CR: COVID-19 --Political Talk

[workswithseed 2103]

1 hour ago, wildcat09 said:

Better than a system that decides Rudy fucking Giuliani should get the scarce superdrugs.

I mean that's our tax dollars, so we decided that. 

[Neonmoon 38129]

27 minutes ago, workswithseed said:

I mean that's our tax dollars, so we decided that. 

And we are pointing out that system is fucking stupid. 

[jimmyjazz 45926]

32 minutes ago, workswithseed said:

I mean that's our tax dollars, so we decided that. 

Well, that's a stupid take.  I might have voted for or against politicians who support that angle, but I definitely wasn't ever asked to vote about how our government doles out superdrugs.  

I mean, people vote on the top line issues (the economy and fiscal policy, defense & military policy, human rights, a few others) but this is way down the list.  It would be nice if we could elect smart, compassionate human beings, but at least my side comes a lot closer than you and and your crew of monsters.

[Mrs Whiggins 13050]

Aaaaand this is what you won't see when the fascist takeover occurs because the control will just happen.

 

[Mrs Whiggins 13050]

Here's a little more info:

So, the Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report and they want control over that? Uh huh.

[Biff Tannen 45683]

3 hours ago, bolverk said:

Yep. Again, like my parents, who always answered in the affirmative about whether they wear the masks to church, finally admitted upon further probing that they actually would only wear their masks while entering and exiting the sanctuary. But when they would arrive to their so-called isolated spot at the pew would remove their masks, because "it made it easier to sing."

Fucking infuriating idiocy.

fixed

[Mrs Whiggins 13050]

28 minutes ago, Neonmoon said:

And we are pointing out that system is fucking stupid. 

Health care is a basic human right. Pass it on.

[workswithseed 2103]

1 hour ago, Neonmoon said:

And we are pointing out that system is fucking stupid. 

I agree, but that still hasn't answered my question. How will UH deal with scarcity like the tweet talks about.

[Anastasis 23469]

This FDA call is a total jerk off session. The spend hours reading slide decks and abbreviate the actual meaningful discussion. We should be 1-2 weeks into vax rollout at this point. 

[Anastasis 23469]

This whole thing is going to boil down to whether the committee includes 16 and 17 year olds in the EUA.  The people who are going to be among the last to be prioritized for vaccination. What a joke. 

[Anastasis 23469]

They are about the ram through the recommendation. They have essentially shut down the dialogue on the data in favor of slide decks. Good job FDA.  Really solid work. 

[Anastasis 23469]

Regulatory theatre. Glad we waited 20 days for that. 17-4-1 Yes No Abstain to vote on whether the data supported benefits outweigh risks.  

[washparkhorn 9939]

The "Polarized Pandemic" confirms Covid has become the Republican virus in the US.

The following study is useful because it provides evidence for some widely held intuitions about the virus:

• more aggressive Covid containment measures reduce contagion levels, and
• the degree of connection between high infection areas (which skew Republican) increases infection among them and also generates net spread to lower infection states.

 

Spoiler

 

Balancing the trade-off between strict public health measures and economic activity has been the key concern for governments since the Covid-19 outbreak. This column studies Covid-19 infections and their connectedness across US states. It finds that states with lax government policy and community mobility response had higher case growth trajectories and generated connectedness of Covid-19 cases to other states. Further, states with Republican governors tend to have higher connectedness of Covid-19 cases among themselves and generate net connectedness to states with Democratic governors.

Balancing the trade-off between strict public health measures and economic activity has been the key concern for governments since the Covid-19 outbreak.  While strict measures impose high economic costs, they may play an important role in containing the spread of the virus, and consequently in preventing a more prolonged and costly reduction in economic activity (Furman 2020, Odendahl and Springford 2020). In the case of the US, the federal government showed a lax response to the pandemic, focusing on the economic impact rather than the rapidly increasing cases of Covid-19 and the death toll.  The resulting public debate politicised the federal and state-level public health policies and led to the formation of demarcation lines across the party lines in a year of presidential elections.

In a new paper (Akovali and Yilmaz 2020), we study the substantial differences in state-level responses leading to a wide variation in the new Covid-19 case trajectories across the country. Our work adds to the recent literature by demonstrating the close association between government policy and community mobility responses to the pandemic and the trajectories of new Covid-19 cases as well as their connectedness/spillovers across the US.

