COVID-19 ongoing thread part 2

[mr friendly guy]

Hey guys, remember that conspiracy theory that the virus leaked from the Wuhan lab. It came from "leaked cables" from the US (which they just wouldn't show of course) raising concerns about its ability to safely handle the virus. For those who don't remember, here is the piece by "journalist" Josh Rogin.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... naviruses/

Well in a surprise to no one, aside from rabid sinophobes and gullible people who put western media on a pedestral, its a load of horseshit now that we can actually see these leaked cables.

Here are the cables (its only 3 pages so an easy read)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/ ... 6aae1d272/

Here is Dr Angela Rasmussen's twitter feed on the subject. She has been one of the critics of it.
https://twitter.com/angie_rasmussen/sta ... 6312494082

I will give people the cliffnotes version of the leaked cable.

1. The cable praised the scientist at the Wuhan institute of virology for making ground breaking work on SARS despite their limitations.
2. The scientists at Wuhan were aware of limitations at the time of the cable, which was in the form of the lack of numbers of trained staff, and not lack of training among staff. So they were working with Americans to improve standards.
3. The corollary of point 2, the Chinese lab (at that time) was allowed to study certain virii, others like Ebola were not. It states it wasn't clear why the Chinese government did not approve of some, but I wouldn't be surprise if the lack of staff meant only a limited number of virii could be studied.
4. There was no worry about any fucking leakage of virii.

WaPo the organisation which acted as a cheerleader for the war in Iraq hires "journalists" who suck, and take things out of context. What a shocker. But remember folks, its not the fault of shitty news outlets for having standards of academic honesty less than primary school kids, its the fault of people like me for pointing it out.

[mr friendly guy]

More American exceptionalism, except China isn't budging when it comes to COVID 19.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-heal ... SKBN2426K7

https://asiatimes.com/2020/07/china-us- ... diplomats/

Summary
During the covid outbreak in China, the US withdrew some diplomatic personnel. Now that things are better, they are bringing them back in.

US - let our diplomats enter China without following your quarantine rules. They have diplomatic immunity.
China - yeah, they have diplomatic immunity, but that doesn't mean they have immunity to covid. Follow the quarantine rules.

There is now speculation along the Chinese watcher blogsphere that the closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston is in retaliation to China insisting US diplomats follow China CDC quarantine protocols. Its not unreasonable that China demands some quarantine since the coronavirus has been a disaster in the US due to gross incompetence among its officials, who ignored the WHO warning on Feb 25 that the world was not ready to deal with COVID etc.

Remember the faux outrage from Western news outlets when Niall Ferguson made the claim that China was deliberately letting citizens in Wuhan fly to the US when they knew there was an outbreak of a new disease (a claim which Ferguson now retracts after being presented with evidence, but which Western media will totally not put up a retraction). Where is the outrage when the US insists on sending people from the country which has the most number of COVID cases to another country when they know the US has not gotten the coronavirus under control.

[aerius]

Go home BC, you're baked.

https://globalnews.ca/news/7204384/coro ... holes-sex/

Try ‘glory holes’ for safer sex during coronavirus, B.C. CDC says
By Josh K. Elliott Global News
Posted July 22, 2020 11:09 am
Updated July 23, 2020 4:12 pm

B.C. health officials are recommending an age-old, occasionally cutting-edge tactic for sex during the coronavirus pandemic: “glory holes.”

The B.C. Centre for Disease Control added new recommendations for socially distant sex to its COVID-19 website this week. One of those tips was to try using a “glory hole” — a hole cut into a wall that’s only large enough for a penis to slip through.

Glory holes are typically used for anonymous oral or penetrative sex, according to Urban Dictionary, but they’re also an excellent way to limit physical contact during intercourse, the B.C. CDC says.

“Use barriers, like walls (e.g., glory holes), that allow for sexual contact but prevent close face-to-face contact,” the health organization writes on its website.

The recommendation is just a tip and not a firm rule, according to the website.

[The Romulan Republic]

Reich propaganda outlet Sinclair Broadcasting, which controls local television stations all over the country, is airing a conspiracy theory claiming that Doctor Fauci created the coronavirus:

https://cnn.com/2020/07/24/media/sincla ... index.html

New York (CNN Business)Update: The day after this story was published, Sinclair announced it would postpone and "rework" the segment. Read our follow-up story for more...

