CORONA Main Coronavirus thread

Sanitizing tunnels would be ok: but come fall, I'd rather they put signs on US 40 and US 36 at the Hendricks County line east and west. "Last stop before entering Hendricks County!!" That's mine with 927 cases. I've never heard anything about cases that came through the Indy airport; I bet there's been more than a couple.

4:02 p.m., May 8
State receives shipment of antiviral drug remdesivir
Indiana State Health Commissioner Kristina Box said during Friday’s press briefing that the state has received an initial shipment of the antiviral drug remdesivir. The Food and Drug Administration on May 1 issued an emergency use authorization for the drug to help patients who are hospitalized and seriously ill.

“We’re working with local officials to determine the appropriate patients to treat with this medication,” Box said. She did not specify how much the state had received.

The medicine has been used to treat other illnesses such as SARS and MERS. “Studies show that it can help shorten the illness or the length of severe cases for COVID-19,” Box said. The company that makes the antiviral drug, California-based Gilead Sciences, said it is donating its entire stockpile to help in the nationwide pandemic response.

But the initial supply will be limited, with just 1.5 million doses available, translating to five to 10 days of treatment for 140,000 patients.

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4:36 p.m., May 6
Hendricks County sees spike in cases due to outbreak in prison
Hendricks County reported 99 new COVID-19 cases from Tuesday to Wednesday, and state officials are attributing that jump to an outbreak in a prison in Plainfield.

Three state prison facilities are located in Hendricks County—Heritage Trail Correctional Facility, Plainfield Correctional Facility and Reception Diagnostic Center. According to the Indiana Department of Correction, Heritage Trail has seen 52 positive COVID-19 cases, Plainfield has seen 139 positive cases, and Reception Diagnostic has seen 107 positive cases. Those numbers include staff and offenders.

Indiana State Health Commissioner Dr. Kristina Box said during Wednesday’s press briefing that 68 of the 99 new cases in Hendricks County were from a prison, but she did not specify which facility. “So, it’s still concerning that the prison has that number of cases… . But the important thing is that it’s not something we think is a community-spread thing,” Box said.

Hendricks County had a total of 883 positive cases as of Wednesday, according to the state health department.

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(this this that nice motel at the Indy airport.)
4:29 p.m., May 6
COVID-19 recovery site for homeless serves more than 250 in Indy
A COVID-19 recovery site the state established for homeless individuals in Indianapolis has helped more than 252 people to date, Indiana Family and Social Services Administration Secretary Jennifer Sullivan said during Wednesday’s daily press briefing.

In March, the Lilly Endowment Inc. awarded $5 million to the state of Indiana to establish centers for homeless individuals who needed to be quarantined due to exposure to COVID-19 or because they tested positive for the disease. The Indianapolis site opened March 29.

Sullivan said 167 of the 252 individuals have been successfully discharged, 113 of them were referred to primary care appointments, 27 were connected to mental health services and five were able to find long-term housing.

The homelessness population is considered vulnerable to the coronavirus because individuals are often housed in close proximity to one another in shelters and are more likely to have existing health conditions.

Since establishing the Marion County site, the state opened more than a dozen other centers throughout the state. Sullivan said they targeted areas that had high percentages of homeless individuals.

She said they recently expanded the criteria for who can be served at some of the sites to include those experiencing domestic violence or living in group homes with substance use disorders or intellectual or developmental disabilities.

“We have effectively prevented an additional level of public health crisis by avoiding COVID outbreaks in homeless shelters in Indiana,” Sullivan said.

Doomer Doug said:

I told you all the moneyed interests here in CONUS will NEVER hold China accountable, and never withdraw more than token factories. WE ARE LED BY TRAITORS.

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video of DD "rant" - sorry it wouldn't embed. .02 min (posted with fondness and respect.)

Nich1 said:

From the article about vaccine production: (didn't want to quote the whole thing)

“We are highly aware that given almost everybody on the planet needs to be vaccinated, we’re going to need a lot of capacity. "

“Eight billion people are going to want this vaccine overnight when it becomes available.”

I'm still laughing! ...everyone NEEDS to be vaccinated? Yes, sadly, lots of sheep will "want" the vaccine that will be rushed to market, having been led to believe it will help them.

I'll take my chances without it.

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At least until the effects are known... The Swine Flu vaccine killed more people than the disease, IIRC...

Sleeping With The Devil: Congress has helped make America dangerously dependent on China
May 4, 2020 -

An America Perspective OPINION
THE PANDEMIC HAS A PANORAMIC VIEW
Beth Ann Schoenberg

As America obeys the pandemic orders to “stay home,” we watch as our country struggle to find equipment and medicine to treat our own sick and dying. The view should be a panoramic scene of what exactly has happened.

Relying on an enemy and trusting a known liar is never a wise thing to do. The medicines, supplies and equipment we need to take care of Americans are not here but over there, in the enemy’s camp!

America has been literally sleeping with the devil. Yes, China is the devil, but Congress made the bed for Americans to lie in when then they coerced and prostituted our businesses to the foreign communist country of China. We might wonder why; it’s always for money!

The American version of Marie Antionette was seen recently in the arrogance of Nancy Pelosi’s attitude of ‘Let them eat cake; I have two massive refrigerator freezers full of my favorite, very expensive chocolate ice cream!’ As Americans are told we can not congregate with our church communities or our families for Easter, Nantionette Pelosi is proud and giddy before the camera as she shows off her basket full of chocolates and goodies. This Easter many Americans were stuck in lines at food banks but Nantionette Pelosi had no changes in her routine of luxury.

Fear not America, Congress will save you! You need more money? No problem! We can print it easy-peezy! Not only will we make more paper IOUs (fiat dollars) available, we’ll pass a HUGE pork bill to tell you how much you can have and how much more our friends can have.

Earlier this week I shared a quote from 1957, “I believe that if the people of this nation fully understood what Congress has done to them over the past forty-nine years, they would move on Washington. It adds up to a preconceived plan to destroy the economic and social independence of the United States.” Senator George Malone of Nevada (Republican).

Congress hasn’t corrected their ways; they have continued their march toward a socialist America dependent on them.

Some might say today that can’t be true… Or explain that you just don’t understand that we can’t do without them; we need Congress to FIX things to take care of us…to legislate away injustices. Helloooooooo!

“The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedients and by part… the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” Edmund Burke

The good people of America have done nothing, so the greedy people of Congress have taken advantage and nibbled away your liberty and your independence; although their nibbles have been more like gargantuan bites!

I was happy to see rallies across the nation however. Until we literally take the bull by the Congress horn, and kick ‘em out and demand our Republic back, there will be little change. Politics as usual will continue to be the “old-norm” of America. But the new norm, will be more Americans out of work and dependent on foreign governments and domestic welfare programs survive.

Our economy isn’t on the brink of collapse, it’s teetering on the edge of a cliff, looking down a huge sink hole. The U.S. debt is unsustainable and yet Congress continues to spend!

“When you’re standing on the edge of a cliff, one step forward is not progress.”

America; Americans are on that edge! We need to turn around and walk the other way. Not away from responsibility but toward the very source of the problems; Congress!

The fiat dollar, like Congress, has no standards!
The US economy is bankrupt.
The jobs gone south, east any direction but here!
Illegal immigrants are invading our land.
The U.S. economy is in a depression.
The reliance on foreign countries for VITAL products.
Future generations are will be saddled with unsustainable debt.

Exorbitant taxes on the people robbing us of Life and Liberty, and making the Pursuit of Happiness, property and prosperity fade from the view of the average, middle class American

Who made the decisions that took us down this path of destruction?
CONGRESS; The enemy, whom we elected and continue to reelect.

Governor Cuomo spoke truth when he stated, “We’re not going to make America great again; it was never that great.” The intentions of the Democrats (and unfortunately the globalists sitting on the right) are not to improve this nation but to continue to use you and profit from their decisions and legislate against the American people. This is why they wish to hide and distort our nation’s history and convince you that you’re a victim.

Victims we are! Victims of the abuses of government perpetrated and led by our very own CONGRESS!

The pandemic has brought a panoramic view of just exactly how bad and recklessly Congress legislates. Their dastardly bills and acts and treaties have come home to roost.

Congress and other federal workers will not lose a paycheck. Their insurance and retirements are secure, yet the American people suffer because of the lack of accountability and the poor job performances of CONGRESS!

Oh yes, the pandemic panoramic picture isn’t pretty but it’s certainly telling!

