COVID-19 ongoing thread part 2

[ray245]

That sounds like the lockdown is going to last longer than necessary. Though announcing a long lockdown, then shortening it once it works would get less complaints/noncompliance than announcing a shorter lockdown then having to lengthen it.

Or just give people a clear conditional guideline for easing the lockdown, that it should be based on the number of active cases being reported. That's what China did in Wuhan, and it effectively eliminated the virus.

[mr friendly guy]

https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/pr ... n/12517234

'Tremendous problems:' Trump criticises Australia's outbreak
On RN Breakfast with Fran Kelly


Download 'Tremendous problems:' Trump criticises Australia's outbreak (4.57 MB)
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Over the last few days, the US President Donald Trump has been trying out a new messaging strategy in relation to COVID-19, alleging that it's not just the US which is seeing a resurgence of the virus.

President Trump is determined to shift the world's attention to Victoria.

Last night Trump tweeted out a video of Premier Daniel Andrews' Sunday press conference, saying "Big China Virus breakouts all over the World, including nations which were thought to have done a great job. The Fake News doesn't report this. USA will be stronger than ever before, and soon!"

Trump is now having a go at us. When will Australia learn that nations have permanent interests, and to be careful when dealing with the US?

I mean ScoMo blew Trump's cock so hard saying that we should look into the "origins of the coronavirus" at a time when the evidence showed it was a natural occurrence. What he meant was, we should have an enquiry in Mike "we lie, we cheat, we steal" Pompeo's claim that it manufactured in a Chinese lab. ScoMo's "origins of the coronavirus" was just code speak for looking at China only.

From what I understand, eventually the UN did adopt a measure... where China signed but Australia strangely did not. Naturally the Murdoch media never reported those little details... because China got the UN to look everywhere including the US. Oops.

So we antagonise our largest trading partner ( by a country mile) based on unsupported conspiracy theories from a guy who proudly admits that "we lie, we cheat, we steal," and in return, Trump still berates us. Sounds like we got the better end of the deal. Not.

[mr friendly guy]

On the virtues of using lockdowns early

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-03/ ... r/12509854

Coronavirus ripped through aged cared homes in the UK, but one managed to avoid disaster
By Nick Dole in London
Posted 5hhours ago, updated 3hhours ago

As coronavirus ripped through care homes in the UK, one provider decided to go its own way and ended up saving residents from catastrophe.

Key points:
About 20,000 UK care residents died from COVID-19 between March and June
One provider locked down homes and refused to take in hospital patients
Their homes have not experienced a single case of COVID-19
David McGuire runs the Diagrama Foundation, which cares for elderly and special needs residents in Kent in southern England.

Despite claims from health officials in February that it was "very unlikely" people in care could be infected, Mr McGuire defied the government's guidelines and locked down his facilities.

It paid off.

While about 20,000 care residents have died with COVID-19 in the UK, none of Mr McGuire's residents has tested positive.

He now has a message for Australian aged care providers as they confront the deadly spread of COVID-19.

For the latest news on the COVID-19 pandemic read our coronavirus live blog.
"Don't wait for anyone to tell you what to do," he told the ABC.

The UK care home boss says Australian facilities shouldn't be afraid to impose lockdowns, even if it seems excessive.

"Act quickly. Follow your gut. If you think what you're doing is 'over the top,' keep doing it."

How David avoided a coronavirus outbreak
In late February, when there were only a few cases of COVID-19 in the UK, the Government agency Public Health England told care homes not to worry.

"Currently there is no evidence of transmission of COVID-19 in the United Kingdom. There is no need to do anything differently in any care setting at present," it said.

The advice was updated on March 13, but even then they failed to comprehend the risk.

Homes were simply advised to encourage good hygiene, whilst discouraging visits from guests who were unwell.

But Mr McGuire had been speaking regularly with colleagues in Spain, where the virus had already taken hold in care homes.

He couldn't comprehend the UK's approach, and so decided to take decisive action.

Mr McGuire banned all non-essential visits, meaning his residents could not see their friends and family. Video calls were their only social contact with the outside world.

"I remember some residents crying. It was a difficult decision," he said.

The government did not order a general lockdown until 11 days later. By that time, the virus was already embedding itself in the nation's care homes.

Over the weeks that followed, thousands of vulnerable people would die, many without their families by their sides.

'Abandoned and thrown to the wolves'
Mr McGuire averted an early outbreak, but then the Government tried to transfer hospital patients to his facilities.

Hospitals needed to free up beds for an influx of COVID-19 patients, and in early April official guidance stated that negative tests were not required before a patient could be transferred to a care home.

But Mr McGuire stood his ground, and said he would only accept patients who had tested negative.

"I think that has proved to be right, because some of the people who we stopped ... a couple of days later, they [tested] positive," he said.

There is no way of knowing how many infectious patients were discharged into care homes.

However, figures show that 25,000 patients were transferred from hospitals into English care homes before a routine testing program began on April 16.

Nadra Ahmed, Chair of the National Care Association, said the test results did not come fast enough to prevent contagion.

"There were assurances that [patients] were fit for discharge. So tests were taken, but results weren't necessarily available before the move was made," she told the ABC.

She said staff felt "scared" and "anxious" that the hospital system was being prioritised over care homes.

"There was a feeling of being abandoned and thrown the wolves. They were expected to run mini-hospitals all of a sudden," she said.

The UK Government denies there was any systematic discharge of infectious patients.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Boris Johnson even appeared to blame care home staff, saying many "didn't really follow the procedures".

He later backtracked from those comments.

Ok, firstly obligatory joke about how this guy was obvious a closet authoritarian and locked down his facility to protect the residents. Hasn't he heard of civil liberties.

Jokes aside, he has done the opposite of what has become disasters elsewhere.
1. Lockdown early

2. Refused entry to residents unless they had negative tests. Remember NYC with Cuomo sending people back without testing, and as Shep put it nicely, he should be executed charged with murder.

Also nice to see Boris Johnson and the Tories are still blaming someone else, now its nursing home staff. Hey, you know what they say occurs in democracies, you seldom get the leader you need but always get the leader you deserve.

