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You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 Coronavirus / COVID-19 Coronavirus Update – Thursday/Friday, March 19/20

COVID-19 Coronavirus Update – Thursday/Friday, March 19/20

by | 45 Comments

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Seriously good read (including a thoughtful estimate on when we’ll see a vaccine):

… The president’s remarks ran afoul of nearly every established FDA norm — prizing data and evidence over rhetoric, for instance, and avoiding promises, let alone those that can’t be kept. But they were also a sign of his long-running impatience with the realities of drug development — an impatience that is flaring at a time when the need for new medications seems more urgent than ever.

“Trump entered the White House fuming at bureaucrats, moaning about the deep state, but in particular trying to bring down the FDA,” said Arthur Caplan, professor of bioethics and the founding head of New York University School of Medicine’s Division of Medical Ethics. “That’s pure ideology, and it turns out that ideology is barren and impotent in the face of a pandemic.” …


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45Comments

  1. 1.

    WereBear

    The Republican fetish for seeing everything they do as “marketing” has never been more stark.

    It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear! And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead!

    They can’t smoke-and-mirror this one. And there’s nothing like the threat of death to focus minds.

  2. 2.

    opiejeanne

    @WereBear:  This is all true. They can’t sue it, either.
    I left home 3 times today and it was frustrating and frightening. The Costco pharmacy trip was the best, the trip to pick up pre-paid stuff at Home Depot was terrible, although everyone was nice. They just didn’t understand the need to not get too close to other people.
    The third trip was to urgent care and the pharmacy next door because I couldn’t face Costco again and thought this would be easier since they were only open as a drive-through.

    I went home and showered and washed my hair, feeling as if I could smell other people on me, the way you smell cigarette smoke in your hair when you’ve been around a smoker.

    I don’t think I’m ever leaving my house ever again. I’m going to live like Sandra Bullock in “The Net”.

  3. 3.

    WereBear

    @opiejeanne: everyone was nice. They just didn’t understand the need to not get too close to other people.

     
    Yes, this! I went in yesterday morning to use office equipment for part of my job, and there were people widely scattered through the open plan parts, or bunkering in their own office. And yet, working on something complicated, we would drift closer without thinking.

    The grocery store was even worse! I was constantly making warding off gestures! Hey, think of me as rude. I might be saving your life.

    I wear one designated coat and cheap winter gloves I picked up in a spring sale. I come home, put the coat in a designated place, and shower me and my gloves. I have my own bathroom and Mr WereBear stays away from all this.

    He’s not going anywhere unless we take a scenic drive.

  4. 4.

    Betty Cracker

    We were talking last night about the need to make plans to do things so we have something to look forward to and don’t go insane with anxiety. The activities have to be free and fun and away from other people, obviously. Today’s plan is to go canoeing. The river is low right now (normal before the summer rains come), so we’ll canoe upriver for a while and then float lazily back home, enjoying the silence.

  6. 6.

    opiejeanne

    @WereBear: I never used to be like this. I’m not sure I would feel safe if I just went for a walk, and we live in a place that’s nice for walking. I was never fearful like this, and I hate it.  It makes me feel like a really old person, and I’m only 70.

    The neighbors are all visiting with us across the fence line, people who have lived a couple of doors away for several years but who we have never met, they’re all walking their dogs and extremely interested in our broken fence that a drunk teenager drove through last week.

  7. 7.

    JPL

    @Betty Cracker: Have fun!   I’m venturing out to Fresh Market to get some greens and fruit.   It will probably be my last outing as the numbers of infected around me keeps rising.

  8. 8.

    opiejeanne

    @Betty Cracker: That sounds wonderful.

    I think we’ll take our daughter’s car for a joyride tomorrow, to keep the battery charged. The flowering cherries and plums are putting on a show right now.

  10. 10.

    opiejeanne

    @Betty Cracker: My older daughter’s fiancee says are going to make these, when they get home from Florida.  She described the people crammed into  bars and restaurants as if everything was just fine. They’re due to fly home on the 28th, but they’re considering renting a car and driving. They went  for spring training, which didn’t last long.

    She says the PTB finally closed the beaches yesterday where she’s staying.

  12. 12.

    Mary G

    This is an amazing collection of information, AL. Depressing af, but your research skills are top notch. You must spend hours a day collating it all.

  13. 13.

    WereBear

    @opiejeanne: She described the people crammed into  bars and restaurants as if everything was just fine.

     

    I knew Florida was going to be a giant problem. From old people who love cruises to a working population in hospitality who don’t get sick leave, right down to every government official with the attitude of the mayor in the movie Jaws.

