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1 hour ago, gwalchmai said:

Fourteen Days. That’s the Most Time We Have to Defeat Coronavirus.

These decisive measures can prevent a decade of dislocation and extraordinary levels of deaths.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/23/opinion/contributors/us-coronavirus-response.html

I absolutely hate that fish wrapper, but I was gonna at least read the first paragraph.  BUT...They want to charge me a Dollar a week to even SEE the story.  

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4 hours ago, gwalchmai said:

That's part of the plan - increase subjects' isolation except through controllable channels such as the FB, Twat, etc. thereby reducing their access to like-minded folks (wrong thinkers). Soon we'll see ISPs limiting access of "extremist" content publishers (hate criminals). 

Already happening.

Microsoft is ever increasingly censoring my emails.

Eff 'em. If they are stupid enough to think I only use them to communicate than let 'em think it.

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26 minutes ago, Swampfox762 said:

I absolutely hate that fish wrapper, but I was gonna at least read the first paragraph.  BUT...They want to charge me a Dollar a week to even SEE the story.  

Why even care what left wing propaganda they push? ****'em. But here you go...

 

By Ezekiel J. Emanuel

Dr. Emanuel is vice provost of global initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania.

America is losing the war against Covid-19, but we can win it with decisive and extraordinary actions now.

Health experts have not been overreacting. Models from Imperial College London and others suggest that up to 2.2 million Americans could die within a year without sufficient efforts to “flatten the curve.”

At the same time, it is right to worry about how Covid-19 will wreck the economy. Projections already suggest that the American economy could contract by more than 15 percent in the second quarter and that the unemployment rate could surpass 20 percent.

But the economy cannot be fixed without solving the pandemic. Only after the virus is contained can we reopen restaurants, bars, gyms and stores; allow people to travel, attend conferences and visit museums; and persuade them to buy cars and houses.

The window to win this war is about seven to 14 days.

If the United States intervenes immediately on the scale that China did, our death toll could be under 100,000. Within three to four months we might be able to begin a return to more normal lives.

There are five top priority areas for action:

Public Health Measures
Many seriously affected states have led the way by closing schools, bars, restaurants and nonessential businesses and by issuing shelter-in-place orders. Unfortunately, because this is not uniform across the country, states that do so are experiencing economic distress while still facing threats from neighbors that are slower to put restrictions in place. States that have so far had relatively low levels of Covid-19 could pre-empt stress on their health systems by acting now.

President Trump needs to immediately order the closing of all schools and nonessential businesses and impose a shelter-in-place policy for the entire country. The majority of the population is already experiencing some version of this protocol or feeling the effects economically; we need to standardize these protocols for the full public health impact.

If these measures are complied with fully, then we may be able to lift them slowly in two to three months, when the percentage of people infected has plateaued and the number of new infections is near zero.

The president needs to establish a system of social pressure for local governments to wield to enforce physical distancing strictly but compassionately. He must order mayors to close most streets to vehicular traffic to make them pedestrian spaces, open enough for Americans to be outside at a safe distance. Exceptions can be made for traffic with a clinical purpose (going to a doctor’s office or pharmacy).

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Continue reading the main story
It needs to be acknowledged that while these physical distancing measures are burdensome, adhering to them is a heroic, crucial response. It would help for officials themselves to model these physical distancing measures — such as no longer holding news conferences with numerous officials on the podium.

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Testing
The president must be honest with the American public: The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and other agencies failed to roll out testing quickly enough. Such a program needs to be accelerated now. If the delay resulted from a technical error, as Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has suggested, it is important to assign blame only so that we can learn from these failures immediately.

The federal testing director needs expanded authority so he can invoke the Defense Production Act to secure the emergency production and national distribution of testing components like swabs and viral culture media. Over the next two weeks, all Covid-19 testing should be removed from hospitals and clinics so these institutions can focus on treating patients.

Instead, we should immediately use the military, the National Guard, and even a new Public Works Corps made up of unemployed Americans to erect thousands of walk-up and drive-through testing sites nationwide.

We must immediately begin to conduct random samplings of people in a community to determine the percentage of the population with coronavirus and the percentage of people with the virus who die. Establishing up-to-date and localized figures will help inform the intensity and efficacy of our remedies.