Local television stations owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group are set to air a conspiracy theory over the weekend that suggests Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top expert on infectious diseases, was responsible for the creation of the coronavirus.

The baseless conspiracy theory is set to air on stations across the country in a segment during the program "America This Week" hosted by Eric Bolling. The show, which is posted online before it is broadcast over the weekend, is distributed to Sinclair Broadcast Group's network of local television stations, one of the largest in the country. A survey by Pew Research Group earlier this year showed that local news was a vital source of information on the coronavirus for many Americans, and more trusted than the media overall.

In this week's episode of the show, Bolling spoke with Judy Mikovits, the medical researcher featured in the discredited "Plandemic" video that went viral earlier this year and which was banned from platforms such as Facebook and YouTube. Throughout the segment, the on-screen graphic read, "DID DR. FAUCI CREATE COVID-19?"

Bolling also spoke with Mikovits' attorney, Larry Klayman, a right-wing lawyer who also has a history of pushing misinformation and representing conspiracy theorists.

During the interview Mikovits told Bolling that Fauci had over the past decade "manufactured" and shipped coronaviruses to Wuhan, China, which became the original epicenter of the current outbreak. Bolling noted that this was a "hefty claim," but did not meaningfully challenge Mikovits and allowed her to continue making her case.

Klayman, who did not respond to a request for comment, also pushed conspiracy theories about the coronavirus. He said the "origins" of the virus were in the United States. Bolling didn't meaningfully challenge Klayman either.

In the segment that immediately followed, Bolling spoke to Dr. Nicole Saphier, a Fox News medical contributor, to get her response to the claims from Mikovits and Klayman.

Bolling and Saphier agreed that it was, in Saphier's words, "highly unlikely" that Fauci was behind the coronavirus. But they went on to theorize about other possible explanations for what had happened. Saphier said it was possible the virus was "man-made within a laboratory" and escaped. That claim has been rejected by experts who have studied the virus' genetic sequence.

The segments were first reported on by Media Matters, a progressive media watchdog.

President Trump's allies in right-wing media have sought to discredit Fauci in recent weeks. Earlier this month, Trump administration officials even went as far as to publicly attack Fauci.

The Sinclair Broadcast Group has drawn criticism in the past for pushing a conservative political worldview in its newscasts and programming decisions. A spokesperson for the company did not respond to multiple requests for comment on Friday.

But Bolling, a former Fox News host, told CNN Business in a series of text messages that he invited Mikovits onto his show to "question and challenge her beliefs." Bolling also said he does not control the on-screen graphics that appear during his show.

"I did challenge her," Bolling said, noting he called her claim "hefty."

When pressed over whether calling a claim "hefty" constituted effectively challenging the conspiracy theory Mikovits pushed, Bolling said that he did believe he challenged her.

Bolling then told CNN Business that he was not aware of the viral "Plandemic" video Mikovits was featured in earlier this year, and said Saphier "was not originally booked on the show" and that he added her to "provide an opposing viewpoint."

"I don't know of any video she was in prior to or after appearing on my show. Frankly, I was shocked when she made the accusation," Bolling said. "I asked our producers to add Saphier to the show for the express purpose of debunking the conspiracy theory. I believe viewers see that I did not and do not endorse her theory."

When asked if he really was unaware that Mikovits had been in a viral video earlier in the year pushing misinformation about coronavirus, Bolling said he had been.

"I give you my word... this is the first I've heard of the video," Bolling said. "And the very first time I heard of Dr. Mikovits was the morning of taping."

But when asked whether, now that he was aware of the video, he had any second thoughts about airing the segment with Mikovits, Bolling replied, "I don't second guess my producers and bookers."

Bolling added, however, that he "certainly didn't endorse her theory."

[mr friendly guy]

Thanks, I needed the laugh about Fauci creating the coronavirus.

Now I had an article on my Facebook feed which accuses ICE of spreading the coronavirus among the US and to countries where it deports people. A bit of research the source was originally the NYT.

https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000 ... video.html

What is most disturbing is that the Trump administration is alleged to have pressured other countries to take these people back without testing.

So, when will a right wing British think tank put out a suggestion to sue the US for spreading coronavirus. What's good for the geese is good for the gander.

[mr friendly guy]

https://www.npr.org/sections/coronaviru ... us-neglect

Brazil's Bolsonaro Is Accused Of Crime Against Humanity Over Coronavirus 'Neglect'
July 27, 20205:22 PM ET


Front-line health workers and senior clerics in Brazil are adding their voices to the chorus of alarm about President Jair Bolsonaro's response to the coronavirus pandemic.

