The Right Side of the News

Yes, we know: make error, defend error endlessly, repeat.--Percy

Your biggest problem is not knowing what you do not know, causing you to continually step in it. You may now begin your endless insistence of how correct you are.--Percy

And testing shows the actual extent of the problem.Basics Faith, try to learn the minimal basics.

Trump Tweets Orders To GM To Make Ventilators At A Factory They Sold Last week

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After spending the evening telling Sean Hannity that those greedy governorsespecially pushy female governorsdidn’t really need the ventilators they were desperately requesting, Donald Trump appears to have realized that literally cutting off air to Americans is a bad look. So on Friday morning, Trump did an all too typical 180 and took to Twitter to do what he does best: Blame other people for his mistakes.

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On Thursday evening, The New York Times explained how Trump completely blew off an all-but-complete deal to have GM manufacture thousands of desperately needed ventilators while refusing to invoke the Defense Production Act. But on Friday, Trump demandeddemandedthat GM get right on with making ventilators, apparently for free. Only Trump addressed that demand to a Twitter account that wasn’t GM. And he ordered them to use a factory that they sold months ago.

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Edited by JonF, : No reason given.

Do you realize that your comment means we are in worse shape than if it is actually measuring an increase in infections?Enjoy

That would require a little intuitive feel for math. If you provide some hypothetical numbers for illustration it will only provide a focal point for confusion. Percentages, ratios, slopes, exponentials, it all may as well not exist. If required even addition will be denied. "24,000 more tested positive today? Those are just hypotheticals. No one really knows. It's just the evil left trying to stir up hysteria. They turn my stomach."--Percy

The opening of ABC's This Week had a good summary of Trump's ever changing pronouncements:

• Tuesday: The country will be reopened and raring to go by Easter.
• Wednesday: Reopening by Easter is just a recommendation.
• Thursday: Reopening the country will take place county by county according to infection count.
• Friday: Considering a quarantine for the tri-state metropolitan area affecting portions of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
• Saturday: No quarantine, just a travel advisory from the CDC.

These inconstant and constantly moving stances stem from Trump letting himself be driven by what his social media and poll numbers are telling him. Whatever the numbers were yesterday drives what he says today. There's no behind-the-scenes discussion and consensus to deliver a consistent message and strategy, just Trump acting as his own Chief of Staff, health adviser, economic adviser, etc. His cabinet and array of advisory committees are not there to render advice and expertise but merely to echo and support the president's ever changing positions and try to figure out what to do to implement the ever changing story of the day.--Percy

Chuck Todd's first guest on today's Meet the Press is Doctor Deborah Birx of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, a new addition to the task force just a week or so ago. Birx built a reputation for directness, forthrightness and honesty while working on HIV. Has she contracted the Trump virus and become overtaken by lies and misrepresentations? I don't know, I haven't watched yet, I'm going to hit "play" right now. I will type here what I see and hear.She was a little confusing at the very beginning. She made a strong and obviously accurate statement that all states and especially all metropolitan areas will be affected, but left Todd confused because she seemed to end in mid-point by referring to a website and then just stopping.But she just said that we have "full capacity for full diagnosis." That's just a flat out lie. We do not have enough tests to test everyone, or even a statistical sample of everyone.And tests are slow, taking anywhere from a few days to a week. We keep hearing in the news about very fast tests, but the only first person reports I've seen of people who have taken the test is that it is difficult to be considered serious enough to get the test, and that it takes more than a few days for the results to come back.She next describes the necessity for going out to low infection rate areas to conduct full diagnosis so that they have a handle on the problem. She is correct, this is very important.After describing the problem of the states bidding against other states and the federal government for ventilators and PPE, Todd asked a very specific question: "Is the federal government going to take over all procurement and disbursement of medical equipment or not?" Birx did not answer the question. By her non-answer the real answer is clear: The states are on their own and it's a free-for-all out there. The federal government will not be providing any central coordination.Todd gave her another chance, politely repeating the question: "You sort of overlooked the question about, is the federal government going to take over at least the procurement and the distribution of things going forward?"Again sidestepping the question, Birx said the federal government is looking at the problem, but that the states should be looking at where all equipment is (such as ventilators) so that they can get maximum use from them. The message to the states is obvious: What you got is likely all you're gonna get, the federal government is unlikely to help in the time available, you'll have to deal with it.The interview is probably going to continue for a few more minutes, but it is already clear: Birx has caught the Trump virus.Birx dares not come out and say the states are on their own because Trump would move her off the daily briefing podium and start badmouthing her. He'd start calling her the horrible woman who screwed up HIV programs around the world (her previous job).Thoreau said that the place for an honest man under an unjust government was in prison, and analogously the proper place for people like Dr. Birx, if they are truly honest, is outside of government. Dr. Fauci, when asked about being on the podium while Trump spreads medical misinformation, rhetorically responds, "What would you have me do?" The answer is, "Resign." That's what honest people do. Do not help this man spread his lies and misinformation. He has figured out that the pandemic is a wonderful presidential campaign opportunity for him, amplifying his megaphone and virtually silencing the Democratic candidates. By standing behind him on the podium you are lending him credibility he should not have because his information is false or misleading. Walk away. Better yet, run.Birx requested that when the virus arrives in their metropolitan area that people stay in place instead of going elsewhere because that just spreads the virus around the country.She describes her job as preparing data so that she can make the most informed recommendations possible to the president. She doesn't yet understand that he only cares about his social media and poll numbers.--Percy

