outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

This seems pretty obvious, yet there are a lot of people arguing the exact opposite. That if the cause of death isn't directly attributable to COVID, then it's completely unrelated, and therefore numbers are grossly exaggerated in order to undermine the glorious Trump economy. Yes, it's absurd, but this will absolutely be the official line in the US as deaths continue to spike.

You assume it's satire, but remember, this is America in 2020.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EWOjjUcXYAEB95H.jpg

not much more bizarre than the "GIVE ME FREEDOM OR GIVE ME COVID-19" sign I saw at Phoenix protest

the FREEEEEEEEDOM!!!! Above All Else "school" of "thought" prevalent in the US is so poisonous to society ugh

like way to go America, you've given selfish dipshits something to perpetually validate their selfish dipshittery

BREAKING: The USDA reports that two pet cats in New York have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. These are the first domestic pets in the U.S. to test positive. Both expected to recover.

*Note: there remains NO EVIDENCE that domestic animals can pass the virus to humans*

— Natasha Daly (@natashaldaly) April 22, 2020

Those cats didn't get it from bats or pangolins.

Many of you have asked if I am willing to travel around Florida wearing Grim Reaper attire to the beaches and other areas of the state opening up prematurely. The answer is absolutely yes. Beginning May 1 we will hit the road here in state. Please retweet and spread the word. pic.twitter.com/UO7QKg161n

— Daniel Uhlfelder (@DWUhlfelderLaw) April 22, 2020

I don't know who that is, but I like the idea that people are just randomly coming up to some guy and demanding to know if he is willing to do that.

That YouTube clip of all the commercials is dead-on--I've been very conscious the past week or so (when COVID commercials really started appearing) of the split between weirdly outdated commercials where the world is as it was before and the already cliched coronavirus-tailored commercial (some of which are effective).

anyone believe this?

Taken to the woodshed... https://t.co/Rt5cryLi2b

— Jeffrey St. Clair (@JSCCounterPunch) April 22, 2020

Reuters: Former Labradoodle breeder tapped to lead U.S. pandemic task force

Shortly after his televised comments, (HHS Secretary) Azar tapped a trusted aide with minimal public health experience to lead the agency’s day-to-day response to COVID-19. The aide, Brian Harrison, had joined the department after running a dog-breeding business for six years. Five sources say some officials in the White House derisively called him “the dog breeder.”

Harrison decided, the sources say, to exclude FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn from the task force. “He said he didn’t need to be included,” said one official with knowledge of the matter.

Two sources familiar with events say the White House wasn’t getting information from the FDA about the state of the testing effort, a crucial element of the coronavirus response.

When you've screwed the pooch, who better to oversee the results?

the father of a thousand sonsofbitches

Michael Brown had been horse breeder, I think?

really like that image above, hope uhlfelder follows through

I don't find it too surprising that there were cases in California in January, and probably in the NYC area as well. There were direct flights from Wuhan to SF and NYC all through December and most of January, when there was basically zero testing or screening, so it would be more surprising if no cases were transmitted.

The USA has ~4% of the global population, ~32% of active COVID-19 cases & ~26% of global COVID-19 fatalities.

FLU

~50% of the world’s population lives in countries that are lying their ass off about the numbers

does seem like so many more people have perished from this than has been officially registered

FT estimated that 40K have died in the UK, rather than the 17K reported, based on ONS data for excess mortality over the norm for these months. In other places like Italy and Spain excess mortality was running about 80-120% over reported Covid-19 deaths.

What the FUCK is Cuomo talking about? Bloomberg isn't "designing" anything, I hope.

“Michael Bloomberg will design the program, design the training, he’s going to make a financial contribution,” Cuomo said at a news conference in Albany. “He has tremendous insight both governmentally and from a private sector business perspective in this.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/22/billionaire-mike-bloomberg-will-help-new-york-develop-coronavirus-test-and-trace-program-gov-cuomo-says.html

US may not be lying about their cases, but are sure as shit not testing much

The French government now says that the return to school for students on May 11 will not be obligatory, but rather only on a volunteer basis. Good. I suspect there will be rather few volunteers. We certainly won't be.

kinda want to know just how those cats were tested

I dig it, daddio.

by a very brave veterinarian with a 20-foot pole, i'm assuming

xxp blood antibody test I would think, but yeah... what lab, and what's the channel for veterinarians to submit samples?

Those cats had multiple samples taken at National Veterinary Services Laboratories, probably their lab on Plum Island off the tip of Long Island. Having taken cats to the vet before, I'm positive they were sedated for this.

I could imagine sneaking a swab to the back of their throat under sedation. But even that may not necessary going forward:
there's a (preprint) study that found saliva samples were better for rtPCR screening than the usual nasopharyngeal swabs (in humans).

