Tag: coronavirus

Pentagon OKs travel to all states save three — so far…

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California, Florida and Michigan are the only states to which service members aren’t allowed to travel for permanent change-of-station moves, temporary duty and other non-essential purposes, per a Monday release from the Pentagon, as Minnesota and North Carolina are now green.

As cases continue to climb in those states, several others ― including Texas and Arizona ― are also experiencing an increase in daily diagnoses, though they continue to be green-lit. All told, 48 states and territories and eight countries are good-to-go as of Monday…

Those decisions could be made by a combatant commander, civilian service secretary or the Defense Department’s chief management officer.

Almost anyone with a brain and an inclination to consider reality might soon decide to add in Texas and Arizona. And any other state run by dumbass politicians more concerned with campaign donations than the safety of citizens.

Covid-19 infection rate growing

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In early June, the infection rate of Covid-19 testing had fallen way below 5%. Thanks to the combination of social distancing, sheltering in place, mask usage, and contact tracing we had lowered the number of daily new cases to their lowest level since early in the pandemic. Looks like June 10 was the low, with a 7-day moving average of 17,123 new positive tests out of 419,896 administered tests.

As you can see, that average is turning up. What has changed has been the move out of our self-quarantines. We lost focus, got lazy, politically weaponized Covid. We ignored Fauci, dammit! Protesters were greeted with tear gas — a great way to spread infectious respiratory diseases. And we have re-opened states that have not been following CDC guidelines.

The data reveals this simple fact: The increase in Covid-19 cases in the USA is NOT caused by an increase in testing…

Guidelines from WHO suggests countries with extensive testing for COVID-19, should remain at 5% or lower for at least 14 days. Looks like we are coming up on that date. Don’t be surprised when the E.U. Bars American Travelers as It Reopens Borders, Citing Failures on Virus – because we suck at this.

Barry doesn’t mince words. Although I would add to his commentary on practices in general – Don’t forget our government is providing shit-for-brains leadership. It’s what can happen when you let anachronistic regulations take precedence over democracy in elections.

Four ways the pandemic might end

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Akos Stiller/Bloomberg via Getty

As major cultural events are forgotten, workplaces, bars, and restaurants close, and prominent politicians around the world have been sickened, two simple questions about the novel coronavirus pandemic seem to rise above the rest: How long will this last? And how will it end?

William Haseltine, president of the global health think tank ACCESS Health International, who recently chaired the U.S.-China Health Summit in Wuhan, where the virus likely originated, has a theory.

“There are four ways,” the doctor told The Daily Beast. “One, it peters out with the weather. Two, everybody gets infected, so it’s got no new places to go… so it ends—but that’s a pretty horrible ending. Three is a vaccine, which is about a year away. Fourth way is the most likely: We’re going to have a few drugs, within a few weeks to a few months, that prevent people from getting infected—like PrEP for HIV—and for treatment.”

Decent article. Not as stellar as listening to a thorough discussion with Dr. Haseltine. Happened to catch 10 minutes or so of an interview, yesterday, on BloombergTV. He’s almost as long-winded as me. His medical facts, his science is spot on.

There are at least 3 very readable articles on this coronavirus at his website [link in the paragraph above].

State politicians are protecting nursing homes from law suits for pandemic deaths

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The coronavirus has devastated nursing homes across the country, killing tens of thousands of vulnerable older Americans. Nursing homes did not cause the pandemic, but poor infection control, inadequate staffing and sluggish mitigation allowed the virus to spread.

Rather than hold these facilities accountable, however, states increasingly are protecting them from lawsuits.

At least 21 states have taken actions within the last four months to limit the liability of health care providers, with nine states expressly including nursing homes. The industry is calling for similar protection in other states, and at the federal level, nursing homes are connecting with other trade groups to push for expansive, national immunity from lawsuits.

Check in on your state’s elected officials to see if they actually care for senior citizens, nursing home patients – or are they too busy pimping for healthcare corporations?