QAnon Is Trump’s Last, Best Chance
The only thing he can hope for is fear itself.
By Paul Krugman
Last week’s Democratic National Convention was mainly about decency — about portraying Joe Biden and his party as good people who will do their best to heal a nation afflicted by a pandemic and a depression. There were plenty of dire warnings about the threat of Trumpism; there was frank acknowledgment of the toll taken by disease and unemployment; but on the whole the message was surprisingly upbeat.
This week’s Republican National Convention, by contrast, however positive its official theme, is going to be QAnon all the way.
I don’t mean that there will be featured speeches claiming that Donald Trump is protecting us from an imaginary cabal of liberal pedophiles, although anything is possible. But it’s safe to predict that the next few days will be filled with QAnon-type warnings about terrible events that aren’t actually happening and evil conspiracies that don’t actually exist.
That has, after all, been Trump’s style since the very first day of his presidency.
New presidents traditionally use their inaugural addresses to deliver a message of hope and unity, even in dark times: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
Trump, however, offered a vision of “American carnage,” in particular of inner cities devastated by violent crime. His rhetoric was ugly and had clear racial overtones, but it also had another problem: it bore no relationship to reality. Trump took office in a nation whose violent crime rate had been falling for decades; our big cities were as safe as they had ever been.
The same pattern of attempts to panic Americans over nonexistent threats recurs throughout this administration. If you get your information from administration officials or Fox News, you probably believe that millions of undocumented immigrants cast fraudulent votes, even though actual voter fraud hardly ever happens; that Black Lives Matter protests, which with some exceptions have been remarkably nonviolent, have turned major cities into smoking ruins; and more.
Why this fixation on phantom menaces? There has always been a paranoid style in American politics that sees sinister conspiracies behind social and cultural change — a style going all the way back to fear of Catholic immigrants in the 19th century. Those of us who remember the 1990s know that QAnon-type conspiracy theories have been out there for decades; they’ve just become more visible thanks to social media and a president who attributes all his failures to the machinations of the “deep state.”
Beyond that, however, a lot of the focus on imaginary threats represents a defensive response from people who repeatedly demonstrated, even before the coronavirus hit, that they have no idea how to do policy, that is, to cope with real threats.
After all, America on the day Trump took office was no utopia. The overall economy was doing well, with steady job growth and falling unemployment — trends that continued, with no visible break, for the next three years. But parts of the country suffered from persistent economic weakness and low employment. Homicides were low, but “deaths of despair” from drugs, suicide and alcohol were rising sharply.
So a president who really cared about American carnage would have had plenty to work on.
But Trump never even tried. His response, such as it was, to regional decline was a trade war that, on net, reduced manufacturing employment. The rest of his economic policy was standard Republican fare, focused on corporate tax cuts that didn’t even boost business investment. His only visible response to the opioid crisis was a push to take away health insurance from millions.
Then came Covid-19 — which, by the way, has already killed far more Americans than were murdered in the decade that preceded Trump’s inauguration. And the administration’s response, aside from the occasional promotion of quack remedies, has consisted of little but denial and insistence that the whole thing will miraculously go away.
Trump, in other words, can’t devise policies that respond to the nation’s actual needs, nor is he willing to listen to those who can. He won’t even try. And at some level both he and those around him seem aware of his basic inadequacy for the job of being president.
What he and they can do, however, is conjure up imaginary threats that play into his supporters’ prejudices, coupled with conspiracy theories that resonate with their fear and envy of know-it-all “elites.” QAnon is only the most ludicrous example of this genre, all of which portrays Trump as the hero defending us from invisible evil.
If all of this sounds crazy, that’s because it is. And it’s almost certainly not a political tactic that can win over a majority of American voters. It might, however, scare enough people that, combined with vote suppression and the unrepresentative nature of the Electoral College, Trump can manage, barely, to hang on to power.
I don’t think this desperate strategy is going to work. But it’s all Trump has left. The only thing he can hope for is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror based on nothing real at all.
Heartfelt column from Michelle about the personal toll on parents, even those with good, high-status jobs, of the emerging school catastrophe. It seems almost churlish to talk about the economic implications, but they're also there 1/ https://t.co/SQaGGx8Ak8
Heartfelt column from Michelle Goldberg about the personal toll on parents, even those with good, high-status jobs, of the emerging school catastrophe. It seems almost churlish to talk about the economic implications, but they’re also there 1/
New York’s School Chaos Is Breaking Me
So this is how it feels to be abandoned by your government.
10:57 AM · Aug 25, 2020
The key point is that America has come a long way from the Suburban Lifestyle Dream in which Daddy went to work while Mommy stayed home (which was never as true as advertised, but nothing like that now) 2/
If I’m reading the numbers correctly, out of 157 m Americans working last year, around 37 million were in families for which child care is a critical issue: 29 million workers from two-earner households with children, 8 million working single parents 3/
Not reopening in-person schooling makes life difficult if not impossible for many of these workers. Yet school reopening is very quickly turning into a complete disaster — maybe worse and faster than the abortive economic reopening of the spring 4/
If you’re worried about things that might keep people from going back to work, ignore the unemployment benefits thing and look at the fact that millions of Americans won’t have anyone to take care of their children. The human and economic costs will be huge 5/
Yet ignoring the virus and just reopening classes as usual would kill thousands. We’re entering a whole new phase of this crisis 6/
Chinese mainland reports 14 new COVID-19 cases, no new deaths
The Chinese mainland registered 14 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, all from overseas, the Chinese health authority said on Tuesday. This is the ninth consecutive day without domestic transmissions.