  14. 14.

    Betty Cracker

    @JPL: There’s a farmers market not too far from here that I plan to visit soon to stock up on some fresh fruit and veggies. We’re down to two bananas and two plantains in the fruit bowl.

    The mister’s garden is growing nicely, but only the herbs and peppers are ready so far.

  16. 16.

    Betty Cracker

    @WereBear: Yep, it’s going to get really bad here. I think it’s finally starting to sink in among the populace, even the Fox News viewers, but it’s way too late to stop the spread.

    I mentioned this weeks ago in one of AL’s covid morning threads: one of my daughter’s friends was hospitalized with a high fever and shortness of breath. She’s fully recovered now, but while she was in treatment, she was never tested for C-19 nor did the hospital take any precautions to protect visitors or staff.

    In retrospect, we’re all sure it was C-19. She hadn’t traveled anywhere nor come into contact with anyone who’s known to have the virus (as far as we know). So if it was C-19, the community spread has been happening for far longer than is acknowledged by the governor.

    That’s just one anecdote, but since there’s no data (only 2800 tests have been done in FL to date), anecdotes are all we have.

  17. 17.

    JPL

    Both of my senators took advantage of the upcoming crisis by dumping their stock.   Loffler runs ads all the time claiming that  she’s been in Washington only a short time, and it’s worse than you think.   Yes it is Kelly and could it be because the Senate is controlled by republicans.

  18. 18.

    raven

    @opiejeanne: I had a similar experience with the pre pay at Lowes. I ordered and paid for pine straw for the yard. The website stuck on “in process” so I finally called thinking I’d just be able to drive to the trailer and they said , no, you have to come in the store! I was able to cancel. I did the Kroger shop and click or whatever and I can get my stuff Sunday.

  20. 20.

    WereBear

    @raven: Down there you have a much longer growing season that we in the Frozen North. I’m still wearing ice cleats to negotiate the shaded part of our driveway.

  23. 23.

    NotMax

    Appears OzarkHillbilly may have been lucky enough to savor a full bout of sleep, so in his stead –

    BLECH.

  24. 24.

    JWR

    @opiejeanne:

    They just didn’t understand the need to not get too close to other people.

    Went to Trader Joe’s yesterday, and as I left with my meager stores, (I could not believe the shortage of practically everything), an older gentleman called out, wanting to talk about the pandemic, which was fine by me. The first thing I mentioned was social distancing, (we were then separated by maybe 5 feet), but the longer we spoke, the closer he got. I exited the situation fairly easily, but I felt badly for him, as he may have just been craving social interaction. (I did however warn him off all those Youtube videos he said he’d been watching.) But yeah, the need to avoid close proximity to people in general is weird, but very necessary.

  25. 25.

    opiejeanne

    @raven: Tonight was the first night in a week with overnight temps above freezing. Today it was 60F and sunny and very nice. We’ve adapted so well that if it’s 50F and sunny we don’t need a sweatshirt to work in the garden.

    Anyway, the soil is still too cold to start planting, except for sugar snap peas. I’ll work on getting the trellises up tomorrow. mr opiejeanne is finally putting the greenhouse back in working order, so in a week or so I can start some seeds in there.  When the tomato seeds show up I may start them in the house, a thing I’ve never done before. We always buy big tomato plants because of the short growing season here.

  26. 26.

    OzarkHillbilly

    The wife is officially working from home. I have been forced to make alternate arrangements with all my girlfriends.

    sigh….

    Wally World is now only open from 7 am to 8:30 pm (I think that’s right). According to my wife, the liquor store is the only part that remains well stocked. Thank Dawg for small favors.

    I have to venture to Orschelns to get a new tractor battery and as long as I’m there I may as well plan for the future and get some chick starter for the new layers I am getting next month. A couple other things I need to get too. Other than the cashier, I don’t expect to interact with anybody.

    Took my neighbor some heirloom iris corms I had promised to share (moved them all out of that bed to a sunnier location). Her sister was visiting. She had the sniffles. Better safe than sorry, I didn’t.

    My Covid-19 life.

  27. 27.

    opiejeanne

    @JWR: When we went to the supermarket early on Wednesday, there was no chicken. None, nada, zippo. But they did have ground beef. I bought a family pack, nearly 4 pounds, and divided it up into 4 ziplocks that went into the freezer. Two weeks ago there was no hamburger but plenty of chicken. It’s just weird.

