BUT THE DANGER IS VERY REAL, AND IT’S MAKING ME DEPRESSED AND ANGRY BY TURNS: Cures and Diseases.
And to the gentleman who came by to tell me that people who speak like me can’t be locked up YET and it’s a pity. Did you know that I’m American? I have a document that proves it. And you, sir, aren’t. No, being born and educated here, even if you were, didn’t make you one. And no amount of documentation could make you so.
THERE IS A DANGER. IT IS NOT THE VIRUS: Stop panicking over bad data.
Listen to LawDog. He’s not only a friend, he’s one of the nicest, calmest and most objective people I know.
SO IS THIS GAIA’S REVENGE? BREAKING! Greta Thunberg Probably Infected with the Wuhan Virus.
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PROGRESS: FDA authorizes hand-held COVID-19 diagnostic test. “Mesa Biotech’s Accula device is designed to enable near-patient testing, available anywhere outside of the laboratory, with results in about 30 minutes.”
Also: FDA will allow doctors to treat critically ill coronavirus patients with blood from survivors.
WAIT, WHAT? Sisolak bars malaria drugs for coronavirus patients. The Associated Press’s Michelle L. Price is sure running interference for him in this story though.
OPEN THREAD: It’s like a Disqus Decameron.
By massively scaling up two types of tests—PCR tests that detect the active presence of virus and serology tests that detect immune system responses to being infected by the virus—population screening could identify those who are currently infected and those who have recovered and are likely not to pass along the virus to others. Those who are currently infected could be isolated and their contacts traced so that they could quarantine themselves. Frequent large-scale testing of the uninfected would also help keep the epidemic in check by enabling them to withdraw if they subsequently contract the virus for a period of self-isolation in a timely fashion. Frontline health care providers and especially hard-hit regions should be given first priority as the testing regime begins its rapid expansion.
Those who had recovered from infection (possibly numbering ten times more than those whose symptoms drive them to seek out medical care) could help on the frontlines of the fight against COVID-19, return to work, and enjoy the pleasures of social life, e.g., dining out, meeting friends at bars, traveling, and attending performances at entertainment venues. “To make this strategy work, governments would need to involve employers, social organizations, schools and large retailers to conduct tests and provide time-stamped certifications,” propose the three researchers.
To ramp up both kinds of testing, the researchers urge that every laboratory capable of running PCR tests be pressed into service recruiting technicians, graduate students, and scientists to run the machines. Even better, Mesa Biotech just announced today that it has received Emergency Use Authorization from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to roll out its point-of-use 30-minute PCR test for the virus. Other companies should be encouraged to provide such tests.
As I also argued last week, the researchers argue that widespread deployment of serology tests for the presence of antibodies to coronavirus needs to be prioritized. This would identify people who had recovered and could safely go back to life outside of lockdown. Over at the Wall Street Journal, the perspicacious former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb also recommends massively scaling up serological surveillance. When population screening reveals that “a sizable portion of a local community has some protection, authorities can be more confident in relying on less invasive measures. Once deployed, serological tests are cheap, straightforward, and easy to scale.”
Several companies have already developed such tests.
Faster, please.
CORONAVIRUS FALLOUT: Bigelow Aerospace lays off entire workforce.
NEW ORLEANS IS AN EPICENTER OF CORONAVIRUS. MARDI GRAS COULD BE TO BLAME, DOCTORS SAY: As of Tuesday afternoon, New Orleans had 567 of Louisiana’s 1,388 cases of coronavirus and 20 of the state’s 46 deaths.
THE ENDGAME? HHS Secretary Alex Azar Lays Out How Trump Will Defeat Coronavirus ‘Invisible Enemy,’ Reopen America.
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar told Breitbart News exclusively that President Donald Trump in the coming days will work with his medical and scientific advisers to make a determination on how and when to reopen the country after wide-scale closure in the effort to stop the spread of the Chinese coronavirus.
Azar is one of Trump’s closest advisers and a top member of Vice President Mike Pence’s Coronavirus Task Force to lead the American response to this crisis. He said that the president will consult with White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Robert Redfield, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Dr. Stephen Hahn, among others, about the so-called “curve” of the disease and how effective the extraordinary measures to stop its spread taken by Americans nationwide have been.
“The president will look at the data with his top medical advisers, people like Dr. Debbie Birx, Tony Fauci, Robert Redfield, Steve Hahn at FDA, as well as I’m sure outside advisers, and will make a decision in the next week whether to continue the 15 days or whether there are appropriate modifications he would make to the rest of the country,” Azar told Breitbart News in a phone interview on Tuesday afternoon. “For instance, whether it’s to look, as Dr. Birx I believe said yesterday in the press conference, to look at maybe focusing in localized areas instead of common national recommendations.”
Read the whole thing.
THEY ATE FISH-TANK CLEANER, BUT LOOK HOW CBS DESCRIBES IT: Arizona man dies, wife ill after taking drug touted as virus treatment: “Trump kept saying it was basically pretty much a cure.” It’s not a “drug touted as virus treatment.” It’s fish tank cleaner, with warning labels, containing an ingredient that sounds similar.
Press: Want people to stop thinking you’re garbage? Stop being garbage. And CBS, you’re garbage for running this story with this headline. Absolute garbage. And you don’t care, and we all know why.
THEY HAD ONE JOB, AND THEY BLEW IT: The Real-Life Costs of Bad Regulation. Early administrative failings of the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control greatly exacerbated the Covid-19 crisis in the United States. Unless there’s major reform, the first response to the next viral threat should be to shut down not the economy but the FDA.
TAKESHI KOVACS SMILES: Scientists unveil smaller, more powerful brain-machine interface.
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FENDER OFFERS THREE MONTHS OF THEIR FENDER PLAY APP FOR FREE TO FIRST 100,000 SIGNEES:
There are so many benefits to learning and playing the guitar (backed up by this report from Fender). From reducing stress and inspiring creativity, to boosting your immune system (yes, really), there’s a lot to be said for the humble six-string.
The Coronavirus outbreak means many people will have a lot of time on their hands for the foreseeable future. To ease the stress of the current situation, many people are turning to music – and specifically learning a musical instrument – to help keep their spirits up and to ensure this enforced downtime is productive.
If this sounds like something you – or someone you know – would be into, Fender is currently offering a free 3-month subscription to their Fender Play tuition app to anyone who wants to learn acoustic or electric guitar, bass or ukulele.
Note that if you have an ad blocker, you may need to disable it to see the free code at the Fender Play signup page.
I DON’T THINK THIS IS SHOCKING: Taking steroids for inflammatory diseases may raise odds for hypertension.
GALLUP SAYS 60 PERCENT APPROVE OF TRUMP CORONAVIRUS ACTIONS: Surely, there is no connection between that and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s waving the white flag on her alternative coronavirus relief package.
COMMUNIST QUALITY CONTROL: Beijing Sends 150,000 Wuhan Virus Testing Kits to Prague, 80% Fail.
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