Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Four legs? good! two legs? we’re not so sure…

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Shock troops for the Unitarian Jihad.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Wetsuit optional.

We need fewer warriors in public service and more gardeners.

What fresh hell is this?

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Peak wingnut was a lie.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Screw the Judean People’s Front. Splitters.

Fuck if i know. i just get yelled at when i try it.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

‘Forty-two’ said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm.

How do you get liars to care about the truth?

It’s not even safe to go out and pick up 2 days worth of poop anymore.

The house always wins.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

The willow is too close to the house.

Militantly superior in their own minds…

Lighten up, Francis.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 Coronavirus / COVID-19 Update: Saturday/Sunday, March 14/15

COVID-19 Update: Saturday/Sunday, March 14/15

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Anybody else having Gary Larson flashbacks?

Spotty tonight, because I’m having computer problems. See you on the other side…


Reader Interactions

75Comments

  1. 1.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    I’m a bartender in NYC and watched the bar fill up today with people who were talking 2 inches apart. Young people don’t care and aren’t listening. Staff are at risk. I am uncomfortable working. #shutdownNYC

    — William Kulp (@willkulp) March 15, 2020

  3. 3.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    Dump has a travel ban on 28 euro counties.  Russia is not banned.

  5. 5.

    WereBear

    It’s over. Travel bans for the US are pointless.

    I see on Twitter than Trump Fans are still loudly proclaiming it’s FAKE so official closing MUST follow because not enough are taking it seriously?

  6. 6.

    Cermet

    @Chetan Murthy: As someone who has visited France, that so many are heavy smokers isn’t news. It does appear that Corona tends to hit countries with large population of smokers harder – that is, people under 60 get seriously ill.

  7. 7.

    Abnormal Hiker

    I remarked to my wife yesterday that perhaps Trump will be memorialized by COVID-19. Just like there were Hoovervilles in the 1930s, perhaps COVID-19 will become known as Trump Flu.

    According to Urban Dictionary someone made this suggestion on March 9, 2020.

  8. 8.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Martin: OK, reading a bit about the tweeter, he seems to have a bit of a history of alarmism. Maybe this is real, but I’ll wait until I see some other people confirming. Not saying he’s wrong, just that since I can’t read Korean, I don’t have any idea, and his prior alarmism makes one naturally suspicious.

  11. 11.

    prostratedragon

    Guatemala just became the first country in the world to ban Americans in order to limit the spread of Coronavirus.

    Somewhere an old Mohawk spirit finally exhaled.

  13. 13.

    Jinchi

    2. It has since taken 53 days to do ~20,000 tests in the US;
    3. That’s how many South Korea does in 1 day.

    This statistic is even worse when you remember that the US has more than 6 times the number of people as South Korea. So they’re 300 times more efficient at screening the population.

  14. 14.

    satby

    So the reporting says that West Virginia is the only state not reporting cases of Covid-19. Do we believe that’s a result of lack of tests?

  15. 15.

    WereBear

    @satby:

    So the reporting says that West Virginia is the only state not reporting cases of Covid-19. Do we believe that’s a result of lack of tests?

     

    I think so.

  17. 17.

    Jinchi

    @David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: Dump has a travel ban on 28 euro counties. Russia is not banned.

    I’m sure his ban was pointed specifically at the EU, which he hates because he hates the idea of open borders, even in foreign countries an ocean away. That’s why the UK and Northern Ireland were not originally banned. It was a reward for Brexit.

  18. 18.

    WereBear

    @satby: A) I don’t believe a word that comes from the White House at this point.

    B) Judging from Mr WereBear’s News video newsfeed this morning, the brown byproducts have finally hit the rotating blades.

    which means

    C) It’s starting to sink in that not only has this been screwed up from the beginning, the beginning was in 2018, when Trump fired the entire Pandemic Response Team and somehow, that didn’t make any news I ever saw.

    which leads to

    D) the death rate here will make 9/11 look like a case of the hiccups. And didn’t that disaster start with a Republican President dismantling an early warning system just because a Democratic President had set it up?

