Looking forward to it like never before. I only leave the harbor when I have to in the summer but I had to go to Lowes this morning which brought the madness front and center.
Floridaâs governor deserves some attention. Look at all heâs done to get the stateâs infection rate higher than most nations.
My God when there is no coherent national strategy led by competent leadership this is the insanity you get. Every dimwit governor with zero scientific knowledge deciding how to combat a pandemic based on whether it would please a former TV reality show host who went bankrupt in the casino business and in NY real estate, numerous times. Goodness, the best anyone can hope for is Darwin wins out and the idiots dies off.
I had a conversation with one of my less enlightened friends lately over the phone. I asked if he was wearing a mask. He said no and no one was going to tell him had to. I asked, âArenât you afraid some Covid-19 sneezing person might infect you?â He said it is all BS. Itâs just something that kills old people and fat people with diabetes.
Well, you cannot argue with knowledge like that. I told him I wish him well but stay away from me and mine until they get some vaccine for this.
The USA deaths from covid 19 is to close 30% of the number of deaths in WW II and this is in only 6 months, not 4 years! At this point anyone one who refuses to wear a mask to protect his/her fellow citizens should be considered unpatriotic. I mean how much trouble is it? I wear one, they donât weight that much, yes itâs inconvenient but so is infecting someone else or dying. Are these people that selfish or just damn stupid?
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Stupid comes to mind.
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They are Trumpâs âbaseâ. What more does anyone need to add.?
The âbaseâ as refers to Trump is a provable minority of people. Hopefully the majority will as some point tell them to put on a mask. If the majority doesnât? They are wimps and deserve to go down with the ship.
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A great short essay on Dr. Fauci by Molly Roberts in Wapo, pointing out how important it is to have non-political scientists leading the fight against the virus. Note that it was Fauci who immediately began the program to create a vaccine. Here is an excerpt:
"The Peopleâs Republic of China posted the genetic code for the novel coronavirus on the Internet on Jan. 10.
The very next morning, on Jan. 11, Fauci called up Barney Graham, deputy director of the Vaccine Research Center at NIH, and told him to strap in for speed. Normally, it takes several years and hundreds of millions of dollars to make a vaccine. A year for animal studies, then a year for trials among healthy young people, then a year for trials among risky populations and then, finally, a year for a randomized trial of, say, 30,000 people or more.
Fauci said that wouldnât be fast enough this time. They had to do it all at once. The two scientists pulled biotechnology companies into the process that same day. The firms were concerned that going at warp speed would cost a fortune. âI told them donât worry about the money,â Fauci says. âThis is an emergency. We will find the money. Go ahead and do it.â
Sixty-five days later, human trials began on Modernaâs vaccine formula. That pace, says Fauci, is âthe fastest thatâs ever been done since the time a virus was sequenced.â On July 27, Moderna will begin a 30,000-person final-stage trial of the vaccine. Which is a reminder that whatever other tests Fauci would face as the coronavirus emerged in the United States, doubts about his determination, budgetary clout or sway among fellow scientists were no longer among them. The politics, however, were another matterâŚ"
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From the Irony Department:
The vaccines that Dr. Fauci hopes will be ready in 2021, and which POTUS45 takes credit for? Turns out they are largely the result of a research project begun by DARPA, greenlighted by the administration of POTUS44âŚ
FROM WAPO, July 30:
âŚA decade ago, a brainy Air Force doctor named Dan Wattendorf helped push rapid pandemic response further to the top of DARPAâs priority list.
Regularly citing the 1918 flu pandemic, the DARPA program manager saw how a novel pathogen, whether from another species or an enemyâs lab, could cripple the American military in the field.
âIf we need to deploy someone in harmâs way and itâs a new virus, you donât have time to wait for a new vaccine,â Wattendorf said. âThat could be a decade.â
Wattendorf had ideas for a solution. In 2010, he took to a conference room at DARPA headquarters in Northern Virginia with notes scribbled on his hand to make a pitch.
At the time, the Obama administration was emphasizing the need to step up pandemic response capabilities in the wake of the H1N1 outbreak, and DARPA was increasingly focusing on biology â an emphasis that would lead to the agencyâs first biotechnology office in 2014.âŚ
âEND CITATIONâ
So the vaccine we hope to have to stop this pandemic, which certain people said that nobody could predict, may be stopped by the decision of a president ten years ago.
Maybe POTUS44 had one of those Delorean cars with the flux capacitor option, and in 2010 he and Doc Brown went into the future, saw our present cluster, and decided to help us out. Or, maybe he just thought taking care of the Republic required a little planning and forethought.
