CR: COVID-19 --Political Talk

[triplehorn 2,664]

2 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

I give up.  You have a remarkable ability to prioritize the trivial and trivialize the important.

what are you considering trivial vs important?

[JimmyJames 12,271]

41 minutes ago, triplehorn said:

 

We've had evidence of this for long enough that most likely more should have survived than one cares to contemplate.   For some reason, Fauci clearly has been in no rush to share it with all of us Americans.  It's inexplicable.  And I suggest inexcusable.  

Bullshit. From 2016:

https://www.washingtonian.com/2016/01/15/how-to-avoid-getting-sick-when-youre-around-people-all-day/

Also Because you can get enough vitamin D in the late spring and summer from the sun this is a good time to REMIND people. You can’t in the winter in most places and it’s difficult to get from food so now is a good time to tell people that vitamin D supplements are a good thing. 
 

As for vitamin C, eat an orange every day and you’ll get more than you need. You don’t really need supplements but it doesn’t hurt. 

[hookemATL 11,973]

If I drink Citrus bleach will I be covered?

[JimmyJames 12,271]

Just more of the let’s blame everybody else for President shitheads incompetence and psychopathic pathology.  This Fauci thing about vitamin C and D and “why didn’t he tell us sooner” is just the latest pathetic attempt. It never ends with these shitbags. 

[jimmyjazz 46,470]

6 minutes ago, triplehorn said:

what are you considering trivial vs important?

That report is dated September 4th.  Much of the advocacy of vitamins C & D were rooted in general immune system theory along with a vast body of work regarding safe daily levels.  It wasn't a complete shot in the dark, but it was a safe "why not", as opposed to say HCQ (ahem).

So you're bitching about a man who hasn't checked every single box to your satisfaction and criticizing his behavior when he has clearly been trying to tread a fine line in order to continue to inform the public as much as possible.

Long story short:  you trivialize his ability to constantly advocate for masks and social distancing, and you prioritize his failure to meet your very specific standards for how he does his job.

[Mrs Whiggins 13,050]

Fauci needs to spend 7-9 hours a day watching television. That's very healthy some people say.

[triplehorn 2,664]

8 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

That report is dated September 4th.  Much of the advocacy of vitamins C & D were rooted in general immune system theory along with a vast body of work regarding safe daily levels.  It wasn't a complete shot in the dark, but it was a safe "why not", as opposed to say HCQ (ahem).

So you're bitching about a man who hasn't checked every single box to your satisfaction and criticizing his behavior when he has clearly been trying to tread a fine line in order to continue to inform the public as much as possible.

Long story short:  you trivialize his ability to constantly advocate for masks and social distancing, and you prioritize his failure to meet your very specific standards for how he does his job.

wow.  not true.  moving on...

[JimmyJames 12,271]

18 minutes ago, triplehorn said:

wow.  not true.  moving on...

Which part wasn’t true? Where ya going? 

[Neonmoon 38,130]

1 hour ago, triplehorn said:

 

We've had evidence of this for long enough that most likely more should have survived than one cares to contemplate.   For some reason, Fauci clearly has been in no rush to share it with all of us Americans.  It's inexplicable.  And I suggest inexcusable.  

You’re blaming Fauci for not telling people to take Emergen-C? Seriously. You also going to get pissed when you find out he’s drinking water and exercising regularly? 
 

Sweet Christ, the world is full of the dumbest fucking people. 

[Bozo_Casanova 26,671]

This account is worth following for sure

 

[Anastasis 23,498]

 

[Anastasis 23,498]

[triplehorn 2,664]

32 minutes ago, Neonmoon said:

You’re blaming Fauci for not telling people to take Emergen-C? Seriously. You also going to get pissed when you find out he’s drinking water and exercising regularly? 
 

Sweet Christ, the world is full of the dumbest fucking people. 

Yet this:

"When are we going to be able to sit in a theater and watch our favorite performers up on stage again?"

"I think it's going to be a combination of a vaccine that has been around for almost a year and good public-health measures," Fauci told Garner.

--->  nice summary here that shows, shockingly, that we won't be facing any resurgent threat from SarsCov2 in the future, and not a year from now either, with or without a vaccine:

Spoiler

 

 

I don't put all the blame on Fauci for no accountability and and no plan, but at some point you resign in protest to preserve integrity.  So where the hell is he really coming from?  it's a fucking head scratcher.

