Should We Stop The Disease Spreading CovIdiots From Committing Suicide? COVID-19 Hot Spots

Should We Stop The Disease Spreading CovIdiots From Committing Suicide?

I am not seeking support for having COVID-19. Luckily I don't have it but friends of friends have died of it and those of us who are responsible and moral have self isolated while the MAGAts/Trumpanzee have been busy spreading this virus and now the only silver lining to this dark cloud is that the are spreading it to one another as the red states are setting records for deaths and hospitalization

We morally responsible people are affected by the ignorance, selfishness, and depravity of those who would put us and our loved ones at risk. We affected by worrying about our loved ones dying from this. We are all victims of the spreaders who are keeping all of us in a virtual prison. Our children are most at risk from the effects of prolonged social isolation. Those of us who are considerate of the rights and well being of others are not the ones who made his political. The ones who made this political are Trump and his disciples of depravity. Had Americans handled this like the Japanese did, this epidemic would be over but sadly many Americans are selfish pigs. Just look at those gluttonous waddling mouthy malcontents. Hillary was right, they really are deplorable. Sorry I have to be so harsh but it is what it is. There is no way to sugar coat this and if we did sugar coat it the waddling masses of toxic protoplasm would try to eat it.

Bottom line is: We could be over and done with this had the pigs shown some concern for others.

COVID-19 Hot Spots

Thirty-seven states and territories have seen a greater than 25 percent increase in COVID-19 cases in the last two weeks, when compared to the two weeks before. Click or tap a column header to sort by that column.

Last updated July 19, 10:40 a.m. EDT. Data as of end of day July 18.
* Illinois reported more than 1,000 probable cases June 30, which affects the state's one-week two-week and four-week change. New Jersey began reporting probable deaths June 25, those probable deaths were also counted as cases. On June 15, NBC News started tallying New Jersey cases on a per-county basis, this created a spike due to the difference between the state health department numbers and what the counties reported. New Jersey's two-week and four-week change numbers are affected.
Michigan started reporting probable cases and deaths on June 5, this affects the state's four-week percentages.

Sources: State and county officials, NBC News

States and territories	Total cases	Cases per 100K	2-week new cases	1-week change	2-week change	4-week change
Alabama	65,234	1,330	22,372	47%	68%	129%
Alaska	2,159	295	1,048	182%	185%	323%
American Samoa	0	0	0	0%	0%	0%
Arizona	141,265	1,941	46,712	-16%	4%	171%
Arkansas	32,533	1,078	9,324	0%	16%	86%
California	379,855	961	127,173	-7%	56%	166%
Colorado	39,788	691	5,922	17%	68%	48%
Connecticut	47,893	1,343	1,176	6%	17%	-62%
Delaware	13,429	1,379	1,433	-8%	9%	38%
Florida	337,569	1,572	147,517	29%	53%	458%
Georgia	139,872	1,317	46,553	21%	58%	251%
Guam	314	197	34	-87%	-41%	61%
Hawaii	1,334	94	335	-33%	71%	230%
Idaho	14,302	800	6,932	21%	106%	630%
Illinois *	161,785	1,277	14,051	21%	21%	-9%
Indiana	55,654	827	8,222	25%	53%	22%
Iowa	37,954	1,203	6,893	-1%	24%	45%
Kansas	21,965	754	6,046	25%	57%	219%
Kentucky	22,184	497	5,808	12%	112%	69%
Louisiana	88,590	1,906	25,301	-13%	82%	218%
Maine	3,646	271	249	2%	-46%	-23%
Maryland	77,336	1,279	7,995	56%	48%	-28%
Massachusetts	113,238	1,643	3,400	18%	17%	-59%
Michigan *	81,338	814	8,757	31%	74%	5%
Minnesota	45,470	806	7,846	-1%	52%	3%
Mississippi	41,846	1,406	11,172	35%	11%	178%
Missouri	33,725	549	10,309	15%	92%	164%
Montana	2,471	231	1,304	56%	178%	710%
Nebraska	22,481	1,162	2,654	27%	25%	-21%
Nevada	34,477	1,119	12,902	45%	49%	312%
New Hampshire	6,188	455	331	-2%	-2%	-53%
New Jersey *	179,819	2,024	1,656	6424%	-73%	-55%
New Mexico	16,736	798	3,671	15%	39%	66%
New York	411,860	2,117	9,231	9%	36%	-42%
North Carolina	97,958	934	26,304	17%	30%	62%
North Dakota	4,907	644	1,128	43%	114%	87%
Northern Mariana Islands	37	69	6	NaN%	500%	-12%
Ohio	73,822	632	17,639	20%	48%	130%
Oklahoma	25,056	633	9,411	28%	68%	268%
Oregon	14,149	335	4,219	20%	26%	180%
Pennsylvania	104,783	818	10,859	5%	25%	38%
Puerto Rico	11,453	359	3,766	24%	208%	48%
Rhode Island	17,793	1,680	802	50%	23%	-39%
South Carolina	67,612	1,313	24,226	14%	24%	215%
South Dakota	7,862	889	834	-4%	4%	-7%
Tennessee	76,336	1,118	26,196	41%	67%	186%
Texas	320,711	1,106	128,921	20%	53%	305%
U.S. Virgin Islands	283	266	172	107%	365%	4080%
Utah	33,332	1,040	8,790	4%	18%	85%
Vermont	1,338	214	100	22%	10%	-1%
Virginia	76,373	895	11,264	41%	47%	-13%
Washington	46,026	604	10,779	71%	54%	99%
Washington D.C.	11,194	1,586	747	11%	61%	-40%
West Virginia	4,922	275	1,796	-11%	187%	209%
Wisconsin	45,099	775	14,044	104%	116%	113%
Wyoming	2,108	364	502	15%	18%	154%

