Comments by "wily wascal" (@wilywascal2024) on "Central London deserted as Europe enters 'eye of storm'" video.

  1. WTF?!?  03/19/20, and many people exposed to or possibly sick with COVID-19 still can't get tested!  Only 59,000 tested to date!  Monday, 03/09/20, we had state governors speaking into the camera, desperately BEGGING the CDC on live TV to approve private labs and automated testing for COVID-19!  While three months later the U.S. is still struggling to get enough test kits distributed!  Problem is, the test kits samples need to be processed in the lab for results, and processing capacity at the CDC is extremely limited and far too slow.  Even in conjunction with all U.S. state and private labs, processing capacity of test kit samples would be grossly insufficient for the vigorous survey of the American public vitally needed.  Which is why it is CRITICALLY imperative these other private facilities IMMEDIATELY be brought online by the CDC.  WTF is WRONG with this TRUMP ADMINISTRATION?!?  Their incompetence is KILLING us!      WHO test kits are the model developed by Germany, a NATO ally, which were also available.  The key point that needs hammering home:  Trump administration could have--should have--obtained test kits and conducted diagnostic and protective testing on the U.S. population a couple of months ago!  Especially once problems developed with the CDC test kits sent out.  It was a no-brainer!  Trump's gross incompetence is costing American lives.  That simple. Sick people across US being denied coronavirus test NY Times - 03/12/20 Many who fear they have the virus have faced one roadblock after another as they try to get tested, according to interviews with dozens of people across the country. Some have been rejected because they had no symptoms, even though they had been in proximity to someone who tested positive. Others were told no because they had not traveled to a hot spot abroad, even though they had fevers and hacking coughs and lived in cities with growing outbreaks. Still others were told a bitter truth: There simply were not enough tests to go around. “The system is not really geared to what we need right now, what you are asking for. That is a failing,” said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, who leads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform on Thursday. “It is a failing. I mean, let’s admit it.” Dr. Fauci added: “The idea of anybody getting it easily the way people in other countries are doing it, we are not set up for that. Do I think we should be? Yes. But we are not.” In some parts of the country, demand for the tests is low. Elsewhere efforts are underway to make testing easier. States like Colorado have even instituted drive-through testing to streamline the process. But even there, demand has far outstripped supply. By 11 a.m. at one drive-through lab in the Denver neighborhood of Lowry on Thursday, a three-hour line of cars had formed. The clinic had to stop allowing more vehicles. The inability to test widely in the United States — which is far behind other countries in this regard — has severely hampered efforts to contain the outbreak. An early test rolled out to states by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was flawed, and delays have continued ever since. Public health experts have warned that each day people do not know whether they have the virus, they risk spreading it more widely.
    2
  2. Significant developments 03/18/20: U.S. markets nose-dived Wednesday, with the Dow plunging 1,300 points as White House plans to bail out embattled industries and cut checks to Americans failed to quell investor fears about the devastating economic impact of the coronavirus. All 50 states and the District of Columbia have confirmed cases. More than 150 people infected with the virus have died in the United States, a toll that experts expect to rise quickly.  Two U.S. congressmen among the over 9,400 infected now nationwide.  NY state has nearly 3,000--with nearly 2,000 of those in NY city.  New study estimates 5-10 undetected people infected with covid-19 for every confirmed case. Dozens of mall closings throughout the U.S.  The White House is postponing a scheduled April visit by Spain’s king and queen. Coronavirus Infections Pass 200,000 Globally (over 220,000 by day's end) Lucy Craymer -- The Wall Street Journal -- 03/18/20 The number of confirmed coronavirus infections topped 200,000, more than doubling in two weeks, despite an escalation in global travel restrictions and the imposition of home quarantines in many parts of the world. There were 201,530 confirmed cases of the disease known as Covid-19 early Wednesday, with infections outside of mainland China—where the epidemic began—now above 120,000, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Deaths globally have also more than doubled over the past two weeks to more than 8,000. In Europe, the death toll reached 3,415, overtaking China for the first time and cementing the continent’s position as the new epicenter of the pandemic. The U.S. has 6,496 confirmed cases, including 114 deaths. U.S. stock futures and international stock indexes tumbled again Wednesday. In Italy, the second worst-hit country after China, infections topped 31,500 and deaths reached 2,503. Scientists expect the number of fatalities in Italy to overtake those in China within days. The rapid increase in world-wide cases reflects, in part, how people in many countries were unwittingly transmitting the respiratory virus before governments grasped the scale of the problem. In recent days, they have taken aggressive actions to close schools, cancel events and large gatherings, and in some cases, impose countrywide lockdowns and ban tourist arrivals. In further evidence for the unprecedented nature of the economic shock facing the world, Deutsche Bank AG said gross domestic product could shrink 24% in the eurozone and 13% in the U.S. in the second quarter on an annual, seasonally adjusted basis—declines that would be the biggest in recorded history. French authorities mobilized the army on Wednesday to transfer patients from one hospital to another. France has enough beds to deal with the 2,500 infected patients currently hospitalized. But in some regions, local hospitals