COVID-19 News

[Tranquility]

An eye-roll "Like" button would save a whole lotta time here.

Sexist. Using your eyes is not allowed.

Are masks giving men a licence to leer? Women report a rise in 'aggressive eye contact' since face coverings became commonplace as an expert warns they 'provide anonymity' for threatening behaviour

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1288068797274914816

Eye contact is sexist.

Avoiding eye contact is racist.

Take your pick.
--Titania McGrath

Edit:
You've all gotten the calls about a warrant in your name and you have to get a gift card to pay the fee or we will arrest you or your social security is in danger if you don't call immediately scams. Track and trace is the new scam.

That didn’t take long. Fake “contact tracers” stealing personal data

Another article on the issue (without a paywall, sorry about the above):

Scammers Posing As Contact Tracers Asking For Social Security Numbers, Financial Information

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office says criminals are pretending to be gathering information about COVID-19 cases, but are asking for Social Security numbers, money, financial information and immigration status – information that is not needed for contact tracing.

losangeles.cbslocal.com

 

[EmDeemo]

Donald Trump Jr suspended from tweeting after Covid post

Donald Trump Jr suspended from tweeting after Covid post

US president's son's use of Twitter is limited for 12 hours after he broke its misinformation rules.

www.bbc.co.uk

More dignified behaviour from the current spoiled cream of the crop.

 

[florduh]

Florida sets grim death toll record, while trailer truck outside funeral home raises COVID-19 fears

Florida set another grim record Tuesday with nearly 200 more COVID-19 deaths recorded overnight, but in recent days an ominous sight outside a funeral home has been sending a shiver through a Miami-area town –- a refrigerated trailer for storing bodies.

Rumors that the corpses of coronavirus victims were being stored there -- and unfounded fears that the bodies could spread the disease -- have sparked several protests in recent days outside the San Jose Funeral Home in Hialeah.

Air travel not expected to recover until 2024

Global air travel is recovering more slowly than expected and it will take until 2024 to return to pre-pandemic levels, the trade association for the airline industry said Tuesday.

The International Air Transport Association pushed back its prediction by one year due to the slow containment of the outbreak in the U.S. and in developing countries.

The industry is seeing a rebound from the depths of the shutdowns in April, but the bad news is that any increase “is barely visible,” IATA chief economist Brian Pearce said during an online briefing for journalists.

 

[EmDeemo]

Air travel is an industry that really needs to take stock. Unless it finds a way to figure out its emissions, there is no way its going to recover anyway. Its time was already running out. At least on the ground we can easily figure out alternatives, but unless there is a sudden explosion in glider and rubber band technology, I'm not sure air travel is going to be around as we have known it for too much longer.

EDIT: I think America just needs cross country rollercoasters... or was that basically what Elon Musk was dribbling on about?

 

[macbill]

 

[florduh]

Donald Trump Jr suspended from tweeting after Covid post

I think this article missed that one of his Tweets was about the Alien DNA/Demon Sperm doctor. That was probably the straw that broke the camel's back with our unelected Social Media Overlords.

Air travel is an industry that really needs to take stock.

Yeah. I posted it because of this line...

The industry is seeing a rebound from the depths of the shutdowns in April, but the bad news is that any increase “is barely visible,”

The shutdowns are over, and the airline industry has barely seen an increase in traffic. Think about every industry that's connected to air travel. And every company that provides goods and services to those industries. Really helps clarify exactly how fucked the economy is.

EDIT: I think America just needs cross country rollercoasters... or was that basically what Elon Musk was dribbling on about?

Yeah, I'd be fine with coast-to-coast bullet trains. Train travel is more comfortable than air travel. But the per mile cost is always many times higher than comparable projects in Europe for some reason.

 

[EmDeemo]

Yeah, I'd be fine with coast-to-coast bullet trains. Train travel is more comfortable than air travel. But the per mile cost is always many times higher than comparable projects in Europe for some reason.

European trains are great. UK trains are stupidly expensive. Ridiculous cost for tickets. Really makes flying in such a small country like this a desirable thing. I've always found it quite an insane situation

EDIT: Also, roller coaster loops or nothing at all!

 

[florduh]

I fucking give up with this timeline. Beyond parody.

Trump’s New COVID-19 Doc Thanks Daily Beast for ‘Exposing Demons’

A Houston doctor who received a shout-out from President Trump on Tuesday for her praise of the controversial drug hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 cure has thanked The Daily Beast for reporting on some of the questionable medical claims she has previously made—namely that alien DNA is used in some medical treatments and gynecological problems are caused by people having sex in their dreams with demons and witches. Dr. Stella Immanuel tweeted out a link to The Daily Beast’s report, which she said did a “great job summarizing” her work exposing “incubus and succubus.” She went on to give a nod to reporter Will Sommer for his “Awesome job exposing these demons.” “And while we are at it I could cast some demons out of you. It will help you a great deal,” she wrote, later tweeting a bitmoji of herself wearing boxing gloves for “round one.”