California: Gavin Newsom Orders Vote-by-Mail for November Election

6,804 Augustin Paullier/AFP
JOSHUA CAPLAN8 May 20201,929

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Friday signed an executive order permitting all registered voters in the Golden State to vote by mail in the upcoming presidential election.

“I signed an executive order that will allow every registered voter in California to receive a mail-in ballot,” Newsom said. “That mail-in ballot is important but it’s not an exclusive substitute to physical locations.”

“People that are otherwise not familiar with mail-in ballots, are uncomfortable with them, may have disabilities, may have other issues that may preclude that as an appropriate option, we still want to have the appropriate number of physical sites for people to vote as well,” the governor added.

WATCH: Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order to allow all registered voters in California the ability to vote by mail for the November election.

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An "appropriate" number of physical locations to vote at will still be available. Coronavirus in California: Voters to Receive Mail-In Ballots for November’s Election pic.twitter.com/QGmFVd8kdD
— NBC 7 San Diego (@nbcsandiego) May 8, 2020

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Newsom said while offering voters the chance to vote by mail, he is committed to providing the ability to vote at a physical location on election day.

“There’s a lot of concern and excitement around this November’s election in terms of making sure that you can conduct yourself in a safe way and to make sure your health is protected and to make sure we are reaching out to all registered, eligible voters,” the governor stated. “And giving them the opportunity, giving them the choice not to feel like they have to go into a concentrated, dense environment where their health may be at risk but provide an additional asset and additional resources by way of voting by mail.”

Newsom’s order comes as Democrats across the country are pushing efforts to allow voters to vote-by-mail in the 2020 election, despite concerns of potential voter fraud. On Wednesday, Reps. Joe Kennedy III (D-MA) and Mark Pocan (D-WI) went as far as to call for vote-by-mail to be permitted beyond the election.
“If we don’t act fast, we will jeopardize participation in what may be the most important election of our lifetime. People will stay home. Disproportionately, those people will be of color, who live in neighborhoods most likely to lose polling locations,” the Democrat lawmakers wrote in an op-ed for The Hill.

“They’ll be students, single parents, and low-wage workers, who can’t put their lives on hold to go vote. They’ll be seniors and medically-vulnerable patients, who would be literally risking their lives just to cast their ballots. So a privileged few will get to decide our country’s trajectory while the people most impacted by this crisis are forced to forfeit their voice.”

Recent data has not shown a compelling public health justification for vote-by-mail. Wisconsin is one of the only U.S. states that held its primary election with in-person voting after the coronavirus lockdown began. Only a few dozen people at maximum were confirmed to have contracted the virus after participating either as voters or poll workers, and none of those cases were fatal. Out of the 413,000 participants, that equals an infection rate below two-hundredths of one percent. Just days later, South Korea held national elections which did not result in any new coronavirus cases.


[COMMENT: It appears we truly have a dictator ruling CA by his decree, rather than an elected representative legislature. ]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zX-ta9j6Rr4&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1vR7jQGfrjL0QDj1I1ODoytURyUF2SuNyhq5HlkdMtjQm0jnkYjSUSCp4
29:38 min

Wear Your Face Mask And Savor Your CO2 Breath
•May 5, 2020

Technocracy News & Trends (Patrick Wood)

When wearing face masks, especially for an extended period or during higher-than-normal physical activity, some people will experience symptoms like rapid breathing, rapid heart rate, dizziness, muscular weakness, emotional upsets and fatigue.

Temple Grandin: Big Meat Supply Chains Are Fragile

Temple GrandinContributor


Workers processing pork at a food factory in China this month.
AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
About five years ago, I was giving a lecture in my livestock handling class at Colorado State University about animal welfare, and when I turned to write on the whiteboard, I had a light bulb moment. I immediately was triggered to recall a moment during the floods of 2013 when I was driving home to Fort Collins from the Denver airport. Interstate 25 was flooded so I first drove east to get around it. Then I drove north, and everywhere I went, I found roads impassable.

Finally, I got out past Greeley, the agribusiness hub where JBS’s American division is currently headquartered, and went around the huge Kuner feedlot, which at the time was owned by JBS. The cattle were all dry but the flooding lapped around the edge of the feedlot. The water stayed out because JBS had done an excellent job of rebuilding it. And it was there that I finally found a bridge that was dry. It was only a foot out of the water and closed an hour later.

My students are often concerned that large corporations are bad, but my answer has always been badly managed is bad. I was thinking about that when this new epiphany struck me. Big is not bad, it is fragile.

That’s important now more than ever, because everything is bigger. When I first started my career as a designer of cattle handling systems in the early 1970s, the meat supply chain was more diversified with many smaller packing plants. In the city of Denver, there were several slaughterhouses and Los Angeles even had a whole row of companies on a single street. Each one of these plants processed 500 to 1,000 cattle per day.

But almost all of these smaller, independent plants have now closed. What drove these packers out of business was the transformation of the entire industry in the 1980s from selling retailers carcasses to packing and shipping meat in boxes.

Most of these independents were located in major cities. There was no room to build the additions required for all the extra cutting and they couldn’t afford to build new plants outside the city. It ushered in an era of closures and acquisitions. And today the big companies are running plants that are really massive: a single plant may process 2,000 to 6,000 cattle per day if it runs two shifts. A large, double-shifted pork plant may process 20,000 pigs per day.


A box of pork at Smithfield's processing facility in Milan, Missouri in 2017.
© 2017 BLOOMBERG FINANCE LP

Because today’s system is so concentrated - and slaughter and processing is done in fewer, larger plants - the pandemic we’re facing has overwhelmed this supply chain. There is an old saying “do not put all of your eggs in one basket.” When a supply chain becomes more concentrated, there is greater loss of supply when a single plant is closed. A Tyson beef plant in Kansas closed last year due to a fire, and it did cause some production disruptions, but other plants ran Saturday shifts to compensate. The supply chain was able to compensate for the temporary closure of a single large plant.

But without sufficient slaughterhouse space to process all the pigs and chickens that are growing today, farmers have been forced to euthanize poultry and pigs.

This is both a tragic waste of food and if euthanasia is done poorly there could be great animal welfare problems, and it can be really traumatic for the farm workers who have to do this.

A disruption or plant shutdown at any point along the chain is more likely to cause shortages that consumers can eventually see. Meat is not the only industry with a concentrated supply chain. Other food processors have shut down recently. And the pharmaceutical industry’s supply chain for common generic drugs may be even more concentrated. The raw materials are made in China and the pills are manufactured in India. There is a major difference between pigs and raw materials for manufacturing generic medicines. The system can handle a short disruption of several months because a supply of chemicals can be stored. Pigs cannot be stored because their numbers would quickly overcrowd the buildings.

Big operations are extremely cost efficient. That’s why they’ve been built this way. The downside is the fragility of the supply chains, as Covid-19 proves. This pandemic is going to be a wakeup call and I expect many to become a lot more interested in more distributed local supply chains. Local production provides the opposite: it will always be more expensive because fixed costs such as labor, electricity, and water to process each pig will be higher. But a local supply chain is less prone to disruption. It also has a lower dependence on long distance trucking. During the floods in Colorado, semi-trucks had a difficult time re-supplying many stores.

The bottom line is, there will always be a tradeoff. Big suppliers are low cost, efficient and fragile. More numerous local producers are more expensive, but the entire supply is more robust. It will be less prone to disruption from floods, fires, electric power failures, storms or diseases like coronavirus or others in the future.

A restaurant in Amsterdam built small greenhouses for diners to enjoy a meal in while social distancing
Monica Humphries

May 7, 2020, 8:41 AM
Snapchat

The staff at the Mediamatic Eten did a trial run on May 5. Peter Dejong/AP Photo

• Restaurant owners and diners around the world are considering how the dining experience will change as lockdowns are eased.
• In places like China and Taiwan, dividers have been added to tables. One Dutch restaurant took it a step further by adding small greenhouses to its waterfront.
• Mediamatic Eten, which specializes in vegan food, hosted a test run of the new design on May 5. The restaurant hopes to reopen to the public on May 21.

How and where we eat may look vastly different than it did a few months ago. As countries begin to ease from lockdown restrictions and restaurants start to reopen doors, the world is wondering what will change.

Restaurants in China have added temporary dividers, often made from cardboard, plastic, or glass. While McDonald's in Taipei, Taiwan, list the temperature of the person who cooked your food.

But in Amsterdam, Mediamatic Eten has a different idea.
The vegan restaurant plans to seat its diners in small greenhouses.


The restaurant, which specializes in vegan food, served a four-course meal to volunteers. Peter Dejong/AP Photo

The restaurant named the enclosures "serres séparées," or separated greenhouses, and the glass structures offer a view of the water.

