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COVID-19 in America

Nice to see that a significant proportion of Georgia citizens aren't lethally addicted to American Freedumb: Virus Edition.
 
With Millions Unable to Pay for Housing Next Month, Organizers Plan the Largest Rent Strike in Nearly a Century
April 25 2020
Want a grim picture of the state of American dissent during the coronavirus pandemic? Take an overview of media coverage from the last week. The press focused disproportionate attention on a few hundred white reactionaries, in a small number of states, rallying against social distancing measures — buoyed, of course, by tweets from President Donald Trump. Meanwhile, some of the most radical and righteous acts of mass resistance this country has seen in decades — from a wave of labor strikes to an explosion of mutual aid networks — are earning but a fraction of the media focus accorded to fringe, right-wing protesters.
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Based on mainstream news coverage alone, for instance, you’d likely never know that organizers and tenants in New York are preparing the largest coordinated rent strike in nearly a century, to begin on May 1.

At least 400 families who live in buildings each containing over 1,500 rent units are coordinating building-wide rent strikes, according to Cea Weaver, campaign coordinator for Housing Justice For All, a New York-based coalition of tenants and housing activists. Additionally, over 5,000 people have committed, through an online pledge, to refuse to pay rent in May.
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1IK2U
 
The Secret Group of Scientists and Billionaires Pushing a Manhattan Project for Covid-19
WSJ. April 27, 2020
A dozen of America’s top scientists and a collection of billionaires and industry titans say they have the answer to the coronavirus pandemic, and they found a backdoor to deliver their plan to the White House.
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...
These scientists and their backers describe their work as a lockdown-era Manhattan Project, a nod to the World War II group of scientists who helped develop the atomic bomb. This time around, the scientists are marshaling brains and money to distill unorthodox ideas gleaned from around the globe.

They call themselves Scientists to Stop Covid-19, and they include chemical biologists, an immunobiologist, a neurobiologist, a chronobiologist, an oncologist, a gastroenterologist, an epidemiologist and a nuclear scientist. Of the scientists at the center of the project, biologist Michael Rosbash, a 2017 Nobel Prize winner, said, “There’s no question that I’m the least qualified.”

This group, whose work hasn’t been previously reported, has acted as the go-between for pharmaceutical companies looking for a reputable link to Trump administration decision makers. They are working remotely as an ad hoc review board for the flood of research on the coronavirus, weeding out flawed studies before they reach policy makers.
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Not sure what to make of this? Trying to think which science fiction novel this reminds me of.
 
www.huffingtonpost.ca

FEMA Reportedly Hijacked 5 Million Masks Ordered For Veterans To Send To Stockpile

“I couldn’t tell you when my next delivery was coming in," Veterans Health Administration manager complained to The Washington Post.
www.huffingtonpost.ca www.huffingtonpost.ca

Five million face masks ordered by the Veterans Health Administration to protect staff at the department’s hospitals and clinics were taken by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for the Strategic National Stockpile, a top official told The Washington Post.

“I had 5 million masks incoming that disappeared,” said Dr. Richard Stone, the executive in charge of managing the nation’s largest health care system with 1,255 facilities that serve more than 9 million veterans. He told the Post that FEMA instructed vendors with protective equipment ordered by the Veterans Administration to send the shipments instead to the stockpile.
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Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer — a Democrat who President Donald Trump has frequently targeted because of what he calls her “complaints” — revealed last month that vendors with whom her state had contracted for desperately needed medical equipment were told “not to send stuff,” on orders from the Trump administration.

Several hospitals in seven states surveyed by the Los Angeles Times complained that FEMA officials were showing up unannounced and seizing their supplies, leaving them desperately short and uncertain about where to turn for more equipment.
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Trump has ordered states to get their own supplies, but once the supplies are in the pipeline, they’re often seized by the federal government.

Trump’s son-in-law, senior White House adviser Jared Kushner announced at a coronavirus press briefing early this month that the emergency stores were “our” stockpile — and not the states’. The website for the stockpile, however, pointedly said supplies were for the states. The site was quickly changed after Kushner spoke to conform with what he said.
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I saw a post on fb saying that covid had so far killed 0.1 percent of the population of new york? Is there any truth to this?
 
Which bit is surprising? I've not checked the population stats, but nothing leaps out at me as weird or surprising about those numbers. And I dont go in for the comparisons with average flu seasons, and if I did it wouldnt be the same as the stupid comparisons from people who wanted to downplay this virus, because I always take normal influenza more seriously than those dangerous idiots. I do sometimes find reason to compare stats from this pandemic with bad flu pandemic or epidemic historical mortality data, mostly just to put things in a historical perspective, but its still early days for that stuff too.

As for their final comment about a second wave, I take things one week at a time, I dont have predictions and the picture of virus spread, lockdowns and human behaviour in most places is complicated. I dont know how much wiggle room people in different places really have, or what else might affect the evolution of the pandemic in the coming weeks and months. I wont assume anything about seconds spikes, peaks and waves, I will just watch data for signs.
 
elbows said:
Which bit is surprising? I've not checked the population stats, but nothing leaps out at me as weird or surprising about those numbers. And I dont go in for the comparisons with average flu seasons, and if I did it wouldnt be the same as the stupid comparisons from people who wanted to downplay this virus, because I always take normal influenza more seriously than those dangerous idiots. I do sometimes find reason to compare stats from this pandemic with bad flu pandemic or epidemic historical mortality data, mostly just to put things in a historical perspective, but its still early days for that stuff too.

