported over the last 24 hours.

    [ COVID-19 Tests per DayClick on graph for larger image.]

    This data is from the COVID Tracking Project.

    The percent positive over the last 24 hours was 23% (red line – going the wrong way).

    Testing must continue to be expanded until the percent positive declines to 5% or lower. This is based on results from South Korea.

    Test. Test. Test. Protect healthcare workers first!

    This does not give me any confidence that any antibody test (to find people who have recovered and are no longer infectious, and potentially able to return to work) can be ramped up and distributed quickly, either.

    Can we have the election next month and get rid of the incompetent monsters who won’t get out of the way and let actual experts do their jobs??!

    Grrr…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  140. 140.

    Another Scott

    In case you were wondering, no, disinfection from water canons isn’t effective. Reuters:

    […] benzalkonium chloride disinfectant […]

    Leong Hoe Nam, an infectious disease expert at Singapore’s Mount Elizabeth hospital, said mass disinfections are eye-catching and may boost morale but are not effective virus controls.

    “It would have better effect using a water cannon to disperse people and make them go home,” he said.

    Stay home! Wash your hands!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  141. 141.

    A Ghost to Most

    @Another Scott:

    This does not give me any confidence that any antibody test (to find people who have recovered and are no longer infectious, and potentially able to return to work) can be ramped up and distributed quickly, either

    I can’t remember where, maybe phys.org, I read about people working on an RNA printer, to produce any desired sequence of c,t,a,and g markers. Once they have the map of the required antigen, they plan on trying to reproduce it.

  143. 143.

    Duane

    @Another Scott: Twenty-three thousand positive tests in one day. We’re in this sorry mess because of his incompetence and he’s not going to do better.He’s a clear and present danger to us all. He has to go.

  145. 145.

    Another Scott

    @A Ghost to Most: No doubt that progress has been rapid – amazingly so.  But our leadership is not doing what is necessary to get it to people.

    E.g. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41587-020-00010-2 (from March 23)

    […]

    Even so, the speed and versatility of immunoassays make them invaluable tests; and efforts to produce them on a massive scale are beginning to ramp up. An-Suei Yang, research fellow at the Genomics Research Center, Academia Sinica, in Taipei, Taiwan, and colleagues claim to be first to develop a mAb against the nucleocapsid (N) protein of SARS-CoV-2, which could form the basis of a rapid antigen test. It has also generated additional antibodies that recognize both SARS-CoV-2 and the original SARS-CoV N proteins or SARS-CoV N protein only. None of the mAbs binds the nucleocapsid protein of other human coronavirus strains. “If successfully manufactured and validated, the rapid immune-based test kit could detect coronavirus antigen in only 20 minutes without instrumentation and trained personnel, with the cost and utility of a rapid influenza LFIA [lateral flow immunoassay] test,” he says. Yang’s group accomplished the feat in just 19 days, by working with artificial-intelligence models of antibody–antigen interactions, which they used to generate artificial antibody libraries. The predicted antibody DNA can be chemically synthesized and the resulting mAbs can be expressed on phage display systems in bacteria. Avoiding immunizing animals to obtain monoclonal antibodies, which then have to be sorted for binding activity — the traditional method — shaves about two months off the usual time frame. The group is now working on a prototype LFIA device but also wants to license the antibody panel to third parties.

    […]

    (Emphasis added.)

    (That’s a really good article.)

    The science (mostly) isn’t the issue. The issue is legal, supply chains (as Martin reminds us), ramping up production, distribution, management, etc. It’s the system that needs to work well and work quickly, and too many in office have spent too long breaking the system. And they seem to have no interest in fixing it.

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  147. 147.

    Martin

    @Sister Golden Bear: We have not. But the first day of the quarter was yesterday, and we stopped in-person classes during finals, so everyone is still optimistic this is going to work okay (it won’t). I give it 2 weeks before the student backlash is strong enough that they give in and do it.

    I think it’s a good idea. Berkeley and Merced are semesters (as are all of the law schools) but the rest of us are quarters still.

  149. 149.

    Mary G

    Breaking: The administration has placed a moratorium on USAID’s overseas shipments of personal protective gear. Move comes after US asked Thailand for help last week only to be told that a US shipment of the same supplies was already on its way to Bangkok. https://t.co/oY3z499xsr— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) April 1, 2020

  150. 150.

