
Coronavirus Tidbits #90 Growing insanity
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Announcements:
First, there is now a Resources Page here for the most commonly asked questions I’m getting.
Happy to continue to answer your questions/concerns as best I can, so don’t be shy about that.
News
“Dying in a Leadership Vacuum”
“In an unprecedented move,” the New England Journal of Medicine has published an editorial “condemning the Trump admin for its response to the Covid-19 pandemic – and calling for the current leadership in the US to be voted out of office.”
…Our leaders have failed that test. They have taken a crisis and turned it into a tragedy.
The magnitude of this failure is astonishing…Why has the United States handled this pandemic so badly? We have failed at almost every step. We had ample warning, but when the disease first arrived, we were incapable of testing effectively and couldn’t provide even the most basic personal protective equipment to health care workers and the general public. And we continue to be way behind the curve in testing…number of tests performed per infected person, a rate that puts us far down the international list, below such places as Kazakhstan, Zimbabwe, and Ethiopia,..
the federal government has undermined them (tools). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which was the world’s leading disease response organization, has been eviscerated and has suffered dramatic testing and policy failures. The National Institutes of Health have played a key role in vaccine development but have been excluded from much crucial government decision making. And the Food and Drug Administration has been shamefully politicized,3 appearing to respond to pressure from the administration rather than scientific evidence. Our current leaders have undercut trust in science and in government,4 causing damage that will certainly outlast them. Instead of relying on expertise, the administration has turned to uninformed “opinion leaders” and charlatans who obscure the truth and facilitate the promulgation of outright lies.
Anyone else who recklessly squandered lives and money in this way would be suffering legal consequences. Our leaders have largely claimed immunity for their actions. But this election gives us the power to render judgment. Reasonable people will certainly disagree about the many political positions taken by candidates. But truth is neither liberal nor conservative. When it comes to the response to the largest public health crisis of our time, our current political leaders have demonstrated that they are dangerously incompetent. We should not abet them and enable the deaths of thousands more Americans by allowing them to keep their jobs.”
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2029812?
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White House Blocked C.D.C. From Requiring Masks on Public Transportation https://t.co/f3JGv2kVxV
— Judy Stone (@DrJudyStone) October 11, 2020
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That is our lab Harry! The co-first author wrote a nice piece for a general audience here https://t.co/NKpiyDf5ls
— scott jenks (@scottjenks) October 10, 2020
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Severity of Covid in young adults (age 18-34)
over one-fifth of the patients (21 percent) required intensive care, 10 percent required mechanical ventilation and 2.7 percent died.
57 percent of the young people hospitalized for COVID-19 were Black or Hispanic, a finding consistent with other reports about the disproportionate burden the disease has had on these demographics.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-10/bawh-yph100820.php
Diagnostics:
still an incredible, negligent lack of rapid, accurate testing.
Trump’s Antigen Testing Fail
Eschewing evidence, the White House has favored antigen testing for COVID-19 over the more reliable PCR tests, Kaiser Health Newsreported, citing one potential reason for the disease outbreak there. BinaxNOW, the new antigen test now used in the White House, has not been independently verified for accuracy and reliability. BinaxNOW received an FDA emergency use authorization in August.
The White House does not report antigen test results to the Washington, D.C., health department — “a potential violation of federal law under the CARES Act, which says any institution performing tests to diagnose COVID-19 must report all results to local or state public health departments,” the article stated.
Drugs:
Trump touts Regeneron as a “cure” for Covid
Trump says the "cure" he received at Walter Reed will soon be widely available. But its maker disclosed that in the next few months, supply will be only ~300,000 doses — the number of Americans sickened in the last week alone. From @Carolynyjohnson: https://t.co/jCEFO7oVpL
— Paul Sonne (@PaulSonne) October 8, 2020
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The CEO of Regeneron, whose treatment Trump is advertising, belongs to one of Trump's golf courses (and Trump has owned stock in it). The company has already received $450 million of your tax dollars from son-in-law Jared Kushner's vaccine program. https://t.co/WHDi8gfcLy
— Swing Left (@swingleft) October 7, 2020
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"Regeneron currently has enough doses for 50,000 patients… To put that in context, the United States has 50,000 new cases of COVID-19 every day."
— Ed Yong (@edyong209) October 9, 2020
.@sarahzhang on the antibody cocktail that Trump received. https://t.co/QhyxHv8IH6
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A big win and huge shift: China joins Covax initiative to distribute coronavirus vaccines
— Dr Alexandra Phelan (@alexandraphelan) October 9, 2020
The US & Russia remain out of this critical multilateral mechanism. https://t.co/n4Bf3PCEVn
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‘Covid is all about privilege’: Trump’s treatment underscores vast inequalities in access to care
Devices:
PPE – (and why is this still a problem???)
health care workers who didn’t have adequate PPE had a 30% greater chance of infection than colleagues with enough supplies. Black, Hispanic and Asian staffers had the highest risk of catching COVID-19, they found.
