Fear and Loathing, a Rat Flu Odyssey

[MagnificentUnicorn]

That's the second time (that I'm aware of) that you've posted that, but a quick check confirms that France does indeed have a national health insurance program and that the government pays 77% of all health costs, while we do not have similar insurance and the government pays 64% of all costs. On what metric do you base your claim?

Well I first read about it in the book “The Healing of America”. My take was that their system was like the ACA in the US but with more substance. The private insurance industry is highly regulated, most people have insurance and are required to have it. If you’re unemployed or need assistance with premiums the government will subsidize your insurance premiums. They have a better and more comprehensive EMR that’s the same for the entire country, it’s called “the Card Vitale” and it also streamlines billing and reimbursement. So while their healthcare system is more highly regulated and subsidized, most of the delivery is handled by private companies.

Our Medicare and state Medicaid systems are the largest socialized medicine programs in the world.

That’s where I’m coming from, maybe things have changed since that book was published.


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[Deebased]

I will say that this is actually pretty rational behavior in a country with essentially no social safety net. People are losing jobs, houses, can't pay rent, etc. The risk of getting COVID and being sick for a few weeks probably looks good in comparison to living on the street with no job.

Many peoples options are extremely limited in this situation.

This is a much, much bigger problem. Expect state and local bankruptcies to be the norm. We're in the bottom of the first inning. Vaccines are a 2022 pipe dream (if one can successfully be created).

[The AD]

The Trump administration projects about 3,000 daily deaths by early June.

As President Trump presses for states to reopen their economies, his administration is privately projecting a steady rise in the number of cases and deaths from coronavirus over the next several weeks, reaching about 3,000 daily deaths on June 1, according to an internal document obtained by The New York Times, nearly double from the current level of about 1,750.

The projections, based on modeling by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and pulled together in chart form by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, forecast about 200,000 new cases each day by the end of the month, up from about 25,000 cases now.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/04/u...#link-7b42d0f5

[glademaster]

SO much winning.

[huckbucket]

Behind a paywall: https://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...avily-economy/ but, the quick summary is that most medical office visits and procedures, including dental, are not happening, therefore becoming a major component of the GDP drop, because, after all, we spend so much on treatment in America. I could see the downside of not seeing a dentist, but, one wonders, after the smoke clears, whether or not this is all that bad for most of us in the long run. Did you really need that office visit or prescription or MRI to be healthy? So, why did it happen? Duh.

I'll ruin the surprise. It's both good and bad.

Here's the bad:
https://www.statnews.com/2020/05/04/...pandemic-epic/

[Deebased]

Why should that employee risk getting coughed on or physically/verbally assaulted by a member of the deplorable class who refuses to wear a mask for the whopping $9.50 an hour they're being paid to stand there?

Costco does a better job taking care of their employees than most (maybe any) retail store
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/reaso...stco_n_4275774

[wooley12]

Good for me though. What's the bad news?

[Falcon3]

Sorry for going polyass and surf in the padded room at the same time: But are we riding a left or a right? And how deep are we in the barrel?

I’d say this wave is an overhead northern WA winter swell on a shit beach break with a 20-knot onshore wind and short 7 second gap before the next mush pile smashes into you.

Watch out for the beach logs.

[LeeLau]

All that said, Canada is a country who has been propped up on selling tar sands oil and helping Chinese organized crime money laundering find it's way from casinos into the real estate market. The provincial governments in BC and Ontario were absolutely in on it and sold their children and grandchildren down the river so that they could make a quick buck of the Chinese.

The US is fucked, but Canada isn't too far behind.

This is a very insightful and accurate description.

[swissiphic]

Were u referring to the page count of this thread?

[TG]

we're all gonna die

[Rideski]

I like this.

Good man. We should have beers and a bike ride in a couple months if were alive and not shackled to our homes.




———

Were u referring to the page count of this thread?

Partially

[Ted Striker]

For once, I'm opposed. Shirley, after this bug, the vast majority of us will be quick to vaccine, so via vaccine herd immunity will be much easier to achieve. Therefore, if the Darwins (name I just made up to contrast to the Karens), want to skip the vaxx, ok by me.

Surely, there was a better way to phrase that joke.

[old goat]

I'm not saying that the US is well run by any means and has its priorities in the right places. But really a failed state. That is just over the top partisan BS. Its hard to tell from up here what is worse the Emo kids complaining about how every country is doing better and everything is wrong or the ones who think the US is the best at everything. You get the democracy that you deserve and from the outside you guys deserve the shit sandwich that you have. But listening Noam that can only lead to a bad case of ideology poisoning that just leads to the paralysis of partisan politics and a bad case of stupid.

You're right--the term failed state doesn't apply. That's for places that don't have a functioning govt--places like Somalia, run by warlords. Venezuela might qualify. The covid might increase the roster.

The govt we deserve--yeah, probably. Although most of us did vote for her.

[Ted Striker]

Most of us didn't vote at all.

[Tor-tour]

For Page 666

[old goat]

this life is full of choices. Tonight's choice: do you want to be a Shirley or a Darwin?

Choice 2: chocolate or vanilla?

Ginger or Maryanne? (Definitely Maryanne)

[Benny Profane]

The Trump administration projects about 3,000 daily deaths by early June.

