“That’s more people than ever died in a single year from HIV/AIDS, drug overdoses, gun violence, or car crashes in the US. It’s more than American casualties during the entire Vietnam War. But it’s also a horrifying number, in part, because much of it was likely preventable. If the US — including the Trump administration — had better prepared for pandemics, the country likely could have avoided ever talking about 100,000 to 200,000 deaths.”
Hey, are you using Zoom now, like everyone else? Use proper security on your Zoom meetings, or risk getting “Zoom bombed”.
“Human evolution was messy, with multiple human species living and interbreeding at the same time, in a convoluted process that eventually led to us. Such is the emerging narrative in anthropology, and it’s a theory now bolstered by three fascinating new studies released today.”
RIP, Ed Biles, former Houston Oilers coach.
RIP, Tom Dempsey, former NFL kicker who held the record for the longest field goal for over 40 years.
“The autocratic political culture that has propped up the Trump administration has left the nation entirely unprepared for an economic and public-health calamity.”
“The best graphs and data for tracking the coronavirus pandemic.”
RIP, Al Kaline, Hall of Fame outfielder for the Detroit Tigers.
RIP, Honor Blackmon, actor best known for her role as Pussy Galore in the James Bond film Goldfinger.
“In the end, it’s all gonna come down to data. That’s the essence of all of these articles. The nerds are gonna pull us through, y’all: The medical professions, the scientists, the epidemiologists, and infectious disease experts, and then all those people who collect and interpret data to determine where the next outbreak will occur and then move our resources there to snuff it out before it does.”
“You’ll be pleased to know that we do consider both the tooth fairy and the Easter Bunny to be essential workers. But as you can imagine, at this time they’re going to be potentially quite busy at home with their family as well and their own bunnies.”
From the Apologies That Will Never Happen But Really Really Should department.
“Microsoft Buys Corp.com So Bad Guys Can’t”.
RIP, John Prine, Grammy-winning singer/songwriter.
Rural America is in no way exempt from coronavirus.
RIP, Mort Drucker, legendary MAD Magazine artist. The movie and TV show parodies that MAD did back in the day, all drawn by Drucker, were amazing – that link has a few pictures. I actually know the plot of some classic movies of the 60s and 70s from reading those parodies.
RIP, Phyllis Lyon, longtime LGBTQ activist, one half of the first married same-sex couple in California.
“Coronavirus unlikely to significantly diminish with warm weather, National Academies of Sciences panel finds”.
“Remember the Imperial College projections for the United States? They estimated about 2 million deaths if nothing was done; 1 million deaths if some countermeasures were taken; and 200,000 deaths if stringent countermeasures were taken. That’s a range of 10x. If you figure that we’ve taken fairly stringent countermeasures but not the maximum possible, then a reduction of 5x is about what you’d expect. Alternatively, if you ignore the Columbia University projection as an outlier, the IHME estimate has only gone down by about 2x. That’s what you’d expect if we took countermeasures that were just a little more stringent than their model assumed.”
“If the US — including the Trump administration — had better prepared for pandemics, the country likely could have avoided ever talking about 100,000 to 200,000 deaths.”
Fauci in March, telling younger people to go on cruise ships:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/douggollan/2020/03/09/fauci-says-cruising-is-ok-if-you-are-healthy/#23d02fa02d4d
Here’s Fauci on February 29. Don’t need to change anything you’re doing. Go to malls, movies and the gym. Don’t you go changing.
https://twitter.com/KurtSchlichter/status/1249464011105529856
This is the ‘expert.’ This is the guy Trump is supposed to rely on for non partisan information and opinion. One of Trump’s big mistakes was not canning this guy long ago, and yes, Trump gets the blame for that, because the buck stops with Trump on this.
https://wikileaks.org/clinton-emails/emailid/4379
Here’s Fauci for at least the second time pledging his love and devotion to Hillary. I wonder what advice Fauci would have given a President Hillary? Would it have been the same thing he promulgated to Trump?
You know, it’s weird…I’ve had bosses in the past, and have customers who are the de facto boss right now, but have never been inspired to tell them I love them, especially using my official business e-mail account. Weird. And it appears not to be just Fauci, but the whole gang where he works….”We ALL love her!”
Hopefully our county and city leadership can stand strong against state and federal who may try to open things up too soon.
