There’s actually more oversight than this Warren added some last minute language that requires weekly reports on where the money is going.

It’s already in the Senate version, so it’s good from that standpoint. It just needs the House to pass it and hopefully the Rep from KY or some rogue Dem doesn’t get cute and stop it.

Just curious, what’s driven the increase in partisanship the last day or two. Everyone was united and on the same page with facts. The Wickerman posts used to be almost unanimously upvoted now it’s split again. Couple of questions for the folks down voting him recently:
- Is it just starting to get real for folks in other parts of the country that they’re checking the thread?
- Have you seen more memes and content on social media pop up that shifts blame to folks outside federal government?
- Have the Fox Opinion shows changed their content to shift blame?

I’m trying to figure out why this has become partisan again.

Hopefully this won’t get moderated. *hesitantly pushes send post*

*Updated with additional hypothesis.*

I mean, he may, but a certain someone just bragged on Twitter about the ratings he’s getting on his press conferences, so . . . .

Which one is the bigger narcissist? Gotta play both sides on this one if Cuomo is getting criticism.

I’ve seen the hot/dry combo is bad for the virus somewhere in all the medical professionals I follow on Twitter for work. I can’t find the source though in the constant cascade of data and posts from the front lines. You may be on to something, but I haven’t seen anything formal.

On the flip side, if I remember correctly cold/dry; cold/wet and hot/wet were all equally good environments for the virus.

I looked to see if I could find anything and it looks like there is a ton of conflicting evidence other than that summer heat should help slow it down, but not stop it.

Wait. What? It’s been the opposite. He had the intelligence community sounding the alarm in January and February.

Oh my. The answer to the question at 2:27 trying to hold him accountable to statements he said on Hannity. You can always tell when the question is a great one because instead of answering it he attacks the reporter instead.

This is what a lot of docs I work with are doing. In the US we’re hearing most are trying to do as much through telehealth as possible.

Has anyone been watching this model that projects state by state impact? It’s a partnership with a population health company and University of Washington. It’s also supposedly the model the federal government is using for their internal projections.

Data was updated today. Couple of takeaways:
- We’re on track for ~80,000 deaths in total nationwide. This is under what the federal government claims. They project 100,000 to 200,000. Seems that they are trying to set the bar low to claim victory off what is the current trend.
- In the last week, PA has cut their projected deaths in half. Last week they were projecting 3,000. Now it’s down to 1,500. Looks like the measures our governor put in place are having an impact.
- Bad news: Despite some states flattening their curve, the national projection for deaths has gone up slightly. Seems like Texas, Florida and a few of the slower moving states are increasing and keeping the national mortality rate flat.

https://covid19.healthdata.org/

If I understand the data correctly, that higher number assumes no protective measures are put in place and the virus moves through the population unabated. The lower number (~80k to 200k) assumes what we currently have in place from a social distancing stand point in most states.

I actually disagree with this summary. I’m a former journalist that attended one of the best j schools in the nation. No longer in the profession. (The pay and hours are AWFUL.). There are two types of journalists. One is a generalist that typically works in TV or a more entertainment driven medium. Those folks are prone to the mistakes you’re talking about. The other type is your typical print journalist that works a beat. These folks at the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and your local newspaper get close to being experts and understanding the nuance of their beat or knowing enough credible sources to help them parse through the information.

I feel It’s important that everyone try to spend a bit more time finding good sources of news. My rule of thumb is the easier it is to consume, the worse it is for you. Print > TV > Some rando with an opinion on Facebook

I think you’re partly right. I agree we need to be on the same team, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be pressuring leaders to ensure:
Adequate testing gets provided quickly
The appropriate stay at home measures are taken
Healthcare workers get the PPE they need
Ensure our neighbors get financial relief if they’re laid off
Educate ourselves to be ready to hold leaders and legislators accountable, the next time they are on the ballot

Those issues are policy and government related and not political. It’s important that we make sure our leaders are accountable to the population. Of course this is regardless of party. Everyone, if you’ve got time, call your leaders and your legislators.

