Ongoing coronavirus happenings

Killing People Because President Deals Has A Hunch And A Dream

And we’ll all just move on because LOL nothing matters.

A malaria drug widely touted by President Donald Trump for treating the new coronavirus showed no benefit in a large analysis of its use in U.S. veterans hospitals. There were more deaths among those given hydroxychloroquine versus standard care, researchers reported.

The nationwide study was not a rigorous experiment. But with 368 patients, it’s the largest look so far of hydroxychloroquine with or without the antibiotic azithromycin for COVID-19, which has killed more than 171,000 people as of Tuesday.

Good thing Pelosi’s House is hard at work.
(Atrios)

And here on BB:

Horrible, but awesome shoop.

11 Likes

Funny, countries that fought in WWII see it differently…

(Full disclosure, I love Sweden, pretty upset to see them mangling their pandemic response.)

5 Likes

I recommend one minute of screaming, “Boris lies, NHS dies!”

16 Likes

Fucking morons.

7 Likes

This headline. It hurts me.

From the first sentence of the piece, emphasis mine:

Finland is past the peak of the first wave of coronavirus infections

Just FTR, because it very much fits: Christian Drosten related in the interview-podcast that he is very much expecting the epidemic to change it’s tune. In the beginning - and we are still very much at the beginning, not only in Germany - highly localised clusters occur. Afterwards, a diffusion process sets in, also under the cover of the current sometimes harsh (see: Spain!) measures which ‘mask’ the diffusion process. He is quite certain that widely spread background-level infections are occurring, and compared that really to a physical diffusion process. He expanded on ‘masking’ by current measures explaining that we don’t see the result as such because social distancing is working: while we have a relatively small R0, we would have no strong indication if the diffusion process already took place and localised clusters are no longer the currently prevalent form of the epidemic.

However, when the social distancing stops…
I understood that he thus argued that a way forward would be slowly reducing measures and re-instating them (sometimes also introducing stronger measures) - based on the level of detectable background infections happening.

That’s what Pueyo called “hammer and dance”, I think.

(Sidenote: Drosten is also fond of the idea of BT contact tracing apps, which I currently under the impression cannot work because physics and phones. See the other topic.)

4 Likes

I’m not sure what you mean, I am an American and also lived many years in Great Britain, as far as I know neither country has a strong opinion on Swedish-Norwegian relations.

The relationship between Norway and Sweden has been lopsided since the Kalmar Union in the 14th century, and mainly consisted of Sweden lording it over Norway, until around 40 years ago. The Norwegian coverage of the Swedish response to the virus has been a strange mixture of envy and indignation, but judging from photos of street scenes there isn’t much operational difference between the two.

2 Likes

Am I wrong in hoping that ‘elective surgeries’ means hip and knee joint replacements, and anything ‘plannable’? Oh glob, I don’t even want to know if I am wrong.

5 Likes

Based on what my doctor said last week, that seems likely to be what it means.

6 Likes
14 Likes

Not soon enough, unfortunately.

7 Likes

Interesting, I have one British and one American parent, and am well aware that Sweden capitulated and Norway fought (one of Sweden’s capitulations was helping the Nazis send troops and armaments into Norway). Memories are short, I suppose, but it was at least important to Brits of my mother’s generation, and known to Americans of my father’s.

2 Likes

And pacemakers, implantable defibrillators, neuromodulation implants for things like Parkinson’s, etc. Things that aren’t really elective, just not emergency.

14 Likes

Good and bad news tonight:

The good- Vaccine candidate about to enter human trials in the UK:

The bad- Outbreak and other issues may drive millions into food insecurity this coming year.

12 Likes
7 Likes

1854: The Oktoberfest is canceled due to a cholera epidemic. In autumn the disease is thought to be defeated. Queen Therese of Bavaria - the festival was once launched in her honor - takes part in a thank-you service. Shortly thereafter, she dies of cholera.

17 Likes

Yes, well, British opinion of Norway might be higher than their opinion of Sweden, I was referring to the countries opinions of each other. When I lived in E. Yorks. I could pick up the ‘propaganda’ radio stations from both countries, both regularly made pretty rude jokes about the other.

The difference in infection control policy has created some new friction (and a closed border) between the two countries.

3 Likes

That more true than you might know. ICU’s lose money hand over fist, in-house pediatrics is good PR but makes no money, the only parts that make money are the pharmacy, (sometimes) the lab and the OR’s. Our totally fucked up system relies on surgeries, and especially elective surgeries (because those are pretty much guaranteed to be paid for) to fund the whole shebang. Take those away and, well, you see what is starting to happen.

22 Likes

Well that was unexpected… (/s)
Watch for similar patterns elsewhere.

11 Likes

oh no. don’t let the conspiracy nuts hear that.

2 Likes