Coronavirus

[O Really]

Interesting article here on schools, from the standpoint of a teacher/administrator willing to tell the truth as she sees it.

Dear Parents: You Are Being Lied To––8 Things You Should Know About Reopening Schools
https://www.scarymommy.com/dear-parents ... g-schools/

[Vrede too]

Interesting article here on schools, from the standpoint of a teacher/administrator willing to tell the truth as she sees it.

Dear Parents: You Are Being Lied To––8 Things You Should Know About Reopening Schools
https://www.scarymommy.com/dear-parents ... g-schools/

Thanks.

>1500 US deaths, worst day this summer, a rate of >547,500 per year.

[GoCubsGo]

Interesting article here on schools, from the standpoint of a teacher/administrator willing to tell the truth as she sees it.

Dear Parents: You Are Being Lied To––8 Things You Should Know About Reopening Schools
https://www.scarymommy.com/dear-parents ... g-schools/

Thanks.

>1500 US deaths, worst day this summer, a rate of >547,500 per year.

That would be more than all the U.S. deaths in World War 2.

Gonna be a hell of a legacy for Emperor Cheetohead.

[GoCubsGo]

Matthew McConaughey grills Dr. Anthony Fauci in Instagram interview on COVID-19
ABC News
ANNE FLAHERTY
ABC NewsAugust 13, 2020
Matthew McConaughey interviewed Dr. Anthony Fauci for 40 minutes on Instagram Thursday with the fast-talking, Oscar-winning actor getting a chance to grill the nation's top infectious disease expert on COVID-19.

McConaughey rapidly fired questions at the 79-year-old doctor on everything from how concerned people should be about getting the virus from touching a door knob (not as much as sharing close physical space with someone who is infected, Fauci says) to whether Advil makes symptoms worse (it doesn't).



https://www.instagram.com/tv/CD2WoXupHV-/

[Vrede too]

What are they covering up and does this mean that they know things are far worse than we're being told?

Firm Running Coronavirus Database Refuses to Answer Senators' Questions

The health care technology firm that is helping to manage the Trump administration’s new coronavirus database has refused to answer questions from Senate Democrats about its $10.2 million contract, citing a nondisclosure agreement it signed with the Department of Health and Human Services....

Later Friday, the Department of Health and Human Services official in charge of the new database, José Arrieta, abruptly resigned after only 16 months on the job, according to a report in the Federal News Network....

... Jessica Tillipman, an assistant dean at George Washington University Law School who teaches about government contracts and anticorruption, said Friday that such agreements with government vendors were unusual.

“One of the cornerstones of the federal procurement system is transparency, so it strikes me as odd,” she said.

The government uses the data to help track the pandemic and make crucial decisions about how to allocate scarce supplies, like ventilators and the drug remdesivir, which is used to treat hospitalized COVID-19 patients....

And one month into the new arrangement, there are questions about how useful the new database is. The COVID Tracking Project, a heavily used resource, reported this week that the federal data are “unreliable.” In comparing hospitalization data reported by the state and federal governments, the project has found large discrepancies in certain states.

“We felt like we had a very solid baseline current hospitalization number, and then after the switch-over, for reasons that remain somewhat obscure to us, we suddenly saw numbers jumping around in totally different ways,” Alexis Madrigal, the project’s co-founder, said in an interview....

The manner in which the contract was awarded has also generated confusion. A government website initially listed it as a “sole source” contract, but health department officials later said there were six bidders, although they would not name the others, saying they were “prohibited from sharing that information by federal regulations and statutes.”

Tillipman said keeping the names of bidders a secret is also unusual.

[neoplacebo]

What are they covering up and does this mean that they know things are far worse than we're being told?

Firm Running Coronavirus Database Refuses to Answer Senators' Questions

The health care technology firm that is helping to manage the Trump administration’s new coronavirus database has refused to answer questions from Senate Democrats about its $10.2 million contract, citing a nondisclosure agreement it signed with the Department of Health and Human Services....

