The Wisconsin Republican Party treasurer: “If the leader of the free world can get this, I think it’s kind of silly for the rest of us to pretend a $3 handkerchief from Walmart is going to protect us.” https://t.co/bZ3zKrkmSp
— Eugene Scott (@Eugene_Scott) October 4, 2020
??While Trump is hospitalized for #COVID19, these Republicans on Staten Island held a #GOPSuperSpreader rally today. Lots of shouting, few masks. #TrumpVirus #TrumpCovid #COVIDIOTS
pic.twitter.com/SmMdbULlBy— Dr. Dena Grayson (@DrDenaGrayson) October 3, 2020
Our daily update is published.
States reported 976k tests, 48k cases, and 740 deaths.
30k patients are currently reported hospitalized with COVID-19. pic.twitter.com/L7YscYAkkz
— The COVID Tracking Project (@COVID19Tracking) October 3, 2020
The U.S. is at a key moment in the coronavirus pandemic. As President Trump and some of his associates have tested positive for Covid-19, the number of new cases across the country has been slowly rising. https://t.co/GzkKEcN5I1
— The New York Times (@nytimes) October 3, 2020
Inadequate US pandemic response cost more American lives than WW I. Analysis from Univ of Oxford found the EU had a 28% lower rate of excess deaths than the US—contrary to Trump's claims. If the US had responded like the EU, 57,800 Americans would be alive https://t.co/7l1PAZf73W
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) October 3, 2020
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It's dangerous to politicize a global pandemic. The virus doesn't care where you live or who you are, says Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director General of the World Health Organization. He added that the virus knows no boundaries https://t.co/bulfU7Gd38 pic.twitter.com/7w2ozHQ9ni
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) October 3, 2020
China had mocked Trump for not taking the pandemic seriously. Now it's very personal. https://t.co/IBBD5LbwPw
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) October 3, 2020
… Beijing’s leadership has been reticent in its response to Trump’s infection. State-run news agency Xinhua published two lines Saturday saying China’s leader, Xi Jinping, wished the U.S. president and first lady a speedy recovery — a day behind many other heads of state, including North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Taiwan’s Tsai Ing-wen…
Within China, state social media monitors allowed an outpouring of mockery over Trump’s diagnosis — a rare level of vitriol against a world leader for Chinese authorities to condone. China’s censors are usually wary of the domestic parallels of allowing its nationals to publicly wish for a world leader’s downfall, even if on the surface it’s a leader of a hostile nation.
But many of the old rules no longer apply. Trump has launched an unprecedented multi-front attack on China since taking office in 2017. He has repeatedly called the coronavirus the “China plague” and “kung flu,” terms seen by many Americans and others to carry racist undertones…
Many Chinese social media users called Trump’s infection a “National Day gift,” coming amid celebrations of the anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party’s 1949 ascent to power. Some posted, darkly: “I hope something happens to him.”…
Hoping to expose misinformation about masks, doctors and their families ran or walked through a Greek city with covered faces and then had their oxygen saturation levels measured. https://t.co/kLdRkhOgD8
— AP Europe (@AP_Europe) October 3, 2020
Germany's confirmed coronavirus cases rise by 2,279 to 299,237: RKI https://t.co/5FcHmmuRoV pic.twitter.com/8G6UjNHm5Y
— Reuters (@Reuters) October 4, 2020
#Israelis opposed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his handling of the #coronavirus pandemic protested around the country despite new restrictions on public assemblyhttps://t.co/broD5dm8S5 pic.twitter.com/C6c2FQrq4r
— AFP news agency (@AFP) October 3, 2020
Tunisian authorities have warned that hospitals are struggling to cope with an influx of Covid-19 patients and urged residents to respect anti-virus measures to avoid another lockdown https://t.co/VTyR7ZOCWW
— AFP news agency (@AFP) October 3, 2020
Russia's new coronavirus cases top 10,000 for first time since mid-May https://t.co/H15CpIUjgR pic.twitter.com/8k6uhSaStd
— Reuters UK (@ReutersUK) October 4, 2020
In Russia, the second wave of the coronavirus epidemic has already begun. Every day, the country is registering approximately 500 more cases than the day before.https://t.co/aJTpl0KPVn
— Scott Rose (@rprose) October 2, 2020
Asia Today: South Korea has reported 64 new cases of the coronavirus, the fourth straight day its increase came below 100, possibly reflecting the fewer number of tests conducted during one of the biggest holidays of the year. https://t.co/DWUxcOXix8
— The Associated Press (@AP) October 4, 2020
Indonesia's Widodo defends COVID-19 record, chides 'polemics' https://t.co/R0dP9bq3Ls pic.twitter.com/zLGGEILz5z
— Reuters (@Reuters) October 4, 2020
Coronavirus: When India's capital became a ghost city https://t.co/KG5jp6twx7
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) October 3, 2020
Australia's COVID-19 hotspot cases inch up, but officials optimistic https://t.co/EXn8FL8KD4 pic.twitter.com/renNWZU5nA
