MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
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In the News
New York City officials say they will begin to report those who’ve died in their homes from suspected coronavirus complications without an official lab diagnosis.
The coronavirus death count in New York City, already unfathomable, is expected to surge in the coming days as officials begin including people who have been dropping dead at home without an official diagnosis.
Emergency Medical Service data first reported by Gothamist suggests the undercount of individuals who have likely died from the virus is massive. On Tuesday alone, 256 people were pronounced dead at home across the five boroughs. Until this month, about 25 people in New York City were found dead in their homes on a typical day, suggesting that most of Tuesday’s calls were related to the outbreak that has already killed over 5,400 people across the state and infected 140,386 more.
According to New York City Fire Department data obtained by The Daily Beast, first responders have reported 2,192 “dead-on-arrival” calls over the last two weeks. On average, the department handled about 453 of those calls over the same period last year.
That data also showed that the number of cardiac or respiratory arrest calls has exploded, from 20 to 30 a day at the end of March and the beginning of April in 2019, to 322 on one day in April in 2020—with more than 100 calls every day since March 28. While 30 to 50 percent of those calls ended in a death in 2019, more than 50 percent of those calls have ended in a death every day since March 22 this year, with the percentage steadily rising to 75 percent as of April 5 [....]
Finally, since they can't come up with adequate amount of tests, they are doing the temperature thing, which is definitely better than nothing. I am really getting sick of the deliberate misinfo. from them for whatever reason, i.e, you don't need masks, oh sorry now you do. Those of us who knew the correct things to do had to deal with that in the questioning of our advice to friends and loved ones. Temperature checks by the TSA might also have been a nice feature before pushing everybody at airports into huge crowds a few weeks ago.
@ NYTimes.com coronovirus live updates, April 8
[....] The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published new guidelines on Wednesday detailing how essential employees can go back to work even if they have been exposed to people infected by the coronavirus, provided they do not feel sick and follow certain precautions.
Those employees can return if they take their temperature before heading to their workplaces, wear a face mask at all times and practice social distancing while on the job, Dr. Robert Redfield, the C.D.C. director, said at the White House briefing. They should not share headsets or other objects that touch their faces, and they should not congregate in break rooms or crowded areas, he said.
Dr. Redfield said that employers should send workers home immediately if they developed any symptoms. He also said they should increase air exchange in their buildings and clean common surfaces more often. The goal, he said, was to “get these workers back into the critical work force so that we don’t have worker shortages.”
The new guidance appears to blend earlier advice [....]
Reminds me of what my main beau of my 20's (who was nicknamed by fellow car afficiandoes as "Doctor of the Streets') used to say: GM sucks!
Linda Tripp, who secretly recorded her conversations with Monica Lewinsky about the then-intern's relationship with President Bill Clinton in the White House, has died, according to her mother, Inge Carotenuto, and her former attorney, Joseph Murtha.Carotenuto told CNN that Tripp had been diagnosed with late stage pancreatic/lymph node cancer in the last few days. Tripp had previously been treated for breast cancer. She was 70.
Tripp, a friend of Lewinsky's at the time, turned the 20 hours of tapes over to special prosecutor Kenneth Starr [....]
Note: Likelly COVID-19 death with NEGATIVE TEST
By Mallory Simon and Melissa Dunst Lipman @ CNN.com, April 8
Charlotte Figi, a child with a catastrophic type of epilepsy who went on to inspire a CBD movement, passed away Tuesday at age 13.
Charlotte had recently been hospitalized due to pneumonia, breathing problems and seizures. She was treated as a likely case of Covid-19, her mother, Paige Figi, said Wednesday, although she tested negative for the virus.
"Charlotte is no longer suffering. She is seizure-free forever," a family friend wrote on Paige Figi's Facebook page, announcing Charlotte's death. "Thank you so much for all of your love."
Charlotte became a symbol of the possibilities of CBD after CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta told her story in the documentary "Weed." In the film, Charlotte was shown to be a playful child who was overcome by horrific seizures, which were quelled with Charlotte's Web, a marijuana strain named in her honor [....]
November intelligence report by the military's National Center for Medical Intelligence (NCMI), according to two officials familiar with the document’s contents.
