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US Secures World Stock of Key Covid-19 Drug Remdesivir
US Secures World Stock of Key Covid-19 Drug Remdesivir:
No other country will be able to buy remdesivir, which can help recovery from Covid-19, for next three months at least
The US has bought up virtually all the stocks for the next three months of one of the two drugs proven to work against Covid-19, leaving none for the UK, Europe or most of the rest of the world.
Experts and campaigners are alarmed both by the US unilateral action on remdesivir and the wider implications, for instance in the event of a vaccine becoming available. The Trump administration has already shown that it is prepared to outbid and outmanoeuvre all other countries to secure the medical supplies it needs for the US.
“They’ve got access to most of the drug supply [of remdesivir], so there’s nothing for Europe,” said Dr Andrew Hill, senior visiting research fellow at Liverpool University.
Remdesivir, the first drug approved by licensing authorities in the US to treat Covid-19, is made by Gilead and has been shown to help people recover faster from the disease. The first 140,000 doses, supplied to drug trials around the world, have been used up. The Trump administration has now bought more than 500,000 doses, which is all of Gilead’s production for July and 90% of August and September.
US to buy 500,000 Remdesivir Coronavirus Treatment Courses at $2,340 Each
US to buy 500,000 remdesivir coronavirus treatment courses at $2,340 each:
The US Department of Health and Human Services has agreed to buy 500,000 remdesivir treatment courses, in the wake of clinical trials revealing the drug can help patients recover more quickly from the coronavirus. A five-day course will cost $2,340,or $3,120 for commercially insured patients, biotech firm Gilead Sciences said.
Early last month, the Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency authorization for remdesivir to be used in cases of COVID-19 when patients were "hospitalized with severe disease," shortly after the drug showed "clear-cut positive effect" in a US trial.
[...] "To the extent possible, we want to ensure that any American patient who needs remdesivir can get it," HHS Secretary Alex Azar said in a release.
[...] Gilead CEO Daniel O'Day addressed the higher price for private insurers, according to health site Stat, by noting that there are "always two prices" for a drug in the US. In an open letter, he acknowledged that the company's work on remdesivir is "far from done."
[...] He also said that countries in the developing world will get the drug at greatly reduced prices, through generic manufacturers.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 05 2020, @09:58PM (127 children)
Trump regime locked up the supply for the US, the rest of the world be damned.
That, is how you make America "Great" again.
Trump, the greatest gift to Chicom.
#MAGA
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday July 05 2020, @10:37PM (109 children)
Oh he wasn't doing his job particularly diplomatically but he was absolutely doing his job. He's not the President of the world, as so many are wont to state ad nauseam, he's the President of the US. His primary responsibility is taking care of the US. And that's precisely what he did. Very effectively.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Sunday July 05 2020, @10:41PM (19 children)
Never mind he owns stock in the companies that actually bought this drug and stands to make a ton of money for using taxpayer money for his personal gain. We won't even get into the whole "price 5 months ago x == 10x price now" bullshit.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday July 05 2020, @10:55PM (18 children)
Dude, please, at least think your argument through. The stock was going to be bought and used. Period. Who bought it makes no difference at all to the value of his his stock holdings.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Sunday July 05 2020, @11:31PM (17 children)
DaFuq? Are you really this stupid or are you playing to the /. overflow?
2 completely different meanings of stock. I mean buying part of a company, you are talking about how many widgets are available.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Common Joe on Monday July 06 2020, @10:01AM (10 children)
Sometimes, I used to wonder if he was trolling, but TMB has been pretty consistent about this for years. When it comes to scarce resources and earning potential (not necessarily money itself), he's all about "me, myself, and I". He usually finds a way to remind us common Joes how it's our fault if we can't come up to his "obvious" standards and match his high IQ. Even if it means changing the subject a little bit.
Outside the concept of software, he really can't understand the simple concept of sharing and why working together is actually a good thing in the long run. For someone who does so much for SoylentNews, it stumps me how someone with his intelligence can miss something so obvious.
I've given up trying to understand this side of him. I have to rely on others for help and unfortunately for me, I tend to run into his kind in real life who cannot grasp something on my level. It's this kind of selfishness which got us in the state of the pandemic we're in now. Up until 6 months ago, it could have turned out very differently, but selfish assholes with strong connections in a bunch of countries decided the fate for billions otherwise. Now we're stuck between a limited choice of really bad outcomes.
(Score: 2, Troll) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday July 07 2020, @12:22AM (2 children)
He's a sociopath. I've been shouting this from the rooftops for years here and no one's fucking listening. Did I leave my lesbian invisibility cloak on or something?!
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 07 2020, @02:27AM (1 child)
Nah, buzzie is one of the more sane one.
If majority of the trumpets are anything like him, we wouldn't be the in the state we are in.
(Score: 1, Troll) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday July 08 2020, @01:10AM
Uzzard isn't sane, he's lazy and weak-willed. This whole "freedom" schtick from him is actually a scared little boy screaming at the world to just leave him alone and let him be, and his entire lifestyle reflects this central need of his. He's also a sociopath, but one of the higher-functioning ones who's had a few shades of shit beaten out of him by Life (TM), so he can be counted on to always act like an asshole but never back it up.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday July 07 2020, @01:01PM (4 children)
You're reading what you want instead of what I said. I did not say buying up all the drug was a good thing or a bad thing, I said it was well in line with the obligations of his job and pointed out that the people bitching about it are the same ones who bitch about him thinking he's President of the world every time he takes any active role in global politics. The rest of what you think is there is you getting your "REEEEEEEE!!!" on.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 08 2020, @02:56AM (1 child)
You're just annoyed people can see right through you. Time to create a sock puppet and hop on TMB for admin related stuff. Make a new you, no one will possibly be able to tell ;)
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday July 11 2020, @03:10PM
See through me? You can't see me at all through all the partisan bullshit you have caked in your eyes.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Common Joe on Saturday July 11 2020, @03:06AM (1 child)
Communication requires a minimum of two people. If there is a communication problem, it can happen in one or more of the parties involved. Perhaps the problem is not always everyone else?