— Reuters (@Reuters) October 4, 2020
As COVID-19 cases surge in their homeland, there are at least some Argentines who feel secure: the scientists and military personnel at South American country’s bases in Antarctica, the only continent without reported cases. https://t.co/tqPEGvwhde
— The Associated Press (@AP) October 3, 2020
Mexico reports 4,863 new coronavirus cases, 388 more deaths: health ministry https://t.co/l9xnpf2PMe pic.twitter.com/tfanRzkFVe
— Reuters (@Reuters) October 4, 2020
The US should join the COVAX vaccine purchasing pool & should donate 10% of its eventual #Covid19 vaccines to @gavi for redistribution to low-income countries, a National Academy of Medicines report on vaccine prioritization released today recommended. https://t.co/CjvkbaBUra
— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) October 2, 2020
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India and South Africa ask the World Trade Organization to waive some provisions in global agreements that regulate intellectual property rights to speed up efforts against COVID-19. https://t.co/PIEBhYQL3L
— The Associated Press (@AP) October 3, 2020
Epidemiologist –
TRUMP got #COVID19 despite using frequent rapid tests.
Does this mean frequent rapid tests failed?
No! To stop outbreaks we must stop onward spread. The frequent tests worked! Now, Trump will not spread to others. The transmission chain is severed. This is public health.
1/x
— Michael Mina (@michaelmina_lab) October 2, 2020
People are suggesting this is a failure – on the contrary this is demonstrating, in real time, how frequent rapid tests can work. Detecting trump early in his infection means we are removing days of him potentially spreading to others and spawning tens or hundreds of new cases.
— Michael Mina (@michaelmina_lab) October 2, 2020
#COVID19 antibodies in donated plasma decline w/in 3 months. Although there's debate about the benefits of COVID suvivors' donated plasma to treat sick patients, new research suggests the earlier it's collected after a donor's recovery, the better https://t.co/XtU5EcbCMn pic.twitter.com/euNlkvSnj9
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) October 3, 2020
We're not hearing much anymore about a possible protective impact of the live TB vaccine BCG against #Covid19 infection. New analysis from the La Jolla Institute of Immunology throws cold water on the idea. https://t.co/eYgBsH3mD7 pic.twitter.com/os9mzKuz7F
— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) October 3, 2020
NEW: A two week long ransomware attack hit and slowed clinical trials as drug makers race to find quick tests, treatments and vaccines for Covid. https://t.co/qXmJwQoMdU
— Nicole Perlroth (@nicoleperlroth) October 3, 2020
EU regulators beginning a safety review of COVID19 drug, remdesivir, the one Trump is receiving. They're concerned about reports of kidney injury in some patients but say it's unclear if the problem is drug-related. Still needs more investigation, they say https://t.co/Qj0ibSPlfj pic.twitter.com/9MNOUetyL7
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) October 3, 2020
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The coronavirus pandemic has posed daunting challenges for houses of worship across the U.S., including large financial losses and suspension of in-person services. It also has sparked moments of gratitude and wonder. https://t.co/Vb7ntVj1wM
— The Associated Press (@AP) October 3, 2020
Just to be clear: Rick Scott's office is saying he doesn't have COVID and doesn't understand the difference between "positive" and "negative," which many Floridians will find deeply plausible https://t.co/HHqBzlPVnE
— Adam Weinstein (@AdamWeinstein) October 3, 2020
Perspective: Trump’s refusal to wear face masks turned them into a sad national symbol https://t.co/nQV73WiBxM
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) October 3, 2020
… Wearing a mask was never a guarantee of protection against the coronavirus. It was not an assurance of invincibility. But when faced with such a stealthy invader, scientific experts said it was one of the best weapons in a sparse arsenal. The mask provided the wearer with some degree of defense, but mostly it served as protection to others — a kindness extended to one’s neighbor and a civic duty among strangers. The president, since this pandemic began, has been loath to wear a mask in deference to those around him. He said it was not necessary because he and those in his inner circle were regularly tested. He said it was not a good look for the leader of the free world. He said he just didn’t want to wear a mask. At worst, that was defined as evidence of his selfish disregard…
But now the mask — or the masklessness — has come to mean so much more. It’s not whether the failure to wear one has laid Trump low. He very well may have become infected despite scrupulous mask use. But the man who inhabits the Oval Office did not put up every possible defense at his disposal to protect the presidency — this country, its people, its ideals — from a clear and omnipresent danger…
Enhanced Voting Techniques
All the East Asians at work Friday were indignation at Trump testing positive; “He should set the example”.
