Seen on the street in Kyiv.

Words of Advice:

"If Something Seems To Be Too Good To Be True, It's Best To Shoot It, Just In Case." -- Fiona Glenanne

“The Mob takes the Fifth. If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?” -- The TOFF *

"Foreign Relations Boil Down to Two Things: Talking With People or Killing Them." -- Unknown

“Speed is a poor substitute for accuracy.” -- Real, no-shit, fortune from a fortune cookie

"If you believe that you are talking to G-d, you can justify anything.” — my Dad

"Colt .45s; putting bad guys in the ground since 1873." -- Unknown

"Stay Strapped or Get Clapped." -- probably not Mr. Rogers

"The Dildo of Karma rarely comes lubed." -- Unknown

"Eck!" -- George the Cat

* "TOFF" = Treasonous Orange Fat Fuck, A/K/A Dolt-45,
A/K/A Commandante (or Cadet) Bone Spurs,
A/K/A El Caudillo de Mar-a-Lago, A/K/A the Asset., A/K/A P01135809

Sunday, May 10, 2020

Except by the Wingnuts, That Is.

Today, there is widespread recognition the novel coronavirus is far more unpredictable than a simple respiratory virus, one with the potential to attack from the brain to the toes. Many doctors are focused on treating the inflammatory reactions it triggers and its capacity to cause blood clots as they struggle to help their patients breathe.
The "it's just a bad flu" crowd are made up of those who have drunk so much right-wing Kool-aid that that poisonous juice has replaced blood in their veins. No wonder that they can drink bleach and survive.

But it's not "just the flu":
More than four months of clinical experience across Asia, Europe and North America has shown the pathogen does much more than invade the lungs. “No one was expecting a disease that would not fit the pattern of pneumonia and respiratory illness,” said David Reich, a cardiac anesthesiologist and president of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.

It attacks the heart, weakening its muscles and disrupting its critical rhythm. It savages kidneys so badly some hospitals have run short of dialysis equipment. It crawls along the nervous system, destroying taste and smell and occasionally reaching the brain. It creates blood clots that can kill with sudden efficiency and inflames blood vessels throughout the body.
Yep, not the flu.

But you'll not convince the "ah, let them fucking die" caucus. Which, until now, has included Donald Trump. But that may change.
Vice President Mike Pence is self-isolating after an aide tested positive for the coronavirus last week, joining three of the nation’s top scientists in taking protective steps after possible exposure, in another stark reminder that not even one of the nation’s most secure buildings is immune from the virus.

13 comments:

Jones, Jon Jones said...

What goes around comes around

Eck! said...

for mr invincable, meet Vince the virus.

Eck!

Stewart Dean said...

Pence is self-isolating. Now if the president* would self isolate without the TwitterPhone**, we might really gain some ground against the virus.

*: As in "sports and games. In colloquial usage, an asterisk is used to indicate that a record is somehow tainted by circumstances, which are putatively explained in a footnote referenced by the asterisk." First used by Charlie Pierce.
**: Batman had a Batphone. Batshit Donnie has a Twitterphone. The Twitterphone gives the president* awful superpowers to delude America, distort reality, defame and bully others and to fill the brains(?) of his followers with confusion, fury and outrage.

Glen Filthie said...

- 99.5% of the people that contract it survive.
- 65% of the people that contract it will not show symptoms at all.
- The vast majority of fatalities are the elderly or people with other pre-existing health issues.
- If this actually WAS a pandemic, it would spread in Walmart, Costco, and the other big box stores that still operate... just as it supposedly does in salons, gyms, and playgrounds. Anyone that disagrees or thinks that these half assed lockdowns work does not understand how virulent diseases operate and how they propagate.

Sorry, it's just the flu.

There's a meme going round to the effect that "if YOU want to live in fear and terror of this fake bogeyman, YOU lock YOURSELF down and ride it out, you whiny little bitch..."

Says it all, far as I'm concerned.

Eck! said...

GF,

Prove it. I suggest you get it an inform us on how you make out.

If not the flu its at a minium a non-influenza virus. So that
comment makes you an agiprop.

Its not 99.5 and you cannot prove that lie. Since the current
known rates are well over 1% (more like 2) its just another
Drumpf lie.

Well if you have pre-exiting conditions and happen to be old
that really sucks. Death rate for those is well over 5% and those
that need a machine near 40% or more.

The very definition of pandemic is not how severe but how
infectious and its in some 150 or more countries. So its a
pandemic.

Generally your unable to prove anything you have ever said
and most of what you say makes you a troll on a good day and
agitator on the average. Most of the time your crap is
sub-average as in lacking creativity.

In the general realm of things your a meaningless idiot
trying to be a deliberate provocateur.

Eck!

