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posted by janrinok on Saturday April 11 2020, @04:44PM   Printer-friendly

This story is a merge of 28 story submissions. Given that it was well over 18,000 words of original source material (excluding HTML markup!), a great deal of pruning was performed to get it to a manageable size. We strongly encourage folks to read the linked articles for more information.

For latest statistics, and finer granularity, see https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ or https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html.

Coronavirus Cases: 1,700,741
Deaths:              102,774
Recovered:           376,572

Active Cases:
  1,221,395 Currently Infected Patients
  1,171,568 (96%) in Mild Condition
     49,872 (4%) Serious or Critical

Closed Cases:
 479,346 Cases which had an outcome:
 376,572 (79%) Recovered / Discharged
 102,774 (21%) Deaths

Data as at 11 Apr 2020, at 08:01 UTC.

DIGITAL LIBERTY

Europe's Privacy Officials are Working on Geolocation Guidelines for Tracking COVID-19

Europe's privacy officials are working on geolocation guidelines for tracking COVID-19:

The European Data Protection Board said Tuesday that it would be creating guidelines for collecting data for surveillance tied to the coronavirus pandemic, including geolocation, contact tracing and health information.

Governments around the world are relying on phone location data to help track the coronavirus outbreak, without any formal restrictions or mandates on how that data can be used. Countries including Singapore, the United Kingdom and Israel have developed their own apps for tracking people's movements and examining how COVID-19 spreads, and the only privacy protections are based on trusting the government's promises.

[...] "The EDPB will move swiftly to issue guidance on these topics within the shortest possible notice to help make sure that technology is used in a responsible way to support and hopefully win the battle against the corona pandemic," EDPB Chairwoman Andrea Jelinek said in a statement. "I strongly believe data protection and public health go hand in hand."

Europe's General Data Protection Regulation doesn't have geolocation data guidelines for a pandemic like COVID-19, and many data protection commissioners, including in Ireland, Germany and Italy, have said that they're prioritizing saving lives over privacy during the outbreak.

The GDPR does address what privacy restrictions there are during a health crisis, including allowing for public health officials to gather personal data without consent during a pandemic. But it doesn't have specific rules regarding geolocation data tracking during a pandemic, which the EDPB is looking to quickly establish. On March 16, Jelinek issued a statement that location data should be used only when it's anonymized or with people's consent.

Google Releases Location Data For Tracking COVID-19 Cases

Google has released location data in 131 countries to help governments track citizens with COVID-19.

Alphabet's Google division has on Thursday published data for 131 countries that shows whether people are obeying self-isolating and quarantine rules.

The 'Community Mobility Reports' from the search engine giant showed whether visits to shops, parks and workplaces dropped in March, Reuters reported.

March is when many countries around the world brought in their lock-down rules, and readers can click here to see the Google reports on their particular country.

BUSINESS

Red Light Camera Company Says It's Dying Of Coronavirus

Red Light Camera Company Says It's Dying Of Coronavirus:

We are again being asked to shed a tear for a law enforcement-adjacent industry. Social distancing and sheltering-in-place in response to the coronavirus has led to a downturn in driving. And if there's fewer drivers on the road, proxy cops are seeing their revenue streams dry up.

Redflex, an Australian company that operates "traffic safety programs" in roughly 100 US and Canadian cities, warned that less traffic and suspended construction amid the pandemic will be a stress on its balance sheet.

"Approximately 15% of group revenue is dependent on volume-based contracts," the company said in a regulatory filing Monday first spotted by The Wall Street Journal, hinting at its business line that includes enforcement cameras. "We anticipate our revenue from these contracts will be impacted broadly in line with the reduction in traffic volumes as well as the duration of the disruption."

[...] Hope springs eternal at Redflex, even with COVID-19's wet blanket dampening the company's enthusiasm.

On a call with investors Monday, Redflex CEO Mark Talbot warned that further travel restrictions could delay new installations and therefore impact revenues.

ENVIRONMENT

Himalayas Visible Due to COVID-19 Fueled Pollution Drop

Have you ever wondered what would happen around the planet if humans disappeared, or just went into hiding, one day? Well, now we know. One side effect of the COVID-19 lockdown is that the himalayas are now visible due to the lack of pollution that is normally generated by factories.

Lockdown measures to fight the spread of COVID-19 have rolled out across the world and while it is having a devastating impact on the world's economy, the environment is clearly reaping the rewards,

Some residents in northern India say the lockdown measures across the country have given locals a view many have not seen in at least 30 years.

While for others in the Jalandhar district of Punjab in India, it's a sight they've never seen before.

Mother Earth thanks you, Coronavirus 19.

NEWS

BP Gas Stations Give Health Care Workers 50 Cent Discount on Fuel - Roadshow

BP gas stations give health care workers 50 cent discount on fuel - Roadshow:

Let's enjoy some positive news amid the coronavirus outbreak on this World Health Day, shall we? We have just the thing, as BP announced Monday it will give back to health care workers and first responders.

Doctors, nurses and hospital workers are eligible for 50 cents off per gallon of fuel as a way for the company to say thank you to those on the front lines. The discount will be valid at BP and Amoco stations across the US and only requires those eligible to register at a link to use a discount code at the fuel pump.

BP said this little act of giving back will be valid for the entire month of April for health care workers.

[...] Aside from any discounts, fuel prices have reached record lows in the past weeks, partially due to the coronavirus pandemic, which is what causes COVID-19. With fewer drivers on the roads amid stay-at-home orders, demand continues to fall. Meanwhile, a Saudi-Russian oil price war dumped tons of cheap oil on the market to drive crude oil prices down. Just last week, the national average for a gallon of gas dropped below $2, and experts believe it could fall to as low as $1.50 per gallon.

Spitting gets worse in Australia to the point of fines and jail time

With COVID-19 on the brain the population is going nuts. Members of the public are spitting on and swearing at staff in pharmacies as paranoia and fear grip the nation. With purchases of common products such as Ventolin, Salbutamol and paracetamol now being limited to prevent hoarding, emotions are running high. Tougher penalties including jail time for offenders who attack with bodily fluids was introduced in 2019, but they have not had significant impact. In Britain a 55 year old man was jailed for coughing on police as was a woman who spat at police.

Medium.com banned a user for suggesting a possible category of treatments for COVID-19

Andrew Gaiziunas posted this article speculating that the Wuhan Coronavirus removes iron from red blood cells which leads to both oxygen deprivation in tissues and the lung damage that is seen in patients. If confirmed, this knowledge could lead to the development of better treatments in both early and late stages of the disease. Gaiziunas is not a doctor, but he claims that his father is one and helped work on the article. Medium deleted the article and his account has been suspended.

15 men arrested for alleged quarantine violation at New Jersey funeral

Fifteen men have been arrested during a funeral in New Jersey for allegedly defying the state's ban on public gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic, officials said. The incident in Ocean County late Wednesday was the fourth time in as many days that Lakewood police had to respond to a prohibited public event — this time a funeral where between 60 and 70 people gathered, according to a joint statement by Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley Billhimer and Lakewood Police Chief Gregory Meyer.

"This gathering was in violation of (Gov. Phil Murphy's executive order), which bans gatherings of individuals, whether they be at weddings, parties, celebrations, or other social events including funerals," they said in the statement.

Source: https://nypost.com/2020/04/02/100-year-old-nj-man-arrested-for-alleged-quarantine-violation/

Yuval Noah Harari: The World After Coronavirus

Yuval Noah Harari: the world after coronavirus

Humankind is now facing a global crisis. Perhaps the biggest crisis of our generation. The decisions people and governments take in the next few weeks will probably shape the world for years to come. They will shape not just our healthcare systems but also our economy, politics and culture. We must act quickly and decisively. We should also take into account the long-term consequences of our actions. When choosing between alternatives, we should ask ourselves not only how to overcome the immediate threat, but also what kind of world we will inhabit once the storm passes. Yes, the storm will pass, humankind will survive, most of us will still be alive — but we will inhabit a different world.

Many short-term emergency measures will become a fixture of life. That is the nature of emergencies. They fast-forward historical processes. Decisions that in normal times could take years of deliberation are passed in a matter of hours. Immature and even dangerous technologies are pressed into service, because the risks of doing nothing are bigger. Entire countries serve as guinea-pigs in large-scale social experiments. What happens when everybody works from home and communicates only at a distance? What happens when entire schools and universities go online? In normal times, governments, businesses and educational boards would never agree to conduct such experiments. But these aren't normal times.

In this time of crisis, we face two particularly important choices. The first is between totalitarian surveillance and citizen empowerment. The second is between nationalist isolation and global solidarity.

More of Us are Now Supposed to Wear a Mask

More of us are now supposed to wear a mask:

The BioAid mask looks different than most health masks you've seen, because it's based on the idea that the best mask is the one that can be readily made. Its shell is like a retail blister pack and its filter is a swatch of the same HEPA material used in many home furnace filters and has been shown by NASA to be an efficient particulate filter. The BioAid isn't N95-certified yet, but co-inventor Marcus Hays is confident it soon will be -- and that the mask has value in the meantime as CDC mask guidelines broaden as the coronavirus emergency develops.

