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Reports of protests are overblown. A few incidents around the country, but nothing major.

5 (45.5%)

A few major incidents in capitals, but nothing much in DC.

5 (45.5%)

A major incident in DC, but nothing much around the country.

0 (0%)

More than 10 capitals have major upheavals, but nothing much in DC.

0 (0%)

A major incident in DC plus more than 10 capitals with significant upheavals.

1 (9.1%)

More than half the capitals around the country have problems with protesters, but DC is quiet.

0 (0%)

DC has major problems, while more than half the capitals around the country also have considerable trouble with protesters.

0 (0%)

Huge disruption to the day.

0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 9

Voting closed: January 19, 2021, 10:49:21 PM

[josh]

We'll be at that level when tests and protective gear become available

In an indeterminate amount of time.

Why isn't it available yet?!

[NeedsAdjustments]

We'll be at that level when tests and protective gear become available

“The system is not really geared to what we need right now — what you are asking for... That is a failing. It is a failing. Let's admit it.”

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/487230-fauci-it-is-a-failing-that-people-cant-easily-get-tested-for-coronavirus-in

[oilcan]

Some thoughts...

CV19 was transmitted to humans most likely by bat poop and bat flesh.  A lot of viruses start in China because you have 1.3 billion people living much closer to the human food chain, and eating unusual wild fauna.  Many US and European hot spots will develop due to the large number of Asian students who attend universities in the US and Europe.  Think about the college lifestyle for a moment.  It includes these items:

People crowded together in dorms, classrooms, clubs, coffeeshops, cafes, etc.
Expanding one's sexual experiences, often with several partners.
Attending events with large crowds, e.g. sports, concerts, state fairs, street fairs, etc.
Being more asymptomatic wherever you go, due to your youthfulness, and possibly never even knowing you had anything serious.

My daughter cancelled a trip with some friends- they were going to go and stay at a timeshare in Colorado.  I understand the caution - one of her good friends is a physician's assistant who works at a healthcare facility in Omaha.  My daughter teaches music at elementary/middle school.  They don't want to be vectors for CV into situations where older persons would be exposed (for my daughter, that would be both older teachers, and grandparents of the children in her classes)  But the logic and the epidemiological map don't always line up.  If their goal is to avoid being carriers, they will gain more from avoiding the UNL and UNO campuses and nearby nightspots than they will avoiding a remote cabin on a lake in what is still the off-season.  IOW, it's not travel per se, it's your destination points and where you may stop en route. 

Shifting college classes to teleconferencing may be one of the best steps available to us right now.  So far, Harvard and UW are on board, a couple others.

[Hairy Lime]

We'll be at that level when tests and protective gear become available

In an indeterminate amount of time.

Why isn't it available yet?!

"I'm a businessperson. I don't like having thousands of people around when you don't need them. When we need them, we can get them back very quickly." - Donald Trump, on disbanding the NSC's global health security council.

This reasoning, by the way, is precisely why we do not buy bullets until the war starts.

[bodiddley]

Also kiid, why do you think Great Britain was excluded from that travel ban? It has significantly greater occurrence than over half of the countries targeted by the ban. On the other hand, it does lead Europe in Trump golf course properties.

Israel is requiring all arrivals to undergo a 14 day quarantine, which essentially kills any int'l tourism.  I read a theory that Netanyahu was going to either ban arrivals from China, Italy, the US and a few other countries or require quarantine for them.   And the Trump Admin got alarmed that the US would be on the list and it would reflect bad on US handling of the virus.  So they strong-armed Netanyahu to either remove the US or make it a blanket quarantine for all.  And since Netanyahu owes the Trumpeters big time for all their assistance and Bibi is struggling to become PM and stay out of jail, he caved.  Interesting.

[barton]

A senior Brazilian government official who visited Mar-a-Lago days ago, and was in close proximity to President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, has tested positive for the new coronavirus, Brazil’s government confirmed on Thursday.

Fábio Wajngarten, President Jair Bolsonaro’s communications chief, was at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s oceanfront resort in Florida, as part of Brazilian government delegation. Members of that group dined with Mr. Trump on Saturday.

  - NYT, today

[bodiddley]

Last I heard they believed it went from bats to an intermediate host, possibly pangolins, then on to humans.  Likely from slaughtering the poor animals incurring blood to hand-mouth, or blood to open cut transmission.

