WTF Community

🤮 Coronavirus (Community Thread)

General Discussion
#76

If the CNN headline below is really true, I’m blown away – and this is great news. As of Sunday, only 472 people in the U.S. had been tested according to the CDC, but by the end of this week 1,000,000 may have been tested. That’s an astounding accomplishment and, assuming it’s actually happening, more power to the people who are doing the testing.

Up to a million people could be tested for coronavirus by the end of week, the Trump administration said Monday, as cases across the US rose to more than 100 and health officials warned that the number will keep climbing.

Cases of the virus have now been reported in 12 states – the majority of them in California and Washington state, where six people have died.

About a quarter of the current cases were likely transmitted through US communities, officials have said, meaning they were not travel-related.

“My concern is as the next week or two or three go by, we’re going to see a lot more community-related cases,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in a news conference Monday. “That’s of great concern.”

The number of cases has been climbing as new guidelines from health officials gave more labs the go-ahead to conduct tests. Faulty kits from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention initially led to delayed and inconclusive results.

Over the weekend, the US Food and Drug Administration further expanded who could test for the virus by allowing additional labs to develop their own test for the virus. The move, the agency said, would enable more rapid testing capacity in the US.

“We believe this policy strikes the right balance during this public health emergency,” FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn said in a statement. “We will continue to help to ensure sound science prior to clinical testing and follow-up with the critical independent review from the FDA, while quickly expanding testing capabilities in the U.S.”

With more labs testing for the virus, the CDC stopped publishing the number of patients tested in the country – a figure it had so far kept track of on its website. In an email to CNN Tuesday, the agency said, "Now that states are testing and reporting their own results, CDC’s numbers may not represent all of the testing being done nationwide."

3 Likes
#77
4 Likes
#78

Ummmmmm…six degrees of separation perhaps, but exposure comes with the job I suppose.

A student and her mother who’d been exposed to Coronavirus…and then one of them shook VP Pence’s hand.

The school is in constant contact with the cadet and his mother, who are not exhibiting any symptoms of coronavirus, Bowman said, noting that parents should keep students who have a fever or not feeling well home to avoid sharing any viruses.

On Friday, SMA senior cadets shook hands and posed for photos with Vice President Mike Pence, who was visiting Sarasota for a fundraiser at U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan’s house.

The Pentagon has been in touch with the school about the student.

1 Like
#79


image
image1125×857 201 KB

3 Likes
#80

No offense to CNN, but they’re just quoting the trump administration which is pretty motivated to lie, not to mention they get lots of practice doing so. My hope is that it’s true, but color me skeptical.

4 Likes
#81

Totally agree. To claim we’re leaping from 472 tests to 1 million in just one week sure sounds like it could be just another Trump whopper. Especiallly considering he’s dished out over sixteen thousand of them since he took office. :lying_face:

I’m really hoping it’s true, but if it isn’t, CNN better give us just as big a headline reporting the magnitude of the lie. :mag_right:

2 Likes
#82

Ah, here we go. I was late getting home so I just had a chance to check @matt’s daily WTFJHT post – and he was already on it. The NYT is reporting that the “1 million” number is basically just more bloviating.

4 Likes
#83

Messaging positives about the Coronavirus is the priority for Pence and avoiding any ‘alarmist’ statements. T of course wants the ‘hurry up, it’s fixed’ answers and blends his messaging to say that.

What a WTFery moment (among the thousands) for this nation to endure - real danger and a false front from the WH chief and his allies.

Yes, thank you Fauci is true to his word.

Several people within and close to the Department of Health and Human Services said Pence’s office was micromanaging communications related to the administration’s response, and was overly concerned with day-to-day news cycles and public perception rather than long-term strategy about how to contain the growing outbreak.

Two HHS officials said Pence’s office had implemented a top-down structure by dictating to the agency how it should be communicating with the public, emphasizing that officials should be honest and open but refrain from using “alarmist” language about the outbreak in interviews.

Some close to the administration were advising Pence’s staff to worry less about day-to-day news cycles and headlines. Instead, they have counseled the vice president’s office to be fully transparent with the public about why certain mitigation measures may be needed, such as closing schools, rather than worrying whether those precautions would spook the public, adding that the best thing to ensure the president’s reelection was to stamp out the outbreak.

…

Throughout his presidency, Trump has obsessed over hourly news cycles, looking to win each one as opposed to patiently executing long-range strategies. But with coronavirus, some of his own administration officials privately say they are struggling to impress upon the president and his close advisers that they may need to weather some difficult news cycles to win the best headline of all: the eradication of the virus.

At a Monday roundtable meeting at the White House, Trump prodded pharmaceutical executives about how quickly they could get a coronavirus vaccine to market. He appeared not to understand the vaccine testing process, despite efforts by some executives to clarify the timeline, and incorrectly asserted that a vaccine could be ready “over the next few months” or “within a year.”

It fell to Fauci to correct the president.

“A year to a year and a half,” Fauci said.

Later on in the conversation, Trump chimed in, “I like the sound of a couple of months better, I must be honest with you.”

Fauci then asked that the pharmaceutical executives educate the president.

“Would you make sure you get the president the information that a vaccine that you make and start testing in a year is not a vaccine that’s deployable?” Fauci said. “So he’s asking the question, ‘When is it going to be deployable?’ And that is going to be, at the earliest, a year to a year and a half, no matter how fast you go.”

But on Tuesday, during a gathering of the National Association of Counties, Trump presented a rosy outlook. “We’re moving at a maximum speed to develop the therapies, not only the vaccines, but therapies,” he said. “Therapies is sort of another word for cure. ”

And he claimed that during his meeting with pharmaceutical executives, he had pressed the leaders to expedite the vaccine process.