 

[EmDeemo]

a “great job summarizing” her work exposing “incubus and succubus.” She went on to give a nod to reporter Will Sommer for his “Awesome job exposing these demons.” “And while we are at it I could cast some demons out of you. It will help you a great deal,” she wrote, later tweeting a bitmoji of herself wearing boxing gloves for “round one.”

WAKE UP SHEEPLE! OH, THATS RIGHT, YOU CANT WAKE UP BECAUSE YOU ARE BEING FUCKED WHILE ASLEEP!

SINNERS!

What is going on!? Fucking hell

@Tranquility, can you raise the tone and a laugh by squirming the president out of this one?

EDIT:
Coronavirus: Trump sticks by discredited hydroxychloroquine

Coronavirus: Hydroxychloroquine ineffective says Fauci

The researcher tells BBC Trump's claims about the drug's effectiveness are not backed by science.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[florduh]

So this is fairly terrifying. It looks like COVID-19 will often damage the heart, even in younger patients who weren't hospitalized. That damage may be permanent.

Covid-19 infections leave an impact on the heart, raising concerns about lasting damage

Two new studies from Germany paint a sobering picture of the toll that Covid-19 takes on the heart, raising the specter of long-term damage after people recover, even if their illness was not severe enough to require hospitalization.

One study examined the cardiac MRIs of 100 people who had recovered from Covid-19 and compared them to heart images from 100 people who were similar but not infected with the virus. Their average age was 49 and two-thirds of the patients had recovered at home. More than two months later, infected patients were more likely to have troubling cardiac signs than people in the control group: 78 patients showed structural changes to their hearts, 76 had evidence of a biomarker signaling cardiac injury typically found after a heart attack, and 60 had signs of inflammation.

These were relatively young, healthy patients who fell ill in the spring, Valentina Puntmann, who led the MRI study, pointed out in an interview. Many of them had just returned from ski vacations. None of them thought they had anything wrong with their hearts.

 

[ginolicious]

We are so focused on the USA and Trump in this thread. They didn’t even finish the first wave. Look at Australia and other places over there. That’s more concerning. They finished their first wave. To have a second wave hit and now going back down into lock down for 6 more weeks. This is a virus that just keeps coming back and that we don’t know much about. I know a nurse who is going on her 100th day feel like shit. She tested negative for it now. But has no energy to return to work.

 

[Tranquility]

Remember your vitamin D kids! (No basis for the recommendation here, but, keep your zinc levels up too. Vegetarians might supplement.)

More evidence that lack of vitamin D is linked to COVID-19 severity

Vitamin D appears to play role in COVID-19 mortality rates

Vitamin D helps the body fight coronavirus, major Israeli study claims

And, for the Covid news you really need:
Full bladders, closed bathrooms. Strategies for peeing while out during coronavirus

 

[Vitolo]

Strategies for peeing while out during coronavirus

Gatorade 32 oz bottle.

 

[Tranquility]

So this is fairly terrifying. It looks like COVID-19 will often damage the heart, even in younger patients who weren't hospitalized. That damage may be permanent.

Covid-19 infections leave an impact on the heart, raising concerns about lasting damage

There is already some push back. The (main) study:
Outcomes of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Patients Recently Recovered From Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

The push back gets to what recovered means. One guy (David Bernstein is a law professor, not a doctor) opined:
THE MEDICAL ESTABLISHMENT CONTINUES TO MAKE ITSELF LOOK FOOLISH: Drudge linked this study, which purports to show that “recovered” Covid patients have high rates of heart issues as detected via imaging. I read the study and I saw a lot of problems, the most glaring of which is the way the authors define “recovered.” Recovered means that the subject tested negative for Covid after previously testing positive. The subjects may have just tested negative the day before they were imaged. In other words, while they no longer had Covid, their bodies did not have time to heal/recover from whatever damage Covid wrought.
I thought to myself that perhaps, though I do teach scientific evidence and thus know how to read a study, surely I’m missing or misunderstanding something. But then I read the accompanying editorial comment, which states, “There are important residual questions about potential selection bias and generalizability and not all of the patients may have recovered…”
What? You can’t (well, you obviously can, but shouldn’t) publish a paper that purports to be about “recovered” Covid patients when you, the editor, has doubts about whether (or how many of) the subjects were actually recovered!