Hays' startup Orbis, based in Mill Valley, California, is developing in-wheel electric drive systems for automakers but temporarily pivoted to masks after an assessment of available materials. They determined that polyethylene plastic sheets are plentiful and familiar to many plastic thermoforming companies. The millions of blister packs, pill packs and water bottles they make are all close industrial cousins of the BioAid mask. "Normally it's not the most environmentally friendly way to go," Hays admitted, "but in this crisis, it's the smart thing to do."

The front of the BioAid mask shell is perforated with breathing holes that are backed by a two inch square of common HEPA air filter material. "Most important is the very small area of filter compared to a conventional N95," Hays said, "because (the availability of) filter material is at crisis stage." HEPA material is regarded as a relatively effective medium for capturing viruses, especially if the virus is attached to larger carrier particle like aerosolized mucous or saliva.

Largest Hospital System In The US Threatens To Fire Doctors & Nurses For Telling The Truth About COV

Largest Hospital System In The US Threatens To Fire Doctors & Nurses For Telling The Truth About COVID-19 Disaster:

Last week we talked about just how insane it was that hospital administrators were threatening and/or firing doctors and nurses for speaking out publicly on social media about just how unprepared America's healthcare system has been for the COVID-19 pandemic -- and now we find out it gets even worse. Business Insider has seen a memo sent around by the country's largest hospital provider, HCA Healthcare, noting that they changed their social media guidelines just as the pandemic got really cooking, to tell those healthcare professionals on the frontline that telling the truth in public might cost them their jobs:

HCA Healthcare, which has 185 hospitals in 20 states, sent an email to employees on March 24 that added new guidelines for social media and media inquiries during the pandemic. The email said HCA employees could get disciplined or even fired for posting information on social media about its policies about treating patients with COVID-19, the illness caused by this coronavirus. The health system also barred employees from speaking to journalists about the virus without explicit permission from HCA's communications director.

One nurse, Jhonna Porter, told Business Insider that HCA Healthcare had already suspended her for violating these new guidelines and did so retroactively, for her activity before March 24. Porter, a charge nurse at West Hills Hospital in California, said HCA Healthcare suspended her without pay on March 25, a day after sending the email updating its social-media policy.

SCIENCE

Coronavirus Lockdowns Have Caused the Earth to Effectively Stop Shaking

Coronavirus lockdowns have caused the Earth to effectively stop shaking:

With travel effectively ground to a halt, seismologists around the globe have reported a drop in seismic noise, according to an article in the scientific journal Nature.

Researchers say the drop in activity, usually only seen to this magnitude around Christmas, could help experts find smaller earthquakes and monitor volcanic activity more effectively.

[...] "You'll get a signal with less noise on top, allowing you to squeeze a little more information out of those events," Andy Frassetto, a seismologist at the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology in Washington, D.C., told Nature

"There's a big chance indeed it could lead to better measurements," Thomas Lecocq, a seismologist at the Royal Observatory of Belgium, added.

Lecocq told CNN that Brussels was seeing a 30 to 50 per cent reduction in ambient noise since it went on lockdown in the middle of March.

The Royal Observatory made sure to note the Earth was "still shaking," just at a significantly smaller measure.

POLITICS

China should be sued for $6.5 trillion for coronavirus damages says top UK think tank

https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/china-should-be-sued-for-6-5-trillion-for-coronavirus-damages-says-top-uk-think-tank-20200405-p54h5b.html

According to the report, Coronavirus Compensation? by conservative London think tank The Henry Jackson Society[*], China could be sued under 10 possible legal avenues, including the International Health Regulations, which were beefed up after the SARS outbreak, which China also tried to cover up.

The report said had China provided accurate information at an early juncture, "the infection would not have left China."

China only reported the disease to the WHO on December 31 and said there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission.

[*] Henry Jackson Society.

Trump tells health officials to ask "quack" Fox News guest Dr. Oz for advice on coronavirus: report

President Donald Trump has allegedly urged top health officials to call the controversial TV pundit Dr. Mehmet Oz after watching the frequent Fox News guest discuss the coronavirus pandemic on the right-leaning network.

Oz, who has been repeatedly called out by other doctors as a "quack" for pushing discredited "miracle" health products, has frequently espoused the virtues of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a coronavirus treatment on Fox's airwaves.

Trump has also promoted the unproven drug treatment for the new coronavirus at his news briefings despite top health experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci dismissing claims that the drug is effective in coronavirus cases as "anecdotal." Trump economic adviser Peter Navarro got into a heated altercation with Fauci at a recent White House coronavirus task force meeting over that description, according to Axios.

Trump's Aggressive Advocacy of Malaria Drug for Treating Coronavirus Divides Medical Community

Trump's Aggressive Advocacy of Malaria Drug for Treating Coronavirus Divides Medical Community:

Day after day, the salesman turned president has encouraged coronavirus patients to try hydroxychloroquine with all of the enthusiasm of a real estate developer. The passing reference he makes to the possible dangers is usually overwhelmed by the full-throated endorsement. "What do you have to lose?" he asked five times on Sunday.

Bolstered by his trade adviser, a television doctor, Larry Ellison of Oracle and Rudolph W. Giuliani, a former New York mayor, Mr. Trump has seized on the drug as a miracle cure for the virus that has killed thousands and paralyzed American life. Along the way, he has prompted an international debate about a drug that many doctors in New York and elsewhere have been trying in desperation even without conclusive scientific studies.

Mr. Trump may ultimately be right, and physicians report anecdotal evidence that has provided hope. But it remains far from certain, and the president's assertiveness in pressing the case over the advice of advisers like Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the government's top infectious disease specialist, has driven a wedge inside his coronavirus task force and has raised questions about his motives.

If hydroxychloroquine becomes an accepted treatment, several pharmaceutical companies stand to profit, including shareholders and senior executives with connections to the president. Mr. Trump himself has a small personal financial interest in Sanofi, the French drugmaker that makes Plaquenil, the brand-name version of hydroxychloroquine.

[...] The professional organization that published a positive French study cited by Mr. Trump's allies changed its mind in recent days. The International Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy said, "The article does not meet the society's expected standard." Some hospitals in Sweden stopped providing hydroxychloroquine to treat the coronavirus after reports of adverse side effects, according to Swedish news media.

Big Pharma-Funded Group Founded by Billionaire Trump Backer Tied to President's Promotion of Malaria Drug for COVID-19

From New Civil Rights Movement,

The investigative news site Sludge reports a top Trump backer's advocacy group, fueled with funds from Big Pharma, "has been pushing Trump to approve the use of hydroxychloroquine for treating COVID-19."

Home Depot founder and billionaire right wing activist Bernie Marcus founded the non-profit group Job Creators Network, which works for right wing causes including lower taxes, less regulations, and so-called "free-market solutions."

Marcus donated millions to groups which worked to get Trump elected. He has said he will again donate millions to help get Trump re-elected.

Sludge reports the pharmaceutical industry has funded Marcus' Job Creators Network, which "has been pushing" Trump "to make the drug available."


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Related Stories

2020-06-15 Roundup of COVID-19 (SARS-CoV2, Coronavirus) Stories 153 comments

World-wide data as of: 20200615_140637 UTC:

total_count 8,028,325
closed_count 4,584,407
closed_deaths_count 436,277
closed_deaths_percent (10%)
closed_recovered_count 4,148,130
closed_recovered_percent (90%)
active_count 3,443,918
active_mild_count 3,389,380
active_mild_percent (98%)
active_serious_count 54,538
active_serious_percent (2%)
total_deaths 436,277

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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by barbara hudson on Saturday April 11 2020, @04:53PM (60 children)

    by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Saturday April 11 2020, @04:53PM (#981188) Journal
    Trump's delays and inaction mean that today the US is #1 in both confirmed cases and deaths. That's what happens when you focus on the stock market and getting re-elected.
    --
    SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
    • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @05:01PM (19 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @05:01PM (#981191)

      Even worse is that this is what was fully expected from him, and many people still support all the politicians responsible for making this such a big disaster. It is intentional sabotage, and reelection rates will still remain in the 90% range. This whole "majority rule" thing is no damn good. Tyranny is inevitable.

      • (Score: 2, Flamebait) by hemocyanin on Saturday April 11 2020, @05:33PM (8 children)

        by hemocyanin (186) on Saturday April 11 2020, @05:33PM (#981208) Journal

        Let us remember that politicians are in it for themselves and we can only hope that they accidentally help us as they are accumulating wealth and power. Those who don't accidentally help us should be removed from office (in a perfect world they would apologize and resign), but I suspect that won't be happening:

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFCzoXhNM6c [youtube.com]

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @05:42PM (7 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @05:42PM (#981216)

          should be removed from office

          That is upon the voters. The politicians are really only a reflection of the voters who expect them to bring home lots of bacon, juicy contracts and handouts. They react in a purely Pavlovian fashion. Their corruption is highly rewarding, getting a positive reaction every election day.