“I said, ‘Do me a favor. Speed it up, speed it up,’ he said. “And they will. They are working really hard and quick.”

2 Likes
#84

You nailed it there! :dart:

1 Like
#85

OMG. I call total BS. “Any American can be tested.” No way! When the Shingrix vaccine came out, “any American could get one” – they just had to wait for a year and a half (like me) because there was no supply. This is the same deal. Saying “Any American can be tested” is so misleading it must be classified as a huge lie. :lying_face:

Check out the double-speak in the last paragraph. Shameful. This is not helpful. We need facts – we need the truth so we can act in informed ways to slow the spread of this disease. Pence and Hahn should be immediately relieved of any responsibility for managing this crisis and be replaced by people who know what they’re doing.

As the Trump administration struggles to clear up confusion and mixed signals over testing amid concerns that tests were not being made available soon enough, Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday evening said that “any American can be tested.”

What Pence said: Pence said in an off-camera briefing at the White House that there was new guidance from the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) that any American could be tested – “no restrictions, subject to doctors’ orders.”

Pence said the new guidance will make clear “that any clinician or health authority can administer the test.”

CNN has reached out to the CDC for comment on whether the agency’s online guidance will be updated to reflect the vice president’s remarks.

What happened before the announcement: The announcement follows numerous complaints of citizens asking to be tested and turned away due to the strict CDC testing criteria.

It also follows a number of government missteps that have left Americans scared and confused about how to protect themselves during the viral outbreak.

A botched roll out of CDC testing – combined with what some health officials now believe was too-strict criteria on who could be tested – caused a delay in testing that some health officials are increasingly concerned about.

US testing capabilities: On Monday, the Trump administration suggested that the US would be able to test close to 1 million people for coronavirus by the end of the week.

During a Senate hearing Tuesday, FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn was greeted by skeptical lawmakers and pushed to explain how he thinks the United States could do a million tests when, to date, it has only been able to perform about 3,600.

And this statement by Hahn is right up there with Kelly Anne’s “alternate facts”:

"I want to distinguish between the ability to get the test kits out to the laboratories with the ability of the labs to actually do the tests," Hahn told lawmakers, offering no clarity on how many tests could actually be run by the end of the week.

6 Likes
#86

My guess is that djt thinks if nine women are one month pregnant, then the baby will be born any day now. Sheesh.

6 Likes
#87

It’s also being reported he said “Any American can make a million dollars.” That’s an equally helpful statement.

5 Likes
#88

Gov Cuomo sending the signal that the testing needs to be free…

5 Likes
#89

Fair warning…from the scientific community. Thank you CDC.

Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, delivering a message to the American public, reiterated that point.

“I want them to be prepared for the reality that … there are going to be more cases in the community,” he said. “But I want them to continue their daily lives. I want them to be mindful of the opportunity again to prepare themselves and their families.”

Redfield said scientists do not have the data to predict the disease’s future spread.

“What we do know for sure, that in the right setting, it does have the potential to move quickly,” he said. “When you think that just a couple of weeks ago there were less than three cases in Korea, now there’s 2,500.”

4 Likes
#90

Pence pressed over coronavirus response in testy Senate briefing

3 Likes
#91

2500 kits per Pence are available…each kit can test 500 people. But for a country with over 300 million people…1,250,000 tests does not seem like a 'we’re ready" amount.

Expect inadequate responses…with this group.

https://twitter.com/Yamiche/status/1235273208909225985?s=20

5 Likes
#92

WTFery - Is he taunting the libs perhaps??

https://twitter.com/AndrewDesiderio/status/1235315732369592321?s=20

Trump%20Matt%20Gaetz%3F%3F
Trump%20Matt%20Gaetz%3F%3F1042×632 468 KB

1 Like
#93

Posting this with a constructive intention – we need to be acutely aware of how quickly and easily Covid-19 can spread – and we need to take extraordinary precautions as individuals and communities to check its spread. This case demonstrates how contagious the virus is. We may not like to hear it, but that’s the way it is. Be careful out there!

Good tip I came across recently: Disinfect your phone screen often – as often as you wash your hands – otherwise, just after washing your hands, you can transfer germs back to them from your phone.

Nine people connected to the man who was confirmed as New York’s second case of the new coronavirus have all tested positive for the illness, state officials said on Wednesday.

The new cases included the man’s wife; his son, 20; his daughter, 14; and a neighbor in Westchester County, who drove the man to the hospital. A friend of the man who spent time “in close proximity” with him also tested positive for the virus, as did that man’s wife and three of their children, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said.

The new confirmed cases, which brings the number in New York state to 11, came as state and local health officials were scrambling to identify the scope of the illness’s spread from the Westchester father.

So far, about 1,000 people were being asked to self-quarantine, Mr. Cuomo estimated.

Still, the governor urged New Yorkers not to panic — even as he said, as he has before, that officials expected that there would be many people who would test positive.

“By definition, the more you test, the more people you will find who test positive,” Mr. Cuomo said.

The discovery that the Westchester father, a man of about 50 who works with his wife at a law firm in Manhattan, had the illness set off a search by health officials across the region to determine whether he had infected others, and who might have infected him.

Officials said they had little clue as to how the man, who had not been to any areas with widespread transmission of the virus, had become infected. He became ill on Feb. 22 and was admitted to NewYork-Presbyterian Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville, N.Y., five days later.

search%20for%20potential%20exposure
search%20for%20potential%20exposure954×718 202 KB

3 Likes
#94

This is so utterly Texas:


image
image1100×925 179 KB

4 Likes
#95

https://twitter.com/MysterySolvent/status/1235365085289340929



Ukraine%20Anim%20Matt%20Gaetz%20Minion

https://twitter.com/Skylark_NC/status/1235386030074802176

image
image750×756 173 KB

4 Likes