 

[florduh]

There is already some push back. The (main) study:
Outcomes of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Patients Recently Recovered From Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

The push back gets to what recovered means. One guy (David Bernstein is a law professor, not a doctor) opined:
THE MEDICAL ESTABLISHMENT CONTINUES TO MAKE ITSELF LOOK FOOLISH: Drudge linked this study, which purports to show that “recovered” Covid patients have high rates of heart issues as detected via imaging. I read the study and I saw a lot of problems, the most glaring of which is the way the authors define “recovered.” Recovered means that the subject tested negative for Covid after previously testing positive. The subjects may have just tested negative the day before they were imaged. In other words, while they no longer had Covid, their bodies did not have time to heal/recover from whatever damage Covid wrought.
I thought to myself that perhaps, though I do teach scientific evidence and thus know how to read a study, surely I’m missing or misunderstanding something. But then I read the accompanying editorial comment, which states, “There are important residual questions about potential selection bias and generalizability and not all of the patients may have recovered…”
What? You can’t (well, you obviously can, but shouldn’t) publish a paper that purports to be about “recovered” Covid patients when you, the editor, has doubts about whether (or how many of) the subjects were actually recovered!

Ok. Let's say that's true. I'm not sure young people with no known heart issues showing signs of heart damage weeks after being diagnosed with COVID is any less terrifying. I'd rename that article "Lawyers who write for the Drudge Report continue to make themselves look foolish".

With influenza, I generally don't have to worry about heart damage... at all. 95+% of all influenza patients are completely recovered in less than 2 weeks. The youngish people in this study are showing evidence of heart damage after 2 weeks.

 

[Tranquility]

Ok. Let's say that's true. I'm not sure young people with no known heart issues showing signs of heart damage weeks after being diagnosed with COVID is any less terrifying. I'd rename that article "Lawyers who write for the Drudge Report continue to make themselves look foolish".

With influenza, I generally don't have to worry about heart damage... at all. 95+% of all influenza patients are completely recovered in less than 2 weeks. The youngish people in this study are showing evidence of heart damage after 2 weeks.

The lawyer writes for other things (not Drudge) and seems to pay attention to covid OK. He wrote an article on race in medical studies in general and in covid and how the disparities should be handled.

Two Decades Ago, The FDA and NIH Mandated the Use of Race to Categorize Subjects and Report Results in Medical and Scientific Research They Oversee. It was a Huge Mistake, by David E. Bernstein

He starts (Long article with tons of links. I stopped at first pimping of book, but there's a lot more at link.):

As of this writing, the federal government is considering using race and ethnicity to allocate access to a new Coronavirus vaccine to combat Covid-19 when one becomes available. More specifically, the government is considering giving preference to African Americans and Latinos because they have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic.


Dean Dayna Bowen Matthew of the George Washington University Law School, who is serving as a consultant on the prioritization issue, explained the emerging rationale to the New York Times, “It’s racial inequality — inequality in housing, inequality in employment, inequality in access to health care — that produced the underlying diseases. That’s wrong. And it’s that inequality that requires us to prioritize by race and ethnicity.”


There are obvious dangers to allocating medical resources by race (and let me be clear that I am use race throughout this post for lack of a better term, but I reject the notion that scientifically-speaking there is any such thing), especially in a politically sensitive an area such as vaccines, where the public is already all-too-prone to accept various conspiracy theories and quackery that leads them to oppose vaccination. Instead of expanding the use of race in this way, science and medicine should be moving away from considering race and ethnicity at all.


Unfortunately, the FDA and NIH have mandated the use of race and ethnicity since the late 1990s. As a result of this mandate, the use of race has become so common in the scientific and medical communities that most people in the field fail to consider whether there is any justification for doing so. As one scientist reports, “we don’t tend … to think a lot about that [race] variable, what it means, how it’s defined, how it’s being used. We just sort of use it blindly.”


This is very unfortunate, because, in addition to other problems discussed below, the FDA and NIH mandated that the “race variable” be based on the arbitrary (but now standard in American life) racial and ethnic classifications established by the Office of Management and Budget in 1977 for civil rights enforcement purposes. At the time, the OMB warned that the “classifications should not be interpreted as being scientific or anthropological in nature.” This did not stop the FDA and NIH from institutionalizing them into medical and scientific research.

 

[florduh]

I'm not sure any of that improved my opinion of Mr. Bernstein, but it was less silly than his Drudge article.

He's a politically motivated lawyer. Trying to pick holes in the COVID Heart study like a lawyer. Fine. But my main takeaway from the study is that COVID is damaging the hearts of young healthy people. Niggling over what exactly "recovered" means doesn't change that. Especially since we still don't know what "recovered" truly means with COVID.

His Twitter says something like "no one would consider an influenza patient 'recovered' just because they tested negative for the flu". That's because after 2 weeks, virtually every flu patient is recovered. While 78% of younger non-hospitalized COVID patients in this particular studies had damaged hearts after 2 weeks.