United States cases

Updated Jul 19 at 11:31 AM local

Confirmed

3,781,985

+104,532

Deaths

142,229

+1,341

Recovered

1,108,518

+31,695

Conservative columnist: 'This is what national decline looks like'

Conservative columnist: 'This is what national decline looks like'

Before Donald Trump made the U.S. presidency less dignified than workaday gigs like assistant bovine inseminator, I posited that voting for him would be like willfully electing Caligula. Or maybe Michael Scott.

Either way, I knew it would be fucking bad. But clearly I underestimated how gobsmackingly bad it would actually be.

This may not end up being just a four-year blip that we all laugh about and move on from. The Trump years are gonna leave scars, and even (marginally sane) conservatives know it.

One of those conservatives is veteran Washington Post columnist George Will. I’ve always grudgingly admired Will’s facility with the language when he makes his awful, retrograde arguments, so it’s refreshing to be able to read a Will column that I 100 percent agree with.

And today he was on fire. Or as on fire as the stolid Georgie Dub-Dubs can be, anyway.

Some choice excerpts:

Never has a U.S. election come at such a moment of national mortification. In April 1970, President Richard M. Nixon told a national television audience that futility in Vietnam would make the United States appear to the world as “a pitiful, helpless giant.” Half a century later, America, for the first time in its history, is pitied.

Not even during the Civil War, when the country was blood-soaked by a conflict involving enormous issues, was it viewed with disdainful condescension as it now is, and not without reason: Last Sunday, Germany (population 80.2 million) had 159 new cases of covid-19; Florida (population 21.5 million) had 15,300.

Yup. The butcher’s bill is kind of difficult to hide when it’s this outrageously high — plaintive yowls of “WE HAVE THE BEST TESTING” notwithstanding.

And Will has realized, along with the rest of us in the resistance, that we’re going to have to win big in November to beat back the ocher abomination’s fascistic jibber-jabber about a “stolen” election.

This year, the pandemic will be an accelerant of preexisting trends: There will be a surge of early and mail voting. So, an unambiguous decision by midnight Eastern time Nov. 3 will require (in addition to state requirements that mailed ballots be postmarked, say, no later than Oct. 31) a popular-vote tsunami so large against the president that there will be a continentwide guffaw when he makes charges, as surely he will, akin to those he made in 2016. Then, he said he lost the popular vote by 2.9 million because “millions” of undocumented immigrants voted against him. Making a preemptive strike against civic confidence, Trump has announced that the 2020 election will be the “most corrupt” in U.S. history.

