I'm wondering what the people of Georgia and Tennessee and S Caroline are thinking about their states opening too soon when the important epidemiological benchmarks aren't being met ...

Just talked to my little brother who lives in GA and works as a physical therapist at a sports medicine hospital. My brother and father still live in the town that I am from — Columbus, GA — which sits an hour SW of Atlanta on the GA/AL border. It’s the second largest city in the state and has Fort Benning Army Base on it’s southern border. Here is my take away from our hour long conversation:

I think that because the major cities in the South have not been the epicenters for the disease, they truly have not felt the urgency and fear that they need to be feeling in order to treat this situation as seriously as it must be treated. The big outbreaks in GA have been in mostly rural towns. My brother says testing has not been an issue for them. They have had drive up testing available for weeks now, so for their city he wasn’t too worried about reopening some businesses.

My brother admits that most people do not treat this with the urgency it deserves because this disease is viewed much like Ebola and AIDS were — they sound scary as hell, but they have not been personally impacted by the diseases enough to change the way they live their lives.

He did not know how the governor believed massage and tattoo parlors or nail salons were supposed to conduct their businesses while maintaining their 6 ft. distancing.

It’s going to take a lot more deaths in the South before they take it seriously — sadly, I fear that they won’t have to wait too long for that to happen!

I wouldn't want you to think all Americans are stupid. Our county commissioners just extended our stay-at-home orders through May 15... two weeks past our governor's orders, but then again, we were ground zero during the Ebola crisis of 2014 so they learned a lot from that and don't mess around. That is perilously close to 2 months of "lockdown," and I wouldn't be surprised if they extended it past that.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/04/17/6-states-where-people-are-protesting-stay-at-home-orders/

I used to think that FoxNews was just spreading Trump’s propaganda for him, but it is becoming clearer that they are the one's creating the propaganda and that he is the one spreading what they say! He bases his opinions on what he hears them say and then repeats it like a trained parrot.

Keep in mind that Trump talks to Sean Hannity on a regular basis at night, and they definitely coordinate their BS and propaganda.

As for the Trump administration confiscating PPE headed to the states, they try their best to outbid the states before they get their hands on the PPE and sabotage them that way. It's criminal.

It's also a reminder about Trump's projection when he claimed the hospital workers were stealing the PPE for themselves; that's what Trump is doing to the Democratic governors of states so naturally he'd accuse the employees of taking the PPE because projection.

Hospitals are going to soon be seeking members of drug cartels to serve as advisors on how to smuggle in the supplies that they need if this keeps up!

The governors and hospitals are "clued in" to the Trump administration's attempts to sabotage them. As an example, the governor of Illinois:

https://chicago.suntimes.com/coronavirus/2020/4/14/21221459/pritzker-secret-flights-china-illinois-ppe-trump-coronavirus

You wanted comments. :)

It's heavily redacted, of course, because it's still an ongoing counterintelligence and national security issue.

Major findings of the GOP-led Senate Intelligence Committee include:

* The investigative differences of opinion were honest rather than political
* There was no political pressure on the production of the Assessment
* Nobody really cared about the contents of the "Steele Dossier"

https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Report_Volume4.pdf

Have I mentioned lately that this is still being robustly investigated? :)

A malaria drug widely touted by Donald Trump for treating the new coronavirus -- the creepy "what have you got to lose... take it... try it" -- showed no benefit in a large analysis of its use in United States veterans hospitals.

I used to think that FoxNews was just spreading Trump’s propaganda for him, but it is becoming clearer that they are the one's creating the propaganda and that he is the one spreading what they say! He bases his opinions on what he hears them say and then repeats it like a trained parrot.

I saw an interview with the head of emergency medicine at one of the hospitals in the NE that are in desperate need of PPE supplies. They had found a supplier who had the masks and gowns that they needed (at 5x their normal price) and were arranging for two disguised trucks to go pick up the supplies from the warehouse in the hopes of avoiding the Fed’s who keep confiscating their orders. The trucks were going to take different routes to the hospital so that they would not be stopped together, Even with all of their attempts to avoid detection, the FBI was waiting for them when they got to the warehouse. Fortunately, their congressional representative was able to get FEMA to release the supplies to the hospital at the last moment!

This problem of the Fed’s taking orders that the states and local governments have arranged without explaining why they are interfering has been going on since the start of this epidemic! It seems that FEMA targets states with Democrats running them more often than states with Republican governors. Trump tells the states that it is up to them to get what they need, but then has the FBI and FEMA snatching up the supplies when they follow his instructions???

Hospitals are going to soon be seeking members of drug cartels to serve as advisors on how to smuggle in the supplies that they need if this keeps up!

April 21, 20204:15 PM ET

Joe Palca

A panel of experts convened by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases recommends against doctors using a combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin for the treatment of COVID-19 patients because of potential toxicities.

