Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Everybody saw this coming.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

T R E 4 5 O N

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

Republicans in disarray!

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / COVID-19 Coronavirus Update: Thursday-Friday, June 11-12

COVID-19 Coronavirus Update: Thursday-Friday, June 11-12

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FREEEEE – DUMB!


… While police officers may forgo mask-wearing for any number of reasons, from peer pressure within ranks that are loath to change to a desire to more easily communicate, the images have fueled a perception of the police as arrogant and dismissive of protesters’ health — perhaps even at the peril of their own.

And while several officers have conspicuously knelt down with or hugged people at rallies, the widespread failure to use masks is creating a more standoffish look, one that protesters say suggests that the police operate above the rules — one of the very beliefs motivating the nationwide movement…

Reader Interactions

31Comments

  1. 1.

    Cermet

    Your last article scares me the most – when Fall and Flu season starts and if we have no COVID-19 vaccine – that keeps me up at night and haunts me at the hour of the wolf.

  2. 2.

    Fair Economist

    I’m not too worried about the flu because it’s been nearly eliminated in the US by the hygienic measures to control SARS2. There were only 10 confirmed cases of flu in the entire country in the last week of May, which is the lowest ever recorded. Generally in the past new flu pandemics eliminate previous strains from circulation; this did not happen with the last two but that’s probably because they were so mild. But SARS2 is anything but mild and I expect it will wipe out the type A flus currently in circulation, and maybe the B flus too.

  3. 3.

    Geminid

    @Cermet: A lot of public schools will open ~Labor Day. Va. Governor Northam and his Educacation Department head spent an hour Tuesday outlining the protocols designed to minimize Covid-19  spread when schools reopen. They are well intended, but I think this is when the virus will go everywhere it hasn’t yet gone.

  4. 4.

    opiejeanne

    @Cermet: We all need to get our flu shots this fall, now more than ever before but the idea of going out to get one feels strange to me since we’ve been sequestered at home since the end of February.

  5. 5.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s daily numbers. 33 new cases: 17 from local infection including 14 non-Malaysians, 16 imported cases. Total 8,402 cases.

    103 more patients recovered, total 7,168 or 84.4% of all cases. Of 1,115 active and contagious cases, four are in ICU and none is on a ventilator. One new death, an 86-year-old woman who died at home in Keningau, Sabah. Her family were screened, and one tested positive. Total 119 deaths. Infection fatality rate is 1.42%, case fatality rate is 1.63%.

  6. 6.

    SFAW

    I guess I have my priorities misplaced, but the resignation of Dr. Acton is the thing that depresses me the most in today’s update. The RWMFs won that one.
    I sometimes wish — and I feel a bit guilty about it — that COVID-19 was a RWMF-specific disease, similar to what targeted Clan Lornak in ST:TNG.

  8. 8.

    JeanneT

    My sister who lives in Geneva, Switzerland (and who has MS) is trying to decide whether to come home to Michigan for the summer. But she doesn’t want to be stuck alone in her house in our small home town for two months. Our state and local numbers are good right now, but I can’t honestly tell her that the current reopening is going to make it safe for her to be out and about. People aren’t masking as much as I want to see them do; businesses are requiring people to wear masks as much as I want them to.

  9. 9.

    Ascap_scab

    “Here’s a new idea:
    “We propose the use of the Oral Polio Vaccine to ameliorate or prevent COVID19“”

    Wow, spitballing again? Where is it written that all viruses are the same?

    Here’s an idea, has anyone tried to cure Covid19 with Robutussin?

    Dr_Ascap_Kevin_Hart_scab.

  10. 10.

    Sab

    @SFAW: I am sorry about Dr Acton’s resignation, but she accomplished a lot. As an Ohioan I am really grateful.

  14. 14.

    Amir Khalid

    It’s worrying that so many countries are reporting healthcare systems overwhelmed by incoming Covid-19 cases.

  15. 15.

    Sab

    @Cermet: Masks help a lot. We have those now.

    I have some masks with humorous sayings. I would like to have some that are more angry: ” I am wearing this to protect YOU, Asshole!” Something like that. The place I buy masks is to wholesome to make stuff like that.

  16. 16.

    SFAW

    @Sab:

    but she accomplished a lot.

    Yeah, I know. I’m just appalled that those morons went after her the way they did. Not surprised, just appalled.

  19. 19.

    SFAW

    @Sab:

    I saw part of a “cartoon” by whoever that RWNF cartoonist is (don’t recall name, not going to try to find it), where it’s drawings of people’s mask-wearing faces, and the masks have various sayings/”witticisms” on them. The “witticisms boil down to “I’m a libtard sheeple because I wear a mask, and I’m more-than-happy to give up my freedumbz so I can be PC.”

