outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

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?

it seems like a bad idea to encourage supporters to gather en masse right now in critical swing states but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ what do i kno

for weeks these governors have been forced to kiss his ass in order to get supplies, I have zero problam w/ any of them landing some punches now

and as YMP says, ignoring him doesn't help either, so at least put forward the counter-narrative

"Liberate (insert state with Dem governor here) and save your great 2nd Amendment" is fucking treasonous, and should not be ignored.

Perhaps we can get in touch with those mysterious Chinese scientists to engineer a pathogen that makes magaheads only infect and/or shoot themselves and/or one another?

The Screwtheflyover Solution

god that's bad sorry

Trump uses the gun issue as the strongest dog whistle he can use to call out his supporters. It's like his security blanket. You know he's going to use it early and often, especially when he's feeling like he's in a weak position.

yeah that sucks xp

little too much overlap with the politics threads here but the sooner we can get "death cult" trending the better IMO

"Liberate (insert state with Dem governor here) and save your great 2nd Amendment" is fucking treasonous, and should not be ignored.

it is, but it will be. after the GOP proved once and for all that they'd protect him no matter what, during the ancient time of the impeachment of late January 2020, everyone said "now he will really be unbound". i guess no one could predict it would happen like this, but now he really can just order his followers to rebel against their governors (democratic, in swing states, of course) with guns in tow, and there's not much that anyone can do. it's not really a far jump from right to shooting someone on 5th avenue. he was right about that.

The controversial Stanford COVID-19 study referenced upthread results were finally published:

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Santa-Clara-antibody-test-coronavirus-results-case-15208216.php

Researchers estimate that if 2.5 to 4.2 percent of the county has already been infected, the true number of total cases in early April — both active and recovered — ranges between 48,000 and 81,000. The county had reported just under 1,000 cases at the time the study was conducted, which would mean cases are being underreported by a factor of 50 to 85.

My in-laws live in that particular county and I'm convinced that my immediate family all came down with some nasty virus with COVID-19 symptoms in January and it hung around into February in some cases.

I should also mention that particular county has been the hardest hit by COVID-19 with 69 deaths/1.9M pop = ~36 deaths per million.
The county I live in is tracking at ~22/M.

hardest hit LOCALLY*, these numbers are miniscule compared to other parts of the country, such as Bronx/Queens.

today a patient told me that the virus came from a lab in China and they’re about to attack us with a second virus and we should nuke China now like we should’ve nuked them before since they attacked us in WWII