Baud
mrmoshpotato
How is Dump considered the “leader of the free world” when he’s a fucking fascist?
Riddle me that about the Soviet shitpile mobster conman.
Baud
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Why start now?
mrmoshpotato
@Baud: SAD! Maybe BoJo should write some shit on the side of a bus about how he should be treated tremendous bigly.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud:
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Set an example? I’m all for the entire Russthuglican party throwing themselves into an active volcano.
Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)
@mrmoshpotato:
Typo when referring to Angela Merkel?
YY_Sima Qian
Yesterday, China reported 0 new domestic confirmed cases and 0 new domestic asymptomatic cases, 16 new imported confirmed cases and 26 imported asymptomatic cases and 3 imported suspect cases:
Today, Hong Kong reported 5 new cases, 2 from local infection, source of infection not yet identified for 1 of the local cases.
Cermet
Now that science saved the rump’s stuipd ass, no doubt both he and his mentally challenged followers will 1) use this as an excuss since god saved his sorry ass – not science 2) no need to have a mask because the 70+ fat and stupid rump didn’t get more than a mild flu 3) masks and test don’t really work and the fat stupid assed rump will act as if he got better all by himself becuase he is so healthy.
eclare
@Cermet: Don’t forget his great genes!
mrmoshpotato
@Cermet:
Has it, or might the “hoax!” still get his fat, orange fascist ass?
Aussie Sheila
@mrmoshpotato:
Thank you! I am so sick of this phrase. If it’s a ‘free’ world, we should all get a vote on who our putative leader might be. Otherwise, STFU. Honestly, I know it doesn’t apply to people here, but the absolute condescension and laughable hubris that claims leadership status, in the absence of any measurable mandate makes citizens of other democracies grind their teeth. Particularly when one party of the ‘free’ world leader is openly devoted to denying citizens that don’t support that party their right vote, and to have those votes honestly counted.
To me, that is the most egregious and outrageous failure of the US polity, bar none. Except for the outrageous death toll in the last 9 months. Grrrrr
lowtechcyclist
Not sure who you’re referring to, but we’ll have your Darwin Award waiting for you.
mrmoshpotato
@lowtechcyclist: I love how Assclown the Cheesehead completely ignores all of the maskless Jerk-Off-My-Fragile-Ego shoutfests that Dump had.
Brachiator
@Baud:
Some of the examples of Johnson’s pandemic response are … interesting.
Johnson has never been known as someone who knows or even cares about details. The Conservatives knew this about him when they first selected him as leader. He’s showing signs of being someone who wanted power, but who didn’t know what to do with it once he got it, and now the Tories don’t know how to get out of the dilemma they themselves created.
Meanwhile, the pandemic continues and winter is coming.
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s daily Covid-19 numbers. 293 new cases, for a cumulative reported total of 12,381 cases.
292 new cases are from local infection, one is an imported case. (Daily case breakdown to come.)
67 more patients recovered and were discharged, for a total of 10,283 patients recovered — 83.05% of the cumulative reported total. 1,961 active and contagious cases are currently in hospital; 28 are in ICU, four of them on respirators.
No new Covid-19 deaths were reported today, and the total stands at137 deaths — 1.11% of the cumulative reported total, 1.31% of resolved cases.
WereBear
It is a lot like a science fiction movie, only we’d have to call it Invasion of the Brain Snatchers.
Their whole attitude is snotty frat-brat. “I won’t behave and you can’t make me!”
I do think part of it is that they never actually leave high school. We need this syndrome in the DSM.