Will also acknowledges the grim irony of a man coming into office pledging to make America great again before ineluctably transforming it into a nidorous heap of pestilence and ape sharts.

This nation built the Empire State Building, groundbreaking to official opening, in 410 days during the Depression, and the Pentagon in 16 months during wartime. Today’s less serious nation is unable to competently combat a pandemic, or even reliably conduct elections. This is what national decline looks like.

The entire column can be found here. It’s def worth a read.

“This guy is a natural. Sometimes I laugh so hard I cry." — Bette Midler on Aldous J. Pennyfarthing, via Twitter. Find out what made dear Bette break up. Dear F*cking Lunatic: 101 Obscenely Rude Letters to Donald Trump and its boffo sequels Dear Pr*sident A**clown: 101 More Rude Letters to Donald Trump and Dear F*cking Moron: 101 More Letters to Donald Trump by Aldous J. Pennyfarthing are now available for a song! Click those links, yo!

Coronavirus and the Russian bounty scandal dominate the news

 If you internalize one thing, make it this. The ramifications of screwing up on coronavirus take weeks before you see it. That’s what makes the response in AZ, TX, FL and other “open up now” states so deadly, and so imperative to act now.

WaPo:

With Trump leading the way, America’s coronavirus failures exposed by record surge in new infections

President Trump — who has repeatedly downplayed the virus, sidelined experts and misled Americans about its dangers and potential cures — now finds his presidency wracked by an inability to shepherd the country through its worst public health calamity in a century. The dysfunction that has long characterized Trump’s White House has been particularly ill-suited for a viral outbreak that requires precision, focus and steady leadership, according to public health experts, administration officials and lawmakers from both parties.

As case numbers began rising again, Trump has held rallies defying public health guidelines, mused about slowing down testing for the virus, criticized people wearing masks and embraced the racially offensive “kung flu” nickname for a disease that has killed at least 123,000 Americans.

A similarly garbled message for the country has also been put forward by the president’s top aides and other senior administration officials, who contradict one another on a daily basis. On Friday, Vice President Pence used the first White House coronavirus task force briefing in almost two months to praise Trump’s handling of the virus and cast aside concerns about a record spike in new infections.

Robert Costa/WaPo:

Trump campaign scrambling to revive the president’s imperiled reelection bid

Trump’s advisers and allies have grown frustrated with some of the president’s incendiary and divisive behavior and comments in recent weeks and are dismayed by the polls, including some of their own internal surveys that also show him losing to Biden. The president also came under fire for a June 20 rally in Tulsa that failed to attract much of a crowd even as the campaign downplayed coronavirus distancing guidelines.

But many Trump allies remain deeply skeptical of the public polling — pointing to 2016 polls in key states that underestimated Trump’s support — and say the internal polling and modeling that they’re sharing with the president is less grim than the public surveys. Multiple campaign and Republican officials also asserted that they have seen no serious erosion in Trump’s political base.

They’re lying to themselves, a very bad place to be in a campaign. Still , it isn’t the vs Biden poll numbers that make me think Trump is a one term president, it’s this:

The virus is getting worse as we speak, and no happy talk will make it go away.

NY Times:

Biden Criticizes Trump Over Intelligence on Russian Bounties on U.S. Troops

The White House denied that President Trump was briefed on the classified assessment, even though his staff has been discussing the matter since March.

Another said it was included in the President’s Daily Brief, a written document which draws from spywork to make analytic predictions about longstanding adversaries, unfolding plots and emerging crises around the world. The briefing document is given to the president to read and they serve as the basis for oral briefings to him several times a week…

American officials reached on Saturday said it strained credulity to think that White House national-security officials would be discussing such an important matter for months and even brief British officials about it and never provide the information to Mr. Trump.

This is a rolling international scandal, building steam. From this morning:

• WaPo: Russian bounties to Taliban-linked militants resulted in deaths of U.S. troops, according to intelligence assessments
• NY Times: Spies and Commandos Warned Months Ago of Russian Bounties on U.S. Troops

Scott Duke Harris/USA Today:

Coronavirus: From my view in Hong Kong, American reluctance to wear a mask is suicidal

President Trump and many Americans are against wearing face masks, but Hong Kong proves that face masks actually do prevent the spread of coronavirus

To mask or not to mask... That’s still the question? Seriously?