Mediamatic Eten, which has plans to open on May 21, has five greenhouses. The cubicles are designed for two diners — ideally, two people who live together.

California identifies nail salons as source of coronavirus community spread, Gov. Newsom says

PUBLISHED THU, MAY 7 20205:01 PM EDTUPDATED FRI, MAY 8 202011:21 AM EDT

William Feuer@WILLFOIA

KEY POINTS

• Community spread of the coronavirus in California began in a nail salon, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday, as other states allow their manicurists to reopen.
• “This whole thing started in the state of California, the first community spread, in a nail salon,” Newsom said at a news briefing. “I’m very worried about that.”
• State health directors have put some “red flags” on nail salons as a high-risk business, Newsom added, likening them to gyms and hair salons.

Maranie Staab | Reuters
Community spread of the coronavirus in California began in a nail salon, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday, as other states allow their manicurists to reopen.

Newsom has announced a four-phase plan to reopening the state’s economy that begins on Friday. Unlike some other states that have announced reopenings, California nail salons won’t be allowed to reopen until the state’s phase 3. The state is currently shifting from phase 1 to phase 2.

“This whole thing started in the state of California, the first community spread, in a nail salon,” Newsom said at a news briefing. “I’m very worried about that.”

California prepares to reopen

State health directors have put some “red flags” on nail salons as a high-risk business, Newsom added, likening them to gyms and hair salons. He announced Monday that the state will allow some low-risk businesses, including bookstores, warehouses, florists and more, to begin reopening with modifications and offering curbside pick up as soon as Friday.

However, owner of Saunders and James Nail Care in Oakland, California Michelle Saunders James said she was “shocked” by the governor’s remarks. She said she hasn’t heard anything from health officials nor the California Board of Barbering and Cosmetology about coronavirus outbreaks stemming from nail salons.

“Had they known that this was the situation, absolutely zero information was ever sent to any nail care people in the industry at all,” she said in an interview. “It was very scary to hear that.”

Newsom did not provide any specific information about the alleged link between California’s coronavirus outbreak and nail salons.

Saunders James said she’s not surprised that nail salons are in phase 3 of the state’s reopening plan. But she’s concerned that Newsom’s remarks will keep people away from the industry even after they can reopen.

Saunders James said she employs 12 people in her business, which opened in January and has been closed since mid-March. In preparation for reopening, whenever that may be, she said she’s stocking up on personal protective equipment and disinfectants.

“I am just intuitively kind of following the rules of what a nurse would wear or a physician, or something that is more in the medical field,” she said. “Because if you’re comfortable enough to go to the dentist, or go in to see your physician, then if we’re wearing the same thing and our environment is as sterile and sanitized as a medical office, then why wouldn’t the customer feel comfortable getting a manicure in that situation?”

Newsom has not offered a timeline for when other businesses such as nail salons can reopen, which will likely depend on the local containment of the outbreak in different parts of the state.

Covid-19 has infected more than 60,600 people in California and killed at least 2,460 people in the state, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Other states haven’t been as cautions when it comes to reopening personal care locations like nail salons. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced earlier this week hair and nail salons, barber shops and tanning salons will be allowed to reopen with modifications on Friday.

As states reopen in various ways and to different degrees, epidemiologists are eagerly watching the data to try to glean some results. However, in the absence of a comprehensive coronavirus test and trace program, researchers say it will likely be weeks after reopening until the policy decisions are evident in the data.

Governor Newsom Tells Churches They are Months Away from Opening; Some Pastors Aren’t Having It

By Greg Burt on May 07, 2020 in Faith, Law, Liberty, News, Political, Rights


Last week, California Governor Gavin Newsom revealed additional details regarding his four-phase plan to reopen the state. While daycare centers and schools could start opening up very soon as part of Phase Two, in-person church services were categorized with personal care businesses like gyms and salons, which are months away from opening as part of Phase Three.

That isn’t sitting well with some Christian leaders who have pleaded with the governor to let congregations gather for worship, while adhering to social distancing policies and procedures currently used by businesses and government offices considered “essential.”

Some of those leaders include Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, and Dr. John Jackson, president of William Jessup University, who asked Newsom to let churches open slowly over the next three months.

“We are mindful of our nation’s proud heritage of religious liberty, established from its founding as a place of refuge and respect for people of faith,” Rodriguez and Jackson stated in a joint statement. “We join together respectfully urging California’s governor, county supervisors, mayors and other civic leaders to support the reopening of church gatherings in ways that are sensitive to public health concerns as well as providing for the fundamental freedoms so richly encouraging to personal and societal well-being and ensconced in our founding documents.”

But so far, requests like this have fallen on deaf ears.

“If we pull back too quickly and walk away from… the commitment to stop the spread,… it could start a second wave more damaging than the first,” Newsom said during his April 28th press conference. “We are not going back to the way things were until we get the kind of immunity that all of us looks forward to or a vaccine we look forward to.”

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As part of Newsom’s reopening plan, schools, daycare centers, retail stores (e.g. curbside pickup), manufacturing, offices (when telework not possible), and public spaces will start to open up as part of Phase Two “in weeks not months.” Phase Three, which Newsom said would start in “months not weeks,” includes personal care businesses, like hair and nail salons, gyms, entertainment venues (movie theaters, sports without live audiences), and finally, in-person religious services like churches and weddings. (Read Newsom’s 4-phase plan)

After hearing Newsom’s intent to keep church services closed for a nonspecific amount of time, months into the future, a group of pastors decided they have had enough. This week they announced plans to open their churches for in-person services on May 31, the 1,990th anniversary of the original Day of Pentecost that occurred in the year A.D. 30.

View: https://www.facebook.com/KMPHFOX26/videos/607928283127444/

Pastor Jim Franklin of Cornerstone Church in downtown Fresno gave a press conference explaining plans to reopen his church.

Representing the interests of hundreds of pastors, churches, and ministries in California, Advocates for Faith & Freedom and The National Center for Law and Policy, released a press release and a letter to the Governor announcing plans for the May 31 reopening. Five pastors specifically mentioned in the letter include Pastor Jack Hibbs of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills, Pastor Jim Domen of Church United, Pastor Jim Franklin of Cornerstone Church, Pastor Tim Thompson of 412 Church, and Pastor Ryan Sharp of Impact Church.

“We fully support reasonable measures to help flatten the curve and the faith leaders take their responsibility to do so seriously,” Advocates for Faith and Freedom Attorney Robert H. Tyler wrote in a letter to Newsom on behalf of the pastors. “The interest in public safety; however, must be balanced and narrowly tailored to accommodate the faith leaders’ and community’s interest in accessing religiously-based social services and in exercising their religious freedom.”

“The indefinite nature of the restrictions on faith-based meetings is in violation of the very principles this country was founded upon,” Tyler wrote. “The Declaration of Independence was established in a time of fear and distress, but our founding fathers led the colonies with courage and conviction. … Our founding fathers did not intend to allow a single individual to establish law that permits the infringement upon individual liberties recognized in the Constitution. This is especially true where, one individual has issued executive orders to suspend the religious liberty of individuals to assemble together in worship of God.”

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The letter goes on to argue that religious practices are just as essential to the state as any grocery or hardware store. While church services have been prohibited from group gatherings, the state allows people to gather in “airports; public transportation facilities (i.e. train and bus stations); the entertainment industry (i.e. Hollywood); construction sites, news media facilities; childcare locations; marijuana dispensaries; liquor stores; cafeterias; big box stores, grocery stores, farmer’s markets, convenience stores, carryout restaurants, and other retails establishments.”

Tyler then argues that if the courts and the legislature will not protect the individual liberties of the people in this time of crisis, the clergy will step into the gap as a “counterbalance to unchecked regulatory action.”

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“In order to restore the proper balance between public safety and individual liberties, the clergy we represent have declared their intent to begin holding in-person church services beginning on Sunday, May 31, 2020. All services will be held in compliance with CDC and state guidelines for social distancing as is required of “essential businesses,” he wrote.

Pastor Jack Hibbs of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills explains his decision to reopen his church on May 31.
View: https://youtu.be/Pu-L6lKGsEE
10:51 min

California threatens to pull alcohol licenses of businesses that reopened early
Dr. Phuong Luu, the health officer for Yuba and Sutter counties who OK'd the openings, said many were not following safety protocols.

Customers wait to get their nails done 4at the Nail Tech salon in Yuba City, California, on Wednesday.Rich Pedroncelli / AP

May 7, 2020, 4:05 PM PDT
By Tim Stelloh

The public health officer who allowed restaurants and hair salons in two California counties to open in defiance of a statewide shutdown said Wednesday that many businesses were not following proper safety protocols.

