Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

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

This is dead girl, live boy, a goat, two wetsuits and a dildo territory.  oh, and pink furry handcuffs.

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

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

Text STOP to opt out of updates on war plans.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

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

The lights are all blinking red.

Second rate reporter says what?

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

One way or another, he’s a liar.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / COVID-19 Coronavirus Update: Wednesday-Thursday, August 19-20

COVID-19 Coronavirus Update: Wednesday-Thursday, August 19-20

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(I’m not sure how many people would trust a Trump-sanctioned vaccine, this October. TBH, since I can pretty well avoid human contact apart from my appropriately-paranoid Spousal Unit, I’m not sure *I* would want to be in the beta-testing group, come early 2021… )

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Reader Interactions

41Comments

  1. 1.

    opiejeanne

    I’m not interested in any vaccine touted by Trump, especially as early as October. He’s a fool and a liar and an imbecile.

    I wonder where his interest in Oleandrin started? Which charlatan suggested it to him? Ms Demon Sperm? Next he’ll tell everyone the cure is forsythia.

  2. 2.

    Mary G

    The OC continues to improve, back to early June levels of hospitalizations, test positives down to 5.9%, deaths still high due to lags. Much better, though.

  4. 4.

    opiejeanne

    @OzarkHillbilly: An investor in Oleandrin? I thought the market would be small.

    My poor forsythia fell victim to the late cold snap this spring, probably won’t recover, and my husband told me we should replace it next spring. He grinned at me and said, “Just in case.”  That was the snake oil “cure” touted by a conspiracy theorist in the movie, “Contagion”.

  6. 6.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s daily numbers are really low. Five new cases. Zero cases from local infection, for the fourth time since the pandemic began. But the number could rise in the next few days, as positive tests come in from the new Tawar and Sala clusters in Kedah.

    All five cases reported today are imported: two Malaysian crew on the LNG carrier ship Seri Alam, two non-Malaysian crew on the same ship, and a non-Malaysian arriving from Bangladesh. The Seri Alam is being treated as a new cluster, i.e. the rest of the crew will be isolated and tested. Cumulative reported total 9,240 cases.

    Seven more patients recovered and were discharged, for a total of 8,982 patients recovered — 96.7% of the cumulative reported total. Active and contagious cases currently being isolated/treated in hospital dipped to 183 patients; seven are in ICU, two of them on respirators.

    No new deaths since 31st July. The total stands at 125 deaths — 1.35% of the cumulative reported total, 1.38% of resolved cases.

  7. 7.

    David C

    The Nature article is especially good. Interesting to note that the early work showing anti-viral activity of chloroquine was done in a cell line that lacked a key enzyme that is important for SARS-CoV-2’s infectivity.

  10. 10.

    JPL

    @opiejeanne: Anderson Cooper interviewed the snake oil salesman and it was good.   Every time Lindell tried to defend the product, Cooper pointed out why he was wrong.     Lindell used his faith in God as a reason to believe him.    link to the interview

  11. 11.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @opiejeanne: I thought the market would be small.

    I suspect it is, which is why he is trying to expand it. It might also have been a bad investment he wants to unload and is trying to mitigate his losses. Or both.

    trump refuses to listen to experts and he is desperate for a cure, therefor any of his big donors find a ready and willing ear in which to whisper/scream their latest grift.

  12. 12.

    Robert Sneddon

    @opiejeanne:

    Dumb question, but why would anyone listen to him on this subject? Why would Trump?

    It was said that the most important and influential courtier in the reign of Louis XVI, the Sun King was his personal body servant. He was the man who went into the Kings’ bedchamber in the morning to collect and empty his chamberpot and he was the first person to speak to the King after he awoke. What he said reputedly fixed the King’s attention for the entire day, and others wishing to influence the King would bribe this man lavishly to advance their cause.

     

    Grifters are aware that if they can get to Trump and sell him their con then he’ll believe it and repeat it to the millions of people who believe and trust him personally, just like they trust their megachurch preachers and their cousins selling MLM herbal vitamins and supplements and Ponzi investment schemes.

  13. 13.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @David C: trump has always taken the easy way out, it’s the story of his life.

    eta: which makes him particularly unsuitable for the job of president.

  14. 14.

    YY_Sima Qian

    Yesterday, China once again reported 0 new domestic confirmed cases and 1 new domestic asymptomatic case, and none at Ürumqi in Xinjiang “Autonomous” Region, the 2nd day in a row there has been no new cases from the city since the start of the outbreak a month ago.