     

    As someone once said: the entirety of RWMF “humor” is a variation of Cleek’s Law, combined with “I fucking hate libtards.”

  20. 20.

    Ken

    Trump Rally Attendees Cannot Sue if They Get Covid-19, Campaign Says

    And people say that Trump isn’t doing everything possible to mitigate the risks.

  21. 21.

    Gvg

    @Ken: you know, I wonder if that is true. Trump doesn’t hire high quality lawyers, and has a habit of just saying stuff he wants to be true. I don’t know if this is valid. Can a lawyer weigh in? Could someone who got sick sue anyway?

  22. 22.

    Barbara

    @Ascap_scab: Did you read the article? It was illuminating and hopeful. Mostly, it considers how OPV could help people at highest risk of getting sick, e.g., HCWs, from becoming infected and thus a vector for further spread. It is based on a phenomenon that has been observed by many countries in the past, which is that OPV seems to lower the incidence of death from other infections in the months after it has been given.

  23. 23.

    Soprano2

    The news from the hair stylists in Springfield is indeed good, but I think too many people here are getting the wrong lesson. The lesson is “masks work to prevent the spread of COVID”, but I think many people are hearing “No one got sick, see it’s no big deal, why isn’t everything just like it was before?”. That’s what you get in an area with 65% Trump supporters.

  24. 24.

    terben

    From the Australian Dept o Health:

    ‘As at 3:00pm on 12 June 2020, a total of 7,290 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Australia, including 102 deaths and 6,783 have been reported as recovered from COVID-19.

    • Over the past week, there has been an average of 6 new cases reported each day. Of the newly reported cases, the majority have been from Victoria.
    • Of cases with a reported place of acquisition, 62% have recent international travel history, including over 1,300 cases associated with cruise ships.
    • To date, over 1,745,500 tests have been conducted nationally. Of those tests conducted 0.4% have been positive.’

    A net 5 new cases today. (+10/-5) !8 cases are in hospital, 2 in ICU, 2 ventilated.

    There is something strange occurring with the number of active cases in New South Wales. The numbers provided by NSW Health for the last 3 days are 332, 225 and 71. The explanation seems to be that there has been a redefinition of ‘active.’ If you haven’t recovered or died and were diagnosed more than 6 weeks ago, you are no longer active.

  25. 25.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Fair Economist: SARS2 is anything but mild and I expect it will wipe out the type A flus currently in circulation, and maybe the B flus too.

    And exactly why do you expect that? Where’s your evidence that SARS-CoV-2 (to give it its actual name) will have any effect whatsoever on seasonal influenza viruses? There’s certainly none in that Science article.

    But why am I asking for “evidence” from an economist? You sound like a typical member of your species**, utterly sure of your intellectual superiority and happy to pontificate on scientific subjects in which you have no training that qualifies you to have an opinion that would merit serious consideration.

    (Go ahead, provide evidence to prove me wrong. Since I was trained as a scientist, I will be happy to admit it, unlike most of your species. But you gotta bring the receipts. I’m not holding my breath.)

    ** NB I worked for almost 5 years as a programmer & statistical analyst in an office of PhD economists. Most of them were reasonable human beings – but I am quite familiar with the professional modus operandi.

  27. 27.

    YY_Sima Qian

    After Beijing reported a new domestic confirmed case yesterday, who was diagnosed  after visiting a fever clinic, the city reported two more cases today. The two cases are two coworkers in China Meat Research Center, one was diagnosed after visiting a fever clinic, the other has very mild symptoms and was found through contact tracing. Worryingly, the case reported yesterday is from Xicheng District, while the two cases today are from Fengtai District on the other side of the city. Epidemiological investigate to date has indicated that all three cases have visited a meat wholesale exchange in Fengtai District in recent days. (My impression is that this is not a wet market That also traffics in wild life like the one in Wuhan.) In fact, 6/11 case’s travel history show that he spent a few days in Fengtai for various activities in early Jun.

    The exchange is now shut down. All workers, vendors and customers of the exchanges are being tested for PCR. All residents living in the community (multiple residential compounds) that the 6/11 case lives in have been tested, as have the classmates and teachers of the 6/11 case’s son. I expect the same will be done for the coworkers of the 6/12 cases, as well as the people who live in their residential compounds. With a wholesale exchange involved (which often has wet markets attached, too), expect that there is already a cluster of cases scattered across Beijing. At least the confirm cases have been found while they have very mild to moderate symptoms (rather than severe or critical symptoms as was the case in Wuhan in late Dec. and throughout Jan.), so the authorities are catching them earlier in the progression of the illness and infectivity. The wife and son of the 6/11 case have so far tested negative on PCR.