No deaths linked to the coronavirus disease were recorded on Monday, while 36 patients were discharged from hospitals.
The total number of confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland stands at 84,981 and the cumulative death toll at 4,634, with 374 asymptomatic patients under medical observation.
Having apparently almost contained the coronavirus, the Israeli government incautiously opened schools and businesses, and the result is a persistent community infection level that has now reached 106,245 cases in the small country as compared to 84,981 through all of mainland China.
In summer and fall of 2016 the FBI knew that Carter Page was not a foreign agent. Their own experience with him, the CIA’s experience with him, their confidential human sources were all telling them this and was all documented in information in the hands of the Crossfire Hurricane (and other Crossfire) investigators. Page specifically contacted Director Comey asking for an interview to dispel rumors. This was ignored so that a FISA warrant could be obtained. The Horowitz report and subsequent information informs us of the various “errors” that went into the successful application and renewals. These “errors” were designed to obtain an approval that otherwise was oincredibly unlikely. But beyond knowing what happened, the country deserves to know why it happened. My hypothesis is that Crossfire team wanted access to the communications of individuals that they felt (or even knew) would fall within the guidelines for using the warrant, which includes some access to a second level away from the specific target. Page made a call to A and later A spoke with B. They may have even already been in possession of information that would need a pedigree if they ever needed to formally use it. Whatever it was it must have seemed very powerful reason to have an FBI attorney knowingly include a version that he personally falsified into a renewal and that purpose absolutely was not to stop Carter Page from betraying the US. What was it?
Flu Season Could Make Coronavirus Testing Delays Even Worse
The nation’s testing efforts will be further overwhelmed once influenza, R.S.V. * and other seasonal viruses arrive.
By Katherine J. Wu
The Dominican Republic has been the fastest growing country in GDP per capita in the Western Hemisphere since 1971. Cuba has been continually sanctioned economically by the US through these years, however Cuba has a far superior healthcare system as reflected now in the coronavirus experience of the countries and for years past in a range of critical healthcare experiences from infant mortality to life expectancy.
C.D.C. Changes Testing Guidance to Exclude People Without Symptoms, Worrying Experts
[ As I have repeatedly pointed out, China tests expressly for asymptomatic cases of the coronavirus and records such cases daily. Asymptomatic patients have been shown to be potentially infectious and are therefore quarantined while close contacts are traced and tested in turn. Also, asymptomatic patients will in the course of quarantine develop symptoms. ]
A February conference in Boston led to the infection of tens of thousands around the world, a study shows.
[ This was the Biogen conference, which I reported on, and which should never have been held given what was known about the spread of the coronavirus by that time. ]
How a Premier U.S. Drug Company Became a Virus ‘Super Spreader’
Biogen employees unwittingly spread the coronavirus from Massachusetts to Indiana, Tennessee and North Carolina.
By Farah Stockman and Kim Barker
Also, asymptomatic patients will at times in the course of quarantine develop symptoms. All asymptomatic patients in China are quarantined, close contacts traced and tested.
On Feb. 26, 175 executives at the biotech company Biogen gathered at a Boston hotel for the first night of a conference. At the time, the coronavirus seemed a faraway problem, limited mostly to China.
But the virus was right there at the conference, spreading from person to person. A new study suggests that the meeting turned into a superspreading event, seeding infections that would affect tens of thousands of people across the United States and in countries as far as Singapore and Australia.
The study, which the authors posted online on Tuesday and has not yet been published in a scientific journal, gives an unprecedented look at how far the coronavirus can spread given the right opportunities.
“It’s a really valuable study,” said Dr. Joshua Schiffer, a physician and mathematical modeling expert who studies infectious diseases at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle and was not involved in the research. …
A new study estimates the Biogen conference held at Boston’s Marriott Long Wharf hotel in February played a far greater role in spreading the coronavirus than previously thought.
An international meeting of Biogen leaders at a Boston hotel in February led to roughly 20,000 cases of COVID-19 in four Massachusetts counties by early May, far more than the 99 previously identified, according to three scientists involved in a new study.
After examining nearly all the confirmed early cases of the illness in the area by changes in the genetic makeup of coronaviruses as they pass from one person to another, the researchers were able to assess the broader impact of the “super-spreading event” at the Marriott Long Wharf hotel.
What makes the estimate all the more startling is that this version of the virus was one of more than 80 that invaded the state between late January and early May, the researchers found. But it sparked a viral forest fire.
The 64-page study has yet to be peer reviewed for publication, and the researchers stressed that their estimate ― which doesn’t appear in the paper but they shared in interviews ― is an extrapolation based on viruses isolated from 772 local patients. But they believe their calculations are sound.