          • (Score: 5, Insightful) by catholocism on Saturday April 11 2020, @07:33PM (5 children)

            by catholocism (8422) on Saturday April 11 2020, @07:33PM (#981245)

            This is only true in an unrigged system. Voter disenfranchisement has been going strong for a few decades, gerrymadering is legal according to SCOTUS, as is dark money. Blaming the voters is like blaming an abused spouse.

            • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @07:52PM (4 children)

              by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @07:52PM (#981251)

              No, that's just whiny bullshit. The voters' biggest problem right now is the antipathy they have for each other. Stop making excuses for them. They can fix this, but they're too lazy and corrupt themselves. They just cynically vote for more promised pork.

              • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @08:55PM (2 children)

                by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @08:55PM (#981283)

                Oooooh, that is why so many key districts keep being lost and the supreme court had to declare Bush a winner without a recount in 2000. I'm so glad to know that corruption and election fraud are totally not a problem because the real problem is not enough people voting to overwhelm the evil actions of others.

                Phew! And here I thought the US had some sort of problems with elections. Thanks Sherlock /s

                • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @09:09PM

                  by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @09:09PM (#981289)

                  Keep jumping higher maggot. You need 55% to win in this house.

                • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @09:23PM

                  by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @09:23PM (#981292)

                  If the voters don't unite and speak, screw 'em! That's how majority rule works.

              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @06:54PM

                by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @06:54PM (#981647)

                And the down modders only reveal their own petulance, refusing to acknowledge their own fundamental nature, even while putting it on full display. They are the maintainers of this sad state of affairs

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @05:32AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @05:32AM (#981433)

            should be removed from office

            That is upon the voters.

            There is no time. Impeach Again!! Remove from Orafice!

      • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @07:01PM (9 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @07:01PM (#981237)

        It's not majority rule, though. It's two party rule, with gerrymandering, plutocrats controlling over 90% of the media, and no national holidays on election days. So third parties have no chance and even on really active elections more than 40% of eligible voters don't participate. And for example, I have relatives and friends in states that always vote red and relatives and friends in states that always vote blue. If you don't agree with the majority in that state, why bother voting?

        The two parties are working together to shoot down anything that would fix this. No support for holidays on election days. Little support for open primaries. No support for ranked voting (which would stop votes for third parties from being useless). No support for Congressional term limits. No support for abolishing the electoral college. No support for an amendment against gerrymandering. Sure, you can find individual Democrats and Republicans in Congress that supports these things, but never enough to matter. The great majority of influential Democrats would rather see Trump remain in office than undermine their own political power by instituting any policy. Likewise, when Obama was in office Republicans howled for his blood but never supported policies that would undermine their own power to bring him down.

        The Founding Fathers, those misogynists and slaveholders brilliant and thoughtful men, couldn't have foreseen this when they wrote the Constitution. Now, we're all just on a runaway train and the majority doesn't have the power to apply the breaks or change tracks. The people in power are happy with how broken the system is.

        • (Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @08:03PM (4 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @08:03PM (#981261)

          Bla bla bla. The voters have to quit their whiny bullshit and organize. They have to be as active and interested as the lobbyists. If they're going to sit around and wait for the TV to tell them who to vote for every two years, they richly deserve what they get, it's what they asked for.

          If they want something different, first they have to stop voting for republicans/democrats.

          • (Score: 3, Insightful) by PartTimeZombie on Sunday April 12 2020, @01:16AM (3 children)

            by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Sunday April 12 2020, @01:16AM (#981381)

            The voters are the least important part of the US electoral system.

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @03:43AM (2 children)

              by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @03:43AM (#981410)

              The failure to unite and speak up is their own. They can blame nobody else but themselves for failing to act.

              Aside from that you are just plain wrong. The winner is decided by the votes received, not by the money spent.

              • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Sunday April 12 2020, @10:29PM (1 child)

                by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Sunday April 12 2020, @10:29PM (#981725)

                That is why you have such a great choice of different political parties to choose from. Oh, hang on. No you don't.

                • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 14 2020, @05:41PM

                  by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 14 2020, @05:41PM (#982682)

                  If enough people want different parties, they will have them. They don't care to seek them out as long as they are comfortable 'enough'. They fear losing even more if the wrong lizard gets in.

                  Make no mistake, the freedom to choose is upon the voters and nobody else. So see? There is a solution that for some reason, all of you refuse to acknowledge. The voters 'dilemma' is totally of their own making, and it's psychological, not political.

        • (Score: 5, Insightful) by hendrikboom on Saturday April 11 2020, @08:36PM (3 children)

          by hendrikboom (1125) Subscriber Badge on Saturday April 11 2020, @08:36PM (#981275) Homepage Journal

          Ranked voting would help.
          So would proportional representation.

          Either or both of these would make more than two parties viable.

          -- hendrik

          • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @02:15PM (2 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @02:15PM (#981506)

            Either or both of these would make more than two parties viable.

            Nobody can rightfully claim that Australia, Canada, France, Germany, etc. are really any better off. Besides they are vassal states (in Europe, Japan, occupied territories), as part of the Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia machine, allowed to exist with an offer they can't refuse.

            Sorry, the only possible working solution is an active critical voter. Without them, it's all bullshit

            • (Score: 3, Insightful) by hendrikboom on Sunday April 12 2020, @09:31PM (1 child)

              by hendrikboom (1125) Subscriber Badge on Sunday April 12 2020, @09:31PM (#981703) Homepage Journal

              Of course you need active, critical voters. But as long as they are in the minority, you also need an electoral system that gives them a voice in government.

              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 14 2020, @06:36PM

                by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 14 2020, @06:36PM (#982708)

                you also need an electoral system that gives them a voice in government.

                Without sufficient demand from the majority of voters, how do you expect such a system to be put in place?

                In the US, the simple elimination of the 501(c) tax deductions will go far in remedying the problem. The other half will be solved when the voters learn to turn their backs on celebrity bling.

    • (Score: -1, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Saturday April 11 2020, @05:12PM (8 children)

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Saturday April 11 2020, @05:12PM (#981195) Journal

      Make America Corona Again

      Or MAWA

      Make America Wuhan Again

      It's funny how everyone wants to blame the Orange Clown. It's even funnier how "surplus" equipment was auctioned off by NYC and other cities, long before Trump came into office. But, it's Trump's fault.

      One day, you'll be right to blame Trump for something serious - but we'll be tired of the little boys who cried "Wolf!" ten thousand times when there was no wolf around.

      • (Score: 5, Insightful) by barbara hudson on Saturday April 11 2020, @05:21PM (7 children)

        by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Saturday April 11 2020, @05:21PM (#981201) Journal
        Taiwan and the USA had their first cases the same day. Taiwan acted right away. Trump frittered away valuable time and people continue to die. So, starting from the same point, Trump chose to ignore expert advice and warnings, so he has to wear it.

        The buck stops at the desk of the president. The guy has innocent blood on his hands:

        --
        SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
        • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @05:36PM (2 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @05:36PM (#981209)

          Expert advice would have to quaranteen Wuhan in November, if China had behaved responsibly we would not be where we are. The WHO did nothing to restrict travel and spread, calling Trump racist for banning flights from Wuhan in January. Strangely silent on this though. [twitter.com]

          • (Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Saturday April 11 2020, @07:37PM (1 child)

            by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Saturday April 11 2020, @07:37PM (#981246) Journal
            The WHO refused to call it a pandemic for way too long because they had sold so-called "pandemic bonds" that paid a really high yield but had to pay out the principal if they called a pandemic. They're just as bad as everyone else who screwed up:
            --
            SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
            • (Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @08:09PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @08:09PM (#981267)

              Is that all? [house.gov] I don't know how well you do with PDF documents, so here (without reference links) is the text:

              April 9, 2020

              Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
              Director-General
              World Health Organization
              20 Avenue Appia
              CH-1211 Geneva 27
              Switzerland

              Dear Dr. Tedros:

              This letter is in furtherance of the Committee on Oversight and Reform’s (the
              Committee) ongoing investigation into the Chinese government’s role in exacerbating the
              COVID-19 pandemic, including its large-scale propaganda campaign.1 The World Health
              Organization (WHO) is at the center of the global response to the ongoing COVID-19
              pandemic.2 Despite the WHO’s purported mission to operate as an apolitical international
              institution within the United Nations, recent media reports suggest that the WHO helped Beijing
              disseminate propaganda, downplayed the extent of the disease, and possibly delayed ordering a
              public health emergency.3 Given the actions and statements of WHO officials during the past
              few months, we are concerned that the WHO is no longer serving the needs of the world and is
              instead taking its cues from China.

