The Official Coronavirus Discussion

[jimilee]

I tried to make that as neutral as possible.

I'm doing my best at this too.  It gets harder when I want to talk about my anxiety to not say the things that trigger it.  That why I wrote what I did a little while ago (my anxiety is not the same as my political viewpoint).  My wife keeps trying to plan a mini vacation for this summer.  I keep telling her I'm too afraid to help plan such a thing at this point.

I know what you're saying. We put off our vacation until the fall temporarily. We're afraid to try to go anywhere at this point. Plus the handling of this pandemic just makes me so mad.


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[benny_profane]

And now, the CDC will be bypassed and hospitals will report to a small government contracted firm? How the actual F#%k does this make sense???

I really hope hiding unfavorable data wasn't the goal (such a plan would very likely backfire).  However, this move certainly hides data temporarily and could be used to somewhat manage the timing of its release.  It did make me think of the logic of slowing down testing to lower case numbers.  I'm guessing one of the side effects will be making correlation between test results and hospitalization  tougher to derive by the public.  We'll know more when we see how publicly available the new data is once the new system is up and running (the data is already gone from the CDC website).

Yeah, uh....it was said at a news conference that using Covid was not wanted an excuse not to return to school. I can’t help but think it ties in. As a father of a school age daughter, it scares the hell out of me. I’d started waking up through your the night with mild panic attacks. Just enough to jolt me and make my heart race. This is just getting out of hand. Not recognizing actual science???

I tried to make that as neutral as possible.


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Hospitalization figures and related metrics are already being diverted (and are not published anywhere). Other historical data submitted directly to the CDC is still accessible. With the ousting of several senior public health officials in certain states, a very public fight over reporting metrics in another, and widespread mischaracterization of CoD and attributable/proximate factors in coroners' reports (remember that coroners are elected and do not require a medical license whereas medical examiners appointed and do have to have a medical license), I think that the motivation here is quite clear. Instead of relying on a premier public health institute with established practices and relationships with medical facilities, an entirely new system is being implemented because it'll be more accurate and efficient?

To be clear: This is a public health emergency, this is a natural threat, this is a virus. Viruses are investigated by scientists: virologists, immunologists, microbiologists, and other specialists. There has been a remarkable century of development in public health: fields of epidemiology, health systems programming, health delivery, monitoring and surveillance, biostatistical analysis, etc. We have developed labs designed for the studying of viruses and the development of vaccines/treatments. We have protocols in place to do research safely and efficiently. We have developed manufacturing and distribution networks to produce and administer vaccines and we have health facilities and trained professionals to treat the sick. We have public health systems in place to aid in the effective identification and monitoring of as well as the response to threats. Individuals dedicate their lives to (bio)ethical understanding of equitable health delivery. We've constructed vast information sharing systems to provide global cooperation. We have health delivery mechanisms to provide primary, secondary, and tertiary care. We have emergency response systems.

We also have the politicization of science and education. We have a movement of contrarianism that identifies science and facts as opinions that are not measured nor observed but rather fabricated. We have false dichotomies. We have emotional arguments take primacy over sound logic and reasoned debate. We have changed what news is: it is no longer a reporting of events and measurable figures by those who understood the gravity of their position; we have opinion and bias presented as Truth. We have ad revenue on information sources. We have a systems that needs to have people scared and angry and distracted.

And we have consequences.

[jimilee]

And now, the CDC will be bypassed and hospitals will report to a small government contracted firm? How the actual F#%k does this make sense???

I really hope hiding unfavorable data wasn't the goal (such a plan would very likely backfire).  However, this move certainly hides data temporarily and could be used to somewhat manage the timing of its release.  It did make me think of the logic of slowing down testing to lower case numbers.  I'm guessing one of the side effects will be making correlation between test results and hospitalization  tougher to derive by the public.  We'll know more when we see how publicly available the new data is once the new system is up and running (the data is already gone from the CDC website).

Yeah, uh....it was said at a news conference that using Covid was not wanted an excuse not to return to school. I can't help but think it ties in. As a father of a school age daughter, it scares the hell out of me. I'd started waking up through your the night with mild panic attacks. Just enough to jolt me and make my heart race. This is just getting out of hand. Not recognizing actual science???

I tried to make that as neutral as possible.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hospitalization figures and related metrics are already being diverted (and are not published anywhere). Other historical data submitted directly to the CDC is still accessible. With the ousting of several senior public health officials in certain states, a very public fight over reporting metrics in another, and widespread mischaracterization of CoD and attributable/proximate factors in coroners' reports (remember that coroners are elected and do not require a medical license whereas medical examiners appointed and do have to have a medical license), I think that the motivation here is quite clear. Instead of relying on a premier public health institute with established practices and relationships with medical facilities, an entirely new system is being implemented because it'll be more accurate and efficient?

To be clear: This is a public health emergency, this is a natural threat, this is a virus. Viruses are investigated by scientists: virologists, immunologists, microbiologists, and other specialists. There has been a remarkable century of development in public health: fields of epidemiology, health systems programming, health delivery, monitoring and surveillance, biostatistical analysis, etc. We have developed labs designed for the studying of viruses and the development of vaccines/treatments. We have protocols in place to do research safely and efficiently. We have developed manufacturing and distribution networks to produce and administer vaccines and we have health facilities and trained professionals to treat the sick. We have public health systems in place to aid in the effective identification and monitoring of as well as the response to threats. Individuals dedicate their lives to (bio)ethical understanding of equitable health delivery. We've constructed vast information sharing systems to provide global cooperation. We have health delivery mechanisms to provide primary, secondary, and tertiary care. We have emergency response systems.

