About those COVID Tests

[Guest]

Neither Fauci nor Dr. Birx said we're ready to implement a plan to phase out mitigation. I have no idea where you got that idea from. Watch today's briefing.

No idea where I got that idea huh? I watched the beginning until Dr. Birxa began her presentation about hospitalization rates declining for flu like illnesses. Seemed to me she was basically corroborating what the orange moron laid out at the onset. Ending stay at home orders or relaxing those restrictions is by definition, gradually phasing out mitigation. And watching it on friggin youtube I can see that my initial assertion was correct.

Trump said, "Based on the latest data our team of experts now agree that we can begin the next front on our war. Which we are calling OPENING UP AMERICA AGAIN. And that's what we're doing, we're opening up our country again."

But according to you, they never said anything of the sort, so I look forward to watching the hour long briefing to see when Dr. Birxa and Dr. Fauci tell Trump he's full of crap and that they agreed to do no such thing.

Whoops, maybe not. I just heard Fauci say it is conceivable that large gatherings at sporting events will be able to happen in phase three. I also just heard a reporter tell Trump that many states have already satisfied conditions for the Gate and are ready to begin relaxing restrictions for phase one, to which Trump nodded in the affirmative. The point being, coronavirus cases are still rising in the country, we have NOT flattened the curve as they suggested, and we're already planning to "Open America Up Again."

To me this is just contrary to what they were telling us for weeks. How can you advise certain states relax restrictions when viruses cross state lines? So someone in Idaho travels to New York, comes back with COVID-19 while the entire state is back up and running at full speed and the next thing you know there's an outbreak in Boise that goes unnoticed for a couple of weeks until a few people die. Then we're back to February 29th all over again.

[_Jersey Girl]

Are you helpless? Go watch the rest of it and FF it to Fauci and Birx, and inform yourself. Or, just keep acting all mystified and wait for someone else to show up and tell you what went on.

[Guest]

Are you helpless? Go watch the rest of it and FF it to Fauci and Birx, and inform yourself. Or, just keep acting all mystified and wait for someone else to show up and tell you what went on.

You're the one who suggested I was wrong, when in fact I was right, and you're just being a damned idiot as usual.

"Go watch the briefing" is not a response to anything I said. If you don't like the question, then feel free to be annoying to someone else in another thread.

[_Jersey Girl]

Are you helpless? Go watch the rest of it and FF it to Fauci and Birx, and inform yourself. Or, just keep acting all mystified and wait for someone else to show up and tell you what went on.

You're the one who suggested I was wrong, when in fact I was right, and you're just being a damned idiot as usual.

Right.

[_Icarus]

The entire presentation is called OPENING UP AMERICA AGAIN. He said all his experts agreed with him that it needed to be done. I asked why they agreed with him and you respond "Go watch it" and then tell me you have no idea where I got the idea they agreed with a plan to phase out mitigation when that is EXACTLY what the entire briefing was about. So yeah, right, you're just doing you're "I'm going to be an annoying little jackass" thing again.

[_Jersey Girl]

The entire presentation is called OPENING UP AMERICA AGAIN. He said all his experts agreed with him that it needed to be done. I asked why they agreed with him and you respond "Go watch it" and then tell me you have no idea where I got the idea they agreed with a plan to phase out mitigation when that is EXACTLY what the entire briefing was about. So yeah, right, you're just doing you're "I'm going to be an annoying little jackass" thing again.

Go watch it.

[_EAllusion]

Aside from an effective treatment or vaccine, you need some combination of robust testing, tracking / contact tracing, and quarantining procedures to prevent constant flare-ups of mass death if people resume normal behavior. There's still no indication government systems are ready to roll that out because the federal government is a dumpster fire. So it's either that we don't do that, or we accept waves of normalcy followed by death and restriction.

The way you hear some people talk, you'd think if stay-at-home orders were lifted, people would just all sprint out of their houses and have an orgy at Home Depot. That's not what's going to happen, though. If people don't believe they are safe, they will engage in protective behaviors on their own. And if Home Depot tries to stay open while getting half the normal business and their workforce periodically being afflicted by a plague, it's not going to go well for them. Orders that are keeping brick and mortar businesses closed have the effect of obscuring what would likely be brutal market conditions for many of them. Restaurants aren't known for operating on huge margins.

So, really, that leaves us with getting an effective treatment(s) or vaccine or some system in place to test, track, and isolate on a true mass scale.

[_Icarus]

Aside from an effective treatment or vaccine, you need some combination of robust testing, tracking / contact tracing, and quarantining procedures to prevent constant flare-ups of mass death if people resume normal behavior. There's still no indication government systems are ready to roll that out because the federal government is a dumpster fire. So it's either that we don't do that, or we accept waves of normalcy followed by death and restriction.

And that's why I was surprised that the doctors on this task force were on board with this. In fact, Trump was making it sound like it was their idea. But doctors are not in the business of developing strategy plans for the economy.

The way you hear some people talk, you'd think if stay-at-home orders were lifted, people would just all sprint out of their houses and have an orgy at Home Depot. That's not what's going to happen, though. If people don't believe they are safe, they will engage in protective behaviors on their own.

I understand that, but such mitigation measures work best if everyone does it. To me it just doesn't any sense whatsoever to start this kind of "Opening Up America" strategy unless Trump was just bluffing and trying to affect the markets again. But according to the briefing there are already a half dozen governors who are ready to engage with "phase one" as early as tomorrow.

And if Home Depot tries to stay open while getting half the normal business and their workforce periodically being afflicted by a plague, it's not going to go well for them. Orders that are keeping brick and mortar businesses closed have the effect of obscuring what would likely be brutal market conditions for many of them. Restaurants aren't known for operating on huge margins.

Home Depot is actually considered essential business and is one of the most crowded places there is right now. Last week they began restricting only 100 people at a time and the line is usually wrapped around the building.

So, really, that leaves us with getting an effective treatment(s) or vaccine or some system in place to test, track, and isolate on a true mass scale.

CNN is reporting that the experimental drug Remdesivir is showing a lot of promise in trials for being effective for COVID patients and DOW futures just skyrocketed 800 points as that company's stock soared 17%.

[_MeDotOrg]

People are whistling in the dark if they think the country can open without an order of magnitude increase in testing capacity. We are going to have to develop a work force of a hundred thousand to administer, analyze and tracing the subjects after their test results. Retesting as well. I am astounded that the full weight of the Federal Government is not involved in a MASSIVE effort to coordinate the production of not only testing equipment, but training people in the field to actually be able to administer and interpret the tests. (Not to mention the production and distribution of ventilators and PPE).

Trump wants to take no responsibility for the results if an early opening without adequate testing ends in disaster. He will slough it off to the states. But no one in the administration has truly explained how this is possible without testing and tracing.

The business community pretty much knows this: They would be risking their own lives, and well as the lives of their employees, by an early relaxation of social distancing without proper testing. That's why Trump's attempts at a business consortium have been a disaster. Business understands that there is a correlation between social distancing and the flattening of the curve. It's a risk/benefit ratio: The benefit of opening early is not worth the risk that a second wave would cause massive damage. It's simply too soon, and an opening with no testing merely adds gasoline to the fire.

In 24 hours Trump went from saying he has total power to saying it's all up to the Governors. And, oh by the way, he's now talking about suspending Congress for the first time in history so that he can make recess appointments. His briefings are peppered with references to his 'powers', but the reality is that his narcissism makes him impotent. If you ever hope to learn from your mistakes, you must first admit to making them.

[_moksha]

Open the US markets back up would not negatively impact those who have taken up residence on Galt Island.