With more than 87,000 deaths and 2.4 million registered infections so far, Brazil has suffered more cases than any other country except the United States.

An umbrella group of unions and social organizations representing more than 1 million Brazilian medical professionals have filed a complaint to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, accusing Bolsonaro of committing a crime against humanity by reacting to the outbreak with "contempt, neglect and denial."

Meanwhile, 152 Catholic bishops in Brazil have signed an open letter stating that the Bolsonaro administration is incapable of handling the "perfect storm" created by the combination of an "unprecedented health crisis, overwhelming economic collapse" and "tensions" between key institutions of state.

The bishops' letter warns that Brazil is facing looming "socioeconomic chaos" and criticizes the government for the "systematic" use of "unscientific arguments ... to normalize a COVID-19 plague that is killing thousands, and to treat this as if it was an accident or divine punishment."

The outbreak in Brazil has recently stabilized in some areas — including the most populous state, São Paulo, where the largest number of deaths has occurred. Yet cases are rising in 10 of the country's 26 states and, for almost nine weeks, the nationwide average daily death toll has remained above 1,000.

Despite those developments, governors and mayors are gradually loosening isolation restrictions in many towns and cities in an effort to avert further economic damage.

The complaint to the ICC, by Brazil's UNISaúde network, accuses Bolsonaro of intensifying the pandemic by repeatedly opposing social isolation measures. His conduct is increasingly mirrored by the Brazilian public, who — mostly without masks — crowded the beaches of Rio de Janeiro this weekend.

The complaint also cites Bolsonaro's "adamant insistence" on the use of the anti-malarial medicines, chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine. Multiple scientific studies show these are ineffective against COVID-19.

NPR contacted the president's media office Monday for a comment about the complaint and was referred to the attorney general's department, which said that it would respond only after hearing from the ICC.

Mounting international condemnation has done little to persuade Bolsonaro to change his views about what he once dismissed as a "little flu."

He argues that almost every Brazilian will eventually contract COVID-19, that the great majority will suffer mild symptoms, and that shutting down Brazil's economy does more harm than the virus itself.

The 65-year-old Bolsonaro can now claim firsthand experience of the disease. About three weeks ago, he announced live on Brazilian TV that he had contracted the virus. He withdrew to the presidential palace to work remotely, emerging for afternoon tours around the grounds.

On Saturday, he posted a message on Twitter saying that he had tested negative — without specifying when the test was conducted — and set off on a motorcycle ride through the capital, Brasilia. The same tweet included a photograph of a smiling Bolsonaro brandishing a box of hydroxychloroquine.

Bolsonaro's penchant for advertising this controversial medicine is causing problems for doctors and nurses on Brazil's front line. A survey of nearly 2,000 health professionals by the São Paulo Medical Association found nearly half of them have come under pressure from COVID-19 patients, or their relatives, to prescribe it.

The head of the Brazilian Society of Infectious Diseases reportedly received an online death threat this month after his organization publicly opposed the use of chloroquine.

"People don't want to know about scientific research," a front-line hospital doctor, Bruna Lordão, told Estadão newspaper.

She quit her job after being branded a "murderer" by a patient's angry family because she refused to prescribe the drug.

So can we add the Trump regime and the British maladministration as well to the mix? It would sure be funny if someone filed a complaint in the Hague, but I have a feeling its only used for non Western countries.

[madd0ct0r]

I was discussing that yesterday. UK epidemiologists were seen as world experts, training other countries.

What the fuck happened? Did they fail to penetrate the politics? Were they over confident and not worried enough?
The UK is fatter, sicker with more poverty and smaller houses then most of Europe, but still. Our performance is shambolic.

There will be a public inquiry, but I don't agree UK mismanagement is on the same level as evil as bolsanaro's denial

[mr friendly guy]

Oh I agree the UK is less worse than Bolsanaro's and Trump's, but their action is still pretty bad and negligent. This was the government telling the citizens it was totally safe to go the Cheltenham festival in March after it was already known that COVID can be transmitted via human to human transmission. Boris Johnson missed 6 meetings on the coronavirus, and set a shitty example of insisting on shaking the hands of covid patients and ended up getting covid himself. They initially thought to implement a herd immunity strategy, which is a human rights violation. The government also delayed implementing lockdown measures relative to other countries. Of course, they tried to blame China.