              Throughout the crisis, the WHO has shied away from placing any blame on the Chinese
              government, which is in essence the Communist Party of China. You, as leader of the WHO,
              even went so far as to praise the Chinese government’s “transparency” during the crisis, when, in
              fact, the regime has consistently lied to the world by underreporting their actual infection and
              death statistics.4 During the crisis, the WHO has repeatedly relied on false information from the
              Chinese government. Following are several examples:

              1. Denied human-to-human spread of COVID-19 based solely on Chinese propaganda:
              On January 14, 2020, the WHO tweeted that “[p]reliminary investigations conducted by
              Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the
              novel coronavirus.”5 These preliminary investigations included China jailing any doctor
              that disseminated any information about COVID-19 not first cleared through state-run
              media.6 Furthermore, the WHO ignored Taiwanese warnings of human-to-human
              transmission in December 2019, because Taiwan is not currently recognized by the WHO
              as an independent nation.7 United States intelligence sources have since discovered that
              China covered-up and lied about the extent of the outbreak.8 On January 23, 2020, the
              WHO finally recognized that human-to-human spread was occurring, a month later than
              the first warnings.9

              2. Prolonged naming COVID-19 a Public Health Emergency of International Concern
              (PHEIC) and pandemic because China had the spread under control: By the time the
              WHO declared COVID-19 a PHEIC on January 30, 2020, the disease had infected almost
              10,000 and killed almost 1,000 people in 19 different countries.10 It is reported that the
              delay in PHEIC declaration was a result of intense pressure from China.11 While making
              the declaration, you said that “China is to be congratulated for the extraordinary measures
              it has taken to contain the outbreak.”12 Since then, there have been over one million new
              cases and 80,000 deaths worldwide.13

              3. Delayed serious measures, like travel restrictions, to counter the global spread:
              Despite declaring COVID-19 a PHEIC and extensive evidence of transmission through
              travel, the WHO insisted other countries not restrict travel or trade to China.14 On January
              31, 2020, President Trump came under intense criticism when he barred travel from
              China. A certain politician called the order “xenophobi[c].”15 In comparison to the
              WHO’s inaction, the President’s actions saved lives. Between December 31 – when cases
              were first reported – and January 31, over 430,000 people were on direct flights from
              China to the U.S.16 The WHO has not issued updated travel restrictions since February 29
              and has still not recommended restricting international travel.17

              4. Continued praise of the Chinese efforts to combat the crisis, despite the cover-up:
              The WHO has routinely praised China’s efforts to combat the spread of COVID-19
              despite multiple reports that China engaged in a massive disinformation campaign.18
              According to a recent report from the U.S intelligence community, China severely
              underreported both its total number of cases of, and deaths caused by, COVID-19.19 The
              report details efforts by the Chinese government to continually alter their reporting
              methodology which, at different points, left out individuals who tested positive but were
              asymptomatic—despite their ability to remain contagious.20 China also gagged doctors
              and journalists that attempted to speak the truth about the severity of COVID-19.21 You
              even said China should be “praised” for these manipulative tactics; tactics frowned upon
              worldwide.22

              In 2017, the WHO received 17% of its total funding, or $513 million, from the United
              States.23 It is essential that American taxpayers’ money is allocated to organizations that
              uniformly serve the interests of nations across the globe, not merely the interests of China’s
              authoritarian, communist regime. To help us and the public understand the WHO’s efforts to
              combat the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and its relationship with the Chinese government,
              please provide the following documents and information:

              1. All documents and communications regarding public health, including but not limited to
              COVID-19, novel coronavirus, or coronavirus, between the WHO and the Chinese
              Communist Party or the government of China between August 2019 and present.

              2. All documents and communications regarding the total number of infected persons and
              deceased persons related to the current COVID-19 pandemic in China, including those
              infected but asymptomatic.

              3. All documents and communications regarding public health, including but not limited to
              COVID-19, novel coronavirus, or coronavirus, between the WHO and Taiwan between
              August 2019 and present.

              In addition to these documents, please provide a staff-level briefing no later than April
              16, 2020. This briefing may be conducted remotely for convenience and safety issues. To
              schedule the briefing or ask any follow-up or related questions, please contact Committee staff at
              (202) 225-5074.

              The Committee on Oversight and Reform is the principal oversight committee of the U.S.
              House of Representatives and has broad authority to investigate “any matter” at “any time” under
              House Rule X. Thank you in advance for your cooperation with this inquiry.

              Sincerely,

        • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @05:39PM (3 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @05:39PM (#981212)

          Trump made his mistakes, but when you focus only on his, it looks partisan. There was a massive failure on both sides of the aisle and the woke Democrats encouraging people to mingle in crowds -- DeBlasio as late as March fucking Third -- are as much to blame. When I see one-sided anger directed at Trump when they all fucked up, it doesn't make me hate Trump. It makes me hate all those involved in the one-sided narrative.

          https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/de-Blasio-London-Breed-tweets-coronavirus-March-2-15189898.php?ipid=newsrecirc [sfgate.com]

          In the Tweet, de Blasio wrote, "Since I’m encouraging New Yorkers to go on with your lives + get out on the town despite Coronavirus, I thought I would offer some suggestions. Here’s the first: thru Thurs 3/5 go see “The Traitor” @FilmLinc. If “The Wire” was a true story + set in Italy, it would be this film."

          • (Score: 1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @06:38PM (2 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @06:38PM (#981232)

            Let's not forget the impeachment shitshow the democrats put our country through earlier this year.

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @06:46PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @06:46PM (#981235)

              It was a necessary distraction from the DNC corruption that led to Trump's victory.

            • (Score: 0, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday April 11 2020, @10:01PM

              by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Saturday April 11 2020, @10:01PM (#981306) Homepage

              The Jew Coup.

    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @05:18PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @05:18PM (#981199)

      China lied [telegraph.co.uk] and continues to lie. [theguardian.com] How do you prepare for an outbreak when the World Health Organization set up to coordinate global responses to pandemics is consistently issuing false information?

      Tellingly the same people that seem to think Trump should have assumed control of the WHO in January berate him as unqualified to even talk about hydroxycloroquine. A casual observer can only observe people engaging in such mutually exclusive reasoning as more full of shit than Trump is.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @06:30AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @06:30AM (#981444)

        Neither of those links shows any evidence of lying. They just imply that China is trying to avoid a negative narrative by 'vetting' some papers regarding the origin of the virus before they're published. That is not to say that they aren't interested, just that any paper written, no matter how speculative/valid will end up on the front page of every paper if it says something particularly negative - as we know how much the media likes to demonise someone.

        This whole 'China lies' narrative is pointless if it isn't about something important. And it's even worse, since most of it is based on speculation that China 'might be lying'.

    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @05:23PM (8 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @05:23PM (#981203)

      And Democrats are so great: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/04/identity-politics-lied-new-yorkers-died-daniel-greenfield/ [frontpagemag.com]

      As the coronavirus bore down on New York City, Barbot and the Health Department were busy operationalizing social justice while remaining oblivious to the scientific realities of the pandemic. The department’s focus on health equity required it to discourage recent arrivals from Wuhan from going into self-quarantine or avoiding large public gatherings like the Lunar New Year celebrations.
      ...
      Had New York City’s health authorities lost their minds? Not exactly. They had enveloped their medical decisions in a fog of identity politics pseudoscience which had redefined medicine around equity.

      That was Barbot’s real job. The obsession with equity in everything had been the signature of the entire De Blasio administration. Just as Marxists had used class as the master theory explaining all the problems of human history, radicals in this country had redefined racism as the explanation for all ills.

      To Barbot and De Blasio, the coronavirus wasn’t the real threat, racism was. Their job was to suppress overreaction to the coronavirus by persuading New Yorkers that there was no real risk of contagion.

      The actual science, objective research, was irrelevant compared to the city’s own truths about racism.

      It's an interesting read. Yes it is biased but that doesn't make it less interesting because there actually are some real health dangers embedded in this new brand of woke identity equity politics infecting the left. And of course the constant media negativity tsunami toward Trump makes it hard to figure out what his real mistakes were, and what is nothing but an extension of the RussiaRussiaRussia coup attempt. Yes, die-hard Democrats will believe the media narrative, but those who actually count -- the independents -- are viewing the media with an increasingly jaundiced eye, and with good reason.

      • (Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @05:40PM (5 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @05:40PM (#981214)

        The department’s focus on health equity required it to discourage recent arrivals from Wuhan from going into self-quarantine or avoiding large public gatherings like the Lunar New Year celebrations.

        But initial NY Coronavirus cases overwhelmingly came from Europe, not China/Wuhan [thehill.com]:

        Research indicates the majority of coronavirus cases in New York trace back to Europe, with the first cases circulating in the area by mid-February.

        “The majority is clearly European,” Harm van Bakel, a geneticist at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and who co-wrote a study currently awaiting peer review, told The New York Times.

        A separate research team at New York University's Grossman School of Medicine, studying different cases but also analyzing coronavirus genomes taken from New Yorkers beginning in mid-March, reached similar conclusions, the Times reported.

        The virus is believed to have originated in a wet market in Wuhan, China, and President Trump has frequently touted his order on Jan. 31 barring foreign nationals who had been in China in the past two weeks from entering the U.S., but New Yorkers had already been traveling home from Europe when the president barred travel from most of Europe as Italy became the epicenter for the virus on the continent.

