week 28 and week 29

 
Since I've been avoiding the news and social media for the most part I have damn little to report.

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We now know that the nomination party for Trump's Supreme Court pick was the genesis of this wave of infections throughout Trump's inner circle and if it was just them I'd say they deserve it but the staffers and Secret Service who have also been infected, don't. Hope Hicks was just the first to test positive and - surprise! - Trump lied about when he knew he was positive. He knew for sure on Thursday before he went to that fundraiser and he probably suspected on Wednesday and may even have been feeling the first symptoms on Tuesday which is why he arrived late for the debate and avoided taking a test.

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More fallout from that party...Chris Christie, Sen. Ron Johnson, Trump's personal assistant Nicolas Luna, and now press secretary Kayleigh McEnany have tested positive.

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So Trump was moved to Walter Reed against his wishes because it would make him look weak but the doctors insisted but he made them wait til after the stock market closed on Friday. The doctors there at Walter Reed are pumping him full of everything they can think of, experimental therapies and steroids, and you know it has to be affecting his mental capacity because that's what that stuff does but because he is loathe to give up power to Pence who he despises and also because he does not want to appear weak (like those loser and sucker dead and wounded military personnel), he is ordering his doctors and the White House staff to lie about how ill he really is and is setting up fake photo ops to show he is doing great and working, if signing a blank piece of paper can be called working, and forcing Secret Service agents to sit with him in the bullet proof hermetically sealed car so he can be driven around the block to wave at those pathetic losers doing vigil outside the hospital. So now the agents in the car and maybe even the photographer from the photo ops will have to quarantine for 14 days. And maybe even get sick all because Trump doesn't give a shit about anyone but himself.

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I have only two other items I've bookmarked for this bi-monthly report because for one thing I'm really weary of the whole thing and unless things get really bad as winter moves in this may be my last dedicated post and also because other news items have blown covid related news out of the water, just not seeing much come across my various news feeds.

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The NYT reports that the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly claims an experimental drug lowers levels of the virus and prevents hospitalization. The drug is a monoclonal antibody manufactured from an antibody from a recovered patient and is still undergoing trials and has not yet been vetted by independent scientists and the success of the drug is still anecdotal. Scientists hope that this treatment will be very successful but the monoclonal antibodies are difficult and expensive to manufacture. Of course Trump is getting treated with this experimental drug as well as the standard treatment (anti-viral) remdesivir and (steroid) dexamethasone, the guy who is responsible for the spread of the virus in this country and who has constantly criticized and undermined the health professional protocols to the tune of 210,000 deaths and counting here while everyone else suffers and dies. 

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The Hill reports that the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency conducted a survey of 965 recovered covid-19 patients and found that more than 90% had lingering side effects from the virus, the most common of which was fatigue followed by difficulty in concentrating. During the congressional hearing last week, Dr. Fauci also warned of lingering effects weeks and even months after recovery including inflammation of the heart.

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And that's all I've got other than that it is still out there flaring up here and there with associated responses...opening/closing schools, opening/closing bars and restaurants, people still working from home, Americans still out of work and falling on hard times because the Senate won't take up the relief bills passed in the house, etc. I suppose if I dug around I could come up with more but as I mentioned before, today I'm weary of the whole thing.

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Current US statistics as of today 10/5/20, 20:37 GMT: cases – 7,668,358; deaths – 214,889. My state, (red, so fuck you Trump) Texas, is, still today, #2 after California for the total number of coronavirus cases then Florida, then New York so of the top 4 states with the most infections, two are blue states for a total of 1,273,194 and two are red states for a total of 1,412,553. Let me repeat that, of the top four states, the red states have the most infections. So fuck you Trump and your lying bullshit about how if we didn't count the blue states we'd have so few cases, almost none.

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My (red) county has now jumped up to 1,386 cases and 53 deaths (only 3 more deaths in the last two weeks).