[Zaune]

I was discussing that yesterday. UK epidemiologists were seen as world experts, training other countries.

What the fuck happened? Did they fail to penetrate the politics? Were they over confident and not worried enough?
The UK is fatter, sicker with more poverty and smaller houses then most of Europe, but still. Our performance is shambolic.

There will be a public inquiry, but I don't agree UK mismanagement is on the same level as evil as bolsanaro's denial

If I were to venture a guess, I'd say 50% wilful disregard for the scientific advice (or any other advice that wasn't what Johnson et al wanted to hear) and 50% austerity-related inability to actually enforce the measures that did get put in place.

[ray245]

I was discussing that yesterday. UK epidemiologists were seen as world experts, training other countries.

What the fuck happened? Did they fail to penetrate the politics? Were they over confident and not worried enough?
The UK is fatter, sicker with more poverty and smaller houses then most of Europe, but still. Our performance is shambolic.

There will be a public inquiry, but I don't agree UK mismanagement is on the same level as evil as bolsanaro's denial

A fair bit of arrogance. Lockdown is only used by authoritarian Asian countries! Contact tracing is too intrusive to civil liberties!

Those narratives influenced even the scientists and academics.

[The Romulan Republic]

So can we add the Trump regime and the British maladministration as well to the mix? It would sure be funny if someone filed a complaint in the Hague, but I have a feeling its only used for non Western countries.

In fact, I believe there was a Congressperson who said a while back that they were going to file a complaint with the Hague over Trump's coronavirus response.

[mr friendly guy]

In the board's great tradition of mocking stupid ideas, Trump just came up with another one. Or rather he has a new favourite doctor who believes in using hydroxychloroquine to treat covid. Which is most probably one her least outlandish claims considering she claimed alien DNA is used in medical treatments. No, that's not a typo.


https://www.thedailybeast.com/stella-im ... es&via=rss

Trump’s New Favorite COVID Doctor Believes in Alien DNA, Demon Sperm, and Hydroxychloroquine
ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE
The president is pushing the coronavirus theories of a Houston doctor who also says sexual visitations by demons and alien DNA are at the root of Americans’ common health concerns.


Will Sommer
Updated Jul. 28, 2020 11:42PM ET / Published Jul. 28, 2020 8:06AM ET

A Houston doctor who praises hydroxychloroquine and says that face masks aren’t necessary to stop transmission of the highly contagious coronavirus has become a star on the right-wing internet, garnering tens of millions of views on Facebook on Monday alone. Donald Trump Jr. declared the video of Stella Immanuel a “must watch,” while Donald Trump himself retweeted the video.

Before Trump and his supporters embrace Immanuel’s medical expertise, though, they should consider other medical claims Immanuel has made—including those about alien DNA and the physical effects of having sex with witches and demons in your dreams.


Immanuel, a pediatrician and a religious minister, has a history of making bizarre claims about medical topics and other issues. She has often claimed that gynecological problems like cysts and endometriosis are in fact caused by people having sex in their dreams with demons and witches.

She alleges alien DNA is currently used in medical treatments, and that scientists are cooking up a vaccine to prevent people from being religious. And, despite appearing in Washington, D.C. to lobby Congress on Monday, she has said that the government is run in part not by humans but by “reptilians” and other aliens.

Immanuel gave her viral speech on the steps of the Supreme Court at the “White Coat Summit,” a gathering of a handful of doctors who call themselves America’s Frontline Doctors and dispute the medical consensus on the novel coronavirus. The event was organized by the right-wing group Tea Party Patriots, which is backed by wealthy Republican donors.

In her speech, Immanuel alleges that she has successfully treated hundreds of patients with hydroxychloroquine, a controversial treatment Trump has promoted and says he has taken himself. Studies have failed to find proof that the drug has any benefit in treating COVID-19, and the Food and Drug Administration in June revoked its emergency authorization to use it to treat the deadly virus, saying it hadn’t demonstrated any effect on patients’ mortality prospects.

“Nobody needs to get sick,” Immanuel said. “This virus has a cure.”

Immanuel said in her speech that the supposed potency of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment means that protective face masks aren’t necessary, claiming that she and her staff had avoided contracting COVID-19 despite wearing medical masks instead of the more secure N95 masks.

