The all-new "US Politics and coronavirus" thread

[wareyin]

I've both linked and described the tracker several times. It's from Google. In fact, all you have to do is, open Google, type "cases in -- the name of a state or country -- coronavirus" in the search box and it should be the first result you see. It will be displayed directly on the search page, you don't have to click on a link. There is a ton of information available.

Link

Thank you. I must have missed your previous links. There are multiple sources out there, but I didn't recognize that graph. I have to say the graph for Georgia is very different from the official one put out by our Department of Health. Our DPH claims cases are dropping, and will even post a chart showing a drastic downward curve showing only 5 new cases on the same day they announce 800+ new cases. Today's chart says 8 new confirmed cases but the number of cases went up by 633, for instance.

 

[quadraginta]

https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/11/politics/mitch-mcconnell-barack-obama-coronavirus-response/index.html

McConnell is getting a little uppity here, telling a former president what he should and shouldn't do.

McConnell calling Obama "classless" and complaining that he is acting insufficiently presidential is very dangerous.

It could create an irony singularity which would suck in the the entire universe.

 

[Minoosh]

IOW, don't call him on his lies, just let him repeat them ad nauseum to his base, because it's a boring news story.

My comment was in regard to the importance of any "news" coming out of his press availability, when another poster said he wanted to know if Trump said anything worthwhile.

He's starved for attention, loves it when the story is about him, even if it's bad things the MSM are pointing out. I believe in devoting some resources to set the record straight. But I'd rather see more and more people ignoring him, because I think it will drive him berserk. That's just my take on how to neutralize him. I could easily be wrong.

 

[Minoosh]

Indeed.

I get the feeling that the admiral in question is pretty good. I've seen him speak before at the briefings, and never heard anything stupid. I remember his presentation he gave on setting up emergency hospital facilities and I was impressed. However, he's just the logistics guy.

If the people who are logistically competent are allowed to do their jobs, that's something. But I get the feeling Trump is doing everything he can to discourage testing. It's a double-edged sword though. Without nimble, robust testing, the fatality rate is probably going to look a lot higher than it really is.

I'd rather err on the side of having more information; Trump wants to squash it. I'm just wondering if epidemiologists can work around the BS and get the testing needed for a clearer picture.

 

[newyorkguy]

...I'd rather err on the side of having more information; Trump wants to squash it...

Leaders like trump ALWAYS want to control the flow of information. It's one of the most dangerous things about him. This constant braying about 'Fake News' seems designed to discredit the information trump can't control.

...Our DPH claims cases are dropping, and will even post a chart showing a drastic downward curve showing only 5 new cases on the same day they announce 800+ new cases. Today's chart says 8 new confirmed cases but the number of cases went up by 633, for instance.

That sounds pretty bad. Can you post a screen cap? I'd like to see that. Google's charts come from Wikipedia and are tabulated from a variety of sources. Below is a screen cap for Georgia. It's the usual dips and spikes. I wondered several 'pages' back if the Republicans might throw out the guidelines about fourteen days of downward trending new cases and decide a plateau may have to be good enough. They actually do seem to be doing that. I've read comments on social media from people who are more concerned with the economy than public health saying the same things. Dr. Fauci warned the Senate this afternoon that kind of approach can easily backfire.

 

[dann]

California is doing so-so, with numbers of new registered cases dipping and spiking but the general trend is still upward. On May 5th they had the most new cases ever, with 2,603.

FTFY. The dips and spikes probably depend of the number of people tested on those days. Do they correlate with weekends, for instance?

 

[dann]

I saw the press conference and none of the reporters challenged him. Do they not arrive at these press briefings prepared?

It wasn't because they were cut short?

 

[alfaniner]

If the people who are logistically competent are allowed to do their jobs, that's something. But I get the feeling Trump is doing everything he can to discourage testing. It's a double-edged sword though. Without nimble, robust testing, the fatality rate is probably going to look a lot higher than it really is.

I'd rather err on the side of having more information; Trump wants to squash it. I'm just wondering if epidemiologists can work around the BS and get the testing needed for a clearer picture.

Trump wants less testing because it keeps the number of reported cases lower.

 

[Elagabalus]

Thank you. I must have missed your previous links. There are multiple sources out there, but I didn't recognize that graph. I have to say the graph for Georgia is very different from the official one put out by our Department of Health. Our DPH claims cases are dropping, and will even post a chart showing a drastic downward curve showing only 5 new cases on the same day they announce 800+ new cases. Today's chart says 8 new confirmed cases but the number of cases went up by 633, for instance.

I think that some of the rise is a result of having more tests available. So the amount of people tested (per day) is also going up. The more people tested the more cases of Covid-19 detected.

 

[thaiboxerken]

I saw the press conference and none of the reporters challenged him. Do they not arrive at these press briefings prepared?

I think it's not so much that they are ill prepared. I think it's more that they want to be invited back.

 

[wareyin]

That sounds pretty bad. Can you post a screen cap? I'd like to see that. Google's charts come from Wikipedia and are tabulated from a variety of sources. Below is a screen cap for Georgia. It's the usual dips and spikes. I wondered several 'pages' back if the Republicans might throw out the guidelines about fourteen days of downward trending new cases and decide a plateau may have to be good enough. They actually do seem to be doing that. I've read comments on social media from people who are more concerned with the economy than public health saying the same things. Dr. Fauci warned the Senate this afternoon that kind of approach can easily backfire.