Fair but driving effective engagement regardless of forum is worthwhile. I belong to lots of communities, but there are few that we can exchange ideas as efficiently as forums and social media. If this was some random thread about the new Iron Man code, you’d be totally right. This is about a bigger idea and government effectiveness is imperative to us being successful.

I politely disagree. Here is a Joe Biden op-Ed in USA Today. Not from today. Not from March. Not from February. It’s from January. It’s worth a read. It makes him seems like Tony Romo-esqe Nostradamus of pandemic response.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/01/27/coronavirus-donald-trump-made-us-less-prepared-joe-biden-column/4581710002/

Edited because I came up with something clever.

If I had to guess, it’s because they are in between stages, but there’s many other logistical reasons. We’ve heard that doctors aren’t seeing patients (I work in a home office role in pharma) because no one wants to take the risk of going to the doctor regardless of geographic location, if they don’t have COVID. So there’s a lot of hospitals and doctors doing the equivalent of waiting for the hurricane to hit.

Gotta love those randos with a blog or social media account.

I’m not familiar with either example. Do you have a link to a retraction from CBS or a link that outlines the claim from:
- Fox News
- AP
- Reuters
- WSJ
- New York Times
- Washington Post

Totally fair. Found an article. CBS retracted it and pulled it from all their platforms. I think to use that as justification as being intentionally misleading is out of bounds. You’re right. Totally a “grabbing the wrong b-roll in the editing bay” mistake.

https://nypost.com/2020/04/01/cbs-admits-to-using-footage-from-italy-in-report-about-nyc/

Everyone makes mistakes. The difference between reputable and non-reputable is that the good ones own their mistakes and address them. Don’t let one mistake discount a mountain of solid reporting.

I’d like to point out that Anderson Cooper is an entertainment show that thinks it’s news. Occasionally he will do hard hitting interviews, but like a lot of prime time TV personalities, ratings are important.

Once again, I’d urge everyone to read:
- The AP
- Reuters
- The Wall Street Journal
- The Economist
- Your local newspaper
- The Washington Post
- The New York Times

A mix of center right and center left will help keep you balanced and not addicted to junk food news.

Great article and worth a read.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/04/02/experts-trumps-advisers-doubt-white-houses-240000-coronavirus-deaths-estimate/

Freaking hilarious and nice job walking the line.

This to me is the most interesting paragraph.

“But what remains unclear and alarming to many modelers is whether the White House is using their data to create a coordinated, coherent long-term strategy.“

The death projections have actually been low the last couple of days. The actual deaths have been on the higher end of their confidence interval. I’m expecting the projections to be revised up today when they post the next update.

I don’t know about millions, but it’s definitely higher than what they are reporting.

Agreed. I think we’re headed for an upward revision because the deaths have been a little on the high side of their confidence interval.

Redacted

Redacted

Good article from the Associated Press.

https://apnews.com/090600c299a8cf07f5b44d92534856bc

Here’s a really good article on testing. It covers why we’re still behind and unlikely to catch up soon.
https://thedispatch.com/p/america-is-still-too-far-behind-on

Here’s an interesting path forward from the ex-head of the FDA. It’s one of the more thoughtful plans I’ve seen.

https://www.aei.org/research-products/report/national-coronavirus-response-a-road-map-to-reopening/

Folks may get bothered by how their preferred news source falls on here but a nonprofit rates stories for bias and charts the news source here. It’s a good general guideline for quality and differentiating opinion disguised as news for fact based reporting.

The biggest gap in news right now is that there isn’t a lot of fact based reporting that skews right. You really only have the WSJ and The Dispatch (a new online publication from the folks at the now defunct Weekly Standard).

https://www.adfontesmedia.com/?v=402f03a963ba

I LOVE hearing from China about truth in media. They have such a history of allowing Freedom of the Press.

Calling any news a “Lie” is unnecessarily inflammatory. Bias. Yes. Lying. No.