As President Trump presses for states to reopen their economies, his administration is privately projecting a steady rise in the number of cases and deaths from coronavirus over the next several weeks, reaching about 3,000 daily deaths on June 1, according to an internal document obtained by The New York Times, nearly double from the current level of about 1,750.

The projections, based on modeling by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and pulled together in chart form by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, forecast about 200,000 new cases each day by the end of the month, up from about 25,000 cases now.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/04/u...#link-7b42d0f5

Well, in Iowa, that puts a whole new spin on the term dead meat.

[Dantheman]

The Trump administration projects about 3,000 daily deaths by early June.

As President Trump presses for states to reopen their economies, his administration is privately projecting a steady rise in the number of cases and deaths from coronavirus over the next several weeks, reaching about 3,000 daily deaths on June 1, according to an internal document obtained by The New York Times, nearly double from the current level of about 1,750.

The projections, based on modeling by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and pulled together in chart form by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, forecast about 200,000 new cases each day by the end of the month, up from about 25,000 cases now.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/04/u...#link-7b42d0f5

Meanwhile Trump said last night that the death count will be 75k-100k. Sheeeit, we'll be over 100k before Memorial Day. No way there will be less than 250k dead by Dec. 31 and 300k-500k by then seems plausible.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-h...-idUSKBN22G1T3

[Mazderati]

'It's just the flu.'

[Benny Profane]

I'll ruin the surprise. It's both good and bad.

Here's the bad:
https://www.statnews.com/2020/05/04/...pandemic-epic/

Well, yeah, but, as I said, wouldn't it be interesting if cancer deaths only went up a little over the next few years, even if screenings, and therefore, treatment resulting from screenings dropped dramatically. It will something to watch. Ya have to wonder how many Porsches were bought with unecessary treatments.

[Adolf Allerbush]

Costco does a better job taking care of their employees than most (maybe any) retook store
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/reaso...stco_n_4275774

Which one do you go to around here? I went to the one in Willsonville and not many people were wearing masks, maybe 20% of shoppers and 50% of Costco staff. Lots of staff had the mask just hanging around their neck or had their mouth covered but not their nose.

I went to Lowe's over the weekend...what a complete and total shitshow. No SD'ing, zero restrictions on how many people are in the store (unlike Home Depot), lots of dumbshits creeping up on you while you stand in line. Had a couple of people fully masked up and 1-foot from my back in line for the register.

[old goat]

Adding to this, one of the County health doctors issued a vid on the FB county page today (Old Goat, do you know her in real life?) explaining how to use and wash masks. In her video, she explains that the use of masks is a theory to further reduce transmission. The anti-vax crew is latching onto the “theory” word use of that video to conclude that masks serve no need or use. Their idea, “if I feel bad, I’ll stay home. if I don’t feel bad, then I don’t have the virus.” They are not believing the info about people being pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic and being able to spread the virus.

Boulder-ites, beware!!

I do know her--or did 35 years ago, when she was briefly our FP/OB before we switched insurance to Kaiser. She became the public health director in Sacramento County. Surprised to see her as a deputy in Nevada County--probably wanted to move to Oldhippyville and work part time. She's good people.

Problem is the word theory. To a scientist it means a concept that is supported by evidence. To a lay person it means what hypothesis means to a scientist--something yet to be supported by evidence. We should discuss the word proven as well. No theory is ever proven in science, only in math. In science a theory is assumed to be correct only until it is supplanted or modified by the next theory--Newton's theory of gravity replaced by Einstein's. Which is why you should pay no attention to anything I say--my medical knowledge gets older by the day.

Behind a paywall: https://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...avily-economy/ but, the quick summary is that most medical office visits and procedures, including dental, are not happening, therefore becoming a major component of the GDP drop, because, after all, we spend so much on treatment in America. I could see the downside of not seeing a dentist, but, one wonders, after the smoke clears, whether or not this is all that bad for most of us in the long run. Did you really need that office visit or prescription or MRI to be healthy? So, why did it happen? Duh.

Back in the 70's doctors in LA went on strike over unaffordable malpractice insurance premiums. Death rates plummeted.
I do wonder how many medical and dental practices won't survive. Younger doctors and dentists especially have huge school debt, practice debt for equipment and for buying into a practice. (In private practice you don't just join a practice and start paying your share of the bills--you pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for the privilege of an established patient base, reputation in the medical community. One reason more and more docs are working for hospitals on a salary.)

Most of us didn't vote at all.

61% if us did. And those of you who didn't don't count as citizens or human beings IMO. We all got what you deserved.

RE the decrease in mammos--the great majority of cancers are not found by screening but by the patient. And it is estimated that the average breast cancer has been present for 9 years at the time of diagnosis, so a delay in screening is not a big deal.

[subtle plague]

I’d say this wave is an overhead northern WA winter swell on a shit beach break with a 20-knot onshore wind and short 7 second gap before the next mush pile smashes into you.

Watch out for the beach logs.

Woah that sounds like the real deal. I think you forgot the freezing sleet.

[KenJongIll]

Witnessed a Covid Survivor send off this morning at the hospital. Probably around 50 nurse/staff lined up in the lobby with signs, balloons etc, waiting for the patient to be discharged.
It was kind of cool/emotional. I went upstairs before the patient came through...probably a good thing, as I’d hate to get tearful in public...hah.