COVID-19 Outbreak (Update: More than 2.9M cases and 132,313 deaths in US) (3 Viewers)

[RazorOye]

not sure if this has been posted or not - lost track of the thread for a bit, but this is making the news here locally:

World-first COVID-19 dialysis treatment comes from Canadian research team, doctors say

A team of researchers based in London, Ont. is the first in the world to attempt treating critical COVID-19 patients with a modified form of dialysis, doctors say.

london.ctvnews.ca

A team of researchers based in London, Ont. is the first in the world to attempt treating critical COVID-19 patients with a modified form of dialysis, doctors say.

The team at the Lawson Health Research Institute is led by Dr. Chris McIntyre, who while working in the intensive care unit at London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC), determined more treatment options were needed to fight COVID-19 in the hardest hit patients.

“This led to the idea of treating a patient’s blood outside of the body. We could reprogram white blood cells associated with inflammation to alter the immune response,” said McIntyre.

 

[St. Geezy]

If it was a one-time payment? I have my doubts. Sure, there would be some people that say screw this at their minimum wage jobs in large numbers and go back to school or something, but not sure that’s a bad thing.

If it was an annual thing, sure. As most people would in fact quit there so-called “essential” jobs that in reality pay them like they are cheap disposable sacks of meat. Like we are currently doing.

But that is the truth to the capitalist wheel isn’t it? What people at the top are really fighting against are measures that take away their profit margins by way of near total dominance of the labor supply chain that allows them to force people into essential jobs in their company chain for almost no pay.

Paying people a standard wage would essentially allow them to overnight have a strike fund and force companies to move their wages upward in order to just remain capable of attracting people to work in these less desirable but essential occupations.

I believe you're applying your own economic standards and practices onto everyone in our society.

I know if my wife and I were to get $75,000 each, not a single thing would change about our lifestyle - and I am sure the case is the same for you as well as for many of the fine folks on this here thread. Sure we may pay off a couple of credit cards or put a little bit more money into our mortgage principle, but outside of that, she and I would still go to work every day and would not spend much of it.

On the other hand, you put that type of money in front of a teenager or young college student or person struggling, living paycheck to paycheck, and they'll suddenly feel like they're on top of the world and would not be the same person they were before or feel they need to work. You really think the average person working at a fast food joint would not become demotivated instantly?

You don't think infusing $75k across 150+ million U.S. adults would have an effect at all on the overall value of the dollar? Overall demand for everything would suddenly go drastically way up, especially for items already in high demand, such as my loaf of break example, so supply would essentially stay the same....see where this is going?

 

[FootballLady]

I believe you're applying your own economic standards and practices onto everyone in our society.

I know if my wife and I were to get $75,000 each, not a single thing would change about our lifestyle - and I am sure the case is the same for you as well as for many of the fine folks on this here thread. Sure we may pay off a couple of credit cards or put a little bit more money into our mortgage principle, but outside of that, she and I would still go to work every day and would not spend much of it.

On the other hand, you put that type of money in front of a teenager or young college student or person struggling, living paycheck to paycheck, and they'll suddenly feel like they're on top of the world and would not be the same person they were before or feel they need to work. You really think the average person working at a fast food joint would not become demotivated instantly?

You don't think infusing $75k across 150+ million U.S. adults would have an effect at all on the overall value of the dollar? Overall demand for everything would suddenly go drastically way up, especially for items already in high demand, such as my loaf of break example, so supply would essentially stay the same....see where this is going?

You're doing the same thing you accuse him of doing. You give a person working paycheck to paycheck that kind of money and it allows them greater participation in the market. They get a more reliable car, perhaps a downpayment on a home, etc.

 

[Xeno]

I believe you're applying your own economic standards and practices onto everyone in our society.

I know if my wife and I were to get $75,000 each, not a single thing would change about our lifestyle - and I am sure the case is the same for you as well as for many of the fine folks on this here thread. Sure we may pay off a couple of credit cards or put a little bit more money into our mortgage principle, but outside of that, she and I would still go to work every day and would not spend much of it.

On the other hand, you put that type of money in front of a teenager or young college student or person struggling, living paycheck to paycheck, and they'll suddenly feel like they're on top of the world and would not be the same person they were before or feel they need to work. You really think the average person working at a fast food joint would not become demotivated instantly?

You don't think infusing $75k across 150+ million U.S. adults would have an effect at all on the overall value of the dollar? Overall demand for everything would suddenly go drastically way up, especially for items already in high demand, such as my loaf of break example, so supply would essentially stay the same....see where this is going?