“I’m confident that the scale for measuring this event is in the tens of thousands,” said Dr. Jacob Lemieux, an infectious disease physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and one of three scientists at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard who spoke about the study they wrote with 50 other researchers. …
Chinese mainland reports 15 new COVID-19 cases, no new deaths
The Chinese mainland registered 15 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, all from overseas, Chinese health authorities said on Wednesday. This is the 10th consecutive day that the mainland has reported no domestic transmissions.
No deaths linked to the coronavirus disease were recorded on Tuesday, while 54 patients were discharged from hospitals.
The total number of confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland stands at 84,996 and the cumulative death toll at 4,634, with 365 asymptomatic patients under medical observation.
C.D.C. Now Says People Without Covid-19 Symptoms Do Not Need Testing
The revision prompted confusion and alarm from experts, who called the move “potentially dangerous.”
By Katherine J. Wu
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quietly modified its coronavirus testing guidelines this week to exclude people who do not have symptoms of Covid-19 — even if they have been recently exposed to the virus.
Experts questioned the revision, pointing to the importance of identifying infections in the small window immediately before the onset of symptoms, when many individuals appear to be most contagious.
Models suggest that about half of transmission events can be traced back to individuals still in this so-called pre-symptomatic stage, before they start to feel ill — if they ever feel sick at all.
“This is potentially dangerous,” said Dr. Krutika Kuppalli, an infectious disease physician in Palo Alto, Calif. Restricting testing to only people with obvious symptoms of Covid-19 means “you’re not looking for a lot of people who are potential spreaders of disease,” she added. “I feel like this is going to make things worse.”
At a moment when experts have almost universally come forward to encourage more frequent and widespread testing, especially to reach vulnerable and marginalized sectors of the population, the C.D.C.’s update appears counterintuitive and “very strange,” said Susan Butler-Wu, a clinical microbiologist at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California….
Having apparently approached a containing of the coronavirus, the Israeli government incautiously opened schools and businesses, and the result is a persistent community infection level that has now reached 108,054 cases in the small country as compared to 84,996 through all of mainland China.
Chinese mainland reports 8 new COVID-19 cases, no new deaths
The Chinese mainland registered 8 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, all from overseas, Chinese health authorities said on Thursday. This is the 11th consecutive day that the mainland has reported no domestic transmissions.
No deaths linked to the coronavirus disease were recorded on Wednesday, while 31 patients were discharged from hospitals.
The total number of confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland stands at 85,004 and the cumulative death toll at 4,634, with 365 asymptomatic patients under medical observation.
Fed pledges to focus on low unemployment and tolerate higher inflation.
The Federal Reserve, in a significant shift that could keep interest rates low for longer periods, said it would focus on keeping unemployment low and allow inflation to run slightly higher in good times.
The Fed chair, Jerome H. Powell. announced the change in a speech on Thursday at the Kansas City Fed’s annual Jackson Hole symposium that was accompanied by an updated long-run statement describing the Fed’s policy strategy. He said the shifts would allow the gains of a strong economy to benefit a wide range of workers.
“Our revised statement emphasizes that maximum employment is a broad-based and inclusive goal,” Mr. Powell said in remarks prepared for delivery Thursday, and “this change reflects our appreciation for the benefits of a strong labor market, particularly for many in low- and moderate-income communities.”
The Fed had been raising rates as joblessness fell to avoid economic overheating that ended in breakaway inflation, but in recent years, price gains have been tepid. The changes are an explicit recognition that too low, rather than too high, inflation is the problem.
By emphasizing the importance of a strong labor market and underlining the Fed’s modesty in understanding how long, and how far, unemployment can fall, Mr. Powell and his colleagues used their updated framework to lay the groundwork for longer periods of low interest rates, which could translate into both long periods of cheap mortgages and business loans and stronger future job markets.
Mr. Powell, in explaining the changes, said that “with interest rates generally running closer to their effective lower bound even in good times, the Fed has less scope to support the economy during an economic downturn by simply cutting the federal funds rate.”
The result, he said, “can be worse economic outcomes in terms of both employment and price stability, with the costs of such outcomes likely falling hardest on those least able to bear them.”
Mr. Powell acknowledged that it might seem “counterintuitive that the Fed would want to push up inflation” which, in turn, raises prices. But he said the trade-off was a less robust economy that did not deliver gains evenly.
“We are certainly mindful that higher prices for essential items, such as food, gasoline, and shelter, add to the burdens faced by many families, especially those struggling with lost jobs and incomes,” he said. “However, inflation that is persistently too low can pose serious risks to the economy.”
The Japanese-owned bulk carrier that ran aground off Mauritius and spilled oil over pristine waters and fragile coral reefs diverted from a regular shipping lane more than 100 kilometres from impact, data from a maritime analysis firm showed.https://t.co/CyNDFdf2ml
The Japanese-owned bulk carrier that ran aground off Mauritius and spilled oil over pristine waters and fragile coral reefs diverted from a regular shipping lane more than 100 kilometres from impact, data from a maritime analysis firm showed.
Having apparently approached a containing of the coronavirus, the Israeli government incautiously opened schools and businesses, and the result is a persistent community infection level contributing to what are now 110,403 cases in the small country as compared to 85,004 through all of mainland China.