[jimmyjazz 46,470]

What the fuck are you babbling about?

[Brisketexan 105,569]

What the fuck are you babbling about?

I don’t know...but I hate f’n videos. Why don’t people just write, so we can read? I read a lot faster than these damn vids take.

[Mrs Whiggins 13,050]

Just now, Brisketexan said:

I don’t know...but I hate f’n videos. Why don’t people just write, so we can read? I read a lot faster than these damn vids take.

Because scientific writing and publishing takes time, plus it should be reviewed. If I was a *checks notes*  chemical engineer of medical devices, then it might be difficult to have my work included in the International Journal of Epidemiology or Microbial Genomics. So, YouTube and Facebook it is.

 

Ivor Cummins does work with a family practice physician, and the two of them hawk diet and exercise books. His nickname is the Fat Emporer. Does that make him unqualified to speak out about infectious diseases? I won't say, but there are over 8000 epidemiologists in the US alone so why are all the other people getting so much air time?

[WhatTheBuck 28,825]

1 hour ago, Neonmoon said:

You’re blaming Fauci for not telling people to take Emergen-C? Seriously. You also going to get pissed when you find out he’s drinking water and exercising regularly? 
 

Sweet Christ, the world is full of the dumbest fucking people. 

You're talking to a guy who thought Bill Barr was secretly planning to defend the Constitution when he penned an unsolicited memo defending Trump in a bid for the AG job. Logical inference isn't his strong suit. 

[Neonmoon 38,130]

33 minutes ago, WhatTheBuck said:

You're talking to a guy who thought Bill Barr was secretly planning to defend the Constitution when he penned an unsolicited memo defending Trump in a bid for the AG job. Logical inference isn't his strong suit. 

Noted. Putting on ignore 

[JimmyJames 12,271]

2 hours ago, triplehorn said:

Yet this:

"When are we going to be able to sit in a theater and watch our favorite performers up on stage again?"

"I think it's going to be a combination of a vaccine that has been around for almost a year and good public-health measures," Fauci told Garner.

--->  nice summary here that shows, shockingly, that we won't be facing any resurgent threat from SarsCov2 in the future, and not a year from now either, with or without a vaccine:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

I don't put all the blame on Fauci for no accountability and and no plan, but at some point you resign in protest to preserve integrity.  So where the hell is he really coming from?  it's a fucking head scratcher.

Good to know you’re a fucking idiot. I did not know that. Now I do.

[Biff Tannen 45,763]

Vitamin C is good for the immune system? Fuck, now he tells us. 
 

WE LANDED ON THE MOON!!!

[henrygandorf 29,199]

 

[BradInATX 9,208]

15 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

I don’t know...but I hate f’n videos. Why don’t people just write, so we can read? I read a lot faster than these damn vids take.

Hell yes. I'd rep you multiple times if I could. There's not much in this world that gets me more ragey than when I'm looking for the answer to a very simple question that should be a one-paragraph answer and I all I can find is 10 minute long Youtube videos. 

[TwiceHorn 31,678]

27 minutes ago, BradInATX said:

Hell yes. I'd rep you multiple times if I could. There's not much in this world that gets me more ragey than when I'm looking for the answer to a very simple question that should be a one-paragraph answer and I all I can find is 10 minute long Youtube videos. 

Same.  Nothing annoys me more than clicking on what seems to be a story (written) on my google feed (usual culprit), only to find it's a video (CNN seems to be very bad about this).

[jimmyjazz 46,470]

Outside of a small subset of our population -- like, surly -- people in general would prefer not to read.  It's maddening.

[Bevo14 8,432]

49 minutes ago, BradInATX said:

Hell yes. I'd rep you multiple times if I could. There's not much in this world that gets me more ragey than when I'm looking for the answer to a very simple question that should be a one-paragraph answer and I all I can find is 10 minute long Youtube videos. 

Blasphemy. Where would we be without overproduced youtube videos with 65 million ads and endorsements?

Edited September 14, 2020 by Bevo14

[Biff Tannen 45,763]

I don't have sound on my work computer, so I never click on videos.  I assume they are mostly bullshit anyway.