[bilateralrope]

Trump is now having a go at us. When will Australia learn that nations have permanent interests, and to be careful when dealing with the US?

I don't see how this has anything to do with "permanent national interests" of the US. Just Trump saying whatever he can think of to try and avoid being blamed for how badly he screwed up the US response.

Still, this is how Trump treats anyone allied to him if it looks convenient for him to do so.

[mr friendly guy]

Trump is now having a go at us. When will Australia learn that nations have permanent interests, and to be careful when dealing with the US?

I don't see how this has anything to do with "permanent national interests" of the US. Just Trump saying whatever he can think of to try and avoid being blamed for how badly he screwed up the US response.

Still, this is how Trump treats anyone allied to him if it looks convenient for him to do so.

Nations don't have permanent allies, only permanent interests. All nations have a vested interest to look strong or at least responsible, so its easier to deal with other nations. The US being the sole superpower for years after the Cold War has a particular strong incentive to do so, especially given its numerous rivals. Diverting blame is a cheap, and perhaps effective way of doing it. Trump has blamed Obama, Joe Biden, China etc already to divert attention.

Despite being an "ally" with the US, there have been several times where the US has just screwed us over when it runs against their national interest eg trying to break a refugee deal Obama signed, withdrawing from TPP, Bill Clinton dragging his feet when we asked for diplomatic support over East Timor because they wanted good relations with Indonesia etc. This is just the latest and we still don't learn.

[mr friendly guy]

Ah India, the land of mystical gurus whose government tells us they can fight coronavirus by drinking cow's urine and singing hymns. Funny when a government minister actually has covid, he checks in at a private hospital using, you know, conventional medicine. Shocking, I know.

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-e ... 1596456962

India’s Amit Shah has Covid-19 – and little sympathy from social media
The powerful home affairs minister has been criticised for going to a private hospital instead of one run by the government
Netizens have also asked why he has not tried home remedies recommended by BJP politicians, including drinking cow urine and chanting hymns

As India reels from its fifth consecutive day of recording more than 50,000 new Covid-19 cases, home affairs minister Amit Shah has come under fire for his decision to seek treatment at a private hospital – with social media users pointedly asking why he has not tried the dubious home remedies recommended by the government.
Besides Shah, the chief ministers of the southern state of Karnataka and the central Madhya Pradesh state have also been hospitalised with the disease. India on Monday reported 52,972 new infections in the past 24 hours, taking its total past 1.8 million – the third highest in the world after the United States and Brazil. It also declared 771 new deaths, meaning Covid-19 has now killed 38,135 people there.
There is widespread unhappiness over New Delhi’s handling of the pandemic. Sociologist Shiv Visvanathan said people were looking for adequate health care solutions from the government, which claimed that everything was in order – so it was seen as “poetic justice” when Shah tested positive.


India’s Home Minister Amit Shah. Photo: EPAIndia’s Home Minister Amit Shah. Photo: EPA
India’s Home Minister Amit Shah. Photo: EPA
As India reels from its fifth consecutive day of recording more than 50,000 new Covid-19 cases, home affairs minister Amit Shah has come under fire for his decision to seek treatment at a private hospital – with social media users pointedly asking why he has not tried the dubious home remedies recommended by the government.
Besides Shah, the chief ministers of the southern state of Karnataka and the central Madhya Pradesh state have also been hospitalised with the disease. India on Monday reported 52,972 new infections in the past 24 hours, taking its total past 1.8 million – the third highest in the world after the United States and Brazil. It also declared 771 new deaths, meaning Covid-19 has now killed 38,135 people there.
There is widespread unhappiness over New Delhi’s handling of the pandemic. Sociologist Shiv Visvanathan said people were looking for adequate health care solutions from the government, which claimed that everything was in order – so it was seen as “poetic justice” when Shah tested positive.
‘Can China help?’ In Kashmir, anti-India militancy and calls for self-rule continue
3 Aug 2020

“The disappointment of people has turned to contempt and they want to [take every] chance of expressing it through social media,” he said.

The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has provided Indian social media users with plenty of ammunition. Addressing the country in March and April, Modi appealed for people to light candles and clang metal plates to “defeat the despair of coronavirus”, while a minister from his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in March told the Assam state assembly that cow urine and cow dung could cure Covid-19.

Last month, one BJP parliamentarian launched a brand of poppadom that he said would help develop antibodies against the disease, while another MP from the party told Indians that reciting the devotional hymn Hanuman Chalisa five times a day would “definitely work and we will be free from coronavirus”.
A Twitter user, Khushboo, posted an image of a fake prescription for Shah that advised him to partake of these remedies. “The jibe was against the unscientific cures propagated by the government and the ruling BJP for the ordinary people,” Khushboo said.

A meme doing the rounds following the home minister’s hospitalisation pointed out that when Shah tested positive, he did not bang plates or take homeopathic medicine. “He got himself admitted in a modern hospital,” it said. “Amit is smart. Be like him.”

Harjit Singh Bhatti, a Delhi-based doctor and activist, said the government’s “propaganda” about Ayurvedic and homeopathic medicines as Covid-19 cures had created hurdles for modern medicine practitioners looking to do their jobs efficiently.
“But now that the home minister went straight to a modern hospital for allopathic treatment without resorting to the methods that his colleagues had propagated, people will be convinced that only modern medicine can work,” he said.

Indians were angry at the state of the country’s health care system amid the pandemic, Bhatti said.
“Many people have not been able to get themselves tested on time and get beds in hospitals, yet the politicians are receiving all facilities even with minor symptoms,” he said. “People have understood that health care is only for the privileged in this country. This shows the inequality.”
In a tweet on Sunday, home minister Shah said he was tested after he spotted initial signs of Covid-19, and was admitted to hospital because doctors had advised him to do so. He has been criticised for his decision to go to a top corporate hospital in the northern Indian city of Gurugram instead of the government-run All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi, which caters to federal officials including the prime minister.

