White House turns to Big Tech to fix coronavirus blunders while classifying previous conversations Faced with a growing barrage of criticism over how it has handled the outbreak of the coronavirus, the White House has turned to tech giants to help it tackle the pandemic. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy held a meeting on Wednesday with representatives from Facebook, Google, Amazon, Twitter, Apple, …
The good news about anything being classified is the president will announce it at the next press conference. Just give him a big map of the US and a marker pen.
Dear Chris,
Believe it or not, some of us that believe in God and take the Bible seriously, are, for that very reason, unhappy with our Dear Leader, who manipulates the greed of so-called Evangelicals. I don't think there are many of us, certainly not enough to effect much change. At some recent count, only one electoral delegate in about a thousand for the Republican Party primaries.
Because we are not the same, and even if we are just a minority, I would, please, request that you do not mix us all in the same bag. Please just treat us with the respect that you try to use with crazy little minorities. Alas, the Gentleman in Chief got elected because there are millions and millions of like-minded induviduals to his delusions. Puts us in an awkward spot, where we try to get sense into people, and it is very, very hard - for example, I couldn't convince our pastor to stop meetings, until the evidence and pressure was so overwhelming that he had to. People who think, and also believe, is not a contradiction, but I must admit is rather rare.
Anon because it's obvious that bigots out there are unsafe. As part of a tiny minority, having to deal with persecution requires a bit of paranoias.
Rumors:
* Pence was made chairman of the government's response so that when things go south he can be replaced on the election ticket and Trump can claim no-fault on the deaths.
* Trump is going on a multi-week vacation, so that he can claim it was all their fault the government didn't turn this around. He really likes blaming other people for fouling things up, and he is blameless of course - "they failed us all" he'll say.
And when interviewed about the virus at the CDC, all he could do was brag about his poll numbers. That's all he cares about (oh, and on top of this, his brag was a lie..)
I hate to break it to the Whitehouse, but most other governments are giving press conferences about the current state of the SARS-COV-2 (aka COVID-19) multiple times during the course of a day.
Giving information like how many government run, free testing stations have been set up, how many thousands of people have been tested and how many infections and deaths have been reported...
Maybe a benefit of communism/socialism/normal western democracies that the US might come to regret rejecting. A fascinating programme on the BBC last night (in part) reflected on the impact that the Black Death had on Britain. Having killed off a goodly part of the serf class, the resultant social changes were not what the aristocracy would have wished for (and tried to prevent - ultimately failing n the main).
What a surprise. Trump's first response was to deny that there is danger, next to minimize it (not as bad as influenza? COVID-19 has about 10 times influenza's fatality rate), then to blame somebody else (Obama, he said? the regulatory process for vaccines which Trump complained about has been in effect since 1997 and had nothing to do with Obama), and now to cloak his administration's response in secrecy -- as classified information.
There's been no noticeable, large-scale action by the Feds. They're thrashing, which is a very poor way to respond to any looming crisis.
But Facebook, Twitter, and Google could make a start by aggressively knocking out misinformation in their respective bailiwicks -- no, drinking bleach will not help; Jim Bakker's silver colloid is completely ineffectual; yes, the virus is spreading; and no, it is not "a common cold" (as Limbaugh said); yes, sanitizing wipes kill the virus as long as they're at least 60% alcohol; no, closing borders at this point will not help. Etc.
My guess: Zero effective action from the Zuckerman. Near-zero from Twitter. Possibly some window-dressing from Google, ie, notifications on the search page... but no modification of the search algorithm to block or warn about crap-and-scam coronavirus disinformation.
I'm not sure what "big tech" can do other than work on a vaccine and on anti-viral treatments. Tracking the outbreak using genetics is flashy and cool, but it's tracking, not preventing or curing or even ameliorating symptoms.
Gonzalo Raposo is quoted: "If big tech gains access to medical data and patterns, they can support containment efforts by quickly pinpointing the source of illness within vulnerable communities."
Riiiiiight. The US doesn't have the physical capacity to do extensive testing for the virus right now. By the time enough test supplies are manufactured and distributed -- say a month -- the horse will have well and truly left the barn and anything big tech can do to "support containment efforts" will be moot. Afterwards, big tech will do a superlative job of retroactive analysis I'm sure.
"not as bad as influenza? COVID-19 has about 10 times influenza's fatality rate"
Does it?
It's now looking to be below 1% possibly as low as low as .2%.
They are cases of people contracting it with NO symptoms at all.
The figures can look scary, but once you rule out the elderly and those with existing respiratory conditions, the numbers are very low indeed.
