Wuhan Virus Watch: President Trump Unveils Coronavirus Bailout Plan
The DNC also changed its debate format.
Before I begin with my daily coronavirus update, I wanted to take a few moments to address some statements made by Fox News host Tucker Carlson on his recent monologue.
I usually find Carlson well-informed, but he latched onto some inappropriate statistics that I think added to more needless worry:
Despite Carlson’s claims that COVID-19 has a 3% mortality rate, that fact cannot be known for sure. There is a great deal of evidence that it was spreading throughout the West Coast for at least six weeks before the community outbreaks occurred. I suspect that there were a lot of mild colds, fevers, and cases of flu that were from coronavirus, but no one identified them as such. Therefore, the mortality rate would be substantially less.
The Trump administration has handled everything as well as can be expected, given the limited information the Chinese made available at the beginning of the crisis. The Task Force daily conferences have conveyed that the federal government is doing all it can to mitigate the spread, ensure supplies are available, provide pertinent information, and to reduce the level of infections and fatalities.
I would like to point out that the press will soon report an “explosion” of coronavirus cases in this country. This increase will be the result of more people being tested, and cases identified, as more and more test kits become available.
President Trump Unveils Coronavirus Bailout Plan
Trump and his White House team are trying to put together an economic stimulus plan to counteract the impact from the outbreak.
President Donald Trump, in a meeting with Republican lawmakers Tuesday on Capitol Hill, pitched a 0% payroll tax rate for employers and employees that would last through the rest of this year, a White House official told CNBC.
…The White House is also considering federal assistance for the shale industry as oil prices have tanked in recent days due to a price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia. The administration doesn’t want it to be perceived as a bailout, the official said.
New York Creates ‘Containment Area’ Around Cluster In New Rochelle
New York has created a “containment area” around a community in New Rochelle, in an attempt to limit the spread of coronavirus in an area that quickly became the state’s largest source of COVID-19 infections.
A synagogue in the city has become the epicenter of an outbreak in Westchester County — which accounts for 108 of New York state’s 173 coronavirus cases. Hundreds of people in the Young Israel congregation have already been under a voluntary quarantine order that was issued last week. The congregation’s rabbi has confirmed that he is among those who have tested positive for the virus.
As of Tuesday, that synagogue is also at the center of a circle that extends for a 1-mile radius, marking the state’s containment area. Residents would still be allowed to move around — but the new policy effectively blocks any large public gatherings in the area, to prevent further transmission of the virus.
South Korea’s Infection Rate Falls Without Citywide Lockdowns
There is some good news from South Korea, where infection rates have fallen.
South Korea has seen a steady decrease in new coronavirus cases for four consecutive days, despite being one of the worst-affected countries outside China, although global attention has shifted towards outbreaks in Italy and Iran.
…The country averaged more than 500 new infections a day for the past two weeks, but last Friday, this number dipped to 438, then 367 on Saturday and 248 on Sunday. The daily number of confirmed cases is reported the following day.
The steady decrease in cases has been attributed to a variety of factors, including mass testing, improved public communications and the use of technology. Extensive testing of members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, which was linked to more than 60 per cent of the country’s cases, has been completed.
South Korean officials have shared their experiences in containing the outbreak, saying that citywide lockdowns, as imposed by China in Wuhan, where the outbreak originated, are difficult to enforce in an open society.
Sanders, Biden Cancel Rallies, and DNC Changes Debate Format Over Coronavirus Worries.
The Democrats have dozens of different uses for coronavirus, including providing a handy excuse to cancel rallies and change debate formats.
Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden have begun canceling campaign rallies due to concerns about the coronavirus, a first on the 2020 presidential campaign trail as concerns about the outbreak mount.
Meanwhile, the Democratic National Committee said there will be no live audience at the next presidential debate on Sunday in Phoenix. CNN, which will broadcast the debate, said there will not be a spin room or media filing center either.
Sanders and Biden both called off rallies planned for Tuesday night in Cleveland ahead of the state’s primary next week, where they were expected to address the results of Tuesday’s primaries in six other states.
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Comments
I avoid infection by turning off the MSM, lest I catch their deadly virus.
The Media has the Lyin’ Flu Virus!
Wow! Wow!
So many people are booking cheap airplane flights and trips now that American Airlines online system is down!
Thanks for mentioning Tucker’s rant. My husband and I watched it live and were shocked at how bad it was. Not like him. He can recover in my book but boy was it a sad, inconsistent rant.
Just noting. My son, senior at UCSD, was just informed their next quarter (His last) will be all online (we’ll see if that works!!! Tech and professors are not usually a good marriage.)
Yes, I started watching the youtube video of it but found it too full of DNC Fearmongering Talking Points.
