Pandemic threat? Anyone else concerned?

bigredfish

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Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.. thats not an approved part of the narrative..

Big Pharma is going to trot a whole bunch of experts onto the weekend TV shows pouring cold water on this. I mean, it's not $3000 per dose, how could it be effective?

ahem..
WHO halts hydroxychloroquine, HIV drugs in COVID trials after failure to reduce death

I'm gonn go out on a limb and guess that some/many who sit on said committe are related to Big Pharma...
 

Arjun

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At Least 40 States See Rise In Coronavirus Cases :facepalm:


Last nights fireworks display was reminiscent of Day 1's War in Iraq "...and the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in the air..."
Its all in the literature :rofl:


So much irony, even the people lighting up fireworks; whether celebratory or not
Same people oblivious to the fact that COVID-19 is still a threat.
 
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Arjun

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The Onion News Network (known for its comedial satire and faux news) should provide coverage over the COVID-19 crisis, :facepalm: All bets that no one, and I mean one will venture outside even after they hear the Zombie Apocalypse has become a reality.
 

StratRider

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So the counting has changed in Texas where 1 Confirmed case is now counted as up to 17 cases. (due to contact and probable - but still counted as a case)
Also posting a news story that half way through shows same thing being discussed in a city council meeting - so don't try the "it's fake - it's a Trump supporter" crap
Collin County Leaders Concerned About State's New Way Of Defining COVID-19
 

Frankenscript

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So the counting has changed in Texas where 1 Confirmed case is now counted as up to 17 cases. (due to contact and probable - but still counted as a case)
Also posting a news story that half way through shows same thing being discussed in a city council meeting - so don't try the "it's fake - it's a Trump supporter" crap
Collin County Leaders Concerned About State's New Way Of Defining COVID-19
What the fuQ is Texas doing? This is absolutely ridiculous.

There are reasons for assigning a probable case/diagnosis, but these should be reported separately rather than lumped in with confirmed cases. At the start of the pandemic we had very poor test availability so there were lots of cases being assigned without tests, based on obvious signs, and that was fine because it was the best that could be done at the time, but we are well past the need to do that. Anyone with symptoms who wants to be tested should at this point be able to easily access such a test.

The data need to be clean and trustworthy in order to be useful. Anything that blurs the line or makes any rational person question them is dangerous.

Has anyone explained why they are doing this? It's one thing to classify someone with close contact with a known/diagnosed/tested case, who then comes down with symptoms, as a provisional case until confirmed by testing, but quite another to do what was represented in that video and the news story.

Again, Houston, we have a problem!!
 

bigredfish

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Not sure what they’re attempting to accomplish by this?

I understand that, like the regular flu, many more folks get it that aren’t “officially diagnosed” with it, and given the apparent ease of transmission it’s likely a number of folks who come in direct contact with a confirmed infected person will get it. We’re at around 15% of those tested confirmed in FL.

But at this stage it just skews numbers higher, so what’s the motivation for Texas to want higher skewed numbers?
 

StratRider

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The left wing conspiracy theory is that with higher #'s - the democrats are screaming how THEY would have done better - how Trump didn't take action soon enough - Trump wanted to re-open the country too soon and is now killing people.
People should remember though that a full month AFTER Trump shut down China travel, Pelosi and Deblasio were telling folks to come out and shop - no masks - nothing to worry about.
Joe Biden has started to say in ads now that people need to wear masks all of the time.
Another part I believe is funding to certain research organizations and hospitals. Follow the money.

The ONLY number to really believe though is the death rate - show that curve. The latest #'s there still show it dropping. This means that actual "herd immunity" is working as it has for thousands of years.
I am also hearing that they are still counting recovered cases in the total count as if they were current. Same if you show you have antibodies which ofc means you had it but recovered on your own prior to any testing.
 

sebastiantombs

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I had heard that "contact tracing" numbers were being added as "confirmed" cases and that would certainly explain the higher numbers and hair on fire reporting of "surges". I guess the big point is that we are, once again, being mis-led by people that we should be able to trust to a very high degree. The media just revels in the chaos and the general public, either poorly or totally uninformed, think it is Armageddon or the zombie apocalypse.
 

mat200

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FYI -

This info from an MD who does testing: noted that from a purely medical stand point once the incidence of infections gets too high he expects most doctors to skip the time and expense of running a test and using clinical diagnoses to determine COVID-19 before deciding if a patient will be treated as if they have COVID-19.

This also is how doctors will treat patients in locations / countries which do not have the test equipment. ( PCR testing equipment and reagents is a significant expense to setup and use - the vendors can not keep up with a parabolic demand - and test companies will not want to fully scale up if they can not get an ROI )

So yes, DO expect procedures to change.

