All things political. Coronavirus Edition. (19 Viewers)

[Maxp]

I fear we are really going to be in a bad place due to the obvious cuts to the federal agencies that deal with infectious disease, but also the negative effect the Affordable Care act has had on non urban hospitals. Our front line defenses are ineffectual and our ability to treat the populous is probably at an all time low. Factor in the cost of healthcare and I can see our system crashing. What do you think about the politics of this virus?

 

[Heathen]

IMF Sees Great Lockdown Recession as Worst Since Depression

The International Monetary Fund predicted the “Great Lockdown” recession would be the steepest in almost a century and warned the world economy’s contraction and recovery would be worse than anticipated if the coronavirus lingers or returns.In its first World Economic Outlook report since the...

www.bloomberg.com

Guess this recession has an 'official' name now.

 

[Heathen]

So far, there has been one protest in Ohio over the lockdown, and protests are scheduled in MN and MI.

Probably inconsequential at the moment, but we are not going to be able to keep people locked up forever.

I mean, yeah..But when people start saying 'screw science', that's when we'll start seeing many more people die.

I don't think anyone wants that.

 

[Beach Friends]

I mean, yeah..But when people start saying 'screw science', that's when we'll start seeing many more people die.

I don't think anyone wants that.

Correct, nobody wants that. But, we should also be talking to economists and other experts to take into account the costs - including the health costs - of a shutdown. And we should be taking into account the views of experts besides those who just happen to be in the room.

 

[Lapaz]

LLP p


I don't have a link, sorry. The Economist had a write up and a link to study by some Duke professors. Stanford is conducting a study on the West coast to get an how widespread the infection rate is there. The main problem is what it has always been - coming up with a denominator.

I think in the end the numbers are going to reflect what we already know - there are a lot more people who have been infected than the original numbers assumed.

It's a weird bug - IDK of too many flu strains that people have no idea they have had. So, while on one end of the spectrum it is deadly on the other end people are asymptomatic.

1st, this virus is NOT related to the flu virus. It is related to the cold virus.

2nd, while we don’t know the denominator in any country, we know the denominator on the cruise ships, because they were 100% tested and quarantined. Their fatality rate was about 1.5%, which is still awful. 15 times worse than the seasonal flu. These people got the best care, and many were caught very early, unlike most cases. Experts have predicted the fatality rate would be 2 to 3%, but it has been far worse everywhere. Some could be due to the strain of virus. We don’t know, but we do know it is very bad, and even if the denominator gets much higher, it is probably going to still be a terrible fatality rate.

 

[Beach Friends]

1st, this virus is NOT related to the flu virus. It is related to the cold virus.

2nd, while we don’t know the denominator in any country, we know the denominator on the cruise ships, because they were 100% tested and quarantined. Their fatality rate was about 1.5%, which is still awful. 15 times worse than the seasonal flu. These people got the best care, and many were caught very early, unlike most cases. Experts have predicted the fatality rate would be 2 to 3%, but it has been far worse everywhere. Some could be due to the strain of virus. We don’t know, but we do know it is very bad, and even if the denominator gets much higher, it is probably going to still be a terrible fatality rate.

Do you know the ages and underlying conditions of those infected on the cruise ship? I don't know that it is necessarily representative of the general population. Still, that is much lower than 3.4%.

BTW, why the need to say that this is not the flu? It's not obvious why that would be necessary comment to make when we already know we are comparing the morality between two different viruses.

 

[Heathen]

Correct, nobody wants that. But, we should also be talking to economists and other experts to take into account the costs - including the health costs - of a shutdown. And we should be taking into account the views of experts besides those who just happen to be in the room.

I mean I think as far as health goes it just means more and more lose their health insurance as they lose their jobs and we're back to square one discussing why the private health insurance mess just isn't a modern solution. It was bad before, now its just a moral obscenity. I don't know how many lives lost it will take for people to realize things need to change.

 

[Dadsdream]

My stimulus money arrived by direct deposit last night. Hooray for technology.

Now, for those getting paper checks . . .

The addition of the president’s signature won’t delay the payments, a Treasury spokeswoman said. The Internal Revenue Service plans to mail the first wave of checks next week, according to the spokeswoman.

Trump’s Signature Will Appear on Coronavirus Stimulus Checks

President Donald Trump’s signature will appear on the $1,200 checks being mailed to low- and middle-income households in the coming weeks, according to two officials familiar with the decision.

www.bloomberg.com

As I said before, swapping out the signature on the check won't delay anything. Duh.