    James E Powell

    @Mary G:

    Court of Appeals affirms district court decision that Florida cannot disenfranchise plaintiffs who cannot afford to pay LFOs!!!

    I’m guessing that it will end up with the Roberts court which will not rule until after the next elections.

  151. 151.

    Miss Bianca

    @Mary G: Oh, Jesus. You know how we all reached the point of I-Just-Can’t-Even with this administration’s grift, graft, and incompetence? I think I just reached the point of Return of the Son of the Valley of the Planet of I-Just-Can’t-Even.

  152. 152.

    WaterGirl

    @Martin: The University of Illinois appears to be giving students the option of a grade or pass/fail.

    But if you choose, pass/fail, it shows up as a D on your permanent record.  And no take backs, once you make your choice, you are stuck with it.

    I’m hoping i read that wrong because it all seems crazy.

  153. 153.

    Another Scott

    Kinda C-19 related – https://www.wonkette.com/trump-emoluments-hotel-in-dc-emptier-than-ever-after-coronavirus-cuts-off-wingnut-welfare

    […]

    The Post says that Trump’s Emoluments Inn in DC, leased from your federal government, is at five percent occupancy, and “managers of the hotel have been peppering social media with promises of a comeback and thank you messages to the few guests staying there.” The hotel, which has been the subject of many lawsuits because HOLY SHIT, HOW IS IT NOT AN EMOLUMENT FOR THE PRESIDENT TO POCKET MONEY OFF OF LAND LEASED FROM THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT???, functioned as the Republican center of gravity in DC until this month. GOP insiders mingled nightly at the bar with lobbyists, Sprint executives looking for a favor from the administration conspicuously wandered the lobby in branded polos, the Secret Service was parked upstairs paying top dollar, and everyone from the RNC to Attorney General Bill Barr booked events there, so as to shower Dear Leader with ever more cash.

    And yet, even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the property had failed to meet expectations. Poor Vanky was netting less that $4 million per year from it — hardly worth getting out of bed for! — so the family decided to put the place on the market last fall. Perhaps, as the marketing material put it, someone “unencumbered” with the Trump name might be able to make a go of it. Maybe some benefactor from Petro-stan would like to curry favor with the Trump administration by taking the place off the family’s hands?

    Sadly, the bribe sale will have to wait, since coronavirus has collapsed the commercial real estate market, along with everything else.

    […]

    In theory, Trump’s businesses are disqualified from receiving any funds under the coronavirus stimulus package. So is the federal government going to sue the president’s business to evict it from the DC property? Trump’s good buddy Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has already shown himself willing to flout black-letter law and refused to hand over president’s tax returns. Is there any doubt he’d be willing to make sure the DC lease gets renegotiated on advantageous terms for his boss?

    What about Trump’s good buddies at Deutsche Bank? Will they call in the notes if Trump’s businesses fall behind on their payments, as they have so many times in the past? Will Trump sue, claiming he’s been released from his obligations because a pandemic is an “Act of God,” as he did after the 2008 real estate bubble burst? And what the hell do we even have an Emoluments Clause for if not to prevent exactly this nightmare scenario?

    Remember how they made Jimmy Carter sell his goddamn peanut farm?

    Act of God-Emperor, maybe??

    Grr…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  154. 154.

    Feathers

    @Miss Bianca: I am just waiting to find out that Trump’s accusations of hospital staff stealing PPE is projection because of grift in the federal supply chain. Didn’t somebody quit the White House to start up a coronavirus supplies sales company?

  155. 155.

    Another Scott

    @WaterGirl:

    https://massmail.illinois.edu/massmail/8897866.html

    For a small number of courses that must significantly alter their assessment strategy, instructors may request a switch away from standard course grading (A/B/C/D/F) to “pass/no-pass” (PA/NP) grading for their course.

    This option is only anticipated for courses where the assessment modification makes it difficult to fairly assign letter grades.

    If a course is approved for PA/NP grading, all students will be assessed using the same pass/no-pass criteria. There is no option for students to select standard grading.

    Your instructor will let you know in the near future if your course is converted to PA/NP grading.

    Seems reasonable, but doesn’t answer all the questions.

    Dunno.

    HTH!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  156. 156.