    Rumors are flying on Chinese social and digital media that imported meat may be implicated. I am rather doubtful myself, but we shall see. China has had to ramped up importation of pork in the past year, as countrywide African Swine Flu epidemic has forced culling of one third to one half of China’s pig population. Beijing authorities are testing meat samples from all of Beijing’s wholesale and retail markets, supermarkets and wet markets.

    In other news, researchers were not able to grow live virus from samples collected from any of the 300 asymptomatic cases found during Wuhan’s mass screening, indicating that these cases are not contagious. None of the 1147 close contacts of the asymptomatic cases have tested positive. Indeed, most of the asymptomatic cases have since tested negative and have been discharged.

    If the cluster in Beijing continue to grow, don’t be surprised if the authorities there pull the trigger very quickly for mass screenings, at least at the district level. Stability in the capital in paramount.

  28. 28.

    Fair Economist

    @SFAW:

    I guess I have my priorities misplaced, but the resignation of Dr. Acton is the thing that depresses me the most in today’s update. The RWMFs won that one.

    I agree that one is really bad. A dangerous pandemic is far worse if people are sabotaging it by death threats so bad a capable and sensible public health official is forced to resign. It’s a threat to both our health and our governance. And I can’t help noticing both officials chased out were women.

  29. 29.

    YY_Sima Qian

    Guangdzhou CDC just publicized the first case of fecal matter transmission that I am aware of anywhere in the world. It happened (not recent) in crowded flats that are often rented out to migrant workers, built in former villages that have been swallowed up by urban development. The initial cases were a family of two living in a building on higher ground, that had a burst waste water pipe. While symptomatic, there was heavy rain and the contaminated waste water flowed to two nearby buildings on lower ground. Six confirmed cases from three families were found from these two buildings. Positive PCR results were found from samples collected from bottoms of soles, as well as a bicycle tire, from four of the families living in the two buildings. The confirmed cases did not have the habit of changing their shoes when entering their homes, which brought the virus into their homes.

    The moral of the story? If you live in a high population density area, take up the East Asian habit of changing your shoes at your doors. Do not touch the bottoms of your shoes, spray them periodically with > 65% alcohol or disinfectant. Wash your hands frequently! If you live in apartment buildings, cover your toilet seat when flushing.

  30. 30.

    Fair Economist

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    But why am I asking for “evidence” from an economist? You sound like a typical member of your species**, utterly sure of your intellectual superiority and happy to pontificate on scientific subjects in which you have no training that qualifies you to have an opinion that would merit serious consideration.

    The 1899, 1918, 1952, and 1968 flu pandemics all *completely* replaced predecessor flu strains (or possibly coronavirus OC 43 in 1918), worldwide. H3N2 was present before 1899 and disappeared completely until 1968 (we know because very old people were much more resistant when it came back). H1N1 replaced whatever was going around when it arrived, because there was nothing else until H2N2 arrived in 1957. That in turn completely replaced H1N1, and then was completely replaced by H3N2 in 1968, and still hasn’t returned. It wasn’t until 1977 that we had a recorded pandemic that *didn’t* replace the pre-existing flu, and that was a reintroduction of the exact unchanged 1957 H1N1 flu that almost everybody over 25 was highly resistant to (it is suspected this was an accidental lab release from Soviet labs.)

    So the normal course with a new flu pandemic is that it exterminates the pre-existing flu strains, presumably by competition. (The other exception, 2009, also involved a weak pandemic because it was H1N1, similar to the 1977 strain still going around). We are also seeing the rates of existing flu drop to levels never before recorded, so we are seeing exactly that effect now.

  31. 31.

    Fair Economist

    @Barbara:

    Did you read the article? It was illuminating and hopeful. Mostly, it considers how OPV could help people at highest risk of getting sick, e.g., HCWs, from becoming infected and thus a vector for further spread. It is based on a phenomenon that has been observed by many countries in the past, which is that OPV seems to lower the incidence of death from other infections in the months after it has been given.

    We need more evidence that it’s actually from OPV, before this kind of large-scale public health intervention. It could be a reporting artifact, could be people receiving screening at time of vaccination, or could just be people being careful after vaccination. This is particularly true since OPV runs the risk of re-introducing polio to the general population. Indeed, because of that risk, public health officials had decided to stop using OPV at the tail end of the polio eradication program (now, sadly, stopped).

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