 

[surada]

1st, this virus is NOT related to the flu virus. It is related to the cold virus.

2nd, while we don’t know the denominator in any country, we know the denominator on the cruise ships, because they were 100% tested and quarantined. Their fatality rate was about 1.5%, which is still awful. 15 times worse than the seasonal flu. These people got the best care, and many were caught very early, unlike most cases.

Experts have predicted the fatality rate would be 2 to 3%, but it has been far worse everywhere. Some could be due to the strain of virus. We don’t know, but we do know it is very bad, and even if the denominator gets much higher, it is probably going to still be a terrible fatality rate.

Some still want to dismiss the virus as the flu.. Why is that?

 

[Saintamaniac]

My stimulus money arrived by direct deposit last night. Hooray for technology.

Now, for those getting paper checks . . .

The addition of the president’s signature won’t delay the payments, a Treasury spokeswoman said. The Internal Revenue Service plans to mail the first wave of checks next week, according to the spokeswoman.

Trump’s Signature Will Appear on Coronavirus Stimulus Checks

President Donald Trump’s signature will appear on the $1,200 checks being mailed to low- and middle-income households in the coming weeks, according to two officials familiar with the decision.

www.bloomberg.com

As I said before, swapping out the signature on the check won't delay anything. Duh.

Apparently there is no consensus on the delay it will cause.

In unprecedented move, Treasury orders Trump’s name printed on stimulus checks

From the article:

The Treasury Department has ordered President Trump’s name be printed on stimulus checks the Internal Revenue Service is rushing to send to tens of millions of Americans, a process that could slow their delivery by a few days, senior IRS officials said.

 

[cuddlemonkey]

My stimulus money arrived by direct deposit last night. Hooray for technology.

Now, for those getting paper checks . . .

The addition of the president’s signature won’t delay the payments, a Treasury spokeswoman said. The Internal Revenue Service plans to mail the first wave of checks next week, according to the spokeswoman.

Trump’s Signature Will Appear on Coronavirus Stimulus Checks

President Donald Trump’s signature will appear on the $1,200 checks being mailed to low- and middle-income households in the coming weeks, according to two officials familiar with the decision.

www.bloomberg.com

As I said before, swapping out the signature on the check won't delay anything. Duh.

They aren't swapping the signature. They are reconfiguring the process to add his while still keeping the signature of the person that's actually authorized to sign them.

But the president is not an authorized signer for legal disbursements by the U.S. Treasury. It is standard practice for a civil servant to sign checks issued by the Treasury Department to ensure that government payments are nonpartisan.

The checks will instead bear Trump’s name in the memo line, below a line that reads, “Economic Impact Payment,” the administration officials said.

The IRS will mail the checks to people for whom it does not have banking information. Many of them have low incomes.

The checks will carry the signature of an official with the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, the Treasury Department division that prints the checks. The checks will follow direct deposits issued in recent days to the bank accounts of about 80 million people. Those payments do not include Trump’s name.

The decision to have the paper checks bear Trump’s name, in the works for weeks, according to a Treasury official, was announced early Tuesday to the IRS’s information technology team. The team, working from home, is now racing to implement a programming change that two senior IRS officials said will probably lead to a delay in issuing the first batch of paper checks. They are scheduled to be sent Thursday to the Bureau of the Fiscal Service for printing and issuing.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/coming-to-your-1200-relief-check-donald-j-trumps-name/2020/04/14/071016c2-7e82-11ea-8013-1b6da0e4a2b7_story.html

 

[Dadsdream]

In the world of "NO MATTER WHAT HE DOES, HE'S WRONG AND I HATE HIM" it's understandable that people would continue to find fault even as the direct deposits hit the banks today.

Bloomberg says the IRS can process five million paper checks a week. At that rate, it'll take months.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Even if there would be zero delay adding his signature to the checks you don’t think it’s an odd request?

And odd is putting it mildly

 

[surada]

1st, this virus is NOT related to the flu virus. It is related to the cold virus.

2nd, while we don’t know the denominator in any country, we know the denominator on the cruise ships, because they were 100% tested and quarantined. Their fatality rate was about 1.5%, which is still awful. 15 times worse than the seasonal flu. These people got the best care, and many were caught very early, unlike most cases.