Fauci has worked under 5 different Presidents (that means both Ds and Rs). Bush II gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He’s had a long and distinguished career in public health (go Google his role in the AIDS pandemic). He’s walking on the razor’s edge with an ignorant temperamental fool trying to save people’s lives. But because he’s said something nice about Hillary Clinton, lying liars like Bill would have you believe that he’s not to be trusted. I really cannot grok the deliberate shamelessness and lack of conscience I’m seeing here. Un-fucking-believable. Anything Fauci said about Clinton pales in comparison with your long track record of dishonest servitude towards Trump. Given Fauci’s record, I have zero doubt that his advice on pandemic response would NOT be influenced by who’s in the White House.
The toddler in Chief probably will fire Dr. Fauci eventually, because what does trying to save lives matter when he has to gall to correct and implicitly criticize the great and powerful Trump?! But the responsible news organizations can step up and have a daily Dr. Fauci interview, so that the people who aren’t brain dead cultists and toadies can stay informed.
And as more data came in, he reversed his opinion on that, with no lies, no drama, no need for ego stroking. That’s what responsible people do. Trump is still lying about his dismissing the virus and the fact that people like Navarro and Azar warned him.
So if you say Fauci needs to be fired by that metric, you ought to be demanding Trump’s head to roll too. But we all know you’re a lying hypocritical troll, so we aren’t holding our breath.
Fly,
OK, Fauci is the gold standard, his words are gospel. Let’s go with that. He is responsible for thousands of dead Americans, then, who took his advice (that I posted links of, more if you need them) and went to malls and movie theaters, and took cruises, then either died or spread the virus to people who did die. Non brain dead cultists took him at face value and now people are dead.
Also, I don’t know why you think Shrub Bush giving the guy a medal impresses me. I disliked both Bushes almost as much as I dislike Hillary. The Bushes are globalists who sold out the American people and sent their jobs overseas. Shrub was particularly evil, with the ironically named Patriot Act and bullshit wars on his resume. Isn’t it interesting that the Bushes and the Clintons now seem to be best buds? Almost like they’re all on the same team.
Oh, and here’s some more Hillary love from your very respected doc:
https://wikileaks.org/clinton-emails/emailid/4755
Funny, I didn’t hear about Fauci writing any love letters to Shrub.
WTF are you even talking about Bill? Are you saying you were wrong about the rodeo being shut down?
I do 100% believe that nobody loves you though.
You, from March 12:
“This was a horrible decision, a follow the crowd, “Everybody panic!” move. We know enough to understand that this is just another strain of flu…..if you aren’t immune compromised or elderly and sick, even if you get it, oh, noes, you got a flu. You spend a few days in bed feeling like crap, then get back in the swing of things.
The rodeo should NOT have been canceled, and it was even dumber to cancel SXSW. The twenty and thirty somethings that attend SXSW aren’t dying from the Wu flu….it’s 80 year olds with health problems that die from it. What should have happened is, elderly, and those who are in close contact with the elderly, should have made the decision to not go, and for everyone else, rodeo time, y’all. For everyone else, wash your hands more frequently, and just live your life.
I suspect the death percentages are greatly exagerated everywhere, because they only take into account people tested with this particular strain of flu. How many more got it and had mild or regular flu symtoms, spent a couple days camped out on the couch with a bottle of Nyquil, and are over it? All those folks don’t get counted, so the ‘death toll percentage’ looks worse than it actually is.
The panic is worse than the actual problem.”
Jules,
When I say we shouldn’t shut down the country over this, I’m the bad guy, but when Fauci says the same thing in late February and March, he’s golden? You’ve got to pick a side. I stand by my statement. Yes, some people will die from this. Shutting down the country in response is the cure being worse than the disease.
Fauci doesn’t care about wrecking the country, because he’s getting paid, no problem. I’m guessing YOU don’t care, because you’re getting paid, too, and/or you’ve got some savings. Your privilege is showing, Jules.
How many of your fellow citizens and illegal aliens don’t have that kind of privilege? I read somewhere that almost one third of American renters didn’t pay their rent last month. You think May’s rental payments are gonna be any better? What about the people who depend on rental income to put food on their own tables?
There’s a man made disaster going on because people like you made a $ 10 problem out of a $ 5 issue.
Oh, and in case you forgot, here’s Team D trying to overturn Trump’s travel ban on China and Iran:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/2214/cosponsors?searchResultViewType=expanded&KWICView=false
Trump did things early on to try and keep this from our shores, while simultaneously NOT wrecking the country.