I'll take that yellow card now.

CenterPuke88 said...

And so, once again, Glen slithers out from under a rock and wags his lying tongue.

Statement #1, 99.5% percent survival rate. Unprovable without massive testing and incompatible with statement #2. Impossible in some locations due to existing deaths versus population unless more than 100% of an area was infected. Even if that number is achievable, in the long term, it can only exist with extreme medical intervention.

Statement #2, 65% asymptomatic. Incompatible with statement #2 and completely unfounded without complete population testing. Also, studies of captive populations exposed (cruise ships) provide estimates that 20% of infected remain asymptomatic throughout the primary course of the infection. However, secondary effects, which are more heavily targeting children, appear up to six weeks after the initial infection abates.

Statement #3, those impacted, is false. Primary ore-existing condition is called life. An increasing percentage of those dying or under extreme treatment lack other risks, and the results of the disease course will have lifelong impacts, including reduced lifespan.

Statement #4, it isn’t really a pandemic, misunderstands the meaning of what a pandemic is, and is false. Simply put, a pandemic is be a disease prevalent around the world, check. Look at the transmission method, and you’ll understand why even limited social distancing at the big box stores reduces spread. Also, consider the grocery store employees becoming infected at a hugely increased rate, and you’ll understand why this lockdown is highly necessary.


Glen likes to live by meme, and lives in a country significantly less impacted by COVID-19. In fact, Canada’s trend of cases is downward over the last week plus, in stark contrast to the U.S. rate still climbing with N.Y.C. Removed from the numbers. Glen worships Donnie because he’s a race-baiting, homophobic, aging wannabe, much like Donnie. Yellow or red for me too.

Eck! said...

CP,

Its not meme, its being a proxy. The former is to obscure
the latter.

Every time I try to back track to where stuff like that comes
from its seems to disappear into the same rabbit holes mostly
FB or the usual suspects.

When one hears hoofbeats, we expect horses.

Eck!

CenterPuke88 said...

Eck!, I suspect Glen gets his news via Facebook meme, as CBC has a relatively good reputation for broadcasting accuracy. That and watching imported Faux News will do things to you, unimaginable things...

As for expectations versus reality, we are living in a world where belief in science has become optional due to our success in taming much (not all, as we’re finding out) of the natural world. With the age of fast and effective antibiotics possibly coming to a close, people will start getting religion with regards to science pretty quickly.

Eck! said...

I do watch CBC and they are pretty decent.

FB is nothing but handlers for proxies and noise.
If I want the standard noise level talking points
I don't need a proxy to deliver it. I can go see
for myself and often its quite funny.

Yes, resistant bugs are an issue and we often forget how
long it to to beat the old bugs down.

Eck!

Comrade Misfit said...

Glen, I will listen to the doctors who are treating Covid patients, who are reporting that the way that the virus attacks the lungs is not flu-like. The way it attacks the heart is not flu-like. The way that it attacks kidneys is not flu-like.

And on and on.

I do feel sorry for you. You're being lied to. Maybe you should look into why. What do your handlers have to gain from a significant death toll?

Marc said...

One note I find interesting, is that the link with ACE-2.
One theory as to why Covid-19 is more deadly to men than women is that ovaries do not produce ACE-2, while testes do.
With all the things being learned about how Covid-19 acts on the body, this should freak out those manly men who won't wear a mask.

Ten Bears said...

Uhhmmm, no, Bozo that's not the way it works...

Most people get infected in their own home. A household member contracts the virus in the community and brings it into the house where sustained contact between household members leads to infection. All these infection events were indoors, with people closely-spaced, with lots of talking, singing, or yelling. The main sources for infection are home, workplace, public transport, social gatherings, and restaurants. This accounts for 90% of all transmission events. In contrast, outbreaks spread from shopping appear to be responsible for a small percentage of traced infections.

Importantly, of the countries performing contact tracing properly, only a single outbreak has been reported from an outdoor environment (less than 0.3% of traced infections)…

When assessing the risk of infection (via respiration) at the grocery store or mall, you need to consider the volume of the air space (very large), the number of people (restricted), how long people are spending in the store (workers – all day; customers – an hour). Taken together, for a person shopping: the low density, high air volume of the store, along with the restricted time you spend in the store, means that the opportunity to receive an infectious dose is low. But, for the store worker, the extended time they spend in the store provides a greater opportunity to receive the infectious dose and therefore the job becomes more risky.

Three more posts and I'll have your nodal ip address 😉

CenterPuke88 said...

Marc, the good news is taking an ACE-2 inhibitor (for HBP, for instance) doesn’t increase risks of infection. On th other hand, that kind of a link is interesting as we’re finding those things we’re using to have medications grab in to are there for other reasons that might interfere with that plan.