Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Dr. Strangelove]

Italy

475 deaths in the past 24 hours
2,978 deaths total
4,207 new cases

Meanwhile the Big 3 auto companies announce they are shutting down until the end of March. Reached a deal with the UAW it sounds like

[Jeff Buchanan]

We flew in 500,000 tests from Italy

https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2...nessee/163879/

Although my military time occurred 25 years ago, I saw the link, read it and, SURPRISE!!!, thought I'd comment.

MAC (Military Airlift Command) other than modernizing has not changed it's mission and, I'm sure, it's capabilities have not significantly diminished. They are prodigious. The point to be made here is that there are all kinds of things the military can be called to do in support of a public health crisis - I actually think the scope of it will surprise.

Medical support for military operations can be modified for humanitarian support and you can bet appropriate commands have been notified to come up with plans to deliver medical support in various forms to US citizens. It's been done before with Katrina being the most prominent although states, including PR, received US military support in one for or the other after Irma..

I did read an article on Monday about the capacity of US military field medical units to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic in the US. There are two hospital ships, one of them is already ported in NYC. The medical facilities aboard these ships are configured to deal with combat trauma. They have hospital beds for sure and as AA noted, it's easy to configure hospital space to ICU space and or negative pressure isolation rooms (the later a bit harder but doable).

I would imagine the medical corps in each branch of the service is working to equip the facilities they have - field and otherwise - with ventilators. I would not doubt for one minute that using the military to deal with the virus started the moment that we started hearing of Trump meeting intel types in the SCIF. I also have no doubt that at this Top Secret, Compartmentalized meeting that the press thought was classified to hide stuff the public needed to know, the virus was considered a misfired biological warfare attack from some nation with a strategic objective in doing so..... and no, the public did not have a need to know unless it was confirmed and my guess is that it wasn't.

Now, it's likely that the press will jump on this to tar and feather the Trump administration for it's lack of preparedness to roll testing out as fast as SK did. I've read a shit-ton of information on testing, again, because I have the time to do it. Sure, the roll out was slower than SKs but getting to RELIABLE testing for COVID-19 in the US on a mass scale is an enormous task. I'm dismissing the complaining about it. Seeing reports like the one DSL linked to tells me the administration put in plans to address this at least a couple of weeks ago, maybe sooner.

[froot loops]

I'm in the hospital it is like I Am Legend it is so empty.

[iam416]

Italy

475 deaths in the past 24 hours
2,978 deaths total
4,207 new cases

Meanwhile the Big 3 auto companies announce they are shutting down until the end of March. Reached a deal with the UAW it sounds like

The Italian numbers need to be viewed as percentage increases. The raw numbers matter, but the growth rate is even more important. We're seeing how a nationwide shutdown impacts growth.

The Big 3 + Amazon reducing services -- that's far bigger. Fortunately, the DOW only has 19,000 points left to drop. Should be down to 0 by the end of March.

[iam416]

And make no mistake -- the economic consequences here are fucking catastrophic. CATASTROPHIC. Pension funds are going to be annihilated.

[froot loops]

I don't have COVID-19 but this doesn't surprise me. I pretty much can never take that drug or I'm on my way to the hospital with breathing problems.

[Ghengis Jon]

Just for Talent........

The Trump administration's invoking of the 1950 Defense Production Act is the right thing to do, if for no other reason than to create additional options.

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2020/03/18/Trump-invokes-WWII-era-law-to-make-up-medical-shortages-fight-COVID-19/7181584535494/?sl=4

[iam416]

Yeah, that law is even less applicable than declaring "the wall" an emergency. That bill is all about defense measures. It's a pretty massive power grab.

That said, people are pretty much in the "ends justify the means" bucket at the moment. No time to get too caught up in, you know, statutory authority and other such technicalities.

[Hannibal]

Yeah, that law is even less applicable than declaring "the wall" an emergency. That bill is all about defense measures. It's a pretty massive power grab.

That said, people are pretty much in the "ends justify the means" bucket at the moment. No time to get too caught up in, you know, statutory authority and other such technicalities.

No shit. A judge declared a couple of days ago that Ohio has to hold its elections and DeWine's folks were like: "Nope"

[Whitley]

Amazing that it is Senate Republicans actually open to economic populism. If they are able to cut checks of $1000 a month until this thing blows over (which might be awhile) hell a lot more power to them.

If Republicans actually embrace economic populism this could be the start of a major realignment of the parties. It is clear that the Dem establishment believe that a coalition of African-Americans, Rich people and suburbinites are enough to win the presidency (spoiler: it's not). They seem to be perfectly fine with flipping off the working class with a sneer and daring them to find another place politically.

[CGVT]

Delusional Bernie Bro ^^^^^^

[Dr. Strangelove]

COVID-19 has infiltrated Congress...

[AlabamAlum]

[CGVT]

COVID-19 has infiltrated Congress...

Too bad it wasn't this jackass...

200304183027-01-gaetz-coronavirus-gas-mask-exlarge-169.jpg

[froot loops]

My wife is putting 13 hours days, in at 5 AM out at 6 PM. She had to man the front door of the COVID unit, she thinks by tomorrow it will be full and they will have to create another unit. The hospital is able to do their own tests and they have a drive through testing unit at the hospitals in her system. The ability to turn around the tests in 4 hours has been a big improvement. They haven't had bad patients as far as she can tell, some of them are being discharged to self isolate at home.

The shortage of masks is a continual problem right now. They are keeping staff on hand even if they don't have a lot to do. I was at the biggest hospital in their system to take my daughter in and it was a ghost town. Since they cancelled all elective procedures and limited visitors the halls had more checkpoints than people. So I think if they get swamped they will be about as ready as they can be. Hopefully it does not get to that.