You'll argue that the second quote of yours (which supports the first quote of yours) is all neutral. I can assure you, most people would not interpret it as neutral. Far from it. It looks very much like you're supporting the president's actions. (If you are completely neutral, why make the second comment at all?) A good test would be to change who we're talking about -- someone else besides the president -- and then apply your statement. I'm sure my argument would still hold.
This time, you're reading what you want instead of what I said or what some of the others said. Your language skills are not as perfect as you claim.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday July 11 2020, @03:21PM
Regarding the stock price and his resulting gains, it is entirely neutral. Which is all I said about that.
No, I wasn't reading into what you said. I was stating an undeniable fact that the folks bitching about him are bitching because he's Trump and he did something; no other reason. That of course assumes they're smart enough to understand that selling your entire stock of something makes you the same profit if you sell it to Bob, Alice, or everyone between them in the phonebook. I prefer to assume folks I'm talking to are not idiots.
To clarify, I am not defending Trump beyond saying that looking out for his nation above all others is his job, and it appears he interpreted that to mean buy up all of this drug. What I am doing is shooting holes in the bullshit arguments of the vast majority of arguments against him. The dude has plenty of legitimate shit coming his way. Stop bitching about bullshit that isn't supported by facts or logic and bitch about the legit stuff and you'll hear no disagreement from me.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Tuesday July 07 2020, @06:24PM (1 child)
It's this kind of selfishness which got us in the state of the pandemic we're in now. Up until 6 months ago, it could have turned out very differently, but selfish assholes with strong connections in a bunch of countries decided the fate for billions otherwise. Now we're stuck between a limited choice of really bad outcomes.
The important thing to remember here is that the people in this bunch of countries willingly chose these leaders, so they're getting exactly what they elected. Countries with better people chose better leaders, and got far, far better outcomes.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday July 11 2020, @03:23PM
No, they didn't. Outcomes implies that the situation in question is over. It is not and will not be for quite some time because the world is flatly refusing to allow the species to develop herd immunity.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Monday July 06 2020, @12:26PM
TMB was talking about both types of stock. To paraphrase:
All the product was going to be sold (quickly) to somebody anyway, so there's little difference to the value of your shares.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday July 06 2020, @03:02PM
He used both meanings of "stock" in the same post. It confused you, which indicates it was not the clearest composition, but the usage was not incorrect.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday July 06 2020, @03:53PM (3 children)
No shit, Sherlock. I used both meanings as well. Here, let me clarify: If the pharmaceutical stockpiles are going to be sold in the exact same quantities regardless, it will make zero difference to the price of his pharmaceutical securities who buys the pharmaceutical stockpiles. All that matters is the profit made, at whose expense it's made is completely irrelevant.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @07:59PM (2 children)
I mean. You're wrong? It says so, directly right in TFA? Gilead charges 1.5x as much for "commercially insured". Prices and profits vary for lots of reasons, too, including exchange rates, varying delivery costs, etc. If they have a fixed amount to sell, and if that were the only thing driving their stock market valuation, then selling to only "commercially insured" orgs would change their stock market price.
So TMB you are completely and utterly incorrect, if TFA/Gilead's presser are not lies.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday July 07 2020, @01:04PM (1 child)
They do have a fixed amount to sell, dumbass. What Trump bought was everything they could produce over a certain time span. The rest? That's just you pissing and moaning and trying to confuse the issue with irrelevancies and misdirection.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 08 2020, @02:59AM
Ah yes, proven wrong so he doubles down. Typical TMB, led by the nose by his own ego. #SAD #LOWENERGY #TRUMPBALLS
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 05 2020, @10:47PM (22 children)
Yeah, maybe, if the US was some 3rd rate "power" country, struggling to survive.
If you think that's what the US is, then that's that.
But if you think America is something more than just a country trying to survive, a country that leads rather than follow...
Well, nobody will follow America.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 05 2020, @10:53PM (7 children)
TMB: "Fuck you got mine."
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday July 06 2020, @03:56PM (6 children)
Wrong, dipshit. I'm the guy who's been telling you we don't even need the stuff to begin with. Trump thinks differently though, so what he did was totally in line with his responsibilities.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @04:25PM
Herpderp wackadooooo
(Score: 2) by http on Tuesday July 07 2020, @05:27AM (4 children)
There's over a hundred thousand graves that beg to differ.
I browse at -1 when I have mod points. It's unsettling.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday July 07 2020, @01:11PM (3 children)
Despite the absolute certainty that you will take this the wrong way and use ad hom instead of reason in your next reply, so what? That hundred thousand is out of round about eight fucking billion people and it took half a year to get up to that. It's not even chump change, it's wholly irrelevant.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 07 2020, @11:39PM (2 children)
This is, and I cannot stress this enough, not funny. Those 100,000 additional, preventable deaths were in the United States alone, with a population of (since we seem to be rounding) approximately 300,000,000 [wikipedia.org].