    We’ve been eating out of the pantry and freezer for over a week, and I was starting to feel a little panicky, as if there wasn’t enough food still left for six more weeks. Instacart came through with almost everything I asked for, so I’ll use them again. I’ve started a list for next week because I’m almost out of pickles!

  28. 28.

    raven

    @opiejeanne: It was 80 here and the pollen is taking off. They would have missed the azalea’s again at the Masters.  They put a “shelter in place’ edict down last night so I don’t know if my HVAC guy is going to be able to replace the unit our the rental that went south.

  29. 29.

    raven

    @OzarkHillbilly: Our neighbor died recently and he’d let the kudzu go nuts for 2 years so I’m trying to work on it for his widow who is not the outdoorsy type. What a bitch, it’s matted badly and the nodes are huge. I’m trying to work on it a little bit at a time hoping to make a dent so I can mow it when it starts to  bloom.

  31. 31.

    Chyron HR

    @opiejeanne:

    When we went to the supermarket early on Wednesday, there was no chicken. None, nada, zippo. But they did have ground beef.

    At first I read this as “no children” which would have been a very different anecdote.

  32. 32.

    raven

    @WereBear: In the 20 years we’ve been in this house I’ve learned I can control it with consistent mowing. The problem is that neighbors on both side have let theirs go so I am boxed in.

  33. 33.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven: Good luck. When I voted last week I spotted what I think is a patch of kudzu. Something has just absolutely taken over a patch of roadside at an old mine waste site. I know it’s coming what with global warming and all but….

    AAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!! RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!

  35. 35.

    Soprano2

    We’re doing limited package sales at the pub since the local liquor store is out of tequila. Did $450 yesterday. We may do carry out if this lasts a long time. My stepson said all flights to Hawaii have been prohibited and non-essential people were told to stay home. He’s still working at the grocery store.

  36. 36.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven:The boss lady insists on monitoring my every move near her stuff because I trample her babies!

    And what beautiful babies they are.

  38. 38.

    JWR

    @opiejeanne:

    When we went to the supermarket early on Wednesday, there was no chicken. None, nada, zippo. But they did have ground beef.

    At Trader Joe’s, what really struck me, (aside from all the empty shelf and freezer space), was that they had plenty of hair conditioner, but no shampoo. None, nada, zilch.

  39. 39.

    debbie

    @JPL:

    Did she say that she came to Washington to drain the swamp”? /eyeroll/

    The ads have stopped here, but the RWNJs were touting they had been endorsed by Gym Jordan. Seriously.

  40. 40.

    opiejeanne

    @JWR: We picked up a couple of bottles of shampoo at the Dollar Tree, two Sundays ago. We also got a bottle of dishwashing liquid because Target was out. That was the day after the huge panic-buying broke out herein Washington. We’ve watched with something like amusement mixed with alarm as other states suddenly hit that stage.

    Dollar Tree had small packs of toilet paper and paper towels, some bar soap, some liquid handsoap pumps, but the soap products were nearly sold out.

    I love that store but I don’t visit it very often. They have a catalog and will ship.

  41. 41.

    OzarkHillbilly

    White nationalist hate groups have grown 55% in Trump era, report finds

    According to the SPLC report, the arrests are evidence that federal agencies are finally “hearing the alarm bells” regarding violent white nationalism.

    It points out that in the last year, “the FBI upgraded its assessment of the threat posed by racially motivated extremists to a ‘national threat priority’”, and the “Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a strategic shift toward countering racial hatred”.

    But the report says that those efforts are hampered by senior members of the Donald Trump administration like Trump aide Stephen Miller, “who has long been allied with anti-immigrant hate groups”.

    Whooodathunkit?

    Along with the increase in white nationalist groups, there was an increase in homophobic and transphobic organizations, with anti-LGBTQ groups increasing 43% in 2019. Many of those highlighted in the SPLC report are religious fundamentalists.

    I am shocked, shocked I tells ya!

  45. 45.

    Another Scott

    Thanks for the pointers, AL.

    From the @HelenBranswell NYMag interview:

    A while back when the major manufacturer Sanofi got involved, it is really one of the biggest vaccine manufacturers, it said it thought three years was probably the best it could shoot for if everything was on track.

    :-(

    People have to stop assuming that everything is going to wind down in a couple of weeks.

    Maybe a couple of months (like Wuhan – which is still on lock-down but seeing no new cases (if you believe their numbers)) will do most of the job. Maybe it won’t. We can’t assume that it will just go away. A $1200 one-time check to some fraction of the population isn’t going to cut it either.

    Stay strong, everyone. Wash your hands!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

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