Politicised State-Level Response and Pandemic Momentum

We first focus on the relative performance of the states in terms of new Covid-19 cases. Figure 1 shows the average per-capita number of daily new cases of Covid-19 in states with Democratic and Republican governors. Many coastal states that have Democratic governors were harshly hit at the earlier stages of the outbreak, but they managed to limit the pandemic’s early growth with strict measures.  The states with Republican governors outstripped their Democratic counterparts as of the first week of June. Since then, the number of new cases per capita has been 30-40% higher in states with Republican governors compared to states with Democratic governors.

Figure 1 Average per-capita new cases in Democratic and Republican states

In a next step, we use panel regression analysis and find that the strict public health policy implementation by state governments was critical for containing the virus. Panel regression results also reveal that the changes in community mobility patterns played a crucial role in the containment of Covid-19 cases. States with Democratic governors (blue bars) overwhelmingly followed more stringent (above the national average) policies to contain the virus. In contrast, the majority of the states with Republican governors (red bars) followed less stringent (below the average) policies (Figure 2).

Figure 2 Average state-level government stringency index

Figure 3 shows the time-series of the unweighted average government policy response in the states with Democratic and Republican governors.  While panel a shows that, on average, states with Democratic governors followed more stringent policies than those with Republican governors, panel b displays a clear positive trend of the policy stringency difference between the two groups over time. Both panels of Figure 3 provide further evidence for the government policy difference between the states with Democrat and Republican governors.

Figure 3 Stringency index in Democratic and Republican states

Even though the community’s use of public spaces can be influenced by strict public policy measures, this also depends on the local community’s awareness of the risks involved. Therefore, it is worth focusing on the changes in the state-level community mobility patterns in response to the pandemic.  The average mobility indices for the two groups of states in Figure 4 (panel a) depicts a picture similar to the one for the policy stringency index in Figure 2.   Communities in states with Democratic governors decreased their use of public spaces more than communities in states with Republican governors. This difference persisted until the end of the sample on 23 October.

Figure 4 Community mobility and travel intensity: Democratic vs Republican states

In line with the lax government policies, states with Republican governors also did not impose air travel restrictions across states. Consequently, travel intensity between states with Republican governors has been higher than the travel intensity between states with Democratic governors. Furthermore, travel intensity from Republican to Democratic states has been higher than travel intensity from Democratic to Republican states (see Figure 4, panel b).

Within and Between Connectedness Dynamics across Democratic and Republican States

The absence of leadership from the federal government resulted in relatively high rates of Covid-19 cases in many states. Moreover, the substantial variation in public health policy measures across states fostered the transmission of Covid-19. In a time-series context, a connectedness analysis (Diebold and Yilmaz 2014) is a useful tool to estimate the transmissions when structural models are not readily available. The connectedness of case growth provides further empirical evidence on the dissociation between the pandemic’s course in states along the party lines.

In our paper, we show the dynamic behaviour of system-wide connectedness over time. Connectedness was much more volatile in the early phases of the Covid-19 pandemic, but it became relatively more stable over time. Interesting results are obtained when the state-level connectedness measures are aggregated along the political party lines. As expected, the Covid-19 connectedness between Democratic states (Figure 5a) and from Democratic to Republican states (Figure 5b) is higher in the early phases of the pandemic.  Starting in May, however, there was a reversal in the direction of Covid-19 connectedness. The directional connectedness from Republican to Democratic states and between Republican states peaked when the number of new Covid-19 cases in Republican states increased from the middle of May up to the first week of July. As Americans started travelling for the summer holidays, Covid-19 cases increased in both Democratic and Republican states from the 4th of July up to the Labor Day weekend.  Consequently, over this period, the directional connectedness within and between Democratic and Republican states fluctuated around the same level. After the summer vacation, the directional connectedness from Republican to Democratic states and within Republican states increased again.

Figure 5 Within and between group connectedness across republican and democratic states

Finally, using secondary regression analysis, we focus on the impact of government and community responses and the travel intensities on the directional connectedness between pairs of states.  The states with lax government and community responses to the pandemic generated connectedness of Covid-19 cases to those states that followed stricter policy and community response.  We also found that Covid-19 connectedness between pairs of states was quite strongly related to the travel intensity across states, as measured by the mobile phone location exposure index (LEX).  Finally, the Republican party affiliation of the governors turned out to be a significant determinant of the pairwise Covid-19 connectedness across states.