have been overwhelmed by the sudden increase in the number of cases, with infections now totaling 7,730. In Germany, with just under 10,000 cases, the national agency for disease control warned that failure to follow social-distancing rules could result in 10 million people becoming infected in two to three months. In Portugal, António Vieira Monteiro, the 73-year-old chairman of Banco Santander SA’s operations in the country, died from Covid-19, a person familiar with the situation said. The spread of the virus should slow in the coming weeks as the measures imposed by authorities take effect, said Meru Sheel, an infectious-diseases epidemiologist and research fellow at Australian National University in Canberra. “Individual behavior is going to be crucial to this.” With hundreds of millions of people practicing social distancing and undergoing quarantines for 14-day periods, health authorities world-wide are hoping that infection rates will drop like they have in China and South Korea. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/coronavirus-infections-pass-200-000-globally/ar-BB11lUw7 Nobody Knows How Hard COVID-19 Will Hit the Economy—Or Even Their Own Company Josh Barro -- Intelligencer -- 03/17/20 Ordinarily, four times a year, the Federal Reserve releases a document called the Summary of Economic Projections, or the SEP. This document lays out Fed policymakers’ expectations about growth, inflation, unemployment, and short-term interest rates. These projections help market participants anticipate what actions the Fed might take in the future and why — for example, if Fed policymakers are worried about rising inflation, you might expect them to be more eager to raise interest rates. So at Fed chairman Jerome Powell’s press conference this Sunday announcing emergency moves including a one-percentage point interest rate cut, New York Times reporter Jenna Smialek had a question: Where’s the SEP? It was supposed to come out this week, at the regularly-scheduled meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee. But that meeting has been canceled in favor of Sunday’s emergency meeting. Powell’s response was that there is no SEP this quarter because, essentially, there is no point in making economic forecasts right now. “The economic outlook is evolving on a daily basis,” he said. “And it really is depending heavily on the spread of the virus, and the measures taken to affect it, and how long that goes on. And that’s just not something that’s knowable. So, actually writing down a forecast in that circumstance didn’t seem to be useful. And in fact, it could have been more of an obstacle to clear communication than a help.” Powell did say he expects to release a SEP in June, but he and his colleagues at the Fed are not the only ones begging off economic forecasting for now. Increasingly, companies are unwilling to forecast even their own financial performance, let alone the performance of the broader economy. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/nobody-knows-how-hard-covid-19-will-hit-the-economy—or-even-their-own-company/ar-BB11jfjd
    1
  3. With so few coronavirus tests, America has been flying blind into a storm Editorial Board 03/13/20 -- Washington Post BARELY MENTIONED in President Trump’s Oval Office address on Wednesday night was the diagnostic testing fiasco. He said only that testing capability is “expanding rapidly day by day.” He should have addressed what has become a major failure in how the United States has responded to the coronavirus pandemic, leaving the country far behind other nations in testing for and controlling infection. With so few tests, the United States has been flying blind into a storm. Why is this such a problem? We cannot expect a vaccine or cure for covid-19 in the immediate future. But widespread diagnostic testing could help dramatically. As Jeremy Samuel Faust, an emergency physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, wrote in a Post op-ed, this is for two reasons. First, identifying even mild cases of the infection that are now going uncounted would yield a more accurate picture of the lethality of the disease. This in turn would likely reassure the public and financial markets. Second, Dr. Faust explained, “the discovery of mild and symptom-free cases may lower the number of serious cases over the course of the outbreak, and might even save lives.” This is partly because treatment (short of cure) can be effective, and partly because isolation of asymptomatic patients would slow the spread of infection. But those patients aren’t going to self-quarantine if they don’t know they’re sick. South Korea’s experience supports this argument. Regulators there approved a new diagnostic test by a private company in a week’s time. South Korea is testing 20,000 people a day, and it now has drive-through testing — and the infection rates are not climbing sharply. The United States’ record is sadly different. The initial setback was a technical fault in the diagnostic kits created and sent to state public health labs by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in February. While the CDC rushed to troubleshoot, only about a dozen state labs could test, and all other samples had to be sent to the CDC in Atlanta. Test results took days. On top of this, the agency set very restrictive criteria for who would be tested: only individuals who showed respiratory symptoms and had either recently traveled to China or come in close contact with an infected person. On Feb. 29, facing a rising case count in the United States and a lack of testing, the Food and Drug Administration abruptly changed its rules to allow “high-complexity” laboratories to use diagnostic tests they designed in-house. This began to expand testing and allow hospitals and private firms to produce them — they are now the main hope of ramping up testing — although another looming glitch is a shortage of chemicals. Not all the testing problems in the United States are political, but it certainly did not help that Vice President Pence repeatedly over-promised the availability of tests, touting millions when only thousands have been conducted. “Anybody that needs a test gets a test,” Mr. Trump declared on March 6 at the CDC headquarters. “They’re there. They have the tests. And the tests are beautiful.” For the sake of the ill and the healthy, we hope the reality will soon catch up to that idle boast. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/opinions-with-so-few-coronavirus-tests-america-has-been-flying-blind-into-a-storm/ar-BB1172Dg
