Post 9755 is a perfect example of poor organization and leadership. And why the constant patting themselves on the back, really irks me. The bar is so low for this administration and they are not meeting it. But it will be forgiven and excused (unfair coverage!) by the true believers.
I’m listening to the farm reporter (I live in Wisconsin) on the noon news show. She mentioned the relative lack of broadband access for families in rural areas in the state. COVID-19 is revealing so many weaknesses in our nation’s infrastructure.
But they can get satellite access, no?
@Mwfan1921, yes, you can put a price on a life.
However, it turns out that it matters a lot who is doing the valuing. Bureaucrats may value other people’s lives at $100K/QALY (or even less). When people are valuing/risking their own life, they value it much higher. $14.5M, or an order of magnitude more.
Here’s Luigi Zingales with some calculations:
https://promarket.org/captured-western-governments-are-failing-the-coronavirus-test/
"Under “normal” situations, only one out of the 5 patients in critical condition dies, hence the mortality rate (deaths over total infected) of 0.9 percent in China outside of Hubei. When hospitals are congested and access to intensive care units is rationed, 9 out of 10 of the patients in critical condition die (hence the mortality rate of 4.5 percent in Hubei). Thus, avoiding hospital congestion has the potential of saving 7.2 million lives (obtained as the difference between the 9 million deaths under the congested scenario and the 1.8 million under the “normal” scenario).
Most of the additional deaths will be older people and the US Environmental Protection Agency discounts by 37 percent of the value of a statistical life for people older than 65. Still, we are talking about roughly $9 million per lost life, which, multiplied by the 7.2 million extra deaths, yields $65 trillion.
Thus, even the simplest cost-benefit analysis suggests that the US government should be willing to spend up to $65 trillion to avoid extra deaths. Since $65 trillion is 3 times the US GDP, the United States should be willing to stop production for up to 3 years in order to eliminate the extra deaths. Note that I am not even talking about stopping the spread of the disease, but only about slowing it down enough so that critical patients can be properly treated."
However, even an order of magnitude less, $6.5T, is equal to a little more than a quarter of US GDP. Which means complete shutdown of the economy for a little over 3 months.
Two large US private labs say they could soon process 300,000 coronavirus tests per week
Two of the largest private labs in the U.S. will collectively be able to process more than 300,000 COVID-19 tests by the end of the week, their CEOs say. LabCorp CEO Adam Schechter told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” the company is processing around 20,000 tests daily and will by the end of the week be able to “a lot more” than 100,000 tests per week.
Quest Diagnostics is conducting about 25,000 COVID-19 tests per day, with plans of increasing daily capacity to around 30,000 by the end of the week, CEO Steve Rusckowski told CNBC’s “Closing Bell.” That would put Quest’s weekly capacity around 200,000, he said. (CNBC)
US has potential to be next epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, WHO spokesperson says
From CNN’s Jacqueline Howard
As coronavirus cases continue to rise in the United States, the nation has “potential” to become the next epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, Margaret Harris, a spokesperson for the World Health Organization, said during a call with reporters on Tuesday.
Harris was asked directly: “Do you see the United States going on to become the epicenter of this outbreak, overtaking Europe?”
In response Harris said, “We are now seeing a very large acceleration in the numbers of cases from the United States — so it does have that potential. We cannot say that that is the case yet, but it does have that potential.”
Earlier in the call, Harris said that the majority of the world’s latest Covid-19 cases have been in European countries and the United States.
“The main drivers of the outbreak remain Europe, but also the US. So 85% of cases that have been reported in the last 24 hours have come from the European region and the US,” Harris said on Tuesday.
“A lot of countries are now taking very strong measures to distance people, to really quarantine entire societies, and these have been shown to be an important way of slowing down this spread of the virus and buying some time,” Harris said. “But to defeat the virus, to stop it, countries also need very aggressive targeted tactics, testing every suspected case, isolating and caring for every person known to be ill and also tracing and quarantining and finding every close contact.”
Yes, I said in my post we put a price on lives everyday. The going QALY in England is typically 30K pounds, that’s why citizens there don’t have access to many important, life saving drugs.
Makes sense that people would put a higher value on their lives than governments and/or health systems who have to deal with all of the various constraints.