Conclusion

We show that politicised responses to the coronavirus pandemic contributed to the spread of the virus across US states. We further find that strong government and community responses were effective in reducing the number of Covid-19 infections and lower the connectedness of Covid-19 cases across states. Finally, we conclude that unless the federal government starts implementing stringent public health policies at the national level and coordinating state-level policies, controlling both Covid-19 cases and their connectedness across states will remain challenging.

 

https://voxeu.org/article/polarised-pandemic-response-and-covid-19-connectedness-across-us-states

 

 

[Bama Chick 28596]

I agree, but that still hasn't answered my question. How will UH deal with scarcity like the tweet talks about.

The same way we handle organ donation now.

There would be a list of criteria for patients that qualify for the therapy and the patients that are most in need are prioritized. The results of a patient’s evaluation of need should then be sent blind to an independent panel and ranked against all other patients. Then everyone goes on a ranked waiting list. A patient’s economic status nor their fame nor connections would have any bearing. You’re not moved to the front of the line because your name is Rudy Giuliani or George Clooney or Bill Clinton or Jeff Bezos.

Rudy said out loud he got the treatment because celebrities get special considerations you and I will never get. Rudy should have been evaluated and placed on a list like everyone else.

[GreenspointTexas 9600]

Just crossed over 300,000 known covid deaths

[JimmyJames 12271]

2 hours ago, Anastasis said:

Regulatory theatre. Glad we waited 20 days for that. 17-4-1 Yes No Abstain to vote on whether the data supported benefits outweigh risks.  

So what are the no votes saying? The risk of the vaccine outweighs the risks of the Covid? Because that seems a little crazy to me, but I am a no nothing. 

[Anastasis 23469]

2 minutes ago, JimmyJames said:

So what are the no votes saying?

Would be great to know but they cut off the customary post vote comment period and abruptly shut down the call. Hard to articulate what a total waste this was. 

[Sawbonz 27556]

 

[HenryJames 66049]

 

[HenryJames 66049]

10 hours ago, Sawbonz said:

 

 

[Judge Roybeanbag 11819]

Live free and find out.

[Mrs Whiggins 13050]

Anti vaxxer rhetoric is getting out of control on social media. All over Parler ( of course) and a lot of misinformation and deliberate disinformation. Even noticed some accounts on Twitter that use Parler in the account name. Twitter might have something to say about that, lol.

Meanwhile:

 

[BradInATX 9208]

He's going to start tweeting antivax stuff the day Biden is sworn in, isn't he

[Scheiss Meister 8407]

Why, yes.  Yes he is.

[HenryJames 66049]

12 hours ago, JimmyJames said:

So what are the no votes saying? The risk of the vaccine outweighs the risks of the Covid? Because that seems a little crazy to me, but I am a no nothing. 

They didn’t separate out the votes for approval for 16-17 years olds.

[Guest Lobo]

5 minutes ago, HenryJames said:

They didn’t separate out the votes for approval for 16-17 years olds.

Ah yes, the Epstein-BobBarr Syndrome Vaccine?  

[Anastasis 23469]

6 minutes ago, HenryJames said:

They didn’t separate out the votes for approval for 16-17 years olds.

Yeah. Somebody suggested an amendment given the very low number of 16 and 17 year olds in the study, and the fact that they wouldn’t be priority populations, but the chair told them to fuck right off and they were going to vote on the measure as stated.

[Chad Fuck 17677]

Live free and find out.

I like “Live Free AND die” but this’ll do.

[Judge Roybeanbag 11819]

3 minutes ago, Chad Fuck said:

I like “Live Free AND die” but this’ll do.

Yeah I updated for the current times and mindset.

[Sawbonz 27556]

32 minutes ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

Anti vaxxer rhetoric is getting out of control on social media. All over Parler ( of course) and a lot of misinformation and deliberate disinformation. Even noticed some accounts on Twitter that use Parler in the account name. Twitter might have something to say about that, lol.

Meanwhile:

 

There are legitimate concerns about this vaccine. I would not fault anyone for not taking it. For the elderly and high risks the obvious benefits outweigh (at this point) theoretical risks. But I don’t have the same strong feelings that non at risk people should get it in order to protect the general population like I have for the childhood vaccines. 
 