“Hello, you don’t need a mask. There is a cure,” Immanuel said.

Toward the end of Immanuel’s speech, the event’s organizer and other participants can be seen trying to get her away from the microphone. But footage of the speech captured by Breitbart was a hit online, becoming a top video on Facebook and amassing roughly 13 million views—significantly more than “Plandemic,” another coronavirus disinformation video that became a viral hit online in May, when it amassed roughly 8 million Facebook views.

“Hydroxychloroquine” trended on Twitter, as Immanuel’s video was embraced by the Trumps, conservative student group Turning Point USA, and pro-Trump personalities like Diamond & Silk. But both Facebook and Twitter eventually deleted videos of Immanuel’s speech from their sites, citing rules against COVID-19 disinformation. The deletions set off yet another round of complaints by conservatives of bias at the social-media platforms.

Immanuel responded in her own way, declaring that Jesus Christ would destroy Facebook’s servers if her videos weren’t restored to the platform.

Demon sperm? Hmm? Is that used by a level 20 wizard to summon a succubus if you don't have the eschew materials feat?

[The Romulan Republic]

Apparently she also claimed when Facebook took down some of her stuff that their servers would be smited by Jesus.

[mr friendly guy]

So anyone else noticed the US numbers seem to dramatically improve since Trump made the Department of Health and Human Services gather the information instead of the CDC. Well someone noticed and did an analysis. Long story short, the trend for blue states seem to be the same as prior to the date the CDC was no longer charged to gather data. The red states however saw dramatic improvement, and I don't mean just in one or two like Florida or Texas which made improvements. Its pretty much all of them.

Hmm. Wonder what's going on here.

[Gandalf]

Hmm. Wonder what's going on here.

He's protecting us from nasty facts, so now we can just go straight to the alternative facts. Trump has all the best facts. They're tremendous. Everyone says so.

[The Romulan Republic]

Head of conservative think tank Vance Ginn admits that part of the purpose of reopening during covid is to kill off people the Republicans consider undesirables:

https://texastribune.org/2020/07/28/van ... ronavirus/

Need to stay updated on coronavirus news in Texas? Our evening roundup will help you stay on top of the day’s latest updates. Sign up here.

Vance Ginn, the chief economist for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, is facing fierce backlash for a recent racist tweet that said schools should open since most of the people dying from the coronavirus in Texas are elderly or Hispanic.

Before Monday, the state’s racial and ethnic breakdown of deaths had large gaps, with up to 18% of deaths last month recorded as “unknown.” A revised count of the data released Monday by the Department of State Health Services, however, shows that Hispanic Texans are overrepresented in the state’s updated fatality count.

Citing the revised data, Ginn tweeted that the people most likely to perish from the deadly virus are people older than 50 and Hispanics, whose death rate increased from 24.8% on May 27 to 47.4% on July 27. Hispanics make up about 40% of the state’s population.

Meanwhile, about 180 deaths, or 3% of the total, occurred among Texans younger than 40. About 2,000 people who died were 80 or older, making up the largest age bracket of COVID-19 deaths.

Inline article image
“Why not #openschools, end universal mandates, target vulnerable & check those from #Mexico?” Ginn wrote in a since-deleted tweet. He juxtaposed his tweet with a GIF of Prince Harry of Wales miming a mic drop.

He later apologized for tweeting the GIF. “It’s been brought to my attention that the gif may have been perceived as insensitive. I apologize as that was not my intention,” he tweeted.

In an interview with The Texas Tribune, Ginn said the intention of his Twitter thread was to outline the more thorough data provided by the state. He also said his tweet with the GIF was “woefully taken out of context out of bad faith.”

“What we’re really focused in on is, ‘How can we best make sure that Texans are taken care of during this time?’” he said. Given the revised data that shows demographic breakdowns, he questioned whether state and local officials should take a more “targeted approach” to combatting the virus, rather than passing blanket policies.

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Ginn later removed the tweet and apologized. “I believe strongly based on my deep faith that every life is precious,” he wrote. “My intent was to highlight the positive development of more data available to make better policy decisions and help the vulnerable.”

Almost 53% of public school students were Hispanic in 2018-19 and more than 60% are economically disadvantaged, according to Texas Education Agency data. Public health experts have said schools that reopen in areas with high and fast-rising rates of community spread are likely to exacerbate the effects of the virus. That means staff and students could bring the virus home to their families.

