Coronavirus thread

[Karl Henning]

     The best available strategy is 1) transmission suppression 2) vaccine plus suppression 3) gradual development of herd immunity.

     Climate change and environmental destruction mean humans and animals will continue to migrate, creating more opportunities for unknown viruses to spread.

3 is also known as thin the electoral herd.

[T. D.]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-01/cdc-money-for-covid-tracking-tests-has-been-stalled-for-months

A Trump administration ad campaign is the only notable spending from the $1 billion in virus funding

The bulk of a $1 billion funding package intended to help the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fight the Covid-19 pandemic in the U.S. has remained unspent since being authorized more than five months ago, according to people familiar with the matter.

The funding, part of the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act, also known as the PPP, was set aside by Congress on April 24 for "surveillance, epidemiology, laboratory capacity expansion, contact tracing," improvements to data systems and boosting testing for Covid-19.
Trump administration officials directed $200 million of the money to a $300 million ad campaign about the virus, according to a CDC spokesman. The ad campaign is being developed outside the agency. CDC Director Robert Redfield said last month the agency needs billions more to help distribute a vaccine. Other funds allocated to the agency have been steered to the White House's "Operation Warp Speed" vaccine development program, which CDC is a part of.

But most of the allocation has sat idle despite requests over the summer from CDC to access some of the money, according to one person familiar with the matter. Two of the people familiar with the issue confirmed the CDC didn't have access to the money as recently as September. The people asked not to be identified discussing information that wasn't public.

[T. D.]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-02/trump-aide-hope-hicks-tests-positive-for-coronavirus-infection

Hope Hicks, one of President Donald Trump's closest aides, has tested positive for coronavirus infection, according to people familiar with the matter.

There was no indication that the president has contracted the virus, the people said. Hicks traveled with Trump aboard Air Force One to and from the presidential debate on Tuesday.

[vers la flamme]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-02/trump-aide-hope-hicks-tests-positive-for-coronavirus-infection

Hope Hicks, one of President Donald Trump's closest aides, has tested positive for coronavirus infection, according to people familiar with the matter.

There was no indication that the president has contracted the virus, the people said. Hicks traveled with Trump aboard Air Force One to and from the presidential debate on Tuesday.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/02/us/politics/trump-covid.html

Trump Tests Positive for the Coronavirus

[71 dB]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/02/us/politics/trump-covid.html

Trump Tests Positive for the Coronavirus

This was a question of time really. Trump avoided infection quite a long imo.

[BasilValentine]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/02/us/politics/trump-covid.html

Trump Tests Positive for the Coronavirus

Really? Hurray!

I have a $10 bet with a friend that Trump wouldn't finish a term in office and I may still have a chance if he dies!

Edit: It seems there were several people exposed to Hope Hicks who were in the debate room, none of whom wore masks. So, everyone in the hall is in danger of infection.

[T. D.]

https://news.yahoo.com/outbreak-secret-training-center-underlines-123852397.html

Outbreak at Secret Service Training Center Underlines Proximity of Virus to White House

[JBS]

Really? Hurray!

I have a $10 bet with a friend that Trump wouldn't finish a term in office and I may still have a chance if he dies!

Edit: It seems there were several people exposed to Hope Hicks who were in the debate room, none of whom wore masks. So, everyone in the hall is in danger of infection.

The latest via Twitter speculation is that (given that Hicks had tested negative just a few hours earlier), it's likely Trump and Hicks were infected about the same time. Also the president of Notre Dame, who was at the ceremony where Trump announced the Barrett nomination (and did not wear a mask), has announced he has Covid19.  So he's more likely to be the one who spread it into the White House.

[T. D.]

The latest via Twitter speculation is that (given that Hicks had tested negative just a few hours earlier), it's likely Trump and Hicks were infected about the same time. Also the president of Notre Dame, who was at the ceremony where Trump announced the Barrett nomination (and did not wear a mask), has announced he has Covid19.  So he's more likely to be the one who spread it into the White House.

Plus (from Bloomberg News; Lee has been cited on the Politics thread iirc):

North Carolina's Tillis Says He Has Tested Positive

Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, a member of the Judiciary Committee, said Friday he had tested positive for Covid-19. Another member of the panel, Mike Lee of Utah, announced he was positive earlier Friday.


Both were among the Republican senators who attended the Rose Garden ceremony last Saturday in which Trump announced the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. The senators sat a row behind senior White House staff and Vice President Mike Pence.



I say that's a definite cluster, as does the WHO (oh, but they're dominated by China... ). Let's hope it doesn't turn out to be a superspreader event.
[Added] Now add Kellyanne Conway.
[More] Donald Trump's campaign manager, Bill Stepien, tested positive for Covid-19 on Friday, becoming the latest associate of the president to become infected with the disease, spokesman Tim Murtaugh said late Friday.

Holy s**t, Batman! I think we have a superspreader event!
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/scotus-nomination-coronavirus-superspreader-white-house-senator-mike-lee-b749466.html

[T. D.]

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/03/ron-johnson-is-third-gop-senator-to-test-positive-for-coronavirus-in-two-days.html

Ron Johnson of Wisconsin is the third Republican senator to test positive for Covid-19 after President Donald Trump announced early Friday that he and the first lady had a positive diagnosis.

Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who attended the Amy Coney Barrett Supreme Court nomination announcement at the White House last Saturday, have also tested positive for the virus. Both are members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is the panel that will hold hearings on her nomination.

It is unclear where Johnson contracted the virus, but he was exposed earlier this week to someone who has since tested positive for the virus, according to his office.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/03/chris-christie-tests-positive-for-coronavirus.html

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has tested positive for the coronavirus.

"I just received word that I am positive for COVID-19. I want to thank all of my friends and colleagues who have reached out to ask how I was feeling in the last day or two," Christie wrote in a tweet on Saturday. "I will be receiving medical attention today and will keep the necessary folks apprised of my condition."

Christie's diagnosis comes as several aides and Senators who attended President Trump's Supreme Court nomination announcement at the White House last Saturday have since announced positive Covid-19 test results.

President Donald Trump announced early Friday that he and the first lady had a positive diagnosis and the president was taken to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Friday.

Christie helped Trump prepare for last week's presidential debate with Democratic nominee Joe Biden and was at the White House ceremony last weekend and said that no one was wearing masks during debate prep.

"No one was wearing masks in the room when we were prepping the president during that period of time," Christie said in an interview on ABC. "And the group was about five or six people, in total."

[MusicTurner]

Problems with the doctor's briefing regarding #45 today:

the doctor's wording implies that the president was diagnosed much earlier, '72 hours ago', meaning on Wednesday, and if that was the case, he exposed a lot of people to the virus, and without wearing a mask, during public meetings.
It's pretty easy to contradict this as a some kind of misunderstanding, but further evidence might turn up, supporting or dismantling such a timeline.

EDIT: the apparent clarification soon afterwards was that the doctor meant '3 days', not '72 hours' like he said.

Growing indications that the Rose Garden Ceremony at the White House last Saturday was a super-spreader event
https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2020-54401186
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/03/politics/donald-trump-coronavirus-walter-reed/index.html
WH journalists infected
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/three-white-house-journalists-test-positive-for-coronavirus-after-closely-covering-trump/2020/10/02/c907f1c4-04f5-11eb-b7ed-141dd88560ea_story.html

[ritter]

...
EDIT: the apparent clarification soon afterwards was that the doctor meant '3 days', not '72 hours' like he said.
...

How many hours were there in those 3 days? 

[André]

How many hours were there in those 3 days? 

There could be as little as 26 and no more than 74.

[MusicTurner]

Problems with the doctor's briefing regarding #45 today:

the doctor's wording implies that the president was diagnosed much earlier, '72 hours ago', meaning on Wednesday, and if that was the case, he exposed a lot of people to the virus, and without wearing a mask, during public meetings.
It's pretty easy to contradict this as a some kind of misunderstanding, but further evidence might turn up, supporting or dismantling such a timeline.

EDIT: the apparent clarification soon afterwards was that the doctor meant '3 days', not '72 hours' like he said.

(...)

Turns out however that the clarification has faults in itself - wrong doctor naming, and wrong spelling/description of the medicine:
https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/1312451937757876224/photo/1
https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1312479289531539456/photo/1
https://twitter.com/TheSteveHolzer/status/1312474399795150848

https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/1312474922447323137

Some have noted unusual traits in the current tweets coming from Trump's personal account too, suggesting help from other people.

[André]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2020/10/03/trump-covid-live-updates/

The White House on Saturday created a startling amount of confusion on the timing of President Trump's coronavirus diagnosis and the status of his health through a series of conflicting statements, injecting an extraordinary degree of uncertainty

WH chief of staff says Trump's vitals over past 24 hours are 'very concerning

White House chief of staff says 'next 48 hours critical'

[Todd]

Contract Tracing, Key to Reining in the Virus, Falls Flat in the West

Tracing is seen as a vital tool to avoid lockdowns and open economies, but that requires a robust system, widespread rapid testing and public trust. All are lacking in the West.

The West also ran up against the blunt fact that contact tracing, while useful in containing limited cases, has become overwhelmed by a new explosion of infections. In the past week, Europe has averaged about 60,000 new daily cases, while the United States is registering more than 40,000.

[Karl Henning]

Dear Donald,

Please get better.
Then lose the election.
Then leave office.
Then face charges.

xoxo — George

[krummholz]

Dear Donald,

Please get better.
Then lose the election.
Then leave office.
Then face charges.

xoxo — George

My thoughts exactly!

[Mandryka]

Contract Tracing, Key to Reining in the Virus, Falls Flat in the West

Tracing is seen as a vital tool to avoid lockdowns and open economies, but that requires a robust system, widespread rapid testing and public trust. All are lacking in the West.

These two links lead to the same article.

[Mandryka]

Contract Tracing, Key to Reining in the Virus, Falls Flat in the West

Tracing is seen as a vital tool to avoid lockdowns and open economies, but that requires a robust system, widespread rapid testing and public trust. All are lacking in the West.

The above article contains a link to a report which I was very glad to finally see

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.15.20191957v1.full.pdf

I'm sure I heard Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer of England,  say on a TV conference that the report said that only 20% expressed an intention to self isolate -- maybe I've misread it but that's not what they seem to be saying at all

Of those who reported having experienced symptoms of COVID-19 in the last seven days, only 18.2% (95% CI 16.4 to 19.9) said they had not left home since developing symptoms.

IMO this is the biggest elephant in the room.