"The combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin was associated with QTc prolongation in patients with COVID-19," the panel said.

QTc prolongation increases the risk of sudden cardiac death.

The recommendation against their combined use would seem to fly in the face of comments made by President Trump suggesting the combination might be helpful. On March 21, for example, the president described them in a tweet as having a "real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine."

https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/04/21/840341224/nih-panel-recommends-against-drug-combination-trump-has-promoted-for-covid-19

_______________

In Trump's defense, sudden cardiac death is a "game changer" for the patient.

What have you got to lose? Answer: Your pulse.

They also proudly state that our country is producing about 1 million tests a week and should be up to 2 million per week by June — which seems like an odd thing to be proud of seeing how we are going to need to be testing 5 million per DAY if we are going to have any hope of beating this virus.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/20/how-speed-up-testing-shark-tank-government/

Advocates say the spread was preventable and step up their push for mail-in voting.

By Alex Seitz-Wald

MILWAUKEE — Officials have identified seven people who appear to have contracted the coronavirus through activities related to the April 7 election in Wisconsin, Milwaukee’s health commissioner said, and advocates worry it could be just the "tip of the iceberg."

Commissioner Jeanette Kowalik said six of the cases involve Milwaukee voters and one is a Milwaukee poll worker, the Journal Sentinel reported.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/7-wisconsin-virus-cases-linked-person-voting-n1188606

There were more deaths among those given hydroxychloroquine versus those receiving standard care.

https://apnews.com/a5077c7227b8eb8b0dc23423c0bbe2b2

Elizabeth Miller
94|96

"Is there anyone alive out there!?"

What movie is that from?

Titanic.

Amen!

What about trying another way to move your worthy cause forward?

Why not see who in political office today - in your district and state and at the national level - is working on getting big money influence out of politics and encourage them to move further and faster on this important issue?

If I have learned anything over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic it is that solidarity and unity in purpose are indispensable when working to push progress and make change for the better.

Find unity in purpose among your own community to help you find local and state elected officials who agree with the concept of campaign finance reform and work together with national representatives and senators from around the country who are already working on this. And, move on from there.

You don't have to reinvent the wheel, in other words. Working together with people from your community level right on up to your congressional reps and senators may just be more effective and efficient in the long run.

The good news is that if Biden forms the next US administration, you will have a president that agrees with you on the essentials of campaign finance reform. And that, my friend, is what is known as a good start!

it means that it's easy to SAY a situation is unacceptable, but much more challenging to find a way to put that ethos into practice and make a change for the better.

Agreed.

department of redundancy department?

https://d3m2ca683sarz5.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/23101928/132.jpg

https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2020/04/21/atlanta-mayor-reopen-of-georgia-brian-kemp-cuomo-intv-vpx.cnn

The Kennedy Space Center is definitely Government and not exactly small. Georgia can be flexible when Big Gov brings in big money. Oh, that Lyndon Johnson!

Who in their right mind is going to sit in a packed theater during a plague? You can let the theaters open their doors, but that will only put a small number of dumb asses in the seats.

Where does the tattoo industry rank in the Georgia economy? Above or below hair salons?

The Governor needs to set an example by getting himself covered in tattoos. Freedom is not free of pain.

"i couldn't help thinking it was some sort of sexual innuendo..."

Trump was too limp in his response and Melania ended up being too late? Ewwww! Please get that image out of my head!

"And wouldn't crashing space arks into the sun be kinda sorta on the"big government" side?"

Not if you let Elon Musk build them and finance it through selling them one way tickets.

TheStig wrote,

In a bold move to increase Georgia's average IQ, the Governor plans to open up massage and tattoo parlors, hair salons and movie theaters during an epidemic. This just may work- and it's a lot cheaper than loading the less mentally gifted into B Space Ship Arks and crashing them into the sun.

I like the idea!

But I was thinking, "hold Trump rallies in large venues." (political) natural (self) selection and all.

Make mine another double, please.

H-a-p-p-y B-i-r-t-d-a-y M-I-s-t-e-r ...

And we can all breathe a long sigh of relief and dare to look forward to opportunities not squandered!

He and governors who are relaxing mitigation measures while infections are still on the rise and testing is not where it needs to be are proving with crystal clarity that the message the DG of the WHO keeps repeating, again and again, needs to be heeded by them and everyone else.

Which is to say that this novel coronavirus - the first coronavirus to cause a pandemic - can only be effectively and efficiently controlled and beaten if there is unity of purpose at the community level through to the state and national levels, cooperation at the regional level and global solidarity.

The first time I heard Dr. Tedros speak about the need for global solidarity I wondered if that was realistically attainable or just pie-in-the-sky platitudes, with apologies to Joshua.

If anyone still thinks that 'we are all in this together' and 'global solidarity' are no more than empty words, then the US response to its own epidemic, let alone the pandemic, gives a certain hard core of truth and practicality to those once idealistic phrases.