Coronavirus General Discussion

[Xan]

Massachusetts' government has put barriers in place for learning pods to make sure they don't compete too much with the teachers' unions:

Learning pods, or groups convened by up to five families, will be able to operate without licenses, as long as a parent is on-site at all times. Payments are not allowed, and exchanges of funds are limited to compensation for food and materials.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/08/28/ ... e-schools/

Wow... That's pretty terrifying. Here in Texas that could not happen, at least not without major changes: private schools require no licensing. Sounds kind of dystopian to require such a thing to me.

[jalanlong]

Massachusetts' government has put barriers in place for learning pods to make sure they don't compete too much with the teachers' unions:

Learning pods, or groups convened by up to five families, will be able to operate without licenses, as long as a parent is on-site at all times. Payments are not allowed, and exchanges of funds are limited to compensation for food and materials.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/08/28/ ... e-schools/

Wow... That's pretty terrifying. Here in Texas that could not happen, at least not without major changes: private schools require no licensing. Sounds kind of dystopian to require such a thing to me.

It could be worse:

https://www.dw.com/en/european-court-ru ... a-47021333

[Xan]

Massachusetts' government has put barriers in place for learning pods to make sure they don't compete too much with the teachers' unions:

Learning pods, or groups convened by up to five families, will be able to operate without licenses, as long as a parent is on-site at all times. Payments are not allowed, and exchanges of funds are limited to compensation for food and materials.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/08/28/ ... e-schools/

Wow... That's pretty terrifying. Here in Texas that could not happen, at least not without major changes: private schools require no licensing. Sounds kind of dystopian to require such a thing to me.

It could be worse:

https://www.dw.com/en/european-court-ru ... a-47021333

Okay, wow, that is utterly unbelievably awful.

[vnatale]

Massachusetts' government has put barriers in place for learning pods to make sure they don't compete too much with the teachers' unions:

Learning pods, or groups convened by up to five families, will be able to operate without licenses, as long as a parent is on-site at all times. Payments are not allowed, and exchanges of funds are limited to compensation for food and materials.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/08/28/ ... e-schools/

Wow... That's pretty terrifying. Here in Texas that could not happen, at least not without major changes: private schools require no licensing. Sounds kind of dystopian to require such a thing to me.

Welcome to life in a Blue State. Coming soon to TX with the influx of liberal Californians fleeing the mess they created there.

I actually don't know anyone who is leaving Massachusetts!

Vinny

[Xan]

I actually don't know anyone who is leaving Massachusetts!

That may not be terribly representative as you haven't left your house for 8 months. ;-)

[Hal]

Evidence we are living in The Twilight Zone.

Russia calling Australia a Nazi State.

https://www.rt.com/news/499668-australi ... -lockdown/

scratch Australia off the list of cool country's,
it was on my "places i would like to visit" list, with the direction they have chosen to go in, it may be a while before it gets back on..

[Tortoise]

Evidence we are living in The Twilight Zone.

Russia calling Australia a Nazi State.

https://www.rt.com/news/499668-australi ... -lockdown/

Australia began as a penal colony, and apparently they've decided to return to their roots.

[dualstow]

Bill Gates has done more for humanity than most. Eradicating diseases and building toilets in India. God bless him.

IMHO, Bill Gates is just another economic hitman. His philanthropy comes with strings attached. Or maybe I should say "chains attached."

Here he is, declaring that "You don't have a choice." Normalcy will return, he says, only after the entire worldwide population is vaccinated. https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/inte ... for-power/ Those aren't the words of a humanitarian, but of a megalomaniac who, like many high-functioning autistics, views other people are mere props in his play.

I'm always fascinated by his overtly autistic traits. Watch the wildly uncoordinated, almost spastic, body movements that occur while he speaks. He has no idea where his body parts are in space. He is unable to control his emotions or to even modulate his voice.

The scary thing about all this is that while isolated parts of his brain are on overdrive, he appears to be lacking in the normal wiring that makes us essentially "human." Which is why, I imagine, he lives in a world of algorithms, seemingly unable to assimilate information that entails the unpredictability of emotional intelligence, value judgments, or the incorporation of paradigms other than his own. And which is why, I imagine, he embraces a new world order where people interface with the world and with other people through "devices," and where ultimately people are fully merged with computers. In fact, but for the computer revolution, which finally gave only marginally functional people like Bill Gates an opportunity to succeed at something, he would probably be in a state hospital.

Cold, Maddy.
We do the best we can with what we have.

[Kriegsspiel]

Frankly, it's completely bonkers that Australia is in such a tizzy about the 'rona with all the deadly nightmares it's already stocked up on.

[Hal]

Frankly, it's completely bonkers that Australia is in such a tizzy about the 'rona with all the deadly nightmares it's already stocked up on.

"+1" Lucky Australia is an island so these critters don't visit you
https://untamedscience.com/biodiversity/death-adder/

Edit: From Economics site https://www.facebook.com/adamseconomics ... 6869188974

[boglerdude]

https://www.reddit.com/r/AustralianPoli ... my_facing/

Australia's 1st recession in 30 years. what about Dalios "cycles." The real world changes and backtesting doesnt predict the future.

[Hal]

https://www.reddit.com/r/AustralianPoli ... my_facing/

Australia's 1st recession in 30 years. what about Dalios "cycles." The real world changes and backtesting doesnt predict the future.

