The PA GOP wants to reopen schools.

The Dude wrote:

Eem wrote:https://twitter.com/BBCkatyaadler/status/1257004321306222592

Reminder that the WHO was telling us in January there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission. This disease was already everywhere by January.

I don't think this is true. They didn't know if there was sustained transmission

https://www.statnews.com/2020/01/21/who ... -in-china/

https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1217043229427761152

They didn't do the study themselves, but they were disseminating clearly bad information so they didn't piss off China

Wasn't that one of several tweets they posted though, bc they hadn't officially looked at anything themselves? With a few days they were talking about sustained

pacino wrote:The PA GOP wants to reopen schools.

For these last 5 weeks? That's fucking insane, even for them.

Bucky wrote:i doubt the administration GAFF about the origin. they only use it to cast blame. in fact, they probably don't WANT to know lest the conclusion be counter to their blame game. As long as it's unknown it allows for speculation

They can blame China either way (with justification), but if there was more concrete evidence that it came from a Chinese lab rather than originating naturally/spontaneously, it would increase the administration's leverage vs. China and I think help Trump politically than more idle speculation.

Thanks to all who replied to my question on China.

JUburton wrote:It's only blame shifting. If they can have a tangible 'enemy' to point at (China) then they can draw some fire to them rather than their miserable response to the pandemic.

The ironic part is that the only morons that go along are the ones already absolving the administration so it does nothing.

This is kind of what I thought / assumed but wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything. It's truly a comedy at this point.

jerseyhoya wrote:

Bucky wrote:i doubt the administration GAFF about the origin. they only use it to cast blame. in fact, they probably don't WANT to know lest the conclusion be counter to their blame game. As long as it's unknown it allows for speculation

They can blame China either way (with justification), but if there was more concrete evidence that it came from a Chinese lab rather than originating naturally/spontaneously, it would increase the administration's leverage vs. China and I think help Trump politically than more idle speculation.

Does that matter, though? His base is going to believe whatever he says, and the strongly-opposed base will refuse to believe whatever he says, then the middle majority will just continue to float along.

Bucky wrote:i doubt the administration GAFF about the origin. they only use it to cast blame. in fact, they probably don't WANT to know lest the conclusion be counter to their blame game. As long as it's unknown it allows for speculation

Exactly right. This has nothing to do with facts. It’s all “look over there (not here)” for who is to blame! “Support me against those foreigners—especially since they look different than us!”

got an email saying they know someone who died in a car crash but the COD was listed as covid.

CalvinBall wrote:got an email saying they know someone who died in a car crash but the COD was listed as covid.

I've seen this all over FB with other deaths. They are saying hospitals get federal money if they mark the cause of death as Covid 19. Not sure if it is real though.

CalvinBall wrote:got an email saying they know someone who died in a car crash but the COD was listed as covid.

fwd fwd fwd fwd

frustrating!

the conspiracy theories are so impossible to understand-- the government is destroying the economy so trump cannot get re-elected (trump is in charge?).

gov wolf is destroying the economy on purpose to...?

edit: double

heyeaglefn wrote:

CalvinBall wrote:got an email saying they know someone who died in a car crash but the COD was listed as covid.

I've seen this all over FB with other deaths. They are saying hospitals get federal money if they mark the cause of death as Covid 19. Not sure if it is real though.

there is an element of truth to it.

yes, medicare pays hospitals for treatments. yes, they're lump sums based on DRG/diagsnosis code. yes, hospitals are getting 20% on top of a standard say, respiratory treatment for COVID. yes, a ventilator use may cost 3x the cost of a 'normal treatment'. this is all very normal.

however, medicare fraud is extremely bad and can result in massive criminal penalties including millions in fines and jail time. they're not just slapping COVID on any diagnosis, obviously.

CalvinBall wrote:frustrating!

the conspiracy theories are so impossible to understand-- the government is destroying the economy so trump cannot get re-elected (trump is in charge?).

gov wolf is destroying the economy on purpose to...?

But it's also a bioweapon created by the Chinese government in a lab.

MoBettle wrote:

CalvinBall wrote:frustrating!

the conspiracy theories are so impossible to understand-- the government is destroying the economy so trump cannot get re-elected (trump is in charge?).

gov wolf is destroying the economy on purpose to...?

But it's also a bioweapon created by the Chinese government in a lab.

Right, like this is what led to my post a few pages back asking about the China thing. None of these conspiracy theories appear to have any real incentives tied to them.

Re: the Wolf thing - outside of the crazies I think the gripes appear more to be about the seemingly arbitrary way that "essential" businesses were/are defined, which I get. Problem, as with everything, is the crazies make it easy to ignore otherwise rational questions / complaints.

There is also a major gap between "reopening" and consumers actually patronizing these businesses that are reopened that I think a lot of people are choosing to ignore.

there was no guidance when PA created the list. it was only arbitrary on face because other places also we making their lists independent of federal guidance

in order to get mor emoney for a covid death they HAVE to be on a vent. the conspiracies are so wild.

PSUsarge wrote:

jerseyhoya wrote:

Bucky wrote:i doubt the administration GAFF about the origin. they only use it to cast blame. in fact, they probably don't WANT to know lest the conclusion be counter to their blame game. As long as it's unknown it allows for speculation

They can blame China either way (with justification), but if there was more concrete evidence that it came from a Chinese lab rather than originating naturally/spontaneously, it would increase the administration's leverage vs. China and I think help Trump politically than more idle speculation.

Does that matter, though? His base is going to believe whatever he says, and the strongly-opposed base will refuse to believe whatever he says, then the middle majority will just continue to float along.

To the extent that anything matters, this would seem to. The level of attention paid to the coronavirus crisis is unlike any other issue in recent times (for obvious reasons), and the polling has been considerably less polarized and partisan than most issues, at least on some questions.

There is a high level of belief across the political spectrum that China fucked this up and is in a major way responsible for our current predicament. The Trump campaign is trying to tie Biden to China, saying he has been soft on China for his whole career and would be the wrong person to be president in such a moment. The leading Dem SuperPAC is trying to tie Trump to China, saying he has been soft on China and highlighting his contradictory comments. China is already a pretty big club to whack people with at the moment. If it turns out in addition to the lies and coverups and whatnot that the thing actually came out of a Chinese lab, I think that would increase the salience of China as an issue even more.

No one at the margin is going to give a shit about a china lab vs a bat market when 200k americans die from it when other countries have succeeded in squashing it.

just looking for good news.... what countries squashed it?