I don't know what exactly you're playing at, but it has not for some time looked like honest, informed discussion and you aren't even within shouting distance of teh lulz. If I had to guess, I'd say a messy divorce? Where is your A game?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 08 2020, @03:01AM
He has no A game. His "trolling" is serious, and his serious is trolling. The guy is a few potatoes short of a battery.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday July 11 2020, @03:26PM
The hell they were. They're currently counting people who die in traffic accidents as covid-19 deaths if they test positive. The numbers you have are fiction and I very much doubt we will ever get any even approaching the truth.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2, Offtopic) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday July 05 2020, @10:56PM (12 children)
Oh, so now you want him to be President of the World? Make up your mind.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 05 2020, @11:05PM (1 child)
He isn't President of the World but he's the President of the country that has bailed out the rest of the World many times over. And the country that would bring absolute global fucking problems if they don't get it under control and end up having to shut down for months.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @09:51AM
Can you elaborate on bailed out?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 05 2020, @11:13PM (9 children)
I know you live in a fly-over country, and no disrespect, but can't you appreciate the position the US occupies in the world today?
We are not a dinky little country like the UK, France, or even Russia, China or India. We are America, We have military bases all around the world, out navy/carrier groups rule the seven seas.
We print our money like there is no tomorrow and it's still worth something, and Chinese buy them by the bucketloads, because of our global geopolitical/economic position.
Do you think the ancient Romans, got sick of all the barbarians, can simply pull back and stay safe and wealthy?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 05 2020, @11:21PM
With strong northern and southern borders and a nice stockpile of nukes, the new Romans could indeed pull out and stay safe and wealthy.
(Score: 4, Informative) by c0lo on Sunday July 05 2020, @11:29PM (2 children)
Enjoy it while it lasts.
The latest IMF economic outlook [imf.org] shows a "growth" rate into negative territory for all but one country, I'll let you guess which one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @01:30AM (1 child)
Oh gee... Only China. With all the lies China is telling about covid you can bet your chicken chow mein that China lies about their economic status. Look at all the bullshit Chinese discoveries being posted here.
(Score: 4, Touché) by c0lo on Monday July 06 2020, @01:43AM
Quick. Ask for a public inquiry and, more important, defund IMF [theconversation.com] immediately!
(grin)
And, while at it, defund the police too, don't forget the police.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday July 06 2020, @04:02PM (4 children)
Yes, and I don't give even the slightest of fucks. We are not responsible for $whoever. That's just whiny bitches shitting on the home team because they're feeling bad that they have it better than other nations. The same whiny bitches that shit on their own demographics because they feel bad that their demographic is doing better at something than another one. When siding against the home team is your knee-jerk position, you're not compassionate, you're a fucking traitor.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @04:28PM (3 children)
Mr. Indepedent turns out to be a tribal us vs. them moron.
Anyone else having a total lack of surprise?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @07:38PM (1 child)
Have you been paying attention to the libtards' behavior? Or maybe you can't see through your own bias? Ever hear of "cancel culture"???????
The truth is that most people agree that racism is wrong, police brutality is wrong, lack of healthcare is wrong, poverty is wrong, on and on. But they turn against their own countrymen and women- they set themselves apart. They downmod the slightest hint of something they don't agree with. Trump wins election, rioting in streets. I've never seen rioting by conservatives because a D won an election.
There are those who just hate hate hate, and they destroy any unity we had. There's a better, united way of doing things.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @08:03PM
Nice false narrative you've got there. Shame nobody rioted when Trump took office. Rioting during a president's term - IDK who you think was president when Fergusson went down, but it wasn't a R.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday July 07 2020, @01:12PM
You always take care of family first, retard.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Monday July 06 2020, @03:13PM
Soft power is a difficult thing to prove empirically. Hard power is much easier.
Do other countries want to follow America's lead now, versus earlier? Or was it simply in their material interest to do so? Western Europe was quite happy to shelter under the American military umbrella during the Cold War. Most Europeans did not particularly want to be part of Stalin's paradise. Now, the Soviet Union is gone, but China looms on the horizon. So do Europeans still have a need for American power against that threat?
At the same time, European self-confidence has been shaken by Brexit and other members states wanting to follow suit, and by unchecked migration from Africa and the Middle East. Right-wing governments have been rising to power in Hungary and Austria and even in Italy and Germany right-wing parties have been gaining seats in parliament. Does that incline Europeans to embrace America, or distance themselves from it? It's hard to know.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 05 2020, @10:55PM (14 children)
If he was doing his job just well, nothing exceptional, the Americans would not be excluded from traveling to Europe [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday July 05 2020, @11:00PM (13 children)
Blah blah. We'll see how it shakes out. It could very well wind up with Sweeden and the US laughing the next four or five rounds off owing to us having herd immunity while everyone else keeps filling coffins and fucking their economy to the point where more folks are starving to death there than dying of coronaids.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Mykl on Monday July 06 2020, @01:02AM (11 children)
You are aware that, absent a vaccine, herd immunity in this case means "Everyone who could die from this has already died", right?
How is the US in a better place having everyone already dead?
(Score: 4, Informative) by c0lo on Monday July 06 2020, @02:00AM (3 children)
Ummm... nope, we can't say that. For the time being, it may be like playing multiple rounds of Russian roullete.
Because, to date [theconversation.com], the longevity of the antibody response is still unknown, but it is known that antibodies to other coronaviruses wane over time [europa.eu].
Absent a vaccine, the best people can do is to try to mitigate the reaction to the illness. And there are long-term health risks following COVID-19 [racgp.org.au] (persistent pulmonary damage, post-viral fatigue and chronic cardiac complications).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday July 06 2020, @06:55AM (2 children)
It's truly horrible. People have lost limbs, and I'm sure worse if that's possible. I guess oxygen deprivation is a big factor.