$75,000 wouldn't make it possible for me to eat more bread. It would make it possible for me to buy a new car though. And put a new roof on my house.

 

[bonnjer]

So this stuff is seemingly an STD now, too.

Can coronavirus be sexually transmitted? Study from China points to yes

A study of 38 men from a hospital in central China found that COVID-19 may be present in sperm.

www.yahoo.com

 

[DaveXA]

Cruz has pretty Libertarian leanings on these types of things. I suspect he would have reacted the same in this case. That's not to say he isn't a sniveling worm with no balls. If someone called my wife ugly and my father a murderer there's nothing that could make me kiss their backside and anyone who would isn't a man. Still, this seems to be one of the few things he's consistent about (personal freedoms).

I can't stand Cruz, but he's been unapologetic about personal freedom no matter who it involves. I'm not so sure imprisoning a business owner was the right call here. Fine the business and move on to the next case.

Fwiw, I saw video of Cruz getting the haircut and everyone including Cruz was wearing a mask, so this in a roundabout way is showing businesses that they will still need to be smart about reopening and require masks and/or reasonable distancing and disinfecting SOPs. Hopefully this encourages people to continue taking this seriously as things slowly open back up.

I don't know how effective it will be, but other countries requiring widespread mask usage have done ok.

 

[St. Widge]

WASHINGTON – Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, got a haircut Friday at the salon owned by Shelley Luther, who was briefly jailed for refusing to obey stay-at-home orders during the coronavirus pandemic.

Luther, who opened Salon à la Mode nearly two weeks ago, was found in contempt for ignoring a court order to close from state Judge Eric Moyé, who sentenced her to seven days in Dallas County jail Tuesday and hit her with a $7,000 fine.

The state's Supreme Court on Thursday ordered Dallas County officials to free Luther while they weigh an appeal challenging her incarceration.

Cruz wrote on Twitter: "Hair salons & barbershops are open in TX today. Just got my hair cut for first time in 3 months at Salon A La Mode to support Shelley Luther, who was wrongly imprisoned when she refused to apologize for trying to earn a living. Glad Shelley is out of jail & her business is open!"...……...

Cruz gets his hair cut at salon whose owner was jailed for defying Texas coronavirus restrictions

Ah yes, I do recall the days when the Republican Party was the party of the rule of law. It was about 30 years ago at this point.

 

[N.O.Bronco]

I believe you're applying your own economic standards and practices onto everyone in our society.

I know if my wife and I were to get $75,000 each, not a single thing would change about our lifestyle - and I am sure the case is the same for you as well as for many of the fine folks on this here thread. Sure we may pay off a couple of credit cards or put a little bit more money into our mortgage principle, but outside of that, she and I would still go to work every day and would not spend much of it.

On the other hand, you put that type of money in front of a teenager or young college student or person struggling, living paycheck to paycheck, and they'll suddenly feel like they're on top of the world and would not be the same person they were before or feel they need to work. You really think the average person working at a fast food joint would not become demotivated instantly?

You don't think infusing $75k across 150+ million U.S. adults would have an effect at all on the overall value of the dollar? Overall demand for everything would suddenly go drastically way up, especially for items already in high demand, such as my loaf of break example, so supply would essentially stay the same....see where this is going?

I said from the first sentence that it would probably shift the behavior pattern in a not insignificant amount of low wage earners, but that im not sure that is a bad thing long term. But that it wouldn’t lead to the sort of economic collapse you inferred. In a lot of ways, it is exactly the sort of wealth transfer this country needs(though I would do things differently if I’m writing it). As it would transfer excess and stagnate resources into real world demand all across the economy. How many people would fix that roof they needed, get that new car, buy that gym membership, start a retirement fund, go back to college, start that small business etc?

And to my larger point, it speaks more about how toxic our current system is that a one time payment like that could decouple a lot of people from their parasitic relationship with their low wage employer.

It would probably make things like the food sector take a hit if you didn’t ease the policy in so these companies would know they need to up their offer sheet to stay in business, but that is because it is one of the most toxic examples of our predatory capitalist system. People shouldn’t be forced to be in the ICU or die working at Kroger(several dozen employees so far) for a $2 raise on a pittance of an hourly rate, or forced to go to work at a meat plant for wages that still require government subsidies to live, all in an epidemic where if they quit they are locked out of any income because they won’t qualify for unemployment. Forcing them to choose homelessness or possible death as the CEO takes home 10’s of millions and pays out millions in dividends to millionaires and billionaires at a lower tax rate than they have in many cases.

