New Motto

There's just two kinds of people in this world - and you should avoid them both.

Overheard

Fake News:
When the media reports what you said, shows video of you saying it, and asks you questions about it.

COVID-19 Update

Growth Rates

Cases:
1.07 - World
1.09 - USA

Dead:
1.11 - World
1.17 - USA

There was lots of hopeful punditry yesterday (including your favorite blogger here) about how the numbers may be indicating a slowdown and that maybe we're seeing the beginnings of the inflection point, where the curve starts to level off.

Except for the growth in number of cases in the USA, all the Growth Rates ticked up a little.

Today's Tweet

It would be a shame if this video that exposes Mitch McConnell got tons of retweets and moved from 890,000 views to 1 Million views by tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/w4M7IwgVd9 01#FBR

— Tomthunkit™ (@TomthunkitsMind) April 7, 2020

Today's Brian

When 45* blusters about how great all the COVID-19 testing is going, there's an element of truth to it - surprise!

But, as usual, the element of truth is at the surface, and you don't even have to drill down to get to a look at just how FUBAR this "response" is right now.

I'm sure they told President Stoopid that ya gotta get the testing in place so we can see where we are, and to map out how to get where we need to go.

And we've done well in ramping up the number of tests conducted. But there are glitches - because this is Cult45 and there are always fucking glitches.

First, get thru Brian's thing.

Brian Tyler Cohen

Now then, focusing in on the continuing testing fuckup:

1. We weren't adequately supplied with testing kits. And this is NOT an Obama problem. Obama knew there were problems, and he talked about it, and he asked Republicans every year for more money for CDC and FEMA and DOD so they could get us ready for this kind of threat, but somehow, Congress just couldn't see their way clear to ease up on any of the stoopid "sequestration" constraints.
2. WHO offered us kits and we turned 'em down. I think that's because somebody closely connected to this White House felt they deserved to get a paycheck out of it.
3. Testing finally starts to get ramped up, but this fuckin' moron 45* thinks that sticking a swab up somebody's nose is all there is to it. The reason he can brag about how great the testing is going while we still don't know what the fuck is going on, is that we have a shitload of tests sitting in boxes waiting to be processed.

So yes, we're #1 in test volume,

 ...but like I said, that's the number of tests performed - the number of samples collected - but we have yet to figure out how to boost the processing throughput so those tests can actually tell us something useful.

And, BTW, one of the numbers that really matters is the Tests/Million Population, and we're #44 on that list.

Overheard

Him: I'm exhausted - I went out for a walk, and it's usually a good way to relax and enjoy some time to myself and not have to worry about much of anything. But now - with all this COVID-19 thing - I have to watch every step, and make sure nobody gets too close, and I have to practically live in fear of every stranger. It's pretty awful just walking down the street.

Her: And now you know how almost every woman feels almost every day of her life.

 

Today's Pix

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COVID-19 Update

Growth Rates

Cases:
1.05 - World
1.09 - USA

Dead:
1.06 - World
1.14 USA

The increase in cases is slowing here in the US - doubling in 8 days instead of every 3-5. Unfortunately, since the growth in number of cases is a leading indicator, it can mean the increase in deaths could accelerate for a while, because that's a trailing indicator.

It makes some sense that they've been warning us over the last couple of days that this week could be pretty grim.

Trying to look ahead, the main problem I see is that President Stoopid will again start pressing for "re-opening the country" before it should, which could make recovery more difficult, and set the stage for another outbreak in the fall and winter, which could be made worse than it has to be because we jumped back in too soon.

The kicker there is that the longer we wait, the more likely it is that lots and lots of jobs won't be there when it's time to go back to work.

But then again, risking your life for someone else's business has to be worth quite a bit more than 10 bucks an hour.

Today's GIF

Fake News Update

John Oliver - on the fakest of the fake - OANN