Crikey, what's happening here? https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-53303317 [bbc.com]
(Score: 4, Informative) by Mykl on Monday July 06 2020, @08:13AM (1 child)
Yes, this really does suck.
Heads have already rolled on this one, and parts of Melbourne are now in various stages of lockdown. The rest of Australia is pretty much clear, so it's frustrating that we stuffed up our Quarantine procedures so badly here.
For context - our horror number was over 100 new cases in a day across the state of Victoria (population 6.6m) yesterday, so we are not quite at US levels yet!
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday July 06 2020, @04:56PM
I'm a USAian (if you didn't already guess) and I'm saddened, frustrated, disappointed, etc., seeing our news and huge numbers of people congregating on beaches, restaurants, etc., must (mostly) without masks. Stores that have been open throughout the pandemic have relaxed some of their rules, but continue to require masks and try to encourage "social distancing". Epidemiologist I talked to a week ago said masks really help, and if everyone wears masks, "social distancing" isn't as necessary. Also, total amount of exposure to infected person is a big factor. You could wear a mask and walk by someone who is infected but wearing a mask, and it's very unlikely you'll get infected.
Another disappointment: I'd love to see a much stronger world-wide effort in bio research and in support thereof. I could do a lot, but I don't see any media articles, nor job ads...
That's great news that you have such a low infection rate! Too many "Americans" are too free-spirited, "damn the torpedoes- full speed ahead" mentality.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @02:46AM
WE ARE THE CAPITALISTS
DEATH IS IRRELEVANT
LOWER YOUR MASKS AND SURRENDER YOUR PUBLIC HEALTH SYSTEMS
RESISTANCE IS FUTILE
(Score: 2, Disagree) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday July 06 2020, @04:04PM (5 children)
No, it does not. It means most everyone you come across is already immune and can not realistically give it to you even if you've never had it.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @04:31PM (1 child)
Here I thought you cared about the science. We still don't know if people develop immunity or if they become asymptomatic carriers.
You're a death loving fuckwit Chad.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday July 07 2020, @01:14PM
Yes, we do. We ran a bloody story on it over a week ago right on this site. Retard.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday July 06 2020, @04:59PM
Uh, people who are asymptomatic and test negative most definitely can be carriers.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Mykl on Monday July 06 2020, @11:50PM (1 child)
You are correct, however in this case that means at least 95% or more of people would have to have caught it in order to 'already be immune'. As a result of that, anyone in that 95+% who was going to die, will die.
This is assuming that you can't catch it twice. The jury is still out on that [newscientist.com]
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday July 07 2020, @01:18PM
No, it's not. We ran a story just a little over a week ago giving much more recent information to the contrary.
And, no, you do not need 95% of the population to be immune to benefit from herd immunity, though we're likely to hit that soon enough.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @03:42AM
Sweden is in a better position to laugh. They didn't fuck up their economy at all, especially compared to what certain state and local leaders are still imposing on their subjects in the US.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Sunday July 05 2020, @11:53PM (7 children)
Another thing the US could have done is buy the drug IP outright and then have global generics manufacturers produce vast quantities of the drug - I bet there's some Indian manufacturers who could cut more than an order of magnitude off that price and produce a lot more treatments at the same time.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @12:11AM
> Who will get that?
Rich people.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @12:13AM (1 child)
"Another thing the US could have done is buy the drug IP outright and then have global generics manufacturers produce vast quantities of the drug"
That's exactly what the US should have done. Get it together, align others to follow, and tell the whole world:
"We got this. Come to papa. We've got yo back."
Instead, we have Trump.
#MAGA
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday July 06 2020, @01:37AM
With both India [newindianexpress.com] and China [time.com] producing it, there are some interesting photo opp for a "world savior" pose.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Monday July 06 2020, @02:19AM
Which will be needed for those in the ICU only.
It's not like taking an OTC aspirin, this stuff is nasty to one's liver [wikipedia.org].
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by EETech1 on Monday July 06 2020, @06:01AM
Right!
Half a million treatments...
Gone in a week!
Then someone will be complaining about other countries not selling it to the USA.
(Score: 2) by Teckla on Monday July 06 2020, @01:15PM (1 child)
By making it out of 90% ground up house plants?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @03:12PM
You're an idiot [ft.com]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Monday July 06 2020, @12:04AM (25 children)
I had some neighbors out in the country, for a short time. After they moved in they decided the mail should be delivered to their gate, not to the boxes at the start of the private road. Very persistent, very "hard negotiators" those new neighbors were - they "made" the post office deliver to their mailbox at the gate... they won, that one. Small town, word gets around - they didn't win another one for the next two years, when they moved out.