India’s Home Minister Amit Shah. Photo: EPAIndia’s Home Minister Amit Shah. Photo: EPA
India’s Home Minister Amit Shah. Photo: EPA
As India reels from its fifth consecutive day of recording more than 50,000 new Covid-19 cases, home affairs minister Amit Shah has come under fire for his decision to seek treatment at a private hospital – with social media users pointedly asking why he has not tried the dubious home remedies recommended by the government.
Besides Shah, the chief ministers of the southern state of Karnataka and the central Madhya Pradesh state have also been hospitalised with the disease. India on Monday reported 52,972 new infections in the past 24 hours, taking its total past 1.8 million – the third highest in the world after the United States and Brazil. It also declared 771 new deaths, meaning Covid-19 has now killed 38,135 people there.
There is widespread unhappiness over New Delhi’s handling of the pandemic. Sociologist Shiv Visvanathan said people were looking for adequate health care solutions from the government, which claimed that everything was in order – so it was seen as “poetic justice” when Shah tested positive.
‘Can China help?’ In Kashmir, anti-India militancy and calls for self-rule continue
3 Aug 2020

“The disappointment of people has turned to contempt and they want to [take every] chance of expressing it through social media,” he said.



The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has provided Indian social media users with plenty of ammunition. Addressing the country in March and April, Modi appealed for people to light candles and clang metal plates to “defeat the despair of coronavirus”, while a minister from his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in March told the Assam state assembly that cow urine and cow dung could cure Covid-19.

Last month, one BJP parliamentarian launched a brand of poppadom that he said would help develop antibodies against the disease, while another MP from the party told Indians that reciting the devotional hymn Hanuman Chalisa five times a day would “definitely work and we will be free from coronavirus”.
A Twitter user, Khushboo, posted an image of a fake prescription for Shah that advised him to partake of these remedies. “The jibe was against the unscientific cures propagated by the government and the ruling BJP for the ordinary people,” Khushboo said.
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A meme doing the rounds following the home minister’s hospitalisation pointed out that when Shah tested positive, he did not bang plates or take homeopathic medicine. “He got himself admitted in a modern hospital,” it said. “Amit is smart. Be like him.”
India coronavirus: Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan recovers, Home Minister Amit Shah hospitalised
2 Aug 2020

Harjit Singh Bhatti, a Delhi-based doctor and activist, said the government’s “propaganda” about Ayurvedic and homeopathic medicines as Covid-19 cures had created hurdles for modern medicine practitioners looking to do their jobs efficiently.
“But now that the home minister went straight to a modern hospital for allopathic treatment without resorting to the methods that his colleagues had propagated, people will be convinced that only modern medicine can work,” he said.

Indians were angry at the state of the country’s health care system amid the pandemic, Bhatti said.
“Many people have not been able to get themselves tested on time and get beds in hospitals, yet the politicians are receiving all facilities even with minor symptoms,” he said. “People have understood that health care is only for the privileged in this country. This shows the inequality.”
In a tweet on Sunday, home minister Shah said he was tested after he spotted initial signs of Covid-19, and was admitted to hospital because doctors had advised him to do so. He has been criticised for his decision to go to a top corporate hospital in the northern Indian city of Gurugram instead of the government-run All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi, which caters to federal officials including the prime minister.
Is India’s rush for a coronavirus vaccine being driven by national pride and China tensions?
30 Jul 2020

A team of AIIMS doctors, however, will visit him and monitor his treatment.
“By getting admitted into a private hospital, the minister gives the wrong message to people that private hospitals are the place for getting reliable treatment,” Bhatti said.
Two days before the first anniversary of the government’s revocation of Kashmir’s special status, some people from the disputed region have taken a swing at Shah on social media, too. But the home minister also has many well-wishers, some of whom have expressed hope for his speedy recovery while others have reported tweets wishing him harm.

[mr friendly guy]

In news which surprises no one, cruise ships after reopening report covid cases.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-04/ ... s/12521096

Coronavirus outbreaks recorded on two cruise ships weeks after cruising restarts
Posted 2hhours ago

It has not been a good start to reopening for cruise liners, with some of the first cruises to resume after coronavirus-related shutdowns immediately recording fresh COVID-19 outbreaks.

Several cruises that resumed in parts of Europe and the Pacific last month have been forced to limit activities due to outbreaks at sea.

Norwegian authorities have barred all cruise ships with more than 100 people on board from disembarking at its ports from Monday, after cases of COVID-19 were reported late last week on a ship that had already disembarked.

At least 41 passengers and crew who were on board the MS Roald Amundsen, operated by Norwegian company Hurtigruten, have so far tested positive for the coronavirus.

Hundreds more on board were told to self-isolate for 10 days, local public health officials said.

Outbreaks in Europe and the Pacific
Norway is in touch with Germany, Denmark, Austria, Philippines and Latvia as passengers and crew on board came from these countries, officials said.

Ships that have already departed will be able to offload passengers and crew at Norwegian ports, but those yet to start journeys will not be able to do so, Norwegian Health Minister Bent Hoie said.

The new rules are effective for the next 14 days.

So far, five of the combined 387 passengers travelling on the ship on two separate cruises since July 17 have been found to carry the virus, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and the Tromsoe municipality said.

Hurtigruten was the first cruise operator worldwide to return an oceangoing cruise ship to service in mid-June, touting reduced passenger capacity, social distancing and strict rules on hygiene.

It will now suspend all so-called expedition cruises until further notice.

"We have failed," CEO Daniel Skjeldamn told a news conference.

"I apologise strongly on behalf of the company."

Meanwhile, industry and local media outlets reported that passengers aboard a cruise in the Pacific were told to stay in their cabins after a suspected case of COVID-19 was detected on Saturday.

Having only resumed service in mid-July, the Paul Gauguin was on its first international voyage when forced to abandon its itinerary and return to port in Tahiti.

The Paul Gauguin's owners, the French cruise operators Ponant, had earlier promised "measures which go further than the international standards for the sector".

Restrictions on cruising around the world
Cruises planned in Britain for September have been cancelled by Hurtigruten due to the MS Roald Amundsen outbreak.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC): "Cruise ships are often settings for outbreaks of infectious diseases because of their closed environment and contact between travellers from many countries."

It is this that has given cruise ships the unflattering moniker of "floating petri dish".