-Jan: Let's think about a test -Feb: Let's make a test that works -Mar: We're making more tests! -Apr: Anyone who wants a test can get one (not really) -May-Jul: Our tests are the best! (not really) -Aug: We need less testing
-Jan: Let’s think about a test
-Feb: Let’s make a test that works
-Mar: We’re making more tests!
-Apr: Anyone who wants a test can get one (not really)
-May-Jul: Our tests are the best! (not really)
-Aug: We need less testing
What must be made clear, is that the American coronavirus containment and treatment failures reflect severe weaknesses in the healthcare system; weakness beyond inept White House leadership. Can we diagnose and begin to resolve the institutional weaknesses?
What I am finding just now is another wave of coronavirus infections spreading through Western Europe, including the UK and Ireland. Also, there is a serious spread of coronavirus infections in the southern hemisphere where these are the winter months.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/24/opinion/trump-qanon-convention.html
August 24, 2020
QAnon Is Trump’s Last, Best Chance
The only thing he can hope for is fear itself.
By Paul Krugman
Last week’s Democratic National Convention was mainly about decency — about portraying Joe Biden and his party as good people who will do their best to heal a nation afflicted by a pandemic and a depression. There were plenty of dire warnings about the threat of Trumpism; there was frank acknowledgment of the toll taken by disease and unemployment; but on the whole the message was surprisingly upbeat.
This week’s Republican National Convention, by contrast, however positive its official theme, is going to be QAnon all the way.
I don’t mean that there will be featured speeches claiming that Donald Trump is protecting us from an imaginary cabal of liberal pedophiles, although anything is possible. But it’s safe to predict that the next few days will be filled with QAnon-type warnings about terrible events that aren’t actually happening and evil conspiracies that don’t actually exist.
That has, after all, been Trump’s style since the very first day of his presidency.
New presidents traditionally use their inaugural addresses to deliver a message of hope and unity, even in dark times: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
Trump, however, offered a vision of “American carnage,” in particular of inner cities devastated by violent crime. His rhetoric was ugly and had clear racial overtones, but it also had another problem: it bore no relationship to reality. Trump took office in a nation whose violent crime rate had been falling for decades; our big cities were as safe as they had ever been.
The same pattern of attempts to panic Americans over nonexistent threats recurs throughout this administration. If you get your information from administration officials or Fox News, you probably believe that millions of undocumented immigrants cast fraudulent votes, even though actual voter fraud hardly ever happens; that Black Lives Matter protests, which with some exceptions have been remarkably nonviolent, have turned major cities into smoking ruins; and more.
Why this fixation on phantom menaces? There has always been a paranoid style in American politics that sees sinister conspiracies behind social and cultural change — a style going all the way back to fear of Catholic immigrants in the 19th century. Those of us who remember the 1990s know that QAnon-type conspiracy theories have been out there for decades; they’ve just become more visible thanks to social media and a president who attributes all his failures to the machinations of the “deep state.”
Beyond that, however, a lot of the focus on imaginary threats represents a defensive response from people who repeatedly demonstrated, even before the coronavirus hit, that they have no idea how to do policy, that is, to cope with real threats.
After all, America on the day Trump took office was no utopia. The overall economy was doing well, with steady job growth and falling unemployment — trends that continued, with no visible break, for the next three years. But parts of the country suffered from persistent economic weakness and low employment. Homicides were low, but “deaths of despair” from drugs, suicide and alcohol were rising sharply.
So a president who really cared about American carnage would have had plenty to work on.
But Trump never even tried. His response, such as it was, to regional decline was a trade war that, on net, reduced manufacturing employment. The rest of his economic policy was standard Republican fare, focused on corporate tax cuts that didn’t even boost business investment. His only visible response to the opioid crisis was a push to take away health insurance from millions.
Then came Covid-19 — which, by the way, has already killed far more Americans than were murdered in the decade that preceded Trump’s inauguration. And the administration’s response, aside from the occasional promotion of quack remedies, has consisted of little but denial and insistence that the whole thing will miraculously go away.
Trump, in other words, can’t devise policies that respond to the nation’s actual needs, nor is he willing to listen to those who can. He won’t even try. And at some level both he and those around him seem aware of his basic inadequacy for the job of being president.
What he and they can do, however, is conjure up imaginary threats that play into his supporters’ prejudices, coupled with conspiracy theories that resonate with their fear and envy of know-it-all “elites.” QAnon is only the most ludicrous example of this genre, all of which portrays Trump as the hero defending us from invisible evil.
If all of this sounds crazy, that’s because it is. And it’s almost certainly not a political tactic that can win over a majority of American voters. It might, however, scare enough people that, combined with vote suppression and the unrepresentative nature of the Electoral College, Trump can manage, barely, to hang on to power.
I don’t think this desperate strategy is going to work. But it’s all Trump has left. The only thing he can hope for is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror based on nothing real at all.