Worker threw exception | www.rawstory.com | CloudflareEnjoy

No, not quite. Think about it.We count the number of cases by the symptoms they display and, where they are not presenting symptoms, by the results of testing. Certain, as testing becomes more widespread, the number of cases will increase. That only makes sense. HOWEVER, that is not what's happening -- or rather any increase due to asymptomatic cases being discovered through testing is so miniscule as to be nearly non-existent.First, we are still very far behind in testing. We started far too late, in large part because this administration rejected the already proven WHO test in favor of developing our own test from scratch (further delayed by problems with the first iteration of our own test). And once we did get our own test working, production of test kits is still lagging very far behind the demand and the need for those tests.Second, we are biasing the results of testing by preselecting whom to test. Because there are not enough test kits to go around, medical services have to choose which individuals get the test. Therefore, in order to get tested you must be displaying symptoms -- no symptoms, no test. And even then, it usually takes a full week to get your test results since the private testing labs are swamped.That all results in no testing of the broader population which is where we should be testing. And the test results that we do get only confirm cases that we have already counted through their symptoms. 
Therefore, what little increase of testing that we've been able to do has almost no impact on the number of cases tallied. 
I highly recommend watching Gov. Cuomo's daily briefings, because he goes through the numbers and the different curves and tries to explain them as well as he can.One point he made is that we are behind the curve with respect to the pandemic, trying to play catch-up. Where we need to be is in front of the curve ready to deal with whatever the virus throws at us.Edited by dwise1, : "services have to" -- inexcusable for an English speaker with German training

Coronavirus: FDA authorizes Abbott Labs' 5-minute COVID-19 test

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A five-minute, point-of-care coronavirus test could be coming to urgent care clinics next week, and experts say it could be "game-changing."

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued Emergency Use Authorization to Illinois-based medical device maker Abbott Labs on Friday for a coronavirus test that delivers positive results in as little as five minutes and negative results in 13 minutes, the company said.

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The company expects the tests to be available next week and expects to ramp up manufacturing to deliver 50,000 tests per day.

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National Geographic has a story on the impacts on timing and completeness of social distance on the Spanish Flu death rates. How some cities "flattened the curve"The little charts are tricky to read. You need to note where the brown box of social isolation starts relative to the steep climb in death rate. The bigger charts for Philadelphia and New York show the differences. Philadelphia started regulation when the death rate was already climbing and over 50 deaths per 100,000. New York started when the rate was just beginning to rise and barely registering per 100,000.For us today the question is when to end social distancing. End too early and you could get an even worse death rate from the restart of the epidemic.

Louisiana Governor: 'Never A Hint' From Feds That Mardi Gras Posed Virus Risk | Crooks and Liars

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[Governor] EDWARDS: Well, look, there was never any hint from anyone, to me or to the Mayor of New Orleans, that there should be any consideration to down-sizing or canceling Mardi Gras. I think, if you look back for about 15 cases in the country, all of which were tied directly to travel or indirectly to travel, and there was never any hint of this. And if you'll go back, you will see that the federal government was saying things were well under control.

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And so this is some Monday morning quarterbacking going on. And, quite frankly, I believe it's likely that -- that Mardi Gras contributed to the seeding of the virus in and around New Orleans, a million and a half people, just 13 days before the first confirmed case here on March the 9th. But -- but that's looking back. Right now, we need to spend our time, our energy; we need to be focused on doing what we can do right now in going forward. And I'm sure that -- that somebody's going to do a study about the -- the impact of Mardi Gras on this particular public health emergency later.

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Things were well under control. Unless, of course, you listened to the experts.

...for spreading misinformation. The latest video was apparently the last straw. Ars TechnicaEdited by Adminnemooseus, : Fix link - there was a space between '[url'= and 'https:'

.Pentagon says it still hasn't sent ventilators because it hasn't been told where to send them

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Despite having committed to transferring 2,000 ventilators in military stocks to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Health and Human Services to fight the coronavirus outbreak, the Pentagon has not shipped any of them because the agencies have not asked for them or provided a shipping location, the Pentagon's top logistics official said Tuesday.

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In order to ship the badly needed equipment, the Defense Department has to be given a location to send them by civilian authorities who have to decide where the items are most needed.

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"There was discussion with HHS on where to send them. And then they said hey wait, we're trying to take a look at the demand that's required, and so we were asked to just wait while there was just some sorting through on that. And I won't speak on behalf of them, but we were in a position to provide 2,000," said Lt. General Giovanni Tuck.

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The White House is obsessed with ratings, Kushner-Pence groups Infighting, and packed churches at Easter. Nobody's steering the ship. Edited by JonF, : No reason given.