YY_Sima Qian
Rather shocking article from the NYT concerning the dismal state of contact tracing in the US and Europe, which partly explains the inability of these places to contain outbreaks before they develop into new waves:
Contact Tracing, Key to Reining In the Virus, Falls Flat in the West
While it is true that North America and Europe have not faced fast moving epidemics in at least half a century, so inadequate epidemic control institutions and capacities early on during the pandemic is understandable, but limited progress 9 months later (often having experienced the darkness that being ill-prepared would mean, and with examples from E/SE Asia to follow) suggest much deeper issues. My belief is decaying governing capacity and fraying trust in government and the elites. I blame the theology of neoliberalism emanating from the Anglo-sphere that has impacted most of the “West” to one extent or another, and the atomization of the post-modern information environment. Neo-liberalism has not made much in-road into E/SE Asia, whose developmental models and economic structures have been and remain heavily state driven. The post-modern information environment in the more open polities in E/SE Asia have not yet overcome the traditional respect for authority, expertise and science. (In another 10 years, who knows.)
Amir Khalid
@mrmoshpotato:
In the post-WWII era, POTUS has traditionally led, or pretended to lead, the non-Warsaw Pact West as head of its pre-eminent power. Some POTUSes have done it well, some others not so well, and Trump has been an absolute shambles at it.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
mrmoshpotato
@Amir Khalid: Yes, I know. It’s still a stupid term.
Brachiator
@YY_Sima Qian:
In both the East and the West, “traditional respect for authority” has only recently been connected with expertise and science. And I would also argue that in the US and the UK particularly, resistance to measures to control the pandemic is fueled by a conservative monied elite who see respect for science as somehow antithetical to some fantasy of the tradition of individual liberty.
YY_Sima Qian
@Brachiator: That is quite true, but I think eastern societies, coming from positions of weakness, being preyed upon and colonized by European and American empires, saw science and expertise as essentials means to liberate themselves and catch up, rather than taken for granted.
Morzer
@Brachiator: Johnson wants to play the role of great prime minister without doing any of the necessary work.
Amir Khalid
@mrmoshpotato:
Not entirely. Other nations do in fact look to the US for a substantial part of the leadership needed to attend to international matters.
Robert Sneddon
@mrmoshpotato: I prefer the term “unelected military dictator of the free world” myself. It’s a bit cynical, America has occasionally put down the big stick and actually done that effete “diplomacy” stuff but its usual method of attempting to solve international problems has been to bomb everything from 30,000 feet and call it a win.
Brachiator
@YY_Sima Qian:
A very late reply, but I wanted to acknowledge your response. Makes sense in a lot of ways. I had not thought about the role of science as a response to past historical problems.
Sloane Ranger
Yesterday’s figures from the UK and they aren’t pretty. The national Coronavirus Dashboard has the following announcement,
“Due to a technical issue, which has now been resolved, there has been a delay in publishing a number of COVID-19 cases to the dashboard in England. This means the total reported over the coming days will include some additional cases from the period between 24 September and 1 October, increasing the number of cases reported.”
What that means, in practice, is that the UK posted a total of 12,8872 new cases yesterday, twice the number of the day before. As indicated above, the big increase is from England.
England – 10,806 (up from 4797)
Northern Ireland – 726 (down from 934)
Scotland – 764 (down from 775)
Wales – 576 (up from 462).
If the people who were saying that the rate of increase was slowing based their statement on official figures, it looks like they may have been wrong! Honestly, nine months into the pandemic and they can’t even get the basics right!. This is what happens when you start appointing people because they support Brexit, rather than on their competence.
Deaths – 49, 39 in England (down by 19), 1 in Northern Ireland, 4 in Scotland and 5 in Wales (up by 2).
Testing – 264,979 tests conducted out of a capacity of 310,288.
Hospitalisations – As of 1st October there were 2428 people in hospital and, as of Friday, 368 were on ventilators.
I’ve noticed the comments above about Boris. Some are trying to excuse his lack of grasp as post COVID brain fog but people here are right, he’s never been a details guy. I remember him as Mayor of London and he was the same. As for Tory unhappiness, it hasn’t reached the stage of outright rebellion yet. Tory MP’s are saying they want the “old Boris” back. There is some unhappiness with Dominic Cummings but, basically, they are libertarians who want to re-open the country and go full steam ahead and damn the consequences. Some are calling for greater Commons oversight on decisions about imposing restrictions and have some, limited success. Don’t be misled, this isn’t about democracy to them, it’s the hope they can garner enough votes to overturn or prevent public health restrictions.
Personally I’m glad Boris had his encounter with COVID. If he hadn’t I think the “Old Boris” would have already fully re-opened England and we’d be in an even deeper hole!
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s new cases breakdown.
