Comments by RandomMember (page 31)

Another terrific thread, @Mark! As @Subra would say, awesome!! I have this theory that if you get handcuffed, turned face down, and someone stands on your neck for 10 minutes it can kill you. If a video of the victim records him saying "I can't breathe" it might just be evidence that he can't breathe. Just a theory, mind you. @Warrior: "blah, blah....why does this have ANY impact on anyone outside of the man's family ?" Just a guess, @Warrior, and after giving this careful thought (for 1 microsecond), I think, perhaps, black people are tired of being treated like human garbage.

Good topic. I think beer tastes like piss and I love red wines. I'm just about the only guy on Earth who buys a glass of wine at a strip club. I remember a stripper at Shotgun's remarking that it's "unusual" to see guys drinking wine at a strip club--which is probably a euphemism for "I take it you're gay." But I don't have any problems with my masculinity like the rest of you insecure losers. I've been drinking merlot since the famous line in the movie "Sideways" where Paul Giamatti screams " I am NOT drinking any fucking Merlot!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLtlwAGZx6U I think every one of my past SBs prefers white wines.

Another example of what happens when you circumvent the peer review process: hydoxychloroquine. Earlier the @OP started a thread claiming that chloroquine was a miracle drug and its use was suppressed by the "deep-state" or whatever other tinfoil-hat nonsense. So far it's proven to be no help at all and probably increases risk: https://www.wsj.com/articles/malaria-drugs-provide-no-covid-19-help-raise-risk-of-harm-study-finds-11590161735?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=1 "Antimalaria drugs didn’t help patients fight Covid-19, while raising the risk for heart problems and death, a new study analyzing real-world use of the medicines reported. Coronavirus patients taking chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine didn’t fare better than patients who received other treatment, according to the study published online Friday by the journal The Lancet. At the same time, use of the pills appeared to raise the risk the heart would beat irregularly and more rapidly than normal—and of dying in the hospital, the study said."

Before the public places any credibility in a vaccine it should go through a peer-review process. But the Moderna announcement went straight from private industry to news conference. Article by William Haseltine, former Harvard Med school professor: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/19/rush-share-good-news-covid-19-drugs-is-undermining-science/ "Moderna’s claim of favorable results in its vaccine trial is an example of ‘publication by press release" "Private companies, governments and research institutes are holding news conferences to report potential breakthroughs that cannot be verified. The results are always favorable, but the full data on which the announcements are based are not immediately available for critical review. This is "publication by press release,” and it’s damaging trust in the fundamental methods of science and medicine at a time when we need it most." Here's a link to @25's post about Moderna execs dumping company stock: https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/22/investing/moderna-coronavirus-vaccine-stock-sales/index.html

*death rate

The CDC quotes F->M transmissions rates at approximately 5 in 10,000 (per encounter) for unprotected sex and when you know for sure your partner is HIV+. In the case of sugaring with one partner -- where both have tested negative -- the risk is truly in the noise level an not worth worrying about. I could grind through the numbers, but the chance of dying from Covid is orders of magnitude higher. TUSCL is full of people who are hysterical about HIV and cavalier about Covid. @OP: "700,000 Americans deceased from HIV" ---------- Not sure where you got that number. It's either the health rate over several decades or the global death rate over one year. We're over 80,000 American deaths from COvid in a few months.

Lol at the thought of @Spice implementing machine-learning algorithms in Python. Wouldn't vacuuming and cleaning toilets be a little more realistic?

"Truth be told, neither do I, lol." ------------------ Well good for you, nutcase. It's about the simplest and kindest thing you could do for society -- but I'm sure you consider it a violation of your rights as an American.

“the other men who do me don’t wear those.” ------------------- How tender, how romantic. You should send the entire story into SA marketing. I'm sure they'd love to hear from you.

Link from NY Times: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/05/09/us/coronavirus-cases-nursing-homes-us.html "One-Third of All U.S. Coronavirus Deaths Are Nursing Home Residents or Workers" "At least 27,600 residents and workers have died from the coronavirus at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities for older adults in the United States, according to a New York Times database. The virus so far has infected more than 150,000 at some 7,700 facilities." It's even worse in some states. In my state (Colorado) the share of state deaths at nursing homes is a whopping 58% as of early May.

In a rational world, these comments about injecting bleach and shining UV light on the skin and in the lungs should have been the last straw. It should have been incontrovertible proof that the president is a moron and mentally ill. But his polls are the same and he has the same cult-like following that he's always had. We look like a laughing stock to the rest of the world. Imagine what Angela Merkel (a Ph.D. quantum chemist) thinks of our dingbat-in-chief? @Skibum: "I wonder if more people are dying of this in areas run by liberals or Americans,?" _____________________ Well, we were slow to adopt chloroquine, that miracle drug.

Dugan: "Since when did the University of Washington become the unquestioned authority on COVID-19? " _____________ THe U Wash study is PRECISELY the same study touted in a WSJ article you posted here. Do you remember the title? "Now They Tell Us"

@ATACdawg: "Other than the beating that our stock investments have taken..." ___________ I'm amazed the market has held up as well as it has, so far. But like some of the other guys here, I fear more declines in the future. I haven't sold anything. Under the Trump administration workers are expected to get back to work -- you know for the better good of the stock market.

In any case, this shows the vital need for randomized antibody testing.

My reply was to @Founder

^^^The Stanford study states that the infection rate is in the range of 2.5% to 4.2%. Herd immunity requires 50% to 70% so the Stanford study shows we are very far from herd immunity and not ready to open the economy. I consider that *bad* news. The "deadliness" , or case-fatality rate, was already adjusted down to about 0.1% -- about the same as the flu. But if the rest of the country has an infection rate of 5% that's bad news. The report from Boston (30% infection rate) is the highest I've seen.

Rasmussen polling caters to the GOP base and they're always quoted by Trump supportrs. You can see the recent trend of falling approval by Trump's base: https://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/trump_administration/trump_approval_index_history

It's too close to call and it will boil down to a few battleground states. Trump's approval rating is basically the same as it's been the last two years. He has a cult-of-personality grip on his base and his incompetence doesn't matter. New Gallup poll on how Americans rate Trump’s performance as president: whites w/out college degrees: 61% approve 37% disapprove everyone else: 31% approve 64% disapprove

So if things are so grave, why did we just have the strongest 2-week rally in stocks since 1930s?

*had it

@Dirk: "Yup, everybody in New York City basically has it or had it..." ______________ I don't get it. If 2.5% to 4.2% have it in Santa Clara County, why should we assume everyone has it in NYC? Am I missing something?

"One step closer to herd immunity" __________ One tiny step. I don't see how that's good news.

"... found that 2.5 to 4.2% of those tested were positive for antibodies " _________________________ We need 50% -> 70% range to get to herd immunity. So it's not all good news.

I've never had any trouble with obesity. I'm out cycling every day more to keep my sanity. With the gyms closed the cycling stores are booming out here and you wait in long lines for service. I've read that moderate exercise increases your immune system -- but that overdoing it does just the opposite. So exercise in moderation.

Our tin-pot dictator made a stream-of-consciousness comment and changed his mind the next day. So what else is new?