219 House Dems disagreed with that.
Oh, wow, I wasn’t aware that Trump successfully kept COVID 19 from our shores. My bad.
The numbers in the linked article are no longer current. The Institute for Health Metrics has lowered the estimate to 61000, down from the 100,000–240,000 they had stated. Of course the model has a shaded area of uncertainty from 30,000 to 150,000. So I don’t know the value of this estimate. Let’s just say that the projected number of 61,000 is comparable to the annual number of deaths from suicide. Or drug OD. The higher end of 160,000 is close to the annual deaths from medical error, which is estimated to be 500 to 700 per day in the US.
The Global Health Index ranked the US as number one in preparation for an epidemic, followed by Finland, France, Sweden, UK, Canada, Australia. Of course all the preparation is not useful if you don’t use it. When you have a president who says one day, “We have 15 cases, soon to be zero, they are recovering, it will be zero cases soon.” Then a few weeks later says, “I knew this was a pandemic before anybody. I knew it months ago, I knew it was a pandemic.”
I like Honor Blackman from the Avengers. She was the first of Steed’s partners, followed by Diana Rigg, and then Linda Thorsen. Although I liked them all, I think that the best years of the show were the seasons with Diana Rigg (Emma Peel).
Bill, the point that you are missing is that not having gatherings, avoiding close contact, staying isolated as much as possible–that’s the best weapon we have against the virus at this point. There’s not a vaccine. Treatment is supportive care, with the efficacy of various treatments unproven, the best hope is that if you have a critical case, you hang on with supportive care until your body responds properly.
Yes, maybe there is a way to have more businesses open with precautions, but I wouldn’t want to take the risk. I’m glad that I am not one of the people who has to make those decisions.
Trump told Fauci “I love you”. It is fucking weird.
“OK, Fauci is the gold standard, his words are gospel. Let’s go with that. He is responsible for thousands of dead Americans, then, who took his advice (that I posted links of, more if you need them) and went to malls and movie theaters, and took cruises, then either died or spread the virus to people who did die. Non brain dead cultists took him at face value and now people are dead.”
You really don’t grok science and how it’s done, do you, even after that was explained to you. Those recommendations were made BEFORE some very important things were learned about this new virus, like how asymptomatic people can spread it, and just how long it can survive on various surfaces. When those facts came out, the recommendations changed. Also notice that Dr. Fauci isn’t denying that he made those previous recommendations, isn’t flinging copious amounts of bullshit in an attempt to distract, isn’t throwing public temper tantrums. That’s what responsible people do.
But YOUR gold standard is a lying, ignorant fool who doesn’t know biology, and would totally fail any civics course. He has “Absolute power”? Yet he doesn’t take any responsibility. What a bad joke.
“Also, I don’t know why you think Shrub Bush giving the guy a medal impresses me.”
The point (which sailed over your head, as often happens) is that Fauci has worked and played well with people from both sides for decades, and isn’t this partisan hack that you are falsely proclaiming him to be. And for the record, I’ll bet I disliked Bush II even more than you did. I considered him to be the worst President in my lifetime, before your boy Donnie came along. Like Donnie, he was totally unqualified and in over his head. But to his credit, he lacks Trump’s deep reserves of malice and bigotry.
“I’m the bad guy, but when Fauci says the same thing in late February and March, he’s golden? You’ve got to pick a side.“
And according to you, cling to that side to the death, even when new evidence says you initially picked the wrong side.
“Trump did things early on to try and keep this from our shores, while simultaneously NOT wrecking the country.”
Still singing the praises of that useless travel ban, are you? Even after the genetic testing showed that the viral strain ravaging NYC came from Europe? Even after Trump did almost nothing constructive (see the month of February) with this time you say he bought? You and Trump and like someone who’s told to lock up a house before you leave it, and while you do lock the front door, you leave the garage, book door, and several windows open. When you house gets robbed and you’re called out on it, you bitch and moan about not being praised for remembering to lock the front door.
The fact that we have 2 groups of governors forming their own interstate pacts on how they will reopen theirs states’ economies while keeping tabs on the virus speaks volumes about the huge vacuum in competence and leadership at the Federal level.
Fly, also to the credit of Bush II over Trump is that Bush was not a lie generating machine.