Coronavirus infection rates are spiking to new highs in several metropolitan areas and smaller communities across the country, according to undisclosed data the White House's task force is using to track rates of infection, which was obtained by NBC News. https://t.co/9jiDO2CI0K
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 12, 2020
… The data in a May 7 coronavirus task force report are at odds with President Donald Trump’s declaration Monday that “all throughout the country, the numbers are coming down rapidly.”…
The 10 top areas recorded surges of 72.4 percent or greater over a seven-day period compared to the previous week, according to a set of tables produced for the task force by its data and analytics unit. They include Nashville, Tennessee; Des Moines, Iowa; Amarillo, Texas; and — atop the list, with a 650 percent increase — Central City, Kentucky.
On a separate list of “locations to watch,” which didn’t meet the precise criteria for the first set: Charlotte, North Carolina; Kansas City, Missouri; Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska; Minneapolis; Montgomery, Alabama; Columbus, Ohio; and Phoenix. The rates of new cases in Charlotte and Kansas City represented increases of more than 200 percent over the previous week, and other tables included in the data show clusters in neighboring counties that don’t form geographic areas on their own, such as Wisconsin’s Kenosha and Racine counties, which neighbor each other between Chicago and Milwaukee…
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., whose state included the nation’s highest-surging geographic area, said Monday that he has “felt no urgency” for Congress to approve another coronavirus response bill.
#MoscowMitch, I’m assuming, doesn’t intend to be in America (or anywhere with extradiction agreements) after November 3.
If a Bartender continues serving a Drunk and then the Drunk gets into a DUI wreck and kills a Family, the Bartender has Criminal Culpability.
Trump is the Drunk. He's killed 81,769 Americans.
52 GOP Senators are the Bartender, because they acquitted him and gave him the keys. pic.twitter.com/gKcg3ffKM0
— Tiger Justice (@JusticeTiger1) May 12, 2020
Respite Open Thread: Becoming, Michelle Obama
trollhattan
Repeating myself from below, because puppeh–TBogg has a new basset.
And our Rocco turned four today. They do grow up quickly.
Mary G
This guy has a great thread about the “counts” of various countries:
Just a couple of examples:
scav
The thought crossed my mind that the’ll have to build a skull rack in DC to honor their gods and leader that managed such a perfect — everyone he meets tells him so! — response to the pandemic. So I looked it up. Perfect. They’re called <em>tzompantli. </em>
<blockquote> The tzompantli served three simple yet terrifying social purposes in several Mesoamerican civilizations: to publicly display the skulls of sacrificial victims, to honor the gods to whom the victims were sacrificed, and to showcase the military might and power of the emperor and empire. <a href=”https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/skull-rack-of-the-great-temple”>source</a></blockquote>
Tzumpantli. We could ask Mexico to chip in for its construction. Or they could all be wearing red hats.
Mike in NC
By the time the death rate here has passed 100K, FOX News will still be calling it all a hoax. Fat Bastard cannot fail; he can only be failed.
Bill Arnold
@scav:
Yeah, very much so. Here’s another:
Feeding the gods: Hundreds of skulls reveal massive scale of human sacrifice in Aztec capital (Lizzie WadeJun. 21, 2018 , 2:00 PM)
Bill Arnold
@Mary G:
That is an excellent twitter thread. Thank you for the link(s).
Roger Moore
@scav:
We could name ours the Trumpantli.
scav
@Roger Moore: I personally left the z in to needle him as it was so clearly a Nahuatl / Mexican term. But there is also value in a blunt force attack on the true brand plus the antli salsa.
Roger Moore
@scav:
Subtlety is wasted on Trump. Go big or go home.
danielx
Under the GMTA heading…I was thinking earlier this evening that come November 4th there are going to be a shitload of private jets leaving the country with who knows what on board. And who knows who, also – there will probably be a large number of people who feels their interests are best served by taking up residency in Paraguay or someplace like that.
In all seriousness – barring outright voter fraud and polling place violence by Trumpistas, which I by no means discount – I suspect the November results are going to be crushing for Republicans in general and Trump in particular. I further suspect we are entering the final smash and grab frenzy on the part of Republicans, because those who have a shred of self-preservation instinct are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and it ain’t daylight. I mean, it’s no wonder Mitch doesn’t want to see any more financial stimulus. Another such tranche might actually do some good to normal citizens provided it was honestly administered and didn’t afford more than minimal opportunities for lining Republican pockets and well, can’t have that. Besides, more deficit spending, donchaknow, Republicans are against deficit spending, right? Bueller? Bueller?
The next eight months (and almost as important, the two months following) are going to be the ugliest period in this country since the Civil War. Which we should all accept, right down in our heart of hearts – there is no length to which the Shithead in Chief and his followers will not go, no depth to which they will not sink.And I can guarantee you that the dearest wish some of those rifle-toting assholes have is to shoot some people. Or blow them up, or do away with them in various other ugly ways. “Them” would be you and me, you understand.
I am so pissed right now. I thought I was good and mad back in the days when “loyal Bushies” were running the show in full display of arrogance, corruption and incompetence. I didn’t know what mad was, I’m finding, nor yet about arrogance, corruption and incompetence.
Do I sound like a pompous ass, or just righteously pissed?
Chetan Murthy
@danielx:
You sound pretty well-hinged to me, homes.
Another Scott
I mentioned in an earlier thread that Franken’s latest podcast is with Dr. Larry Brilliant. He was part of the team that eradicated smallpox, so he knows something about pandemics.
I just finished it. It’s a very good listen, but kinda scary.
Some interesting other topics including his time in India and with the Grateful Dead.
Well worth a listen. The actual interview starts around the 6 minute point.
https://alfranken.com/listen/epidemiologist-larry-brilliant-on-where-we-go-from-here
Cheers,
Scott.