A University of California, Berkeley study estimated that at least 35% of health care and other essential workers in California who tested positive for COVID-19 were infected at work, amid shortages.
…90% of U.S. medical masks were being made overseas….many of them counterfeit
Scathing story and history of US lack of preparedness
Now we have a shortage of needles and syringes to give flu shot
Epidemiology/Infection control:
1)Trump HASNT been tested daily. That’s why they won’t reveal last negative. He found them uncomfortable, so stopped tests weeks ago. He thought it was safe with everyone else tested instead.
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Do you keep hearing that #COVID19 patients are no longer infectious after 10 days? That’s true, for most cases!
— Craig Spencer MD MPH (@Craig_A_Spencer) October 9, 2020
But for those with severe to critical illness, the @CDCgov says 20 days.
Remdesivir and steroid are primarily given to severe cases. Just FYI.
cc: @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/WnALWzEF4e
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The White House has refused to involve the CDC or to do contact tracing after the Rose Garden superspreader event…
So people are crowdsourcing it. See http://www.whcovidtrack.com/ to follow what we know about #TrumpCovid
Recently, @BrighamWomens had a COVID-19 outbreak among 20+ patients & staff. We rapidly traced and tested all contacts and advised quarantine. We deployed PCR testing in <24 hours for ~9,000 staff. We ID’d 52 total cases associated w the cluster and are containing the outbreak.
— Atul Gawande (@Atul_Gawande) October 7, 2020
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I can't tell you how horrific this photo is to epidemiologists. Hundreds of people packed together, without masks, at site of recent superspreader event. @realDonaldTrump must have a side-deal with #SARSCoV2; he's doing everything to promote transmission, even among supporters. pic.twitter.com/Vezaty76XZ
— Gregg Gonsalves (@gregggonsalves) October 10, 2020
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CDC guidance is very clear. People who have had close contact with someone with COVID-19 must quarantine for 14 days.https://t.co/SiP4exZ1kt
— Dr. Angela Rasmussen (@angie_rasmussen) October 7, 2020
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CDC: Almost all of the US kids and teens who've died from COVID-19 were Hispanic or Black https://t.co/3NKexgcDD2 via @businessinsider
— Gregg Gonsalves (@gregggonsalves) October 10, 2020
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https://twitter.com/StevenJDuffield/status/1315031470797451265?s=20
https://news.gallup.com/opinion/gallup/321698/covid-responses-men-women.aspx
Tips, general reading for public:
StayAtHome
Wash your hands.
Rinse and repeat.
Politics:
Nothing to see here, just the president tweeting that essentially the plot to kidnap Gov Whitmer was what she deserved for not reopening her state and risking lives. https://t.co/YUhje5KhmX
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) October 9, 2020
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Australia’s David Rowe says it all. pic.twitter.com/KMz5QXX3cu
— Jaggzy (@jaggzy) October 10, 2020
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This @GenMhayden ad … wowpic.twitter.com/hkoh4Xwbjv
— David Priess (@DavidPriess) October 7, 2020
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Cindy McCain appears in a new Joe Biden ad.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 10, 2020
"Now more than ever we need a president who will put service before self. A president who will lead with courage and compassion, not ego … And a president who will bring out the best in us, not the worst." pic.twitter.com/lxlrd2chj6
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https://twitter.com/zachdespart/status/1313573995715981314?s=20
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#ChickenTrump pic.twitter.com/ciC5Xtv0C7
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) October 8, 2020
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Thought provoking article: Will German Americans again put Donald Trump over the top in the presidential election?
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https://twitter.com/JCTheResistance/status/1315094843161481216?s=20
Feel good du jour:
Karishma Ali: She made history by playing football. Now she's changing lives – CNN https://t.co/HFP6gPtBpQ
— Judy Stone (@DrJudyStone) October 9, 2020
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Comic relief:
https://twitter.com/MerriamWebster/status/1314029128266416130?s=20
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https://t.co/u9v6F8aQwJ pic.twitter.com/0TerbggqKN
— Just Another Mark Kelly fan account (@markkelly4az) October 8, 2020
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Anderson Cooper: Harris “had a smile on her face and he had a bloody eye and a fly on his head.”
Perspective/Poem
Bits of beauty:

2 Comments
lydia A.P. Martin
DearJudy,
Thank you for all your news and bits of beauty and humor too!!!! Thank you for all your energy, thoughts, and work you put into these!!!! Lydia.
Judy Stone
I appreciate your continued support and encouragement very much, Lydia. So very kind of you…but you have always been that way.