The announcement from Dr. Phuong Luu, the health officer for Yuba and Sutter counties, came as state officials threatened to revoke alcohol licenses from restaurants that followed Luu’s reopening order, which went into effect Monday.

In a letter to local businesses Wednesday, Luu said that a combination of media reports and calls to a local compliance center showed that many shops were missing at least two “vital cornerstones” to prevent the spread of coronavirus — social distancing and face coverings.

Luu said it was unlikely that indoor businesses would be able to consistently keep customers and clients distant enough that they could operate without requiring face coverings. “Therefore, such operations must include both,” she wrote. “I understand that some of your customers may strongly object to a facial covering requirement, but the long-term safety of our community is at stake. We do not want to take any steps back in our phasing-in efforts.”

The two counties located north of Sacramento have a combined population of roughly 175,000. County data shows that 50 cases of the coronavirus have been confirmed since March. Eight people have been hospitalized and three have died from COVID-19.

The last new case was reported April 27, one week before Luu’s reopening order went into effect.

Interviews Monday with restaurant workers in Yuba City, the region’s largest town, showed a mixed response to Luu’s order, which she called “evidence-based” and “grounded in science.”

A cook at one restaurant said customers and staff were required to wear face coverings inside. But at another restaurant, Tim McKenna, who helps his wife run Linda’s Soda Bar and Grill, said neither employees nor customers needed them.
“I’m not the social police,” he said.

Chris Krachie, the assistant manager at Pete’s Restaurant and Brewhouse, also in Yuba City, said Thursday that his staff was required to wear face coverings but customers weren’t.

“It’s pretty hard to eat with a face mask,” he said.

Krachie said agents from the state Department of Alcohol Beverage Control visited the restaurant Tuesday and threatened to revoke the restaurant’s license if it continued serving alcohol.

“They told us our license is a state license, and because it’s from the state we had to follow the state’s shelter-in-place order,” he said, adding. “There was nothing we could do. We stopped.”

“They’re hitting businesses where it hurts most,” he said. “People were excited to go out and have a beer and relax. They shot that down.”

The shelter-in-place order, which Gov. Gavin Newsom issued March 19, allows restaurants to offer only takeout and delivery services. In a news conference Tuesday, Newsom scolded Sutter and Yuba counties, saying they were making “a big mistake” by defying the state order and endangering residents.

Newsom’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday about the threat to revoke licenses, but a spokesman for the state’s beverage control department, John Carr, confirmed that agents visited “multiple” locations in the two counties on Tuesday. As of Thursday, he said the department had not disciplined any of them.

“We hope for voluntary compliance,” he said.

Carr added that agents from the department have undertaken similar enforcement efforts in Southern California. As of last Friday, 80 of 81 businesses had voluntarily complied, he said.

Beginning Friday, some businesses across the state will be allowed to reopen, including manufacturers, warehouses and some retailers that offer curbside pickup. Asked Thursday when restaurants can reopen, Newsom told reporters that businesses in “some counties” in “certain parts” of the state may get the go-ahead after dine-in guidelines are released next week.

Trump Asks DOJ To Investigate Meat Packers
Greg Henderson
May 6, 2020 09:58 PM


President Trump ( WH )

President Donald Trump told reporters Wednesday he has asked the Justice Department to look into allegations that U.S. meat packers broke antitrust law because the prices paid to farmers and ranchers has declined even as meat prices rose, Reuters reports.

“I’ve asked the Justice Department to look into it. ... I’ve asked them to take a very serious look into it, because it shouldn’t be happening that way and we want to protect our farmers,” the president said at a White House event attended by Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds.

“Are they dealing with each other? What’s going on?” the president asked.
Many beef, pork and poultry processing plants have either closed temporarily or significantly slowed their production in recent weeks which has reduced the markets farmers and ranchers have to sell their livestock. Both beef and pork processing capacities have been reduced by as much as 40%.

Trump issued an executive order last week labeling meatpacking plants “critical infrastructure” that must stay open. Yet the supply shortage continues and retailers Costco Wholesale Corp and Kroger Co are limiting meat purchases and Wendy’s Co to announced Wednesday it would focus on marketing chicken, having taken its signature “fresh” hamburgers off the menu at some restaurants.
Perdue told reporters that U.S. meatpacking plants shut down because of coronavirus outbreaks would be fully back in production in a week to 10 days.

Perdue also said in April the agency would investigate diverging prices for cattle and beef during the outbreak. He expanded a probe into the market that USDA began last year after wholesale beef prices soared at the same time cash cattle prices declined after the fire at Tyson’s Finney County, Kan., facility.

USDA reported the Choice beef cutout price on Wednesday at $449.18 per cwt., up $20.19 from Tuesday, and up $71.73 per cwt. (+16%) since Friday’s (May 1) close. Meanwhile, cash fed cattle prices were reported at $95.18 on Wednesday (May 6) by USDA.

marsh said:

https://video.fsac1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t42.4659-2/85064481_2486439614790735_4025515195471233024_n.mp4?_nc_cat=111&_nc_sid=73e57b&_nc_ohc=I1mBYOTCJzMAX_rOQa_&_nc_ht=video.fsac1-1.fna&oh=d07aa6a0f64d1bc6fc1eb6a3c431f243&oe=5EB5ECE9

video of DD "rant" - sorry it wouldn't embed. .02 min (posted with fondness and respect.)

Click to expand...

YOU MESS WITH TEXAS AND GODZILLA AT YOUR PERIL

Just found this on Twitter. #everydayhero

View: https://mobile.twitter.com/Kingfreespeech/status/1258628590926729217

Hummm.....

Posted for fair use.....

Spain’s army predicts 2 more waves of coronavirus
A internal report by Spain's army says it expects there to be two more outbreaks of the coronavirus
By JOSEPH WILSON Associated Press
May 8, 2020, 9:05 AM
3 min read

BARCELONA, Spain -- Spain’s army expects there to be two more outbreaks of the new coronavirus, according to an internal report seen by The Associated Press.

The army report predicts “two more waves of the epidemic” and that Spain will take “between a year and a year-and-a-half to return to normality.”


The document was published by Spanish newspaper ABC on Friday and later confirmed as authentic by the AP.

“There will be a second wave of COVID-19” in the autumn or winter the army report said, adding that it will be less serious than the initial outbreak due to higher immunity in the population and better preparations.

It said that a “possible third wave would be greatly weakened” next year if there is a vaccine available.

The report was produced by the army as its own forecast of the pandemic, which it can share with civilian authorities. Spain’s government has its own experts who make the final decisions on health policy, taking into account the opinion of other institutions and outside experts.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has warned that he considers it highly probable that the virus will make comebacks until a vaccine is developed.

Health officials in Spain are carrying out a epidemiological survey to determine the extent of the contagion, including the several thousand people who have been mildly ill with cough and high fever but never been tested in a hospital. There are also believed to be thousands more who were infected but never showed symptoms. On Friday, the health ministry said that medical workers had taken blood samples from over 46,000 people over the first week of the survey. It plans to test 60,000-90,000 overall.

Over 26,000 Spaniards are known to have died from the COVID-19 virus. Spain has gotten control over the outbreak which has infected a confirmed 260,177 people in the country and is now easing restrictions to activate its battered economy.

Spain’s army has played a major role in combating the virus under the nation’s state of emergency established in mid-March. Thousands of soldiers and military medics have deployed to set up field hospitals, disinfect nursing homes and transport hubs, and transport patients between hospitals and corpses to morgues.

When considering steps to prepare for the coming months, the army report said “it would be extremely important” to develop a contact tracing method using mobile phone applications. Spain so far has not done that and is relying on a local network of public health clinics to monitor future cases.

———

Follow AP coverage of the virus outbreak at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPDmElpj9wU
41:38 min
Coronavirus: The "Rescue" Is Stealing Your Wealth
•Premiered 4 hours ago

Peak Prosperity (Dr. Chris Martenson - pathologist)

As we begin to get a better handle on what happens inside the body when covid-19 infects, it's clear that early treatment makes a big positive difference. And we're learning of effective measures you can take at home *before* exposure to the virus that can limit your chances of getting it. A cocktail of Vitamin C + Quercetin, Vitamin D3, zinc and melatonin is being increasingly recommended by clinicians (specific dosage available in this video).

OK..now onto the bad news. THE GREATEST WEALTH TRANSFER IN HISTORY IS HAPPENING BEFORE OUR EYES AND WE'RE JUST WATCHING IT HAPPEN!! Oh...did I shout that? Sorry.