August 25, 2020
Coronavirus
US
Cases ( 5,920,913)
Deaths ( 181,408)
Paul Krugman @paulkrugman
Heartfelt column from Michelle Goldberg about the personal toll on parents, even those with good, high-status jobs, of the emerging school catastrophe. It seems almost churlish to talk about the economic implications, but they’re also there 1/
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/24/opinion/new-york-public-school-reopening.html
New York’s School Chaos Is Breaking Me
So this is how it feels to be abandoned by your government.
10:57 AM · Aug 25, 2020
The key point is that America has come a long way from the Suburban Lifestyle Dream in which Daddy went to work while Mommy stayed home (which was never as true as advertised, but nothing like that now) 2/
If I’m reading the numbers correctly, out of 157 m Americans working last year, around 37 million were in families for which child care is a critical issue: 29 million workers from two-earner households with children, 8 million working single parents 3/
https://bls.gov/news.release/pdf/famee.pdf…
Not reopening in-person schooling makes life difficult if not impossible for many of these workers. Yet school reopening is very quickly turning into a complete disaster — maybe worse and faster than the abortive economic reopening of the spring 4/
If you’re worried about things that might keep people from going back to work, ignore the unemployment benefits thing and look at the fact that millions of Americans won’t have anyone to take care of their children. The human and economic costs will be huge 5/
Yet ignoring the virus and just reopening classes as usual would kill thousands. We’re entering a whole new phase of this crisis 6/
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-08-25/Chinese-mainland-reports-14-new-COVID-19-cases-all-from-overseas-TeAW0OBu4o/index.html
August 25, 2020
Chinese mainland reports 14 new COVID-19 cases, no new deaths
The Chinese mainland registered 14 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, all from overseas, the Chinese health authority said on Tuesday. This is the ninth consecutive day without domestic transmissions.
No deaths linked to the coronavirus disease were recorded on Monday, while 36 patients were discharged from hospitals.
The total number of confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland stands at 84,981 and the cumulative death toll at 4,634, with 374 asymptomatic patients under medical observation.
Chinese mainland new locally transmitted cases
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-08-25/Chinese-mainland-reports-14-new-COVID-19-cases-all-from-overseas-TeAW0OBu4o/img/cde61e79a2214592b755393f38f2a362/cde61e79a2214592b755393f38f2a362.jpeg
Chinese mainland new imported cases
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-08-25/Chinese-mainland-reports-14-new-COVID-19-cases-all-from-overseas-TeAW0OBu4o/img/46f7c05d7fd0402689433dbfd7d53651/46f7c05d7fd0402689433dbfd7d53651.jpeg
Chinese mainland new asymptomatic cases
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-08-25/Chinese-mainland-reports-14-new-COVID-19-cases-all-from-overseas-TeAW0OBu4o/img/668219b83443482495a1d5689aaf2818/668219b83443482495a1d5689aaf2818.jpeg
August 25, 2020
Coronavirus
Israel
Cases ( 106,245)
Deaths ( 858)
Deaths per million ( 93)
———————————–
July 4, 2020
Coronavirus
Israel
Cases ( 29,170)
Deaths ( 330)
Deaths per million ( 36)
Having apparently almost contained the coronavirus, the Israeli government incautiously opened schools and businesses, and the result is a persistent community infection level that has now reached 106,245 cases in the small country as compared to 84,981 through all of mainland China.
In summer and fall of 2016 the FBI knew that Carter Page was not a foreign agent. Their own experience with him, the CIA’s experience with him, their confidential human sources were all telling them this and was all documented in information in the hands of the Crossfire Hurricane (and other Crossfire) investigators. Page specifically contacted Director Comey asking for an interview to dispel rumors. This was ignored so that a FISA warrant could be obtained. The Horowitz report and subsequent information informs us of the various “errors” that went into the successful application and renewals. These “errors” were designed to obtain an approval that otherwise was oincredibly unlikely. But beyond knowing what happened, the country deserves to know why it happened. My hypothesis is that Crossfire team wanted access to the communications of individuals that they felt (or even knew) would fall within the guidelines for using the warrant, which includes some access to a second level away from the specific target. Page made a call to A and later A spoke with B. They may have even already been in possession of information that would need a pedigree if they ever needed to formally use it. Whatever it was it must have seemed very powerful reason to have an FBI attorney knowingly include a version that he personally falsified into a renewal and that purpose absolutely was not to stop Carter Page from betraying the US. What was it?
August 25, 2020
Coronavirus
US
Cases ( 5,926,033)
Deaths ( 181,559)
August 25, 2020
Coronavirus
US
Cases ( 5,935,231)
Deaths ( 181,822)
Eric,
This is not Breitbart. Stop trying to make it Breitbart.
August 25, 2020
Coronavirus
US
Cases ( 5,940,765)
Deaths ( 181,958)
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/25/health/coronavirus-flu-testing.html
August 25, 2020
Flu Season Could Make Coronavirus Testing Delays Even Worse
The nation’s testing efforts will be further overwhelmed once influenza, R.S.V. * and other seasonal viruses arrive.