        Adriana Heguy, a member of the NYU team, told the Times that the research backed up the notion that the U.S. could have contained the outbreak if officials had not limited early testing to just people traveling from China with symptoms.

        • (Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @05:59PM (4 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @05:59PM (#981219)

          And so it coming from Europe makes it smart to tell people that they can't get the virus riding the subway, they should congregate in dense masses in theaters or on the streets relives NY officials from all responsibility. Gotcha.

          • (Score: 0, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @08:25PM (1 child)

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @08:25PM (#981270)

            The point is Democrats told people to mingle literally shoulder to shoulder, I point that out, and it is "offtopic". This is what woke looks like.

          • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @12:37AM (1 child)

            by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @12:37AM (#981365)

            I do admit a certain enjoyment at not having to listen to the cast of regulars that constantly berate us non-urbanites for driving our "SUVs" solo to the grocery a mile from our homes. How's that public transportation/tranmission working out for you New York City? Until there is a good effective vaccine, I think New York is going to look like the extras in Blade Runner.

            • (Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @01:53AM

              by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @01:53AM (#981387)

              I do admit a certain enjoyment at not having to listen to the cast of regulars that constantly berate us non-urbanites for driving our "SUVs" solo to the grocery a mile from our homes.

              Who, specifically, are these "regulars" to which you refer? Names please. Not vague assertions about nameless purple-haired SJWs.

              If they are, in fact, "regulars" berating "us non-urbanites for driving our "SUVs" solo to the grocery a mile from our homes."

              Note that *one* person saying that *once* doesn't constitute anything regular.

              Please, do tell us the *names* of these folk. Personally, I'd like to laugh at them as they're obviously idiots.

              Or are the "regulars" you refer to simply figments of your imagination?

      • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @07:00PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @07:00PM (#981236)

        When our democrat state government jailers let us out again, the social justice identity politics nonsense is one thing I expect to become extinct. The majority of Americans have to rebuild their shattered lives; even the champagne socialist democrat downmod mob here, currently happily at home still getting paid $100k+ programmer salaries, may by that time be met with layoffs due to the destruction of the nation's economy. At least they won't be getting the $1200 checks because their income *was* too high.

        Latest stats from CDC:
        2020 US corona deaths: 18 559 as of 11 April
        2020 US flu deaths: up to 62 000 as of 4 April.

        Total US population estimate: 328 239 523

      • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Sunday April 12 2020, @01:30AM

        by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Sunday April 12 2020, @01:30AM (#981383)

        No, that's not an interesting read.

        It is however a not very clever series of unverified assertions.

        "Inside Every Progressive Is A Totalitarian Screaming To Get Out"

        Yeah, OK, whatever.

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by leon_the_cat on Saturday April 11 2020, @07:12PM (1 child)

      by leon_the_cat (10052) on Saturday April 11 2020, @07:12PM (#981241) Journal

      Your use of a crisis for your political advocacy show you up for who you are. Its not like Trump was the only world leader caught out, nearly all were and it would not have made any difference if another party was in power. Still you continue along to push the idea of "all that matters is politics".

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by barbara hudson on Sunday April 12 2020, @02:31AM

        by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Sunday April 12 2020, @02:31AM (#981397) Journal

        He wanted the job, he got the job, it comes with responsibilities, which he has been amazingly consistent in ignoring.

        Your use of a crisis for your political advocacy show you up for who you are

        Trump has been using this crisis for political advocacy. Or do you deny that? His pressers are a shitfest of lies designed to stir up his base ("we have the best tests, we are doing the most tests" - total lies).

        Its not like Trump was the only world leader caught out,

        Strawman argument and whataboutism. I never said he was the only one. Most of them screwed the pooch big time. And they should all be called out for it.

        Still you continue along to push the idea of "all that matters is politics".

        Check my journals. I've cursed out Canada's Prime Minister and the Premier of Quebec for their lies as well. Has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with politicians who can't give an honest answer to "why did you fuck up so badly" by pointing to other countries that fucked up just as badly (whataboutism) instead of comparing themselves to the countries that got an early grip on the outbreak and learning the lessons that are sitting there in plain view.

        "Testing testing testing" "Masks masks masks", "Contact tracing contract tracing contact tracing."

        Taiwan is really close to China, they had lots of international traffic from China, they got their first confirmed case the same day as the US, and yet they're doing much better than the US. Testing, masks, and contact tracing.

        You're the one attempting to use a political angle to deflect gross criminal negligence by Trump and many other politicians.

        --
        SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
    • (Score: 1, Interesting) by aristarchus on Saturday April 11 2020, @07:54PM (16 children)

      by aristarchus (2645) on Saturday April 11 2020, @07:54PM (#981254) Journal

      And the most important story did not make it to the summaries: https://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid=40203 [soylentnews.org]
      These people are crazy, possessed of magical thinking. Pre-scientific.

      • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @08:13PM (11 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @08:13PM (#981268)

        And the most important story did not make it to the summaries

        Yeah, after reading that link, I can see why!

        You know, it's pretty obvious why your shit hardly ever makes the front page. Nobody likes your style.

        • (Score: 0, Troll) by aristarchus on Saturday April 11 2020, @08:32PM (6 children)

          by aristarchus (2645) on Saturday April 11 2020, @08:32PM (#981273) Journal

          Especially the Nazi eds, who are just now complaining about how I will complain, in IRC, and expecting their comments to show up in my sig line! My style is intended to mock, and draw attention, to very, very, stupid people. Republicans, mostly.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @08:57PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @08:57PM (#981285)

            Whaaaat? They get together to gossip and shit talk people on the site? Noooooo, it can't be!

          • (Score: 3, Informative) by janrinok on Sunday April 12 2020, @07:58AM (4 children)

            by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Sunday April 12 2020, @07:58AM (#981455) Journal

            We rest our case:

            https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=37004&page=1&cid=981254#commentwrap [soylentnews.org]

            If you don't like your submissions being rejected, follow the rules for posting submissions. YOUR OPINIONS SHOULD BE IN THE COMMENTS - NOT IN THE SUBMISSION.

            • (Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Sunday April 12 2020, @08:10AM (3 children)

              by aristarchus (2645) on Sunday April 12 2020, @08:10AM (#981457) Journal

              Those are not opinions, janrinok! They are all objective actual facts that some reality deniers and death-eaters would rather not have to face. Now back to Microsoft astroturf, Amazonian archeology, and Diet Coke and Mentos, things that are after all only the editor's opinions of what should be on the front page.

              • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Sunday April 12 2020, @08:45AM (2 children)

                by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Sunday April 12 2020, @08:45AM (#981463) Journal

                Microsoft astroturf, Amazonian archeology, and Diet Coke and Mentos

                All based on submissions provided by our community - and none of them processed by me. So your point is?

                • (Score: 2, Insightful) by aristarchus on Sunday April 12 2020, @09:49AM (1 child)

                  by aristarchus (2645) on Sunday April 12 2020, @09:49AM (#981469) Journal

                  Our community of bots and scrapers? I honestly rarely look at who the submitter was, anymore. But, just go on censoring aristarchus, if that is what you think you have to do. Makes TMB happy, since he is not being painted with a broad brush, well, not by anyone but himself. But you should quit lying to me, janrinok, but more importantly, quit lying to yourself. I hope you and the Mrs. stay safe and well through our current situation.

                  • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Sunday April 12 2020, @11:31AM

                    by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Sunday April 12 2020, @11:31AM (#981478) Journal

                    Our community of bots and scrapers

                    Which are used by members of our community as an easy way to submit stories. Or do you think that nobody else other than yourself is supposed to make submissions?

                    just go on censoring aristarchus

                    I call you out! How many of your submissions were in that round-up? Go on, count them and tell us in your reply. Then tell us how printing 3 of your submissions equates to censorship. Don't be an idiot.

                    quit lying to me, janrinok, but more importantly, quit lying to yourself

                    I am not lying to anybody. Your objection appears to be that we didn't include 'the most important submission'. How are we to know which you think is the most important? If the others were less important should we have just deleted them? If you think that your editorialising is important then post the submission to your journal. Oh, sorry, is that another form of censorship that we are subjecting you to?.

                    Finally, you complain when your submissions are rejected, and now you complain when they are printed. This is NOT your personal soap box - get over it.

                    I hope you and the Mrs. stay safe and well through our current situation.

                    Thank you.

        • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @08:34PM (3 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @08:34PM (#981274)

          I'm glad you didn't tell him that nobody likes him. It may have hurt his poor widdle feelings. I'm sure that SOMEONE likes him. I know Buzzard is often amused by Aristarchus, but I'm not sure if that equates to liking. Still, life would be so "unfair" if nobody liked Aristarchus.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @02:36AM (2 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @02:36AM (#981398)

            A regular AC here, I often enjoy Ari's posts and comments. So there!

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @03:50AM (1 child)

              by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @03:50AM (#981412)

              With that big of a ho, there's going to be a few simps lurking behind.