Had to cut him off.
Can your son form an online study group with others taking the same class?
How are they handling “proctored” and maybe “closed-book” exams?
I’d have suggested a tariff on oil.
We will never know how many people were infected by the Wuhan virus but recovered without any help. It is difficult to get the real stats but I have read that 80% of those infected recovered without ever knowing they had that flu.
I suspect that the doom-and-gloom narrative will survive long after the virus itself has run its course. The statistics are being shaped to fit a curve to serve that narrative.
IMHO, the main reason for the frequent “seasonal adjustments” that can be very large is that the data does not fit the narrative and eventually the data has to be manipulated to absorb the real numbers in their totality while maintaining the narrative. Just like the government statistics on employment, oil inventories, etc…
This is the new issue now that Russiagate and the impeachment hoax have been blown out of the water.
Narratives are very stubborn things when those in charge don’t care about the truth.
Phil, imo many of us have probably already had that flu strain.
It was actually going around for at least the last 2 or 3 months of 2019 and there was no cut-off of China travel then.
Right after Thanksgiving, I had a customer who had been on a week long or longer holiday (Chinese exchange student I pretty sure). They sat right in front of me and coughed many times – never covering their mouth. Then two days later I was feeling a bit feverish as you do when some virus is hatching in you. Then two days after that when I allowed myself to slow down from work, I slept 13.5 hours in 16.0 straight hours!
Next week the customer was back and they looked LIKE DEATH WARMED OVER! I slyly suggested they take advantage of the abundance of open seating and had them sit about 3 yards from me.
Related note.
This Monday morning (and all mornings this week after starting this weekend) it was glaring apparent that all the Local Media TV affiliates had gotten their Goose-Stepping Orders! Corona this, Corona that, and on and on – all the DNC Talking Points on it!
Later, paying my bill after enjoying a Chinese owned buffet that I’ve been hitting up once a week, the maître d’ was visiting with the manager about some people avoiding Chinese restaurants because of the Media Scare. Actually they were busier that day then I’ve seen in 4 months.
Methinks the local conservative folk are deliberately patronizing them to SPITE the Lyin’ Media and Lyin’ DEMS.
Spot on Leslie. I’m typically a fan of Tucker’s. He’s very intelligent and usually on the money in his monologues. But his covid-19 intel, his capitalism-bashing of late, his evident belief that government, if only better, could fix things, and his total anti-immigrant religion – regardless of whether it’s legal or not – are all concerning. I could simply watch “Modern Family” reruns at 8pm.
I used to think he was more constitutionally tuned than the other prime time talking heads at FOX. But I’ve caught him on a few occasion referring to America as a democracy (instead of a representative republic).
I can’t tell if he’s trying to set himself apart at FOX by being a contrarian or he is at heart a Big Gov’t conservative.
Tucker is a TRUST FUND BABY – he’s already Got His!
You know good and well that makes a big difference in his attitudes. He’s not like President Trump who had to earn it.
And Thank You for using “representative republic.”
The DEMS and their Lyin’ Media have gotten away with their LIE that we are a “democracy” for too many decades.
Excuse me? Carlson does not have rich parents. President Trump is the ultimate trust fund baby. He got his start with handouts by his father, and over his entire career has not managed to increase his inheritance by more than it would have grown had he simply invested it in an index fund.
Can someone help me out here:
“voluntary quarantine order”
Perhaps I missed something in my military training, but the entire concept of a “voluntary order” seems to me to be a bit of an oxymoron.
What’s an order like that look like?
“I hereby order you to volunteer…”
“You are hereby ordered to quarantine yourself unless you don’t want to.”
“We’re asking for volunteers to be ordered to quarantine themselves.”
I’m just not getting it.
By the way, what are the penalties if someone declines to volunteer to follow the order?
It’s not really an order, it’s more of an official request, with an implication that if you don’t voluntarily comply the next step will be to go to court and get a real order which will not be voluntary. Kind of like the warning tickets cops will sometimes give you, saying basically “be aware that you broke the law and this could have been a real ticket, so don’t do it again”.
Trump should be announcing a massive, national mobilization to restore the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry in America, with all deliberate speed. That we are totally vulnerable to, and dependent upon, the Chinese and Indians for our medicines is a national crisis and digrace, caused the globalists and greedy corporations. Trump should announce this mobilization in the same way we mobilize for war. But no war profiteers permitted, including those traitor companies!
This should not be Trump’s sole responsibility. Congress has a duty here as well.
So do the pharmaceutical companies. Why do even conservatives think that the government is the answer to everything?