Check out the chart
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/austr ... rop-record

[WiseOne]

Massachusetts' government has put barriers in place for learning pods to make sure they don't compete too much with the teachers' unions:

Learning pods, or groups convened by up to five families, will be able to operate without licenses, as long as a parent is on-site at all times. Payments are not allowed, and exchanges of funds are limited to compensation for food and materials.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/08/28/ ... e-schools/

Good luck enforcing that. All the parents have to do is claim the tutors are babysitters. Making child care and homeschooling illegal would be a pretty tough bar for the state to cross.

The backlash will be fun to watch. And yes, I expect this is all about teacher's unions and protecting public schools. I foresee these pod schools becoming quite popular to the point where a lot of people will opt out of the public schools, once they see how much better the pod schools are than the state-run, teach to the lowest common denominator public schools. I sure as heck would have preferred it to public schools when I was growing up.

[Mark Leavy]

Finally Confirmed! Vitamin D Nearly Abolishes ICU Risk in COVID-19

Chris Masterjohn, Phd (And no slouch) discusses the details of this Spanish study.

The results are astounding: vitamin D nearly abolished the odds of requiring treatment in ICU. Although the number of deaths was too small to say for sure, vitamin D may actually abolish the risk of death from COVID-19.

This is equivalent to 106,400 IU vitamin D on day 1, 53,200 IU on days 3 and 7, and 53,200 IU weekly thereafter. If this were given as daily doses, it would be the equivalent of 30,400 per day for the first week, followed by a maintenance dose of 7,600 IU per day.

Probably out of the range for home experimentation, but pretty interesting.

[pp4me]

Finally Confirmed! Vitamin D Nearly Abolishes ICU Risk in COVID-19

Chris Masterjohn, Phd (And no slouch) discusses the details of this Spanish study.

The results are astounding: vitamin D nearly abolished the odds of requiring treatment in ICU. Although the number of deaths was too small to say for sure, vitamin D may actually abolish the risk of death from COVID-19.

This is equivalent to 106,400 IU vitamin D on day 1, 53,200 IU on days 3 and 7, and 53,200 IU weekly thereafter. If this were given as daily doses, it would be the equivalent of 30,400 per day for the first week, followed by a maintenance dose of 7,600 IU per day.

Probably out of the range for home experimentation, but pretty interesting.

I heard someone say the other day that 98% of people who have died from COVID had low levels of Vitamin D.

Occurred to me that this would be a more likely reason for dark skinned people being disproportionally affected than blaming it on institutional racism/white supremacy as Ms. Harris did in her acceptance speech.

I spend lots of time in the Florida sun, maybe too much at times, but I have been taking a Vitamin D supplement for a long time.

[Tortoise]

I heard someone say the other day that 98% of people who have died from COVID had low levels of Vitamin D.

The majority of them also had one or more comorbidities like obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. And unfortunately, such comorbidities aren't cured simply by popping vitamin D pills.

It would be interesting to know more details about the patient group in the Spanish study: Age, ethnicity, comorbidities, etc.

[pp4me]

The majority of them also had one or more comorbidities like obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. And unfortunately, such comorbidities aren't cured simply by popping vitamin D pills.

I'm pretty sure you're right that popping vitamin D pills won't cure those conditions but I believe I have read that insufficient levels of vitamin D has been "linked" to all of them, especially obesity.

Whether "linked" means there is actual evidence or not I'll leave to people like WiseOne who actually have to figure this stuff out.

[Maddy]

From a scientific point of view, PCR tests are meaningless:
https://bpa-pathology.com/covid19-pcr-t ... aningless/

[Libertarian666]

From a scientific point of view, PCR tests are meaningless:
https://bpa-pathology.com/covid19-pcr-t ... aningless/

Yes, but from a political point of view, they're great for scaring people.

[vnatale]

There is a doctor on C-Span Washington Journal right now. Dr. Howard Bauchner. Editor in Chief of a Journal (title left too soon for me to type it).

He stated that "excess deaths" in this country is now about 250,000. Expects it to be about 500,000 this year.

Normally, about 1,000,000 people die each year in this country. Therefore, he's saying it looks like it will be 1,500,000 this year.

Vinny

[vnatale]

Opinion: The ‘excess deaths’ tally in the U.S. is 204,691 in 7 months — so COVID-19 deaths might be undercounted


https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-e ... 2020-08-13

[Mountaineer]

Very interesting. One week analysis of 2.5 billion genetic combinations by a supercomputer. The "like breathing through Jell-O" comment was disconcerting!

What do you think WiseOne?

An interesting hypothesis for how SARS-CoV-2 works in the body:

https://elemental.medium.com/a-supercom ... cb8eba9d63

Below is a link to a Vitamin D study which suggests that you ought to consider getting out in the sun &/or supplement, and that there may be a cheap & effective way to stave off ICU stays for those who come down with COVID. For those who may be infected in the future, we can hope for solid follow-up studies confirming these results.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... via%3Dihub

[Tortoise]

Governor Cuomo says he wants a task force of 4,000 NYPD cops to enforce reopening guidelines before he'll allow indoor dining in NYC.

It's good to see that Cuomo has his NYC law enforcement priorities straight.

[vnatale]

Reducing transmission of SARS-CoV-2


https://science.sciencemag.org/content/ ... um=Twitter

[Hal]

Reducing transmission of SARS-CoV-2


https://science.sciencemag.org/content/ ... um=Twitter

Victorian method (no science needed)