Coronavirus News (268)

For Boris Johnson, and Maybe Trump, Covid as Metaphor Is Hard to Shake The British prime minister’s personal battle with the disease has come to symbolize his government’s fumbling efforts to halt the pathogen.  ......... the prime minister ended up in an intensive-care unit after he, like the president, tried to work through the illness. ........... Six months after Mr. Johnson was released from the hospital, he has yet to shake off questions about the effects of the disease on his energy, focus and spirit. .......... Both also initially played down the threat of the virus — Mr. Johnson, most notoriously, when he bragged about shaking the hands of coronavirus patients while visiting them in the hospital. ............... Mr. Trump about the miracle-cure qualities of the drugs he was treated with, which he promised to distribute free to all Americans; and Mr. Johnson about the miracle workers who treated him — the doctors and nurses of the National Health Service, perhaps Britain’s most revered institution. ........... has seemed occasionally lethargic during debates in Parliament. 

Like Trump, I was on monoclonal antibody drugs. This is what they do to you Trump fundamentally misunderstands what monoclonal antibodies are, and what they do ......... We all want a vaccine and we all want a cure. We want to send our kids to school and hug our old friends and go to the movies and, most of all, for people to stop getting sick and dying. The way forward is through smart science and practical, equitable distribution, not empty promises of "miracles." The monoclonal antibody cocktail that saved my life currently has a six figure price tag. As Vox put it two years ago, "The average cost of cancer drugs today is four times the median household income." (Because I was in a clinical trial, the pharmaceutical company paid the costs related to my treatment.) Who's going to pick up the check when and if these types of therapies are available for COVID-19? .............. right now, there is no cure for COVID-19. There is only recovery, hope and a lot more research to be done.

‘Everyone is fighting’ – how Downing Street lost its grip on a divided nation As public trust falls, No 10 insists on dictating a national response to coronavirus; local leaders believe that they can do better ......... The many changes in rules and regulations have left people confused and choosing to rely on their own instincts as much as on what politicians tell them. ............ “I would say that trust in authority has completely gone” ........... National targets on testing have not been met. False expectations have been set. Rules have changed at dizzying speed. .......... Tory MPs are split. The media is split. Public opinion is split. And council and public health leaders in some of the biggest cities of the north and Midlands are in revolt. .............  “They say they are listening to us but they are not. What they seem to want to do is punish the north. The extra financial support announced by the chancellor is welcome but it is two-thirds of people’s wages, not 80% which it was before. This is not enough for people and the businesses which will have to close.” Another official involved in talks with the government over the weekend said: “It is toxic and everyone is fighting.” ...............  Labour has said it will abstain in a vote expected early next week on extending the 10pm curfew for pubs across England.  

China’s Insistence That Taiwan Isn’t a Country Starts Backfiring  “Hats off to friends from around the world this year, #India in particular, for celebrating #TaiwanNationalDay,” Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu wrote in a Twitter post on Saturday. ........... more and more Taiwanese don’t want any unification with China. ........  “showing weakness and making concessions will not bring peace.” ............ “We don’t have a need to declare ourselves an independent state,” Tsai told the BBC shortly after she was re-elected by a landslide in January. “We are an independent country already, and we call ourselves the Republic of China, Taiwan.” ............ For many Taiwanese, the Republic of China was akin to a foreign occupation when the Kuomintang party arrived after Japan’s surrender in World War II. A violent uprising against the KMT prompted officials to massacre Japanese-trained civil servants, lawyers and doctors who could’ve administered an independent Taiwanese state. 

Pompeo Says China Has Deployed 60,000 Soldiers on Indian Border
COVID-19 cases in Arizona dropped 75% after mask mandates began, report says

Trump's COVID prognosis: 3 scenarios based on sparse facts from an opaque White House The president's health matters. But we can only speculate because his doctor has hidden behind confidentiality laws to withhold negative information. ............  many survivors of severe COVID-19 pneumonia (which the president had) have experienced setbacks, hospital readmissions and prolonged intensive care stays requiring months of rehabilitation. ............. Concerningly, Trump was reportedly hypoxemic (low oxygen saturations, less than 94%) for a period of time, had shortness of breath, and required supplemental oxygen. Those are all clear signals that the president might have experienced the most feared and harmful injury from COVID-19: pneumonia. To be clear, nearly all of the 213,000 Americans who have lost their lives to this virus died for this reason alone, often on ventilators ............. He is unique in receiving the Regeneron cocktail almost immediately after diagnosis in combination with Dexamethasone and Remdesivir. .............. Some initially improve, as in the case of the president, only to decline again 7-10 days after symptom onset, often with severe manifestations requiring ICU-level care. ........... the president continues to be symptomatic as evidenced by his coughing on the phone Thursday night with Fox’s Sean Hannity. 

How Trump’s ‘enthusiasm factor’ could lead to another surprise win on Election Day As Ryan’s boat joined at least 2,000 other watercraft for the Trump Law and Order Boat Parade, the same scene was playing out in dozens of harbors, rivers and lakes from the Jersey Shore to San Diego that Labor Day weekend. One week later, on Sept. 12, more than 16,000 cars, pickups, motorcycles and semis festooned with banners and bunting jammed Cincinnati’s I-275 beltway in a convoy that looped through three states, one of several Trump car caravans being organized on Facebook. Meanwhile, an unknown fan in Norwell, Mass., stenciled “Trump 2020” in bright yellow letters across the travel lanes of busy Route 3 (Highway crews quickly painted over the message.) ................  Public displays of exuberant affection for Trump have been building for months now, but they reached a fervent new pitch when the president came down with COVID-19. .........  “The consensus from all was that COVID-19 didn’t stand a chance against him.” ............... Enthusiasm for Trump among his voters “is historically high,” said Richard Baris, the director of Big Data Poll. “We saw that very early in the cycle, in his primary vote totals,” when the president drew unusually large voter turnout in uncontested races. ..............  Four years ago, a Washington Post/ABC News poll found a 13-point enthusiasm gap in Trump’s favor, a result echoed by other surveys ............. 75 percent of Trump voters said their vote is mostly motivated by support for him, as opposed to 43 percent of Biden voters. .........  An overnight shift in public opinion fueled Ronald Reagan’s shocking 10-point landslide in 1980, for example, despite election-eve polls that pegged the race as too close to call. 

Trump's $1.8 trillion stimulus proposal faces opposition from Pelosi and Senate GOP  Senate Republicans blasted the $1.8 trillion offer the White House made to Speaker Pelosi ....... a number of GOP concerns, like state and local funding, as well as the overall price tag. ....... While the sentiment was that talks with Pelosi should continue, it was clear that the White House plan had virtually no chance of passing the GOP-controlled Senate ......... The President said Friday that he'd like to see a bigger stimulus than what's currently being floated by either Democrats or his administration ......... Pelosi has repeatedly argued that the actual legislative language -- and where that language directs the funds -- has become the most critical aspect of any deal, pushing particularly for funding for states and localities that have significant budget shortfalls .............. Pelosi dismissed Trump's proposal as wanting "more money at his discretion to grant or withhold, rather than agreeing on language prescribing how we honor our workers, crush the virus and put money in the pockets of workers." The Democratic leader said "despite these unaddressed concerns" she remains "hopeful" that Friday's developments will inch them closer to a deal on a relief package.