    We are going to be the worst hit in the world because an idiot was in charge. That’s just Cold Equations in something like this.

  19. 19.

    Jinchi

    @satby:So the reporting says that West Virginia is the only state not reporting cases of Covid-19. Do we believe that’s a result of lack of tests?

    Yes. I really hate the media’s reporting on this. They particularly need to stress that these numbers are “confirmed cases”. Saying that West Virginia is coronavirus-free is simply wrong and encourages complacency that we can’t afford right now.

    The state’s public health lab had tested 31 people for the coronavirus as of Friday night, the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources announced in a press release. At that point, 26 tests had come back negative and five were still pending.

    26 completed tests for a state with almost 2 million people. We’ll have to go looking before we confirm that West Virginia is the “last man standing”.

  20. 20.

    satby

    @WereBear: well, I had a lot of hope pinned on the karma of that bloated pustule getting Covid-19 and hopefully dying from it, with Pence following about two weeks later. May the FSM hear my prayer. We need competent leadership, looks like a common illness taking out the two and giving us President Pelosi is a remote chance.

    Pleasepleaseplease.

  24. 24.

    germy

    I predicted this a few days ago. Once the anti-teacher crowd (and anti-teachers union) gets a taste of distance learning… “think of the possibilities!”

    The shift to distance learning by k-12 and higher education in response to the virus is actually a huge opportunity to experiment with different technologies and different approaches. The first instinct will be to simply connect traditional learning by internet. Better steps exist— Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) March 15, 2020

  25. 25.

    germy

    By “acting big” I think they mean “push through all the legislation we’ve been dreaming of”

    Newt Gingrich: I Am in Italy Amid the Coronavirus Crisis. America Must Act Now—And Act Big | Opinion https://t.co/xyJSqxSz7s— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) March 15, 2020

  26. 26.

    TriassicSands

    @Cermet:

    At this point no one who still supports Trump or believes a word he says can be considered sane or alternatively, even minimally intelligent.

    I have tried to have a rational discussion with Trumpists in the past and I finally gave up because it may be the most frustrating interaction imaginable. The idiocy is overwhelming.

  27. 27.

    germy

    Now that potus has been tested are Biden and Sanders going to be tested— Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) March 15, 2020

    I don’t even believe “potus” has been tested.

  28. 28.

    Anya

    @Chetan Murthy: Also, age is not much of a factor for people who have a compromised immune. I don’t remember where I’ve read it but there was research that categorized known cases of people who have died and most of them had other chronic illnesses that affects the immune system.

  29. 29.

    artem1s

    The only way to get ahead of the curve is to take actions that *at the time* seem like overreactions,

    and when it’s all said and done, the last surviving MAGA will declare it was all a hoax – because the concept of preventative measures and triage is beyond their comprehension

  31. 31.

    snoey

    @Anya: Its a viral pneumonia and were losing the people we’d expect to lose from it.  Nothing abnormal or unexpected.

    This is from my daughter who is an ID doc and working in an affected area.

  32. 32.

    Anya

    @Martin: this is why the U.K.’s policy is terrible. What we know so far is the death rate for over 70 is pretty high and the UK government’s “let the virus run its course” plan doesn’t include a clear advisory not to expose the elderly if there is a chance you might be in contact with a carrier. The message should be, as long as you’re not socially isolating there is a chance you’re in contact with a virus carrier. You might be a virus carrier.

  33. 33.

    artem1s

    @satby: the Moron in Chief tested negative yesterday  (If you can believe anything coming out of this WH). With the incubation period, doesn’t mean he wouldn’t test positively today or tomorrow. He will behave even more cavalierly now. Plenty of opportunity for him to come down with COVID-ORANGE.

  34. 34.

    Jinchi

    @snoey: Its a viral pneumonia and were losing the people we’d expect to lose from it. Nothing abnormal or unexpected.

    Well, except for the number of people succumbing to pneumonia right now. That seems pretty abnormal.

  35. 35.

    Eric S.

