Cont: The all-new "US Politics and coronavirus" thread pt. 2

[newyorkguy]

This is from one of the two studies linked by Sherkeu.

In the new Pediatrics study, Klara M. Posfay-Barbe, M.D., a faculty member at University of Geneva's medical school, and her colleagues studied-

1. The households of 39 Swiss children infected with Covid-19. Contact tracing revealed that in only three (8%) was a child the suspected index case, with symptom onset preceding illness in adult household contacts.
   
2. In a recent study in China, contact tracing demonstrated that, of the 68 children with Covid-19 admitted to Qingdao Women's and Children's Hospital from January 20 to February 27, 2020, 96% were household contacts of previously infected adults.
   
3. In a French study, a boy with Covid-19 exposed over 80 classmates at three schools to the disease. None contracted it.
   
4. In a study in New South Wales, nine infected students and nine staff across 15 schools exposed a total of 735 students and 128 staff to Covid-19. Only two secondary infections resulted, one transmitted by an adult to a child.

Below is a quoted that was linked here previously -- the New York Times news story is from August 4th -- but look at the experience Israel had:

As the United States and other countries anxiously consider how to reopen schools, Israel, one of the first countries to do so, illustrates the dangers of moving too precipitously. Confident it had beaten the coronavirus and desperate to reboot a devastated economy, the Israeli government invited the entire student body back in late May. Within days, infections were reported at a Jerusalem high school, which quickly mushroomed into the largest outbreak in a single school in Israel, possibly the world. The virus rippled out to the students’ homes and then to other schools and neighborhoods, ultimately infecting hundreds of students, teachers and relatives. Link to Times story

I was recently reading a profile of an Italian woman named Gianna Pomata who spent most of her life working as a professor at the John Hopkins Medical University in Baltimore, before retiring and returning to her native Italy. She is buoyed by the way Italy has handled the pandemic and greatly troubled by the way the U.S. has seemingly struggled. The hostility in the U.S. towards following basic medical guidelines -- wear a face mask, practice social distancing -- is particularly troubling and, at the same time, somewhat baffling.

“What I see right now in the United States is that the pandemic has not led to new creative thinking but, on the contrary, has strengthened all the worst, most stereotypical, and irrational ways of thinking. I’m very sorry for the state of your country, which seems to be in the grip of a horrible attack of unreason.” She continued, “I’m sorry because I love it, and have received so much from it.” The New Yorker magazine

 

[Stacyhs]

I'm just glad my one and only is out of college and I don't have to make this decision. Whew.

 

[a_unique_person]

What do you all reckon Trump's motive for sending school children back to school to be in the first place? Aiding the economy, since faculty, janitors, and security staff get paid? Sacrificing children to aid the illusion that things are improving? Triggering the libs?

People can go to work and not have to stay at home minding their kids.

 

[Darat]

What does the union want?

Probably something outrageous, like safety for teachers...

 

[The Don]

Probably something outrageous, like safety for teachers...

...and possibly even for the students as well

 

[newyorkguy]

The hits just keep on coming. This is from the Texas Tribune.

The number of Texans being tested for the coronavirus has fallen sharply in recent weeks, a trend that has worried public health experts as officials consider sending children back to school while thousands more Texans are infected each day. In the week ending Aug. 8, an average 36,255 coronavirus tests were administered in Texas each day — a drop of about 42% from two weeks earlier, when the average number of daily tests was 62,516. At the same time, the percentage of tests yielding positive results has climbed, up to 20% on average in the week ending Aug. 8. Two weeks earlier, the average positivity rate was around 14%.

Taken together, the low number of tests and the large percentage of positive results suggest inadequacies in the state's public health surveillance effort at a time when school reopenings are certain to increase viral spread, health experts said. "Opening the schools is a really complicated problem, and the best thing we can do is get the number of cases down so kids can go back to school safely," said Catherine Troisi, an infectious disease epidemiologist at UTHealth School of Public Health in Houston. "There are so many reasons why kids need to be in school, particularly younger kids, but we’re finding out more and more they can get infected, and the concern is them bringing it home and spreading in the community and spreading to teachers. I think the worst thing would be for schools to open, then close," she said. "That really makes it hard on parents, that unpredictability, and there’s a lot of costs associated with opening the schools safely." Texas Tribune link

This is the America the trump regime is giving us. One in which you can't necessarily expect trump and his loyalists in state government will have protecting the public's health and safety as their number one priority. It's just unbelievable.

 

[jimbob]

This is from one of the two studies linked by Sherkeu.


Below is a quoted that was linked here previously -- the New York Times news story is from August 4th -- but look at the experience Israel had:


I was recently reading a profile of an Italian woman named Gianna Pomata who spent most of her life working as a professor at the John Hopkins Medical University in Baltimore, before retiring and returning to her native Italy. She is buoyed by the way Italy has handled the pandemic and greatly troubled by the way the U.S. has seemingly struggled. The hostility in the U.S. towards following basic medical guidelines -- wear a face mask, practice social distancing -- is particularly troubling and, at the same time, somewhat baffling.