    In Ürumqi, there has been a total of 1,064 cases since the start of the outbreak. 2 cases are currently in critical condition, and 22 in serious condition. There are currently 302 total confirmed and 105 asymptomatic cases in the city. 29 confirmed cases recovered yesterday and were released from hospitals, 7 asymptomatic cases were released from medical quarantine, 1 critical and 1 serious cases improved to moderate conditions. There are 6,558 close contacts remain under quarantine and medical observation.

    At Dalian in Liaoning Province, 10 confirmed case recovered and were released from hospital, and 1 asymptomatic case was released from medical quarantine. 14 cases are currently in the hospital, and 2 asymptomatic cases remain under medical quarantine.

    Shenzhen in Guangdong Province reported a new domestic asymptomatic case, a close contact of the previously reporter cases, already under quarantine. There are 311 individuals under quarantine as close contacts.

    Yesterday, China reported 7 new imported confirmed cases, 21 imported asymptomatic cases:

    • Nanchang in Jiangxi Province – 3 confirmed cases, all Bengali nationals coming from Dhaka in a government charter flight
    • Shanghai Municipality – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese tourist returning from Uganda
    • Tianjin Municipality – 1 confirmed and 5 asymptomatic cases; all Chinese construction workers returning from Singapore; (the city has since reported 4 more confirmed and 2 more asymptomatic cases by mid-day today, all Chinese construction workers returning from Singapore, as well)
    • Qingdao in Shandong Province – 1 confirmed and 4 asymptomatic cases, all Chinese national returning from the Philippines
    • Jinan in Shandong Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Kazakhstan
    • Chengdu in Sichuan Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Cambodia
    • Xichang in Sichuan Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Russian national coming from Moscow on a charter flight, via Beijing (curious destination for a curious passenger on a curious flight, Xichang has one of China’s space launch centers) 
    • Fuzhou in Fujian Province – 3 asymptomatic cases, all Chinese nationals returning from Singapore
    • Xiamen in Fujian Province – 2 asymptomatic cases, both Chinese nationals returning from Singapore
    • Xi’an in Shaanxi Province – 2 asymptomatic cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Singapore, and Mexico (via Amsterdam and Tokyo)
    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Iran
    • Foshan in Guangdong Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from the United Arab Emirates
    • Hefei in Anhui Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from the Ukraine

    Today, Hong Kong reported 18 new cases, 17 from local transmission, 5 of whom do not have clear source of transmission. There are another 20 preliminarily confirmed cases. Continuing the down trend.

  16. 16.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Robert Sneddon: Isn’t Louis XIV “Le Roi Soleil”? The parallel in Chinese history is Chinese emperors placing confidence in, and then empowering, the eunuchs at the expense of and in opposition to the civil bureaucracy. A phenomenon particularly rampant during late stage declines of each dynasty, except the Manchu Qing Empire.

  17. 17.

    Chyron HR

    @JPL:

    Because he’s on TEE VEE!  You never see the experts on TV, except for boring shows that don’t count.

  18. 18.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @JPL: You’re asking me?

    My guess is because listening to experts requires one to absorb knowledge, think through about what one has heard, and then consider the various ramifications of the possible decisions one might make.

    In other words, it involves work and he’d rather golf.

  19. 19.

    Wag

    @opiejeanne:   Contagion was a great movie.  If I had seen it before the pandemic I would have rolled my eyes about how over the top it was.  Now?  Not so much.

  20. 20.

    WereBear

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I suspect it is, which is why he is trying to expand it. It might also have been a bad investment he wants to unload and is trying to mitigate his losses. Or both.

     
    He distracts from one con with three others. It’s his only “skill.”

  21. 21.

    opiejeanne

    @Robert Sneddon: I think you mean Louis XIV, who lived to a ripe old age.  Louis XVI’s life was cut short.

    I do remember reading that a long time ago. I wonder if that was late in life that he became so suggestible.

  22. 22.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Wag: I just watched it again last week, and my eyes did quite a bit of rolling at some of it. Here we are talking about everything that goes into making and testing a vaccine, the times involved, etc, but in the movie one brave researcher working at the CDC found an exposed, lucky, live rhesus monkey in her lab, injected herself with the experimental vaccine and thereby saved the world.

    I generally give Hollywood a break on technicalities because they are making a movie after all, and there were a few other minor eye rolling artistic choices made that didn’t really bother me so much, but that one? It mostly holds up but now with the experience of living in a real pandemic it’s harder for me to ignore the tired Hollywood tropes.

  23. 23.

    opiejeanne

    @Wag: We own a copy of it, out on loan right now, and I didn’t roll my eyes when I watched it because it was pretty well done. The thing that struck me about the story line was that the main characters kept dying of the disease, and the story split in several unexpected directions, like the kidnapped doctor refusing to be rescued and returning to the remote village in China.