All that the $trillions in rescue bailouts/stimulus are doing is making the wealthy elites and the large corporations whole on their bad bets, while simultaneously making them richer by deforming stock prices higher. And what do the rest of us get? Lost jobs.

A promise of a measly $1,200 check that few have yet to receive. Shattered prospects. Those who have pillaged our system are filling their pockets before it collapses. Why the heck are we not fighting back at this more forcefully?

Don't forget to get your free download of Peak Prosperity's book Prosper!. Given its relevance to preparing for any kind of crisis, pandemic or otherwise, Chris and Adam are now making it available to the world for free: https://www.peakprosperity.com/freebook

________________________ LINKS FROM THIS VIDEO:

Military updates recruit guidance https://www.militarytimes.com/news/yo...
EVMS Clinical Protocol https://www.evms.edu/media/evms_publi...
Wealth transfer https://www.peakprosperity.com/the-co...
Nasdaq now worth more than the rest of the world’s stock market https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/nas...

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iyrcsCcqak
31:40 min
China vaccine scandals; Coronavirus follows CCP ties; Chinese media suggests shocking way to curb US
•Premiered 2 hours ago


China in Focus - NTD
China has been rushing to develop a vaccine for the CCP virus. But the country's scandal-plagued vaccine industry is causing concern over the quality of their products.

Countries hit the hardest by the virus seem to share one common thread. Today we take a look at the Netherlands, which has one of the highest death tolls.

China once boasted about its plan to recruit foreign intelligence to its shores. But after the program came under fire by the FBI, all trace of it has vanished from Chinese search engines. A social media post by the editor-in-chief of Chinese state-controlled Global Times is sparking debate online.

And over 13,000 people looking to hold the Chinese regime accountable for the pandemic. Hear from a plaintiff who’s looking for the truth and justice. #CoronavirusUpdates #ChinaVaccineScandals #CCPvirus

-------- Sign the petition to investigate, condemn, and reject the Chinese Communist Party https://bit.ly/2zJHIhZ ---------

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejMMcFruj8g
6:07 min
RuinedByNewsom - Lawsuit 10 against Gavin Newsom attacks unconstitutional Shelter in Place
•Streamed live 48 minutes ago


Mark Meuser (Attny. Constitution, Political and Election Law)
In this video I discuss the unconstitutional "Shelter in Place" laws in California and the lawsuit that the Dhillon Law Group has brought against Gavin Newsom.

This is the 10th lawsuit brought against Newsom in the last 3+ weeks. I am not going to stop fighting for the people of California until Newsom stops destroying the lives of Californians with is unconstitutional deprivation of fundamental rights.

Thanks to the American Phoenix Project and the Center for American Liberty for their financial support in bringing this important litigation. This is my promise to you. I will not stop fighting for your freedom's and liberty until Gavin Newsom stops misusing his authority in the name of protecting people from COVID-19.

There is no pandemic exception in the United States Constitution, and Newsom does not have the right to use coronavirus to ruin the lives of everyday Californians.

Another outstanding video from Dr. Martenson:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJzGqVyAtlg


run time 46:05

Interesting that Google places an ad at the bottom of the vid which directs the viewer to the CDC for the "Latest Information".

Hfcomms said:

Well, FWIW I was just informed by my BIL that my niece was found unresponsive last Saturday and is now on a vent with her organs failing. She was doing fine and was found by her young daughter a few hours later unresponsive and running a temperature and shortly thereafter was put on a vent. Was told that all the tests so far are negative, still waiting on toxicology and I don‘t know if they have run Covid test. I have an email to my BIL asking about this and have not heard back.

I am a retired army trained nuke, chem and biological defense officer and imho this is an engineered virus and possibly a biological weapon that either escaped thru malfeasance and ineptitude or was released intentionally. Ignore it to your own hurt and possible death to those you love. This is real deal and real world even though being used politically for nefarious reasons.

Click to expand...

I am so completely disgusted with the members here who are saying it is all a hoax and refuse to even show those who may have at risk family/friends the simple courtesy of wearing a mask and gloves while out in public.

The self-centered arrogance of so many members here is appalling.

Shout out flyover to Portland health care workers..
Tyler Rogoway

@Aviation_Intel
1h

Hometown Eagles’ cockpit video of today’s flyover:
View: https://twitter.com/Aviation_Intel/status/1258976168344121347?s=20

1st impression: I'm notta fan





Reuters

@Reuters
1h

Singapore unveils a robot dog to enforce safe distancing among park-goers https://reut.rs/2SOTj6e
View: https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1258982528591040512?s=20

O flollies- purty, but that sure doesn't look like any kind of distancing, and products designed to have you stick your nose in---
humm...safer to have my nails done and eat some batwon soup at my fav diner, I'd think. But. Purty. (and all them uncovered eyes )

Reuters
@Reuters
7m

Downtown flower market in Los Angeles reopens
View: https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1259000146177777665?s=20

Texican said:

No shot - no work and no buy groceries or other goods. Do not put it past the democraps to demand such limitations on those that refuse the vaccine.

Start of civil disobedience?

Texican....

Click to expand...

Now, where have I heard that before?

Humm. Using clowns to roll out public policy - apparently CA is a trend setter.
Reuters


@Reuters
2m

Mexico City has hired professional clowns to spray the hands of metro riders with disinfectant and to tell them to ‘wear a face mask -- don't be a clown’
Reuters
View: https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1259031602186739712?s=20

(fair use appliesa0

University of Hong Kong study finds eyes are ‘important route’ for coronavirus, up to 100 times more infectious than Sars
Ng Kang-chung
Published: 6:30am, 8 May, 2020 | Updated: 11:18am, 8 May, 2020

• Researchers from HKU’s school of public health reveal the coronavirus is up to 100 times more infectious through the eyes and airways than Sars
• Study in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine says that explains ‘higher transmissibility’ of Covid-19, compared with the 2003 contagion

The eyes are an important route for the coronavirus into the human body, according to University of Hong Kong research which found the strain was up to 100 times more infectious than severe acute respiratory syndrome and bird flu in two facial orifices tested by the public health experts.

Laboratory tests revealed the “virus level” of SARS-Cov-2 – the strain of coronavirus that causes the Covid-19 disease – was far greater than for Sars in the upper respiratory airways and conjunctiva, the cells lining the surfaces of the eyes.

The team led by Dr Michael Chan Chi-wai, from HKU’s school of public health, became among the first researchers worldwide to provide evidence the coronavirus can infect humans through both entry points when it published its findings in the latest issue of The Lancet Respiratory Medicine.

“We culture tissues from the human respiratory tract and eyes in the laboratory and applied them to study the SARS-Cov-2, comparing it with Sars and H5N1. We found that SARS-Cov-2 is much more efficient in infecting the human conjunctiva and the upper respiratory airways than Sars, with virus level some 80 to 100 times higher,” Dr Chan said.

“This explains the higher transmissibility of Covid-19 than that of Sars. This study also highlights the fact that eyes may be an important route of SARS-CoV-2 human infection,” added Dr Chan.

The study reinforces advice to the public not to touch their eyes and to wash hands regularly to avoid infection, after the university researchers previously found the coronavirus could survive as long as seven days on stainless steel surfaces and plastic.

Dr Chan said: “Although there are signs that the Covid-19 epidemic is getting more stable in Hong Kong, the situation elsewhere in the world is still serious. There are still many new cases reported every day in, say, Russia and Europe. We should not let our guard down.”

The findings from Dr Chan’s team and others challenge the widely held assumption in the earliest stages of the health crisis that medical staff would be adequately protected with N95 masks and protective clothing, without the need for specialist glasses.

In late January, renowned Peking University First Hospital respiratory specialist Wang Guangfa reported that he had come down with a fever and catarrh, about three hours after his eye had developed conjunctivitis on his return to Beijing from Wuhan. Wang was later confirmed with Covid-19, with his eyes suspected as the route of infection.

The outbreak of Covid-19 was first reported in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last December. It has since developed into a pandemic, infecting more than 3.77 million people, claiming over 264,000 lives across the world, according to data compiled by researchers at Johns Hopkins University, as of Thursday night.

Hong Kong recorded its first cases on January 23 and now has 1,044 confirmed infections, and four related deaths.

With the epidemic easing in Hong Kong, some government restrictions on social gatherings and the operation of businesses are being relaxed from Friday.

The Sars crisis took hold of Hong Kong in 2003, where the infected total was 1,755, with 299 related deaths.

