https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/a-note-from-new-zealand
TPM Reader CE checks in from New Zealand ā¦
Just read your latest and was astounded to see that Slovenia has declared an end to their Covid epidemic. Iām not sure what sort of epidemeologists are advising their government, but at least from an animal health point of view I would never call that an āendā or āeradicationā. Theyāre certainly in the elimination phase, butā¦
I used to live two blocks from that hospital I canāt say I had a super awesome experience the one time I went to that ER some 20 years ago.
I had an absolutely excruciating sore throat - comparable in pain to when I had strep. Maybe a good 8 on the pain scale. I hadnāt had more than a few hours sleep over 3 days and at around 2 am I said fuck it. I didnāt care that I didnāt have health insurance at the time. I needed something done.
I go to the ER and am stuck in the waiting room for hours. After getting understandably cranky (but not belligerent) about this Iām rudely informed that my āsore throatā just doesnāt compare to the gunshots and car accidents being worked on before me. I mean, excuse the fuck out of me for not having any way to know about whatās going on behind the scenes, you know? So, finally I see a doctor for two minutes who sends me on my way with two codeine and a nearly $2000 bill.
And even that shitty experience seems like a luxury vacation by comparison to that Twitter thread. Good grief.
So much this. I have been diagnosed with CFS but as itās not really understood or really treatable Iāve been told dismissively to be more active and all that. Itās like, how the fuck am I supposed to be more active when Iām fucking exhausted all the time and get zero enjoyment out of it to begin with. Donāt get me started on the mental fatigue of a dayās work.
I totally get it.
Darn Cubs. Havent won a game all year. On the other hand the White Sox are undefeated. Go Sox!
Music to my south siderās ears!
Saturday, May 16, 2020
Killing Our Great Veterans
Remember their plan was to flood all the hospitals in New York and New Jersey with this and make them give it to patients because someone told our big wet boy it would solve his problems and people like Elon Musk were pushing it.
A study of Veterans Affairs patients hospitalized with the coronavirus found no benefit and higher death rates among those taking hydroxychloroquine, researchers said last month.
More than 27 percent of patients treated with hydroxychloroquine died, and 22 percent of those treated with the combination therapy died, compared with an 11.4 percent death rate in those not treated with the drugs, the study said.
Sucking up to Trump by killing people.
Concern is mounting after a doctor at a Texas nursing home started giving the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to dozens of elderly patients diagnosed with COVID-19 and tracking the outcomes in what heās calling an āobservational study.ā
One group of people who did need to get the fuck back to work.
I know, itās shocking, SHOCKING, I say, that the White House lied about testing capacity.
Reading between the lines: Oregon Dept. of Health knows they have vastly more testing capacity than the Feds give them credit for, and donāt want to have their tests confiscated. So ixnay on the estingtay, OK?
So, Iāll provide you with a ground-level view of how things are developing in San Ysidro, CA next to the border, under governor Newsomās proposed stage two re-opening guidelines.
According to the proposal, certain non-essential businesses like florists, sporting goods stores, clothing stores, etc. could open up to curbside service or delivery if they met the stateās criteria.
I needed to go to my post office box on Thursday, a week into stage 2, to pick up my debit card issued for my unemployment benefits, and hopefully get some shipping materials, art supplies, and perhaps a couple of pairs of shorts for the summer.
The first thing I noticed is that chain clothing stores like Ross and Marshallās remained closed. In fact, pretty much everything that wasnāt a restaurant, grocer or convenience store remained closed. The only boutique I saw open was a perfume retailer, and there were no customers.
So, no art supplies, no clothes. I managed to buy some shipping boxes from my mailbox rental company, but could find no bubble wrap.
I needed to activate my debit card, and since I donāt carry cellphone service (I never have enough phone conversations to justify a plan), Bank of America was helpful in allowing me to use an office phone. The lobbies of banks are open, but with strict social distancing and, at BoA, a security guard tasked with sanitizing surfaces at the teller point of contact after each and every customer.
The line at BoA stretched halfway around the building, and the ATMs were seeing heavy usage.
It seems that despite the governorās wish to re-open California, the part of California I frequent does not feel the same.
Iām guessing Newsom is under a lot of pressure to say āre-openingā, but put in place rules to make it a non-issue.
Weāll see how it goes here: technically weāre āre-openedā too, but not much interested in venturing out to find out how itās going or who is involved.
At the end of the day, between the number of people like us who are going to continue to take maximal precautions (my parents are both high-risk, and we are doing shopping and chores for them, so weāre trying to be as safe as possible) and the people who are unemployed or frightened about their employment, or just highly wary of economic conditions, I think very few are going to be rushing out to spend money on non-essentials. Itās going to make things worse for us, since businesses will now be filled with aggressive maskless mouthbreathers.
At the end of the day, āRe-opening Fever!ā is about one thing, and one thing only. The Republicans have bailed out the rich, now theyāre done. Once things have been āre-openedā, when small-businesses go bankrupt and people lose their jobs, it will be their fault, because hey, we āre-openedā.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/new-orleans-begins-easing-coronavirus-restrictions
but officials warned a spike in cases or deaths could lead to putting restrictions back in place.
So much of this while I was out there. At least 10% of the people in public had no mask, a further 30% were masks intermittently or improperly, with the rest properly masked. In Tijuana, you could bump up the percentages another 10% for incorrect usage of a mask.
