The all-new "US Politics and coronavirus" thread

[Stacyhs]

Gov. Brian Kemp’s office issued an apology after a Georgia Public Health Department chart wrongly reported a downward trend in coronavirus cases for the third time in as many weeks.

Was the upward line crossed out with a Sharpie and a hand drawn down arrow drawn in?

 

[newyorkguy]

Arizona, Florida and Texas may be headed for trouble. When do they start trending down? Do these officials understand this is an epidemic, a virus with no known cure? What can happen if it ever gets completely out of control? I guess they're betting it won't get crazy bad before summer when, a lot of health experts agree, the hot weather should reduce the danger. But in the meantime many thousands of people will have gotten sick in their states, and hundreds died, who may very well have remained healthy if the non-essential business shutdowns had remained in force.

Look at New Jersey. [Click to enlarge]

 

[Blue Mountain]

I don't know if this has been posted already, but it sure fits the scenario:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/moncef-slaoui-covid-19-vaccine-trump-czar_n_5ec05ee0c5b601e938721768

Trump's New COVID-19 Czar Holds $10 Million In Vaccine Company Stock Options [Huffington Post]

I fixed the link for you. Please see The campaign for good linking.

 

[Giordano]

How “fortunate” Brazil has chosen to prove Covid-19 is a hoax and “just a little flu.” Clearly it is just a mild disease for almost everyone and no there is no need for official rules of regulations that limit individual freedoms!. An even better example than Sweden.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-52701524

No doubt herd immunity will kick in any day now.

In truth I feel awful for the Brazilian people. Like us in the USA an election resulted in an evil, petty, stupid man being put in charge. And all suffer, not only those who voted for him.

 

[EHocking]

Trump's New COVID-19 Czar Holds $10 Million In Vaccine Company Stock Options [Huffington Post]

I fixed the link for you. Please see The campaign for good linking.

Thank you.
I didn’t read that link, nor the link in the post preceding it because it was just a blind link with no explanation as to its content.

I’ll read that one now . . .

 

[Minoosh]

My brother leans toward being a Trump supporter - never liked him all that much really, but better than a Democrat - and something about this Covid thing is rubbing him pretty raw. I've had to rely on him for grocery delivery lately and I can't quite put my finger on why, but he's had a hostile-ish response to picking up things at the store. I feel like there's anger there but I can't really tell who it's directed at. And somehow that seems more dangerous to me than if he had a clearly identified target. It's not liberals doing things in this state; the top officials are pretty Republican.

That week when the NCAA tourney and all the sports were canceled - that told me that this was not fundamentally a partisan issue. It's not something either political party could have made happen. Big Money was scared and it reacted.

When Dan Patrick said there were more important things than living - I think it shook up some people to realize they agreed, and that we should just go ahead, get the economy rolling and let the weak die. They didn't want to think about it that clearly, but now they have to own it.

 

[newyorkguy]

...https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-52701524

...In truth I feel awful for the Brazilian people. Like us in the USA an election resulted in an evil, petty, stupid man being put in charge. And all suffer, not only those who voted for him.

Where exactly Brazil is headed is hard to say. Just a few short years ago I thought the country was on the way to becoming amazing. Booming economy, low unemployment. Now a tragedy. The chart on the left is from Google/Wikipedia and on the right from Worldometer.

 

[Bubba]

I know I'm sitting around feeling guilty that I wasn't more enthusiastic for Clinton. I voted for her, without hesitation, but like so many people, I really didn't take Trump seriously. It wasn't until the weekend before the election that I even began to doubt, and the morning of the election when I started to feel nervous, and probably 8:00 or 8:30 on election night before I thought his victory was a serious possibility.

Had I thought it an actual possibility that Donald Trump would be in office, I probably would have worked for Hilary, and certainly not complained that she was "tone deaf" or was somehow a mediocre candidate.

And even after it became obvious that he would win, I figured it really wasn't all that big of a deal, but this situation is exactly the sort of situation that The Donald is least fit for. To whatever extent I made my own tiny contribution to his victory, I definitely regret it.

A-w-w-w

That sounds so virtuous, it tugs at the heart strings.

 

[StillSleepy]

Everybody is too self-righteous for the crab at the bottom of the bucket.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Gov. Brian Kemp’s office issued an apology after a Georgia Public Health Department chart wrongly reported a downward trend in coronavirus cases for the third time in as many weeks.

Well well well.

You can't just wish this thing away. They sure are trying.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

I don't know if this has been posted already, but it sure fits the scenario:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/moncef-slaoui-covid-19-vaccine-trump-czar_n_5ec05ee0c5b601e938721768

Disgusting.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Trump's New COVID-19 Czar Holds $10 Million In Vaccine Company Stock Options [Huffington Post]

I fixed the link for you. Please see The campaign for good linking.