Harvard’s president tests positive for coronavirus
Harvard President Lawrence S. Bacow said he and his wife have tested positive for coronavirus.
“We started experiencing symptoms on Sunday—first coughs then fevers, chills, and muscle aches—and contacted our doctors on Monday. We were tested yesterday and just received the results a few minutes ago,” he said in a statement to the Harvard community.
Bacow said he’s not sure how he and his wife contracted the virus, but said “far fewer people crossed our paths recently than is usually the case” as they both began working from home on March 14.
“We will be taking the time we need to rest and recuperate during a two-week isolation at home,” he added. “I am blessed with a great team, and many of my colleagues will be taking on more responsibility over the next few weeks as Adele and I focus on just getting healthy.”
Earlier this month, Harvard announced it would be moving to online classes and asked students to move out of on campus housing.
“The French government has tightened the rules on coronavirus confinement but is resisting calls from doctors to impose a total lockdown to ease the strain on hospitals and health staff, reports my colleague Kim Willsher in France.”
Why are they dilly-dallying? The quicker they go to complete lockdown, the quicker they bend the curve and exit the other side like even Hubei has.
Every Western country will follow the same course as Italy eventually.
In my rural area, satellite internet doesn’t allow the sort of unlimited streaming and downloading most of us do. I don’t think working from home is a viable option on satellite here.
Also… Some out here just can’t afford it.
We have regular internet service at my end of a rural road. It doesn’t reach to the end of the road where several family groups live. And it’s been this same situation for the decade we have been here.
In normal times, there is internet access at the county library.
It’s an issue in parts of my northern New England state as well.
Our rural library is keeping the wifi up and running, even though the building is closed. They encourage people to use it from the parking lot.
Right… But you have to have a computer.
Some of my neighbors don’t. They were using library computers. Those students can’t do online classes at home.
I haven’t seen this before. Thank you for posting!
Lack of reliable, fast-enough internet is a huge issue in Indiana, as well. It’s a major focus point for Farm Bureau throughout the US. Satellite doesn’t work or is too expensive for many.
My fb feed was filled with families from the school who had to give up on e-learning or buy extra “tokens” to get enough speed. Telling people without good transportation to use the library doesn’t fly. The libraries are shut down, anyway.
There’s isn’t money in telecommunications co. investing in rural areas. I lived on a main state highway for last 20 years. Frontier never upgraded the internet. My speed was 3…on a good day.
It might be helpful to remember that not only will slowing this thing down help hospitals handle the critical caseload, it’s also giving those trials (meds) a chance to see what might actually be working. Some have shown promise - others are in the shadows being worked on. A month (or two) might not be an ideal time frame for meds/ventilators, but it sure beats no time.
I’m pretty confident the economy will bounce back once this is finished. People will be wanting (or needing) to shop and move around. It needs to be finished though (hospitals handling severe cases just fine). Otherwise, Powers That Be can say the country is open for business, but how many customers are going to come in the door if they are worried about their lives?
It’s tough to get compliance when people think they, themselves, have nothing to fear. Introduce the fear factor by having it in the neighborhood and no amount of coaxing will stir the masses enough to fix the economy.
There are definitely folks financially hit. Keep those in mind and do what you can if you can. There are oodles of opportunities. If everyone who can did their part that alone would help the economy endure this time period.
Yes, lots of people here in the same situation, @alh I know the schools in our area won’t be grading work done during the quarantine, and the ones that were more together already had remote learning packets ready to go. But those were for snow days, not pandemics, and I doubt they covered more than 5 days of material.
My he is considered an essential worker…but was planning to work from home with VPN. We have good broadband here.
Well…he downloads and moves around very large documents and system is just plain choppy. He hasn’t even opened up some of his more complex documents and applications…because he figures that will crash the system.
His whole team is having the same issue. They can do little stuff like email and word documents…but not big documents which is what they need to use.
So…he will work from his office tomorrow afternoon to try and catch up. He will be one of a handful of people there.
UK government launches volunteer program to support health care workers
The UK government has launched a new volunteer program to support the country’s National Health Service (NHS) and medical professionals on the frontline of the fight against coronavirus, Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced Tuesday during a news briefing at Downing Street.