[Brisketexan 105,569]

4 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

I don't have sound on my work computer, so I never click on videos.  I assume they are mostly bullshit anyway.

That's not an unreasonable assumption.  Videos are geared towards a certain mindset/way of thinking, and it's not the sharpest, most critical way of thinking. Videos are how you spoonfeed conclusions to the gullible.  That doesn't mean that ALL of them are garbage, but if you're putting on your "I only have so much time to digest information" filter, it's not an unreasonable call to make.

[HenryJames 66,277]

It comes as increasing evidence suggests that the amount of virus someone is exposed to at the start of infection - the “infectious dose” - may determine the severity of their illness. Indeed, a large study published in the Lancet last month found that “viral load at diagnosis” was an “independent predictor of mortality” in hospital patients.
 

Wearing masks could therefore reduce the infectious dose that the wearer is exposed to and, subsequently, the impact of the disease, as masks filter out some virus-containing droplets.

[wildcat09 29,453]

I'm not a doctor and didn't stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night, but smaller viral load = less severe illness seems...extremely obvious? Is it really the case that this might be a unique characteristic of COVID-19 and not something that all viruses have in common?

[BradInATX 9,208]

2 hours ago, wildcat09 said:

I'm not a doctor and didn't stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night, but smaller viral load = less severe illness seems...extremely obvious? Is it really the case that this might be a unique characteristic of COVID-19 and not something that all viruses have in common?

What I find interesting and often wonder is if there's a range of symptoms between "completely asymptomatic" and "got the full blown ro ro". I'm sure there's info out there on this but I haven't seen it, because the focus seems to be either on actual cases where the person gets sick, or on asymptomatic cases.

Do people just get a little cough then later test positive? Or something they thought was a 48 hour cold? Or is there really a gulf between totally asymptomatic and being legit sick?

 

[Jive Turkey 12,722]

This is the dumbest shit I’ve seen today. 

 

[Neonmoon 38,130]

"I hate masks because most child molesters love them"

[Biff Tannen 45,763]

8 minutes ago, Neonmoon said:

"I hate masks because most child molesters love them"

JFC.  They really have to stop giving these people a microphone.  We cannot indulge this insanity.

[Bruh Man 3,160]

27 minutes ago, Jive Turkey said:

This is the dumbest shit I’ve seen today. 

 

The deterioration of white folks under Trump has been a sight to see.

[Grade of D as in David 13,253]

28 minutes ago, Jive Turkey said:

This is the dumbest shit I’ve seen today. 

 

Need some teargas and rubber bullets deployed to Salt Lake asap.

[WhatTheBuck 28,825]

46 minutes ago, Jive Turkey said:

This is the dumbest shit I’ve seen today. 

 

Did you see where BradinATX used the term "ro ro" in the post just before yours?

[BradInATX 9,208]

Just now, WhatTheBuck said:

Did you see where BradinATX used the term "ro ro" in the post just before yours?

Yeah, it's a tic. All of my wife's nurses use it and she brings it home. 

[Guest Lobo]

^
really lost in that news piece is the part where armed adults attempt to storm a school building.  Granted, they were doing it because of mask mandates/school closures.....but grown, white people were in the lobbies of multiple campuses with firearms.  But "Hoax/Trump" talk prevailed.  

[MC Fresh Breath 4,074]

33 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

JFC.  They really have to stop giving these people a microphone.  We cannot indulge this insanity.

This.  At the same time, the sheer number of them is discouraging.  

I saw a dude yesterday in Lowes, inside the store, with no mask on at all.   I've seen tons of folks with the mask under the nose thing (including produce workers at grocery stores)  and I can't help wonder if it is ignorance or some kind of dumb protest.

 

[MC Fresh Breath 4,074]

Quote

 

Vaccine maker got $1 billion from taxpayers. Now it’s boosting drug prices
 

WASHINGTON —  One of the world’s largest drug companies has been aggressively raising prices even as it received hundreds of millions of dollars of U.S. government aid to develop a COVID-19 vaccine.
AstraZeneca, which the Trump administration has celebrated for its vaccine work, boosted prices despite renewed promises by President Trump this summer to keep drug costs in check.