 

[Optimus Prime]

It was widely observed, following a certain event in a Connecticut elementary school on Dec. 14, 2012, that if America would tolerate the slaughter by gunfire of 20 children aged 6 and 7, it would tolerate anything.

Nothing proves the truth of that observation more than our response to the coronavirus pandemic.

At this moment of maximum peril, we’re tolerating the turning of workers in meatpacking plants and grocery stores, seniors in nursing homes and heedless churchgoers into sacrificial offerings to the gods of “freedom” and “choice.”

Grandparents are being counseled to give up their lives “in exchange for keeping the America that all Americans love for your children and grandchildren.” Those are the words of Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who added during an interview on Fox News: “If that’s the exchange, I’m all in.”

Of course, Patrick wasn’t “all in.” He gave the interview from the security and safety of a sequestered location, not while helping nurses struggle in close quarters, without adequate protective equipment, to pass an oxygen tube down the trachea of a COVID-19 patient.

These thoughts are prompted by a tweet from Andy Slavitt, who was chief of Medicaid, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act during the Obama administration and currently one of our most reliable purveyors of accurate information about coronavirus policy.

“One thing is clear,” Slavitt wrote recently. “Our government has a higher tolerance for unnecessary deaths than other countries. School shootings, shootings in church, at concerts, in night clubs. People in nursing homes. Meat plants. Prisons.”...…………..

Michael Hiltzik: America's tolerance for mass murder is the coronavirus' best friend

 

[St. Widge]

Cruz has pretty Libertarian leanings on these types of things. I suspect he would have reacted the same in this case. That's not to say he isn't a sniveling worm with no balls. If someone called my wife ugly and my father a murderer there's nothing that could make me kiss their backside and anyone who would isn't a man. Still, this seems to be one of the few things he's consistent about (personal freedoms).

I wish I could believe that Cruz did this for deeply held philosophical beliefs, but I really doubt it. I mean, I have pretty serious Libertarian leanings (in the classical, not modern sense), but I see no way to justify a Senator publicly supporting someone who repeatedly broke a vital public health law and calling that law illegitimate. He did this as part of his next re-election campaign.

 

[N.O.Bronco]

I can't stand Cruz, but he's been unapologetic about personal freedom no matter who it involves. I'm not so sure imprisoning a business owner was the right call here. Fine the business and move on to the next case.

Fwiw, I saw video of Cruz getting the haircut and everyone including Cruz was wearing a mask, so this in a roundabout way is showing businesses that they will still need to be smart about reopening and require masks and/or reasonable distancing and disinfecting SOPs. Hopefully this encourages people to continue taking this seriously as things slowly open back up.

I don't know how effective it will be, but other countries requiring widespread mask usage have done ok.

Imo there is nothing to applaud about an opportunistic politician using a person’s reckless act of defiance that was/is endangering her community to signal boost and harden his concerted attempt to turn scientifically backed practices meant to save lives and minimize harm in a pandemic into a partisan wedge issue he can score brownie points for by enflaming and then politically profiting from that well poisoning.

 

[St. Widge]

I can't stand Cruz, but he's been unapologetic about personal freedom no matter who it involves. I'm not so sure imprisoning a business owner was the right call here. Fine the business and move on to the next case.

That isn't an option when someone keeps breaking the law. And, IIRC, this woman was warned several times and just kept doing it. At some point there is no choice.

 

[zeetes]

$75,000 wouldn't make it possible for me to eat more bread. It would make it possible for me to buy a new car though. And put a new roof on my house.

pay off my work amex

 

[bclemms]

If you give every American $75,000, a loaf of bread becomes $25 within two weeks.

The entire economic system would fall upside down on its head.

Now, if you rolled out that $75,000 payout over say a 2 to 3 year period, that would help curb the negative effect on the value of the dollar.

Are you sure? It wouldn't even double the national debt.

 

[0rion]

So this stuff is seemingly an STD now, too.

Can coronavirus be sexually transmitted? Study from China points to yes

A study of 38 men from a hospital in central China found that COVID-19 may be present in sperm.

www.yahoo.com

To me this makes me think of hunting clothes. I wear just brown bibs with usually dark green, brown, or black hoodies/jackets during bow season. My buddies always Raz me about not wearing camo. I tell them if a deer gets close enough to notice what clothes I have on its too late for him. Same with this....if you're having sex with a covid positive person it's too late...you already have it.