By Katherine J. Wu
* Human orthopneumovirus
August 25 2020
Coronavirus
Dominican Republic
Cases ( 92,217)
Deaths ( 1,585)
Deaths per million ( 146)
Cuba
Cases ( 3,744)
Deaths ( 91)
Deaths per million ( 8)
The Dominican Republic has been the fastest growing country in GDP per capita in the Western Hemisphere since 1971. Cuba has been continually sanctioned economically by the US through these years, however Cuba has a far superior healthcare system as reflected now in the coronavirus experience of the countries and for years past in a range of critical healthcare experiences from infant mortality to life expectancy.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/25/world/covid-19-coronavirus.html
August 25, 2020
C.D.C. Changes Testing Guidance to Exclude People Without Symptoms, Worrying Experts
[ As I have repeatedly pointed out, China tests expressly for asymptomatic cases of the coronavirus and records such cases daily. Asymptomatic patients have been shown to be potentially infectious and are therefore quarantined while close contacts are traced and tested in turn. Also, asymptomatic patients will in the course of quarantine develop symptoms. ]
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/25/world/covid-19-coronavirus.html
August 25, 2020
A February conference in Boston led to the infection of tens of thousands around the world, a study shows.
[ This was the Biogen conference, which I reported on, and which should never have been held given what was known about the spread of the coronavirus by that time. ]
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/12/us/coronavirus-biogen-boston-superspreader.html
April 12, 2020
How a Premier U.S. Drug Company Became a Virus ‘Super Spreader’
Biogen employees unwittingly spread the coronavirus from Massachusetts to Indiana, Tennessee and North Carolina.
By Farah Stockman and Kim Barker
Clarifying:
Also, asymptomatic patients will at times in the course of quarantine develop symptoms. All asymptomatic patients in China are quarantined, close contacts traced and tested.
One Meeting in Boston Seeded Tens of Thousands of Infections, Study Finds
NY Times – August 26
On Feb. 26, 175 executives at the biotech company Biogen gathered at a Boston hotel for the first night of a conference. At the time, the coronavirus seemed a faraway problem, limited mostly to China.
But the virus was right there at the conference, spreading from person to person. A new study suggests that the meeting turned into a superspreading event, seeding infections that would affect tens of thousands of people across the United States and in countries as far as Singapore and Australia.
The study, which the authors posted online on Tuesday and has not yet been published in a scientific journal, gives an unprecedented look at how far the coronavirus can spread given the right opportunities.
“It’s a really valuable study,” said Dr. Joshua Schiffer, a physician and mathematical modeling expert who studies infectious diseases at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle and was not involved in the research. …
—-
Biogen conference likely led to 20,000 COVID-19 cases in Boston area, researchers say
via @BostonGlobe – August 25
A new study estimates the Biogen conference held at Boston’s Marriott Long Wharf hotel in February played a far greater role in spreading the coronavirus than previously thought.
An international meeting of Biogen leaders at a Boston hotel in February led to roughly 20,000 cases of COVID-19 in four Massachusetts counties by early May, far more than the 99 previously identified, according to three scientists involved in a new study.
After examining nearly all the confirmed early cases of the illness in the area by changes in the genetic makeup of coronaviruses as they pass from one person to another, the researchers were able to assess the broader impact of the “super-spreading event” at the Marriott Long Wharf hotel.
What makes the estimate all the more startling is that this version of the virus was one of more than 80 that invaded the state between late January and early May, the researchers found. But it sparked a viral forest fire.
The 64-page study has yet to be peer reviewed for publication, and the researchers stressed that their estimate ― which doesn’t appear in the paper but they shared in interviews ― is an extrapolation based on viruses isolated from 772 local patients. But they believe their calculations are sound.
“I’m confident that the scale for measuring this event is in the tens of thousands,” said Dr. Jacob Lemieux, an infectious disease physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and one of three scientists at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard who spoke about the study they wrote with 50 other researchers. …
August 25, 2020
Coronavirus
US
Cases ( 5,955,728)
Deaths ( 182,404)
India
Cases ( 3,231,522)
Deaths ( 59,608)
Mexico
Cases ( 563,705)
Deaths ( 60,800)
UK
Cases ( 327,798)
Deaths ( 41,449)
France
Cases ( 248,158)
Deaths ( 30,544)
Germany
Cases ( 237,572)
Deaths ( 9,345)
Canada
Cases ( 125,969)
Deaths ( 9,090)
China
Cases ( 84,981)
Deaths ( 4,634)
August 25, 2020
Coronavirus (Deaths per million)
UK ( 610)
US ( 551)
Mexico ( 471)
France ( 468)
Canada ( 241)
Germany ( 111)
India ( 43)
China ( 3)
Notice the ratios of deaths to coronavirus cases are 12.6%, 12.3% and 10.8% for the United Kingdom, France and Mexico respectively.
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-08-26/Chinese-mainland-reports-15-new-COVID-19-cases-all-from-overseas-TggopL9o5y/index.html
August 26, 2020
Chinese mainland reports 15 new COVID-19 cases, no new deaths
The Chinese mainland registered 15 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, all from overseas, Chinese health authorities said on Wednesday. This is the 10th consecutive day that the mainland has reported no domestic transmissions.
No deaths linked to the coronavirus disease were recorded on Tuesday, while 54 patients were discharged from hospitals.
