Crazy (and not-so-crazy) shit about Covid-19

[windwalker]

Los Angeles County may run out of hospital beds in the next two to three weeks because of a new surge in coronavirus infections dating to the period in which Black Lives Matter protests broke out.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020 ... es-matter/

[Steve James]

Yep, so remdesivir seems to shorten hospitalization time. Better have some insurance to pay for it. With Medicare it's $2K per course. It's $3K if you have private insurance.

There should be an executive order making covid treatment free. Public funds go into drug development.

[meeks]

"what do you say to a surgeon that refuses to wear a mask during the pandemic?"
nothing - he's already been told by the non-medical masses what to think

[Bao]

There should be an executive order making covid treatment free. Public funds go into drug development.

Of course there should. This is exactly what China did immediately.

Everything for treatment and testing was made free. So they encouraged people to test themselves, get treatment. And also, they effectively traced the spread of the virus. They warned everyone and tried to give their advice. Only a few countries in East-Asia listened.

I guess that the US, just like many Europeans, just don't want to do like China does. It's politics. No Western country will accept or admit anything that China did right. That's just how it is.

[bailewen]

Edited:

They say there’s another brake out in Beijing is it true ?

Beijing reimposes lockdown measures after new Covid-19 outbreak

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... ood-market

Source of Beijing’s big new COVID-19 outbreak is still a mystery

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/06 ... ll-mystery

100% true, and fully reported in the Chinese media.

A "whopping" 50 or so cases.

New policies were immediately put in effect at work, meaning anyone who had been to Beijing recently or who had been in contact with anyone from Beijing were asked to privately report to management, and would presumably be asked to work from home for 2 weeks.

That's for 50 cases.

Meanwhile in the US, over 30,000 new cases per day.

The United States is now the "shithole country". US citizens are no longer welcome in the EU because we can't keep our shit together and are just spreading COVID everywhere.

We, as US citizens, should be so luck as to have Beijing's numbers.

[Steve James]

I think you're right, but I don't think anyone should be gloating just yet because nothing is over. Everyone is going to have more cases because it's obvious that the virus is not disappearing in the summer. In fact, in the US, the rate of infections seems to be increasing. Though, it's true that is a function of more testing. But, testing doesn't create cases; it simply shows the reality of how widespread the virus is or isn't.

Meh, the assumption should be that the virus is widespread. If every individual does his or her best to avoid spreading the virus, the hospitalizations will go down. Our problem in the US began with the denial of a problem (for political reasons), then the denial of ways to mitigate the problem (for economic reasons). Yep, in our society, the government can't make people do it without being called oppressive. So, the solution is for people to willingly do something they don't like or even feel necessary in order to help someone they don't know somewhere else (maybe even a democrat ).

I think that's why the EU has decided to limit US tourist travel there. I'm not sure it'll work, though. It's like the Goldblum says, "Life will find a way." If there's a virus here, it'll get everywhere there's human contacts. At worst, that is an assumption that is safe if wrong.

[Trick]

just read on the swedish news that south korea has been sendin facemasks to korean citizens around the world, even adopted koreans has recieved the gift. so far has 370 000 masks been sent.......a good gesture but sounds a little bit over gestured ?......(how to keep track of oversea citizens ?)

[Steve James]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQlTC4sUznM

Like he says, unless you are there ...

[Giles]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQlTC4sUznM

Like he says, unless you are there ...

That does not look good at all. Quite likely that the doctors will soon be forced to make many hard-core triage decisions. Meaning: who can receive ICU treatment, and who is assessed to have a lower chance of survival and so will - in effect - be wheeled into a room to die.

[bailewen]

I think you're right, but I don't think anyone should be gloating just yet because nothing is over.

Who's gloating?

I'm not gloating. I'm fucking furious, humiliated, and trapped overseas.

I have a 3 month old boy and I wasn't able to have him born in America. If we had, I would have been trapped in the states with no job and no place to live. And, fwiw, I also happen to be Jewish, but they don't do circumcisions in China and I can't even fly back to LA to get it done at Cedar Sinai because Trump has fucked the whole country to holy hell.

I also own rental property in LA. But now with lockdown, suddenly I am paying the damn mortgage out of pocket (part of it anyways). That was supposed to be an investment.

How about taking my boy back home for Christmas? Introducing my family? Nope. The US is a disaster zone. Travel from China is blocked for my wife and child and if I go to the US, I will be quarantined for 2 weeks when I get back to China, IF I can get back and let's not forget that airline tickets are like $5,000 now.

This has been an unmitigated disaster from top to bottom.

Everyone is going to have more cases because it's obvious that the virus is not disappearing in the summer. In fact, in the US, the rate of infections seems to be increasing. Though, it's true that is a function of more testing. But, testing doesn't create cases; it simply shows the reality of how widespread the virus is or isn't.