Chetan Murthy
@Another Scott:
Wait, there are SARS-1 and MERS vaccines? I thought none had made it out of animal trials, b/c “complications” ?
mrmoshpotato
Wow. Launch McTurtle into the fucking Sun for New Year’s.
Duke of Clay
I think the Central City, KY data is misleading. Central City is the home of the Green River Correctional Facility where there has been an outbreak. Last week everyone incarcerated or working there was tested. I don’t think that the spike represents community spread. Aside from that point though, I think the article represents a troubling trend.
West of the Rockies
@danielx:
I feel the same. Thought I loathed Bush/Cheney. I would choose them over Trump 100 out of 100 times.
I hope you’re right about Fat Donny getting crushed in November. I think you’re right, but the media (which loves a horse race) continues to produce articles to make the race sound close.
But… Trump has not built his base one iota. He’s down in Michigan, Florida, Arizona, Wisconsin…
Biden is Catholic and will take a sizeable number of Catholic voters from Trump.
Trump HAS TO have lost some Latino voters.
Biden is leading among older voters 65+, a group Clump won last time.
This absolutely should spell a crushing defeat for the dotard.
Another Scott
@Chetan Murthy: I might have mis-heard him, but I’m pretty sure that’s what he said.
He may be referring to stuff like this:
https://www.niaid.nih.gov/diseases-conditions/coronaviruses-therapeutics-vaccines
Dunno. I’m not an MD. :-)
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
Mary G
@Duke of Clay: If the workers are going home to families, it’s spreading at the very least that far. And are all the Republicans there obeying the governor’s stay at home order?
mrmoshpotato
@West of the Rockies: Hell, so many times I’ve wanted W back and I FUCKING HATE that war-criminal administration!
Kent
@danielx: Yep.
Also, WI, MI, and PA all have Democratic governors today. In 2016 all three states were under unified Republican control. One at least hopes it will be harder to steal an election in those states with Dem governors running the show.
Also, pretty much every swing state has no-excuse absentee voting. The states that have highly restricted absentee voting are all not swing states…like TX. Not saying the vote in TX doesn’t matter. Of course it does. For every state-wide and local race. But not really for keeping Trump in power
The fall campaign is going to be an absolute shit show. But Dems aren’t quite helpless.
Mai naem mobile
@Another Scott: i listened to that over the weekend. He mentioned the contact tracing work being pretty easy to train for. They even mentioned census workers. We have the post office which goes everywhere. Why not put the post office to use along with census workers who also have to go everywhere? Ofcourse Lord Marmalade won’t let that happen because then the colored folks will get over counted and Jeff Bezos will get a bargain at the USPS.
Redshift
@Chetan Murthy: I was pretty sure I read there was a SARS vaccine, but by the time it was developed SARS had died down, so it was never used on a wide scale. But I could be wrong.
I’m more confident I read that one of the possible reasons a covid vaccine might take less time than most is because of the work done on a SARS vaccine, whether or not it was completely successful.
Chetan Murthy
@Redshift:
Per this article, nope: https://theconversation.com/the-mysterious-disappearance-of-the-first-sars-virus-and-why-we-need-a-vaccine-for-the-current-one-but-didnt-for-the-other-137583
MERS vaccine completed first human trial (reported apr 2020): https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/04/200422132600.htm
Mel
@Chetan Murthy: The CDC and WHO sites both state there are no vaccines for SARS or MERS yet. Medical News Today had a pretty decent article out on April 10, doing a side-by-side comparison of SARS, MERS, and Covid-19, and yep: no human vaccines for SARS or MERS
You’re absolutely right about the vaccine trials, too. Looks like the MERS vaccine trials at University of Texas (Galveston) never made it out of the mouse trial stage. The vaccine gave some protection, but in mice that became infected anyway, the vaccine caused the damage to the lungs of the infected mice.
OzarkHillbilly
@West of the Rockies: @mrmoshpotato: If one is going to wish, I’m going to wish for an Obama 3rd term.
Sloane Ranger
Ah, but are these spikes in smaller towns and counties hitting Republican voters? If they’re not, it’s a feature not a bug as far as the GOP is concerned.
Brachiator
Trump is delusional, but he will try to take his Sharpie pen to the numbers and continue to deny. Or he will try to use his standard empty bait and switch and talk about how the US has done more testing than anyone else, without any context or connection to control and mitigation efforts.
But here is where Trump has a buffer. He might be able to keep getting away with his lies even if the number of virus cases continues to rise if hospitals are not overwhelmed. Even if the number of deaths increase relatively slowly by comparison.
He will, of course, continue to take credit for the job that governors are doing.
ETA: Earlier I heard this news report on the radio about the virus and prisons.
According to reports, 70 percent of the prisoners at the federal prison in Lompoc, Ca have tested positive for the CoronaVirus. This prison, and the federal prison on Terminal Island, account for half of the cases of the virus in prisons. The virus swept through the prison fairly quickly.
Yutsano
@danielx: Anyone else thinking those 7 Senators who went to Russia on July 4th went to buy apartments in Moscow? No? Just me?
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
Would you be OK with President Pelosi’s term starting about six weeks from now, sort of as an interim? “One day the Murderer-in-Chief and his little vacant-eyed doggie tested negative, the next day they tested positive — how did that work? And the massive doses of remdesivir didn’t seem to work.”
SFAW
@Yutsano:
You Lie-berals and your elitist, unpatriotic something-or-others. What greater expression of loving America could there be than taking a trip, on our Independence Day, to a country that has been our closest ally for thousands of years? Being hosted by their Extremely Democratic and Benevolent Who’s Not Trying to Harm America Oh No He’s Not At All Leader?