So far I haven't heard of young people and universities or even schools being a major transmission vector.  And it seems that young people/children rarely get this virus (why, I have no idea, or if that finding will hold up).  Young people do tend to be more socially gregarious and as you say might become carriers and spreaders while having no/limited symptoms.  But again I haven't heard that being the case in China or elsewhere.

[barton]

Kristof, in the NYT, offers a list of 12 actions:

After speaking to epidemiologists and public health specialists, I have a list of a dozen practical steps that the president and other officials should take immediately, while there is time.

1. Invest in a huge rollout of free testing so that we know who is sick. The University of Washington set up a drive-through system so that certain people can be tested without contaminating a clinic; South Korea did the same. We urgently need “rapid tests” — offering results in minutes — and before long we will also desperately need tests to determine who has had the virus and now has immunity.

2. Cancel large gatherings in parts of the country where community transmission is occurring, as Gov. Jay Inslee has done in Washington State. Employers should encourage people to work from home where possible. Even with social distancing, more than one-third of Americans may eventually be infected (a worst case is that 70 percent become infected, as Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany has cautioned for her country).

But lives will be saved by flattening the curve so that infections grow more slowly. We are much better off if 100 million Americans contract the coronavirus over 18 months rather than over 18 weeks, and this also gives scientists the chance to test treatments and develop vaccines, and to see if warmer weather helps. South Korea’s experience suggests that aggressive measures, well short of China’s, do help.

3. Expand telemedicine so that patients can get medical advice while staying home. The aim is for people to NOT go to a doctor’s office or E.R. unless necessary.

4. Plan for hospitals to be overwhelmed, as happened in Wuhan, China, and in Iran and northern Italy. Epidemiological models suggest that by late April we could have millions of Americans infected, and the danger is that people with other ailments die for want of care in the chaos. Several epidemiologists suggest that we could easily see 100 million infections of the new coronavirus in the United States, of which 5 or 10 percent might require hospitalization and 1 percent might need a ventilator. That could mean almost one million people needing ventilators just for Covid-19, though not all at the same time, yet we have only about 72,000 full ventilators in the United States.

5. Cancel vacations of health workers, bring back retired doctors and nurses, and repurpose cardiologists and pediatricians to deal with a torrent of coronavirus patients — in expectation of record numbers of doctors out sick. We should prepare to allow military medics to assist in E.R.s as well.

6. Make nursing homes, assisted-living centers, homeless shelters, prisons and dialysis treatment centers safer, by encouraging use of personal protective equipment and limiting visitors.

7. Make plans in case first responders, such as firefighters and ambulance paramedics, become sick in large numbers. That may mean calling in the National Guard.

8. Ensure that as many people as possible have access to medical care. That means expanding Medicaid in remaining states, and establishing a mechanism so that no one needs to pay (including a co-pay or deductible) for testing for or treatment of Covid-19.

9. Congress should promptly pass legislation (shamefully stalled for the last 16 years) mandating paid sick leave for all workers.

10. Greatly step up production of personal protective equipment needed in hospitals. Some hospitals are already running short of N95 masks, and America’s emergency stockpile has only 12 million N95 masks — approximately a one-day supply for the country during an epidemic.

11. Prepare for public school students to attend classes remotely in parts of the country most affected. Researchers found that during the 1918 Spanish flu, cities that canceled schools and public gatherings — and did so early — fared better than other cities. Unfortunately, today at least six million American schoolchildren don’t have internet access at home; that may mean that schools hand out hotspots, and laptops to students without computers. A nonprofit called FirstBook is trying to send out six million books to low-income schools so that kids can at least read while at home.

12. Instead of bailing out airlines or cruise lines, make people in quarantine eligible for unemployment insurance and waive work requirements for benefit programs. Don’t let struggling families become homeless because they suddenly can’t make the rent or meet mortgage payments.

The mandated paid sick leave is an excellent one.  Two nations in the world don't have this:  the USA, and Papua New Guinea.  Hmm.

[Yankguy1]

Some thoughts...

CV19 was transmitted to humans most likely by bat poop and bat flesh.  A lot of viruses start in China because you have 1.3 billion people living much closer to the human food chain, and eating unusual wild fauna.  Many US and European hot spots will develop due to the large number of Asian students who attend universities in the US and Europe.  Think about the college lifestyle for a moment.  It includes these items:

People crowded together in dorms, classrooms, clubs, coffeeshops, cafes, etc.
Expanding one's sexual experiences, often with several partners.
Attending events with large crowds, e.g. sports, concerts, state fairs, street fairs, etc.
Being more asymptomatic wherever you go, due to your youthfulness, and possibly never even knowing you had anything serious.