    Kilgore Trout

    @Kent: It feels weird to have a sense of satisfaction seeing other states continuing to move ahead of WA in confirmed cases but I’m right there with you. So yeah, having been ground zero back then to now being 8th or 9th on the list of states…nice job Governor Inslee, and same for the King and Snohomish County public health departments.

    I worked a high school baseball scrimmage back on March 7th (which feels like 6 months ago now). I didn’t know either of the other two guys who were assigned, and when one of them stuck out his hand to shake when we met I said “no offense, but I’m not shaking any hands today”. I got some crap flipped at me about “over-reacting”, and it’s been tough fighting the urge this week to email the guy with a “still think I was over-reacting”?

  157. 157.

    Feathers

    @WaterGirl: That is terrible. As I said above, Harvard is creating a new grade Emergency Sat/Unsat. That makes sense, because then anybody looking at a transcript should be able to go “what?” and then look at the date and realize.

    Apparently, they are forcing everyone to do the Sat/Unsat. There has been controversy because students are freaking out because med schools and other grad programs demand you have letter grades. But I’m guessing that if Harvard and MIT say none of their students is getting a grade this semester, grad schools are going to have to honor the Pass/Fail grades. MIT does freshman year pass/fail anyway (or they did, apparently they’ve switched it up because everyone was taking all their hardest classes freshman year to not get a grade and it was stressing everyone out).

    ETA: It would be good for all schools to create some new grade rubric for this term so that somebody years from now won’t look at an all pass/fail term and count it against a student.

  158. 158.

    Martin

    Data time. Not a good day.

    • Italy, still in their daily range. Not going up, not going down. It took China 10 days after their daily fatalities stalled out before it started to drop. I take that a combination of adjustments around the time of the lockdown (there seems to always be a furious rush to shop before a lockdown starts which likely increases infections) and that it seems people stay on ventilators for weeks, so  there’s a fair bit of life extension even when it proves unsuccessful. I have no reason to believe we or Italy will see the same thing – I figure it’s likely ours will be longer than China’s, but if this is mostly determined by the virus and not the response, then it should be similar. A protracted but flat fatality rate isn’t great by any means, but it’s still a victory of sorts. Given that their new cases are dropping, I think it’s just a matter of waiting a bit longer.
    • US: +895. That marks the first day that the US had more fatalities than Italy. It’s likely to be a while that is no longer the case. That’s 3x as many as sunday which makes me think there’s some variability in reporting. That’s understandable, we just need to keep in mind that’ll happen.  Data reporting is very dependent on having well established processes and people following them. Things get tuned over time so that the data is accurate. But during crises the processes need to change, and so the data reporting gets screwed up. We miss counting, we double count, etc. It feels like incompetence because shit, how hard can it be to count things, but when your bottlenecks and processes give way to necessity, it can get very hard. If your data is key to your decision making, you have to include data collection in your emergency planning, which usually doesn’t happen. It seems unnecessary at the time. Anyway, after 2 good days, we may be back on the old trajectory largely unabated. Unfortunately. Was starting to feel optimistic there.
    • NY: +332. Despite the high number, NY remains on this newer slightly better trajectory. This tracks with the state reporting slowing hospitalizations. Understand this new trajectory looks like Italy’s, an improvement from being worse than Italy’s, but not yet looking better than theirs. This also means that the higher US numbers mean upticks elsewhere.
    • CA: +27. After seemingly stalling out for a few days, things are now increasing daily again. Small values do this. The good news is the curve is quite shallow relative to the nation. Things look good in terms of flattening the curve. LA might be the only real problem area. Florida is on a steeper trajectory and will likely pass CA in fatalities pretty soon.
    • LA vs Santa Clara: Santa Clara continues to have a shallow curve – shallower than the state. Their distancing measures and early action have clearly paid off. They should easily keep their hospitals from being overrun and they’re my canary for both good and bad changes. LA is on a slightly steeper trajectory than the state, looking closer to the national one. They may make up 75% of the states fatalities when this is all over. I think LA residents need to do more, but they thankfully started early so this may come to an end a bit sooner.

    My county data is still off of our highs in terms of cases and hospitalizations. We have few enough cases that the hospitals are not stressed. We locked down before any fatalities, and with few ICU cases, so they had time to plan, reconfigure, empty beds, and so on.