The total number of confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland stands at 84,996 and the cumulative death toll at 4,634, with 365 asymptomatic patients under medical observation.
Chinese mainland new locally transmitted cases
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-08-26/Chinese-mainland-reports-15-new-COVID-19-cases-all-from-overseas-TggopL9o5y/img/4f1914ea786b4c57bf5f95dfd020c3a8/4f1914ea786b4c57bf5f95dfd020c3a8.jpeg
Chinese mainland new imported cases
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-08-26/Chinese-mainland-reports-15-new-COVID-19-cases-all-from-overseas-TggopL9o5y/img/256234999a1c42f888b7e1db544a884a/256234999a1c42f888b7e1db544a884a.jpeg
Chinese mainland new asymptomatic cases
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-08-26/Chinese-mainland-reports-15-new-COVID-19-cases-all-from-overseas-TggopL9o5y/img/fc9b33c154e94f9ea30202ed68c89bf9/fc9b33c154e94f9ea30202ed68c89bf9.jpeg
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/25/health/covid-19-testing-cdc.html
August 26, 2020
C.D.C. Now Says People Without Covid-19 Symptoms Do Not Need Testing
The revision prompted confusion and alarm from experts, who called the move “potentially dangerous.”
By Katherine J. Wu
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quietly modified its coronavirus testing guidelines this week to exclude people who do not have symptoms of Covid-19 — even if they have been recently exposed to the virus.
Experts questioned the revision, pointing to the importance of identifying infections in the small window immediately before the onset of symptoms, when many individuals appear to be most contagious.
Models suggest that about half of transmission events can be traced back to individuals still in this so-called pre-symptomatic stage, before they start to feel ill — if they ever feel sick at all.
“This is potentially dangerous,” said Dr. Krutika Kuppalli, an infectious disease physician in Palo Alto, Calif. Restricting testing to only people with obvious symptoms of Covid-19 means “you’re not looking for a lot of people who are potential spreaders of disease,” she added. “I feel like this is going to make things worse.”
At a moment when experts have almost universally come forward to encourage more frequent and widespread testing, especially to reach vulnerable and marginalized sectors of the population, the C.D.C.’s update appears counterintuitive and “very strange,” said Susan Butler-Wu, a clinical microbiologist at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California….
August 26, 2020
Coronavirus
US
Cases ( 5,962,209)
Deaths ( 182,637)
August 26, 2020
Coronavirus
US
Cases ( 5,970,799)
Deaths ( 182,923)
August 26, 2020
Coronavirus
Israel
Cases ( 108,054)
Deaths ( 875)
Deaths per million ( 95)
———————————–
July 4, 2020
Coronavirus
Israel
Cases ( 29,170)
Deaths ( 330)
Deaths per million ( 36)
Having apparently approached a containing of the coronavirus, the Israeli government incautiously opened schools and businesses, and the result is a persistent community infection level that has now reached 108,054 cases in the small country as compared to 84,996 through all of mainland China.
August 26, 2020
Coronavirus
US
Cases ( 5,980,287)
Deaths ( 183,145)
August 26, 2020
Coronavirus
US
Cases ( 5,985,542)
Deaths ( 183,267)
August 26, 2020
Coronavirus
US
Cases ( 5,995,114)
Deaths ( 183,506)
August 26, 2020
Coronavirus
US
Cases ( 6,000,365)
Deaths ( 183,653)
India
Cases ( 3,307,749)
Deaths ( 60,629)
Mexico
Cases ( 568,621)
Deaths ( 61,450)
UK
Cases ( 328,846)
Deaths ( 41,465)
France
Cases ( 253,587)
Deaths ( 30,544)
Germany
Cases ( 239,000)
Deaths ( 9,352)
Canada
Cases ( 126,417)
Deaths ( 9,094)
China
Cases ( 84,996)
Deaths ( 4,634)
August 26, 2020
Coronavirus (Deaths per million)
UK ( 610)
US ( 554)
Mexico ( 476)
France ( 468)
Canada ( 241)
Germany ( 112)
India ( 44)
China ( 3)
Notice the ratios of deaths to coronavirus cases are 12.6%, 12.0% and 10.8% for the United Kingdom, France and Mexico respectively.
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-08-27/Chinese-mainland-reports-eight-new-COVID-19-cases-all-from-overseas-ThXZfsEYgg/index.html
August 27, 2020
Chinese mainland reports 8 new COVID-19 cases, no new deaths
The Chinese mainland registered 8 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, all from overseas, Chinese health authorities said on Thursday. This is the 11th consecutive day that the mainland has reported no domestic transmissions.
No deaths linked to the coronavirus disease were recorded on Wednesday, while 31 patients were discharged from hospitals.
The total number of confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland stands at 85,004 and the cumulative death toll at 4,634, with 365 asymptomatic patients under medical observation.
