Category Archives: Front Page

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Emergency Powers Forever. ‘Significant’ coronavirus mutation discovered, could make vaccine search ‘futile,’ study says

I don’t necessarily think this is a bad thing, but just remember this when people compare our case load with other countries. I don’t think anyone else does it this way. US virus numbers now include probable cases without tests

Price controls caused a large part of the problem. Why There Aren’t Enough Masks, and How to Get More

I have been more or less ignoring this but it shocked me when the Washington Post got involved. They are a pain to link to so here is this instead. Sources believe coronavirus originated in Wuhan lab as part of China’s efforts to compete with US

I guess they all want to kill Grandma and have no soul. Fed-Up Michiganders Stage Massive Protest Against Whitmer’s One-Size-Fits-All Lockdown Also this When Will The Riots Begin?

File this one under things that I hope are true. The Lockdown Is Loosening Whether Government Likes It Or Not

Glad we don’t have to find out if they can get worse. Frontier files for bankruptcy, says its broadband service won’t get any worse

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This was a choice. GOP Rep. Massie Warns US is ‘Weeks Away, Not Months,’ From Food Shortages

Another study that might go away because it is wrong think. Covid-19 epidemiological models and the Lombardy data

Power is hard to give up. California’s coronavirus reopening: Gavin Newsom’s six-point plan will alter daily life

By all published measures, Japan has been doing one of the best jobs of any country in the world. And still, the “public” wants more. Japan losing patience with government over COVID-19 response

Another study that no one will pay attention to. Taking STEM Courses Online Is Just As Good As In-Person Classes, Study Finds

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This is the chart that people should be paying attention to. It tracks total mortality so it is better then charts that only track reported COVID deaths. It also allows you to see how bad COVID has been (or not as the case may be) compared to other recent (and by that I mean within the last 5 years) spike in the death rates. Weekly mortality as deviations from the baseline (Z-score) for the past 4½ years in the data-providing EuroMOMO partners, in four age groups.

More importantly is the effect it will have on olive oil. Deadly olive tree disease across Europe ‘could cost billions’

This was a policy choice. Not something the COVID virus did. But people don’t want to take responsibility. Coronavirus Has Broken America’s Food Supply

Bloomberg News Killed Investigation, Fired Reporter, Then Sought To Silence His Wife

If you look at total mortality, Sweden is doing even better. And Japan is doing better then almost any modern country. Not sure why people keep acting like Japan is doing something wrong. Why isn’t Sweden exploding?

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Herd Immunity vs. Herd Mentality

Doctors at NYU Langone Health center conducted the largest study so far of US hospital admissions for COVID-19, focused on New York City. They found obesity, along with age, was the biggest deciding factor in hospital admissions, which may suggest the role of hyper-inflammatory reactions that can happen in those with the disease.

African nationals ‘mistreated, evicted’ in China over coronavirus

Kashkari Says U.S. May Face 18 Months of Rolling Shutdowns

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This was very clarifying and well worth reading. In particular, this part cleared up a mystery for me from other reports…..

To look at immunity takes a while. For example, with swine flu we didn’t really know how many people had been infected for nearly 12 months after the event because you have to give everyone’s immune systems time to respond and it takes weeks before you get that secondary response. What you are looking for in tests to check immunity is for antibodies. There’s an immediate immune response, which says there’s a virus in your cells. From that innate response your body builds on that so that next time you meet the virus you should be immune, but it could be a month down the line before you have a proper IGb (immunoglobulin) response.

They don’t have a choice. They are running out of places to put the oil. Even the ships are filling up. OPEC and allies agree to cut oil production to nearly 10 million barrels a day

Kentucky State Police record churchgoers’ license plates at Hillview in-person Easter service Related: DOJ: ‘Expect Action’ to Protect Churches From Tyrannical Local ‘Social Distancing’ Orders

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Preach it. Though I have to say that I suspect the the deaths wrongly attributed to COVID are balanced out by deaths due to COVID but not caught. Eight Reasons to End the Lockdowns Now

Article draws the wrong conclusions from a valid question. No one complained about the lack of evidence for 20-second hand-washing. So why did we treat face masks differently?

Similar story to one already posted, but this time from the UK instead of the US. Intensive care doctors question ‘overly aggressive’ use of ventilators in coronavirus crisis

Good to see this getting major media exposure, but other then that, nothing really new. Alex Berenson has been analyzing the data on the crisis on a daily basis for weeks and has come to the conclusion that the strategy of shutting down entire sectors of the economy is based on modeling that doesn’t line up with the realities of the virus.

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Roseland Hospital phlebotomist: 30% of those tested have coronavirus antibody

Coronavirus: low antibody levels raise questions about reinfection risk

Scientists struggle to explain how coronavirus moves through the air

No, NYC Is Not Running Out of Burial Space Due to COVID-19

I’ve read the plans to reopen the economy. They’re scary.

Preliminary German Study Shows a COVID-19 Infection Fatality Rate of About 0.4 Percent

Covid-19 in India: Food prices surge 3 times as supply chain takes a hit

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Shout it from the roof tops!!! Even as hospitals and governors raise the alarm about a shortage of ventilators, some critical care physicians are questioning the widespread use of the breathing machines for Covid-19 patients, saying that large numbers of patients could instead be treated with less intensive respiratory support.If the iconoclasts are right, putting coronavirus patients on ventilators could be of little benefit to many and even harmful to some.What’s driving this reassessment is a baffling observation about Covid-19: Many patients have blood oxygen levels so low they should be dead. But they’re not gasping for air, their hearts aren’t racing, and their brains show no signs of blinking off from lack of oxygen.That is making critical care physicians suspect that blood levels of oxygen, which for decades have driven decisions about breathing support for patients with pneumonia and acute respiratory distress, might be misleading them about how to care for those with Covid-19. In particular, more and more are concerned about the use of intubation and mechanical ventilators. They argue that more patients could receive simpler, noninvasive respiratory support, such as the breathing masks used in sleep apnea, at least to start with and maybe for the duration of the illness.

Virus May Spread Twice as Fast as Earlier Thought, Study Says

This is the problem with lock downs. It is not that they don’t work in the short term it is just that they can never end. Particularly if there is no vaccine and the virus is particularly virulent as the above link suggests. They remembered what happened two decades ago with SARS: People died, economies suffered. So they locked down their immigration hardest and soonest, deployed public health workers to follow up contacts of cases, got their hospitals shored up, and started publishing clear and consistent information and data. They flattened their curves before the rest of the world understood there would be curves to flatten. But in recent weeks, those curves have taken another chilling turn. The numbers of new cases in these places are creeping upward.

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For what it is worth…Hydroxychloroquine Update For April 6

Coronavirus: Can Japan’s ‘soft lockdown’ stop COVID-19?

In the interest of fairness, it remains to be seen if Sweden sticks to their guns. They have had a lot more deaths per capita then other Nordic countries and a lot more even then the US at this point. I still think they are doing it right for the long term, but it remains to be seen if they can stick to it. Has Sweden Found the Right Solution to the Coronavirus?

Germany’s coronavirus response: Separating fact from fiction