    I’m seeing a LOT of reports that this is sweeping through nursing homes, and I think when it does, hospitalizations and fatalities take a big local spike and that’s likely contributing to these apparent speed ups and slow downs in the data. Nursing homes take a standard distribution by age of the public and makes it all lumpy. But the frustrating part is that by having all of these highly vulnerable people clumped up, you gain the opportunity to protect them better through aggressive measures that the general public may not be willing to tolerate. For some reason, we aren’t doing that.

  160. 160.

    Martin

    @WaterGirl: I’ve never heard of that. Normally a P in a pass/fail corresponds to either a C or C- (usually the lowest grade a student cannot repeat for a better grade), and the course is not counted in the students GPA. I’ve never seen anywhere in the US that done any differently.

    Now, any implementation of an emergency grade is likely to get fucked up a bit because, well, it’s being done in an emergency. But it would get corrected.

  162. 162.

    Martin

    Anyone want to bet that around the time that CA is ready to consider easing restrictions, Trump will drop a nationwide lockdown because Florida won’t do it themselves?

  163. 163.

    Gretchen

    @Aleta: our vet has been doing that too.  We had to put our dog, Seamus, to sleep last Saturday because of cancer.  We couldn’t go in with him and had to say goodbye on the sidewalk.

  164. 164.

    James E Powell

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: 

    It’s worse than incompetence. People who are sincerely trying to do well can be incompetent. What we are seeing is the product of callous disregard.

  167. 167.

    WaterGirl

    @Another Scott: from the message:

    • Students may elect whether they want to take any course in which they are currently enrolled as Credit/No Credit (CR/NC).

      • Once the election is made, it cannot be reversed
      • The student will not receive a grade for any course taken as CR/NC
      • A course taken as CR/NC will not be calculated into the student’s GPA

    • For every course, and regardless of whether a student elects to take the course as Credit/No Credit, a grade of D will automatically be recorded on the student’s transcript as Credit (CR), and a grade of F will be recorded as No Credit (NC). In other words, no student will receive a D or F on their transcript for any Spring 2020 course.

    • The deadline for students to elect to take any course under the CR/NC option is Wednesday, April 29, 2020. This selection does not require instructor, Departmental, or College approval.

      I guess I read that backwards.

  169. 169.

    sdhays

    @Mai naem mobile: What gets me (other than how it’s a complete and total lie) is how whiny it is to blame impeachment. Yes, impeachment would generate a lot of attention under any administration, but so would any crisis. You could just as easily say that the Dump Administration was “distracted” by the invented crisis on the southern border and was too busy locking babies into cages and selling them to white “Christian” families to notice COVID-19.

    Governing is hard. Especially if you make every effort to demonize your political opponents, since they’ll respond in kind. You can’t just focus on one “crisis” and let the others blow up and blame those other crises for happening at the same time. That’s just admitting that you’re not up to the task (which, of course, Dump and his minions clearly aren’t).

  170. 170.

    Ohio Mom

    Different Church Lady @85: Whoa, what were you doing in the hospital for a whole week?!

    Since you are here and commenting, I will file this under All’s Well that Ends Well.

    I hope I see the thread tomorrow where you give us the details. I’d miss you and your great wit if you were to leave us.

  171. 171.

    Fair Economist

    @Martin: Martin, where are you getting your data? Worldmeters shows the US at +748 deaths today (now yesterday for them as they are on GMT, I think).

    Cali’s curve looks better than the rest of the country but the Bay Area still saw fit to tighten its stay at home restrictions after the jump in deaths today. Notably: no at-home services (like haircut), no construction, and no stores supporting work-at-home (like office supplies). Granted the deaths are still pre-shelter at home but clearly this was an unpleasant shock for them (and me).

  172. 172.

    Fair Economist

    @Martin: Nah, even Florida will give in soon. De Santis is getting nervous; his last excuse is trying to blame advice from Trump’s coronavirus team. He is working his ass off trying to blame people coming into the state, and blocking release of data from hospitals and flu surveillance, but this monster blows through any attempt to obfuscate, and he’s learning that the hard way.

    OTOH Cali has many weeks, maybe months, of tight restrictions left.  We haven’t even stopped the increases in cases left, and I think the decrease will be slow.

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