I do have an interesting factoid. There is an article in NYT about it. It's also being discussed on med-twitter. Multiple ERs are reporting this symptom.
From the department of "you can't fix stupid" we have the following.
Dr. Oz was on Fox and Friends this morning. He was opining about the chloroquine and azithromycin combination. He personally talked to the French doctor who had treated 36 people, and their viral levels all went down. OK, that's not what the initial reports said, he did have a control group. But the study was not double blinded. Anyway, here's Dr. Oz, on TV touting stuff that no one knows will work, that does have significant toxicity. Oz plans to do his own clinical trials in the next couple of weeks. Clinical trials take months, if not years, and sometimes decades. Not to mention the fact that Dr. Oz is a former cardio-thoracic surgeon, who now hosts a talk show and wouldn't know how to structure a decent trial. The Surgeon General came on after Dr. Oz and called bullshit on everything he said, but people hear what they want to hear.
From the same department of stupid we have this.
This came from Fox. Two or three days ago, there was an essay on Medium written by someone who is not an epidemiologist. Basically his point was the costs of a million people dying was less than the costs of shutting down the economy. It was astounding to see a couple of doctors I thought were smart retweeting the article. Apparently Fox picked up on it, talked about it on TV, and now the president is thinking about relaxing all of the restrictions. I would link to that article, but it has been replaced with this.
Today on twitter there has been a disturbing number of young white men saying things like it's better to keep the economy running, and if some people die in the process, it's sad, but that's the cost of doing business.
Here's an old white guy spouting the same line.
The stupid here is just baked into the marrow.
Stupid and stupider. Did you see where a couple here in the Phoenix area were self medicating with the malaria drug. He's dead and she's in critical condition. Even more stupid.
ReplyDeleteIt's just sad stupid. She thought that because the president said it was good, that it would be safe.
DeleteDid you see this?? "Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) was just on Fox saying he agrees with Trump. He cast it as an opportunity for seniors to sacrifice in order to keep the country intact for their grandchildren. “Let's get back to living... And those of us that are 70+, we'll take care of ourselves.” And to think, Sarah Palin said it was the Democrats who wanted "death panels!"
ReplyDeleteJim read that to me. I guess we're all supposed to lay down and die. Today has just exceeded expectations on the stupid front.
DeleteTrickle down from the moron-in-chief.
ReplyDeleteAt least your Lt Gov didn't go public saying grandparents be willing to die to keep the economy going like ours did. There must be a stronger word than 'stupid'.
ReplyDeletewith a 2.5% death rate in our population it would be more than 8 million people dying. only the death rate varies. in Italy it's more like 6%. and they think young people aren't going to get sick and die, because they are getting sick and dying. Trump is getting bored with this whole virus thing. he misses his rallies where people swoon over him. it's ruining his chances of reelection. he wants to play golf. so of course, let's pretend it's over and get back to the business of making money.
ReplyDeleteTrump's approach to this (to the extent that there IS a consistent approach) is appalling. The guy has no moral compass. But we knew that already.
ReplyDeleteI fear for what this COVID thing will do to the election. Will people treat him as a "wartime president" and not want to change course in the midst of a conflict? God forbid.
Isn't this called genocide?
ReplyDeleteHow did our country get so stupid? It's frightening.
ReplyDelete