              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @05:38AM

                by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @05:38AM (#981434)

                Yet another, completely different AC here, and Ari is the only reason I still read this site. He seems to somewhat educated, and intelligent. Unlike his critics.

      • (Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Saturday April 11 2020, @10:05PM (3 children)

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday April 11 2020, @10:05PM (#981308) Journal
        Because you fucked it up again. There's a big story here. But consider also this quote from the Salon piece. It indicates that there's more facets to the problem than first appears:

        But there's a reason these false or unproven claims are resonating with the ordinary citizens of Trumpistan. The hope that there's a hard-to-get miracle cure that will save them speaks directly to the poisonous social Darwinism that guides modern conservatism. It reflects deep hostility to the very concept of a shared public good and a fierce attachment to a racialized ideology of individualism that treats public goods such as health care as things to be hoarded by those with the privilege, money and status to do so.

        Conservative ideology simply doesn't allow for the possibility that anything, including pandemic management, is best managed with a "we're all in this together" mentality. Instead they're drawn to this fantasy that there's a Platinum Member COVID-19 status that can be purchased, which will allow them to opt out of the suffering of the plebeian class that has to quarantine or risk sickness and death.

        First, these drugs won't be "hard-to-get" nor is that their appeal. I think the appeal is that it's a quick fix. Worried about covid and months or years of tribulation? "There's a pill for that now."

        Second, consider the fatuous appeal to "shared public good". The problem here is that we aren't all in this together on so many things. That's why the story exists in the first place, after all, both the difference in opinion on the effectiveness of this drug, on medical care in general, and on the pushing of the author's agenda which is not shared by her targets of criticism.

        • (Score: 0, Insightful) by aristarchus on Saturday April 11 2020, @11:06PM

          by aristarchus (2645) on Saturday April 11 2020, @11:06PM (#981337) Journal

          Social Darwinist confirmed! We are in this together, khallow. Most of the world is. And it is only sociopathic libertariantards like yourself that believe we are not. You miss the entire point of the Salon piece: conservatives are afraid of their own ideology, and this makes them fall for snake oil and reality television actors, no to mention Mega-churches and Moses von Mises.

        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by barbara hudson on Sunday April 12 2020, @02:38AM (1 child)

          by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Sunday April 12 2020, @02:38AM (#981399) Journal

          First rule of credibility - never quote Salon. That went out the door 3 decades ago.

          The hope that there's a hard-to-get miracle cure that will save them speaks directly to the poisonous social Darwinism that guides modern conservatism.

          No, that's human nature. People want to think that they're special, that fate/god/whatever will look favourably upon them. Gamblers, religion, it's all part and parcel of the hope that stupid people put into non-science and non-logic. Because, as Jack Nicholson said "You want the truth? You can't handle the truth" - the truth being that fate/god/magic thinking/pixie dust will save you because you're "special." And the people who believe that ARE special - they took the short bus for "special kids" to school.

          --
          SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
          • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Sunday April 12 2020, @08:14AM

            by aristarchus (2645) on Sunday April 12 2020, @08:14AM (#981458) Journal

            Schooled by Barbara Hudson on credibility! Coulda been worse, could have been jmichaelhudson, or better the ghost of MDC. Yep, gots to keep up my credibility on Soylent, 'cause if you ain't got that, well, that's something you don't have.

    • (Score: 4, Funny) by captain normal on Saturday April 11 2020, @09:35PM

      by captain normal (2205) on Saturday April 11 2020, @09:35PM (#981298)

      We"re number one!! U.S. is leading the world! USA, USA...Yea...Yea!!

      --
      When life isn't going right, go left.
  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @05:06PM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @05:06PM (#981192)

    Andrew Gaiziunas posted this article speculating that the Wuhan Coronavirus removes iron from red blood cells

    I've seen this theory explored by medical doctors, the iron is expelled from the blood cells and then becomes toxic. I've not read the article but it seems unfair to censor people for informed speculation. Reminds me of when Zero Hedge were kicked off Twitter for publishing publicly available information of a doctor at the Wuhan Institute of Virology - located just 8 miles from the wet market that was the supposed epicenter of the outbreak. That's a theory that needs proof before being discounted. [newscientist.com] If we're going to start removing "misinformation", start with the World Health Organization and aristarchus's nonsense. Chloroquine used in China and South Korea in February. [koreabiomed.com] The notion that Trump is pushing junk science is absolute bullshit.

    • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @05:29PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @05:29PM (#981205)

      Well you see, we should only trust authorities from the WHO and CDC on these topics. They are the adults in the room and everything they say is rooted in objective reality and is never tinged by politically motivated messaging. And Taiwan is a province of China.

      /sarc

    • (Score: 5, Interesting) by HiThere on Saturday April 11 2020, @07:04PM (3 children)

      by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Saturday April 11 2020, @07:04PM (#981238) Journal

      Much of what you say is correct. But Trump absolutely pushes junk science. One may speculate about the reasons, but I find that if he asserts something it decreases the probability of it turning out to be true.

      Actually, this is so consistent that it's fairly reliable. A pity that it's not more useful, because there are so many different way to be wrong.

      N.B.: In the French study of hydroxychloroquine the study dropped from the results patients that left the study for the ICU or the morgue. There was no control group. And it was very small. As a result the results are basically worthless. (Well, actually that's mainly about the first study. The one that was published before Trump announced it as a miracle cure. The second one by the same team was larger and also had no control group, claimed marginally successful results, and I haven't seen an analysis by someone I trust.)

      P.S.: Hydroxychloroquine tends to promote heart failure when given for long periods of time at the dosages recommended for producing results. And heart failure is one of the fatality modes triggered by COVID-19. Whoops! It's quite possible that one could combine it with another drug to counteract the effects, but I haven't heard of any studies that have tested that.

      --
      Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @07:33PM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @07:33PM (#981244)

        HiThere

        In the French study of hydroxychloroquine the study dropped from the results patients that left the study for the ICU or the morgue. There was no control group. And it was very small. As a result the results are basically worthless.

        Correct.

        Hydroxychloroquine tends to promote heart failure when given for long periods of time at the dosages recommended for producing results. And heart failure is one of the fatality modes triggered by COVID-19.

        Correct.

        It hardly seems worth mentioning though, the attacks against chloroquine have simply become proxy attacks against Trump. I've mentioned that I'm low in confidence for treatment of late stage infection here before. That position was based on studies on HCoV-043... [asm.org]

        For the anti-SARS-CoV activity, chloroquine was proven equally active when added during virus adsorption or 1 h after infection. Later, a gradual loss of antiviral activity was seen

        [...]

        Interestingly, our time-of-addition experiments with HCoV-OC43 pointed out that chloroquine was required at the moment of infection to block HCoV-OC43 replication. When added at the time of infection, chloroquine reduced the viral load by 2 logs in comparison to the positive control value. At later time points, a loss of antiviral activity of chloroquine was noted. Thus, chloroquine appears to act only on the entry of HCoV-OC43 and not on the later stages of the replication cycle.

        There are still reasons to be hopeful of chloroquine as a prophylaxis. [soylentnews.org] That's not the usage Trump is selling but attacking the drug because of Trump rather than on scientific evidence is just line noise.

        • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Sunday April 12 2020, @03:04AM (1 child)

          by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Sunday April 12 2020, @03:04AM (#981405) Journal

          You can't recommend it as a prophylaxis unless you know when you're going to be infected, because long term use tends to cause heart problems. And if you know when you're going to be exposed, there are better answers. Filtered air, rubber gowns, etc. and soap and water.

          Possibly there are some edge cases where it would be useful

          --
          Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @12:55PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @12:55PM (#981491)

            Hydroxychloroquine is used as a prophylaxis for malaria and long term treatment of lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. [medscape.com] Cardiovascular problems are a potential side effect for long term use of many medications, even acetaminophen [bmj.com]

    • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @05:43AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @05:43AM (#981435)

      Andrew is an amateur aviator, and inventor, and internet clown. No medical training or knowledge. You are probably better off with Alex Jones Brand quackery.

      Take the iron out of your blood, and you suffocate. Hemoglobin, The red stuff. Idiotes cum MAGA!

  • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @05:30PM (7 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @05:30PM (#981206)

    The WOPR's gettin' to be too old for these pandemic simulations; numbers are way off.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @06:08PM (6 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @06:08PM (#981222)

      What the fuck is a WOPR?

      • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @06:31PM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @06:31PM (#981229)

        It's a fetid piece of roadkill between two slices of stale bread from Burger King.

        Strange game, the only winning move is to shoot yourself.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @10:00PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @10:00PM (#981305)

          Russian roulette, eh, makes sense coming from all the Russian trolls hanging out here.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @01:02AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @01:02AM (#981378)

          It's a fetid piece of roadkill between two slices of stale bread from Burger King.

          You have confused the Whopper with the Impossible Whopper. Easy mistake but you can blame the vegans.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @02:43AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @02:43AM (#981401)

        WOPR -- from the movie, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WarGames [wikipedia.org]

      • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Sunday April 12 2020, @03:40AM (1 child)

        by Phoenix666 (552) on Sunday April 12 2020, @03:40AM (#981409) Journal

        War Operations Planned Response, from Wargarmes.

