outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

kinder they're 11 and 8, both boys. left on their own they beat the shit out of each other multiple times a day and cause all kinds of mayhem.

Senator Schatz (D-HI) on USA failure to provide testing over the short- and long-term:

On March 6 they promised 4 million tests by the end of that week. It is April 16, 41 days later, and Trump is announcing 3.5 million tests completed. And they are not even really ramping up. Last weeks number of tests was roughly the same as the week before.

— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) April 16, 2020

the tests really were ramping up for the first several weeks. it's true that they've been pretty much even the last week or so, though.

brian schatz is solid. i used to read his column in the honolulu weekly and it was always on point. he also tweeted like a month ago that lack of testing should be the #1 story until it isn't, and i think he's probably right.

we gave up on homeschooling our son (finishing 8th grade, US); district lagged with any distance learning and now they've finally got it kind of going, we've just told him "you know where to look for the work, make sure you do it" and it appears that he kind of is. though his science work this week was to 'look at the moon' and draw it; apparently they didn't bother to check to see when moonrise is, but it's at 3:30AM or so we learned after two nights of going out and saying "WTF how is the moon gone?" I broke down and downloaded an app and immediately felt like a dummy.

https://www.france24.com/en/20200417-recovery-from-coronavirus-may-not-confer-immunity-warn-experts

The link title makes the point. It may even be worse:

"It is possible that the antibodies that someone develops against the virus could actually increase the risk of the disease becoming worse," [Frederic Tangy] said, noting that the most serious symptoms come later, after the patient had formed antibodies.

That's just pure speculation, as the full article makes clear.

This - also speculation - would be quite devastating if true, given that current advice is that you can go back out to the shops after symptoms go away:

More likely, said Balloux, is that the virus never completely disappeared in the first place and remains -- dormant and asymptomatic -- as a "chronic infection", like herpes.

As tests for live virus and antibodies have not yet been perfected, it is also possible that these patients at some point tested "false negative" when in fact they had not rid themselves of the pathogen.

"That suggests that people remain infected for a long time -- several weeks," Balloux added.

I have to say this long period of infection does chime a bit with my experience. I still have a bad taste in my mouth. I still feel tired. I still have the ringing in the ears. But it's been more than a week since I had a fever and started feeling 'better'.

I thought about quoting that bit too. These speculations---by virologists!---are jarring because they make the gentle exits from the lockdown look like folly. I've been reading about "immunity passports" being touted by Germany, and those may be unworkable.

My sense is that the rush to reopen has gotten dangerous this week. My daughter's prépa announced today that they won't be holding classes even after May 11. I reckon my other kids' lycée/collège will weigh in next week (we've been in vacances this week). I suppose we'll have to watch what happens in Germany closely.

The lack of any authoritative info on this thing makes me wonder how the eff anyone is working on vaccines.

screamed at had a interesting discussion with my mom for *checks* 4 hours and 26 minutes last night.

have any of you considered the Fauci and Birx (F and Brix, as my mom calls them, for reasons) are not to be trusted, and are up to something "dark"?

Which do you think came first for your mom, the grievances or the media bubble?

Dktr Faustus & Brix

if it's fauci and your granny on bongos then it's NIAID

my mom was "skeptical" of coronavirus from day 1. her big thing right now is the fact that it was "unleashed" on the world by china, because she and my dad found a chemical factory near Wuhan on google maps. it must have come from there, in the lab. this aligns with everything that Tom Cotton and his ilk have been saying for months, but she claims to have no idea about that. instead, she says she thought of it herself, back in late January.

also she says she definitely got coronavirus in early january, after going to a chinese restaurant.

my ex-wife, who has been hardly leaving the house, hyper-aware and scared of covid, doesn't currently work, been giving me shit for how often I am out and about during this etc. got covid from someone she knows - a former service user from when she worked as a frontline support worker whose dog she sometimes takes care of - coughing on her last week :/

That's just pure speculation, as the full article makes clear.

This - also speculation - would be quite devastating if true, given that current advice is that you can go back out to the shops after symptoms go away:

More likely, said Balloux, is that the virus never completely disappeared in the first place and remains -- dormant and asymptomatic -- as a "chronic infection", like herpes.
As tests for live virus and antibodies have not yet been perfected, it is also possible that these patients at some point tested "false negative" when in fact they had not rid themselves of the pathogen.

"That suggests that people remain infected for a long time -- several weeks," Balloux added.

I have to say this long period of infection does chime a bit with my experience. I still have a bad taste in my mouth. I still feel tired. I still have the ringing in the ears. But it's been more than a week since I had a fever and started feeling 'better'.

― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Friday, April 17, 2020 8:57 AM (twenty-seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

there's this comic ahamed Weinberg who had on his insta story that he still tested positive for COVID a week (or weeks, I can't remember) after he no longer had symptoms

can someone help me out - do any of the rightwing stories about the chemical lab/supervirus have any basis in fact? apparently the "story" is really picking up steam the last few days, and i'm too exhausted to go to daily caller or whatever and see what they're saying.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/14/state-department-cables-warned-safety-issues-wuhan-lab-studying-bat-coronaviruses/

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/15/politics/us-intelligence-virus-started-chinese-lab/index.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-52318539

I haven't read any right-wing press, but the mainstream French media has been reporting on the virus labs in Wuhan today (here) and on the HIV/Covid-19 conspiracy theory (here).

US intelligence and national security officials say the United States government is looking into the possibility that the novel coronavirus spread from a Chinese laboratory rather than a market, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter who caution it is premature to draw any conclusions.

america: the country where we throw caution to the wind

unfortunately in the trump administration, the fact that the government is looking into it could also mean that trump made people look into it to generate stories about how the government is looking into it, so that he can about those stories by fox or oann during press conferences and say that he is hearing many reports that it could be a thing, but the government will look into it

It's not just US intelligence, though. Maybe France, the UK, and the USA are just getting the WWII band back together, though?

The main virus lab in Wuhan, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, was built with the assistance of French engineers, so the media here is particularly attentive to these stories.

Chinese overseas dissident crowd (who are massively susceptible to conspiracy theories die to not being able to trust any information ever) are forever muttering about the virology lab in Wuhan, the jist is usually not that this is a plot by the Chinese government, more that it's an experiment which got out somehow, obviously take this with a very large pinch of salt.

"due to" - autocorrect in a morbid mood today

Can't we just put everyone in a Sneetches like machine that basically scrubbing bubbles your immune system every week

i know we're supposed to pretend like this isn't happening because he's looking for attention and he's too incompetent to implement fascism, but

https://i.imgur.com/3MMzgVz.png

for those not in the US or who can't read trumpspeak (it makes no sense), he's advising his followers to ignore the Stay-at-Home orders from the governors in those states (you know, the people that are actually authorized to impose or lift them), while also throwing in a nod that it would be a good idea to show off their guns while they do it

I see the one link above--has this been posted?

http://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/04/17/836747242/in-south-korea-a-growing-number-of-covid-19-patients-test-positive-after-recover

My day right now basically amounts to an endless loop of "That's good news"--"Hey, that's not good"--"I like that"--"Wait a minute, uh-oh"--etc.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/17/ftse100-optimism-potential-coronavirus-drug-remdesivir#maincontent

This seems like good news?

During his live briefing today, Andrew Cuomo was informed that Trump was watching and had been rage-tweeting about him, and Cuomo launched into a several-minutes-long tirade that boiled down to "turn the fucking TV off and do your fucking job, stop expecting congratulations for doing the absolute minimum you should be doing, and stop trying to take credit for shit that's outside of your grasp anyway, like opening the states up."

is that trump started demanding that people liberate their states?

is that ^when^

no, according to the NYT he started LIBERATE tweeting right after Fox covered the michigan protests

I wish someone would LIBERATE his [redacted] from his [redacted]

Cuomo's response starts around 1:16:00.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k3ri7oBXe8

"What am I supposed to do--send a bouquet of flowers?"

Ugh. Just say "I don't want to talk about what the president is tweeting" and move on.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Friday that all “non-essential permitted events” in May are cancelled, such as parades, concerts, and rallies, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

(xpost) He does go on, but I think Cuomo's entitled.

"Thank you for participating in a modicum of federal responsibility in a national crisis...thank you for having the federal government participate in a federal emergency."

Trump is such a troll and the media just lap it up. It's insane that they will interrupt a press conference to tell the speaker whatever fucking crap Trump JUST TWEETED. Trump can turn ANYTHING into something about him immediately now, and everyone keeps falling for it.

tbf having a troll for POTUS is a novel situation

A staffer for New Mexico governor condemns the "death cult" that is not accepting the dangers of COVID-19.

The NM GOP condemns the staffer, demands an apology.

Spokesman for the governor notes, "Umm..the tweet says nothing about the GOP. You see yourselves as a death cult?"

— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) April 17, 2020

lmao

lol

oof, that's a hearty, painful lol. i needed that

on a certain level I'm relieved that trump is doing stuff like tweeting 'liberate michigan' instead of projecting the tiniest bit of competence. president pence would probably have a 60% approval rating right now. (otoh the liberate michigan tweet is gonna kill some people.)

The pivot from "It's nothing" to "I always said this was serious and it's completely under control" to "I don't have any responsibility, I've been perfect" to "it's the Governors who suck" to "my authority is total" to "okay Governors better step up" to "citizens of states should just overthrow their Governors because FREEDOM". Is... just...

I'm dizzy and not just from vodka

it's working, because we're talking about trump rather than the fact that 2000 americans are gonna die of this today

I hear you, mookieproof, but I'm not sure ignoring him helps people either.

I mean, he is, in large part, the fucking problem. To stop talking about his rhetorical postures would only help the sick people if we also did something else, which is... what?

And given the extent to which his bullshit is, in fact, killing people? I kinda think him and his bullshit are relevant to the topic. It's a balance, surely?