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One of the drugs Trump took to fight covid was regeneron, developed from stem cells from an aborted foetus.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/08/trump-covid-drug-developed-using-cells-derived-from-abortion
Modified by 13 at Thu, Oct 08, 2020, 21:17:34
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Not so funny is the news this morning - UK is featuring with an increase in the virus. Do hope it is not as bad as it seems and that it is still relatively clear in the country. It looks like a big climb in France and Spain too.
we are lucky here we just don't know what it's like it is not much of a threat with no cases in the area.
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Where I am in France has just been declared a red zone. People are wearing masks, but otherwise life seems pretty normal. A bunch of friends meet each week in a cafe. They still do. I didn't mind when the weather was good and we could sit outside, but I don't go indoors unless I have to. I think people are so sick of the restrictions, they're mostly ignoring them and it won't work out well. I think the numbers here are above the peak in March and still rising quickly.
Cases are rising fast in the UK too especially in the North. My son has a couple of weeks more training, then he's a doctor and will be working the hospitals. What a time to qualify. He's young and fit, but I worry he still might get long covid, and even if he doesn't, the work is going to be more stressful and demanding than ever, and it was pretty bad for UK medics even before the plague.
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okay, so what a bother. It is the other way round here, despite there being no cases locally, people have taken to the social distancing.
It is horrible to look at the climbing figures again, I guess it was inevitable with the rapid re-opening of borders, I couldn't believe that was happening, it seemed much too early. Yes maybe the tourist dollar is vital and the wheels of commerce have to turn but how hard is it to grasp the idea that they will grind to a halt even faster if everyone is getting sick.
Yes what a time to be qualifying as a doctor. I hope he stays safe.
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What really gets to me is the lockdown we originally had in place at the end of March was intended to buy us time while we found a vaccine and got a test and trace system up and running. Boris boasted we'd have a world beating system and allocated 12 billion pounds for the task.
What we have is every hospital using their own versions of Excel to produce some numbers and then sending files off to be integrated in some data centre. Only some of the file types were licenced in 1987 and are limited in size. So many records were lost. The system is near useless.
How amazingly inappropriate the use of Excel was for this task seems to slip by the MPs and most commentators.
What was needed for the task was a central database and a website the hospitals could use to enter the data. All they'd have to do was login and fill in some values on some forms. The system would validate the data, keep track of all data entry and any entries that failed. And the data could be available in real time to scientists, the government, the public.
I could have done it myself if I'd started in March! The depth of incompetence I think is profound. We'll now continue with lockdowns that will only slow transmission a bit. People are fed up with it and have understandably lost faith in the government to handle it. It's going to be an ugly winter in the UK.
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yes goodness - over here there was no boasting about how good our systems were, we accepted they weren't going to be great.
Pretty much it has been the same response as for the Spanish flu. Except faster - went into lockdown faster, that means it's been easier as it goes up and down levels of restriction and the states fight over opening and closing borders which is difficult for the places where there are towns on both sides of the border, a stress factor which has created a situation where I am officially living in a bubble now. (I like it!)
social distancing yes, but I haven't had to wear a mask. Of course there are anomalies - when my brother and sister in law flew up to visit from Sydney they were still herded in like sardines but now getting a lecture over the intercom about social distancing at the same time.
I am hoping Qld will open their borders for the Summer holidays - take their fair share of the holiday makers or they'll all stop short here and we'll still get all the Queenslanders as they aren't stopped from coming here, seeing as we're a bubble, wait, do they mean tourist haven when they say bubble? oh no...
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What Are The Possible Side Effects Of Trump’s COVID-19 Treatment?
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-are-the-possible-side-effects-of-trumps-covid-19-treatment/
"President Trump has boasted that the treatment he has received for COVID-19 has cured him of the disease and made him feel better than ever. It’s very difficult to know whether that’s true, given how little we know about his condition, how unreliable his health reports have been and how experimental his course of treatment is. But we do know that these drugs often come with considerable side effects — side effects that could change the behavior of the leader of the free world. In particular, one of the drugs he has been given, dexamethasone, can cause psychiatric side effects, which has raised concerns. Of course, just because side effects could affect behavior doesn’t mean they are doing so. “We need to exercise caution in attributing any particular form of behavior to side effects of medication,” said Edward Shorter, a medical historian at the University of Toronto. “Trump has such a long history of bizarre and erratic behavior that the latest manifestation of it need not be a medication side effect at all.” Rather than jumping to conclusions, it’s helpful to take a step back and consider what the science tells us about these therapeutics. Let’s run through the three major drugs doctors have prescribed to Trump and what their side effects might be."
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An appreciation of the benefits of stem cell research?
A recognition of the treatments available to the rich that the poor can't have?
A recognition of the value of face masks?
An appreciation of how easily the virus spreads without social distancing?
An understanding of how irresponsible it has been to run the White House with so few precautions?
The list goes on for hoped for side effects, but I get what you mean. What's worse than a crazy person in charge? A manic crazy person in charge....
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I heard Trump is losing some of his supporters because he is sounding like he really believes he's God.
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