"More than 800 cases of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases occurred during outbreaks on three cruise ship voyages, and cases linked to several additional cruises have been reported across the United States," the CDC said in March as it implemented a No Sail Order for all cruise ships.

The CDC said this No Sail Order would last at least until September 30, or until the US Government no longer deems COVID-19 a public health emergency.

Similarly, Australia has imposed a ban on cruising until at least September 17, after the Ruby Princess became the source of one of Australia's largest coronavirus outbreaks.

"The Australian Border Force has been in constant contact with the cruise industry, which has been cooperative, and understands the Government's overwhelming priority to ensure the health and safety of the broader Australian community," the ABF said in a statement.

Queensland Health will not allow foreign-flagged cruises to enter the state's waters "until the end of the declared public health emergency".

The Government of Canada has prohibited cruise ships carrying more than 100 people from operating in Canadian waters until October 31.

And while tourism-reliant Spain began reopening for foreign travellers in June, its ban on cruise ships entering its ports remains indefinite.

Nevertheless, Swiss operator MSC Cruises has said it plans to operate cruises in the Mediterranean from the second half of August onwards.

What's next for the cruise industry?
Many expect that most of the industry won't meaningfully resume operations until at least 2021.

The world's largest cruise company Carnival lost $US4.4 billion ($6.2 billion) in the second quarter of 2020, including a $US2 billion ($2.8 billion) loss from selling off some of its cruise ships.

"The company is unable to definitively predict when it will return to normal operations," it said in a statement.

"We absolutely believe when we come out of this we will lean into our repeat cruisers," Carnival's president, Christine Duffy, told Reuters. "They really are the ambassadors for the cruise industry."

Others have been pessimistic.

"It is no exaggeration to suggest this crisis could spell the end of the line for an industry already on the nose for its social, health and environmental problems," wrote Freya Higgins-Desbiolles, a tourism expert from the University of South Australia, earlier this year.

"Now the industry's carefully honed image of cruise ships offering the right balance between fun and security looks sunk. Whatever remains after this crisis will need a complete overhaul."

[PainRack]

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/03/politics ... index.html

Birx sounded the alarms during an appearance on CNN Sunday, telling CNN's Dana Bash on "State of the Union" that the pandemic has reached a new phase.



"What we are seeing today is different from March and April. It is extraordinarily widespread. It's into the rural as equal urban areas," she said, suggesting that some Americans in multi-generational families should start wearing masks inside their homes

.

So Crazy Nancy Pelosi said horrible things about Dr. Deborah Birx, going after her because she was too positive on the very good job we are doing on combatting the China Virus, including Vaccines & Therapeutics. In order to counter Nancy, Deborah took the bait & hit us. Pathetic

So, for the FIRST time, Trump criticised Deborah Brix after she publicly warned that the US Covid has pushed into a new phase, claiming that she's been intimidated by Pelosi .

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53631341

"I think the president has been spreading disinformation about the virus and she is his appointee, so I don't have confidence there, no," Ms Pelosi told ABC.



According to Politico, the House speaker used stronger words in her meeting last week with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.



"Deborah Birx is the worst. Wow, what horrible hands you're in," she is quoted as saying to them. She also described Dr Fauci as a "hero".

From the very start, Deborah Brix has played a political role in the middle, hinted to be saying one thing to Trump and another to the press. More importantly, she failed to rebut Trump vis disinfectant and actually defended Trump by saying he was looking at ideas and presention etcetc, while bemoaning that it's in the news cycle

https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... t-still-in



The thing is, while public trust in her has declined, her political playing to Trump ensures that actual scientific expertise HAS been heard by the task force, given how Fauci is being sidelined out. So.... It's hard to say anything else other than sigh, politics.



But now.... Well... There is no coronavirus in Ba Sing Se. It's time Birx. As long as you cling to one shred of truth, you going to be crucified by Trump anyway.

[The Romulan Republic]

The Navajos Nation has more covid dead than 13 states.



https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/30/us/navaj ... index.html

(CNN)Before Covid-19 hit, elders living on the Navajo Nation were already among the most vulnerable.

As the virus spread, their situation became even more dire.

On the Navajo Nation, spanning more than 27,000 square miles across parts of Arizona, Utah and New Mexico, an estimated 30% of residents don't have access to running water, making early hand washing guidance impossible to adhere to.

Many other factors put them at greater risk: a lack of resources, information and access to masks and medical care on top of poor infrastructure and insufficient housing conditions.

At one point, the Navajo Nation experienced Covid-19 infection rates that were among the highest per capita in the United States. While the number of new cases has been trending downward, Navajo elders are still dying at alarming rates.

"There are many, many elderly people on the reservation that are homebound and alone," said CNN Hero Linda Myers, whose non-profit provides lifesaving supplies for Native American elders. "Some of our elders live 60 miles from a grocery store. Many of them are traditional and don't have running water or electricity."

To date, the Navajo Nation has reported nearly 9,000 positive cases of Covid-19 and 453 deaths. More than 60% of the deceased were age 60 and older.

Myers has spent decades supporting Navajo elders through her non-profit, Adopt-A-Native-Elder -- which currently serves more than 750 people ages 75-105. She says 26 elders in her program have died. And the pandemic has only increased the elders' isolation and fear.

"We have ... families with the virus at different hospitals (across the reservation)," Myers said. "One of our elders lost her son, her daughter, her sister and her sister's daughter."

Losing Navajo elders is devastating, Myers says, not just to families and loved ones, but for Navajo history.

"They hold the life for their families. They carry on the traditions, the ceremony, the language, the weaving. All the things come from these elders' teachings," she said. "It's a piece of history, a piece of culture."

Myers, who lives in Salt Lake City and makes trips to the reservation several times a year, is working with donors and partners on the ground to deliver food, masks and other supplies to the elders during the pandemic.

"When the virus hit, we quickly turned everything into food certificates, knowing special diets, knowing special medical needs," she said. "We have sent $225,000 worth of food certificates to our elders to help them sustain themselves, to allow them to get the right kind of foods, the fresh foods, the fresh meat, so that they're not just relying on canned food items."