Yep, in our society, the government can't make people do it without being called oppressive. So, the solution is for people to willingly do something they don't like or even feel necessary in order to help someone they don't know somewhere else (maybe even a democrat ).

I've been having this discussion with my wife a lot lately, and other Chinese friends. They are baffled by the US response and tend to ask if it's just because we are so individualist and independent minded. Makes sense. Except that we are not especially more individualistic than many European countries and the only other countries that are as much of a shit show as the US right now are Brazil and Russia, two countries that are culturally quite different from the US.

So all I can tell is that we are a failing state. I am optimistic about November, but by that time we will be back in winter and it's starting to look like we are just going to let this thing burn through the country until virtually everyone gets exposed and either is fine, gets sick, or dies, just like back in 1918. Because even if we throw that piece of living garbage out of office, we won't get a new president until next year. And no matter how responsibly he treats it, by that time we will already be looking at 200,000-500,000 dead.

I can't see the US being safe for me to go back to to see my family for at least another year and a half, and in the meantime, I have to deal with financially supporting my family in the states with my income from China. #fuckingirony

[Steve James]

Who's gloating?

I was actually thinking about myself specifically. NYC is doing pretty well, but I don't think it's time to pat ourselves on the back. I think that everybody should be just as concerned now as before. I was speaking generally.

They are baffled by the US response and tend to ask if it's just because we are so individualist and independent minded. Makes sense. Except that we are not especially more individualistic than many European countries and the only other countries that are as much of a shit show as the US right now are Brazil and Russia, two countries that are culturally quite different from the US.

I never buy into the argument that we're different as people, and the virus doesn't care one way or the other. Wherever people have been able to isolate themselves successfully, the virus has not spread. Now, it's very true that some governments are able to coerce their people. Otoh, there are some people who need no coercion, and who do it for either personal or social reasons. There will be a mix of those types of governments and people wherever you go.

Well, it's also true that the delay, denial, and lack of US response to the virus has been politically driven. Xi and Putin want to look good, but they have far more political power, control of the media, and little chance of being deposed. Both are defining their nation's futures, and may even be profiting from it. However, both of them are also super smart.

Well, I'm quite fine here in the US . This is nothing. It used to be worse. Nobody here should be bitching because it's a lot worse a lot of other places.

[bailewen]

Funny comparison, Putin and Xi.

Xi has not denied the issue like Putin has.

Autocratic dictator or not, when Xi was on TV during peak COVID in China, he was on TV in a mask, and not like American politicians who maybe wear one as they approach the mic, but then take it off to talk. He wears it and talks at the same time. It's not that tricky. For a while, even TV newscasters wore masks. When you see those stupid state media videos of, I dunno, some random people's congress or whatever discussing COVID, masks. When their equivalent to Fauci, a guy named Zhong Nanshan, is on TV, he wears a mask.

Modeling behavior works.

I watched a video the other day of all these republican politicians even promoting masks, but they weren't wearing them. The surgeon general, practically pleading with the US citezenry to wear masks, while he held one in his hand rather than actually practicing what he was preaching.

We look like idiots.

And yes, I agree it's not that scary. If there were no quarantine issues, I would have been on a flight home on the May holiday in a heartbeat. But no. I would not have been able to return to my job and family. Quarantine would probably be in an airport motel for 2 weeks.

Nobody here should be bitching because it's a lot worse a lot of other places.

Really? Where? AFAIK, only Russia and Brazil are worse. I mean, our standard of living in the US is still pretty decent compared to a lot of other places, but in terms of COVID income, we are literally in the top 3 worst countries in the world. That's truly humiliating. My brother is out of work. My brother-in-law in furloughed, supposed to be back this month, but who knows. I have a nephew who hasn't been able to find work for months, and I have no reason to believe the economy will be any different until late next year at the earliest.

We are literlaly the worst off of any developed nation on the planet other than possibly Russia and Brazil, two countries that can barely be considered "developed". Brazil is poor AF, and Russia is just basically a giant mafia state. Great company.

[Steve James]

Really? Where?

Most of South America is worse than here because they don't have doctors in rural areas. And, there are disasters happening on Indigenous nations/reservations on the continent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJdz3F13p3w


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGdxAwFPRMM

[bailewen]

I did mention Brazil.

But is that what we've come to? Singing ourselves to sleep because we are 'not as bad as some banana republics down south'?

Fwiw:

hope the pic loads

[Steve James]

Nope, my point is that we in the US are not the worst off. We have hospitals to overwhelm. We have homeless, but we don't have vast tent cities. Nobody's starving. It has nothing to do with my concern for the virus. I am grateful to be here.

There's no doubt that our situation is way worse than it had to be. I have no idea how bad it is going to get, anywhere. There may be a second wave here. So, like I've said. I imagine that it can be much worse.