I'm fairly certain this guy's goal was to downplay the severity of COVID, by sowing doubt in his readers about so called medical experts. If that was his goal, he failed pretty spectacularly.

 

[macbill]

Sorrento Therapeutics Licenses 30-Minute Spit Test for Covid-19

A small biotech called Sorrento Therapeutics announced Wednesday that it had licensed a Covid-19 test from Columbia University that, according to a small study, can provide highly accurate results in thirty minutes using only a person’s saliva.

 

[hinglemccringleberry]

So my crazy FB friend is now posting videos like this on his FB: https://d.tube/#!/v/videostorage2020/QmWHnWJ4A2LZsmLBP8HeYrpcHhfFgTvPV8R4kitEcz9LgH
...and he's pissed off because "the so-called experts in mainstream medicine are absolutely LYING to us!!!" and Facebook is systematically censoring videos like the above to "keep the sheeple asleep". I think the theory is that they ("the power elite") want this pandemic and ensuing shutdowns to happen in order to kill off small businesses and the middle class, so that everything on earth is run by a few mega corporations (which I kind of believe). But I still need to point out his hypocrisy of refusing to wear masks, and how such refusal is a great way to ensure that the economy stays in shambles.
But according to my FB friend, the "doctors" in this video make sense, whilst the mainstream media's 'experts' do not make any sense. This is where he and I split.
Here's one of his rants towards someone who challenged the credibility of this video (pointing out that the lead doctor in the video also believes ovarian cysts are caused by women dreaming of having sex with demons):
"Do you truly think their point of view should be silenced? Don't you find it odd that you can find videos on ANY subject saying all kinds of bogus crap, yet they won't allow these people to present THEIR position? Do you really believe this is the right thing for them to do?"

A refuter of the video said, " "Use of Hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid has mixed results but should still be investigated as a treatment" is a valid truthful statement. But "Hydroxychloroquine cures Covid" is an unproven claim that can lead to someone's death. And note Dr Immanuel offers no proof of her claim."
.... So then one of my wacko friend's supporters replied to this saying "I'm sure its better than Bill Gates ideas. Hes not even a doctor."
Does't it just brighten your day to read "debates" like this?

 

[FlyingLow]

The ignorant are usually the loudest...

 

[Tranquility]

Sweden Unveils ‘Promising’ Covid-19 Data as New Cases Plunge

As other countries face renewed outbreaks, Sweden’s latest Covid-19 figures suggest it’s rapidly bringing the virus under control.

“That Sweden has come down to these levels is very promising,” state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell told reporters in Stockholm on Tuesday.

The Health Agency of Sweden says that since hitting a peak in late June, the infection rate has fallen sharply. That’s amid an increase in testing over the period. “The curves are going down and the curves for the seriously ill are beginning to approach zero,” Tegnell said. ...

Edit:
I haven't seen the video as I don't watch many videos of people talking. It is not the way I get information. I need to see it on paper before I can really consider it so have no idea of how much crazy is in it. But:

 

[florduh]

Edit:
I haven't seen the video as I don't watch many videos of people talking. It is not the way I get information. I need to see it on paper before I can really consider it so have no idea of how much crazy is in it. But:

Both of those images are bad faith nonsense. The President of The COVID Capital of the World promoting a doctor who believes Demon Sperm and Alien DNA cause medical issues, both on social media and again in a press conference, is unambiguously a bad thing. There is no way to put lipstick on the pig this time.

We live in BizarroWorld.

 

[MyCollie]

The ignorant are usually the loudest...

I know someone who is into so many of these conspiracies it’s ridiculous. Anything from the moon landing to the Illuminati to cancer related conspiracies. Back when I was in college these guys would have been sneaking into dorms slipping newsletters under doors for Lyndon LaRouche.

The guy I know and who I was friendly with was blabbering about the Rothschilds after a well publicized incident involving a DC council member. I said “You know I’m Jewish, right?” He gave me the stink eye.

 

[cybrguy]

The ignorant are usually the loudest...

I think I might change that to "often" to fully agree. The Lincoln Project is pretty loud, for example, and they seem pretty smart to me, along with votevet and RVAT.

So, I tried to take you know who out of the bozo bin cause I really don't like to use it. After all, there might be something worthwhile coming from any quarter. But nope, not possible to read this thread that way so back he goes. Oh well...

 

[Tranquility]

In a small study report, health care workers are not getting Covid even though they are exposed to it regularly.
SARS-CoV-2 antibody prevalence in health care workers: Preliminary report of a single center study

The press reporting (OC Register):
Health care workers may be less, not more, susceptible to coronavirus, study suggests