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šŸ¤® Coronavirus (Community Thread)

Exposure to Sean Hannity may be lethal, studies on COVID-19 suggest

New studies suggest a correlation between Hannityā€™s stubborn denial of the coronavirus and a higher rate of cases in areas where he has the most viewers.

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A post was merged into an existing topic: Immigration: issues and policy

Florida reports massive single-day increase of 9,000 coronavirus cases

Itā€™s the largest single-day increase from any state.

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No one wants thisā€¦but encouraging more opening is a quicker way of getting it.

The co-founder of the ReOpen Maryland movement says he has tested posted for the coronavirus.

Tim Walters posted a series of Facebook videos about his illness, but said he would not cooperate with contact-tracing efforts by public health officials, reported The Baltimore Sun .

ā€œI was diagnosed yesterday at the ER with COVID-19,ā€ Walters said, ā€œand here I am months after not wearing a mask at rallies, churches and so on, and so itā€™s funny how capricious this thing is.ā€

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WH Briefing now at 9:30PST/12:30EST

June 26, 2020

White House Coronavirus Task Force Holds Briefing

Vice President Pence and members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force hold a briefing on the rise in cases across several states.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?473443-1/white-house-coronavirus-task-force-holds-briefing

Commentary

adding

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Headlines say it allā€¦and photo - T in the dark.
And this from the right-wing Drudge Report - news aggregator for Breitbart

Are they pushing Pence to take the helm now???

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more context and detail on this briefing

White House Coronavirus Task Force Holds Briefing

Members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force held a briefing on the rise in cases across several states.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?473443-1/vice-president-pence-visiting-states-rising-covid-19-cases&live=

April was that last month we had a coronavirus briefing from this administration.

As cases in the US continue to rise

Florida reported fewer tests per week but some manage to end up with more cases. Huh :thinking: maybe they need more testing not less to isolate the infected.

We have not flatten the curve but the EU has, compare the metrics

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When you compare how Europe was able to contain Coronavirus far better than the US was to declare victory a lot quicker than was mandated. We knew that this would not be good at the time. Interesting article.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-06-26/coronavirus-a-horrifying-rise-in-u-s-covid-cases-is-explained?sref=Kc3wdC8I

A growing gap in case growth between Europe and the U.S. tells the tale: Declaring victory too soon is an excellent way to return to new heights.

The alarming chart below has been making the rounds. It illustrates the poor job the U.S. has done in containing Covid-19 compared to the European Union, a bigger region of independent countries that suffered an earlier outbreak. Why the big difference? What is America doing wrong?

There are a lot of possible answers to those questions. A sluggish initial response and failure to ramp up testing let the virus spread far and wide in the U.S. And instead of coordinating a coherent and aggressive national response, President Donald Trump has consistently downplayed the threat of the infection and left decisions to insufficiently supported states. As a result, decisions over lockdowns and reopenings have been chaotic and have ignored the guidelines put forth by federal public health officials.

Amid all of this, one particular difference stands out between the American and European approaches. Many states were happy to reopen after simply ā€œbending the curveā€ ā€” that is, slowing upward growth and ensuring spare hospital capacity. These states went on to expand economic activity at an elevated plateau with lots of ongoing transmissions. In contrast, European countries mostly waited to reopen until they crushed the curve or reached its far slope, with substantially lower incidence or dramatic reductions in the viral spread. Itā€™s not the only explanation for a growing gap, but itā€™s a compelling one.

Curve Breakers vs Curve Benders

European countries have done a better job bringing Covid-19 under control

ā€¦

Persistently high case levels amid a substantial reopening also make it far more challenging to identify and isolate a high percentage of infected individuals ā€” again, a numbers problem. At a certain point, there are too many cases and contacts to have a hope of tracing them.

The gap with Europe argues for more restraint from fast-opening states going forward, and in fact, some governors are taking the cue. In Texas, where cases are rising at a dangerous rate, Republican Governor Greg Abbott has called a halt to business reopenings and ordered taverns closed. North Carolina has also frozen it reopening efforts, as have Utah and Nevada. And of course there is the example of New York and New Jersey, both of which waited until their steep curves were tamed before starting reopening efforts; now, even as activities resume in both states, new cases have slowed to a trickle.

The chart tells the tale: Declaring victory too close to the top of the curve appears to be an excellent way to return to new heights.

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Texas is closing itā€™s bars and restaurants again.

Florida bars will stop serving alcohol

We are not in a better place than in April

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That could be the explanationā€¦because whatever is happening, it is not working.