        Your geek card has been suspended.

        --
        Washington DC delenda est.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @05:44AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @05:44AM (#981436)

          The real question is, how did they get one in the first place?

  • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @05:37PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @05:37PM (#981210)

    Those 15 better sue the shit of the seditious scum. Assembly is a constitutionally protected right and that means any executive order that restricts that is illegal. People don't have to wait on the courts either. Just kill traitors who try to enforce. it was their choice to violate their oath to The Constitution and it's not only your right, but your duty to resist; using the 2A if necessary. They come with arms to kidnap you, that constitutes "necessary". just read The Federalist Papers to see for yourself.

    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Saturday April 11 2020, @08:47PM (1 child)

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Saturday April 11 2020, @08:47PM (#981281) Journal

      Quarantine is something that predates our constitution. Did you know that? It works largely the same, no matter what kind of government you have. Quarantine works, or quarantine fails to work, based on how much contact people have with each other, meaning, how much contact they have with people who carry the contagion.

      If you happen to be tired of living, you can probably find less miserable means of dying, than to contract a disease that renders you unable to breathe for yourself. You could opt for a nice firearm, or some yummy pills, or even a nice glass of Drano.

      This nonsense that a quarantine for medical reasons is unconstitutional would be funny, if the consequences weren't so serious. You don't have some "right" to spread a contagion around the community.

      Here, I recommend that you just grow the fuck up. Your post is childish, at best.

      Second amendment? Why don't you test that out, somewhere like Montana, where the preppers have been prepping for decades. Just walk up to their community, and try to enter in violation of quarantine orders. Those people are very, VERY likely to exercise their second amendment rights to ensure that you don't enter the community. Sad enough for you and your next of kin, they won't attempt to recover your possibly infected body. You'll lie there for the scavengers to dispose of.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @10:15PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @10:15PM (#981315)

        Brain turns to mush, and eyes refuse to see the reality they're gazing onto. Then a zombie goes and connects to the internet to spread the contagion further.

  • (Score: 1, Troll) by SomeGuy on Saturday April 11 2020, @05:39PM (12 children)

    by SomeGuy (5632) on Saturday April 11 2020, @05:39PM (#981211)

    So is there any REAL progress being made against this thing?

    A while back there had been some talk about a vaccine, although with how slow the medical industry moves, I have no doubt that will take years and cost individuals bazillians.

    There is some testing now. At least that lets doctors know for sure, but seems to do more to just count numbers that still don't tell the entire story. Heck, I had what I assume was the regular flu late last year (guess I'll never know) and a doctor did absolute squat.

    The hot-air blowing politicians seem to like yapping about ventilators. It almost seems like the only thing anyone is concerned about are "beds" and "ventilators". That's not how you fight a virus, that is how you clean up the mess.

    Having everyone stay at home is just a stop-gap measure that has a technological level worthy of cavemen. Until a vaccine or some magic cure pops up, that basically means eveyone that would have gotten sick without lockdown/shelter-in-place will still get it eventually, just later.

    • (Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @06:39PM (4 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @06:39PM (#981234)

      Vaccines are being tested but young people who have recovered have low NAb titiers [medrxiv.org] meaning a vaccine may not produce enough antibodies [nature.com] unless the low count is because of this virus' immunological suppression and also that antibody tests may not be of any use at all...

      Alarmingly, after discharge from hospital, some patients remain/return viral positive and others even relapse. This indicates that a virus-eliminating immune response to SARS-CoV-2 may be difficult to induce at least in some patients and vaccines may not work in these individuals.

      Prophylaxis tests underway... [medscape.com]

      Zinc, he says, helps the hydroxychloroquine get inside the infected cells to destroy the virus

      No, chloroquine acts as an ionophore to transport zinc into the cells where it impedes infection. Chloroquine also has this effect by increasing cell PH. Not even medical journal editors can get basic information correct.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @10:06PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @10:06PM (#981309)

        Thanks for the links and info. Those links are better than any in the rollup submission.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @12:35AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @12:35AM (#981363)

        young people who have recovered have low SAG titties

        FTFY, conspiracy theory scum!

      • (Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @12:37AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @12:37AM (#981366)

        Not even medical journal editors can get basic information correct.

        Which is why we have an Anonymous Coward on SoylentNews to instruct us all on Medicine, The Electric Universe, Telluric meridians and the Power of Pyramids.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @01:22AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @01:22AM (#981382)

          Ha - it was clearly somehow transcribed in reverse by the reporter but the editor missed it. We hold medical journals to a higher standard than SN but perhaps they were just testing us like the fucking dinosaurs test the creationists?

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @02:05AM (5 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @02:05AM (#981392)

      Having everyone stay at home is just a stop-gap measure that has a technological level worthy of cavemen. Until a vaccine or some magic cure pops up, that basically means eveyone that would have gotten sick without lockdown/shelter-in-place will still get it eventually, just later.

      Yes. That's *exactly* the point. It's not about *fewer* people getting sick, it's about fewer people getting sick *at the same time*. If everyone gets sick all at once, our healthcare system would collapse under the strain and many, many more will die because there aren't enough resources to treat them.

      Staying at home and limiting contact with others allows us to *slow* the infection rates, hopefully enough so that our healthcare system can handle the number of cases requiring significant intervention. That will allow us to *reduce* the number of dead people.

      Personally, I think that reducing fatalities is a worthy goal. Don't you?

      • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @03:56AM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @03:56AM (#981417)

        Personally, I think that reducing fatalities is a worthy goal. Don't you?

        Given the minimal virulence of this disease, not to the point of putting us all under arrest and killing our future.

        • (Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @04:30AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @04:30AM (#981424)

          Given the minimal virulence of this disease, not to the point of putting us all under arrest and killing our future.

          So get onto Craigslist and order up all the hookers you want. I'm sure they're not very busy at the moment. Maybe lick a few doorknobs for good measure too.

          Then go visit your parents, grandparents, other elderly relatives and make sure you spew sputum on all of them.

          That'll teach those freedom-hating, authoritarian epidemiologists!

          I'm sure you'll be fine, and your dead relatives will just reduce the burden they place on society by dying. It's a win-win!

          Because those old folks (you know, your parents, grandparents, etc.) are just using oxygen, food and other resources that could be used by someone more deserving, right?

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @06:05AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @06:05AM (#981438)

          Officers,

          putting us all this coward under arrest and killing our his future.

          Thank you, officers.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @11:57AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @11:57AM (#981482)

        Personally, I think that reducing fatalities is a worthy goal. Don't you?

        Yes, but there SHOULD have been a better way to do that.

        • (Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @01:37PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @01:37PM (#981499)

          Personally, I think that reducing fatalities is a worthy goal. Don't you?

          Yes, but there SHOULD have been a better way to do that.

          Do tell. Please tell us all about better way. Because you know exactly what should have been done, because you're a stable genius and polymath who knows all, sees all, and reads a lot. Amirite?

          I'm sure the CDC, WHO and other organizations have just been waiting for you to tell them what they should do and what they should have done. Because you know better than anyone else and, as such, if only you'd been in charge, this would never have been a pandemic. In fact, if you were calling the shots, your plan would have turned this into a boon for all mankind!

          Damn, we're stupid! Because we didn't make you dictator of the Earth for life. What were we thinking? Sigh.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @02:53AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @02:53AM (#981403)

      Here's one (of many) approaches to the new virus, using a combination of molecular simulation and rapid-assembly tools that were available in a lab.
          http://news.mit.edu/2020/peptide-drug-block-covid-19-cells-0327 [mit.edu]
      Full text follows:

      An experimental peptide could block Covid-19
      MIT chemists are testing a protein fragment that may inhibit coronaviruses’ ability to enter human lung cells.

      The research described in this article has been published on a preprint server but has not yet been peer-reviewed by scientific or medical experts.

      In hopes of developing a possible treatment for Covid-19, a team of MIT chemists has designed a drug candidate that they believe may block coronaviruses’ ability to enter human cells. The potential drug is a short protein fragment, or peptide, that mimics a protein found on the surface of human cells.

      The researchers have shown that their new peptide can bind to the viral protein that coronaviruses use to enter human cells, potentially disarming it.

      “We have a lead compound that we really want to explore, because it does, in fact, interact with a viral protein in the way that we predicted it to interact, so it has a chance of inhibiting viral entry into a host cell,” says Brad Pentelute, an MIT associate professor of chemistry, who is leading the research team.

      The MIT team reported its initial findings in a preprint posted on bioRxiv, an online preprint server, on March 20. They have sent samples of the peptide to collaborators who plan to carry out tests in human cells.

      Molecular targeting

      Pentelute’s lab began working on this project in early March, after the Cryo-EM structure of the coronavirus spike protein, along with the human cell receptor that it binds to, was published by a research group in China. Coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, which is causing the current Covid-19 outbreak, have many protein spikes protruding from their viral envelope.