“The NHS Volunteer Responders is a new scheme set up so that people can come and help to make sure the NHS, and local services that are needed, get all the support they need,” Hancock said.
“We are seeking a quarter of a million volunteers —people in the good health — for shopping and for the delivery of medicines,” the Health Secretary added.
Following an earlier call by the government for retired healthcare professionals to return to the NHS, Hancock confirmed that more than 10,000 people have so far responded and agreed to rejoin the health service.
GOP senators urge Trump to listen to medical professionals before reopening economy
From CNN’s Manu Raju
Republican senators told CNN that President Trump should listen to medical professionals before opening up economy.
Here’s what they’re saying:
Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst: “I think we need to be very cautious about that I want to make sure that we are putting the safety health and well-beings of Iowans, Americans, first. I think we do need to follow CDC guidelines and watch what our experts are saying. I would love to see the economy up and going as soon as possible, but lets make sure we’re taking care of people first.”
Nebraska Sen. Deb Fischer: “I believe that we should be following the advice of medical professionals, we are able to see some help in the future I think this net week is going to be tough, hopefully I will be back in my state, we have 60 or I think 62 cases right now, I anticipate that is going to continue to grow, and we should be listening to medical professionals.”
Pence announces 4,000 ventilators will be shipped to New York
Vice President Mike Pence announced that the Federal Emergency Management Agency shipped 2,000 ventilators from the national stockpile to New York state earlier Tuesday with another shipment of 2,000 ventilators expected Wednesday.
“I was so pleased to confirm that earlier today, FEMA, from the national stockpile, shipped 2,000 ventilators to the state of New York. And tomorrow, there will be another 2,000 ventilators shipped from the national stockpile,” Pence said during a Fox News town hall.
Pence said earlier during the town hall that the national stockpile “has some 20,000 ventilators,” and that the hardest-hit American communities had been prioritized.
What this is about: At a news conference today, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that the state has procured 7,000 ventilators but needs an additional 30,000 for coronavirus treatment.
Trump wants country “opened up and just raring to go by Easter”
From CNN’s Kevin Liptak
President Trump said he wants the nation “opened up and just raring to go by Easter,” a date just over two weeks away that few health experts believe will be sufficient in containing the spread of coronavirus.
Speaking during a Fox News town hall, Trump reiterated he was eager to see the nation return to normal, even as doctors warn the nation will see a massive spike in cases if Americans return to crowded workplaces or events.
“I give it two weeks,” Trump said earlier in the town hall, suggesting he was ready to phase out his 15-day self-isolating guidelines when they expire. “I guess by Monday or Tuesday, it’s about two weeks. We will assess at that time and give it more time if we need a little more time. We have to open this country up.”
Despite announcing the new guidelines under the banner “The President’s Coronavirus Guidelines for America,” Trump seemed to distance himself from the practices during the town hall.
“Somehow, the word got out that this is the thing we are supposed to be doing,” he said, noting the country had “never done a thing like this before.”
“But we had to do it. It’s been very painful for our country and very destabilizing,” he said.
As his advisers prepare options for returning the country to work, Trump suggested that Americans would still be able to exercise good health practices while still returning to normal.
“We have to go back to work much sooner than people thought. People can go back to work and they can also pass it on my practice good judgment,” he said.
Trump again compared coronavirus to the flu and auto accidents, despite warnings from his health advisers that such analogies make little sense.
“We lose thousands and thousands of people to the flu. We don’t turn the country off,” he said, adding: “We lose much more than that to automobile accidents.”
Last week, Dr. Anthony Fauci said comparing coronavirus to auto accidents was a “false equivalency” and said it was important to “face the fact” that coronavirus is more lethal than the flu.
Interesting how our life experience informs our interpretation of events.
In my judgement, if things don’t look awkward and clumsy now, people aren’t trying hard enough. Sure, they have all war-gamed catastrophes, but the details in real life are never exactly the same as the details in the game you knew was a game. Real people are working hard, gathering information, making decisions and moving forward, and sometimes they trip and stumble, but then they get up and move forward some more.
If it still looks awkward and clumsy in 3 months we have the wrong people staffing these agencies. But it should look like that now, and people who have done hard things know that.