(fair use applies)

Coronavirus: Hong Kong researchers find three-drug combination suppresses virus nearly twice as fast as drug held up as major hope against pandemic
Elizabeth Cheung
Published: 8:05am, 9 May, 2020

• Covid-19 patients on the antivirals are free of their mild-to-moderate symptoms in half the time as those only medicated with HIV drug Kaletra, researchers say
• Expert not involved in the University of Hong Kong study says it represents ‘a step towards finding a much-needed therapy’

A combination of three drugs suppressed the coronavirus within seven days when used on patients in Hong Kong, nearly twice as fast as the single medicine seen as a leading hope in the fight against the pandemic, a study has found.

The findings of the research, led by University of Hong Kong academics and published in The Lancet on Saturday, could signal progress in the search for a standard form of therapy for Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes the Covid-19 disease.

It discovered that using the antiviral drugs interferon beta-1b, lopinavir-ritonavir and ribavirin together was “safe and more effective” in reducing the duration of viral shedding – when the coronavirus is detectable and potentially transmissible – for patients with mild to moderate symptoms, while accelerating their recovery.

The antivirals were said to be more effective when compared with only using lopinavir-ritonavir, the HIV drug also known by its brand name, Kaletra.

Professor Yuen Kwok-yung, a top infectious diseases expert who led the study, said: “Our trial demonstrates that early treatment of mild to moderate Covid-19 with a triple combination of antiviral drugs may rapidly suppress the amount of virus in a patient’s body, relieve symptoms, and reduce the risk to health care workers by reducing the duration and quantity of viral shedding.

“The treatment combination appeared safe and well tolerated by patients.”

The interferon drug was developed to treat multiple sclerosis, a neurological disease. Ribavirin was commonly used to treat hepatitis C.

But the researchers said a larger trial would be needed to confirm whether the triple regimen would be effective on patients with more severe symptoms.

The latest study involved 127 adult Covid-19 patients who were admitted to one of the six public hospitals in the city between February 10 and March 20.

Among them, 86 were given the combination treatment and the remaining 41 were only given Kaletra.

It found those given the combined drugs had their viral load effectively suppressed within an average of seven days of starting the treatment, compared with the 12-day average in the control group on the single drug.

Those undergoing the triple therapy also managed to have their symptoms completely alleviated in an average of four days, half of the period of eight days for those in the control group.

They also had a significantly shorter average stay in hospital – nine days rather than 14.5 in the other set of patients.

Patients given the combination treatment earlier, within a week of symptoms appearing, had better clinical outcomes than those on the course of Kaletra at the same time, the scientists also identified.

Dr Sarah Shalhoub, an infectious diseases expert from the Western University in Canada who was not involved in the study, said the study presented “a step towards finding a much-needed therapy for Sars-CoV-2”.

Separately, researchers were also conducting trials on the effectiveness of remdesivir, a drug originally developed for Ebola, in treating Covid-19, with Hong Kong among those hosting the study.

(fair use applies)

7 questions about Covid-19 testing and what it means for reopening the country
By Elizabeth Cooney
May 8, 2020

Pressure to perform widespread Covid-19 testing is growing as public health experts and ordinary citizens question the safety of reopening schools and businesses across the U.S. without better information about who is infected and at risk of spreading the virus. That is only adding to the strain on the nation’s testing capacity, and raising questions about who should get priority.

The Infectious Diseases Society of America, which represents the nation’s infectious disease experts, issued guidelines Wednesday about who should be tested, how they should be tested, when they should be tested, and then what to make of the results.

Some answers aren’t known with any certainty yet, leading to knowledge gaps future research might fill, but not before many states begin to relax social distancing, two co-authors of the guidelines said in a call with reporters Friday. Meanwhile, tests and chemicals needed by labs to interpret them are still in short supply.

“Something that we’re all concerned about right now is in some locations in this country, they don’t have adequate [supplies] to test symptomatic patients,” said Angela Caliendo, an infectious disease specialist and professor of medicine at Brown University. “It remains a substantial challenge for all of us to be able to get enough people tested and having enough reagents to do that.”

Shortages go beyond tests and reagents when community surveillance is proposed as a way to judge how the coronavirus is spreading, said Kimberly Hanson, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Utah School of Medicine.

“It’s all sorts of resources around the testing,” she said. “We need more support for public health in our area to really deploy testing and contact tracing in the community. We need to train and get more epidemiologists and contact tracers to do that.”

Here’s what else Caliendo and Hanson had to say about testing:

Who should get tested?

Policies about testing all people with possible coronavirus infections have varied from state to state. But the IDSA guidelines state that all patients who have clinical signs or symptoms that could be consistent with Covid-19, as defined by the CDC, should be tested. Knowing if a patient is infected with the virus starts a cascade of decision-making for clinicians: Do they need to be hospitalized and separated from other patients? If they can go home, how should they isolate themselves?

Another reason to test patients is to see if they would consider being enrolled in a clinical trial of a Covid-19 treatment, Hanson said.

What about people who don’t have symptoms?

If there aren’t enough tests, symptomatic patients should get them, but there are three situations that argue for a test in asymptomatic patients. If a patient is already in the hospital and Covid-19 is widespread in the area, do the test. If a patient has a compromised immune system owing to a disease or a transplant, that patient should be tested because Covid-19 leads to poor outcomes in these people. And if a patient is going to have surgery, do a test for the patient’s sake and for the protection of health care workers.

What kind of test is best?

A nasal swab or a nasopharyngeal swab got the group’s recommendation, based on a review of the medical literature. Throat swabs and saliva specimens did not, but that could change as more studies are published, particularly about saliva.

The group did not find enough research to differentiate the effectiveness of rapid testing — results within an hour — from standard testing that takes up to five hours.

Most of the information about various tests is based on limited lab experiments comparing an individual test to what are called contrived samples, such as a nasal swab that doesn’t have any virus on it. The Food and Drug Administration approved tests using relaxed standards, so evaluations of tests as they’re used in the field, or comparisons among tests, have not been done.

“We don’t know yet what test is best or really how the emergency use authorization tests in the U.S. that are commercially available really compare to each other,” Caliendo said.

Should people get repeat tests?

Tests can have up to a 30% false negative rate, meaning they miss that proportion of people with actual infections. The IDSA said the need for retesting people with negative results depends on how sick the person seems to be. “If you have a low clinical suspicion and the test is negative, our recommendation was to not retest. But if you have a high clinical suspicion, you should retest people who are ill, who are in the hospital, who are in the ICU,” Caliendo said.

What about antibody testing?

Antibody tests don’t detect an active infection, but rather look for signs that a person was previously infected, as shown by antibodies their immune system produced to fight the coronavirus. With other diseases, the presence of antibodies often means you have acquired immunity against re-infection, for at least some period of time, but that is not known yet in the case of Covid-19.

“We don’t have enough information about the performance of these tests to know ideally how to use them,” Caliendo said. “We need to understand, if the test is accurate and you have antibodies, what does that mean? Does it mean you’re protected from future infection? We don’t know that. We don’t know if it means you’re no longer infectious.”

Her advice to patients who get the antibody test anyway: “If you test positive, do not assume you’re immune from the attack, do not assume that you don’t have to abide by distancing, wearing masks, washing your hands, and doing all of that.”

How much testing is enough testing? Is there a percentage of the population we should shoot for?

“I think in general more is better. But I do think resources are not limitless and there still are places in the country that really don’t have sustained access to testing,” Hanson said. But “we need to really understand at a given location how much asymptomatic infection is present.”

What’s next?

Crunch time for labs.

People who have been able to manage their non-Covid-19 medical problems over the past few months will eventually come back to the hospital, Caliendo predicted, for the elective surgeries they may have postponed. When they do, that will strain hospital labs.

“The clinical labs are going to get really busy again,” she said. “And they won’t have as many resources to devote to Covid-19 when surgery opens up and we get back to what we would call our previous normal.”

(fair use applies)

Document reveals Secret Service has 11 current virus cases, as concerns about Trump’s staff grow
Jana Winter and Hunter Walker
May 8, 2020

WASHINGTON — Multiple members of the U.S. Secret Service have tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, according to Department of Homeland Security documents reviewed by Yahoo News.

In March, the Secret Service, which is responsible for the protection of President Trump and other leaders, acknowledged that a single employee tested positive in March. However the problem is currently far more widespread, with 11 active cases at the agency as of Thursday evening, according to a daily report compiled by the DHS.

This report comes as a pair of cases among White House staffers close to Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have put the West Wing’s coronavirus security procedures in the spotlight.

