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Category: Uncategorized
John Never Heard Of The Immigrant Dr. Albert Sabin — Or Edna St. Vincent Millay, It Seems…
As to the second name, above — I’ll requote his fellow blogger’s invocation of her, this very morning — as John also doesn’t seem to read his own site, for comprehension:
“History isn’t one damn thing after another — it’s the same damn thing over and over again….”
Here is his ill informed punchline:
“…What this tells me is that the virus cannot be contained via contact tracing, etc., because it’s too widespread already. We don’t (and won’t) have the capacity to test everyone everywhere anytime in the foreseeable future. We must recognize that the idea that the virus can be stamped out entirely is quixotic at this point….”
Nope. Please read up on Polio, and Dr. Albert Sabin’s… vaccine. Able assist, from another… immmigrant… Dr. Jonas Salk. Heh.
We eradicated polio — widespread in the US, just 85 years ago. John is… thus M. St. Vincent-Millay’s dunce here.
Geez, John — don’t lie just to try to advance your “hurry to open” agendas. Geez.
[Oh — and the gif he uses in his, as a rotating model –is not COVID-19 — not sure how the Chicago After-Effects employing freelancer came by it, but it is… actually… closer in appearance, in an ironic twist, to the polio virus. Note that the tips of the stalks need triple… buds — not single ones. But why be… accurate, right, John?
The above annoying one is COVID-19. Just fyi. You’re welcome.]
[U] What One Hate-Filled Old Man [Hinderaker] “Sees” — In Reduced 2020 US Mortality-Rates…
What to make of this government data? A sensible explanation would be that [even as we now can prove the Earth is vibrating less, due to vastly reduced heavy machinery operation — and 18 wheel truck travel] fewer people are dying from all causes — from flu to traffic accidents… because we. are. all. Staying. Home.
But even as John opens with a passing mention of this likelihood, he discounts it, because it doesn’t neatly fit his latest “business owners are being harmed” lament.
It is geninely baffling: John reads a government chart… and loses his little mind.
He cannot fathom… or abide the notion… that the scientists, and the science — are right — the shelter in place policy has bent the curve — the curve on ALL deaths, in the US.
Instead, John must find a way to “blame someone” — for what any other sane person would call good news.
He really is an embittered old man — reduced, to ever-yelling at “those damn kids” — to… get off his lawn. [Update: he rewrote parts of his during the afternoon today, toning down much of the vitriol against pandemic modeling efforts. So it goes.]
S A D…
Updating — Hinderaker’s / Trump’s Folly: Malaria Drug Increasing Mortality, At VA Hospital, In Virginia.
UPDATED 04.21.2020 @ 6:45 PM EDT: Let’s put a stop to this nonsense. Trump is wrong. So is Hinderaker. It is… pure quackery. End update.
For the moment, I will withhold the source / link for this story, as I work to verify that it is not yet another Q-Anon disinformation salvo.
I will watch closely, for MORE RELIABLE news outlets on it — and if legit, I’ll link it, even if it is originally from a very-nutty fringe-right wing blog source. I support science — real science, and if this proves Trump right, so be it. If it proves him wrong — also. . . so be it:
. . . .South Dakota has secured access to a large number of doses of Hydroxychloroquine from the national stockpile to conduct a series of tests, in conjunction with some of the Midwest’s major hospital groups.
There will be two tracks: one will test Hydroxychloroquine among those who have tested positive for COVID-19 and have been hospitalized. The second will be prophylactic, testing the drug among high-risk populations that have not been hospitalized, like health care workers. This will be a double-blind study that begins with a clinical trial involving 2,000 patients, but could be expanded to as many as 100,000. This study will tell us more about the effectiveness of Hydroxychloroquine than any other study has done, to my knowledge, to date. . . .
So it goes. The only close one, at ClinicalTrials.gov — is being run out of Singapore; Identifier: NCT04342156. So. . . I remain duly skeptical. But onward, just the same.
Sunny now, after two inches of. . . overnight snow — in mid-April. Crazy; grin.
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Of Tiny Hands — Tiny Brains — And Tiny Protests…
But before we get to those matters, the newest tiny brain’s move… would be a [clearly lacking any rational basis, and therefore… yep, unlawful] complete ban on all inbound immigration. From my perspective, this would simply increase the odds that “the cure” for COVID-19 will come from outside the USA. Even if one is inclined to believe that immigration heightens pandemic risks [despite all the contrary data sets]. . . this proposed banning comes decidedly too late.