It shouldn’t be, not when a lethal virus might be a sneeze, a cough, or simply a breath away. Not when the pandemic has killed nearly a half-million people worldwide, including more than 124,000 in the United States — and several states are spiking.

People here in Hong Kong understand this and wonder: Why, after so much misery, are millions of Americans so clueless?

Do not buy in to the ‘herd immunity’ anti-vaxx scam being pushed on social media. It generally starts with an argument that things are going better than the experts say, that the death rates are really lower than anyone expected (as if it’s not bad enough as is), that it’s younger patients so we’re safe,  and (if you push them) that we have to open up, regardless.

But once you realize that consequences roll out over weeks (the seeds of today were planted Memorial Day) and look at what’s happening in slow motion in the hard hit states, the argument falls apart.

Let me give you three excellent twitter threads to put the coronavirus in perspective.

Andy Slavitt, Ex-Obama health care head:

I hate to sound like one of those “elite intellectual” types but if state governors don’t learn to understand (or remember from 2 months ago but whatever) what a time lag is between cases & hospitalizations & deaths we will keep repeating second grade over and over. 

Recent news— massive growth of cases, increased hospitalizations— is not the result of today’s action. It is a result [of] actions in May.

DeSantis said the spike in cases has “nothing, nothing” to do with the reopening. (I think his explanation was “goblins” or “magic fairies.”) But definitely not him.

He and others fail to understand time

Vice President Pence, forced out of his “I know nothing” slumber yesterday was forced to have a media session on the “Task Force” came out, took a bow, and praised how well things were going.

Also not much for telling time.

He insisted that deaths were still not increasing. Again I can’t stress enough the concept of a time lag is a difficult one.

There is no way that an increase in cases of this magnitude won’t lead to more deaths than we see now. But it will take 4-6 weeks to see it. Counting daily death reports from today vs yesterday vs last week misses the point right now. Look at the hospitalizations.

Bob Wachter, Chair, UCSF Dept of Medicine:

This week, it felt like we entered a new phase of Covid. In March & April, we had panic, lockdowns, and surges… in certain places. The next phase (May-early June) saw cases & deaths plateau, we began opening up…and the seeds of complacency.

And now we’ve entered another phase, with major surges in places that were spared the first time around. Given all we’ve learned in the past few months, it’s all very predictable, and it was at least partly preventable – which makes it especially sad.

Predictable, because the best evidence says that the virus’s essential characteristics – its ease of transmission and virulence – are unchanged. And, unless you’re living in New York (where 15-20% of people have antibodies), the virus's targets – namely, us – are the same too.

Tom Inglesby, Director of Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security:

Governors in states where COVID hospitalizations are consistently rising, COVID ICU rates increasing, diagnostic test positivity going up, need to shift policy. Full reopening happened too quickly and without recognizing that some reopening decisions posed too much risk.

If they haven’t already, governors in those states should suspend large indoor gatherings – whether casinos, large indoor restaurants, bars, conventions, entertainment venues, indoor churches etc – and explain to public the high risk of getting COVID in those settings.

Governors should make clear that more informal large gatherings like large parties, have been the site of big outbreaks, and so they are places where risk is high of spread. The public should be aware of those risks and make personal decisions to avoid large gatherings….

Federal leaders shouldn't say things going well when they aren’t. Undermines credibility of federal response and is confusing to the public. With highest daily national numbers, highest daily numbers in many states with increasing hosp rates, things are not going well.

Political leaders shouldn't hold large gatherings, like rallies or conventions. We've too much disease spread in the country for those now. It poses risk for attendees. Attendees that get COVID in those events then pose risks to their families and coworkers and others.

Federal leaders need to hear -- from local leaders and hospitals that are saying it – that PPE supplies are still fragile in some places in the country. We need more public data and dashboards to be able to gauge PPE supply. Fed agencies need plans to respond to shortages.

State, local political leaders should support and commend the work of their public health teams. Pub health officials in some places have been scapegoated by the public or their own political leaders. Our response will suffer badly without the best talent in public health.