As for their final comment about a second wave, I take things one week at a time, I dont have predictions and the picture of virus spread, lockdowns and human behaviour in most places is complicated. I dont know how much wiggle room people in different places really have, or what else might affect the evolution of the pandemic in the coming weeks and months. I wont assume anything about seconds spikes, peaks and waves, I will just watch data for signs.
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The bit about 0.15% of the population (not just the case fatality ratio) dying when I'm guessing most people haven't even had it yet?
 
frogwoman said:
The bit about 0.15% of the population (not just the case fatality ratio) dying when I'm guessing most people haven't even had it yet?
Click to expand...

Well I dont normally think of deaths in that way, so anything I say in this specific context has not been terribly well considered yet, but I will leap in anyway.

New York had a bad epidemic, which I havent looked at properly yet. So its not a surprise to see the toll it took, despite the lockdown measures. The fact that so much death can stem from the initial part of a wave of this virus is the entire reason why the developed world ended up doing various forms of lockdown in the first place. Otherwise many countries would have stuck with plan a, which is mostly to let it happen. This is where I can bring up flu, because normally quite a large amount of death is tolerated over the course of a flu season without any special attention from society as a whole. Is there are big collective memory in the UK about the high number of flu deaths at the turn of the century, including the very time people were celebrating 'the new millenium'?

Whether the amount of death from Covid-19 so far has gone far beyond that possible from influenza, depends which influenza season, epidemic or pandemic we are using for the numbers. I have not looked at any historic data for New York, but in the UK it is still possible to find flu pandemics or epidemics of the 2nd half of the 20th century with somewhat comparable mortality figures to this Covid-19 pandemic. But that is judging numbers from this pandemic with all the lockdowns, social distancing etc that came in at a certain point and presumably made a large difference to the epidemic. We are left to imagine what would have happened if such things had not happened, what levels of death might be experienced. But we dont actually know for sure how much of the population of the big cities with big outbreaks would have been affected if everyone there had somehow carried on regardless. Nobody was willing to find that out, and who can blame them! And the countries that are more likely to have done much less in some ways, tend to be those who are also poorly equipped to test, to record and report the deaths, to admit all those who need it to hospital, and they may also have much younger populations (because people die young for other reasons) that would be expected to have less morbidity from this virus in the first place. So I dont know if we will ever really find out, perhaps there will be clues in spite of the lockdowns, eg during periods subsequent to some relaxation of lockdowns, or through some particular piece of scientific knowledge gained about the virus and its epidemics in humans.

Of course there is the question of what proportion of the population have already had the virus. Its still early days for serology studies into this, but there are some initial indicators (though I have no idea how accurate they are, they could be off by quite a bit).

eg:

NEW YORK – With initial results from serology testing indicating that upwards of 14 percent of New York residents have been exposed to SARS-CoV-2, the state continues to expand its serology survey as it works to establish the scope of the virus's spread.

The New York effort is one of a number of similar projects reporting results as researchers around the country and globe turn to antibody testing to assess the prevalence of infection.

Thus far, these efforts have found wide variations in prevalence depending on location, with, for instance, the New York State survey finding a 21.2 percent positive rate for New York City residents, while a survey of 3,330 peoplein Santa Clara County, California, estimated a population prevalence of between 2.5 percent and 4.2 percent.
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New York, California Serology Studies Give Early Estimates of COVID-19 Prevalence

The studies indicate that true infection numbers greatly exceed confirmed case counts, but questions remain about test performance and sampling biases.
www.360dx.com www.360dx.com
 
frogwoman said:
The bit about 0.15% of the population (not just the case fatality ratio) dying when I'm guessing most people haven't even had it yet?
Click to expand...

NYC has so far had around 12,500 deaths. It has a population of 8.4 million, so yes, about 0.15%. That does depend somewhat on how you define the city... But even if you take New York State as a whole it's 0.12%.

Framing it like that really brings it home tbh. :(

e2a: there's some difference between worldometers and that google graph I linked above. Used the google one for NYC, worldometers for NY state.
 
elbows said:
Well I dont normally think of deaths in that way, so anything I say in this specific context has not been terribly well considered yet, but I will leap in anyway.

New York had a bad epidemic, which I havent looked at properly yet. So its not a surprise to see the toll it took, despite the lockdown measures. The fact that so much death can stem from the initial part of a wave of this virus is the entire reason why the developed world ended up doing various forms of lockdown in the first place. Otherwise many countries would have stuck with plan a, which is mostly to let it happen. This is where I can bring up flu, because normally quite a large amount of death is tolerated over the course of a flu season without any special attention from society as a whole. Is there are big collective memory in the UK about the high number of flu deaths at the turn of the century, including the very time people were celebrating 'the new millenium'?