Later Friday, the Department of Health and Human Services official in charge of the new database, José Arrieta, abruptly resigned after only 16 months on the job, according to a report in the Federal News Network....

... Jessica Tillipman, an assistant dean at George Washington University Law School who teaches about government contracts and anticorruption, said Friday that such agreements with government vendors were unusual.

“One of the cornerstones of the federal procurement system is transparency, so it strikes me as odd,” she said.

The government uses the data to help track the pandemic and make crucial decisions about how to allocate scarce supplies, like ventilators and the drug remdesivir, which is used to treat hospitalized COVID-19 patients....

And one month into the new arrangement, there are questions about how useful the new database is. The COVID Tracking Project, a heavily used resource, reported this week that the federal data are “unreliable.” In comparing hospitalization data reported by the state and federal governments, the project has found large discrepancies in certain states.

“We felt like we had a very solid baseline current hospitalization number, and then after the switch-over, for reasons that remain somewhat obscure to us, we suddenly saw numbers jumping around in totally different ways,” Alexis Madrigal, the project’s co-founder, said in an interview....

The manner in which the contract was awarded has also generated confusion. A government website initially listed it as a “sole source” contract, but health department officials later said there were six bidders, although they would not name the others, saying they were “prohibited from sharing that information by federal regulations and statutes.”

Tillipman said keeping the names of bidders a secret is also unusual.

My guess is that this is just a straight up corruption case with government money. When I was an estimator, any local or state government funded job out for bids HAD to have at least three bidders or the process would end and start over. I imagine federally funded contracts have even more rules about open bidding. Of course, the multi billion dollar no bid contracts Halliburton got during the baby Bush era were exempt. This is likely of the same stripe. And the non disclosure agreement referenced in the story is probably a lie.....such a thing flies in the face of normal bidding protocol.

[Whack9]

[neoplacebo]

The poor bastard likely is not aware that the Russian vaccine is, in fact, bleach that's been diluted with the low quality domestic Russian vodka.

[Vrede too]

The poor bastard likely is not aware that the Russian vaccine is, in fact, bleach that's been diluted with the low quality domestic Russian vodka.

Cool, I'm in.


Disapproval of Trump COVID response hits new high — and many aren’t hopeful, poll says

. . . and other interesting responses.

[neoplacebo]

The poor bastard likely is not aware that the Russian vaccine is, in fact, bleach that's been diluted with the low quality domestic Russian vodka.

Cool, I'm in.


Disapproval of Trump COVID response hits new high — and many aren’t hopeful, poll says

. . . and other interesting responses.

I'm surprised that trump hasn't jumped and quacked that he intends to buy hundreds of millions of dollars worth of this stuff.

[Vrede too]

I'm surprised that trump hasn't jumped and quacked that he intends to buy hundreds of millions of dollars worth of this stuff.

They've got to use up all of the hydroxychloroquine first.

viewtopic.php?p=124529#p124529

Yeah, it goes good with the politicization of public health data that happened yesterday when trumpers cut CDC out of the reporting of data chain, instead directing all data to be sent to the new HHS database so it can be manipulated, disregarded, disparaged, and used for fascist propaganda purposes.

TV news: Now back to CDC.

[neoplacebo]

I'm surprised that trump hasn't jumped and quacked that he intends to buy hundreds of millions of dollars worth of this stuff.

They've got to use up all of the hydroxychloroquine first.

viewtopic.php?p=124529#p124529

Yeah, it goes good with the politicization of public health data that happened yesterday when trumpers cut CDC out of the reporting of data chain, instead directing all data to be sent to the new HHS database so it can be manipulated, disregarded, disparaged, and used for fascist propaganda purposes.

TV news: Now back to CDC.

I have to figure that pp has taken hydroxychloroquine and choked on it, then turned to My Pillow oleander extract. In pp's honor I will listen to the old Steely Dan song "My Old School" which has a line "oleanders, growing outside her door, soon they're going to be in bloom up in Annandale." Then I will laugh my ass off.