The report was the result of analysis of wire and computer intercepts, coupled with satellite images. It raised alarms because an out-of-control disease would pose a serious threat to U.S. forces in Asia -- forces that depend on the NCMI’s work. And it paints a picture of an American government that could have ramped up mitigation and containment efforts
Special for DoubleA, Gothamist's inventory of De Blasio's stumbles.
I think the last NYC official to rise successfully to the Presidentcy (pace, John Lindsay) was Teddy Roosevelt, former Pollice Commissioner. (Please, Bill Bratton, do not apply)
By Sam Saeed & Tanya Synder @ Politico.eu, April 8
[....] The U.S. coronavirus relief bill bans companies from giving raises to their top executives, buying back their own stock or paying dividends to shareholders for the five-year duration of the loan plus one year. That's a reaction to reports that U.S. airlines spent 96 percent of their free cash flow over the last decade on share buybacks rather than investing in the business or storing up money for a rainy day.
In Europe, struggling airlines like low-cost carrier Norwegian had to make a financial case to private banks in order to qualify for government aid. In the U.K., the government said airlines need to exhaust all other lines of credit before coming to the government for help — indicating that countries are not immediately rushing to the rescue and will do so with conditions attached.
In other cases like Italy and Belgium, governments are considering the re-nationalization of struggling airlines as their solution to the crisis [....]
International Labor Organization press release, April 7
The COVID-19 pandemic is having a catastrophic effect on working hours and earnings, globally. A new ILO report highlights some of the worst affected sectors and regions, and outlines policies to mitigate the crisis.
GENEVA – The COVID-19 crisis is expected to wipe out 6.7 per cent of working hours globally in the second quarter of 2020 – equivalent to 195 million full-time workers. Large reductions are foreseen in the Arab States (8.1 per cent, equivalent to 5 million full-time workers), Europe (7.8 per cent, or 12 million full-time workers) and Asia and the Pacific (7.2 per cent, 125 million full-time workers).
Huge losses are expected across different income groups but especially in upper-middle income countries (7.0 per cent, 100 million full-time workers). This far exceeds the effects of the 2008-9 financial crisis.
The sectors most at risk include accommodation and food services, manufacturing, retail, and business and administrative activities [....]
April 7: Rachel Maddow talks with Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite, Chief of Engineers and commanding general of the Army Corps of Engineers about how his team has adapted to the needs of localities dealing with the spread of coronavirus infections and the significant time pressure of approaching peak infection rates.
via ScienceBusiness.net Liveblog on R & D response to Covid 19 pandemic, 15:08 CET, 06 April
The COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium of companies including IBM, Amazon, Microsoft and Google, academic institutions and federal agencies, is making members’ computers available for research in bioinformatics, epidemiology, and molecular modelling projects requiring large amounts of processing capacity, to increase understanding of COVID-19 and inform strategies to address it. Research projects given access to date include a virtual high throughput in silico screen to find drug candidates, a molecular level simulation of the coronavirus entering a human host cell, and sequencing the genomes of patients who have suffered the worst effects of the infection to see if there is a genetic signature to the predict which future patients are most likely to need intensive care.
In addition to selecting which research to back, the consortium, led by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the US Department of Energy and IBM, will identify which of their members has the most appropriate computing resource for each project.
By Roni Caryn Rabin @ NYTimes.com, April 7
More men also are infected than women, and they are hospitalized more frequently, new data show. A similar pattern was seen in China.
A $1 billion joint project by the federal government and Johnson & Johnson is one of the more promising efforts to create a coronavirus vaccine. To meet anticipated demand, Johnson & Johnson says it will start to produce the potential vaccine. Broadcast on NBC Nightly News, April 4
President Trump lashed out on Tuesday at the World Health Organization, creating a new enemy to attack and threatening to withhold funding from the world’s premier health institution even as a deadly virus ravages nations around the globe.
“We’re going to put a hold on money spent to the W.H.O.; we’re going to put a very powerful hold on it and we’re going to see,” Mr. Trump said, accusing the organization of having not been aggressive enough in confronting the dangers from the virus.