      Studies of SARS-CoV-2 have also shown that a specific region of the spike protein, known as the receptor binding domain, binds to a receptor called angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). This receptor is found on the surface of many human cells, including those in the lungs. The ACE2 receptor is also the entry point used by the coronavirus that caused the 2002-03 SARS outbreak.

      In hopes of developing drugs that could block viral entry, Genwei Zhang, a postdoc in Pentelute’s lab, performed computational simulations of the interactions between the ACE2 receptor and the receptor binding domain of the coronavirus spike protein. These simulations revealed the location where the receptor binding domain attaches to the ACE2 receptor — a stretch of the ACE2 protein that forms a structure called an alpha helix.

      “This kind of simulation can give us views of how atoms and biomolecules interact with each other, and which parts are essential for this interaction,” Zhang says. “Molecular dynamics helps us narrow down particular regions that we want to focus on to develop therapeutics.”

      The MIT team then used peptide synthesis technology that Pentelute’s lab has previously developed, to rapidly generate a 23-amino acid peptide with the same sequence as the alpha helix of the ACE2 receptor. Their benchtop flow-based peptide synthesis machine can form linkages between amino acids, the buildings blocks of proteins, in about 37 seconds, and it takes less than an hour to generate complete peptide molecules containing up to 50 amino acids.

      “We’ve built these platforms for really rapid turnaround, so I think that’s why we’re at this point right now,” Pentelute says. “It’s because we have these tools we’ve built up at MIT over the years.”

      They also synthesized a shorter sequence of only 12 amino acids found in the alpha helix, and then tested both of the peptides using equipment at MIT’s Biophysical Instrumentation Facility that can measure how strongly two molecules bind together. They found that the longer peptide showed strong binding to the receptor binding domain of the Covid-19 spike protein, while the shorter one showed negligible binding.

      Many variants

      Although MIT has been scaling back on-campus research since mid-March, Pentelute’s lab was granted special permission allowing a small group of researchers to continue to work on this project. They are now developing about 100 different variants of the peptide in hopes of increasing its binding strength and making it more stable in the body.

      “We have confidence that we know exactly where this molecule is interacting, and we can use that information to further guide refinement, so that we can hopefully get a higher affinity and more potency to block viral entry in cells,” Pentelute says.

      In the meantime, the researchers have already sent their original 23-amino acid peptide to a research lab at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai for testing in human cells and potentially in animal models of Covid-19 infection.

      While dozens of research groups around the world are using a variety of approaches to seek new treatments for Covid-19, Pentelute believes his lab is one of a few currently working on peptide drugs for this purpose. One advantage of such drugs is that they are relatively easy to manufacture in large quantities. They also have a larger surface area than small-molecule drugs.

      “Peptides are larger molecules, so they can really grip onto the coronavirus and inhibit entry into cells, whereas if you used a small molecule, it’s difficult to block that entire area that the virus is using,” Pentelute says. “Antibodies also have a large surface area, so those might also prove useful. Those just take longer to manufacture and discover.”

      One drawback of peptide drugs is that they typically can’t be taken orally, so they would have to be either administered intravenously or injected under the skin. They would also need to be modified so that they can stay in the bloodstream long enough to be effective, which Pentelute’s lab is also working on.

      “It’s hard to project how long it will take to have something we can test in patients, but my aim is to have something within a matter of weeks. If it turns out to be more challenging, it may take months,” he says.

      In addition to Pentelute and Zhang, other researchers listed as authors on the preprint are postdoc Sebastian Pomplun, grad student Alexander Loftis, and research scientist Andrei Loas.

  • (Score: 1, Troll) by legont on Saturday April 11 2020, @05:40PM (6 children)

    by legont (4179) on Saturday April 11 2020, @05:40PM (#981213)

    80% people put on ventilators in NYC die. Meantime democrats deny American people access to the drug that is used all over the world. It is on the list of the most important and category 1 safe drugs. My doctor could not get it even for herself.
    Get ready for pitchforks.

    --
    "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
    • (Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @06:01PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @06:01PM (#981220)

      Well you see, because #resistance is smart and only stupid people listen to Trump, if you do the opposite of literally every single thing he says, you're going to thrive! /sarc

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @12:42AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @12:42AM (#981369)

      Ah, but 100% of the people NOT put on ventilators die, eventually. Takes some of them nearly a century. But not being put on a ventilator is certainly fatal. Same for Hydroxychloroquine, 100% of those who take it die. Total lethality.

      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday April 12 2020, @12:44AM

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday April 12 2020, @12:44AM (#981372) Journal
        A lot of these are death if you do it, and death if you don't. Clearly the solution is quantum indeterminacy so that it can't be determined without collapsing the wave function whether you did or not.
    • (Score: 2) by legont on Sunday April 12 2020, @12:43AM (1 child)

      by legont (4179) on Sunday April 12 2020, @12:43AM (#981370)

      Troll? Their death is on your hands.

      --
      "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
      • (Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @02:59AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @02:59AM (#981404)

        > Troll? Their death is on your hands.

        Actually, it's the virus that's on your trollish hands. When was the last time you washed them??

    • (Score: 2) by Chocolate on Sunday April 12 2020, @12:13PM

      by Chocolate (8044) on Sunday April 12 2020, @12:13PM (#981484) Journal

      Why not ivermectin?

      https://www.drugs.com/medical-answers/ivermectin-treat-covid-19-coronavirus-3535912/ [drugs.com]

      Ivermectin has been trialled in treating the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which is the virus that causes COVID-19.
              The trials so far have shown ivermectin reduces the number of cell-associated viral DNA by 99.8 % in 24 hours. This was an in vitro study which means they were testing cells in a laboratory and not in a living organism.
              Studies are now needed to be done on ivermectin on people or animals to see how well ivermectin works against COVID-19. This is in vivo testing.
              Ivermectin is currently a FDA approved medicine for treatment of intestinal worms, Strongyloides stercoralis and Onchocerca volvulus. It has been established as safe for human use.

      --
      Bit-choco-coin anyone?
  • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @06:05PM (15 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @06:05PM (#981221)

    Any post critical of Trump will be upmodded to the max.

    Any post pointing out that Trump is not the sole screw-up shall be downmodded to the max.

    • (Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @06:10PM (10 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @06:10PM (#981223)

      Poor victim!

      • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @06:20PM (9 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @06:20PM (#981227)

        Not a victim. Just pointing out that any hope of rational discussion is impossible even fucking here. Might as well just post TFS, then ad a single post below saying "It's 100% Trump's fault", and close the comments because there will be zero rational discussion.

        • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @07:09PM (8 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @07:09PM (#981240)
          Alternative: You aren't rational, and the people who realize Trump fucked up, is fucking up, and will continue to fuck up are.
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @07:59PM (5 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @07:59PM (#981255)

            Honest question -- did ANY democrat fuck up? Did ANY democrat make the problem substantially worse?

            • (Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @08:23PM (3 children)

              by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @08:23PM (#981269)

              Did ANY democrat make the problem substantially worse?

              Yes, they nominated Hillary and let Trump win. And ten years ago the very corrupt 111th Congress handed everything to the republicans on a silver platter. And evidently they want Trump to win again by nominating Biden. Apparently we are expected to believe that reelecting all these people again will undo all this.

              • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @08:28PM (2 children)

                by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @08:28PM (#981271)

                Nancy Pelosi is certainly the cure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SKy8XAn5MQ [youtube.com]

                • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @09:06PM

                  by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @09:06PM (#981287)

                  Hehehehehe, just incapable of comprehending that liberals don't like corrupt Democrats because we aren't on the same level of idiotic tribalism as yourself.

                  :D XOXOXO :D

                • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @09:53PM

                  by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @09:53PM (#981302)

                  Ha! That's funny! She was the principal architect behind the republican victories of 2010

            • (Score: 3, Informative) by khallow on Saturday April 11 2020, @10:26PM

              by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday April 11 2020, @10:26PM (#981320) Journal
              For example, New Orleans proceeded with massive public celebrations of Mardi Gras - Louisiana ended up with the highest number of cases compared to neighboring states. New York City dropped the ball on screening incoming tourists and is the worst hit city in the US (with almost 20% of the US's covid cases).
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @08:00PM (1 child)

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @08:00PM (#981257)

            Trump is a loser. A stupid, narcissistic, loser. And anyone who takes medical advice from him deserves a slow death on a respirator/autodrowning machine. Just saying.

    • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @07:22PM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @07:22PM (#981242)

      Be happy you only got the "disagree" mod and not a reeducation camp.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @08:09PM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @08:09PM (#981266)

        LOL.

        It seems that the McResistance has become so rabid, they are going to eventually incite civil war. It's becoming a fucking holy war and for what -- job exporting war mongering wall street felating Democrats. The world is insane.

        • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @08:37PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @08:37PM (#981277)

          Runaway: "They drew First Stupid!"
          "They said we were deplorables!"
          "They called us 'racist'!"

          • (Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @08:53PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @08:53PM (#981282)

            Runaway: "Pull your heads out of your asses, breathe deeply, and get some oxygen to your Democratic brains."

                                  - Runaway

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