[Vrede too]

I have to figure that pp has taken hydroxychloroquine and choked on it, then turned to My Pillow oleander extract. In pp's honor I will listen to the old Steely Dan song "My Old School" which has a line "oleanders, growing outside her door, soon they're going to be in bloom up in Annandale." Then I will laugh my ass off.

Po' ol' PP.

Speaking of "choked on it":

CDC Director Backtracks on Changes to Coronavirus Testing Guidelines After Widespread Criticism

The director of the Centers for Disease Control backtracked on the agency’s changes to its COVID-19 testing guidelines after criticism from public health experts, including Coronavirus Task Force member Dr. Anthony Fauci.

The CDC changed testing guidelines on Monday to say that people who have been exposed to the virus “do not necessarily need” to get tested if they are not showing symptoms, alarming experts and Fauci, who said Wednesday that he was undergoing surgery when the Task Force agreed to change the wording.

In a statement shared on Thursday, CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield clarified that “testing may be considered for all close contacts of confirmed or probable COVID-19 patients.” However, the CDC’s guidelines have not been changed on its website as of Thursday afternoon....

“I am concerned about the interpretation of these recommendations and worried it will give people the incorrect assumption that asymptomatic spread is not of great concern. In fact, it is," Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on CNN Wednesday night, in response to the guideline change....

The CDC made the changes after pressure from top officials in the Trump administration, sources told CNN and the Times on Wednesday....

The new guidelines are in line with President Donald Trump's repeated requests for less COVID-19 testing. In July, after more than a month of soaring case numbers and a record high of 75,500 new infections in one day, Trump incorrectly stated that the number of new cases would go down with less testing, and said that the number of tests "makes us look bad." ...

[Vrede too]

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

City of Detroit Government

This image represents the 1,500 fellow Detroiters we have lost to COVID-19. Families of 900 of the victims provided us with these photos to create this powerful image, which will adorn the cover of the program each family will receive at the city's Memorial Drive on Belle Isle on August 31.

Detroit will never forget. Resident can drive thru belle isle and pay their condolences and view all photos on Tuesday and Wednesday, September 1st and 2nd.

Powerful photo tribute to over 900 people who died of COVID-19 gives 'people a last look at their loved ones' (article)

[billy.pilgrim]

https://elemental.medium.com/a-supercom ... cb8eba9d63

"this summer, the Summit supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Lab in Tennessee set about crunching data on more than 40,000 genes from 17,000 genetic samples in an effort to better understand Covid-19. Summit is the second-fastest computer in the world, but the process — which involved analyzing 2.5 billion genetic combinations — still took more than a week."

"When Summit was done, researchers analyzed the results. It was, in the words of Dr. Daniel Jacobson, lead researcher and chief scientist for computational systems biology at Oak Ridge, a “eureka moment.” The computer had revealed a new theory about how Covid-19 impacts the body: the bradykinin hypothesis."

"Covid-19 has another especially insidious trick. Through another pathway, the team’s data shows, it increases production of hyaluronic acid (HLA) in the lungs. HLA is often used in soaps and lotions for its ability to absorb more than 1,000 times its weight in fluid. When it combines with fluid leaking into the lungs, the results are disastrous: It forms a hydrogel, which can fill the lungs in some patients. According to Jacobson, once this happens, “it’s like trying to breathe through Jell-O.”'

[billy.pilgrim]

https://elemental.medium.com/a-supercom ... cb8eba9d63

"this summer, the Summit supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Lab in Tennessee set about crunching data on more than 40,000 genes from 17,000 genetic samples in an effort to better understand Covid-19. Summit is the second-fastest computer in the world, but the process — which involved analyzing 2.5 billion genetic combinations — still took more than a week."

"When Summit was done, researchers analyzed the results. It was, in the words of Dr. Daniel Jacobson, lead researcher and chief scientist for computational systems biology at Oak Ridge, a “eureka moment.” The computer had revealed a new theory about how Covid-19 impacts the body: the bradykinin hypothesis."

