And here I was thinking Corona Virus couldn’t get any worse...enter another ‘trump stooge’. I say ‘Bravo to Atlas’, yet another evil, profiteering, power hungry, money grubbing Republican who has crawled out from under a rock to spread more misinformation and fear.
I am SO grateful for you - we are so lucky to have your reporting - I learned about you quite a while ago from a Nicholas Kristoff column, and have been subscribing. Dedicated, deep-diving, informative and honest journalism-- so important. Thank you!
how are such brazen conflicts of interest the new normal? WTF is congress doing? How about even ONE REPUBLICAN opening their mouth to say something? This is the Law and Order president? The guy who was going to 'drain the swamp'? None of this is happening in private. It's all unfolding right before our eyes but people have just grown numb to his criminality. This is the worst off the country has ever been and it's only going to get worse in the coming months. Stoking this division and encouraging violence is trumps playbook.
There was a time not too long ago when popular opinion held that removing Dr. Fauci from his position would be a bridge too far. But he is clearly no longer part of the government's response team. Where is Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi asking for the reason for removing the nation's foremost infectious disease expert and demanding his return?
One thing is very clear from Judd's reporting: this is just another in a very long line of examples that Trump sees the United States government as a giant piggy bank for his own personal use and that of his family, close friends, and advisors who tell him what he wants to hear. The rest of America matters too little to think about—unless it is about buying votes for re-election. In Red State only, of course.
The link you provide about Sweden's "disastrous results" is from June 22. If we look at how Sweden has been doing for the last month you'll find a vastly different picture. Sweden is doing spectacularly well in terms of new cases and new deaths. On the downside, its economic did not avoid a severe downturn.
So is Sweden's "herd immunity" strategy a good one? Hard to say. It looked bad in June, but it looks pretty good now. Will there be a second wave in Sweden? Will its economy recover slower or faster than the rest of Europe? I don't have a crystal ball, but it certainly seems like Sweden's strategy was far from a disaster.
There is speculation that many factors, such as prior exposure to other coronaviruses, provide protection against COVID-19. Thus, the commonly accepted guideline for herd immunity could be way off: rather than requiring 60% to 70% of the population to be infected, it might be as low as 20% to 25% with this particular novel virus. While we're waiting for scientists to figure it out, I'm wearing a mask and practicing appropriate social distancing.
Maybe if everyone cooperates this is Mecca. But looking at the cavalier way many states are treating it and here at home where maybe on a good day 50% of the population will wear a mask, social distance... I don't think so.
Whether a particular strategy turns out to be optimal or disastrous in the long run probably depends on how quickly a "pretty good" vaccine can be widely rolled out. Sweden makes for an interesting experiment. There were excess deaths early on, but now it seems to be doing better than the rest of Europe. If we had a vaccine now, then those early deaths would look even more tragic and unnecessary; if we don't have a vaccine for 6 months and other countries endure steadily bad or rebounding per-capita deaths, then Sweden's pseudo "herd immunity," which will probably produce very few deaths for the near future, will have resulted in lower overall deaths.
Between New Zealand's success and the U.K.'s failure there are many shades of grey. Strangely, the U.S and Sweden have almost the same per capita total deaths right now, but Sweden's deaths are currently near zero while the U.S. is still doing poorly. Sweden will look better and better over time (probably). https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality
Herd immunity to a mutating corona virus is just slaughter for no reason. We know this.
And here I was thinking Corona Virus couldn’t get any worse...enter another ‘trump stooge’. I say ‘Bravo to Atlas’, yet another evil, profiteering, power hungry, money grubbing Republican who has crawled out from under a rock to spread more misinformation and fear.
A radiologist?? It's all about the money!
I am SO grateful for you - we are so lucky to have your reporting - I learned about you quite a while ago from a Nicholas Kristoff column, and have been subscribing. Dedicated, deep-diving, informative and honest journalism-- so important. Thank you!
how are such brazen conflicts of interest the new normal? WTF is congress doing? How about even ONE REPUBLICAN opening their mouth to say something? This is the Law and Order president? The guy who was going to 'drain the swamp'? None of this is happening in private. It's all unfolding right before our eyes but people have just grown numb to his criminality. This is the worst off the country has ever been and it's only going to get worse in the coming months. Stoking this division and encouraging violence is trumps playbook.
There was a time not too long ago when popular opinion held that removing Dr. Fauci from his position would be a bridge too far. But he is clearly no longer part of the government's response team. Where is Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi asking for the reason for removing the nation's foremost infectious disease expert and demanding his return?
One thing is very clear from Judd's reporting: this is just another in a very long line of examples that Trump sees the United States government as a giant piggy bank for his own personal use and that of his family, close friends, and advisors who tell him what he wants to hear. The rest of America matters too little to think about—unless it is about buying votes for re-election. In Red State only, of course.
The link you provide about Sweden's "disastrous results" is from June 22. If we look at how Sweden has been doing for the last month you'll find a vastly different picture. Sweden is doing spectacularly well in terms of new cases and new deaths. On the downside, its economic did not avoid a severe downturn.
So is Sweden's "herd immunity" strategy a good one? Hard to say. It looked bad in June, but it looks pretty good now. Will there be a second wave in Sweden? Will its economy recover slower or faster than the rest of Europe? I don't have a crystal ball, but it certainly seems like Sweden's strategy was far from a disaster.
There is speculation that many factors, such as prior exposure to other coronaviruses, provide protection against COVID-19. Thus, the commonly accepted guideline for herd immunity could be way off: rather than requiring 60% to 70% of the population to be infected, it might be as low as 20% to 25% with this particular novel virus. While we're waiting for scientists to figure it out, I'm wearing a mask and practicing appropriate social distancing.
We've had 6 million cases (that we know of) since Feb. How big will this herd have to get to slow the virus down?
Analysis here: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/17/health/coronavirus-herd-immunity.html
It could be that New York City reached it last month or earlier. https://www.news-medical.net/news/20200731/Research-suggests-New-York-City-may-have-reached-coronavirus-herd-immunity-threshold.aspx
Maybe if everyone cooperates this is Mecca. But looking at the cavalier way many states are treating it and here at home where maybe on a good day 50% of the population will wear a mask, social distance... I don't think so.
Whether a particular strategy turns out to be optimal or disastrous in the long run probably depends on how quickly a "pretty good" vaccine can be widely rolled out. Sweden makes for an interesting experiment. There were excess deaths early on, but now it seems to be doing better than the rest of Europe. If we had a vaccine now, then those early deaths would look even more tragic and unnecessary; if we don't have a vaccine for 6 months and other countries endure steadily bad or rebounding per-capita deaths, then Sweden's pseudo "herd immunity," which will probably produce very few deaths for the near future, will have resulted in lower overall deaths.
Between New Zealand's success and the U.K.'s failure there are many shades of grey. Strangely, the U.S and Sweden have almost the same per capita total deaths right now, but Sweden's deaths are currently near zero while the U.S. is still doing poorly. Sweden will look better and better over time (probably). https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality
Apples to oranges. The Swedes are more socialist than America. We are led by a corrupt government and 40% of them think this a hoax.
We have too many people who will not cooperate. Many will die and have died by our poor national response and states as well.
Sweden did what all intelligent, science based policy-driven societies do: they adjusted.
The arms of Big Pharma reach quite long indeed.
This man is so dangerous to the general population. Trump can really find them. Always picks a crooked manipulator.
God help us. Thank you Judd for exposing more if his flaws.
Here's a link to the current data for Sweden. Look at new cases and new deaths in August. Both are extremely low. (A few days had zero deaths.) https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/sweden/