According to the DHS document, along with the 11 active cases there are 23 members of the Secret Service who have recovered from COVID-19 and an additional 60 employees who are self-quarantining. No details have been provided about which members of the Secret Service are infected or if any have recently been on detail with the president or vice president.

The DHS, which oversees the agency, referred all requests for comment to the Secret Service, which in turn declined to comment on the number of coronavirus cases among its employees.

“To protect the privacy of our employee’s health information and for operational security, the Secret Service is not releasing how many of its employees have tested positive for COVID-19, nor how many of its employees were, or currently are, quarantined,” Justine Whelan, a Secret Service spokesperson, said.

While the Secret Service is best known for providing security to the president and vice president, it also protects other leaders, including presidential candidates, former presidents, and visiting dignitaries. The Secret Service also conducts investigations, including most recently, scams involving the coronavirus.

Whelan said the Secret Service is following guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control, but she declined to comment on how many of the Secret Service employees who have tested positive for the coronavirus worked at the White House complex.

“Since the beginning of this pandemic, the Secret Service has been working with all of our public safety partners and the White House Medical Unit to ensure the safety and security of both our protected persons and our employees,” Whelan said. “The Secret Service continues to follow guidance issued by the CDC to ensure the health and welfare of our employees and those they come in contact with.”

However, the coronavirus measures at the White House complex, which includes both Trump and Pence’s offices, have not necessarily followed the guidelines from the CDC or the president’s own coronavirus task force. Those guidelines include staying 6 feet away from other people, avoiding large gatherings and wearing masks or other face coverings.

On Monday, Yahoo News reported that there are regularly held large events with unmasked attendees in close quarters at the White House — including inside the Oval Office, which is the president’s inner sanctum. Many Secret Service employees on the White House grounds are among those who are not wearing masks. The agency did not respond to questions about why its employees are not wearing masks or whether personal protective equipment is being provided to members of the Secret Service who request it. Pence and Trump have also regularly opted not to wear masks.

White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere responded to questions about coronavirus protocols in the West Wing last week by saying, “Those in close proximity to the president and vice president are being tested for COVID-19.”

“Temperature checks are occurring for all those entering the complex as well as an additional temperature check for those in close proximity to the president and vice president,” Deere said.

While temperature checks were being administered to everyone entering the White House complex, not everyone who entered the Oval Office with the president was given a test. On multiple occasions last week, reporters were brought into the Oval Office without being given tests or being required to wear masks.

Dr. Kavita Patel, a primary care physician who worked in the Obama administration as director of policy for the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement, said she believes the partial testing for those in the White House complex is not sufficient.

“Having worked in the White House, there’s a ton of people that come in and out of there, and they touch things,” said Patel, a Yahoo News health contributor. “So, unless you are literally testing every individual and then following up … even with wiping down those surfaces every night, it’s not foolproof.”

In the days since that report, multiple COVID-19 cases have been confirmed within Trump’s inner circle. On Thursday, news broke that one of Trump’s military valets tested positive. According to CNBC, the valet “had very close contact with the president, including serving meals and helping him with his clothes and other personal needs.”

After the news emerged about his valet, Trump told reporters that the White House had only been testing on a weekly basis and would increase the number of tests given to key staffers.

“So we test once a week. Now we’re going to go testing once a day, but even when you test once a day, somebody could — something happens where they catch something,” Trump said.

On Friday, another top staffer tested positive for the coronavirus. Speaking at a meeting with Republican lawmakers in the White House State Dining Room, Trump indicated the staffer was Pence’s press secretary, Katie Miller.

“She’s a wonderful young woman, Katie,” Trump said. “She tested very good for a long period of time and, all of a sudden today, she tested positive. She hasn’t come into contact with me.”

Miller is the wife of Stephen Miller, who is one of the president’s closest advisers. The Millers did not respond to requests for comment.

The White House declined to comment on whether Stephen Miller had tested negative or was being quarantined. Deere, the deputy press secretary, provided a new statement saying, “The President’s physician and White House Operations continue to work closely to ensure every precaution is taken to keep the President, First Family and the entire White House Complex safe and healthy at all times.”

“In addition to social distancing, daily temperature checks and symptom histories, hand sanitizer, and regular deep cleaning of all work spaces, every staff member in close proximity to the president and vice president is being tested daily for COVID-19 as well as any guests,” Deere said.

Yet even after the pair of coronavirus cases among the Trump administration staff, not everyone who gets in a room with the president is being tested. The press that covered the event where Trump discussed Miller’s diagnosis was brought into the State Dining Room without being given tests. One of the untested reporters asked Trump for a reaction to the fact the virus is apparently spreading inside the White House, which is ostensibly one of the safest places in the country.

“It could happen anywhere,” Trump said. “You see where it happens.”

marsh said:

Temple Grandin: Big Meat Supply Chains Are Fragile

When Temple Grandin first started her career as a designer of cattle handling systems in the early 1970s, many smaller packing plants existed. Grandin explains how today’s system became so concentrated and the reason the pandemic has overwhelmed meat supply chains.

www.forbes.com

Temple Grandin: Big Meat Supply Chains Are Fragile

Temple GrandinContributor

Workers processing pork at a food factory in China this month.
AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
About five years ago, I was giving a lecture in my livestock handling class at Colorado State University about animal welfare, and when I turned to write on the whiteboard, I had a light bulb moment. I immediately was triggered to recall a moment during the floods of 2013 when I was driving home to Fort Collins from the Denver airport. Interstate 25 was flooded so I first drove east to get around it. Then I drove north, and everywhere I went, I found roads impassable.

Finally, I got out past Greeley, the agribusiness hub where JBS’s American division is currently headquartered, and went around the huge Kuner feedlot, which at the time was owned by JBS. The cattle were all dry but the flooding lapped around the edge of the feedlot. The water stayed out because JBS had done an excellent job of rebuilding it. And it was there that I finally found a bridge that was dry. It was only a foot out of the water and closed an hour later.

My students are often concerned that large corporations are bad, but my answer has always been badly managed is bad. I was thinking about that when this new epiphany struck me. Big is not bad, it is fragile.

That’s important now more than ever, because everything is bigger. When I first started my career as a designer of cattle handling systems in the early 1970s, the meat supply chain was more diversified with many smaller packing plants. In the city of Denver, there were several slaughterhouses and Los Angeles even had a whole row of companies on a single street. Each one of these plants processed 500 to 1,000 cattle per day.

But almost all of these smaller, independent plants have now closed. What drove these packers out of business was the transformation of the entire industry in the 1980s from selling retailers carcasses to packing and shipping meat in boxes.

Most of these independents were located in major cities. There was no room to build the additions required for all the extra cutting and they couldn’t afford to build new plants outside the city. It ushered in an era of closures and acquisitions. And today the big companies are running plants that are really massive: a single plant may process 2,000 to 6,000 cattle per day if it runs two shifts. A large, double-shifted pork plant may process 20,000 pigs per day.

A box of pork at Smithfield's processing facility in Milan, Missouri in 2017.
© 2017 BLOOMBERG FINANCE LP

Because today’s system is so concentrated - and slaughter and processing is done in fewer, larger plants - the pandemic we’re facing has overwhelmed this supply chain. There is an old saying “do not put all of your eggs in one basket.” When a supply chain becomes more concentrated, there is greater loss of supply when a single plant is closed. A Tyson beef plant in Kansas closed last year due to a fire, and it did cause some production disruptions, but other plants ran Saturday shifts to compensate. The supply chain was able to compensate for the temporary closure of a single large plant.

But without sufficient slaughterhouse space to process all the pigs and chickens that are growing today, farmers have been forced to euthanize poultry and pigs.

This is both a tragic waste of food and if euthanasia is done poorly there could be great animal welfare problems, and it can be really traumatic for the farm workers who have to do this.

A disruption or plant shutdown at any point along the chain is more likely to cause shortages that consumers can eventually see. Meat is not the only industry with a concentrated supply chain. Other food processors have shut down recently. And the pharmaceutical industry’s supply chain for common generic drugs may be even more concentrated. The raw materials are made in China and the pills are manufactured in India. There is a major difference between pigs and raw materials for manufacturing generic medicines. The system can handle a short disruption of several months because a supply of chemicals can be stored. Pigs cannot be stored because their numbers would quickly overcrowd the buildings.

Big operations are extremely cost efficient. That’s why they’ve been built this way. The downside is the fragility of the supply chains, as Covid-19 proves. This pandemic is going to be a wakeup call and I expect many to become a lot more interested in more distributed local supply chains. Local production provides the opposite: it will always be more expensive because fixed costs such as labor, electricity, and water to process each pig will be higher. But a local supply chain is less prone to disruption. It also has a lower dependence on long distance trucking. During the floods in Colorado, semi-trucks had a difficult time re-supplying many stores.