It's a small world, word gets around.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @12:43AM (4 children)
How petulant of them to want what pretty much every other american expects out of the post office unless you live in a apartment complex. HOW PETULANT! How DARE they expect the best out of the post office.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @01:48AM (1 child)
What? I expect my mail in the mailbox, not delivered to my doorstep. Entitlement is the worst affliction of the ignorant and arrogant.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday July 06 2020, @05:11PM
When I moved into the City of Miami (1992) the standard garbage pickup was at the back door of the house... kinda weird at first having garbage men walking into your back yard once a week, but after getting used to that it was a real let down when they discontinued the service and made the homeowners put the garbage on the street. In the Miami area I think it's still standard to have mail delivered to-the-doorstep, where you don't even have to step out in the rain to collect it from your box, your box is usually under the front porch awning. This country screwball was fighting to move his mailbox 1/2 mile down a dirt road, when his house was another 1/4 mile down his dirt driveway... I didn't see the point, honestly.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday July 06 2020, @02:20AM (1 child)
It was (and still is) a privately maintained road, dirt, the post office isn't required to drive on private roads to deliver mail - I'm still surprised he made that happen.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @04:34PM
Probably capitualted just to shut the guy up. Quite common actually, but it gives assholes a fake sense of power instead of a real gratefullness for the kindness of others.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday July 06 2020, @04:08PM (19 children)
I did say it wasn't particularly diplomatic, didn't I? Dude has a simple way of looking at his responsibilities but they are his responsibilities. They also absolutely hold primacy over having people like us.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday July 06 2020, @05:06PM (18 children)
I guess it's all about time horizons - if all you care about is the next 3 months, sure: balls to the wall, take no prisoners, me, Me, ME, ME!, ME!!!!! - that's all that matters.
A measured approach, even just sharing 30% of the supply with the rest of the world, would go a long way toward securing future cooperation as compared to just stiffing them all.
The most successful and longest lasting victories of history weren't the ones where the "victors" kicked the defeated when they were down. Lasting victory involves either complete annihilation of the enemy (which often comes at a tremendous cost), or recognition of the other side as equals and helping them to rebuild after the conflict is resolved. Personally, I'm not ready to pay the price of nuking the rest of the world, and I doubt that we'd like living on "our side" much in the aftermath.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @08:07PM (1 child)
annihilation via assimilation is another route, FYI
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Tuesday July 07 2020, @03:02AM
Does that cover self-annihilation?
New figures suggest "only" 186,000 dead by October 1.. [reason.com] so not enough to qualify (yet)
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday July 07 2020, @01:24PM (15 children)
I don't particularly care if we have it or not. Coronaids does not worry me. Like at all. A hundred thousand deaths out of about eight billion over half a year isn't even a rounding error.
But world opinion matters nothing to me either. Again, at all. If you have more than most people, for any reason, a lot of them are going to hate you. Works on an individual scale and even more certainly on a global scale.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday July 07 2020, @02:12PM (14 children)
https://www.google.com/search?q=total+covid+deaths+worldwide [google.com]
Looking like 540K / 7.8B by the time you read this.
The more frightening figure is 540K / 11.6M confirmed cases which would extrapolate up to 363M deaths in the next couple of years if left to run unchecked. Personally, I believe that 11.6M number to translate to 200M+ total cases, so, it's not quite so scary to me - but nobody really has a good handle on that.
I submitted an article (declined by the Soylent editors) which estimates that the early confirmed cases stats were approximately 1/80th of the total cases - that's the highest credible estimate I've seen so far, but even at that rate we'll be looking at 5 million deaths before this finishes making the rounds - 10x the "normal" annual global death toll for influenza.
I'd consider novel threats (like COVID) "significant" - above rounding error - when they start to exceed the global suicide rate, which I believe is running around 1.5 million per year now. Without management, it's pretty clear that COVID is capable of beating that number.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday July 07 2020, @02:49PM (13 children)
Confirmed cases = someone came in and tested to have the virus active in their system. And every time they bother to check for it, the number of people with antibodies but no virus is way the hell higher. As in 10x higher. And that's still a very underrepresentative sample because it does not include anyone who didn't feel the need to go in and get tested for antibodies because they'd already had it and gotten over it.
So, yeah, that is colossally incorrect math in your extrapolation.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday July 07 2020, @03:37PM (12 children)
The so-called data is set up to be a straw man, with tests that are pushed through the process so they're more questionable than normal, and then the testing rates are still laughable even months down the line like we are, my county has 1M pop, we've tested less than 8000 and we're high for the state.
Of those 8000 tested (and what's the self-selection criteria for which 0.8% of the population has chosen to get tested?) we're showing something under 7% antibodies, as indicated by aforementioned less than reliable tests.
The death numbers may be fudged, but much less than all the sketchy test numbers. We're on track to credit COVID with more deaths than suicide in 2020 - it's already significant, and management clearly matters to outcome. Now, is management causing more damage than good? That's going to be a tough one to call for decades to come, management certainly is causing society to explore some options that haven't been seriously tried, like telecommuting, which may do more good than all the COVID containment ever could. Our auto insurance is already down by 40% - if that translates to 40% less deaths on the highway, that's 14,000 lives saved in the U.S alone - not to mention non-fatal injuries (like my father and his wife who were laid up for a year of rehab and permanently damaged...) Then there's the obvious: BUT MUH JERBS! counter arguments...
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday July 07 2020, @05:03PM (11 children)
S'basically what I'm saying, yeah. The jerbs thing is pretty crucial though. There's a tipping point where it starts dropping like a teenage guy's fly when he has pornhub time and doesn't recover within our lifetimes no matter what anyone does. Short of that there's still some pretty terrible and quite deadly consequences to be had though.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday July 07 2020, @05:42PM (8 children)
My grandparents lived through the great depression - definitely mentally scarred them for life, took "cheap Scotsmen" to a whole new level, but even that only lasted 10 years, and the world economy was practically roaring by the 1950s (circumstances vary, of course) - I plan to live for at least 20 more years... maybe 30 if I'm having fun.
There are all kinds of solutions to the jerbs - for example: we're already pumping enough tax dollars into corporate welfare to fund UBI...
