dagblog - Comments for "VA FOR ALL (THE HARD WAY)"

though apparently Macron

artappraiser — Sun, 22 Mar 2020 01:32:58 +0000

In reply to Senior epidemiologists say

though apparently Macron threats helped:

This is unbelievable. It reportedly took Macron's threat to close the UK border for Boris Johnson to finally shutdown bars and restaurants. The Elysee refers to UK policy as 'benign neglect'. This failure of leadership is costing lives. https://t.co/z1rSslEG0H
— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) March 21, 2020

Senior epidemiologists say

artappraiser — Sun, 22 Mar 2020 01:28:41 +0000

In reply to VA FOR ALL (THE HARD WAY)

Senior epidemiologists say UNLESS THE UK LOCKS DOWN ENTIRELY ON MONDAY WE WILL GO THE SAME WAY AS ITALY. Is @BorisJohnson listening? Stop suggesting, start acting!!!! pic.twitter.com/WuGp03OpSc
— Paul Mason (@paulmasonnews) March 21, 2020

actually, he finally did:

Stay at home people #gamersvsCOVID19 https://t.co/DebaydVhPE
— Mark Mantle (@MarkMantle_) March 21, 2020

Robbing Peter to pay Paul and

artappraiser — Tue, 17 Mar 2020 08:29:32 +0000

In reply to VA FOR ALL (THE HARD WAY)

Robbing Peter to pay Paul and maybe not working at all--the nasty little secret of M4all or single payer in a situation like this:

Medicare has set reimbursement rates for COVID19 testing way too low!

$51.31 may not even cover overnight shipping. Should be at least $400 per test.

Pandemic is costing the economy trillions, this is absolutely the wrong area to economize.https://t.co/hHbvoYqBqN pic.twitter.com/jcTa6pKrld
— Balaji S. Srinivasan (@balajis) March 16, 2020

Context for people outside medicine:

- Medicare sets prices that are in theory "optional"
- But many insurers use these prices as guidelines
- So it's basically like Soviet central planning
- Thus these prices really matter

If too low, no testing.https://t.co/2NEZ6dLLKG pic.twitter.com/6VyCwOqZgH
— Balaji S. Srinivasan (@balajis) March 16, 2020

Unit economics of standard lab test look like this:

- sample collection kit
- shipping
- reagents
- lab tech salaries
- amortized machine cost ($$ for sequencing!)
- retest costs (also $$)

$51 is too low to break even for many labs, even at scale.https://t.co/HHXkyqfxas pic.twitter.com/8g5RPpK46J
— Balaji S. Srinivasan (@balajis) March 16, 2020

The ideal would be that every lab could just set its own prices. But because of third party insurance, prices are highly centralized.

The US is doing bizarre things, printing $700B to prop up the market while not paying for critical lab tests.
— Balaji S. Srinivasan (@balajis) March 16, 2020

To make this clear:

- if you have de facto centralized price controls (like Medicare)
- and the price is so low that it's not even break-even
- you won't get 1000 labs dropping what they're doing to test for COVID19
- and we won't see testing scale

A centralized chokepoint.
— Balaji S. Srinivasan (@balajis) March 16, 2020

Italy's decided to send in

artappraiser — Tue, 17 Mar 2020 07:50:44 +0000

In reply to VA FOR ALL (THE HARD WAY)

Italy's decided to send in the newbies early to cover

#Italy’s decision to wave certification test for 10,000 fresh med school grads gets them working 9 months sooner & frees experienced doctors to work on #coronavirus frontlines, says Minister of Higher Education & Research Gaetano Manfredi. #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/tJbYTCFH3l
— Megan Williams (@MKWilliamsRome) March 17, 2020

yeah ventilators are the new

artappraiser — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 09:14:52 +0000

In reply to We have enough for everyone

yeah ventilators are the new gold in Europe:

European countries search for ventilators as virus cases surge. Italy sends soldiers to boost production, Germany orders 10,000 devices and British PM calls manufacturers. https://t.co/dNNJze1xbu via @financialtimes pic.twitter.com/VKgDh7izHy
— alain servais (@aservais1) March 16, 2020

So far in Italy not to the

artappraiser — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 09:12:52 +0000

In reply to We have enough for everyone

So far in Italy not to the boomers yet, just Il Duce babies:

Italians over 80 'will be left to die' as country overwhelmed by coronavirus https://t.co/syi7q69Ate
— Wafik S. El-Deiry, MD, PhD, FACP (@weldeiry) March 15, 2020

I saw the zinc lozenge thing

artappraiser — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 09:08:32 +0000

In reply to This may expose me to

I saw the zinc lozenge thing recommended by a couple of docs I respect too. Said the way it works is discouraging viruses from going down your throat, causes a hostile environment for them. (Hence the way it seems to work if you do it in time when you have just that nasal/sinus inkling of a cold coming on, plus your immune system, of course.)

They have thee nerve to

jollyroger — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 07:38:39 +0000

In reply to The V.A. is included in this

They have thee nerve to classify public health stats.

On the income thing, it is no doubt a real force majeure towards the de facto MMT we have going at the fed and the need for fully paid sick leave to iincentivize self quarantining (with an intelligent bias towards calling the close ones in favor of staying home...)/

This may expose me to

jollyroger — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 07:32:41 +0000

In reply to Apparently we only have 3,186

ETA the whole thing about Vit C and cold amelioration (as measured by duration of symptoms from onset to full remission) was the crucial necessity of early commencement of the high dose vitamiin C therapy which had been found to shorten colds and lessen the severity of symptoms.

The relationship between vitamin C dosage and its effects on the duration of the common cold symptoms may extend to 6-8 grams per day.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170330115246.htm

That said, if you slam 5 grams a day while the contagion rages, you will always be at the level you'd leap to if you suspected you were coming down with a cold.

This may expose me to accusations of practicing medicine while acting as a Youtube influencer, but inasmuch as we are, after all, talking about a coronavirus which we know has cousins that can be more successfully fought when the sovereign anti inflammatory properties of vitamin c have been enlisted, it could not hurt to temporarily go to heroic daily levels (say, five grams). The more so as I have seen an ACTUAL doctor recommend zinc lozenges, for the same demonstrated anti cold virus action as that for whicch they are sold, viz, slowing the replication of the pathogen.

It all being a matter of balance between the trenches and the artillery, we can nibble at the trench edges, as it were.

We have enough for everyone

jollyroger — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 07:20:58 +0000

In reply to The V.A. is included in this

We have enough for everyone who is rich enough for us to want to save them, or young enough to have useful labor left.

I am (perhaps against interest..) unable to contain my amusement at the quip designating Coronavirus "The Boomer Remover"