I posted a link, but their graph is so wonky that an image won't do it justice. You have to hover a mouse over today's date on the graph to see the "8 confirmed cases" popup, and you have to either have another source (I use https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ ) or have written down yesterday's total numbers to see that the actual number of confirmed cases increased by 633.

https://dph.georgia.gov/covid-19-daily-status-report

eta: They'll be updating the numbers at 7pm Eastern time, so there may be changes. The confirmed new cases in the graph will still be in the single digits while the total number of confirmed new cases will likely increase more than the 633 that it was at 1pm.

eta2: Worldometers now has it as 735 new cases, Google still has 526, but the official GA page ignores the numbers and says there were only 8 confirmed cases today still.

 

[slyjoe]

Leaders like trump ALWAYS want to control the flow of information. It's one of the most dangerous things about him. This constant braying about 'Fake News' seems designed to discredit the information trump can't control.




That sounds pretty bad. Can you post a screen cap? I'd like to see that. Google's charts come from Wikipedia and are tabulated from a variety of sources. Below is a screen cap for Georgia. It's the usual dips and spikes. I wondered several 'pages' back if the Republicans might throw out the guidelines about fourteen days of downward trending new cases and decide a plateau may have to be good enough. They actually do seem to be doing that. I've read comments on social media from people who are more concerned with the economy than public health saying the same things. Dr. Fauci warned the Senate this afternoon that kind of approach can easily backfire.

AZ's governor is in the middle of a press conference where they pulled essentially that. What he says is "if the percentage of positive tests is going down you can move to phase I of reopening."

The number of new cases per day is not going down, and certainly not for the last 14 days. But with the government's "testing blitz" over the last several weekends, the percentage of positive tests HAS gone down. Seems manipulative to me.

 

[newyorkguy]

A news report says Georgia has been testing about 11,000 people a day since about May 1st. The governor says anyone in Georgia who wants to be tested can now be tested, whether they have symptoms or not. Below is a quote from WSB-TV in Atlanta [ETA- This story is from last Friday]:

• Gov. Brian Kemp’s office confirmed to Channel 2 Action News that the state has doubled its coronavirus testing in the last 10 days, with a total of 110,000 people tested in that time.
• The percentage of people tested who test positive for COVID-19 dropped another 2% from last week, down to 14% altogether. Kemp’s office also said reports for hospitalizations and ICU needs continue to fall.
• Today is the first day testing is open to everyone in the state, whether they have symptoms or not. A mass testing site will be open at the Infinite Energy Center in Gwinnett County. Last month’s event tested 800 people.
• Gov. Kemp says there are enough coronavirus tests and urges all Georgians to take one.

Link

In Arizona new cases continue to rise and fall but there's no downward trend. I saw someone from the Massachusetts Health Department on PBS a little while ago. He said another wave of coronavirus is expected this Fall, at least by health professionals. With the onset of seasonal flu that has doctors very concerned about how hospitals will cope.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

I think that some of the rise is a result of having more tests available. So the amount of people tested (per day) is also going up. The more people tested the more cases of Covid-19 detected.

Or the more undercounted cases in the past are being exposed.

More testing finds more cases. Less testing missed more cases.

 

[Bubba]

Originally Posted by Skeptic Ginger View Post
And Trump storms out of another press conference.

Reporter asks some question about Trump responding to hurting Americans. It was along those lines, someone can correct me.

Trump responds with something to the effect of asking China.

Reporter pulls down her mask, emphasizing the fact she is of Asian decent and calls him on it: "Did you give that answer specifically to me?"

Trump calls it a nasty question, calls her a nasty reporter and storms off.

He is an orange snowflake. Melts down so easily.

wrongo

He walked out because he is simply fed up and disgusted with the lying clowns game playing.

 

[Resume]

wrongo

He walked out because he is simply fed up and disgusted with the lying clowns game playing.

No, he's a wimp, a cuck frightened by strong women. Actually, frightened by most women: those he can't pay off, pay for, or grab by the pussy. Only weak men talk to and about women the way he does.

 

[thaiboxerken]

wrongo

He walked out because he is simply fed up and disgusted with the lying clowns game playing.

Wow. You drink the flavoraid don't you?

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

So the new big thing is "Gasp!" they want restaurants to keep a record of patrons in case it is needed for contact tracing should someone turn up with COVID 19 after having eaten there.

Meanwhile, McConnell seeks to slip a new rule into the renewal of the FISA court system that lets the FBI search through anyone's net browsing history. Only the Progressives and the Libertarian conservatives seem to have noticed.

Reason: Sen. Mitch McConnell Looks To Undermine Efforts to Protect Americans From Secret FBI Surveillance - An amendment to a FISA renewal bill would let the FBI snoop on your online browser history.

If you needed a reminder that several Republican lawmakers only care about secret surveillance when their guy is the target, keep an eye on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R–Ky.).

This week the Senate is expected to vote to renew some Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) authorities that expired in March. As part of the renewal, some privacy-minded senators from both sides of the aisle are attempting to attach some reforms to better protect Americans from warrantless surveillance.

On Monday, Spencer Ackerman at The Daily Beast reported that McConnell, who is urging senators to reject these reforms, is circulating an amendment that would actually expand the authority of the FBI to secretly snoop on citizens.

Two independent sources provided a copy of the amendment to Reason.

But collect your name when you dine at a restaurant, so invasive.

 

[eerok]

wrongo

He walked out because he is simply fed up and disgusted with the lying clowns game playing.

Wrongo. Trump is always the biggest lying clown in the room. He walked out because he was challenged and he's a pussy.

 

[EHocking]

wrongo

He walked out because he is simply fed up and disgusted with the lying clowns game playing.

If that was the case in this thread you’d be fairly lonely here.