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday July 11 2020, @03:41PM (7 children)
No, we're not. Not even close. UBI is defined as enough to live, though not well, off of. Even if the entire nation had a cost of living like that of a broke-dick state like OK or TN, that comes to around a quarter of a trillion dollars. Per month. That's approaching three times what the government currently takes in in taxes in a year for just that program. And it would have to be spent every single year. So you're either going to have to raise taxes on your citizens who don't say "fuck it" and live off of UBI (you know, the ones actually contributing to society) by more than they're getting back in UBI or you're going to have to deficit spend at levels that will have the dollar as worthless as Venezuelan currency within a decade.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday July 11 2020, @04:29PM (6 children)
Let's do a family of 4 in Tennessee: 3 bedroom house $1134, food $1100, utilities and incidentals $600 - make that round at $725 per person per month x 350 million is right on your quarter trillion per month. Now - take the Yang approach to funding: VAT on the $3T+ of monthly consumer spending, for 0.25T, that's a VAT rate of 8% - oh, but now cost of living just jumped 8%, so let's just boost that VAT to 10%, and increase the UBI from $725 to $800 per month per person. Funded - zero deficit spending. People say "fuckit" and quit work, their spending is still taxed, the program doesn't lose income. Personally, I'd rather not be "served" by people who consider themselves slaves to the system - let the people who want jobs, who want more than $800 per month and what that can buy, let them ask "do you want fries with that?"
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday July 12 2020, @02:11PM (5 children)
I don't care who hands me my burger but I do care about being forced under threat of imprisonment to pay someone to play XBox and smoke pot all day. Fuck that. They can get off their ass and contribute to society or starve unless they have a damned good reason they're unable to.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday July 12 2020, @04:14PM (4 children)
Well, see, there's the difference. I've been on the handing out the burgers side of the counter, and when the burger hander had a bad attitude you are subjecting yourself to risk of disease - whether intentional or unintentional on the part of the burger hander, and you can say they're under threat of imprisonment if they endanger burger buying customers like that, but experience says that actual enforcement of health standards is rare, at best.
Also, what's your feeling about sales tax and all that it pays for? That's what VAT is - tax on spending. Don't want to pay the tax? Don't spend. Very few people go to prison over sales tax issues.
Now, paying a 10% VAT so that some people can play XBox and smoke pot all day - I don't see how that affects me at all. Oh, wait, I'm paying 10% VAT - well, I'm also getting $800 per month per person, so $3200 per month in my house. I sure as fuck don't spend $32,000 per month on VAT taxed items - so that sounds like a win to me. Do you spend more than $8000 per month per person on VAT taxed items? According to our consumer spending stats there are people out there who do, and as far as I'm concerned they're the only ones who should be crying foul on a proposal like this.
Also, anybody who is bitching about a 10% tax on their spending above $96,000 per person per year can go fuck themselves, as far as I'm concerned.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday July 13 2020, @03:05PM (3 children)
The feelings I have about sales tax are about what my feelings would be about having a hangnail on a foot that I just got shot in. It's not currently a big enough pain to warrant any attention.
Which should set off warning bells of bullshit math in your head.
Yeah, because your financial happiness is based on what others have. More precisely on what folks who have more than you have. They have more so they must not deserve what they earn, eh? Envy, pure and simple. Sin taxes are supposed to be taxes on the one doing the sinning not other folks, just FYI. If you want more than you have, put in the effort necessary to get it. You know, just like most everyone who has more than you had to do.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday July 13 2020, @03:38PM (2 children)
Well, in most areas, sales taxes are already running in the neighborhood of 10%, so a 10% VAT would be like two hangnails, and still less than those commie Euro states that are all obviously dying a terrible death from overtaxation (not.)
I think it's more upside down than that - those in the yachts and private jets, and more commonly in high-end real-estate and new luxury cars, might be less secure in their self-defined superiority if the rabble weren't all struggling to keep a simple roof over their heads, so they obviously won't be choosing to pay a VAT that has basically no impact on their quality of life, other than to dramatically raise the quality of life of so many others.
Where I and my ilk stand, this would be a more or less revenue neutral proposition, we might get a bit more UBI than we pay in increased taxes, or not- I really don't care - we're doing O.K. and I'm not looking for a boost out of this. As for my children who don't have any readily apparent sources of income they can "earn" - this would be the difference between constantly having advocates demonstrate their "lack of means" and "disability" to receive basically the same money that UBI would provide without all that wonderful bureaucratic overhead.
You would think that, wouldn't you? I believe this is a demonstration of the difference between median and mean. We're usually running around quoting median income, median expenses, etc. but, when you look at average consumer spending with the top 10% are doing something like 90% of the spending, a VAT on all spending can return some impressive figures for the average.
U.S. consumer spending is reported at something like $3T per month, just under $10K per person per month - clearly we don't all spend that kind of money, but the ones that do don't mind spending it. If I skimmed the tables correctly, it looks like about half goes on "housing" - which in my father's case would be a fine 4000 sq ft home in Georgia that he hasn't set foot in in 4 months, plus an equally pricey "beach house" in Florida for him, the wife, and two cats. Gasp! Horror! A tax on housing expense?!?!? As if there aren't already property taxes on real estate. Tap 10% of that money stream, give it back on a per-capita basis instead of a per-dollar-spent basis, and you've solved the problem of housing for the poor.
10% was good enough for God in the Middle ages, I don't see why it's too much for the modern world.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday July 13 2020, @04:57PM (1 child)
You do know that we're nearly the highest taxed non-communist, non-anarchist nation already if you add up all the taxes we pay, yeah?