The multinational pharmaceutical firm raised prices in a way that stood out even among other big drug companies. It announced not just one set of price hikes in 2020 but two, often on the same drugs, according to an analysis of drug pricing data by The Times and 46brooklyn Research, a nonprofit that studies the pharmaceutical industry.

AstraZeneca hiked prices on some of its biggest selling medicines by as much as 6% this year at a time when the overall inflation rate is hovering around 1%, the analysis shows. The administration has said nothing about the price increases.

AstraZeneca’s second round of increases came after it secured a $1.2-billion commitment in May from the U.S. for vaccine development and as the company was reporting more than $3.6 billion in operating profits in the first half of 2020.

“They clearly made a decision to do their pricing differently, both from their recent past and from their peers, at the same time they were seeking billions of dollars,” said 46brooklyn founder Eric Pachman.

AstraZeneca, which is based in Britain but also has a large U.S. operation, declined to discuss its pricing practices, instead offering a statement noting the company’s assistance programs for people unable to afford its drugs. “We recognize the challenges many Americans are facing and remain committed to ensuring patients are able to access our medicines,” the statement said.

The company’s price hikes underscored the persistent inability of American policymakers, including Trump, to rein in drug prices, even during a public health crisis when pharmaceutical companies are getting substantial public assistance.

“Pharma corporations are sophisticated political actors that understand this is a risky time to be seen increasing prices, and yet these corporations are addicted to price increases,” said Peter Maybarduk, who oversees drug policy for the nonprofit watchdog group Public Citizen.

Although the federal government has committed more than $10 billion this year to drug companies to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, the administration hasn’t required any commitments from drugmakers on the price they would charge.

Thus far, companies receiving government aid have only made vague promises to make any vaccines they develop affordable.

AstraZeneca has said it wouldn’t profit from vaccine sales during the pandemic, but it remains unclear how this would be verified and whether the company might raise prices after the worst of the crisis passes.

Drugmakers for years have pledged to make their products more affordable, assuring U.S. lawmakers, patient groups and others that they are sensitive to the struggles many Americans have paying for their medications.

Yet patients in the U.S. are finding it increasingly difficult to afford prescriptions, with one in five households reporting last year they were unable to pay for a medicine that a doctor had prescribed in the previous year because of costs.

Nevertheless, to start this year, most major pharmaceutical companies continued to hike prices at rates far exceeding inflation, the Times and 46brooklyn found.

Several of the world’s biggest drugmakers announced hikes of 5%, 6%, even 9% on a host of popular medicines, according to the analysis, which looked at list prices by the 15 largest drug companies using the Elsevier Gold Standard Drug Database, which includes pricing and clinical information on tens of thousands of medications.

List prices are typically higher than the final prices health insurers and governments negotiate with drugmakers. But the list price guides negotiations and can have a major impact on what patients pay, especially as high-deductible plans increasingly require people to pay the list price until the deductible is met.

Moreover, in Medicare’s Part D, the nation’s largest prescription drug program, patients’ out-of-pocket costs for drugs typically rise when the list price for drugs go up.

Other wealthy countries in Europe, East Asia and elsewhere more aggressively control the cost of medications, either directly through government price-setting or indirectly through tightly regulated price negotiations. That has protected patients in these countries from the cost burdens that now routinely overwhelm Americans, studies show.

At the start of the year, AstraZeneca’s 2020 price hikes initially looked relatively modest.

The company announced only 13 price increases in January, averaging 2.7% and none more than 3%, a threshold that is historically in line with inflation and typically attracts minimal attention.

Those hikes suggested that the company would be implementing among the least aggressive pricing strategies in the industry.

Only Swiss drugmaker Roche raised its prices by a lower average, according to the Times-46brooklyn analysis.

By contrast, AbbVie, an American manufacturer, raised prices on many of its drugs by more than 7%, including a 7.4% hike for its popular Humira medication. That followed a 6.2% increase on Humira in 2019.

Shortly after AstraZeneca’s January price increases, as the COVID-19 pandemic quickly spread across the globe, the company began talks with Oxford University to produce a vaccine initially developed by researchers at the British school. A formal agreement was signed at the end of April.

