Coronavirus Update 10

The New York Times asks, where are the photos of people dying of Covid?
Pictures speak far louder than words

Some news may be good, but it is too limited. Maybe state governors ignoring the president's lies, bullshit and his desperate bid for re-election regardless of how many innocent lives are needlessly lost constitutes some good news.

The Washington Post reports today:

A study of 96,000 hospitalized coronavirus patients on six continents found that those who received an antimalarial drug promoted by President Trump as a “game changer” in the fight against the virus had a significantly higher risk of death compared with those who did not. 

People treated with hydroxychloroquine, or the closely related drug chloroquine, were also more likely to develop a type of irregular heart rhythm, or arrhythmia, that can lead to sudden cardiac death, it concluded.

FactCheck writes about the president's claim that he is taking hydroxychloroquine:

In announcing that he has been taking hydroxychloroquine to prevent COVID-19, President Donald Trump made a series of inaccurate, unsubstantiated or misleading statements related to the drug, which remains an unproven treatment against the coronavirus:

• Trump said he started taking hydroxychloroquine because he thinks “it’s good” and has “heard a lot of good stories.” But there is no published data showing that the medication protects against infection with the coronavirus, and experts recommend such use only within clinical trials.

• As part of his justification for taking hydroxychloroquine, the president repeatedly said that “many” frontline workers take the drug for COVID-19 prevention. It’s unclear how many people do take the drug for prevention, or prophylaxis, but several physicians told us they were not aware of the practice at their institutions.

• Trump insisted that there only has been one “bad survey” of hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19. That’s false. Numerous studies, including the best evidence to date, do not suggest that hydroxychloroquine is beneficial for COVID-19 patients.

• The president called an unpublished study that used Veterans Affairs data and found no benefit to using hydroxychloroquine “phony” and “false,” and accused the authors of being politically motivated. There is no evidence of political bias, and while the study has not been peer-reviewed, its results are consistent with other published papers.  

Fact Check elaborates: 

In announcing that he has been taking hydroxychloroquine to prevent COVID-19, President Donald Trump made a series of inaccurate, unsubstantiated or misleading statements related to the drug, which remains an unproven treatment against the coronavirus:

Trump said he started taking hydroxychloroquine because he thinks “it’s good” and has “heard a lot of good stories.” But there is no published data showing that the medication protects against infection with the coronavirus, and experts recommend such use only within clinical trials. 

As part of his justification for taking hydroxychloroquine, the president repeatedly said that “many” frontline workers take the drug for COVID-19 prevention. It’s unclear how many people do take the drug for prevention, or prophylaxis, but several physicians told us they were not aware of the practice at their institutions. 

Trump insisted that there only has been one “bad survey” of hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19. That’s false. Numerous studies, including the best evidence to date, do not suggest that hydroxychloroquine is beneficial for COVID-19 patients. 

The president called an unpublished study that used Veterans Affairs data and found no benefit to using hydroxychloroquine “phony” and “false,” and accused the authors of being politically motivated. There is no evidence of political bias, and while the study has not been peer-reviewed, its results are consistent with other published papers.

Thus our failed US president continues to make stuff up and lie as he goes along. Unless he is an insane germophobe, he is probably not taking hydroxychloroquine now. Inconvenient true facts, true truths and truly sound reasoning are the enemy of our failed president's message and his irrational, ruthless run for his ego-satisfying re-election.

In his fear of republicans being swept out of office by reasonably reality-tethered voters, the president is raging against voting by mail despite providing no evidence of corruption in vote-by-mail. His inability to convince even some republican states is becoming apparent:

But not only is Trump’s claim that fraud is rampant in absentee voting bogus (absentee ballot fraud is exceedingly rare); his real motive — that he thinks mail voting advantages Democrats — is simply wrong. 

That may partly explain why even many Republican states are turning their backs on Trump and moving to expand mail voting.   

The New York Times explains:

"In the face of a pandemic, what was already limited opposition to letting voters mail in their ballots has withered. Eleven of the 16 states that limit who can vote absentee have eased their election rules this spring to let anyone cast an absentee ballot in upcoming primary elections — and in some cases, in November as well. Another state, Texas, is fighting a court order to do so.  

Four of those 11 states are mailing ballot applications to registered voters, just as Michigan and Nevada are doing. And that does not count 34 other states and the District of Columbia that already allow anyone to cast an absentee ballot, including five states in which voting by mail is the preferred method by law. 

There’s some resistance from Republican officeholders in some places, but the overwhelming trend is to ignore Trump and move ahead to make mail voting easier. Just as Trump has failed to convince all Republicans that we should stop wearing masks and immediately resume all social and economic activity, he hasn’t convinced his party that mail voting must be rejected, or limited only to important people such as him."

Limited only to important people such as him? His compassion for others is touching. Sort of like a very hard kick in the groin is touching.

Anyway, therein resides some apparently good news. Even some republican states are rejecting some of the constant torrent of lies and BS that our self-serving president constantly spews for his personal benefit as he sees it.

Treating a Covid patient in Italy, not the US



A drone photo of a mass burial, Hart Island, the  
New York City public cemetery, April 9, 2020