I love your campaign, BTW. Just thought I'd weigh in.

 

[carlitos]

BBeyond the obviously stupid statement that the virus will just go away on Nov. 4th, is his remark that Biden can't draw as large a crowd as his father.



(I have to laugh at his always saying "Donald Trump" and never "my father")



Ummm....Eric, baby...Biden hasn't been able to hold a rally as the nominee yet. There's this thing called Covid 19. .

I am not at all comfortable with having a president who holds “rallies” in the normal course of governing. I don’t even love election rallies but at least they have a purpose. A sitting officeholder holding rallies strikes me as nothing but authoritarianism.

 

[phiwum]

Arizona, Florida and Texas may be headed for trouble. When do they start trending down? Do these officials understand this is an epidemic, a virus with no known cure? What can happen if it ever gets completely out of control? I guess they're betting it won't get crazy bad before summer when, a lot of health experts agree, the hot weather should reduce the danger. But in the meantime many thousands of people will have gotten sick in their states, and hundreds died, who may very well have remained healthy if the non-essential business shutdowns had remained in force.

Look at New Jersey. [Click to enlarge]

The Texas percentage of positive tests is going down (per Dallas Morning News), so the chart in absolute numbers may be misleading. Or maybe not.

The percentage of positives is a complicated matter. As the number of tests increase, the population getting tests changes. Those who were less likely to test positive will now be tested, so the virus could be slightly increasing in number of cases (including undiagnosed) while the percentage of positives goes down.

On the other hand, as testing increases, the number of cases could be slightly decreasing while the number of positives is going up.

In any case, the CDC guidelines take percentage of positives seriously. Two weeks of decrease in this figure meets the guidelines for opening up, given that the number of tests is not decreasing.

 

[carlitos]

I fixed the link for you. Please see The campaign for good linking.

Thanks - I was about to suggest that. This was Good info, I wouldn’t want it to be lost because of crappy link.

 

[newyorkguy]

The Texas percentage of positive tests is going down (per Dallas Morning News), so the chart in absolute numbers may be misleading. Or maybe not...

The Dallas Morning News is also reporting this:

Saturday May 16th set a new one-day record for 'most cases.'

 

[Suddenly]

Capitalist societies also have welfare. And benefits of other kinds, including universal basic income.



No, they need an income to live.

My main economic lesson from this is if I stop spending money on stuff I don't really need and take care of myself so I am less likely to need medical care then I am helping crash the economy.

The amount of destructive crap we do in the name of "jobs" is staggering. Not that any of it usually protects or produces many jobs, but it does make a nice human shield for the people profiting from the perverse incentives they can engineer with this approach.

 

[phiwum]

The Dallas Morning News is also reporting this:

Saturday May 16th set a new one-day record for 'most cases.'

Right, but it is still the case that the percentage of positive tests is going down.

I'm not at all saying that absolute numbers don't matter. I think it's hard to use either or both statistics and really know what's going on because the population of tested folks is not representative of the population as a whole.

 

[newyorkguy]

For me, the number of cases is both a good yardstick and an accurate picture of where we are. How could it not be? Using the number of people who tested positive depends on variables: how many people are being tested and who they are. What criteria they're using for who can get tested. It's been suggested that some of the states that are under pressure to reopen use that statistic to justify reopening, Arizona tripled testing. Not surprisingly, the percentages of positives went down. Yet the number of new cases continued to rise. They ignored the fact more new cases were being reported every day and said the declining percentage of positives showed the virus was 'under control.'

Phantom Wolf posted testing results for Arizona. Arizona cited a declining percentage of positives as justifying loosening restrictions. Yet when you look at the numbers you discover an interesting fact. Between April 12th and May3rd testing was increased three times but positives were up by almost double. It shows the virus is increasing. You can play around with the numbers anyway you want but when new cases go from 1,208 per day to 2,205 that tells me the virus is increasing.

Date|% Positive|Total Tests|# Positive Tests
April 5|10%|10,544|1,054
April 12|11%|10,983|1,208
April 19|10%|12,810|1,281
April 26|7%|23,107|1,617
May 3|6%|36,742|2,205

 

[Bubba]

I am not at all comfortable with having a president who holds “rallies” in the normal course of governing. I don’t even love election rallies but at least they have a purpose. A sitting officeholder holding rallies strikes me as nothing but authoritarianism.

I understand carlitos.

Should you ever come to see what those happy voluntarily rallying throngs see, you might consider rallying yourself.