Which is really beside the point since you're never going to convince me it's my duty to pay someone to play XBox and smoke pot by saying it's affordable. I don't care if Sally Struthers comes on and shows me pictures of emaciated potheads with flies around their bloodshot eyes while they play pay-to-win games on their XBox, their support is not my responsibility. Now if you want to talk about figuring out the least burdensome way to ensure folks are paid commensurately to their contribution to society, that's another matter entirely.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday July 13 2020, @05:37PM
What I'm talking about is the least burdensome way to ensure folks get what they need to live. When you make people poor enough, their cost of living actually goes up. They no longer have cheap access to the broader markets, they're forced to take what they can get at "convenience pricing." They also end up in expensive crisis situations that are only a crisis because they don't have a the few bucks it takes to buy a way out of the problem - like having a blowout on the freeway because they can't afford to replace a worn out tire, and let's not devolve into healthcare maintenance vs ER discussions...
Means testing, disability testing, funds use oversight and audits, those are pure burden. One test: are you a citizen? Yes: here's your UBI, No: welcome to the U.S. - stay and work as long as you can afford to, most illegals will be leaving by choice: no walls required. With a "real" UBI in place, you could erase minimum wage - let the employers convince their workers they want the job however they like - the living wage is already taken care of.
It's not so simple, there's legions on high levels of disability that would require continued support "in the lifestyle to which they have become accustomed" unless you want to turn vast tracts of Appalachia and similar places into new ghost towns. But, I would consider it a huge step forward - not only because our people are suffering less, but because I don't have to live in a country with a bunch of suffering people - they're more expensive to police and imprison than they are to provide a basic living for in the community.
You're worried that somebody might be smoking pot and playing X-Box on your dime? We're already funding much much worse in the current system.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Funny) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday July 07 2020, @07:40PM (1 child)
Oooh, just had a thought for you and Kanye's campaign: trickle up economics, let the rich get their money from all the fool on UBI who just piss it away.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday July 11 2020, @03:42PM
That's fucking funny. I would laugh my entire ass off.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Mykl on Monday July 06 2020, @01:18AM (9 children)
Except he's not looking after the US by buying up all of the Remdesivir. It's just theater.
Trump is unwilling to do anything that requires effort to reduce COVID. That much should be clear to anyone. So, rather than steer the Titanic away from the iceberg, he'd prefer to plow full steam into it and just make sure that he's bought as many lifeboats as he can. Fuck the ship - too hard to steer anyway, and too full of people complaining about icebergs!
Even better, he can selectively make sure that these lifeboats he has go toward the people that he most wants to save - friends, attractive single women, etc.
By writing a huge government cheque (noting that he stands to personally benefit from the transaction), he can claim to have done something for the country and hopefully pull his woeful poll numbers out of the toilet. But if he was really looking after the country, he'd be doing a hell of a lot more than just buying a treatment for those people who have already caught it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @02:11AM (1 child)
Next he'll buy all the bleach and needles.
(Score: 2) by stretch611 on Monday July 06 2020, @11:07AM
If we are lucky, he will start using them on himself as a preventative.
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 2, Troll) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday July 06 2020, @04:11PM (6 children)
It never ceases to amaze me the mental lengths some folks will go to just so they can shit on every single decision Trump makes. They don't bat an eye at holding multiple contradictory opinions if it means they can hate everything he does instead of just most of what he does.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @04:37PM (2 children)
Cuz yer an idiot who still doesn't comprehend that Trump is a criminal lying conman stealing YOUR tax money. Truly this is a sad 4 years for you, irreparably destroying your own credibikity to PWN DUHR LIBS. Whatever sinks your boat muh dood.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday July 07 2020, @01:28PM (1 child)
Whatever gave you that idea? I'm just not going to let your retard ass say it's somehow shiny and new to Trump when it's so common in politics that it's boring.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 08 2020, @03:03AM
So you're an ostrich. Good times dumb dumb, got any more centrist nonsense to spread on with that cannibalistic pate?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @05:11PM
It's a good read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_derangement_syndrome [wikipedia.org]
I term it: "psychomotor neural cross connection".
I'd like to see Trump tell the libs to eat food and drink water. In a few weeks things will calm down.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @08:09PM (1 child)
Maybe it's because Trump states multiple conflicting positions on a topic, for many topics. Ya think? Durrr. Maybe the actions - as opposed to the stated positions - are all of a kind, and harmful to general human wellbeing, and American wellbeing in particular? Hmm?
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday July 07 2020, @01:28PM
No, I do not. Every politician ever does that. Dumbass.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Reziac on Monday July 06 2020, @04:18AM (6 children)
I would also hazard that out of all the countries that might have snagged it, the U.S. is the only one that generally shares whatever aid another country needs, at no cost to the recipient. Would y'all that's sayin' how mean this is rather that, say, Russia bought it all up? Cuz they sure as hell won't share.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @04:35AM
Wanna bet US won't share until at least Jan 2021?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @08:13PM (4 children)
If you sincerely believe this you need to do some research. Whether you mean medicines under patent, varieties of crop, Hollywood dreck, emergency aid... it doesn't really matter. None are given freely, in either sense of freely, by the USA.
(Score: 2, Disagree) by Reziac on Tuesday July 07 2020, @12:13AM (3 children)
Billions of dollars in foreign aid beg to differ.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday July 07 2020, @12:28AM (2 children)
And if you think that's no strings attached you're the kind of naive, drooling moron Facebook and company just *love* to deal with.