By mid-May, the drug giant had secured $1.2 billion from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The department heralded the grant as paving the way for a major clinical trial in the U.S. and the production of what the Trump administration said would be more than 300 million doses of a vaccine.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, a former executive at U.S. drugmaker Eli Lilly, called the award “a major milestone.” AstraZeneca last week put its clinical trials on hold after a participant developed a potentially serious complication.

The company got money from other governments over the summer, as well. European nations — through the European Inclusive Vaccines Alliance and the European Union — put forward more than $1 billion. AstraZeneca inked deals with Japan, China, Brazil and other nations, too.

At the same time, the company reported that its revenues for the first half of the year were up 14%. Operating profits surged more than 20% from the first six months of 2019, according to the company’s earnings report.

Pascal Soriot, the company’s chief executive, at the time hailed the “strong performance” as “another step forward in profitability and cash generation.”

Nevertheless, AstraZeneca raised its prices again, announcing hikes in July on 10 more drugs. Unlike January, the increases weren’t so modest.

The company pushed up the price on two drugs by 5%, including its popular Pulmicort, a steroid used to treat Crohn’s disease that the company reported generated nearly $1.5 billion in sales in 2019.

AstraZeneca also boosted prices by 6% on Nexium and Crestor, two old blockbusters that now have generic competitors but together still generate more than $300 million in U.S. sales, and much more globally. The two drugs are nearly 20 years old.

The company also raised prices on some of its most expensive drugs after holding off increases in January. Those included Tagrisso, one of the company’s big-selling cancer drugs, which costs more than $15,000 for a monthly supply. AstraZeneca increased Tagrisso’s price tag by 2% in July.

In addition to these increases, AstraZeneca raised prices a second time on 11 of the 13 drugs it had already bumped up in January.

That pushed the total 2020 price increases for most of these drugs to 5% or 6%, as well.

No other major drug company made as many double price increases in 2020, the Times-46brooklyn analysis shows.

GlaxoSmithKline, another British pharmaceutical firm, raised prices twice on four drugs, the second most among the 15 major drug companies. Eight companies didn’t implement a single double increase in 2020.

“AstraZeneca is the real outlier in 2020,” Pachman said.

In one nationwide survey earlier this year, nine in 10 Americans said they were concerned that the pharmaceutical industry would take advantage of the current pandemic to increase prices.

Sensitive to voters’ concerns, Trump this summer said he would undertake new efforts to control prices, a promise he had made a centerpiece of his 2016 presidential campaign.

To date, none of the administration’s major proposals to restrict prices have been fully implemented.

 

https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-09-14/drug-maker-got-1-billion-from-taxpayers-boosting-prices

[Biff Tannen 45,763]

JFC, the DT Covid thread is such a shit show.  Fucking texags dumbassery up in there.

[cam4mav 771]

 

Paul Rudd says wear a fucking mask

[4th&Five 41,701]

 

[Hugo Stiglitz 23,367]

 

[washparkhorn 9,939]

Not a bad solution to the mask deniers . . . 

 

[washparkhorn 9,939]

5 hours ago, Jive Turkey said:

This is the dumbest shit I’ve seen today

 

[Biff Tannen 45,763]

1 hour ago, washparkhorn said:

Not a bad solution to the mask deniers . . . 

 

I am 100% for this.  Seriously.

[Anastasis 23,498]

47 minutes ago, washparkhorn said:

Not a bad solution to the mask deniers . . . 

 

I still haven't come around to understanding the psychology here. 

This is not that fucking hard. It's a piece of cloth. You put it over your face so that you aren't breathing your covid (and other) fucking germs on everything. 

This is not an assault on your liberty. It is not an assault on your person hood or humanity.  It is simply asking you to take one small step to ending this fucking pandemic. 

Broad international travel restrictions and mask wearing domestically and this shit would be in our rear view mirror.  

[Anastasis 23,498]

Oh, and fuck you triple and your HCQ adjacent anti-mask wearing clowns. 

[BradInATX 9,208]

My dog decided to bolt out the garage today and chase deer across the property and across the street. The lady who found him and brought him to us just randomly volunteered to me that she thought Covid was a hoax. I guess because I didn't wear a mask to meet her at the mailbox and get him from her (not intentional, just ran out the door and jumped in the truck without thinking). Nice lady otherwise. People are so weird.

Edited September 15, 2020 by BradInATX