From a data statistics point - I would like to be able to have the data denoted in a way that allows consistent analysis. SO for me I would like to know more than just a binary check mark on the data with regards to covid or no covid ( i.e. the sort of test they used to determine covid-19 )
 

bigredfish

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I had heard that "contact tracing" numbers were being added as "confirmed" cases and that would certainly explain the higher numbers and hair on fire reporting of "surges". I guess the big point is that we are, once again, being mis-led by people that we should be able to trust to a very high degree. The media just revels in the chaos and the general public, either poorly or totally uninformed, think it is Armageddon or the zombie apocalypse.

They’re not counting that way here in Floriduh and our numbers are exploding, we’re trying hard to be #1

Agree hospitalizations and deaths are what counts. And we’re over what 130,000+ dead in 4 months?

I pay zero attention to politics on this - either side. I get the Dims want to hang the whole thing on Trump, which is blatantly stupid and false, and I get the Conservatives want to frame it as the flu. Equally dumb.

Yes we have to figure out how to make the economy go regardless. Open air events? Beaches? Free to take your chances, should not be mandated closed. Wearing masks in confined Public spaces like stores, all for it.

I choose to have Publix deliver my groceries. I don’t currently go to confined places with lots of other folks if I can avoid it. If I can’t, I wear a mask and am careful not to touch my face and have plenty of disinfectant wipes in the vehicle for when I exit.

I stand outside and chat and drink a beer with my neighbors, but we don’t group hug after cutting the yard.

Hugging Grandma? Not smart.
 
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The hospitals are filling up. The surge is real no matter what the case numbers say. And, if there were a conspiracy behind this I hardly think Texas would be doing it.

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I think that is the real indicator that can't be disputed. By some yet-to-be-calculated ratio, an estimate of the actual number of cases will be probably calculated by hospitalizations and death rates.
I mean--- do we test EVERYBODY? Why? Certainly there are those who would LOVE to see more and more tests done to bump the numbers up to support their own propoganda.
 

mat200

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In terms of what has worked in other countries well

basics:

1) Masks ( super affordable )
2) Hygiene ( wash hands, ... also affordable... )
3) Sanitation ( disinfect surfaces, filter air, .. )
4) Test, Track, Trace,.. and isolate
5) "Social distancing"


I think that is the real indicator that can't be disputed. By some yet-to-be-calculated ratio, an estimate of the actual number of cases will be probably calculated by hospitalizations and death rates.
I mean--- do we test EVERYBODY? Why? Certainly there are those who would LOVE to see more and more tests done to bump the numbers up to support their own propoganda.
FYI - best way to keep an eye on this without the politics is to look at total deaths per week now compared to an historical average. I know it is not perfect, but it does removed having to look at what is going on with the testing numbers.

Example: compare week 22 2020 with week 22 average death rate.
 

Frankenscript

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And for the record it’s creeping me out that I agree with @Frankenscript twice now in two weeks.

Make it stop
Hold up. If you've agreed with me twice, that means... I've. Agreed. With you! OMG! NOOOooo!

(all in good fun... differential politics aside you've helped me many times on this forum and I treasure your posts)
 

Ssayer

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And for the record it’s creeping me out that I agree with @Frankenscript twice now in two weeks.

Make it stop
Hah! I put him and one other on ignore weeks ago and haven't looked back. As to agreeing with him twice now, you have to remember that even a stopped clock is right twice a day... ;)
 

Frankenscript

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I think that is the real indicator that can't be disputed. By some yet-to-be-calculated ratio, an estimate of the actual number of cases will be probably calculated by hospitalizations and death rates.
I mean--- do we test EVERYBODY? Why? Certainly there are those who would LOVE to see more and more tests done to bump the numbers up to support their own propoganda.
In a perfect world we would test everybody; positive tests result in isolation, repeat again in two weeks, then contact trace to mop up. But we can't test 330M people in a short time so we test anyone with symptoms then anyone with significant exposure to those people. If we did this and wore masks in the meantime we could have this under control by falll.

But folks don't comply so we'll with this kind of logic and they throw Coronavirus parties and flock to the bars with no masks or distancing. Gonna be a long summer and fall and winter, probably.

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Arjun

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Describe this crowd using one adjective, what would that be?

A0E8CD79-A42A-4496-98CD-EC63FAA56482.jpeg
 

Arjun

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These phased re-openings don't mean anything. This includes the tri-state area. Pretty soon everyone will be back to square one.
 
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