"If it's free, it's not the product, YOU are." Foreign aid has been, from the beginning, intimately tied to exporting one's culture. Now this isn't always a bad thing--fuck FGM in particular, for example--but it definitely can be. The US never does anything for free. We're a nation of hard-driving salespeople, Ferengi without the funny ears.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Wednesday July 08 2020, @01:36AM (1 child)
Same as everywhere. But most countries wouldn't offer even if they had the surplus. We do, whatever the underlying motivation. (You don't think China's "Belt and Road" is for the benefit of the recipient, do you??)
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday July 08 2020, @02:05AM
'course it isn't, and it scares the hell out of me. China is the one nation with an exceptionalism problem worse than the US, backed up by 4000+ years of history.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by HiThere on Monday July 06 2020, @03:38AM (12 children)
If the drug were more effective, I'd consider the move more sinister. As it is it's almost as sensible as the HCQ stockpile. A bit more sensible, as it reduces the stay in the ICU by an estimated 4 days. Unfortunately the same report didn't say it reduced the death rate, and didn't mention other serious after effects. And the company jacked it's price up hugely just before Trump bought the world supply. So you may guess who really benefits.
That said, Trump may be the necessary president for out times. He's going to so wreck the country that we drop out of "top dog country" without a war. It's hard to estimate how beneficial that is. We were slowly losing our position, but frequently when that happens it causes a war to force the old "top dog" to surrender its place. Trump has so weakened us by sabotaging trade treaties and other treaties with foreign governments as well as absurd domestic policies that we don't have a pack of friends to back us up. Some of them have even started preferring China, for reasons which are quite understandable, if a bit humiliating. We've become an unreliable trade partner.
One thing this quick exit from the top position will do is prevent our abusive excesses in foreign affairs from being even worse, so a few decades from now folks will look back on our time of dominance with longing. But our approaches to foreign countries had become increasingly abusive as we continued in the top position. Prior to this Britain had been the "least bad ever dominant nation", but with our quick descent from that position, we are likely to be the new holder of that title. If we'd hung on...well, we'd been getting more and more abusive.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday July 06 2020, @04:38AM (7 children)
Well, well, well... if the death rate is not an issue, I think there are cheaper alternatives to shortening the stay in ICU. (grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Funny) by MostCynical on Monday July 06 2020, @06:27AM (5 children)
invest in pillows!
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday July 06 2020, @06:43AM (4 children)
No need for more effort than switching the oxygen line to the mask with a pure nitrogen one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Monday July 06 2020, @07:41AM (3 children)
you want them to die...
Hallucinations
Increased intensity of vision and hearing
Sense of impending blackout or of levitation
Dizziness, euphoria,
Disorganization of the sense of time, changes in facial appearance
Unconsciousness,
Death
happy? [wikipedia.org]
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @08:26AM
Nitrogen narcosis requires multiple atmospheres of pressure to force the nitrogen to dissolve in blood. At 1 atm the only symptoms are drowsiness and death.
(Score: 3, Touché) by c0lo on Monday July 06 2020, @09:13AM (1 child)
See inert gas asphyxiation [wikipedia.org].
The minor disadvantage of the pillow method you alluded to is that it will trigger the hypercapnic alarm response [manicgrant.com] - the subject will die panicking.
The major disadvantage: it requires the application of enough force to overpower the subject. This makes this job less open to equal opportunity, by applying a discrimination favoring muscular humans - e.g. highly unlikely a mother's basement dwelling incel could get the job of applying the pillow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Tuesday July 07 2020, @03:12AM
Very large, muscly man enters ward... "hi, I'm the new night nurse.."
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday July 06 2020, @01:54PM
Well, to be fair it also didn't deny that it reduced the death rate. It just didn't talk about it.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday July 06 2020, @04:12PM
Yeah, I didn't say it was a good idea or a bad idea, just that if he thinks it's a good idea, he has that responsibility.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @06:36PM
I know 4 days may not mean much at first glance, however as someone who spent the better part of a year in hospital when I was a teen, I would have gladly taken a pill that reduced that time by 10 percent, shit even 4 days would have been welcome.
You are also forgetting the additive effect - 4 days less for even 100000 people mean that another thousand or so could get needed intensive care, instead of potentially dying. This could be you.
Having said that, it's scary that instead of coming together, fuck8ng politics and nationlism is driving us apart.Even here.
"Let nations east and west
tremble at the might
til standard bearers eyes are hungry
and the reasons dead forever.
God, let it be soon."
- Killing Joke
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday July 07 2020, @12:29AM (1 child)
Trump is the apotheosis of American culture. He is its physical locus, its human shell. He's not the president we need, Goddess no, but in some sense he's the one we as a nation deserve.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 08 2020, @06:05AM
As designed, rich asshole TV personality, narcissist, the values America has been pumping out to validate the "greed is good" actions we first colonized the continent.
Just watch Wolf of Wall Street if you want to see the pinnacle of US culture. Unadulterated celebration of greed and power with a touching story to humanize the sociopath.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Opportunist on Monday July 06 2020, @10:29AM
Well, you have to admit, who needs is more than them? Consider it his attempt to make amends for his initial blunder in the matter.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 06 2020, @11:01AM (2 children)
In reality, it will likely result in the rest of the world fabricating their own "generics". Brazil and India have already been producing their own drugs for years, China ignores IP protections already everywhere, maybe this time the EU will follow suit.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday July 06 2020, @04:13PM (1 child)
Probably. It would absolutely break my heart if drug companies didn't get to exist in a perpetual state of monopoly.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 08 2020, @06:08AM
OooooOoOoOooooHHHohHohOhHoHoHoH
So THIS is what you consider master trolling. Liberal arts tip: it was sarcasm