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Nancy Pelosi Calls Trump ā€˜Cowardlyā€™ For Not Wearing Mask, Supports Federal Mandate


Liz Cheney posts photo of former VP in face mask and says ā€˜real men wear masksā€™

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This move from American Airlines is deadly and reckless.

American Airlines Ditches Social Distancing, Will Book Planes At Full Capacity

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These Are The Only Four States On Track To Contain Coronavirus: New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Connecticut

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60 Minutes story coming about the fact FDA allowed ā€˜unverifiedā€™ tests into the marketplaceā€¦which stayed for 50 days.

Federal officials allowed distribution of COVID-19 antibody tests after they knew many were flawed - 60 Minutes - CBS News

Laredo, Texas, wound up getting thousands of antibody test kits from a Chinese company. The untested kits were then tested by the cityā€™s health director, Dr. Hector Gonzalez, who found the tests accuracy to differ wildly depending on when it was given and how long after a person was exposed to the virus. The small sample he tested was only about 20% accurate. ā€œWe had such high hopes to testā€¦ we were ready to do public drive-through testingā€¦ Now we couldnā€™t. We were on hold,ā€ recalls Gonzalez.

Laredo officials reported the faulty tests to federal agents at Homeland Security and officials came to town to seize the tests and start an investigation, but the federal government did little to halt the spread of other un-proven antibody testing kits.

Dr. Alex Marson, an immunology researcher from UCSF and Gladstone Institutes, decided to test a sample of the kits when he learned a friend had tested herself with one. He was concerned there were too many tests on the market and too little information. He and Dr. Patrick Hsu, an assistant professor of bioengineering at U.C. Berkeley, conducted their own analysis with the help of 50 researchers on tests from across the globe. ā€œWe saw a range, saw that some were closer to what we hoped for and others were farther off,ā€ Marson tells Alfonsi. And he cautions even the most reliable antibody tests arenā€™t fool-proof, because antibody levels sufficient to give immunity still arenā€™t known.

It took 50 days for the FDA to reverse its course on antibody tests. In May, it began requiring test developers to apply for emergency authorization and submit data to show their tests worked. It was too late, says Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi. He is investigating the FDA for not regulating the antibody tests. ā€œFraudulent tests flooded the market. Hundreds and hundreds of tests taken by hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people,ā€ says the Illinois Democrat. All companies had to do to get their tests to the U.S. market was state they were self-validated. ā€œWhen you open the floodgates to virtually any product being sold by anybody, well, guess what? Shysters, scam artists, and people who are preying on unsuspecting consumers enter the fray,ā€ says Krishnamoorthi.

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The inaccuracy of antibody tests is a result of the way they work. While they are easier to carry out, and a result can be obtained quickly, the problem is that they only will show up an infection after the person is contagious. Here is a nice graphic produce by Dr Siouxsie Wiles of Auckland University who has been a leading advisor to our govt here.
We have been using the test that looks for the genetic material of the virus rather than the antibody test. As you can see the benefit of that test s that it can detect the presence of the virus before the person become symptomatic and highly infectious.

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Latest ad from the Lincoln Project about ā€œthe greatest generationā€ (& how trump apparently regards them).

https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln

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CDC says U.S. has ā€˜way too much virusā€™ to control pandemic as cases surge across country

#2 at CDC :thinking:

The coronavirus is spreading too rapidly and too broadly for the U.S. to bring it under control, Dr. Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Monday.

The U.S. has set records for daily new infections in recent days as outbreaks surge mostly across the South and West. The recent spike in new cases has outpaced daily infections in April when the virus rocked Washington state and the northeast, and when public officials thought the outbreak was hitting its peak in the U.S.

"Weā€™re not in the situation of New Zealand or Singapore or Korea where a new case is rapidly identified and all the contacts are traced and people are isolated who are sick and people who are exposed are quarantined and they can keep things under control," she said in an interview with The Journal of the American Medical Associationā€™s Dr. Howard Bauchner. "We have way too much virus across the country for that right now, so itā€™s very discouraging."

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5c3vx0ACv8

Go to 3:02 and Dr. Anne Schuchat talks about there was a lot of 'wishful thinking" and that right now there is too much infection going aroundā€¦(what this CNBC article is talking about)

She was dismissed as a spox for the Coronavirus early right? She was giving the country some very ā€˜heavyā€™ news in Feb/March I believe and the WH did not like this.

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Keep on the lookout for pets in need.

The Pets Left Behind by Covid-19

The pandemicā€™s human toll in New York has been well documented. But what about the dogs and cats of those who become seriously ill?

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