    @germy: when I first read Donnie Dollhands had been tested the WH said results would take up to 2 days. Mentally, I called shenanigans. Then they announced negative results in under a day.  No, no I do not believe.  If, IF, he got tested they were going to say ot ws negative regardless the true result.

  36. 36.

    Chetan Murthy

    @snoey:

    Nothing abnormal or unexpected.

    Wut?  She thinks that losing a quarter of all the 80-year-olds is nothing abnormal?  That seems ….. surprising.

  39. 39.

    Chetan Murthy

    @WereBear: IIUC, we already knew from several weeks ago, that smokers were especially at risk, b/c smoking permanently activates the ACE2 receptors in the lungs, to which the covid-19 virus particles then bind (or something like that).  Which was part of why males were disproportionately affected in China — smoking is really a male thing there.

    If it turns out that otherwise, even old people are much less at risk, I will …. breathe a sigh of relief.  But I don’t expect that to be true: I’ve read that diabetics are at high risk for instance.

  40. 40.

    Jinchi

    @Eric S.: Mentally, I called shenanigans.

    Right.

    I know his physical strength and stamina are extraordinary, he’s the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency (much healthier than our current surgeon general!) and will probably live to be 200 years old if he gives up fast food. But did the president ever get part two of his two-part annual physical?

  41. 41.

    JMG

    My daughter in Bordeaux says her peer group (late 20s-early 30s) and the French in general were not taking the virus seriously enough. A friend of hers had a surprise birthday party for his wife last night. Wife has MS! Hope didn’t go. She felt badly, but acted appropriately.

  43. 43.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @Chetan Murthy: What I haven’t seen anything about is second-hand smoke. Does that also activate the receptors? What about vaping?

  45. 45.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    My editor lives in Madrid. She says they’re under complete lockdown–legally, not just a firm suggestion.

    ETA: I’m seeing pics of gigantic crowds of Americans in US airports scrambling to get home before they can’t. O’Hare has people penned together for hours while they wait. Then they’ll scatter across the country. Way to spread the disease, Trump.

  46. 46.

    mali muso

    So I’m trying to come up with a game-plan for being alone at home for the next 10 days with a three year old – working remotely and keeping her entertained without just resorting to TV.  DH is in Africa visiting family (fingers crossed he can actually get back into the country when he returns).  Some of my other friends with kids in my daughter’s age range had suggested rotating childcare duties, but that seems to go against the whole idea of social distancing.

  48. 48.

    Bex

    @Anya: Many commonly prescribed drugs suppress the immune system.  Check the warnings and take them into consideration when deciding on your actions.

  50. 50.

    Chetan Murthy

    @mali muso: [I have no children and have spent very little time around chlidren since I was one myself] Perhaps arrange with your friends to set up “video play-dates”?  display + camera on each end?  Just an idea (maybe a really stupid one).  So the kiddies get the interaction with each other, and can play with their toys and watch the other kid play with their toys …. ok, I can tell already it feels lame …..

  51. 51.

    Gvg

    @WereBear: Actually, I suspect Russia will be hit harder and Putin is not an idiot but he apparently has blind spots, or maybe Russia does because they did this as the USSR too.

    However as an American, Trumps stupidity infuriates me more.

  52. 52.

    WereBear

    @TriassicSands:

    I have tried to have a rational discussion with Trumpists in the past and I finally gave up because it may be the most frustrating interaction imaginable. The idiocy is overwhelming.

     

    I also think we are about to find out just how impervious those reality shields are. Because Fox News has been telling them to take no precautions whatsoever…

  54. 54.

    BobS

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I didn’t fucking understand that at all- that screening should have taken place on the plane, and while disembarking. Even if there were cases in that mass of people (and of course there were), now you’ve effectively multiplied them keeping them shoulder to shoulder with other people for hours.

  55. 55.

    WereBear

    @Chetan Murthy:

    If it turns out that otherwise, even old people are much less at risk, I will …. breathe a sigh of relief.  But I don’t expect that to be true: I’ve read that diabetics are at high risk for instance.