    The other thing that they got very right was the conspiracy theorist/opportunist who tried to make a fortune on forsythia. His character and behavior seemed dead-on.

  24. 24.

    opiejeanne

    @OzarkHillbilly: Yeah, that bit was just deus ex machina, a way to end the movie instead of just abandoning us in the theater while the virus continued to kill nearly everyone.

  26. 26.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @opiejeanne:

    Trump is lazy.  Trump does not grasp even medium term, much less long term planning.  Trump is stupid.  Trump hates experts because they contradict him.  Trump loves insane conspiracy theories.  Trump is a raging narcissist incapable of even the slightest compassion, and views the pandemic solely in terms of his own popularity.  All of this is on display daily, and I’m sure you’ve seen it for yourself.  As a result, only instant fixes that make him a hero are acceptable, and he will believe any put in front of him.

  27. 27.

    Cameron

    @opiejeanne:  Actually, it has no current customers.  It’s a company designed for exactly two of them: Donald Trump and the US Treasury.  I’m sure every grifter in the known universe is aware of USA buying a gazillion hits of hydroxychloroquine.  Hell, I’m thinking of bottling salt water and touting the Sodium Chloride Cure.

  28. 28.

    RSA

    @Amir Khalid:

    Trump values the medical opinions of his most generous political donors above the knowledge of mere experts like Dr Fauci.

    Yeah, Fauci may be the 41st most-cited researcher of all time, according to Google Scholar, but that’s not the ranking Trump cares about.

  29. 29.

    Robert Sneddon

    Scotland — the First Minister is doing questions in Holyrood but she’s already announced there will be no move from the current Phase 3 to Phase 4 of opening the country’s businesses, sports, travel etc. and she’s made it clear the next review in three weeks time is unlikely to change things. Places like gyms and swimming pool are being allowed to reopen at the end of August but this decision is subject to review and reversal at zero notice if things go south.

     

    77 new cases reported which is the highest overnight figure for some time, no deaths of confirmed cases again. The outbreak at a food processing plant near Perth has now resulted in 42 confirmed cases including close contacts of the workers there and making up 27 of today’s new cases. The Scottish government is looking into imposing a local area lockdown to try and clamp down on the spread of the disease in this locality. The Aberdeen lockdown is continuing with the numbers of cases falling but still enough to cause concern.

     

    We’ve had our first school closure due to eight adults working there testing positive — this is a special needs school for children with physical and mental disabilities so no chances are being taken.

  30. 30.

    Matt McIrvin

    @OzarkHillbilly: I’ve been struck by how, in reality, the “breakthroughs” required to produce plausible vaccine candidates are the easiest part–there was lots of advance work already in place and people had dozens of potential vaccines almost immediately. But there’s no way to half-ass the testing of safety and effectiveness, and that’s most of the time they spend.

  31. 31.

    Ian

    “If someone refuses the vaccine in the general public, then there’s nothing you can do about that. You cannot force someone to take a vaccine.”

     

    This is not true.  We do this to children all the time.  We also do this to prisoners.

  33. 33.

    mrmoshpotato

    @JPL:

    Lindell used his faith in God as a reason to believe him. 

    For the love of FSM, will someone slap him with a piece of spaghetti?

  36. 36.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    views the pandemic solely in terms of his own popularity 

    “Waahhhh virus!  I’m not popular!”

    COVID-19: “Resign, you orange assclown.  And take creepy Jesus boy with you.”

  37. 37.

    J R in WV

    @Cameron:

    Hell, I’m thinking of bottling salt water and touting the Sodium Chloride Cure.

    Wouldn’t that more accurately be the Hydrogen Dioxide–Sodium Chloride Cure???

  39. 39.

    joel hanes

    @JPL:

    Like all courtiers, the mypillow guy is careful never to tell Trump something he doesn’t want to hear, and flatters Trump effusively.   These are the attributes on which Trump insists in his inner circle.

  40. 40.

    Sloane Ranger

    Last in as always due to the UK government not releasing figures until 4pm.

    Number of new cases UK-wide today is 1,182, broken down (excluding Scotland) as follows, England 1,035; Wales 19 and Northern Ireland 51. In England, the North remains the worst hit area.

    Number of new deaths – 6, all in England.

    There are 97 people who were admitted to hospital, making a total of 867. 70 of these are on ventilators. For the last couple of days the majority of new admissions have been in Wales.

    In other news, when I went out for a walk earlier, I lost my rag with a man and yelled some very choice epithets at him when he came up behind me while I was waiting to cross the road and stood so close our shoulders were almost touching. He made a gesture indicating he thought I was insane so I used some even more colourful language towards him. Does this make me a bad person?

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