Idiocy, that — and malevolent idiocy, at that.
My central topic though, this morning, is John’s latest rant, on the puzzling notion that Fox is covering what are at most a few dozen people [per city], blithely but ignorantly protesting… for the “right” to infect themselves. Yawn. This is not news. This is a Tik-Tok stunt. [And we sadly have a tiny Tik Tok president. Ugh.] This is Astroturfed nonsense… we well-know it, even if Hinderaker is too abtuse to admit the same.
My opinion? Let them march all about, in public, in protest. And let the bio-science… Darwin clearly set out… duly select these chuckleheads… for extinction. Just keep these village idiots — and their Tangerine “Liberate Virginia!” leader… away — from my family. We won’t go near them. Let them. . . burn out.
Indeed, from the tiny minds, rise busy but tiny hands… spawning tiny… protests. More seriously, if they do decide to continue to defy the law — and prematurely break from shelter in place — they endanger us all. And far more so, than all immigrants combined, in 2020 — thus far. Mostly, they will endanger only their own elderly relatives — their families, and close contacts. Sad, really.
But not even tiny hand-wringing will result, from that.
Even so — onward… smiling — as this too shall pass. [We have moved the former site, here. Just FYI. There will be no more updates, over there. This one is a decidedly easier log-in, for quick commentary, on the train, for example.]
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The Stupid — It Burns. COVID-19… Is Not Anyone’s Normal… Flu.
For at least the fourth time in four weeks, Hinderaker omits from his analysis the notion that there. is. no. vaccine.
John blithely says that high sero-positive rates now emerging [small numbers / data, coming out now, in California] are… “good news“. Why?
Because [under his faulty math] — that might mean it is less lethal than originally thought. But that’s
canard, without a universally-available, cheap, safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine.
John writes, tonight:
“…So the evidence increasingly suggests that the [COVID-19] virus is a little more dangerous than seasonal influenza, but of the same order of magnitude. This would appear to have significant public policy implications….”
Indeed, it does. But just… not the ones John thinks.
People will die in wave after wave, perhaps declining waves, over time — but completely UNLIKE seasonal flu. The flu “season” ends every year due to herd immunity, from vaccinations — ones most seniors get courtsey of… Obamacare free, or nearly free.
In contrast, this COVID-19 viral pandemic will roll on and on, likely already mutating [as we are seeing, in parts of Asia at least anecdotally] — without any definitive end — as there will 
be no herd immunity, until Moderna’s vaccine candidate [or some other one] has reached perhaps 30 million Americans, primarily seniors. In the mean time, many, many will continue to die.
This I might guess John simply does not understand — not having studied Ebola, or Marburgs.
But [until he’s done more reading at U of Minn.’s own CIDRAP, for example] he really ought to stop — with his dangerously ill-informed remarks.
He is going to get people… killed.
That is not hyperbole. It is that stupid — to advocate [as he does] for “a super fast” re-opening policy, without a tested therapy [like Gilead’s very expensive Remdesivir candidate] — or a vaccine [like Moderna’s candidate].
Moron. Dangerously… moronic.
Hinderaker’s Very Odd Understanding Of The Word “Failure”…
Does it stem from his courtrooom experience? Where he regularly redefined many of his losses — as “victories“? Or, said another way — falsely redefined his opponents’ victories… as “losses“… in disguise?
Yep — that’s John, in a nutshell.
Tonight, John tells us NYC’s COVID strategies were “a failure“.
I’m certain John knows better; but let’s mark it anyway.
How many deaths did he forecast, had he been in charge?
When… did he nnounce a better plan… for anything? How? Where? Why?
What on Earth is he… smoking? How many more would be dead, had John’s “no abridging even the idiots’ liberties” mantra been the rule, there?
Idiotic.
Let’s leave it at that. It is easy to find fault, John — when you have no skin in the game… and so we will ignore him. He has earned it — to be sure.
Onward.
“In A Cell Culture…” Moron… MORON!
O.M.Gurd. John — playing doctor, again today.
He is all worked up this afternoon, because real scientists aren’t pushing Trump’s evidence-free preferred COVID-19 treatment… ahead of all others.
Unsurprisingly… Hinderaker again fails to notice a few things. Chief among these, is that Trump’s treatment has a very high toxicity / lethal side-effect profile — if even one too many pills are taken — in a day.
That explains why only advanced cases are seeing its experimental use: it is a dangerous drug. In malaria, it is given only when all else fails (same reason: if you receive three pills in a 24 hour period, as opposed to two… you are likely dead from its side effects!).