Whether the amount of death from Covid-19 so far has gone far beyond that possible from influenza, depends which influenza season, epidemic or pandemic we are using for the numbers. I have not looked at any historic data for New York, but in the UK it is still possible to find flu pandemics or epidemics of the 2nd half of the 20th century with somewhat comparable mortality figures to this Covid-19 pandemic. But that is judging numbers from this pandemic with all the lockdowns, social distancing etc that came in at a certain point and presumably made a large difference to the epidemic. We are left to imagine what would have happened if such things had not happened, what levels of death might be experienced. But we dont actually know for sure how much of the population of the big cities with big outbreaks would have been affected if everyone there had somehow carried on regardless. Nobody was willing to find that out, and who can blame them! And the countries that are more likely to have done much less in some ways, tend to be those who are also poorly equipped to test, to record and report the deaths, to admit all those who need it to hospital, and they may also have much younger populations (because people die young for other reasons) that would be expected to have less morbidity from this virus in the first place. So I dont know if we will ever really find out, perhaps there will be clues in spite of the lockdowns, eg during periods subsequent to some relaxation of lockdowns, or through some particular piece of scientific knowledge gained about the virus and its epidemics in humans.

Of course there is the question of what proportion of the population have already had the virus. Its still early days for serology studies into this, but there are some initial indicators (though I have no idea how accurate they are, they could be off by quite a bit).

eg:



New York, California Serology Studies Give Early Estimates of COVID-19 Prevalence

The studies indicate that true infection numbers greatly exceed confirmed case counts, but questions remain about test performance and sampling biases.
www.360dx.com www.360dx.com
Click to expand...

Worth having a look at this Ars Technica article covering some of the criticism of the Californian studies. The New York one is also based on antibody tests, though its sampling (random selection of supermarket shoppers) may be rather better (though that's quite a large 'may be').
 
Two doctors in Bakersfield cause controversy after stating publicly that the lockdown should end!

Their message: COVID-19 is more ubiquitous and less deadly than we think. It's similar to influenza and we should therefore reopen society and stop treating the situation like the lethal menace it was initially thought to be.

"Two months ago we didn't know this so I'm bringing it to light now," Erickson said Wednesday at a news conference held at his Coffee Road urgent care.
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www.bakersfield.com

Two Bakersfield doctors cite their testing data to urge reopening

Before COVID-19 was even detected in the United States, Dan Erickson, a former emergency room physician who now co-owns Accelerated Urgent Care in Bakersfield, bought as many tests for the
www.bakersfield.com www.bakersfield.com
 
Saul Goodman said:
I believe his thinkings are based on the time he forcibly inserted a floursecent tube into his rectum.
Click to expand...

"People think my skin tone is fake, but its actually the result of a technique I developed where you tan yourself from the inside out. There are still some side-effects that need to be ironed out, but the results are very very promising, huge ratings, could be a whole new industry. We've also got people looking at whether, once we've drained the swamp, the resulting liquids can be used as enemas. Anything thats 'almost a cleaning' is worth investigating, I'll get some people on it right away. This virus can really do a number on the rectum, so I say take matters into your own hands and do your own number on your rectum first. As long as the number doesnt overshadow my ratings numbers. The mainspleen media is so unfair to me, they give me a hard time over these innovations yet they said nothing when Pelosi promoted Goatse as a solution to this pandemic. She stole my ideas anyway, Make America Gape Again"
 
elbows said:
"People think my skin tone is fake, but its actually the result of a technique I developed where you tan yourself from the inside out. There are still some side-effects that need to be ironed out, but the results are very very promising, huge ratings, could be a whole new industry. We've also got people looking at whether, once we've drained the swamp, the resulting liquids can be used as enemas. Anything thats 'almost a cleaning' is worth investigating, I'll get some people on it right away. This virus can really do a number on the rectum, so I say take matters into your own hands and do your own number on your rectum first. As long as the number doesnt overshadow my ratings numbers. The mainspleen media is so unfair to me, they give me a hard time over these innovations yet they said nothing when Pelosi promoted Goatse as a solution to this pandemic. She stole my ideas anyway, Make America Gape Again"
Click to expand...

Nope doesn't work - far too coherent :(
 
The specifics of Asgari’s case have been particularly shocking to immigration attorneys. Asgari, a father of three, has deep ties to the US, including two children living in America. In 2017, he was charged with fraud and trade secret theft relating to his work with a university in Ohio. But after a long trial, he was acquitted in November 2019.

But because the US had revoked his original visa, he was taken into Ice custody and has remained detained.
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“I can’t believe this is happening. It’s devastating,” said Mehrnoush Yazdanyar, an attorney working with Asgari’s family. “Every fear he had has been realized, one by one, with him ending up with Covid-19. This is an innocent man who hasn’t committed any crimes. He shouldn’t be behind bars. Why does the US government continue to keep him in detention?”
Click to expand...
www.theguardian.com

Iranian scientist in US jail contracts coronavirus after pleading for release

Dr Sirous Asgari, in Ice detention despite having been exonerated in a sanctions trial, had warned of ‘inhumane’ conditions
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
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