The last thing we want is people pressured to get the vaccine and then find out after 10M doses have been given there are serious side effects. The Pfizer trial had < 50K subjects and has < 12 months of follow up. This is technology that has never been used in humans, and a drug that has been brought to market with unprecedented speed. Think Vioxx. There were some researchers that raised theoretical concerns about CV risk based on metabolic pathways but it took widespread usage and time for the increased risk to be measurable 
 

WRT the Covid vaccine only about 200 15 to 17 year olds were included and there were no children in that study, which is why there was one abstention on the panel that voted on the EUA. It was from a pediatrician, and he stated in an interview on NPR that for the pediatric population he did not have enough data to conclude benefits of protecting them from covid infection outweigh risks of harm from the vaccine.

 

All that being said I will be getting the vaccine as soon as it is available and have been encouraging any at risk patients who ask my opinion to do the same.

[Nivek 16928]

20 hours ago, bolverk said:

Yep. Again, like my parents, who always answered in the affirmative about whether they wear the masks to church, finally admitted upon further probing that they actually would only wear their masks while entering and exiting the sanctuary. But when they would arrive to their so-called isolated spot at the pew would remove their masks, because "it made it easier to sing."

Fucking infuriating idiocy.

I told my mother that I would not attend her (or my father's) funeral.  That seemed to help a little, but my other idiotic family members keep doing their best to expose my parents.  I reiterated that recently to scare her again.   I read James Agee's A Death in the Family.   I am not putting my family at risk for their poor judgement.   

[Horn Under a Bad Sign 20397]

1 hour ago, BradInATX said:

He's going to start tweeting antivax stuff the day Biden is sworn in, isn't he

We can only hope.  The fewer Republicans the better, at this point. 

[Horn Under a Bad Sign 20397]

1 hour ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

 

 

 

Holy fuck.  Just when I think it can't possibly get any stupider, it gets stupider. 

[mdmost 43001]

Guy who helped kill 300,000 Americans with his inaction wants to criticize someone else's competence on a previous virus response. 

[honolulu horn 6158]

Usually I only provide a weekly update, but the US death numbers are rising so fast I figured I'd update sooner. We're up to 289,000 COVID deaths in the US, which is equivalent to the populations of Plano, Orlando, Lincoln, or Anchorage. It's incredible. Next week we should hit equivalents of several NFL cities. 

[Dahobbs 17534]

27 minutes ago, honolulu horn said:

Usually I only provide a weekly update, but the US death numbers are rising so fast I figured I'd update sooner. We're up to 289,000 COVID deaths in the US, which is equivalent to the populations of Plano, Orlando, Lincoln, or Anchorage. It's incredible. Next week we should hit equivalents of several NFL cities. 

Don't worry, if you go by worldometer (which is updated more quickly than other sources), we are at 300,363. 

Edited December 11, 2020 by Dahobbs

[Neonmoon 38129]

14 hours ago, Sawbonz said:

 

This next guy voted on a resolution saying the media was sensationalizing Covid 

 

[mdmost 43001]

Ah well, nevertheless. 

[Dahobbs 17534]

7 minutes ago, Neonmoon said:

This next guy voted on a resolution saying the media was sensationalizing Covid 

 

Just tell him to stop sensationalizing his illness. Fucking pansy. Also from the article:

Quote

 

Byrd, a former teacher and principal, in 2018 was accused by three former students of sexually assaulting them in the 1980s when he coached their girls basketball team at Wayne County High School.

He never publicly denied the allegations, but said he has done nothing wrong while in office.

 

So... yeah... 

[Brisketexan 105130]

1 -- the hoisting on their own petard will only increase.

2 -- it will not change their thinking one iota.

A sizable portion of our population would deny the Law of Gravity the entire time they were plummeting from the cliff they just jumped off of, railing against "gravity hoax" policies like safety railings, parachutes, etc.....right up to the moment they splatter on the ground.

Dumbest.  Fucking.  Timeline.

[Bama Chick 28596]

Welp.

I’ll probably be here till midnight tonight and will have to come in Saturday and maybe Sunday.

Currently converting labor and delivery beds to more ICU/Covid beds and converting the exam rooms in our OBGYN clinic into labor and delivery.

We also have our first morgue truck.

Please take care of yourself and reach out to your friends who are in health care.

And try not to have a stroke or get in a car wreck. We’re getting to the point where we’re going to see people dying from otherwise survivable conditions.