In fact resources would be be spent monitoring those in these brackets rather the mass hysteria that is currently going on.
But sure, put on your face mask on, if it makes you feel better.
If you don't understand how people die from it, you are free to learn firsthand.
To crash a person takes time. And much longer if a hospital is actively trying to keep you alive. It is when the immune overreaction has finally killed the mucus-clearing cilia cells then you then get the pneumonia. And then you slowly suffocate, with the lack of oxygen killing various organ systems one by one. Takes time, this dying.
Look at Italy. You know, 100's per day? That's because they were infected 3-4 weeks ago, and have been critical for up to 2 weeks before finally dying. The numbers of dying - the rate of deaths - go up the farther into the cycle of infection we go.
"the numbers are very low indeed." Fuck you, and sympathies to Li Wenliang's wife and children.
That answer is completely unrelated to the point that was made. We all know how people die from it, but since we don't know how many people have been infected, we can't know what the fatality rate is. All we know is how many of the known infected die, but since we don't know the size of the infected population we can't produce an accurate %age figure.
1000 people infected, 30 dead, that's 3%, but if there are another 9000 people infected that we don't know about, because they only show mild symptoms, it's "only" a 0.3% death rate.
No consolation for the loved ones of those who do die, of course, but let's keep a sense of proportion. Over the course of the outbreak number of people dying per day on average is still well below that for 'flu or traffic accidents. Knee-jerk reactions don't help anyone.
Are you really suggesting that 90% of infections are so mild that people don't even realise that they've got it? In that case I will suggest that you're either incredibly stupid, or that you have some sort of agenda for coming out with such crap.
If 90% of the infected were asymptomatic then infections would be cropping up EVERYWHERE with absolutely no indication of where and when they became infected. Since that is not the case, and tracing recent contacts has identified the source in almost all new infections, then that completely wipes out your 90% argument.
And at that point the rest of your arguments collapse.
Are you really suggesting that 90% of infections are so mild that people don't even realise that they've got it? In that case I will suggest that you're either incredibly stupid, or that you have some sort of agenda for coming out with such crap.
And your medical qualifications for that diagnosis are what, exactly?
The official statement from the World Health Organization is: "The most commonly reported symptoms included fever, dry cough, and shortness of breath, and most patients (80%) experienced mild illness.." Without thorough random testing we simply cannot know the actual infection rate.
If 90% of the infected were asymptomatic then infections would be cropping up EVERYWHERE with absolutely no indication of where and when they became infected. Since that is not the case,
Really? So how do you explain the cases in the US in areas where no identified first case has been found?
And at that point the rest of your arguments collapse.
We need much more in the way of hard numbers to reach that conclusion.
I am not making a 'diagnosis', and my conclusions require no medical qualifications.
In countries that have actually been isolating patients and tracing their movements it has almost always been possible to trace them back to a point of contact with someone who has also displayed symptoms of the virus.
You mention the US having cases crop up with no identifiable source. Perhaps that is because until today your Tweeter-in-Chief has done his best to deny that there is actually anything at all to be concerned about. There has been little testing, no isolation, and no tracing. So I'm not surprised that the US has cases magically appearing from nowhere.
If as you claim 90% of the infected are asymptomatic then stopping people with symptoms from travelling would only have had a 10% effect on the virus spread, and you would find plenty of instances where one member of a family is infected but the other members show no symptoms at all. Please present your evidence of the virus travelling long distances without a symptomatic traveller, or of groups in close contact where only 10% present symptoms.
[Are you really suggesting that 90% of infections are so mild that people don't even realise that they've got it? In that case I will suggest that you're either incredibly stupid, or that you have some sort of agenda for coming out with such crap.
If 90% of the infected were asymptomatic then infections would be cropping up EVERYWHERE with absolutely no indication of where and when they became infected. Since that is not the case, and tracing recent contacts has identified the source in almost all new infections, then that completely wipes out your 90% argument.
And at that point the rest of your arguments collapse.]
Wrong. Simply wrong. Your whole premis contradicts itself.
We just don't know whether or not a person can catch it and only display symptoms similar to those of the common cold and recover without even realising it. We won't know for sure unless the whole population is tested; at the moment the majority of those actually being tested are a) those with definite symptoms, b) those who have been in contact with those who have definite symptoms, and c) those who have recently returned from areas where there have been outbreaks.
So far the mortality rate is 3.7% of confirmed cases ONLY. According to the WHO website 4,607 people have died as a result of contracting Covid-19 (out of 124,518 definite cases); but it is simply not known how many people might have contracted it and simply recovered without knowing they ever had it or being tested for it.