The Navajo Nation has implemented some of the country's most extensive lockdown orders, including curfews, closures and other restrictions. But the new rules also pose a new set of challenges for those in remote areas.

"Our elders ... have to go sometimes 18 miles to pick up their water. They wait in long lines. They have to haul their water barrels," Myers said. "With the trading post closed, they have very little access to the kinds of things that are traditional things for Navajo people."

To that end, Adopt-A-Native-Elder has also ramped up efforts to send yarn to elders who support themselves through weaving.

"While they're in lockdown, they've been able to weave. They send us the rugs. We list them on our website for sale. So we're helping them still sustain themselves in their traditional way," Myers said.

All proceeds from the sale of the rug go directly to the weaver.

The organization is also working ahead to get truckloads of firewood delivered to all of its elders in time for winter, when temperatures on the reservation can dip below zero.

"Firewood -- six or seven loads of firewood -- makes a huge difference in keeping the elders warm all day and all night," Myers said.

Myers, who has known these elders and their families for more than 35 years, says her work is ongoing and she's inspired by supporters coming together in a time of crisis.

"I like to focus, too, on the good and positive that I see. The biggest thing is that people have stepped up. It's brought more people to awareness," she said. "It's really made a difference."

Want to get involved? Check out the Adopt-A-Native-Elder website and see how to help.

Trump's covid response is a genocide. Or, rather, it is the latest form of the campaign of genocide the US has been waging since its inception, cunningly cloaked in the form of "natural causes".

[mr friendly guy]

More bad news for the travel industry. In Australia Virgin airlines sacking 3000 workers due to the pandemic

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-05/ ... s/12525186

Virgin Australia has revealed plans to make about a third of its workforce redundant, with approximately 3,000 jobs expected to go under new owners Bain Capital, while 6,000 staff remain.

The private equity firm's plan for the airline sees the end of the Tiger Australia brand, although Virgin Australia said it would retain the air operator certificate so it could revive a low-cost carrier when the domestic holiday travel market fully recovered.

A key part of the plan is to operate an all Boeing 737 mainline fleet, with other aircraft types restricted to regional routes and charters.

This will mean removing ATRs, Boeing 777s, Airbus A330s and Tiger's Airbus A320s from the airline's fleet.

Virgin Australia chief executive Paul Scurrah said the airline had no choice but to shrink to survive amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

I didn't realise Virgin had been taken over by Bain capital. Mitt Romney's old group. The guys that drove Toys R Us into Bankruptcy. Jesus.

[Nicholas]

This is probably just an honest mistake by people trying to maintain a computer system that was never designed for this kind of a work load. I find it an interesting exercise though to imagine how this would be reported and discussed if it was happening in a state with a Republican governor instead of in California.

https://www.latimes.com/california/stor ... h-official

California’s coronavirus test result data may be flawed, top health official says
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
By Colleen ShalbyStaff Writer
Aug. 4, 2020
3:07 PM
UPDATED5:41 PM

A steep decline in California’s coronavirus infection rate announced this week by Gov. Gavin Newson may not be accurate, according to the state’s top public health official who said Tuesday that the state’s data system used to process COVID-19 test results is marred with technical issues.

The problems have caused delays in analyzing test results and cast doubt on Newsom’s announcement Monday of a 21.2% decline in the seven-day average rate for positive infections compared with the average from the week before.

California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said that “the seven-day positivity rate is absolutely affected” by the issue. It’s unclear to what extent and for how long cases have been undercounted, and how this situation differs from the more routine delays when test reporting lags over weekends.

The news comes as officials have expressed guarded optimism that the surge of COVID-19 cases in California might be peaking.

A Times analysis found that California has now experienced its first weekly reduction in new confirmed coronavirus cases for the first time in 12 weeks. For the seven-day period that ended Sunday, California reported 59,697 new cases, a drop of 9% from the previous week of 65,634 cases, which was a pandemic record.

On Tuesday, Los Angeles County public health officials reported an additional 1,901 coronavirus cases and 57 related deaths. In a statement, the health department said it learned of new technical issues related to the collection of test results during an emergency meeting Monday night with state officials.

“This issue has undercounted the county’s positive cases and affects the number of COVID-19 cases reported each day and our contact tracing efforts,” the county said.

The health department is working to contact at least 81 laboratories to obtain test results since July 26 in order to determine the accurate count.

The update follows the county’s warning last week that it was expecting a backlog in cases “due to previous reporting delays in the state electronic lab system.” The following day, the county reported highs of 4,825 new coronavirus cases and 91 deaths. Other counties, including Sacramento, Placer and Orange — which reported 263 additional cases Tuesday and two deaths — have recently included a warning on their dashboards that case counts may not be accurate.

“The state’s electronic disease reporting system has been experiencing issues processing incoming reports. Therefore, recent data published on the Sacramento County Public Health COVID-19 dashboards are likely to be an underestimate of true cases in the County,” Sacramento Public Health Department said.

The undercount issue does not affect hospitalization and intensive care data, Ghaly said. Those numbers recently plateaued across California after the state saw two days of record-setting fatalities last week and surpassed 9,000 coronavirus- related deaths.

Some counties continue to be hit hard as others see a decline in severity. On Tuesday, San Bernardino County reported 59 additional deaths — its highest single-day count to date.

Hospitalization data are collected differently than the state’s test result numbers, which are gathered through CalREDIE — an electronic system that feeds information from laboratories to the state and local health systems.

California Department of Public Health officials are trying to determine “where data is getting stuck,” Ghaly said.

“We’re not sure when we’ll have a definitive fix to the problem.”

In the meantime, the health department is implementing manual processes to retrieve the information. During a news briefing Tuesday afternoon, Ghaly stressed the importance of focusing on long-term trends over snapshot data.

[Ziggy Stardust]

I find it an interesting exercise though to imagine how this would be reported and discussed if it was happening in a state with a Republican governor instead of in California.

So how do you imagine it would be reported and discussed differently? Or is this just a "oh no the media is so mean to the poor widdle republicans" thing?