     

    A while back I shared an article from The Lancet about two conditions which noted in cases which were more serious: high blood pressure and diabetes.

    When you consider red states are more likely to have untreated high blood pressure and diabetes, you can see why those around me kept telling me I was “overreacting” and I was saying, “No, you are all UNDERreacting.”

  56. 56.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @BobS: This administration can’t think more than five minutes ahead. And in this case, their hatred of dirty foreigners shrank that to one minute. They never anticipate the consequences of their own actions. They expect to act consequence free.

    I live in Chicagoland, so the O’Hare pics really made me cringe.

  57. 57.

    Andrew Johnston

    The news ’round these parts is that an expat bar which was closed by government edict some two months ago is slated to open on Monday…kinda. It’s a heavily restricted sort of “open,” with temperature checks, strict occupancy limits and restrictions on smoking, but that’s still progress. I suspect we’ll start seeing restaurants and coffee shops open up soon, though reduced foot traffic means that some of them will probably remain closed for a while even after the edicts are lifted.

    The bar opening is mostly moot for me personally, as I can’t easily get down there, but maybe this will lead to more expat joints opening up. That’s good for a little hope. After all these dried noodles, I think I’d cold-cock the next person I saw if it meant that I could get the opportunity to buy a pizza.

  58. 58.

    BobS

    @CCL: Plague is hyperbolic- flu is what the Village Idiot (sorry, George W., there’s a new, even more ignorant idiot in town) was referring to it as for couple fucking months. That the few adults in the administration were forced to tell the toddler emperor his new clothes looked great is why the US fell a month behind in fighting this. Let him wear ‘flu’ around his neck like a bade of dishonor.

  59. 59.

    A Ghost to Most

    @TriassicSands:

    I have tried to have a rational discussion with Trumpists in the past and I finally gave up because it may be the most frustrating interaction imaginable. The idiocy is overwhelming.

    Now imagine that both your entire family, and your spouse’s entire family, all turn into these raving shitbags. This is our reality.

  60. 60.

    mali muso

    @Chetan Murthy: Actually, that’s not a bad idea.  I don’t know that they would play so much as talk at each other, but she’s totally verbal and can carry on extensive conversations, so might be a thing that could entertain for a little while. :)

     

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Thank you, I saw that graphic earlier and was thinking to adapt it for myself.  I already told the kiddo that we would be doing “school” (what she calls daycare) at home together for a little while, so I’ve tried to set the expectation that there will be some kind of structure.

    She’s more or less dropped her afternoon nap now (which means she goes to bed on the early side, a boon for mommy’s mental health), so no breaks in the day there.  Time to do my research on crafts and activities for toddlers.  I’m not creative myself, so I’m gonna need resources.

  61. 61.

    Chetan Murthy

    @mali muso: Oh hm, I remember somebody describing their kids putting on their own mock classroom at home?  Maybe help make that easier to do?  Some arranged group video chats?  And let the kids do what they can?

    Also, now I remember my friend J telling me how is son A would mimick his work-from-home actions.  So maybe yeah, set your kid up a workstation where they can pretend to work like you do, etc, etc.

  62. 62.

    Soprano2

    @WereBear: More people should read “The Cold Equations” to understand that sometimes there’s no happy way out of a situation. I think that’s where the U.S. is now. The feds waited too long to get serious about this,  and one news network spend weeks telling all their viewers it was a hoax or all the fault of the media (I heard this several times yesterday.) One guy from Vietnam told me it was so bad in China because of their healthcare system,  and that we’ll be fine, and he also tried to tell me that 12,000 in the U.S. died of Ebola several years ago! I wasn’t having that.  There are two confirmed cases in my county in MO, but since both were travelers people still aren’t taking it that seriously. Also,  it’s about 65-70% Trumpies here, so they’ve been watching Fox News and listening to talk radio.