Madagascar hands out 'miracle' virus cure as it lifts lockdown

Unarmed Madagascar soldiers went door-to-door in the capital Antananarivo, doling out sachets of a local herbal tea touted by President Andry Rajoelina as a powerful remedy against the novel coronavirus.

"We can change the history of the entire world," he said, after downing a dose. "Two people have now been cured by this treatment."

Oh good

xp: Also, NVSL seems to be using rtPCR, just with a different set of reagents.

Performing animal testing should not reduce the availability of tests for people. Testing performed on animals may be based on the published tests used in people, however, reagents are available that are not required for testing people. The NVSL and National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN) laboratories are using reagents for testing animals that are not required for testing in people.

Ramadan is going to be sad this year.

http://www.cnn.com/2020/04/23/health/us-coronavirus-thursday/index.html

As a doctor in the piece says--assuming the tests are accurate--this can easily be interpreted as good news, in terms of trying to gauge how lethal the virus is.

otoh, it's lethal enough to be the leading cause of all deaths in the USA last week, and there's reason to think it killed even more people than the official tally assigns to it.

the better news in that cnn piece is that nearly 14% of the NYers tested had antibodies, which means most of those should have a measure of immunity to further infection and probably won't be vectors spreading it to others in the medium-term future.

Right, but those deaths happened regardless of how many people are infected; if the deaths are a smaller percentage of infections than previously thought, that's good news. (As for potentially unreported deaths, that's a separate issue.)

as someone who believes there's a good chance that basically everyone is gonna get exposed to this at some point that's definitely good news

there was a similar study out of Santa Clara but it found that the infection rate was actually 50-85x than what was reported which is absurd. it would mean that literally everyone in NYC has it

I regret to inform you that Chris Cuomo's family is infested with quackery:

https://thepuristonline.com/2020/04/the-cuomos-corona-protocol-week-3/

“I added ½ cup of Clorox to my bathwater to combat the radiation and metals in my system and oxygenate it.
I used a “body charger,” which energy specialist Randy Oppitz suggested I borrow from a friend. It sent electrical frequencies through my body to oxygenate my blood and stimulate the healthy production of blood cells to fortify my immune system. It also rebalanced my energy”

From energy specialist Randy Oppitz's LinkedIn:

Last week two of the world's most prominent cancer doctors asked if they could do a breast cancer study of my process. We are currently in discussions which are very promising. Maybe by the end of this summer headlines may read "Cancer cure has been discovered".

https://www.linkedin.com/in/randall-oppitz-0839643a

Chris Cuomo’s wife is the sister of a friend and this friend is also massively woowoo (they’re also London-raised).

That talk of radiation, metals, electrical energy and oxygenation is a pure manifestation of incantations and magical thinking, but magical thinking will never be eradicated for as long as humans walk the earth, no matter how often it fails.

given the direction we're going it may soon be SCIENCE!

has anyone tried applying magnets three times a day to coronavirus? i heard it prevents heart attacks, so maybe it could help (?!)

for some reason though, the only store that still carries them is something called infowars

Frogbs: that Santa Clara seroprevalence study has come under scrutiny, mostly stemming around their use of a Chinese antibody test that has inadequate specificity and a statistical error by the authors. For more details see Andrew Gelman and Balaji S. Srinivasan.

I've yet to see a detailed breakdown on the NYC seroprevalence study.

The Los Angeles area antibody test also came to the same conclusion as the Santa Clara & NYC tests... the virus was far more widely (and earlier) spread than previously believed.

It was kind of buried upthread but CA governor Newsom is now allowing for back-testing of pneumonia deaths in January and December as there have been discoveries of COVID-19 positives in secondary autopsies traced back to Feb wk1.

seroprevalence studies are showing that infection is more widespread than has been documented to date, which is something we have more or less known. how more widespread is obviously vital information as it is a crucial part of any serious plan to ease lockdown restrictions.

the PI of the santa clara study, john PA ioannidis, was a hero of mine but I have been really disappointed by some of his work over the past couple of months and the way he's allowed his work to be interpreted. this is a public health crisis but as everyone on this board knows (and knows better than most MDs and scientists unfortunately) it is also an economic and political crisis, and there are people on the right who are looking for any indication that things can return to normal so they can sacrifice working people for a buck. the paper being discussed is a preprint and has not been peer-reviewed; normally a paper of this importance would not be disseminated this widely when there are methodological and statistical issues that can lead to misinterpretation and potentially premature political action. so it is disappointing to see him giving hourlong interviews on his work when it is at its current stage

"there was a similar study out of Santa Clara but it found that the infection rate was actually 50-85x than what was reported which is absurd. it would mean that literally everyone in NYC has it"

they said it COULD be 50-85% higher, they ddin't make a final determination I don't think; it also wasn't a peer reviewed study. That said, the information that more NYC people had antibodies than originally presumed does make me wonder what the true rate of exposure is both in the bay area and NYC.

msf/doctors without borders has launched operations in the USA, because the richest nation in the world is unable to get its shit together