[Nicholas]

I find it an interesting exercise though to imagine how this would be reported and discussed if it was happening in a state with a Republican governor instead of in California.

So how do you imagine it would be reported and discussed differently? Or is this just a "oh no the media is so mean to the poor widdle republicans" thing?

It is a "the media is so mean to the poor widdle republicans" thing. Primarily in that when Republicans are involved conspiracy is assumed while when Democrats are involved honest error is assumed. If this had been in a state with a Republican governor I expect it would have been reported as "whistleblower reports that coronavirus data is being falsified". While the details are different, which makes determining with certainty how much of the different treatment is different circumstances impossible for me, we have seen similar problems discussed here in Republican states.

https://twitter.com/andishehnouraee/sta ... 61408?s=19

In just 15 days the total number of #COVID19 cases in Georgia is up 49%, but you wouldn’t know it from looking at the state’s data visualization map of cases. The first map is July 2. The second is today. Do you see a 50% case increase? Can you spot how they’re hiding it? 1/ https://t.co/wAgFRmtrPk

Kemp’s health department keeps changing the numbers on the map’s color legend to keep counties from getting darker blue or red. 2,961 cases was Red on July 2. Now a county needs 3,769 cases to show red. The result: an infographic that hides data instead of showing it. 2/

Nearly every day this month Kemp’s health dept has altered the numbers assigned to each color without ever saying so. I take screenshots. Georgia DPH is violating data visualization best practices in a way that’s hiding severity of the outbreak. 3/

There is no coronavirus in Ba Sing Se.

https://cbs12.com/news/local/woman-who- ... r-position

Woman who designed Florida's COVID-19 dashboard has been removed from her position
by Sabrina LoloTuesday, May 19th 2020

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (CBS12) — As Florida starts to reopen, the architect and manager of Florida's COVID-19 dashboard, announced she'd been removed from her position, Florida Today reported.

Rebekah Jones said in an email to CBS12 News that her removal was "not voluntary" and that she was removed from her position because she was ordered to censor some data, but refused to "manually change data to drum up support for the plan to reopen."

Jones made the announcement May 5 in a farewell email to researchers and other members of the public who had signed up to receive updates on the data portal, according to Florida Today. She said that for "reasons beyond my division's control," her office is no longer managing the dashboard, involved in its publication, fixing errors or answering any questions.

Florida's COVID-19 dashboard, created by a team of Florida Department of Health data scientists and public health officers led by Jones, was praised by White House officials for its accessibility, the Florida Daily reported. But over the last few weeks, it "crashed and went offline, data disappeared with no explanation and access to the underlying data sheets became difficult."

Jones told CBS12 News that since she's been removed, the dashboard still hasn't been fully repaired.

CBS12 News reached out to the Florida Department of Health for comment and is waiting to hear back.

I guess we can add that to the list which includes Capt. Brett Crozier, Dr. Rick Bright, Adam Witt, Dr. Ming Lin, Dawn Kulach, Kenisa Barkai, Christian Smalls, Amazon workers Bashir Mohamed, Emily Cunningham, Maren Costa) who have been fired for criticising the handling COVID 19.

[madd0ct0r]

They get a lot of slack because they've brought attention to the problem themselves, rather than it being spotted by an independent.

There was a similar data cockup in Wales - one of the health boards was not using the same reporting system and their reports basically went into a dead inbox. It wasn't noticed for weeks because so few cases in the region's around it.

Georgia was i think a similar cockup from a not changed data vis colour spectrum.

Rebekah Jones we have her own words.

[mr friendly guy]

You know Nicholas, if you're going to use me as an example of only criticising Republicans and not Democrats, you might want to look deeper into what I wrote.

I guess we can add that to the list which includes Capt. Brett Crozier, Dr. Rick Bright, Adam Witt, Dr. Ming Lin, Dawn Kulach, Kenisa Barkai, Christian Smalls, Amazon workers Bashir Mohamed, Emily Cunningham, Maren Costa) who have been fired for criticising the handling COVID 19.

Dr Ming Lin was fired while working in Washington, a democrat state.
Adam Witt was fired while working in New Jersey, a democrat state.

At least put the effort in to see if these people work in democrat or republican states. Its only a few minutes.

[The Romulan Republic]

Twitter temporarily blocked Trump's account until he took down a post claiming children are "almost immune" to covid:

https://businessinsider.com/twitter-blo ... ims-2020-8

[PainRack]

I find it an interesting exercise though to imagine how this would be reported and discussed if it was happening in a state with a Republican governor instead of in California.

So how do you imagine it would be reported and discussed differently? Or is this just a "oh no the media is so mean to the poor widdle republicans" thing?

It is a "the media is so mean to the poor widdle republicans" thing. Primarily in that when Republicans are involved conspiracy is assumed while when Democrats are involved honest error is assumed. If this had been in a state with a Republican governor I expect it would have been reported as "whistleblower reports that coronavirus data is being falsified". While the details are different, which makes determining with certainty how much of the different treatment is different circumstances impossible for me, we have seen similar problems discussed here in Republican states.

https://twitter.com/andishehnouraee/sta ... 61408?s=19

In just 15 days the total number of #COVID19 cases in Georgia is up 49%, but you wouldn’t know it from looking at the state’s data visualization map of cases. The first map is July 2. The second is today. Do you see a 50% case increase? Can you spot how they’re hiding it? 1/ https://t.co/wAgFRmtrPk

Kemp’s health department keeps changing the numbers on the map’s color legend to keep counties from getting darker blue or red. 2,961 cases was Red on July 2. Now a county needs 3,769 cases to show red. The result: an infographic that hides data instead of showing it. 2/

Nearly every day this month Kemp’s health dept has altered the numbers assigned to each color without ever saying so. I take screenshots. Georgia DPH is violating data visualization best practices in a way that’s hiding severity of the outbreak. 3/

There is no coronavirus in Ba Sing Se.

https://cbs12.com/news/local/woman-who- ... r-position

Woman who designed Florida's COVID-19 dashboard has been removed from her position
by Sabrina LoloTuesday, May 19th 2020

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (CBS12) — As Florida starts to reopen, the architect and manager of Florida's COVID-19 dashboard, announced she'd been removed from her position, Florida Today reported.