  65. 65.

    germy

    I'm one of the architects of the Trump agenda – I’ve always supported it and always will. Nothing the President can do will deter me from supporting this agenda, because my principles, just like my faith, are fundamental to who I am and immovable.
    — Jeff Sessions (@jeffsessions) March 11, 2020

  67. 67.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @mali muso: there’s Storyline Online.net for reading It features actors reading children’s books (Betty White, James Earl Jones, etc)

    will post any YouTube craft resources my friends with kids suggest. There are some fun kitchen science ones I just have to find them again.

  68. 68.

    germy

    Using a pandemic to push for his usual bullshit ideas:

    Let’s get rid of all the regulations and taxes that get in the way of getting medicine, care and food to All Americans during this crisis. And perhaps get rid of this government interference permanently… so it is gone when the next crisis arrives. https://t.co/a7TQUsp7i2
    — Grover Norquist (@GroverNorquist) March 15, 2020

  69. 69.

    Jinchi

    @mali muso: Some of my other friends with kids in my daughter’s age range had suggested rotating childcare duties, but that seems to go against the whole idea of social distancing.

    I think if you keep it to a small, self-contained group, isolated from the outside, it would still be effective. This is the sort of set-up lots of people are going to need if this continues for weeks.

  70. 70.

    Percysowner

    @germy: Ohio already THOUGHT of the possibilities and funded online charter schools, to be paid  and number students calculated by by hours of attendance. You will be shocked, SHOCKED to find out that students were taking classes 28-36 hours a day 7 days a week. Ohio did shut down the one online school that they found out about and is still trying to get the money back from them.

  71. 71.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Jinchi:

    I think if you keep it to a small, self-contained group

    An ID specialist was saying that eventually, once we know who is infected and who is not, everybody will start to do this.  But that when you do it, you have to know that the others in the group will not include yet others.  In short, you have to have a truly closed, self-contained group.  And that is pretty damn tough to ensure.  But yeah, if you can get that, if you can get your friends to all agree, it’d be great.  The downside of not having it actually closed?  Somebody brings in an infected person, they get infected, next thing you know, you’re infected by your kid, and you pass it to your mom, who dies.

    This ID person counseled that one should wait until testing is in-place, before building such groups.

  72. 72.

    J R in WV

    One of the other favorite Blogosphere sites I visit is Emptywheel, Marcy Wheeler’s blog, which mostly covers court cases involving government misdeeds, including close coverage of Mr Trump’s legal issues.

    Recently Rayne, one of the several Wheeler sidekicks (frontpager analogues to Balloon Juice) posted an article that started out with how glad she was her spawn had strep throat, formerly a killer disease, now mostly easily treated with standard antibiotic treatment. She went on to discuss how to sew facemasks, including a later comment with discussion of a viral inhibitor, NaCl deposited on the mask, including a link to an article discussing research on that viral inhibitor published in Nature. Who knew a layer of salt in your filter could deactivate otherwise deadly pathogens!?

    Other participants at Emptywheel contributed improvements to Rayne’s Mother’s design from long ago:

    a former nurse with +50 experience, told me this is what they used to use in the old days “before they made us use all that disposable shit that goes in the landfill,”

    Directions:
    Cut (2) 7.5 inches wide x 7 inches high from plain cotton muslin.
    Iron (3) 1/2-inch folds across the length of each square.
    Sew together fabric squares top and bottom across length.
    Turn inside out and re-press folds and seams flat.
    Turn in ends 1/4-inch and pin close, then stitch.
    Use 1/4-inch elastic to sew along short ends to make ear loops.

    YMMV. Tweak as you go for fit because not everybody’s noses or ears are the same. ;-)

    I highly recommend anyone capable of sewing at all take a look at the article and comments. We desperately need these for everyone.

    Hope everyone is doing well under these trying circumstances. Keep in touch, please, with any health news, so that we can commiserate and sympathize, and share good thoughts and prayers for those that go there. I get closer every day… as I have heard it said, it can’t hurt and might help !

  73. 73.

    WaterGirl

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: That’s an area that hasn’t been covered in our current guest posts on distance teaching.  If she would be interested in writing something up, please have her get in touch with me.

    Also, if anyone else here has experience being a single parent working from home, a guest post on that would be most welcome.

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