My daughter cancelled a trip with some friends- they were going to go and stay at a timeshare in Colorado.  I understand the caution - one of her good friends is a physician's assistant who works at a healthcare facility in Omaha.  My daughter teaches music at elementary/middle school.  They don't want to be vectors for CV into situations where older persons would be exposed (for my daughter, that would be both older teachers, and grandparents of the children in her classes)  But the logic and the epidemiological map don't always line up.  If their goal is to avoid being carriers, they will gain more from avoiding the UNL and UNO campuses and nearby nightspots than they will avoiding a remote cabin on a lake in what is still the off-season.  IOW, it's not travel per se, it's your destination points and where you may stop en route. 

Shifting college classes to teleconferencing may be one of the best steps available to us right now.  So far, Harvard and UW are on board, a couple others.

My daughter is a nursing student and while her University classes are going all remote starting Monday she needs to stay on campus to complete her hospital rounds.  She's more worried about her patients than she is for herself  (she's always been that type), so I'll worry about her for her. 

[bodiddley]

A lack of masks, a lack of protective gear, a lack of test kits and testing.

What did the US do during those 4-7 weeks when the disease was still largely contained in China but clearly a threat to go global?

[kiidcarter8]

I can only speak for Trump and Pence.  They were telling industry to NOT produce any more of that shit.

Damn - why did all those solders have to die before we upped the production of tanks and arms in the 40s?   Why didnt we make all that shit ahead of time?

[NeedsAdjustments]

Damn - why did all those solders have to die before we upped the production of tanks and arms in the 40s?   Why didnt we make all that shit ahead of time?

FDR knew the war was coming, and so made preparations over a year before we officially entered after Pearl Harbor.  Those preparations, in addition to increasing production of weapons and equipment, included authorizing the first peacetime military draft in US history.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_Training_and_Service_Act_of_1940

[NeedsAdjustments]

“This is an unmitigated disaster that the administration has brought upon the population, and I don’t say this lightly,” says Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute. “We have had a much worse response than Iran, than Italy, than China and South Korea.” Financial executives are just as concerned: “Where is the U.S. leadership, which was one of the defining features of the crisis in 2008?” BlackRock Inc. Vice Chairman Philipp Hildebrand said on Bloomberg TV on March 10...

“You would literally not know what to do to protect yourself if you were only listening to” the Trump administration, says Bremmer.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-12/u-s-coronavirus-response-was-marked-by-overconfidence-delays

[NeedsAdjustments]

Ever since the first case of Covid-19 was detected in the US on January 20, the government’s blunders in creating and distributing diagnostic testing have greatly handicapped our response to the growing pandemic. Eaker’s story is not unique: Reports suggest providers everywhere are struggling to help their patients, while receiving frustrating guidance from authorities.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the federal government’s top infectious disease scientist, called the testing situation a “failing” at a congressional hearing on Thursday.

“The idea of anybody getting it easily the way people in other countries are doing it — we’re not set up for that,” he said. “Do I think we should be? Yes. But we’re not. “

...“There was clear lack of foresight,” Nathan Grubaugh, an epidemiologist at the Yale School of Public Health, says. “We were very slow to roll out testing capacity to individual places — wherever that came from, it was a very bad strategy.”


https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2020/3/12/21175034/coronavirus-covid-19-testing-usa

[LarryBnDC]

What's the situation with testing now?
Can anyone in the US get tested?
Do you need tour doctor's approval first.
Do you have to be showing signs of fever/flu, or is it enough that you crossed paths with someone who was sick or was positive?
I haven't been able to get clear word on what's going on now.

noooooop.

The problem is that for each test the protective gear is needed by the acting physician - and these are in short supply

Some say they should come up with WARDS of patients - where the docs can treat MANY while just using the one set of gear.  That's surely an idea.

No -people that are exhibiting flu symptoms shouldnt automatically assume they need or would get atest if they requested it.

But....meanwhile -

in Colorado the governor has stated that they do about 150 tests a day - and want to up this to 20,000.  (he may be daft - I dont know).  He has comed up with the idea to have DRIVE through testing - I guess like a FotoMat or a Krispy Kreme - imagine the lines (again, he may be daft - though he fancies himself a visionary of sorts)

South Korea has established drive in testing sites.