“This is my grandfather Albert. He was an Hispanic citizen of the U.S. & passed from #Covid,” tweeted former state Rep. Jason Villalba, R-Dallas. “His grandchildren (born in Dallas) lived with him and also got #Covid. They survived. W/ great respect, the death of elderly Hispanics does not necessarily make the schools safe to open.”

Ginn, who previously served in the White House under President Donald Trump's administration as associate director for economic policy at the Office of Management and Budget, also served as senior economist for the think tank.

While children may not be the most vulnerable to contracting the virus, fear of community spread has prompted some large school districts to delay the start of the fall semester for in-person instruction.

In mid-July, Texas education officials said school districts could delay on-campus instructions for at least four weeks and ask for waivers to continue remote instruction for up to four additional weeks in areas hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic. During that time, districts must educate at least a small percentage of students in person and give the state information on what public health conditions would allow them to bring more kids into classrooms.

In recent months, the Republican Party has faced criticisms for appearing to prioritize the economy over public health, while research shows that COVID-19 disproportionally affects Black and Hispanic people.

Gov. Greg Abbott, too, has faced pushback from Democrats on his coronavirus response efforts. Although he implemented a statewide mask mandate earlier this summer, he’s been chided for a speedy phased reopening of the economy to which public health experts attribute a record number of coronavirus deaths in the state.

Aliyya Swaby contributed to this report.

Correction: An earlier version of the headline on this story referred to the Texas Public Policy Foundation as a GOP think tank. The conservative foundation is nonpartisan.

Disclosure: Texas Public Policy Foundation has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

Call the Trump coronavirus response what it is: a genocide.

[Zaune]

Call the Trump coronavirus response what it is: a genocide.

I would lean more towards "depraved indifference" than premeditated mass murder, but only because I don't wish to credit anyone responsible for this shitshow with that much imagination or clarity of purpose. Especially not Trump himself, who lest we forget was babbling about how people could self-medicate for COVID-19 with intravenous injections of pine disinfectant live on several news channels not so long ago, which is admittedly an effective way to avoid dying of coronavirus but tends to suggest there's some truth to the allegations that he's suffering from dementia.

[The Romulan Republic]

If Trump isn't thinking it consciously, there are certainly clever men around him (particularly Stephen Miller) who could.

[Gandalf]

So it's the way the GOP addressed (or didn't address) AIDS under Reagan.

[The Romulan Republic]

So it's the way the GOP addressed (or didn't address) AIDS under Reagan.

I fully acknowledge that Reagan was a piece of shit and part of the long decline of the Republicans toward a fascist party.

But at the same time is it even possible for you to respond to anything Trump or the Trumpers do without implicitly or explicitly saying "But they're no different from any earlier administration", and thereby normalizing them?

[Gandalf]

I like to think of it as dragging Reagan down to Trump's level.

[The Romulan Republic]

Well, there is that. But unfortunately that's not how most Americans are likely to take it (blame our poor history education).

[Gandalf]

Then that's on them.

[Jub]

Well, there is that. But unfortunately that's not how most Americans are likely to take it (blame our poor history education).

Who cares what most Americans think? This board isn't public consumed by anybody but our small member base. Make arguments based on this board's opinions of things and stop assuming that this messageboard stands as a proxy for the rest of the internet at large and the American public at large.

[mr friendly guy]

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/2 ... rus-386076

Louie Gohmert, who refused to wear a mask, tests positive for coronavirus
The Texas Republican received the diagnosis during a pre-screening procedure at the White House on Wednesday morning.

By JAKE SHERMAN

07/29/2020 10:09 AM EDT

Updated: 07/29/2020 06:01 PM EDT


Rep. Louie Gohmert — a Texas Republican who has been walking around the Capitol without a mask — has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to multiple sources.

Gohmert was scheduled to fly to Texas on Wednesday morning with President Donald Trump and tested positive in a pre-screen at the White House. The eighth-term Republican told CNN last month that he was not wearing a mask because he was being tested regularly for the coronavirus.

"f I get it," he told CNN in June, "you'll never see me without a mask."

Reps. Mario Diaz Balart (R-Fla.), Neal Dunn (R-Fla.), Morgan Griffith (R-Va.), Mike Kelly (R-Pa.), Ben McAdams (D-Utah) and Tom Rice (R-S.C.) have tested positive for the virus, along with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).

<snip the rest of the article>

Totally did not see this one coming.