It really depends on the publication. There’s a real need to have unnamed sources, especially if there’s a chance of retribution for speaking out. The true news sources have a strict process for how they determine if they’re going to go with an unnamed source. It’s not something the Wall Street Journal or New York Times does lightly.

I was debating the covid19.healthdata.org data with one of the secondary analytics guys I worked with previously. He seems to think we won’t see a peak as much as a long plateau where one state slows but another becomes a hot spot and takes its place. Makes for a much longer timeline for this and puts us at risk of having to play whack a mole if states let up on shelter in place too early.

This doesn’t seem like a good idea. Trump is removing the Inspector General who is overseeing how the 2 Trillion gets spent. And on a positive note, the Navy Secretary who criticized the captain that blew the whistle on the COVID cases on the USS Roosevelt offered his resignation.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-abruptly-removes-inspector-general-named-oversee-2t/story?id=70024680&cid=clicksource_4380645_4_heads_hero_live_twopack_hed

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/07/thomas-modly-coronavirus-speech-resign-navy-172625

Just to throw more cold water on hydroxychloroquine, my pharma marketing team hosted a non-product related medical presentation on COVID last night. The guest was one of the most influential critical care pulmonologists in the nation. He was intrigued by hydroxychloroquine at first, but he’s moved completely away from it. He doesn’t see it being used unless one of the well controlled studies shows benefit.

*updated because I didn’t realize I was using the wrong name for hydroxychloroquine. In my defense, I only know the spaces I’ve worked in.

I think it’s because all the news has slowed. We’re reaching the point where the social distancing has flattened the curve. Now we just need to figure out what the next step is. I don’t exactly know what it is but it’s some form of significant testing capacity and vector tracing.

I’m going to reshare this. It gives a good overview from the ex-head of the FDA on how we start opening things back up without creating a second wave.

https://www.aei.org/research-products/report/national-coronavirus-response-a-road-map-to-reopening/

Whoa. That’s not good.

Just another reason to hate Kansas. . MIZ.

This is one of the most well reported and sourced piece of journalism I have possibly ever read. It’s a play by play of what the federal government knew and when and how they responded. Worth reading every detail. It’s a long one. FYI it’s not behind the pay wall so all you need to do is register to read it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/11/us/coronavirus-live-updates.html#link-73167b75

This podcast does a good job outlining the four major plans on how we get out of this first phase. The Weeds is a really great policy podcast. It leans left, but they do a good job on this one giving fair debate to all the options.

One thing that all the plans require is a president or leader that is able to earn strong support across party lines.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-weeds/id1042433083?i=1000471095547

Did you read The NY Times article I posted earlier? It’s definitely a lot more than just that.

Here’s the link for anyone that missed it. It links to a summary but the full article is linked at the bottom.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/11/us/coronavirus-live-updates.html#link-73167b75

Here’s a direct lift from the summary.

“Dozens of interviews and a review of emails and other records by The New York Times revealed many previously unreported details of the roots and extent of his halting response:

The National Security Council office responsible for tracking pandemics received intelligence reports in early January predicting the spread of the virus, and within weeks raised options like keeping Americans home from work and shutting down large cities.

Despite Mr. Trump’s denial, he was told at the time about a Jan. 29 memo produced by his trade adviser, Peter Navarro, laying out in striking detail the potential risks of a coronavirus pandemic.

The health and human services secretary directly warned Mr. Trump of the possibility of a pandemic during a call on Jan. 30, the second warning he delivered to the president about the virus. The president said he was being alarmist.

The health secretary publicly announced in February that the government was establishing a “surveillance” system in five American cities to measure the spread of the virus. It was delayed for weeks, leaving administration officials with almost no insight into how rapidly the virus was spreading.”

If The NY Times is “fake news,” what do you consider “real news” and why?

You definitely make valid points. My take is that the key difference is that we had important medical professionals in the government sounding the alarm. I think you’re right about January being too early to institute the mass quarantine tactics, but it probably made sense to mobilize some sort of fact finding and testing plan. It seems like we wasted a lot of time trying to hope it would go away without any real concrete action.