Rebekah Jones said in an email to CBS12 News that her removal was "not voluntary" and that she was removed from her position because she was ordered to censor some data, but refused to "manually change data to drum up support for the plan to reopen."

Jones made the announcement May 5 in a farewell email to researchers and other members of the public who had signed up to receive updates on the data portal, according to Florida Today. She said that for "reasons beyond my division's control," her office is no longer managing the dashboard, involved in its publication, fixing errors or answering any questions.

Florida's COVID-19 dashboard, created by a team of Florida Department of Health data scientists and public health officers led by Jones, was praised by White House officials for its accessibility, the Florida Daily reported. But over the last few weeks, it "crashed and went offline, data disappeared with no explanation and access to the underlying data sheets became difficult."

Jones told CBS12 News that since she's been removed, the dashboard still hasn't been fully repaired.

CBS12 News reached out to the Florida Department of Health for comment and is waiting to hear back.

I guess we can add that to the list which includes Capt. Brett Crozier, Dr. Rick Bright, Adam Witt, Dr. Ming Lin, Dawn Kulach, Kenisa Barkai, Christian Smalls, Amazon workers Bashir Mohamed, Emily Cunningham, Maren Costa) who have been fired for criticising the handling COVID 19.

You might also want to note that my post was sheer incompetence is bad enough.

Because making such a rudimentary mistake proves the department fucked up big time.

[The Romulan Republic]

Students in Georgia suspended for sharing photos of maskless students online:

https://msn.com/en-us/news/us/georgia-t ... d=msedgntp

Arguably this is actually a reward, as they'll be likely safer at home. Give it a few more months and a Trump win in November, though, and kids who embarrass the Regime will be being sent to reeducation camps or just "disappeared", not sent home.

[mr friendly guy]

Now Peter Navarro Trumps economic something something adviser, the guy (who cites a man by the name of "Ron Vara" for Vara's China expertise, until people wised up that Ron Vara is an anagram of Navarro and a made up person), now has an excellent defense for hydroxychloroquine. He quotes the cartoonist who drew Dilbert as a defense. That's right, not another doctor, but a cartoonist.



Next I am going to cite Stan Lee, and we know that COVID 19 will just go away as soon as we get a cosmic containment unit or the Infinity Gauntlet.

[MKSheppard]

2. Refused entry to residents unless they had negative tests. Remember NYC with Cuomo sending people back without testing, and as Shep put it nicely, he should be executed charged with murder.

Aww, you remembered!



It's apparently not just Cuomo, but several other governors as well; Phil Murphy of New Jersey issued an order almost identical to Cuomo's.

[PainRack]

2. Refused entry to residents unless they had negative tests. Remember NYC with Cuomo sending people back without testing, and as Shep put it nicely, he should be executed charged with murder.

Aww, you remembered!

It's apparently not just Cuomo, but several other governors as well; Phil Murphy of New Jersey issued an order almost identical to Cuomo's.

Nursing homes were supposed to have the infection control capabilities to prevent cross infections and Cuomo acted the way he did to create bed capacity...

It was a logical decision even if it turned out to be wrong.

That is unlike Trump deregulated nursing homes and oops, infection control collapsed.

The Trump administration’s decision to alter the way it punishes nursing homes has resulted in lower fines against many facilities found to have endangered or injured residents.

The average fine dropped to $28,405 under the current administration, down from $41,260 in 2016, President Barack Obama’s final year in office, federal records show.

The decrease in fines is one of the starkest examples of how the Trump administration is rolling back Obama’s aggressive regulation of health care services in response to industry prodding.

Encouraged by the nursing home industry, the Trump administration switched from fining nursing homes for each day they were out of compliance — as the Obama administration typically did — to issuing a single fine for two-thirds of infractions, the records show.

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That reduces the penalties, giving nursing homes less incentive to fix faulty and dangerous practices before someone gets hurt.

“It’s not changing behavior [at nursing homes] in the way that we want,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, a professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “For a small nursing home it could be real money, but for bigger ones it’s more likely a rounding error.”

Since Trump took office, the administration has heeded multiple nursing home complaints about zealous oversight. It granted facilities an 18-month moratorium from being penalized for violating eight new health and safety rules. It also revoked an Obama-era rule barring homes from pre-emptively requiring residents to submit to arbitration to settle disputes rather than go to court.

The slide in fines occurred even as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued financial penalties 28 percent more frequently than it did under Obama. That’s due to a policy begun near the end of Obama’s term that required regulators to punish a facility every time a resident was harmed, instead of leaving it to their discretion.

While that policy increased the number of smaller fines, larger fines became less common. The total amount collected under Trump fell by 10 percent compared with the total in Obama’s final year, from $127 million under Obama to $114 million under Trump. (KHN compared penalties during 2016, Obama’s last year in office, with penalties under Trump from April 2017 through March 2018, the most recent month for which federal officials say data is reliably complete.)

(Story continues below.)


CMS said it has revised multiple rules governing fines under both administrations to make its punishments fairer, more consistent and better tailored to prod homes to improve care. “We are continuing to analyze the impact of these combined events to determine if other actions are necessary,” CMS said in a statement.

The move is broadly consistent with the Trump administration’s other industry-friendly policies in the health care sector. For instance, the administration has expanded the role of short-term insurance policies that don’t cover all types of services, given states more leeway to change their Medicaid programs and urged Congress to allow physicians to open their own hospitals.

Beth Martino, a spokeswoman for the American Health Care Association, a nursing home trade group, said the federal government has “returned to a method of applying fines in a way that incentivizes solving problems” rather than penalizing “facilities that are trying to do the right thing.”

Penalty guidelines were toughened in 2014, when the Obama administration instructed officials to favor daily fines. By 2016, those were used in two-thirds of cases. Those fines averaged $61,000.

When Trump took over, the nursing home industry complained that fines had spun “out of control” and become disproportionate to the deficiencies. “We have seen a dramatic increase in [fines] being retroactively issued and used as a punishment,” Mark Parkinson, president of the nursing home group, wrote in March 2017.