Nsikan Akpan/Nat Geo:

Here's how to stop the virus from winning

Case surges, overrun hospitals, and a second lockdown this summer could deal a heavy blow to the United States. Here's what we need to turn the tide.

“We are quickly reaching that critical level of capacity in ICU beds and ventilators in hospitals in the worst-hit areas,” says Purnima Madhivanan, an infectious disease epidemiologist and associate professor at the University of Arizona in Tucson. “Right now, I think the only thing we can think about is at least starting with harm reduction.”

Harm reduction refers to public health tools and practices—such as needle exchange programs or safe sex with condoms—meant to lessen danger rather than expecting universal compliance to rigid guidance. This approach acknowledges that risk levels vary by person and setting, and solutions should be tailored for those individual scenarios.

With the coronavirus, harm reduction techniques include convincing people to wear masks for the riskiest scenarios, such as crowded spaces, but relaxing those guidelines in places where people can stay at safe distances, such as parks. These approaches can go beyond decisions made by individuals, and the principles have already guided some nations and states, including New Zealand, South Korea, and New York State, toward successfully beating back the coronavirus.

Face shields vs cloth masks: no studies, but at least one epidemiologist is a strong proponent based on large particle spread (and/but read the comments).

In a medical setting it’s face shield + surgical mask. In a social setting, something is better than nothing but not as good as closing down the bars. CDC recommends cloth masks “in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain (e.g., grocery stores and pharmacies) especially in areas of significant community-based transmission” and is silent on face shields.

Keep in mind these recommendations change as newer information becomes available, and CDC is sloooooooooow to change their mind.

Take a moment for the good news:

Ashton Pittman:

The Flag is Coming Down’: Lawmakers Vote to Change Mississippi State Flag

In a historic vote today, large majorities in both houses of the Mississippi Legislature voted to move forward on an effort to retire and replace the Confederate-themed Mississippi State Flag.

Sen. Barbara Blackmon, a Black Democrat from Jackson, spoke on the Senate floor this afternoon, recounting the times in history that moved her to tears—the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy; Tiger Woods’ 1997 Masters’ Tournament Victory; and the ascendance of America’s first Black president. She cried, she said, “because those moments were historical, just as the vote to change this flag is historical.”

Blackmon recalled tears turning into icicles on her face one frosty cold January day in Washington, D.C., as she watched Barack Obama take the oath of office.

“Just as I thought I would never live to see a Barack Obama, I thought I would never live to see this flag come down,” she said.

Want some election stories?

William Saletan/Slate:

Why Biden’s Lead Is Safer Than Clinton’s

Trump won in 2016 because voters didn’t like his opponent. That’s no longer true.

Former Vice President Joe Biden is thumping President Donald Trump in the polls. As of Friday, Biden led Trump by 10 percentage points in the RealClearPolitics national average and by six to nine points in each of four key states: Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. But many Democrats refuse to trust these numbers. They feel burned by 2016, when Hillary Clinton lost after leading in the polls for months. They’re afraid Trump will come back again.

That could happen. But it probably won’t, and one reason is that Biden isn’t Clinton. You can argue that public antipathy toward Clinton was sexist, based on lies, or propelled by the media. But that antipathy was a fact, and polls consistently documented it. Now polls are showing something else: On identical questions, posed by the same pollsters at the same stage of the campaign, Biden is doing far better than Clinton did. He’s more broadly liked and less broadly disliked than she was.

Harry Enten/CNN:

Candidates who recover from Trump-like deficits are rarely incumbents

The polls are fairly unanimous: Former Vice President Joe Biden holds a significant advantage over President Donald Trump. On average, he's up by 10 points nationally and in the pivotal battleground state of Wisconsin.

There is time for Trump to mount a comeback, but the candidates who do come back are usually not incumbents and have never been elected incumbents in the polling era.

Since 1940, the only incumbent losing at this point in the cycle who would go on to win another term was Harry Truman. He, like Trump, was down around 10 points to Thomas Dewey in the early summer of 1948. But remember, Truman was not elected president before taking the 1948 election. He ascended to the office through the vice-presidency, after Franklin Roosevelt died in 1945.

In terms of elected incumbents, Jimmy Carter was the one to be down by as much as Trump is right now. Carter went on to get crushed by Ronald Reagan in 1980.