Confirmed. Everything goes through a strict legal and compliance process. You wouldn’t believe what mundane things I need to justify on a regular basis.

If he wants to know the price, it’s max $10 from one of the trinket vendors. The big cost to pharma is to the creative agency that designed the tape dispenser to have that goofy Zoloft logo

We literally were having the exact same discussion. We’ve got reservations at Disney for early July and are expecting to postpone. Best case we drive to the Disney Hilton Head resort in August. Either way, at this point I’m planning to turn our travel money into pinball money.

I normally wouldn’t get that either, but we’ve already got her stuff covered, so this is kinda found money. Once we make the official call on vacay, a Willy Wonka is going to show up. My daughter gets to pick this one.

That’s where I keep getting stuck. I was thinking about renting an RV and just going to a state park, but I can’t figure out how to get around all the things that are shut down.

Co-signing that statement. My job (pharma marketing) is much harder now than my predecessors ever had it. It’s honestly for the better though. It requires pharma to have well differentiated products because:
- Insurance won’t pay for “me-too” products or products that don’t work better than generics
- Doctors won’t waste their time talking to a rep who has a bad product. There’s literally no upside for them other than a free lunch from Panera.

I might get moderated for this, but it’s too good not to share. Most cable news is infotainment, which is what Fox used to be. I love that she draws the comparison to professional wrestling. It’s pretty much Brutus’ Barbershop with out Brutus or a fake window to throw someone through.

936BA75D-D6A4-45C2-982B-688197709A3D (resized).png

My take on it is there is a lot of blame to go around across the globe. I think where I hold the president responsible is that we had the knowledge and health system to respond more like South Korea and Germany with ramping up testing and tracking, so we didn’t end up in the middle of the pack globally. I think if we had a more coordinated and less chaotic approach we’d be about 1 or 2 months closer to getting back to normal.

Completely agree. I started reading CNN articles from January and February on COVID. They have all of them archived, so you can go back and see how everything played out. You were right about using his gut. Seems like that played a role. Also, it seems like a lot of folks were “doing stuff” to address it but there wasn’t any coordinated effort. So even though folks were busy, nothing got accomplished. That’s another hallmark of his “leadership style” that’s problematic. He likes a chaotic organization where everyone is competing with each other, but that’s a problem when stuff actually needs to get done quickly, because no one leads. I think the other failing is that he was overly worried about the economic impact, since he’s tied his re-election to it, so he slow played anything that would cause a downturn in the stock market. That in and of itself wasn’t a bad call, but coupled with everything else, it amplified the poor governing and gut decision making.

There isn’t conflicting information from the medical community. If you only pay attention to Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx everyone will be okay. It’s when we take cues from folks that aren’t using medicine as their guiding light that the waters get muddied.

Here’s some interesting news on Remdesivir. It’s still not the final read out of the study, but seems like the anecdotal is strong. Fingers crossed we keep getting positive results. If you’ve got Gilead stock, it’s a pretty good time to sell. They just got a big bump.

https://www.statnews.com/2020/04/16/early-peek-at-data-on-gilead-coronavirus-drug-suggests-patients-are-responding-to-treatment/

Update: Even if the study reads out well in May, they’ll only have about 500,000 doses by October so it can only be used on a small number of patients. This means we’ll still need a combo of testing and contract tracing. This just reduces mortality. Also, checked clintrials.gov and there is no placebo arms, so *shrugs shoulders*

https://www.gilead.com/purpose/advancing-global-health/covid-19/working-to-supply-remdesivir-for-covid-19

I was excited about this at first, but there’s so little information in it. There’s nothing about the plan for testing or contact tracing. Seems more of a political ploy to show something than an actionable plan.

The center right AEI plan is much more comprehensive. I was expecting something more like this.

https://www.aei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/National-Coronavirus-Response-a-Road-Map-to-Recovering-2.pdf

Here’s the challenge in a nut shell.

https://thedispatch.com/p/america-is-still-too-far-behind-on

I can’t find the other source I was reading, but it seems like the execution has been chaotic. Lots of different tests. Some work well others don’t. Some return results fast others don’t. Some places have too much testing others not enough.