"Covid-19 has another especially insidious trick. Through another pathway, the team’s data shows, it increases production of hyaluronic acid (HLA) in the lungs. HLA is often used in soaps and lotions for its ability to absorb more than 1,000 times its weight in fluid. When it combines with fluid leaking into the lungs, the results are disastrous: It forms a hydrogel, which can fill the lungs in some patients. According to Jacobson, once this happens, “it’s like trying to breathe through Jell-O.”'

After reading this article again, I wonder if a nose only mask would be almost as effective as the over the mouth masks that we are using.
We know that masks aren't perfect and a nose only mask might be less effective than a N-95, but it would be better than lifting the N-95 to eat or talk and could be better than a lot of what passes for masks now.
I don't know enough to know if these ACE2 receptors are also in the mouth, but the article emphasizes the nose.


"According to the team’s findings, a Covid-19 infection generally begins when the virus enters the body through ACE2 receptors in the nose, (The receptors, which the virus is known to target, are abundant there.) The virus then proceeds through the body, entering cells in other places where ACE2 is also present: the intestines, kidneys, and heart. This likely accounts for at least some of the disease’s cardiac and GI symptoms."

[billy.pilgrim]

https://elemental.medium.com/a-supercom ... cb8eba9d63

"this summer, the Summit supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Lab in Tennessee set about crunching data on more than 40,000 genes from 17,000 genetic samples in an effort to better understand Covid-19. Summit is the second-fastest computer in the world, but the process — which involved analyzing 2.5 billion genetic combinations — still took more than a week."

"When Summit was done, researchers analyzed the results. It was, in the words of Dr. Daniel Jacobson, lead researcher and chief scientist for computational systems biology at Oak Ridge, a “eureka moment.” The computer had revealed a new theory about how Covid-19 impacts the body: the bradykinin hypothesis."

"Covid-19 has another especially insidious trick. Through another pathway, the team’s data shows, it increases production of hyaluronic acid (HLA) in the lungs. HLA is often used in soaps and lotions for its ability to absorb more than 1,000 times its weight in fluid. When it combines with fluid leaking into the lungs, the results are disastrous: It forms a hydrogel, which can fill the lungs in some patients. According to Jacobson, once this happens, “it’s like trying to breathe through Jell-O.”'

After reading this article again, I wonder if a nose only mask would be almost as effective as the over the mouth masks that we are using.
We know that masks aren't perfect and a nose only mask might be less effective than a N-95, but it would be better than lifting the N-95 to eat or talk and could be better than a lot of what passes for masks now.
I don't know enough to know if these ACE2 receptors are also in the mouth, but the article emphasizes the nose.


"According to the team’s findings, a Covid-19 infection generally begins when the virus enters the body through ACE2 receptors in the nose, (The receptors, which the virus is known to target, are abundant there.) The virus then proceeds through the body, entering cells in other places where ACE2 is also present: the intestines, kidneys, and heart. This likely accounts for at least some of the disease’s cardiac and GI symptoms."

oops, brain fart, the mask is to protect others from my breath, not me from others.

Back to my n-95s

[Vrede too]

oops, brain fart, the mask is to protect others from my breath, not me from others.

Back to my n-95s

It's both with an N-95 or better. You MIGHT be correct that a nose-only N-95 or better would be sufficient to protect you, but I wouldn't risk it. That said, some sort of nose mask might be a good idea when eating or drinking in public. I wonder if something is for sale online.

[billy.pilgrim]

oops, brain fart, the mask is to protect others from my breath, not me from others.

Back to my n-95s

It's both with an N-95 or better. You MIGHT be correct that a nose-only N-95 or better would be sufficient to protect you, but I wouldn't risk it. That said, some sort of nose mask might be a good idea when eating or drinking in public. I wonder if something is for sale online.

Plugs, or play dough


https://www.walmart.com/browse/sports-o ... 52_5432753


It's just one article, but it appears to be a good study, so says the art major.

I don't know anything about the ACE2 receptors except what was in the article. The article stresses the nose, kidneys, heart and something else but didn't mention mouth

[billy.pilgrim]

Or line a nose warmer with some n-95 material.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/244689870/ ... bgQAvD_BwE