COVID-19 marches along at a relatively slow pace. But, the political class and the media continue to gin up fear about it. Carlson is representative of what happens when you 1) believe the media reports which you have been rightly pointing out to be fake news and 2) feel helpless in the face of a threat. Historically, Carlson has been more of a libertarian voice in the wilderness. He has been small restricted government, anti-big business, and pro-civil liberties. Suddenly, he has done a 180 and become big unrestricted government advocate. Not surprising, butt it does erode his credibility.
Now, the next big thing is for governments, especially blue state governments, to impose oppressive quarantine measures, which are far beyond what is effective. And, as in the case of New Rochelle, the unnecessary staging of National Guard troops with no enforcement powers. Somebody has been watching too many Hollywood movies and is just making a big show, while putting innocent NG personnel at risk of exposure, for no good reason. The problem is that all of those quarantined, especially those who show no symptoms of the disease, are being incarcerated without due process. Sooner or later, these quarantines are going to end up in court and we will begin to see what the limits and responsibilities of governments which impose them are.
So far, the main identified vector for infection is airborne particles. This can be greatly reduced, almost eliminated, by having the infected wear masks. So, physical quarantine is not really necessary in most cases. But, it looks good for the media.
Well if we followed the dem plan for crime, stop testing/reporting/treating and the rate of occurence goes down.
so far, last i checked this morning, 31 deaths in US from the wuhan virus (I’m a huge raycisst…) but here in Maine 0 cases. however as of few hours ago Maine has 27 deaths from flu this (if I read it right) YEAR not this season.
Leslie, again, thank you for your reporting. Again, I write with my knowledge of pulmonary medicine and my (poor) insights into COVID-19 based on my reading and the information my university is passing along.
One point to make is that infection rate and mortality risk, both important numbers in their own right, do not convey important issues for the American health care system right now. These are:
1) the absolute number of people who will require hospitalization for COVID-19 related illness
2) the mean number of hospital days each infected person will require
3) the absolute number who will require ICU care and mechanical ventilation
4) the mean number of ventilator days
5) the rate at which people will come to the hospital
It becomes obvious: if a given region of our country has (let’s say) 5,000 hospital beds and 500 ICU beds, with the ability to flex up to 800 ICU beds, that’s what that region can handle before being overwhelmed. As long as the number of people hospitalized per day in that region is < 5,000, and ICU hospitalization are < 500 (or 800), that region can manage. It'll be a strain on supplies, personnel, etc., of course, but that region will handle the influx.
Just as obvious: once the number of hospital beds required for that region exceeds 5,000 per day, or ICU above 800 per day, that region will be overwhelmed. It doesn't matter if the infection rate is 10% or 50%, or if the mortality rate is 0.1% or 3%, what matters is how many people need acute, in-patient medical care at one time. That's what will overwhelm us.
Hence Leslie's thoughts on mitigation and management. Even if we can't reduce the total number of people who will eventually be infected, if we spread that number over 12 months rather than 2 months, we're more likely to manage our inpatient and ICU needs. That benefits everyone.
So the containment and mitigation strategies matter substantially, as does our ability to take care of hospitalized patients with efficiency.
One point that hasn't been raised much in public but is certainly being discussed in medical circles is POST-hospitalization care. If a significant number of COVID-19 patients require skilled nursing care or rehab after hospital discharge, that's another strain on our system. That's something to keep an eye on.
I was the sickest i ever was 2 years ago.
This bug has been here for a while. Now, it’s just being exploited for swamp/left/islamic axis purposes.
Carlson is wrong about the mortality rate. It will be somewhere between 0.5% and 1%. Still much higher than seasonal flu, which is why the precautions make sense and might have to be intensified.
The failure is the lack of testing, which bred complacency. Even now, after all those promises about test kits shipped, people with COVID-19 symptoms in my area of the country cannot get tested. This is utterly inexcusable, and will make the situation considerably worse than it needed to be.
Testing is fine. But, as we do not have either half a billion tests lying around, or the capacity to produce them, why can’t doctors treat anyone with severe symptoms associated with COVID as though they had the disease?
Here is the problem with the hoopla about testing. The test is only useful IF a person tests positive for the virus. If the person tests negative, this only means that there was no evidence of infection at thee time of the test. The person could contract the virus hours, or days, later and, at that point, the original test is useless. So, anyone who gets a negative result on the test has to be retested, repeatedly, until they test positive for the virus. See the problem here?
There is no reason why a person who exhibits the symptoms of COVID can not be treated for the virus, based upon that alone.
We do treat for the symptoms. The treatment is, for the most part, supportive care. There is no anti-viral drug that works against COVID-19, so there is no specific treatment (yet).
Someone with fever, cough, shortness of breath, and patchy, multi-focal ground glass opacities on a chest CT scan is going to be treated about the same whether this is due to COVID-19, usual coronavirus, influenza, parainfluenza, RSV, or RV. Viral pneumonitis is just that. We do have a couple of therapies we try for the others.
