Mega-Thread: Coronavirus Pandemic

[Deus Mortis]

Reposting this from the Trump shitshow thread:

In a development that shouldn't shock anyone, it looks like one reason Trump is suddenly pushing hydroxcholorquine as a treatment COVID-19, aside from needing something as a lifesaver to cling to as he flails around in the water, it may well be because he stands to make money off it, as he has investments in Sanofi, the company that makes the brand-name drug for hydroxychloroquine.

On another note, the International Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy is casting doubt on the study that claimed hydroxycholorquine is a treatment for COVID-19, saying that the study did not live up to the Societies expected standards, the study for which was published in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, the journal the Society runs.

Just saw this is one of my feeds, https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-dis...110639176.html.

President Donald Trump reportedly has a "small personal financial interest" in a drugmaker that produces hydroxychloroquine, a drug he has been enthusiastically touting as a possible treatment for the new coronavirus, according to a Monday New York Times report.

"As of last year, Mr. Trump reported that his three family trusts each had investments in a Dodge & Cox mutual fund, whose largest holding was in Sanofi," The Times wrote. Sanofi is a French drugmaker that produces hydroxychloroquine pills under the brand name Plaquenil.

A mutual fund is a portfolio that pools together money from several investors and then invests across various asset classes such as stocks, bonds and other forms of debt.

Business Insider followed the paper trail and concluded that the holding has a maximum value of around $1,300, only slightly larger than similar holdings by Trump funds in Google parent Alphabet, FedEx, and the French bank BNP Paribas.

Here is the logic:

The Dodge & Cox holdings are mentioned in this disclosure form, logged with the US Office of Government Ethics in May 2019.

Each of three family funds list a holding in the Dodge & Cox International Stocks Fund, valued between $1,000 and $15,000.

The funds are managed by JP Morgan without any input from Trump.

According to a prospectus dated December 2019, the Dodge & Cox fund in question has Sanofi as its largest holding at 2.9%.

If all three Dodge & Cox holdings are worth the full $15,000 — $45,000 in total — then a 2.9% share of that is $1,305.

Assuming, each holding is the minimum $1,000 — a total of $3,000 — then the 2.9% stake would equate to $87.

Definitely something to keep it the back of your head because I would not put it past Trump for a second to hawk something that would make him money. But it looks like he has barely any money invested into the company. So it might just be a coincidence.

[Deathknightish]

It's gonna be interesting to see what happens when countries open up again. My bet is that people aren't gonna take it slow. They'll indulge in entertainment and partying like no tomorrow, which will start to spread the virus once again.

No, I strongly believe that Sweden has chosen the right path with recommendations rather than strict laws. We are also seeing down-pointing numbers now.

[Puupi]

No, I strongly believe that Sweden has chosen the right path with recommendations rather than strict laws. We are also seeing down-pointing numbers now.

Lol, this is so sad.

Btw a new death record today in Sweden. "down-pointing numbers"

[Acidbaron]

It's gonna be interesting to see what happens when countries open up again. My bet is that people aren't gonna take it slow. They'll indulge in entertainment and partying like no tomorrow, which will start to spread the virus once again.

No, I strongly believe that Sweden has chosen the right path with recommendations rather than strict laws. We are also seeing down-pointing numbers now.

Up to the nations government to open things up piece by piece, to protect people for their own good.

How Sweden ends up is to be seen, people are in my opinion too selective when it comes to processing data in their mind. Even if we are optimistic about Sweden's approach we have to accept that it can't be applied to every nation. Will also be interesting to see how those recommendations will be followed now with increasingly better weather at the start of the spring season.

I am rather satisfied with the lock down measures as people would just do whatever anyway till the seriousness of the matter sinks in and at that point Hospitals can no longer cope and the situation can no longer be rectified. You can always decrease lockdown measures if things look better, you can't do that the otherway around.

[Deathknightish]

Lol, this is so sad.

Btw a new death record today in Sweden. "down-pointing numbers"

Death rate means nothing. Or well, it does but what is the interesting number is the active cases, which has gone down.

[Omega10]

It's gonna be interesting to see what happens when countries open up again. My bet is that people aren't gonna take it slow. They'll indulge in entertainment and partying like no tomorrow, which will start to spread the virus once again.

No, I strongly believe that Sweden has chosen the right path with recommendations rather than strict laws. We are also seeing down-pointing numbers now.

New Zealand went the full out lock down approach, and it so far seems to be quite successful.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world...stI?li=BBnb7Kz

Title: New Zealand isn’t just flattening the curve. It’s squashing it.

It took only 10 days for signs that the approach here — “elimination” rather than the “containment” goal of the United States and other Western countries — is working.

The number of new cases has fallen for two consecutive days, despite a huge increase in testing, with 54 confirmed or probable cases reported Tuesday. That means the number of people who have recovered, 65, exceeds the number of daily infections.