Experts have predicted the fatality rate would be 2 to 3%, but it has been far worse everywhere. Some could be due to the strain of virus. We don’t know, but we do know it is very bad, and even if the denominator gets much higher, it is probably going to still be a terrible fatality rate.

I hope Trump's people are listening to you.. The basics are important and shouldn't be muddled for toxic Trump's political benefit.

Chaos, blame and misinformation don't help in a crisis.

 

[Saintamaniac]

Even if there would be zero delay adding his signature to the checks you don’t think it’s an odd request?

And odd is putting it mildly

It's just one more thing to look the other way on.

 

[dtc]

My stimulus money arrived by direct deposit last night. Hooray for technology.

Now, for those getting paper checks . . .

The addition of the president’s signature won’t delay the payments, a Treasury spokeswoman said. The Internal Revenue Service plans to mail the first wave of checks next week, according to the spokeswoman.

Trump’s Signature Will Appear on Coronavirus Stimulus Checks

President Donald Trump’s signature will appear on the $1,200 checks being mailed to low- and middle-income households in the coming weeks, according to two officials familiar with the decision.

www.bloomberg.com

As I said before, swapping out the signature on the check won't delay anything. Duh.

They didn't swap it. They added it in the memo section and there are many reports that say the addition is causing delays. And, if nothing else, it's wasting money on ink.

Tiny hands and a massive inferiority complex will be emblazoned on every one of those checks. Kudos!

 

[surada]

Do you know the ages and underlying conditions of those infected on the cruise ship? I don't know that it is necessarily representative of the general population. Still, that is much lower than 3.4%.

BTW, why the need to say that this is not the flu? It's not obvious why that would be necessary comment to make when we already know we are comparing the morality between two different viruses.

Cruise ships, churches, movie theaters, airliners and any place where people are crowded together ... like the USS Theodore Roosevelt is the perfect environment for spreading a contagion ...

What are you arguing here?

 

[Dadsdream]

Even if there would be zero delay adding his signature to the checks you don’t think it’s an odd request?

And odd is putting it mildly

In the long and colorful history of presidential election year self-promotion, it's definitely different, I'll grant you that.
Sometime in the next century's version of Pawn Stars, a guy is going to walk into the pawn shop with one of these checks, i guess?

 

[Lapaz]

LLP p


I don't have a link, sorry. The Economist had a write up and a link to study by some Duke professors. Stanford is conducting a study on the West coast to get an how widespread the infection rate is there. The main problem is what it has always been - coming up with a denominator.

I think in the end the numbers are going to reflect what we already know - there are a lot more people who have been infected than the original numbers assumed.

It's a weird bug - IDK of too many flu strains that people have no idea they have had. So, while on one end of the spectrum it is deadly on the other end people are asymptomatic.

Do you know the ages and underlying conditions of those infected on the cruise ship? I don't know that it is necessarily representative of the general population. Still, that is much lower than 3.4%.

BTW, why the need to say that this is not the flu? It's not obvious why that would be necessary comment to make when we already know we are comparing the morality between two different viruses.

First, I made the point that this isn't the flu virus, because you implied that it is the flu virus when you said "IDK of too many flu strains that people have no idea they have had." Since Trump and many conservatives have spread the misinformation that this is "just" the flu, I wanted to dis-spell any implication again.

Regarding your question about the cruise ship's demo. I haven't investigated that, but the cruise ship's demographics are probably older, yet I believe they tend to be healthy older people, since they are still able to travel to enjoy life. We have to be careful about leaning too heavily on their results, because the virus has been much more deadly everywhere else in even countries that have done vastly higher testing. Even countries that are testing at a rate more than 4 times higher than the U.S. are still seeing high death rates. The best result in the world seems to be Iceland, where they've tested over 10% per million of their population, and have about a 0.9% death rate, on the other hand Luxembourg that has tested over 5% per million of its population has about a 12% death rate. By comparison, we still have tested just under 1% per million of our population. Note, that isn't 1% of our population, because most people get tested multiple times. Also, there are 2 known strains of the virus, and the U.S. is primarily infected with the European virus, so it relates more closely to Luxembourg, while the cruise ship was primarily the Chinese strain. Iceland may have the primary Chinese strain, which could explain their lower fatality rate, or there may be other strains or factors involved. So the worldwide fatality will be an average of all of the strains. As a result, experts have been very conservatively guessing 2 to 3% eventual worldwide fatality rate, but the U.S. fatality rate could be much higher.