Chinese mainland new locally transmitted cases
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-08-27/Chinese-mainland-reports-eight-new-COVID-19-cases-all-from-overseas-ThXZfsEYgg/img/8137e4f6e19d436d99de11467cd45e12/8137e4f6e19d436d99de11467cd45e12.jpeg
Chinese mainland new imported cases
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-08-27/Chinese-mainland-reports-eight-new-COVID-19-cases-all-from-overseas-ThXZfsEYgg/img/29fbd9fea6c842edb0cda000248dd1be/29fbd9fea6c842edb0cda000248dd1be.jpeg
Chinese mainland new asymptomatic cases
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-08-27/Chinese-mainland-reports-eight-new-COVID-19-cases-all-from-overseas-ThXZfsEYgg/img/2c1aaac1d6af4e90a6d975fef5010f79/2c1aaac1d6af4e90a6d975fef5010f79.jpeg
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/08/27/business/stock-market-today-coronavirus
August 27, 2020
Fed pledges to focus on low unemployment and tolerate higher inflation.
The Federal Reserve, in a significant shift that could keep interest rates low for longer periods, said it would focus on keeping unemployment low and allow inflation to run slightly higher in good times.
The Fed chair, Jerome H. Powell. announced the change in a speech on Thursday at the Kansas City Fed’s annual Jackson Hole symposium that was accompanied by an updated long-run statement describing the Fed’s policy strategy. He said the shifts would allow the gains of a strong economy to benefit a wide range of workers.
“Our revised statement emphasizes that maximum employment is a broad-based and inclusive goal,” Mr. Powell said in remarks prepared for delivery Thursday, and “this change reflects our appreciation for the benefits of a strong labor market, particularly for many in low- and moderate-income communities.”
The Fed had been raising rates as joblessness fell to avoid economic overheating that ended in breakaway inflation, but in recent years, price gains have been tepid. The changes are an explicit recognition that too low, rather than too high, inflation is the problem.
By emphasizing the importance of a strong labor market and underlining the Fed’s modesty in understanding how long, and how far, unemployment can fall, Mr. Powell and his colleagues used their updated framework to lay the groundwork for longer periods of low interest rates, which could translate into both long periods of cheap mortgages and business loans and stronger future job markets.
Mr. Powell, in explaining the changes, said that “with interest rates generally running closer to their effective lower bound even in good times, the Fed has less scope to support the economy during an economic downturn by simply cutting the federal funds rate.”
The result, he said, “can be worse economic outcomes in terms of both employment and price stability, with the costs of such outcomes likely falling hardest on those least able to bear them.”
Mr. Powell acknowledged that it might seem “counterintuitive that the Fed would want to push up inflation” which, in turn, raises prices. But he said the trade-off was a less robust economy that did not deliver gains evenly.
“We are certainly mindful that higher prices for essential items, such as food, gasoline, and shelter, add to the burdens faced by many families, especially those struggling with lost jobs and incomes,” he said. “However, inflation that is persistently too low can pose serious risks to the economy.”
— Jeanna Smialek
August 27, 2020
Coronavirus
US
Cases ( 6,007,864)
Deaths ( 183,847)
August 27, 2020
Coronavirus
US
Cases ( 6,011,824)
Deaths ( 183,917)
August 27, 2020
Coronavirus
US
Cases ( 6,020,896)
Deaths ( 184,127)
August 27, 2020
Coronavirus
US
Cases ( 6,030,298)
Deaths ( 184,315)
The reasonable answer would be “smuggling”:
CGTN @CGTNOfficial
The Japanese-owned bulk carrier that ran aground off Mauritius and spilled oil over pristine waters and fragile coral reefs diverted from a regular shipping lane more than 100 kilometres from impact, data from a maritime analysis firm showed.
https://newsaf.cgtn.com/news/2020-08-28/Oil-spill-The-Japanese-ship-diverted-from-a-regular-shipping-lane–TjdKSTeINO/index.html
Oil spill: The Japanese ship diverted from a regular shipping lane
2:57 PM · Aug 27, 2020
August 27, 2020
Coronavirus
US
Cases ( 6,035,743)
Deaths ( 184,429)
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
August 27, 2020
Coronavirus
Israel
Cases ( 110,403)
Deaths ( 884)
Deaths per million ( 96)
———————————–
July 4, 2020
Coronavirus
Israel
Cases ( 29,170)
Deaths ( 330)
Deaths per million ( 36)
Having apparently approached a containing of the coronavirus, the Israeli government incautiously opened schools and businesses, and the result is a persistent community infection level contributing to what are now 110,403 cases in the small country as compared to 85,004 through all of mainland China.
Dr. Angela Rasmussen @angie_rasmussen
A brief history of the CDC’s position on testing:
-Jan: Let’s think about a test
-Feb: Let’s make a test that works
-Mar: We’re making more tests!
-Apr: Anyone who wants a test can get one (not really)
-May-Jul: Our tests are the best! (not really)
-Aug: We need less testing
1:06 PM · Aug 27, 2020
anne:
Nice laugh here.
What must be made clear, is that the American coronavirus containment and treatment failures reflect severe weaknesses in the healthcare system; weakness beyond inept White House leadership. Can we diagnose and begin to resolve the institutional weaknesses?
What I am finding just now is another wave of coronavirus infections spreading through Western Europe, including the UK and Ireland. Also, there is a serious spread of coronavirus infections in the southern hemisphere where these are the winter months.