We simply.
do.
not.
know.
enough about its pathology.
And probably never will until LONG after Covid-19 is consigned to the history books.
No, we don't know what percentage are asymptomatic carriers, similar to Typhoid Mary.
But what we can say is that from the way we've seen the virus spread so far that the percentage of people that are asymptomatic is certainly not 90%.
the percentage of people that are asymptomatic is certainly not 90%.
You're the one who brought "asymptomatic" into it, no-one has suggested that those numbers are high. The question is what percentage of people just have sufficiently mild symptoms that they don't report them or get tested. WHO figures suggest that it could be quite high.
I think he's suggesting that we keep a sense of proportion and rationality, stop panic buying toilet paper (seriously, wtf is with that? It's not like Covid19 causes diarrhea!) and that people should keep calm and carry on. Preferably with washing your hands a bit more and otherwise taking reasonable and rational actions to limit the ability of the virus to spread.
Screaming OMG, we're all going to die!1!!11!11! as some people are doing and whipping up a frenzied panic doesn't help anybody, and the economic damage from the panic is going to cause considerably more damage than the worst case deaths. A few years ago in the UK we had a pretty bad year with Influenza (ie; flu) which led to hospitals being overloaded and the elderly dying off in droves to the point the mortuaries were full and they were sticking dead bodies in hired freezers in the carparks.
Nobody even really noticed that (ok, there were a couple of newspaper headlines) and there wasn't a panic. The stark reality is that from the information reasonably available Covid19 might in the worst possible case be somewhat worse than that was, which was considered completely normal by everybody. This is obviously unfortunate for the elderly and those with compromised immune systems but this is not the end of the world even in the worst case.
Screaming OMG, we're all going to die!1!!11!11! as some people are doing and whipping up a frenzied panic doesn't help anybody
I agree but the problem is we just don't know.
Some experts predict 100,000 deaths, worst case, though that's no small number
On the other hand we have the governments of the UK and Germany saying 70% to 80% will be infected, and best evidence from China (100,000 infections, 3,000 dead) is that the mortality rate is 1% to 3%. If that's so; between half a million and 1.5 million will die in the UK and Germany.
We are also told 20% will become so severely ill that they will require hospital treatment. Despite going into a "delay phase" any day now, no one seriously believes we have the ability to treat that many people.
That could well mean 10 million dead - So panic may not be entirely irrational.
Well, Trump's health advisor recently broke ranks and said that pretty much everything Trump has said is wrong.
The numbers he gave were 1% for SARS-COV-2 and 0.1% for the Flu - so 10x the casualty rate of the flu. if it's any higher (numbers are still changing, it's suspected that China has been heavily massaging their numbers etc...) then it's going to be higher than 10x.
By comparison, influenza related deaths range from 12,300 to 61,000 in the US (2010-2019), with known cases ranging from 9.3 to 45 million. But that is comparing real data (https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/index.html) for influenza vs. total speculation for COVID-19. So apples - oranges.
You don't know how many people are infected with the seasonal flu either, since most people also have mild symptoms and never get tested for it.
So the percentage for flu is no more, no less an estimate than for COVID19. And it's still 10× lower. And flu has both vaccines and medicine against it to mitigate its effect.
So yeah, not overreacting is good, but not underreacting also is.
https://ourworldindata.org/covid-testing-10march
210, 144 tests for COVID 19 done by 10th March.
Here are the "Epidemiological links" table:
https://www.cdc.go.kr/board/board.es?mid=&bid=0030
The back traced from people with Covid 19, back to people they interacted with, then tested those.
Now the problem with this whole "you catch it, poof your get better" nonsense, is that these people would still show anti-bodies for it and show up in those tests.
So you might wish there are a whole load of people infected that just got over it, but that would not fit the data. Any one that got ill, would then flag a whole range of contact testing in South Korea which would then count all these "got better" people.
"No consolation for the loved ones of those who do die, of course"
I'm sure there will be some Republicans offering "thoughts and prayers"! Like they usually do.
Of course not, and that's not what they meant.
Wash your hands - with soap, while muttering or humming whichever 20sec sequence helps you.
Clean surfaces.
Avoid casual close contact. Don't shake hands, don't kiss, etc.
Above all, don't panic.
If you go out and stockpile all the soap, then someone else will have none. Then they will spread it, perhaps to someone whose body can't handle the infection. That someone might be you, or someone you love.
Depends whether your Government refuses to close Schools or not:
Petitions: UK Government and Parliament
Petition: Close Schools/Colleges down for an appropriate amount of time amidst COVID19.
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