    1
  4. U.S. hospitals brace for ‘tremendous strain’ from new virus Mar 13, 2020 U.S. hospitals are setting up circus-like triage tents, calling doctors out of retirement, guarding their supplies of face masks and making plans to cancel elective surgery as they brace for an expected onslaught of coronavirus patients. Depending on how bad the crisis gets, the sick could find themselves waiting on stretchers in emergency room hallways for hospital beds to open up, or could be required to share rooms with others infected. Some doctors fear hospitals could become so overwhelmed that they could be forced to ration medical care. “This is going to be a fairly tremendous strain on our health system,” warned Dr. William Jaquis, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians. The United States is still facing an active flu season, and many hospitals are already running at capacity caring for those patients. The new virus will only add to that burden, said Dr. Bruce Ribner an infectious-disease specialist at Emory University’s medical school. Government health authorities are taking emergency steps to waive certain laws and regulations to help hospitals deal with the crisis. Hospitals, too, are getting ready. To keep suspected coronavirus patients from mingling with others in the ER, the Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, Maine, set up a tent in the parking lot where people with respiratory symptoms are diverted for testing. Lexington Medical Center in West Columbia, South Carolina, did the same outside its emergency room. In Seattle, hit by the nation’s biggest cluster of coronavirus deaths, most of them at a suburban nursing home, UW Medicine set up drive-thru testing in a hospital parking garage and has screened hundreds of staff members, faculty and trainees, with nurses reaching through car windows and using swabs to collect specimens from people’s nostrils . Drive-thru testing is expected to be offered to patients as soon as Monday. This week, the American Hospital Association, American Medical Association and American Nurses Association asked for a presidential emergency declaration that would allow doctors and nurses to work across state lines and would waive certain rules to free up hospital beds. Similar declarations were issued during Hurricane Katrina and the swine flu outbreak. On Friday, President Donald Trump responded by issuing an emergency declaration and said he was giving the U.S. health secretary authority to waive federal regulations and laws to give doctors and hospitals “flexibility” in treating patients. Trump also announced a government partnership with major businesses to set up drive-thru testing centers and a website to help people who think they might have the virus. Those testing locations could include parking lots at Walmart, Target, Walgreens and other major chains. The American Medical Association praised the action. In a statement, Dr. Patrice Harris, AMA’s president, said the emergency declaration is needed to help ensure that the U.S. health care system “has sufficient resources to properly respond to the ongoing outbreak, prevent further spread of illness and keep our communities safe.” How bad U.S. hospitals will be hit is unclear, in part because mistakes on the part of the government in ramping up widespread testing for the virus have left public health officials uncertain as to how many people are infected. Officially, the number of cases in the U.S. was put at around 1,300 Friday, with at least 41 deaths. But by some estimates, at least 14,000 people might be infected. Experts fear that when the problems with testing are resolved, a flood of patients will hit the nation’s emergency rooms. But large-scale testing will also give health authorities a clearer picture of the outbreak, enabling them to allocate resources where they are needed. “What’s most important now is that we get the testing done,” said Richard Pollack, president of the American Hospital Association. In hard-hit Italy, doctors have been forced to make agonizing decisions about which critically ill patients receive care. Doctors fear that could happen in the United States, too. “Studies predict that a moderate outbreak could result in 200,000 patients needing intensive care,” said Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency medicine specialist at George Washington University. “The U.S. only has 100,000 intensive care beds, and most are already occupied. If tens of thousands become sick at once, people will simply not receive the care that they need.” That would affect not only coronavirus patients but also trauma victims and people suffering heart attacks or strokes, Wen said. In Wuhan, China, where the outbreak originated in late December, patients died because they couldn’t access care. “We are at risk of that happening in the U.S., too,” Wen said. Seattle-area scientists are working to estimate how soon infections will overwhelm hospital beds there. Under the worst-case scenario, the number of active infections will exceed the number of beds by a large margin in the next two weeks, the Institute for Disease Modeling in Bellevue, Washington, said in a report this week. For most people, the virus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. Most people recover from the virus in a matter of weeks, as has happened in mainland China. Reacting to reports of dwindling supplies of respirator masks, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention posted relaxed recommendations this week for protective gear and said looser-fitting surgical masks are OK for doctors and nurses to wear when treating patients who may be sick from the coronavirus. In another change, the CDC said coronavirus patients can be cared for in single-patient rooms with the door closed and do not need to be placed in specialized airborne-infection isolation rooms. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/u-s-hospitals-brace-for-tremendous-strain-from-new-virus
    1