Let me take a stab at this. The news department at Fox still has some good journalists in it. Chris Wallace’s Sunday show is excellent viewing. Fox definitely lost a good journalist when Shepherd Smith left. CNN has Jake Tapper and Jim Acosta who have been trashed by some folks, but they are very good at their jobs. The best cable news, and TV news viewing in general are the Sunday morning shows. If you just watched a sampling of those, you’d be super well informed.

Here’s a good read from ProPublica. Here’s a quick summary. It’s same stuff we’ve been talking about, but goes into some good details.

https://www.propublica.org/article/coronavirus-advice-from-abroad-7-lessons-americas-governors-should-not-ignore-as-they-reopen-their-economies

“To help you and your aides think about this decision over the next few weeks, we’ve interviewed experts and frontline officials from Italy, Germany, Spain, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea. While they differ on the details, their views formed a startlingly united consensus of what’s needed:

- Massive, ongoing testing to detect where the disease is spreading,
- A real-time ability to trace contacts of those infected and isolate them,
- A willingness of people to wear masks in crowded public spaces,
- Reserves of personal protective equipment (PPE) and other equipment for hospital workers to handle any surge in cases,
- Reliable, easily administered blood tests to find out the number of people who have been infected. If they work well, such tests could eventually be used to identify people with immunity who could work at higher-risk jobs.”

Well. We’ve got two choices. We can institute some or all of these or we can shelter in place until we have a vaccine. Neither is great. The problem with instituting any of the plans is they require trust in our government. Unfortunately we’re at a point where partisanship is at an all time high. Political attacks by either party or partisan media only make it worse. Thankfully these decisions have been pushed down to the state level where things are less partisan. It at least gives us a fighting chance.

Looks like the oversight got held up in the Senate.

“But more than two weeks later, after hundreds of billions of dollars have already flown out the door through the Paycheck Protection Program, the Treasury’s Inspector General post has not yet been confirmed by the Senate and the two panels are not fully staffed. Congress is preoccupied with the unprecedented task of managing dueling public health and economic crises remotely, and Trump, whose administration has blocked Congressional oversight for years, has already threatened to scuttle the process. When he signed the bill into law in March, he said he would not allow the Inspector General overseeing the executive branch’s committee to submit reports to Congress without his supervision, arguing it was unconstitutional.”

https://www.google.com/amp/s/time.com/5823510/coronavirus-stimulus-oversight/%3famp=true

Here’s my post about the change in the Cares Act oversight from 2 weeks ago. Seems like this decision by the president had a significant impact on how the money got allocated.

Damn! Congratulations! That’s amazing.

Here’s a good summary of the four plans that are being considered.

“The plans are grim. They do suggest there’s a way back to normal life, but they make clear that it will likely take a long, uncomfortable, even painful time to get there. The CAP and AEI plans in particular suggest the US won’t be able to fully end social distancing until 12 to 18 months from now — with a true end requiring a vaccine or some other therapeutic to prevent or treat Covid-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.”

https://www.vox.com/2020/4/14/21218074/coronavirus-plans-social-distancing-end-reopen-economy

The earliest looks to be JNJ’s candidate. They’re producing it at risk and hope to have data by April and if it’s positive they’ll have large quantities available by April 2021.

https://www.jnj.com/johnson-johnson-announces-a-lead-vaccine-candidate-for-covid-19-landmark-new-partnership-with-u-s-department-of-health-human-services-and-commitment-to-supply-one-billion-vaccines-worldwide-for-emergency-pandemic-use

“At Ad Fontes Media, our mission is to make news consumers smarter and news media better.

This is a tall order, because we have a big problem in our news media landscape: too much junk news. Junk news is like junk food, and just like junk food has caused massive health epidemics in our country, junk news is causing a massive polarization epidemic.