Hmm, maybe we should get POTUS44 something to say thanksâŚa card?..I knowâa Nobel prize! No, heâs got one of those alreadyâŚ
Russia is planning to start major vaccination process in October:
But it may not be accepted by the US:
The same applies for a Chinese vaccine that is already in stage 3 clinical test:
5 things you should know about Covid-19 vaccine:
The Dutch Blood Bank in Holland is working on a medicine that may soon be used to protect vulnerable target groups against corona infection. If a clinical study in October confirms its effectiveness, the drug can be used. Sanquin Plasma Products has the first 3,000 kilos of plasma, rich in antibodies against the virus.
An ampoule of antibodies from the blood of ex-corona patients can be administered as an infusion preventively or immediately after an infection with the virus to remain immune. A total of 16,000 participants together gave up to 50,000 donations in 20 weeks.
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But even if an effective vaccine is found, available and cheap, It wouldnât save some idiots:
Maybe best to just let Darwinâs Law take itâs course??
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Trump and his âbaseâ are taking American pandemic response to the level we saw in Africa during the worst of the AIDS and Ebola epidemics. Ignorance and politics led to the murder of aid workers and doctors.
Vaccines are used to prevent infection.
Antiserums ( now apparently called âantibody therapyâ) are used to treat someone already infected. There are antiserums for diphtheria, rabies, etc.
Vaccines and antiserums work the same basic way, exposing the human immune system to antigens (genetic markers) of the virus, to stimulate antibody protection.
While safe, effective vaccines are (hopefully) on their way, antiserums (antibody therapies) are apparently harder. I read the book âThe Great Influenzaâ and learned that during the 1918 pandemic teams of doctors tried to make an antiserum for that influenza virus. While many were announced, none worked. A century later the obstacles are still apparently there. I havenât come across historic examples of antiserums made for a coronavirus, or a flu virus for that matter. Maybe the doctors who read Gcaptain can set me straight.
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By the way, Iâm calling itâŚ
The day all this nonsense is over, the day a safe, effective vaccine becomes available to the public, letâs call that V-day.
Thatâs what weâre looking towards folks: V-day.
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The following WAPO article is NOT satire. I the punchline in bold:
Trump calls FDA the âdeep state,â accuses agency of delaying vaccine trials to hurt his reelection
Trump went after the Food and Drug Administration, accusing the agency of delaying clinical trials for coronavirus vaccines and treatments as part of a âdeep stateâ plot to hurt his reelection chances.
âThe deep state, or whoever, over at the FDA is making it very difficult for drug companies to get people in order to test the vaccines and therapeutics,â Trump tweeted. âObviously, they are hoping to delay the answer until after November 3rd. Must focus on speed, and saving lives!â
He tagged his own head of the FDA, Stephen Hahn, in the tweet.
In a subsequent tweet, he hit the FDA for revoking the emergency use of hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus patients, a drug that Trump has touted since the early days of the pandemic even though there is scant evidence of its efficacy.
âMany doctors and studies disagree with this!â Trump tweeted in reply to a two-month old tweet from when the FDA made the decision.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) brought up the presidentâs FDA tweet during a Capitol Hill news conference, calling it â very scaryâ and said âeverybody should take note of it.â
The FDAâs job is to focus on safety and effectiveness of new drugs, not political expedience.
â This was a very dangerous statement on the part of the president, even for him,â Pelosi said. âIt went beyond the pale in terms of how he would jeopardize the health and well-being of the American people.â
âEND ARTICLEâ
yes, we all know even countries called âshit hole countriesâ by Trump are doing better. Quit pointing out failures and start demanding results !
Covid 19 matters but the US is sucking hind teat as my grandma used to say 
Canât stand Trump but whoeverâs in charge would end up with the same results. Personal responsibility or severe lack there of is the reason for the spread. Local to Me on August 7th 65 Morons attended a wedding. 34 got COVID one has died so far and a few more got it from the Morons bringing it home. People wonât social distance, wear the masks ect. This is just going to roll on until there is a vaccine. Then there is a large percentage of Morons that will refuse the vaccine. This crap is going to be around a long time.
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Would that other president have disbanded the pandemic response team a year before the pandemic hit? Or disregarded and undermined the health professionals trying to advise him?
The orange man owns this one and history will record that.
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This is the problem! People wonât follow CDC guidelines and this virus will continue as is. You see what happens when the mask rules are enforced. We have a very large population of dumbshits that will ensure this continues. Then there is the antivaciine crowd. This really sucks for the responsible people. Reminds me of the housing market crash, everybody pays for stupid actions of others.
The problem is more basic than that. POTUS45 supporters are not wearing masks because theyâre committed to their leader. They believe the crisis is made-up. And even if itâs real, even if 200,000 people are dead by January, itâs a small price to pay for loyalty.
Canât make an omelette without breaking some eggs.