CMS agreed that daily fines sometimes resulted in punishments that were determined by the random timing of an inspection rather than the severity of the infraction. If inspectors visited a home in April, for instance, and discovered an improper practice had started in February, the accumulated daily fines would be twice as much as if the inspectors had come in March.

But switching to a preference for per-instance fines means much lower penalties, since fines are capped at $21,393 whether they are levied per instance or per day. Homes that pay without contesting the fine receive a 35 percent discount, meaning they currently pay at most $13,905.

Those maximums apply even to homes found to have committed the most serious level of violations, which are known as immediate jeopardy because the home’s practices place residents at imminent risk of harm. For instance, a Mississippi nursing home was fined $13,627 after it ran out of medications because it had been relying on a pharmacy 373 miles away, in Atlanta. CMS also reduced $54,600 in daily fines to a single fine of $20,965 for a New Mexico home where workers hadn’t been properly disinfecting equipment to prevent infectious diseases from spreading.

On average, per-instance fines under Trump were below $9,000, records show.

“These are multimillion businesses — $9,000 is nothing,” said Toby Edelman, a senior policy attorney at the Center for Medicare Advocacy, a nonprofit in Washington.

Big daily fines, averaging $68,080, are still issued when a home hasn’t corrected a violation after being cited. But even in those cases, CMS officials are allowed to make exceptions and issue a single fine if the home has no history of substantial violations.

The agency cautioned that comparisons of average fines is misleading because the overall number of inspections resulting in fines increased under Trump, from 3.5 percent in 2016 to 4.7 percent. The circumstances now warranting fines that weren’t issued before tend to draw penalties on the lower side.

However, KHN found that financial penalties for immediate jeopardies were issued in fewer cases under Trump. And when they were issued, the fines averaged 18 percent less than they did in 2016.

The frequency of immediate-jeopardy fines may further decrease. CMS told inspectors in June that they were no longer required to fine facilities unless immediate-jeopardy violations resulted in “serious injury, harm, impairment or death.” Regulators still must take some action, but that could be ordering the home to arrange training from an outside group or mandating specific changes to the way the home operates.

Barbara Gay, vice president of public policy communications at LeadingAge — an association of nonprofit organizations that provide elder services, including nursing homes — said that, under Trump, nursing homes “don’t feel they’ve been given a reprieve.”

But consumer advocates say penalties have reverted to levels too low to be effective. “Fines need to be large enough to change facility behavior,” said Robyn Grant, director of public policy and advocacy at the National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care, a nonprofit based in Washington. “When that’s not the case and the fine is inconsequential, care generally doesn’t improve.”

Article written by
Jordan Rau: jrau@kff.org, @JordanRau
https://khn.org/news/nursing-home-fines ... omplaints/

And linked/cited as per KHN copyright rules .

[PainRack]

Thanks to the internet, the speed at which ideas can spread around the world is much more rapid than in the past. This also means that ideas are both more diverse while reflecting similar themes (5G causes Covid!)



However. What disturbs me is this

https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/20 ... -outbreak/

The partisan gap is widest on two other reasons: 82% of Democrats point to some places being too quick to ease restrictions as a major reason for the outbreak continuing, while just 31% of Republicans say this (about the same share of Republicans – 32% – say this is not at all a reason for the continuation of the outbreak). And while 82% of Democrats say an inadequate federal response is why COVID-19 has continued in the U.S., just 21% of Republicans say this (with nearly half – 45% – saying this is not a reason).



Two-thirds of Democrats also say “not enough timely testing” is a major reason for the coronavirus outbreak continuing in the U.S., while fewer than half as many Republicans (30%) say the same.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01452-z

Neil Johnson, a physicist at George Washington University in Washington DC, has reported4 COVID‑19 misinformation narratives taking shape among online communities of extremist and far-right ‘hate’ groups, which occupy largely unregulated platforms including VKontakte, Gab and 4Chan, as well as mainstream ones such as Facebook and Instagram.



The study says that a “hate multiverse” is exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic to spread racism and other malicious agendas, focusing an initially rather diverse and incoherent set of messages into a few dominant narratives, such as blaming Jews and immigrants for starting or spreading the virus, or asserting that it is a weapon being used by the “Deep State” to control population growth (see ‘Highways of hate’).

In other words. The more right-wing you are. The more divorced from reality you are.





It might be time to update that old saying to



If a man is not a socialist by the time he is 20, he has no heart. If he is not a conservative by the time he is 40, he has no brain.





in the sphere of public health at least, from vaccination to masks to quarantine to pollution , it's is conservatives leading the charge against reality. There are strange bedfellows, such as Taiwan and HK aligning themselves with racists and anti Chinese rightwingers against WHO but otherwise in general, this holds true .


Even in the study where right-wing media like Fox means more misinformed about Covid viewers removing affiliation, if you substitute affiliation back in, it's more than likely, like the pew poll shows that Republicans are misinformed .

[PainRack]

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CC_XJawDrI ... 9gbp1jvm2h

A video showing the case growth graphically

[The Romulan Republic]

Lord Vladimort is claiming he has a Covid vaccine: https://bbc.com/news/world-europe-53735718

Given his propensity for self-aggrandizement and propaganda, I am... skeptical. Its about as credible as if Trump claimed to have a vaccine, really. Which is to say, not at all (I'm about 90% sure Trump will tell the CDC to approve a vaccine ready for use in October regardless of the data, so he can declare victory over covid before the election).

[ray245]

Lord Vladimort is claiming he has a Covid vaccine: https://bbc.com/news/world-europe-53735718

Given his propensity for self-aggrandizement and propaganda, I am... skeptical. Its about as credible as if Trump claimed to have a vaccine, really. Which is to say, not at all (I'm about 90% sure Trump will tell the CDC to approve a vaccine ready for use in October regardless of the data, so he can declare victory over covid before the election).

Basically the Russian population is going to end up as test subjects for the vaccine. We just have to hope it really works and the Russians who were vaccinated do not suffer from any complications from it.

But if it does work by a massive stroke of luck, then we will probably know whether the Russian vaccine will by the end of this year.