Israel is interesting. They are in a second lockdown and their cases have started decreasing again

My 7-day averages centred on the date (so +/- 3 days, which is why the average is only to the 8th August).

I've also put on dates of increasing or decreasing restrictions

ETA: Data from the ECDC - which is one of the better resources I've found

https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/publi...graphic-distribution-covid-19-cases-worldwide

 

[TurkeysGhost]

I'm just glad my one and only is out of college and I don't have to make this decision. Whew.

It's a tough choice for people in the middle of their studies.

For prospective freshmen, just taking a gap year might be the best bet. Delaying entry into college might be preferable to taking a bunch of 101 classes over zoom or whatever, or going to some college that is in some sort of pseudo-lockdown or running rampant with disease.

I don't envy anyone who's a student right now.

 

[ponderingturtle]

Why would you imagine that?

Because it is a fox news talking point.

 

[lomiller]

Florida Sheriff bans the us of face masks by his deputies or visitors to his office.

https://people.com/health/florida-s...tate-set-new-daily-record-for-covid-19-cases/

“We can debate and argue all day of why and why not," he added. "The fact is, the amount of professionals that give the reason why we should, I can find the exact same amount of professionals that say why we shouldn’t. Since the beginning of this pandemic the operation of this office has not changed and no wearing of masks has been put in place."

 

[Belz...]

...and possibly even for the students as well

Gods, given them an inch, amirite?

 

[carlitos]

Florida Sheriff bans the us of face masks by his deputies or visitors to his office.

https://people.com/health/florida-s...tate-set-new-daily-record-for-covid-19-cases/

People did this same kind of denial during the AIDS crisis, and a lot of them died. Here, most of them will only get sick and not die. OK, maybe they will infect and kill a lot of other people, but hey, that's the price of freedom and stupidity.

ETA - If I had a lot of time and a supercomputer, I would find the positive correlation between Florida ignoramuses dying due to Covid denial and the increase in average manatee population.

 

[Resume]

The fact is, the amount of professionals that give the reason why we should, I can find the exact same amount of professionals that say why we shouldn’t.

That is not a fact; that is a bald ass assertion that you pulled from your hairy ass.

 

[Resume]

We all knew this was coming.

Trump unveils new Covid adviser who backs reopening schools

Amid increasing public clashes with his top public health advisers on the pandemic, Donald Trump appears to have turned to an academic whose views on swift reopening in the face of coronavirus mirror his own.


On Monday, the president said that Scott Atlas, a healthcare policy expert at the conservative Hoover Institution at Stanford University, “will be working with us on the coronavirus”, adding that Atlas “has many great ideas”.

Atlas appears to be more in tune with Trump’s thinking on the virus after the president publicly criticized both of his top pandemic officials, Deborah Birx and Anthony Fauci, over concerns they raised about the disastrous spread of Covid-19 in the US and the danger of allowing students to return to school.

In June, Atlas said the idea that schools could not reopen after the summer break was “hysteria” and “ludicrous”. The new White House adviser has also called for college football to resume – a favored move by conservatives – despite a surge in virus cases in many states.

Trumpies will soon have new talking points.

 

[Stacyhs]

Trump is standing up there right now repeating the same debunked lies over and over and over again. He's like a damn broken record.

 

[Bob001]

.....
For prospective freshmen, just taking a gap year might be the best bet. Delaying entry into college might be preferable to taking a bunch of 101 classes over zoom or whatever, or going to some college that is in some sort of pseudo-lockdown or running rampant with disease.
....

A gap year would probably be great for most kids in ordinary times. They could work at jobs and get some life experience, or travel if they've got the money. But today they're probably going to be home anyway; they may as well rack up some intro credits, maybe at the local CC instead of Expensive Brand Name U.

 

[Meadmaker]

We all knew this was coming.



Trumpies will soon have new talking points.

Disgusting.


I know when I want a really top notch doctor, I think "Hoover Institute".

 

[Stacyhs]

Trump only wants people around him who echo his own opinions because, after all, they'd be right since he knows more about everything than anyone else. It's very simple, people.

 

[Meadmaker]

I was thinking about Dr. Atlas, Trump's new adviser. A few pages ago, I was talking about having a panel of doctors available to research, write, and update reports that would be used by the President and policy makers. I wouldn't mind if a guy like Atlas was on that panel, writing the "dissenting" sections. I think it's important that people see the diversity of opinions, and he should be able to present his own views, in more than just sound bites. Give us the data. Put it in charts or graphs. Show us the support for your thinking. I'm all for it.

Instead, he leads with the conclusions (such as "schools should open") and so Trump likes him. Data, shmata. Who cares about data? Trump knows, "He agrees with me, so he must be right."

If Trump doesn't get kicked out of office by the voters, it really might be time to dig that Irish passport out of mothballs. If the American people can't see through this schmuck after four years, I don't think there is hope for America.

 

[Babbylonian]

Disgusting.


I know when I want a really top notch doctor, I think "Hoover Institute".

It's not even what you'd think if you wanted an above-average president.