30 cases are people who have recently travelled to Sabah from other states. 126 cases are in Sabah, comprising 13 cases from the Bangau-Bangau cluster including one non-Malaysian, 14 cases in the Benteng Lahad Datu cluster including 12 non-Malaysians, four cases from the new Kau Sing cluster including two non-Malaysians, 78 symptomatic persons including four non-Malaysians, 12 close contacts of other cases, two detected in new-hire screenings, one case of severe acute respiratory illness, one person screened in the community, and one non-Malaysian screened on admission to hospital. 113 cases are in Kedah, comprising 112 from the Tembok Prison cluster including one non-Malaysian, and one from the Bah Rose cluster. 1
18 cases are in Selangor comprising 13 from the Jalan Meru cluster, three from the new Embun cluster, and two close contacts of other cases. (6) Two cases in Johor, comprising a non-Malaysian screened before returning to their home country, and a non-Malaysian screened at work. One case is in KL, from the Jalan Meru cluster in Selangor.
One case is in Penang state, a close contact of another case. One case in Sarawak, a ship’s crew member detected at sign-on screening.
The information on the one imported case’s nationality and country of origin has been omitted, maybe by human error.
RSA
The same way it’s silly for us to rely on other $3 Wal-Mart purchases to prevent dead smoke alarms, unwanted pregnancies, and a hundred other avoidable things.
debbie
Last night, the local news featured a Trump supporter who, after wishing and praying for Trump’s recovery, said she would still refuse to wear a mask. “Why bother?”
evodevo
@mrmoshpotato: I’d say given his comorbidities, he’s definitely not out of the woods yet…and that’s not even considering the various possible side effects of the experimental drugs they’ve been giving him…
Citizen Alan
@Aussie Sheila: “Leader of the free world” just means “we have the most nukes.” Sort of like the old joke: What do you call an 800 pound gorilla waving a machine gun? Whatever he wants you to.
Jay
@YY_Sima Qian:
thank you, Sima
Jay
@Amir Khalid: thank you Amir
YY_Sima Qian
@Brachiator:
East Asian societies had unrelenting series of dismal and dismaying encounters in late 18th and throughout the 19th centuries, with by then more technologically and organizationally advanced colonial powers, shattering their sheltered delusions. In response, all of them attempted to modernize themselves, and recognized science and engineering to be key areas where they had fallen woefully behind. Groups of intellectuals in these societies also linked western philosophical thoughts around rationality and evidentiary based scientific method, as well as education founded around these concepts, to the successes of the colonial powers (in stark contrast to the metaphysical philosophies and classical literature and Neo-Confucian orthodoxy focused education then prevalent in East Asian societies). They all launched reform programs that focused on learning modern science and engineering from the more advanced colonial powers, and more selectively borrowing their organizational structures, as well. Japan succeeded with the Meiji Reformation, Late Qing China failed with its Self-Strengthening Movement (shattered by defeats in the First Sino-Japanese War and the Boxers Rebellion), Vietnamese and Korean attempts were aborted by their respective conquests at the hands of the French and Japanese empires. Throughout the 20th Century, East Asian (and then Southeast Asian) societies eagerly adopted western organizing principles as their means of emancipation and modernization: liberalism, republicanism, Communism, Fascism, militarism, each “rational” and “scientifically” rooted in its fashion, according to the thoughts of the time. At the most extreme, elements of East Asian societies even succumbed to deep self-loathing, and sought to discard their perceived pseudo-scientific traditions in favor of perceived superior Western ways supposedly founded on modern science and rationality.
The most recent expression (and taken to the absolute extreme) of such thinking was the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China, where everything deemed “traditional” was attacked and damaged. In the 1980s, a group of pro-western Chinese liberals actually produced a documentary series (the River Eulogy, a “eulogy” to the Yellow River, the mother river of the Chinese civilization) that extolled the virtues of the “Maritime Civilization” (standing in for the advanced West) versus the ails of the “Sedentary Civilization” (of traditional China), and proclaimed that China’s future lay in leaving behind the sedentary past and embracing the more advanced maritime future, without the violence of the GPCR. Liberalism laced with Hegelian determinism and Marxist dialectic materialism. It was even shown on prime time on China Central Television, and was influential for a time (until the conservative reaction leading up to the Tiananmen Square tragedy).
Even today, the CCP regime will liberally apply the adjective “scientific” to their programs (whatever it is) – “Scientific Development”, “Scientific Epidemic Prevention and Control”, “Scientific Poverty Alleviation”, “Scientific Governance”, etc.