Equipment Production
The lack of masks, gowns and ventilators endangers both patients and health care workers, and stymies the nation’s ability to respond to the crisis.

We need a national manufacturing director to assess and allocate national supplies and ramp up production and distribution of what is needed. After ordering all hospitals to conduct an inventory of their needs, the director could prioritize the shipment of supplies to the ones that need them most.

The director should provide congressional appropriations to manufacturers to transform production facilities while issuing necessary regulatory approvals to speed production and using the F.D.A.’s emergency use authorization powers to enact liability protections for firms willing to produce new products. Production could be on a cost-plus basis, as it is for defense contractors already.

Hospitals and Health Care Personnel
Hospitals are about to be overwhelmed with coronavirus cases, and personnel is going to be the most scarce resource.

Hospitals must be ordered to suspend elective surgeries and other procedures, because they use valuable health care personnel, equipment and operating theaters that could be converted to intensive care units. Visitors must be banned (except for terminally ill patients) to reduce coronavirus spread and the need for personal protective equipment.

All hospitals must be directed to institute policies that decrease demand for supplies. For instance, intravenous machines for Covid-19 patients should be kept outside their room when possible so workers can adjust medications without donning protective gear. Hospitals that comply with such rules should be guaranteed interest-free loans for operating expenses.

Any physicians, nurses and other clinicians who are working less because of restrictions on their practices should be encouraged to work at hospitals. We should encourage the reactivation of all retired and nonpracticing physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists and other clinicians who can work. Duke University is already working to train volunteers to assist in a clinical setting. Offer foreign-trained physicians and nurses who cannot practice in the United States an opportunity to work. Grant 12-month extensions to all foreign physicians on J-1 educational exchange visas, with special state licenses.

We should ask for volunteers to travel to cities with more urgent demand, providing salaries and housing stipends. A national hospital oversight director could reposition those clinicians for maximal impact. A coronavirus compensation program could ensure no hospital or clinician is held liable for adverse events during the outbreak unless there is clear negligence.

Nurse practitioners and physician assistants should be allowed to prescribe medications without restrictions.

The Public Works Corps could rapidly train people for clinical functions that do not require full degrees. Even educated laypeople can be trained in weeks as respiratory therapists under the supervision of a certified respiratory therapist.

We should provide day care or home schooling for children of health care workers so their parents can continue to care for Covid-19 patients.

The Economy
Businesses need to retain workers and keep up their facilities so they can rapidly return to operation when Covid-19 is under control. The Treasury Department should issue grants for up to 12 months to closed businesses with fewer than 1,000 workers to cover 80 percent of the equivalent of 2019 wages and benefits for their furloughed employees. These companies should also be allowed to borrow at zero interest up to last year’s revenue.

States should get block grants to create temporary jobs needed to control the public health crisis, such as workers for testing centers, thermal screening in public places, widespread contact tracing, quarantine monitoring and disinfecting public transportation and public places.

To win this war, we need Americans to mobilize faster than they ever have before. We have already lost valuable months. These measures, only a start, will bring out the best in Americans by giving them direction and opportunities to contribute in the war against Covid-19.

If they are successful, then, as China has shown, in two to three months the country can begin to return to normal, stores can reopen, people can work, and the United States will have a rapid, V-shaped economic recovery.

If the United States fails to act decisively now, it will follow Italy’s course or, worse, that of Iran, and recovery may take a decade or more with extraordinary levels of death and dislocation.

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20 minutes ago, crockett said:

Why even care what left wing propaganda they push? ****'em. But here you go...

 

By Ezekiel J. Emanuel

Dr. Emanuel is vice provost of global initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania.

America is losing the war against Covid-19, but we can win it with decisive and extraordinary actions now.

Health experts have not been overreacting. Models from Imperial College London and others suggest that up to 2.2 million Americans could die within a year without sufficient efforts to “flatten the curve.”

At the same time, it is right to worry about how Covid-19 will wreck the economy. Projections already suggest that the American economy could contract by more than 15 percent in the second quarter and that the unemployment rate could surpass 20 percent.

Yup.  Just what I figured.  You're right..**** em...

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