I’m currently in the bathroom taking 10 minutes to cry and have a tiny breakdown.

[Brisketexan 105130]

4 minutes ago, Bama Chick said:

Welp.

I’ll probably be here till midnight tonight and will have to come in Saturday and maybe Sunday.

Currently converting labor and delivery beds to more ICU/Covid beds and converting the exam rooms in our OBGYN clinic into labor and delivery.

We also have our first morgue truck.

Please take care of yourself and reach out to your friends who are in health care.

And try not to have a stroke or get in a car wreck. We’re getting to the point where we’re going to see people dying from otherwise survivable conditions.

I’m currently in the bathroom taking 10 minutes to cry and have a tiny breakdown.

I'm sorry.   You're far from the first person in the field I know who is in legitimate traumatic stress.  All while an entire swath of America insists that it's an overblown hoax.  On top of the stress of the actual situation, the denial of the reality that makes it worse is all the more maddening.

[PassiveAggressiveCoach 118]

3 hours ago, BradInATX said:

He's going to start tweeting antivax stuff the day Biden is sworn in, isn't he

That would be shocking as he is claiming the vaccines as his huge success but you never know. 

[Slacks 6819]

 

43 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

1 -- the hoisting on their own petard will only increase.

I had to look this up...  The leopards will keep eating faces and whatnot...

[DigglerontheHoof 21198]

5 minutes ago, PassiveAggressiveCoach said:

That would be shocking as he is claiming the vaccines as his huge success but you never know. 

Because he NEVER blatantly contradicts himself with lie after lie. 

[PassiveAggressiveCoach 118]

Just now, DigglerontheHoof said:

Because he NEVER blatantly contradicts himself with lie after lie. 

That's why I said you never know. 

[hookemATL 11728]

1 minute ago, DigglerontheHoof said:

Because he NEVER blatantly contradicts himself with lie after lie. 

 

[Aqua Buddha 14596]

1 hour ago, Neonmoon said:

This next guy voted on a resolution saying the media was sensationalizing Covid 

 

Life comes at you fast.

Thoughts and prayers.....

[Mrs Whiggins 13050]

2 hours ago, Sawbonz said:

There are legitimate concerns about this vaccine. I would not fault anyone for not taking it. For the elderly and high risks the obvious benefits outweigh (at this point) theoretical risks. But I don’t have the same strong feelings that non at risk people should get it in order to protect the general population like I have for the childhood vaccines. 
 

The last thing we want is people pressured to get the vaccine and then find out after 10M doses have been given there are serious side effects. The Pfizer trial had < 50K subjects and has < 12 months of follow up. This is technology that has never been used in humans, and a drug that has been brought to market with unprecedented speed. Think Vioxx. There were some researchers that raised theoretical concerns about CV risk based on metabolic pathways but it took widespread usage and time for the increased risk to be measurable 
 

WRT the Covid vaccine only about 200 15 to 17 year olds were included and there were no children in that study, which is why there was one abstention on the panel that voted on the EUA. It was from a pediatrician, and he stated in an interview on NPR that for the pediatric population he did not have enough data to conclude benefits of protecting them from covid infection outweigh risks of harm from the vaccine.

 

All that being said I will be getting the vaccine as soon as it is available and have been encouraging any at risk patients who ask my opinion to do the same.

I have no issue with vaccine concern at all. I should've explained that the anti vaxxer crowd is not letting this go to waste and are using to spread their overall agenda. Less of the type of conversation you're describing and more fear based, Bill Gates, QAnon energy rolled into government control, dead people, Obama and the globalists. It makes the discovery of factual, information based decision making difficult for people who are less able to sort out nuances in reliable sources. Reliable sources may seem obvious to you, personally, but there are a lot of folks out there that receive and distribute information through word-of-mouth, social media, and so on and even with that, there are 'doctors' that some people follow or consult with that are more along the lines of the demon sperm woman in Houston and thus, it's hard to get people on the same page much less reading the same book. That's actually not a good analogy these days. Plenty of people read their Facebook pages but general comprehension is a different matter.

[PassiveAggressiveCoach 118]

5 minutes ago, DigglerontheHoof said:

Because he NEVER blatantly contradicts himself with lie after lie. 

Now if the vaccine let's say starts to kill a lot of people with anaphylaxis then I could see him turn and blame it on the dems somehow screwing it up.