We are optimistic that together, we can rise to this challenge. It is imperative that we do.

A problem this big requires a multi-pronged solution and participation from all the stakeholders in good journalism. Our focus is on the following:

“We analyze and rank news content and display those rankings in a way that is easy for people to understand.

https://www.adfontesmedia.com/?v=402f03a963ba

Moderna started earlier, but I haven’t seen anything around production. The benefit of JNJ’s is that if data comes back positive, there should be enough doses by April 2021 to vaccinate a large portion of the global population.

It’s human clinics trials that won’t start until September. I’m assuming that means Phase III. The first phase is animal. The second phase is small human population tests for dose finding. Third is large scale human trials that determine efficacy and safety.

Gosh. Learn something new every day. I’ve been in pharma on the commercial side for my entire career and thought I knew what the phases were.

“A government-run study of Gilead’s remdesivir, perhaps the most closely watched experimental drug to treat the novel coronavirus, showed that the medicine is effective against Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus.

Gilead made the announcement in a statement Wednesday, stating: “We understand that the trial has met its primary endpoint.” The company said that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is conducting the study, will provide data at an upcoming briefing.

The finding — although difficult to fully characterize without any data for the study — would represent the first treatment shown to improve outcomes in patients infected with the virus that put the global economy in a standstill and killed at least 218,000 people worldwide.”

https://www.statnews.com/2020/04/29/gilead-says-critical-study-of-covid-19-drug-shows-patients-are-responding-to-treatment/

AP Exclusive: Admin shelves CDC guide to reopening country

“It was supposed to be published last Friday, but agency scientists were told the guidance “would never see the light of day,” according to a CDC official. The official was not authorized to talk to reporters and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.

The AP obtained a copy from a second federal official who was not authorized to release it. The guidance was described in AP stories last week, prior to the White House decision to shelve it.

The Trump administration has been closely controlling the release of guidance and information during the pandemic spurred by a new coronavirus that scientists are still trying to understand, with the president himself leading freewheeling daily briefings until last week.“

https://apnews.com/7a00d5fba3249e573d2ead4bd323a4d4

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/06/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-recovery.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage

I haven’t been as active in this thread recently, but I have been keeping up and it’s been super enjoyable for the most part and very reasonable. Kudos to the mods.

Thanks for sharing. I was hoping someone would compile all the information we know about spreading events. The summary makes sense. Probably means I’ll be working from home until there’s a vaccine. It also means that wearing a mask in retail makes total sense for the employees and that stores should be strictly enforcing proper mask wearing to at least reduce risk to employees.

Who opened the crazy flood gates? I thought posts needed approval?

Just got done talking to our medical director. He donated a week of his time in a COVID clinic in NYC. He took over and followed 10 patients. 8 of them died. All different ages. Some with pre-existing conditions. Some young and healthy. I know everyone’s antsy to get back to normal, but we really need to make sure we do this methodically to keep exposure low.

Don’t applaud. Take the advice from medical professionals seriously and push back on those that don’t. He’d appreciate that more.

“What does harm reduction look like for the coronavirus? First, policy makers and health experts can help the public differentiate between lower-risk and higher-risk activities; these authorities can also offer support for the lower-risk ones when sustained abstinence isn’t an option. Scientists still have a lot to learn about this new virus, but early epidemiological studies suggest that not all activities or settings confer an equal risk for coronavirus transmission. Enclosed and crowded settings, especially with prolonged and close contact, have the highest risk of transmission, while casual interaction in outdoor settings seems to be much lower risk. A sustainable anti-coronavirus strategy would still advise against house parties. But it could also involve redesigning outdoor and indoor spaces to reduce crowding, increase ventilation, and promote physical distancing, thereby allowing people to live their lives while mitigating—but not eliminating—risk.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/quarantine-fatigue-real-and-shaming-people-wont-help/611482/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share&fbclid=IwAR34HwerIm4b1-Wo3OR9ACZNsae7wnHfqLkq3Qsi4sbs04_HymQ73hrzfMQ

Best. Post. Ever.