We also have the politicization of science and education. We have a movement of contrarianism that identifies science and facts as opinions that are not measured nor observed but rather fabricated. We have false dichotomies. We have emotion arguments take primacy over sound logic and reasoned debate. We have change what news is: it is no longer a reporting of events and measurable figures by those who understood the gravity of their position; we have opinion and bias presented as Truth. We have ad revenue on information sources. We have a systems that needs to have people scared and angry and distracted.

And we have consequences.

So true, and unfortunately right. The consequences don't outweigh the pros when it's your loved one that doesn't make it. We shouldn't be made to "just live with it", and it sure as hell won't "just go away".


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[jkokura]

At the risk of perhaps stepping over the political boundaries that separate my Canadian experience with (the majority here) the US experience, I wonder sometimes at the origin of the US as a country. A major portion of the attitude of what the US is founded upon is rebellion. The very nature of the US culture is based around the idea of independence as the highest ideal, about the rejection of even appropriate authority at times, and the very origin of the nation was in rebellion against authority. The fact that the Confederate group in the Civil War were called 'rebels' and that the Rebel title is one that many bear proudly certainly bears out in terms of the current reaction amongst some.

I guess I'm not calling it negative, because appropriate rebellion has led to good things. However, I think it's an interesting observation that what's so highly prized at times can also be an achilles heal at other times.

Here in Saskatchewan, we just saw our record number today. We have slowly been opening, and we just saw a nearly %5 jump in total cases in a single day. Not good, but overall we are still at less than 1000 cases for our 1.1 million population.

Jacob

[alanp]

Well, it does remind me that, when the British Empire was approaching the peak of worldwide power (where the sun never set on the Empire, as no matter where you were on the globe, it was daytime in the Empire somewhere...)

The American colonists were the ones to tell the King of this empire to sit on it and rotate. And got away with it

I guess I'm saying, Americans have always been anti-authoritarian, out-spoken, and prized stereotypes like the gruff, outside-the-system lone gunslinger cowboy. (Can Blade be argued to be a modern version of this?)

[Scruffie]

Well, it does remind me that, when the British Empire was approaching the peak of worldwide power (where the sun never set on the Empire, as no matter where you were on the globe, it was daytime in the Empire somewhere...)

The American colonists were the ones to tell the King of this empire to sit on it and rotate. And got away with it

I guess I'm saying, Americans have always been anti-authoritarian, out-spoken, and prized stereotypes like the gruff, outside-the-system lone gunslinger cowboy. (Can Blade be argued to be a modern version of this?)

That's slightly revisionist... the original colonists left England as they thought we weren't authoritarian enough and fancied them some of that sweet religious persecution.

[EBK]

And, now the governor of Georgia is actually suing the mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, for issuing a mask requirement that violates his statewide "emergency" order to do nothing!

[Aentons]

This is the one to read if you are curious about US history.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_People's_History_of_the_United_States

[matmosphere]

And, now the governor of Georgia is actually suing the mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, for issuing a mask requirement that violates his statewide "emergency" order to do nothing!

For those of you not familiar with USA geography, Atlanta is the capital city of Georgia. So the governor of the state is suing the mayor of the largest city in that state.

One of them will most likely not get re-elected. I wonder which one?

[aion]

And, now the governor of Georgia is actually suing the mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, for issuing a mask requirement that violates his statewide "emergency" order to do nothing!

For those of you not familiar with USA geography, Atlanta is the capital city of Georgia. So the governor of the state is suing the mayor of the largest city in that state.

One of them will most likely not get re-elected. I wonder which one?

Kemp still has two more years unfortunately, so this won't be on voters' minds by the time it matters. But yes, hopefully by then we live in a post-Trump world and he's seen as a relic of an era that has passed.

He appears to have only enacted that policy because Trump had just been to Atlanta and didn't wear a mask, in defiance of Atlanta's mandate, which Atlanta then called him out for. So Kemp sort of retroactively said mask requirements aren't allowed, and then added that he hopes people will still choose to wear masks.

It brings to mind other great leaders such as FDR in WW2 when he suggested that people ration on their own but he didn't want to force anyone to do anything... 

[alanp]

Image search "ww2 USA home gardening poster" sometime. War propaganda got very weird...

[EBK]

Feeling sick yesterday and today.  Hoping it is just a cold.  Of course, how the hell could I get a cold with my paranoid hand washing and mask wearing?  Ugh!

[jimilee]

Get tested man, don't be another statistic.


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[matmosphere]

Feeling sick yesterday and today.  Hoping it is just a cold.  Of course, how the hell could I get a cold with my paranoid hand washing and mask wearing?  Ugh!

100% with Jimi on this one. Go get a test. And hold up away from your family as much as you can, I've heard not sharing a bathroom if at all possible is a good idea.

[jimilee]

Feeling sick yesterday and today.  Hoping it is just a cold.  Of course, how the hell could I get a cold with my paranoid hand washing and mask wearing?  Ugh!

I've heard not sharing a bathroom if at all possible is a good idea.

Just a good all around general rule for any occasion!


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