Here’s John:
“….[Quoting but not understanding a 2005 scientific journal]… ‘Chloroquine is effective in preventing the spread of SARS CoV in cell culture. Favorable inhibition of virus spread was observed when the cells were either treated with chloroquine prior to or after SARS CoV infection. In addition, the indirect immunofluorescence assay described herein represents a simple and rapid method for screening SARS-CoV antiviral compounds….’
Note that this study found chloroquine to be effective prophylactically, as well as as a treatment. The drug should have been on CDC’s radar from the beginning….”
In a cell culture. Not in humans. In a cell culture, blasting the dish with scorching radiation, or a flame thrower, if you prefer… ALSO is effective in stopping the virus.
In humans, though… the treatment kills the patient.
This John willfully ignores, because he sees a conspiracy, on the part of anyone who might observe that Trump is a moron, on biology.
I might observe that John is a moron, on bio-science, as well.
Moron… or worse: a feckless liar — if he does appreciate these subtleties. Tragically, his lies will kill many, many humans. You may be sure of it, to the extent that anyone takes the word of an old washed up retired lawyer, and hate-filled blog crank… for actual pandemic medical advice.
Or his tangerine leader’s. Ugh.
Disgusting.
More Of Hinderaker — Making Up Numbers: Easter Edition.
Just to preserve the record here:
Many policy experts believe China under-reported her deaths from COVID-19. Many also believe a second wave of deaths in China is underway — but being completely censored this time around.
Even so, to adhere to his cramped views, John assigns only an overall 10-to-one under-reporting factor, to China. [And he assumes Russian deaths out of the equation entirely.]
“…UPDATE: Last time I posted these numbers, I included a global fatality number that assumes China is vastly underreporting its deaths, as most believe. I will do that again: if China is underreporting by a factor of 10–i.e., the true Chinese number is 10 times the one being used by the WHO–then the current global fatality total is 26% of an average flu season, per the WHO…”
I’ve seen several accounts that assume it was five to ten times worse than that. [This is why most economies are largely being shuttered: to save hundreds of thousands of lives.]
But to admit that would ruin John’s errant thesis. [Of course if we persist with strict measures to save lives, and succeed — and thus the ultimate US death total ends below 100,000 — John will claim (wrongly) that he was right and we ruined the economy for nothing. Idiotic argument, that.]
From my perspective, and of equal import, the facts would imply that if we reopen too soon, our June/July second wave of deaths (and they will come, no matter what) may be much worse than John’s rather silly, and thus childish, guesses. That is, with China now feeling its second wave, we are completely blind to just how bad it really is, there. Mr. Xi is stifling the real numbers.
To be clear, I do wish John was right — no one wishes for escalating loss of life totals — but I know from experience (watching Ebola epidemic waves… over a decade) he is… wrong.
And his rush to make money (restart the economy)… will kill many senior citizens — and many healthy younger people.
I dissent.
Pax tecum here at Easter.
Perhaps The Silliest Line John Ever Wrote…
I. Can’t. Even.
Claiming to explain for the “all the assembled faithful“, in his brain-dead far-right world, how unfair everyone is being to Trump — on COVID-19, he actually wrote this down — and did not immediately delete it, in embarrassment:
“…No doubt, they also will blame Trump for the recession that will be caused, not by the virus, but by government’s reaction — overreaction, in my opinion — to the virus….”
Government?! “Government over-reaction?” [For the purpose of evaluating John’s argument, one must suspend disbelief, about whether thinking humans can consider COVID just another seasonal flu…]
John apparently thinks Trump is… in no manner the head of the executive branch. [I would grant him that Trump is the most incompetent head in human history — and probably cannot even spell half his powers… but that is of scant moment — viz:] It was not a judicial branch decree that mandated the shelter in place. It was not legislation [i.e., not the Congress]. No, it was SOLELY via federal level executive orders, inside Trump’s own clearly mal-adaptive administration.
But in John’s bat-shittery… Trump was apparently out golfing — when it all went down. [Oh. Dang it…. he was.] Hinderker is thus speaking an inadvertent truth, I suppose: Trump WAS out golfing for most of February… as the bodies were piling up.
I guess John thinks of the far-right… as dumber than a bag of hammers.
And again, perhaps… he isn’t too terribly far off. But the idea that Trump’s now openly admitted [by John!]… assine fecklessness… will sway independents his way in the general election is…
I N S A N E.