The bottom line is, there will always be a tradeoff. Big suppliers are low cost, efficient and fragile. More numerous local producers are more expensive, but the entire supply is more robust. It will be less prone to disruption from floods, fires, electric power failures, storms or diseases like coronavirus or others in the future.

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Issues like this are one reason I am not totally opposed to SOMETIMES using taxpayer funding (especially on a State or local basis) to aid certain types of smaller businesses or factories that help maintain critical supplies and infrastructure.

I feel the same way about REAL (not fake) recycling plants/systems that actually work to take something otherwise going to end up in landfills and make it into a useful product (or render it biodegradable).

That is because in 50 years of watching these trends, I know that 99 percent of the time; "recycle" means "bankruptcy" if one is going by totally short-term, immediate (with a year to five years) monetary profits and losses.

The same tends to be true on the mega-meat processing plants vs some smaller and more regional ones (that these days also tend to go bankrupt in the short term).

Both REAL recycling and REAL moves to decentralize some of the US/European food production have long-term benefits and even national security aspects to them.

Neither has to be all or nothing, I mean I still remember when the administration in DC "decided" that "all" paper would be recycled (this was Bush 1, not liberal time) including the Department of Justice where I worked.

I ended up with boxes of the stuff and even used the boxes to move to Europe because no lawyers would use it and the judges wouldn't accept documents printed on it (it was that bad).

That is not the sort of nonsense that should be encouraged - but some support for small companies trying new systems that actually do work (and then bring them up to scale on the open market) is penny wise and NOT pounds foolish (in my opinion).

But let's start with the food chain, the problems there are really now becoming glaringly obvious!

Housecarl said:

Hummm.....

Posted for fair use.....

Spain’s army predicts 2 more waves of coronavirus

A internal report by Spain's army says it expects there to be two more outbreaks of the coronavirus

abcnews.go.com

Spain’s army predicts 2 more waves of coronavirus
A internal report by Spain's army says it expects there to be two more outbreaks of the coronavirus
By JOSEPH WILSON Associated Press
May 8, 2020, 9:05 AM
3 min read

BARCELONA, Spain -- Spain’s army expects there to be two more outbreaks of the new coronavirus, according to an internal report seen by The Associated Press.

The army report predicts “two more waves of the epidemic” and that Spain will take “between a year and a year-and-a-half to return to normality.”


The document was published by Spanish newspaper ABC on Friday and later confirmed as authentic by the AP.

“There will be a second wave of COVID-19” in the autumn or winter the army report said, adding that it will be less serious than the initial outbreak due to higher immunity in the population and better preparations.

It said that a “possible third wave would be greatly weakened” next year if there is a vaccine available.

The report was produced by the army as its own forecast of the pandemic, which it can share with civilian authorities. Spain’s government has its own experts who make the final decisions on health policy, taking into account the opinion of other institutions and outside experts.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has warned that he considers it highly probable that the virus will make comebacks until a vaccine is developed.

Health officials in Spain are carrying out a epidemiological survey to determine the extent of the contagion, including the several thousand people who have been mildly ill with cough and high fever but never been tested in a hospital. There are also believed to be thousands more who were infected but never showed symptoms. On Friday, the health ministry said that medical workers had taken blood samples from over 46,000 people over the first week of the survey. It plans to test 60,000-90,000 overall.

Over 26,000 Spaniards are known to have died from the COVID-19 virus. Spain has gotten control over the outbreak which has infected a confirmed 260,177 people in the country and is now easing restrictions to activate its battered economy.

Spain’s army has played a major role in combating the virus under the nation’s state of emergency established in mid-March. Thousands of soldiers and military medics have deployed to set up field hospitals, disinfect nursing homes and transport hubs, and transport patients between hospitals and corpses to morgues.

When considering steps to prepare for the coming months, the army report said “it would be extremely important” to develop a contact tracing method using mobile phone applications. Spain so far has not done that and is relying on a local network of public health clinics to monitor future cases.

———

Follow AP coverage of the virus outbreak at Virus Outbreak and Understanding the Outbreak

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No evidence or assumptions presented in the article.......

Ragnarok said:

I am so completely disgusted with the members here who are saying it is all a hoax and refuse to even show those who may have at risk family/friends the simple courtesy of wearing a mask and gloves while out in public.

The self-centered arrogance of so many members here is appalling.

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Problem is that we have many well intentioned people in the liberty movement [I share the sentiment as well] that have the attitude of 'nobody is going to tell me what to do.' I get it, government edicts of all flavors are bad and many of them destroy personal freedom and of course never let a crisis go to waste. Just don't let the bad get in the way of the good.

I wear a seat belt in my car not because of the seat belt laws but because it's common sense. I wore a helmet when I had a motorcycle and ATV and was riding not because it was the law but because it's common sense. I wear PPE when in crowded grocery stores not because Governor Whitless has her Nazi on but because it's common sense.

Generic face coverings are pretty useless as many realize but a fitted N95 respirator, nitrile gloves and glasses/goggles with eye shields provide a decent amount of protection for such short duration events. I was doing it well before the recommendations and will probably keep doing it for awhile after the recommendations expire.

With an engineered virus that is probably an active biological weapon and with still knowing so little about long term ramifications and how the genetic payload is working it's beneficial to us as individuals to take reasonable precautions not because anyone tells you to but because it's common sense.

I have not talked to my niece in a long time but she also is of the mindset that nobody is going to tell her what to do. And if someone did tell her what to do she would do the exact opposite. I'm pretty sure that knowing her she didn't take any precautions during this time period and is probably going to pay for it with her life.

I've said it many times here but I'm sure none of us would sit down with a revolver with one chamber hot and play Russian Roulette for any amount of money. But that is exactly what we are doing with a biological weapon and even Trump himself publicly says it probably came from the Wuhon lab but won't go so far to say it was weaponized.

Feel lucky??

jward said:

Shout out flyover to Portland health care workers..
Tyler Rogoway
@Aviation_Intel
1h

Hometown Eagles’ cockpit video of today’s flyover:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1258976168344121347

View: https://twitter.com/Aviation_Intel/status/1258976168344121347?s=20

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Very cool. We had the Navy Blue Angel's fly around our hospitals here in Dallas Tuesday to honor healthcare workers. I was able to get outside to see them. Felt very good.

Indiana
Here's a look at our ICU beds and ventilator capacity for the past week and back in April:

5/8
ICU beds: 2719 total
39.9% available, 17.7% in use cov, 42.4% in use non-cov
Vents: 3026 total
81.1% available, 7.2% in use cov, 11.7% in use non-cov

5/2
ICU beds: 2929 total
42.4% available, 16.6% in use cov, 41% in use non-cov
Vents: 3069 total
80.5% available, 8% in use cov, 11.5% in use non-cov

4/24
ICU Beds: 3272 total
44.3% available, 19% in use cov, 36.7% in use non-cov
Vents: 3215 total
78.3% available, 10.1% in use cov, 11.6% in use non-cov

Ragnarok said:

At least until the effects are known... The Swine Flu vaccine killed more people than the disease, IIRC...

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Hmmm! Can't find that on GOOGLE. Possibly you could?

Ragnarok said:

At least until the effects are known... The Swine Flu vaccine killed more people than the disease, IIRC...

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I was at Subic Bay, Philippines in 1976 when the first bout of swine flu hit. We’d heard all these nasty rumors coming from the states about a lot of people dying not from the bug but from the vaccine. Also heard rumors we were going to have the take the shot, a bunch of us said, ‘naaaah, ain’t gonna...’ when our doc (corpsman) mentioned we were going to have to get the shot one day.

Welp, lo and behold, our next to last morning muster before getting underway for 76 days of sixty cycle sunshine and chasing bad guys our illustrious, peach-pelted poobah XO gave us all a direct order to take the shot. We were trapped, like rats, couldn’t leave, XO had us stay in formation until Doc got his shot box at the pier end of the brow and nailed our asses as we headed on to the boat to go below decks to prep for getting underway for the next morning.

I had never gotten so sick in my life, deathly ill. Still got underway but for almost two weeks I could hardly function. 12 of us got so damn sick off that shot there were a few times we couldn’t stand watch. I swore then I would never take another flu shot and haven’t to this day.

May kill my dumbass for not but so be it. Anytime the med industry starts pumping out vaccines because of some panicked herd they are always willing to hit a moving target just to be the first to get the product into the market place. And usually it’s to the demise of the targeted sector of the population.