“The signs are promising,” Ashley Bloomfield, the director-general of health, said Tuesday.

The speedy results have led to calls to ease the lockdown conditions, even a little, for the four-day Easter holiday, especially as summer lingers on.

But Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is adamant that New Zealand will complete four weeks of lockdown — two full 14-day incubation cycles — before letting up. She has, however, given the Easter Bunny special dispensation to work this weekend.

We'll soon see what happens when all of these couped up people can all go out at the same time. The US, Spain, Italy, Germany, and other countries are all going to have to go through the same process, which China is doing now as per the earlier photo by @Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang

[Puupi]

Death rate means nothing.

That's probably the mentality of the persons in charge committing this targeted genocide over there.

Or well, it does but what is the interesting number is the active cases, which has gone down.

Active cases is the most pointless metric.

Hospitalized and dead are the only numbers that really matter.

[Deathknightish]

That's probably the mentality of the persons in charge committing this targeted genocide over there.

Active cases is the most pointless metric.

Hospitalized and dead are the only numbers that really matter.

Why? It says nothing about how many are infected. It just says that a certain number of people have died, which may be because of different reasons such as age, underlying disease etc.

[Gorsameth]

New Zealand went the full out lock down approach, and it so far seems to be quite successful.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world...stI?li=BBnb7Kz

Title: New Zealand isn’t just flattening the curve. It’s squashing it.



We'll soon see what happens when all of these couped up people can all go out at the same time. The US, Spain, Italy, Germany, and other countries are all going to have to go through the same process, which China is doing now as per the earlier photo by @Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang

small island nation vs 2 continents.
Yeah totally a comparable situation...

[Puupi]

Why? It says nothing about how many are infected. It just says that a certain number of people have died, which may be because of different reasons such as age, underlying disease etc.

Getting the number of infected is related to the amount of testing that is being done. It's an arbitrary number right now.

Hospitalized and dead - they matter.

You are questioning coronavirus being the reason for death? How am I not surprised.

Full on fucking ignorant denialism.

[Gorsameth]

Why? It says nothing about how many are infected. It just says that a certain number of people have died, which may be because of different reasons such as age, underlying disease etc.

Active cases relies on testing which has wild variance between countries.

[cubby]

Lol, this is so sad.

Btw a new death record today in Sweden. "down-pointing numbers"

It gets worse. Coroners might not be able to accurately report death numbers in hot zones because lack of testing kits.

[ParanoiD84]

Seeing even more people outside now as more are home from work and schools lol, nice weather is just adding to that too.

[hellhamster]

Just saw this is one of my feeds, https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-dis...110639176.html.


Definitely something to keep it the back of your head because I would not put it past Trump for a second to hawk something that would make him money. But it looks like he has barely any money invested into the company. So it might just be a coincidence.

People with real capital have a very varied portfolio, possibly investing in hundreds or even thousands of companies. He certainly doesn't manages this all by himself, he probably has a team of investors.

A huge uproar about nothing, which is precisely what we don't need right now.

[Easo]

Seeing even more people outside now as more are home from work and schools lol, nice weather is just adding to that too.

Same, we got +21 today in Riga and so many people are wandering around, especially teenagers. Just fucking great, right after what looked like curve flattening in Latvia.

[hellhamster]

Why? It says nothing about how many are infected. It just says that a certain number of people have died, which may be because of different reasons such as age, underlying disease etc.

Like others said, the only real number to calculate spread is the amount of hospitalizations, ICUs used and capacity. Number of infected is irrelevant, as infections can only be amounted to limited tests, which are often inaccurate. One could argue that deaths are also a good number to calculate spread, but many countries such as Germany have a different view on how to ascertain cause of death.

[Inuyaki]

Some updates on the case of the missing masks:
https://www.politico.eu/article/berl...rumps-america/

[hellhamster]

Some updates on the case of the missing masks:
https://www.politico.eu/article/berl...rumps-america/

"Berlin says it never claimed 3M was involved (it was “the media” that did) and doesn’t know who the manufacturer of the missing masks was"

So, how can they not know the manufacturer of a product they assumedly paid 200.000 euros for? Kinda weaksauce case they got there.

They either got scammed by some Chinese alibaba company and are imagining elephants, or they are lying. I'm inclining towards the first.

[Daedra82]

UK suffers deadliest coronavirus day as death toll soars by 854 to over 6,000
+ 4,229 positive cases

[Omega10]

small island nation vs 2 continents.
Yeah totally a comparable situation...

I agree... up to a point. We have information from China and the way they are dealing with the lock down ending, and we'll get information from New Zealand. Presumably - oops maybe I should not assume this - people making decisions will use the experiences of these two countries (as well as South Korea and others) in making decisions in the US and in European countries.

Note: the reason I decided to post the New Zealand information is that it sounds like a bit of good news in an ocean of bad news. And the article has a video of the lead of the country talking about it, and she is very impressive.