If a person is being treated for COVID-19 based upon symptomology AND no specific treatment being identified for this particular virus, then exactly why do you need a specific test for this virus? You don’t.
The test hysteria is nothing more than a distraction. As I pointed out, if a person exhibits NO symptoms of COVID-19 and tests negative for exposure to the virus, this is only viable until the person walks out into public. From that point on, the person can be infected. So, for any purpose, other than statistics, such a test is next to useless. Also, at this point, we still do not know if the tests actually show that a person is infected with the virus. Many people develop antibodies to viral agents without actually contracting them. But, we are going to lock people up without ever knowing if they are contagious, for a disease which we still do not know is generally significantly worse than influenza.
“then exactly why do you need a specific test for this virus?”
To prevent them from infecting other people. Evidence so far indicates it can be worse than the flu. That’s not such a difficult concept is it?
BKC,
Think about this for a minute, before you rattle off simplistic answers.
There are 330 MILLION people in this country. That means that you would have to have at least 3330 million tests and they would have to be administered, forcibly, if need be, to identify any asymptomatic infectees. And, any negative tests would have to be repeated on a continuing basis, as those uninfected could be infected after they took the test. So, multiply the number of test kits needed by a factor of ten.
Now, say that only 5 percent of the population tests positive for exposure. That is 16 MILLION people. What are you going to do with them? How do you quarantine 16 million souls? And, the number might actually be greater than that. If so, how do you quarantine 50 million, 100 million, 200 million people and what will it do to this country, economically?
As for treatment, if every person who exhibit symptoms consistent with COVID-19, medical personnel should treat them as being infected with that virus, even if they do not test positive for it [tests provide both false positives and false negatives, after all].
As for COVID being worse than influenza a and b, it appears that it is, for certain specific populations, such as the elderly with respiratory and cardiac conditions; but for the general population, it is not proving so, in the US. So, again, what level of economic destruction are we willing to suffer to “combat” a disease which increasingly appears to be far less dangerous than the media hype suggests?
Ok, I thought about it for 2 minutes, just to be safe. I agree with you that if there are 16 million Americans infected, testing is pretty much useless (without a specific treatment). But there aren’t 16 million Americans infected (yet). As of yesterday, there were about 1300 known cases.
In my opinion (fwiw), one of the most important things we can do right now is slow the spread down so it doesn’t overwhelm our health system like has happened in parts of China and Italy. At the current rate of infection, there will be about 100,000 infected by April. One way to slow it down is to reduce the # of people coming into the country that already have it. Another way is with draconian quarantining of everyone like China did. Identifying who has it and quarantining them and their close contacts is another way of slowing it down. Probably won’t stop it. But if you can slow it down enough, you can hopefully keep it from overwhelming our hospitals. And buy some time to get a vaccine/better treatment.
Sorry for the snark in my previous message.
Please, overwhelming our hospitals is the leas of our worries. Yes, overwhelming healthcare facilities will likely make it difficult, or possibly impossible to treat all the patients who actually need the facilities. But, hospitals are people a fraction of the US economy. The biggest problem is what do you do with people who test positive for the virus? Are you advocating pulling them out of society and quarantining them? If so, what effect does that have on the larger economy? How do businesses cope with losing a significant portion, if not their entire staff? How will the business survive? We are already seeing some businesses, such as restaurants, in some locations having economic problems from a drop-off in patronage. Then there is the economic impact on those quarantined. Many families live paycheck to paycheck and they have no sick leave benefits to tide them over. What do they do? And, how do we guard against false positives and those who test positive, through exposure, but are not infected?
Now, if we were speaking of a highly deadly, communicable disease like bubonic plague or Ebola, quarantine of potentially infected people might be justified. But, it is beginning to look as though COVID-19 is going to be slightly more fatal than influenza a and b, except for certain specific at risk populations.
Now, rate of infection. 100,000 infected, with a flu like virus, in a population of 330 million people is hardly a significant number. This flu season, the US has 4.5 million cases of influenza. And, that is for a disease for which we have vaccines.
Keep calm and take reasonable precautions. Avoid people with sniffles, sneezing and coughs. Wash your hands often. Disinfect surfaces on a regular basis. And, if you experience flu-like symptoms, wear a mask which you have lightly sprayed the interior surface of with Lysol or a similar disinfectant. So far, there does not appear to be any skin-to-skin infection. It appears that the infection is spread through contact with mucus membranes of the uninfected person. Open wounds could allow viral entry into the body as well. So, hand coverings, such as gloves, may be indicated for some people. Do not over react to this whole thing.