Friday, March 13, 2020

Virus watch

* As Axios notes:

Trump made 3 false claims in his Oval Office coronavirus speech

* Why aren't more mainstream media making this observation in their reporting on the Trump speech?:

Donald Trump looked sick and terrible during his recent coronavirus speech 

* The Trump travel ban means crowds rush counters in European airports, which is not exactly helpful from a contagion point of view:

'It's ridiculous': Trump travel ban sows panic in European airports

*  But Steve Kates, conspiracy nut and economics lecturer, has a theory:


The media’s hysteria about coronavirus is intended to destroy the American economy because media types are focused single-mindedly on defeating Trump.

There is therefore no longer any independent source of information you can trust since the media is now fully corrupted by its political messaging. Who can you turn to?
Tom Hywood in the SMH writes a totally tone deaf piece about how, despite the coronavirus giving him intense headaches for three days which were serious enough to have a heap of tests in a hospital to rule out a brain tumour, he wishes people would stop being "hysterical" about the fact they're worried they might have caught it from him(!).   As someone on Twitter summarises:

 And another:


Updates:

The transparent appeal to xenophobia by Trump in his speech is all about his ignorant "base", and is an embarrassment to all serious people.

Which means the Catholic who is only serious in the degradation he causes to the reputation of Catholicism, CL, has another go at his trademark "Whataboutism".   "Oh look, CNN once referred to it as the Wuhan virus, so it's OK for the President to keep pandering to xenophobia." 

*  You would have to suspect the virus would hit India hard, but so far, it's hard to know what is going on.  But nationalist Hindus with their faith in all things "cow" (promoted by government officials?!) indicates problems ahead:
India has conducted nearly 5,000 COVID-19 tests so far, according to the World Health Organization, which says that the “country is responding with urgency as well as transparency.” But so far, India has only reported 74 confirmed COVID-19 cases and one death, on Thursday. Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute tells TIME that count is “just not right.” He believes there must be many more cases, but they have just not been identified. “I’m deeply worried that there’s a lot of community transmission and we are just not aware of it because there is not widespread testing,” he says.

Jha expects there will be a large uptick in cases over the next two to three weeks as testing capabilities improve. Jha and other experts worry that misinformation from government officials and BJP lawmakers touting cow products and unproven homeopathic remedies as ways to prevent infection add to the country’s challenges in containing an outbreak.

9 comments:

Not Trampis said...

Just remember Trump is old and obese. If he gets coronavirus his age does not bode well however his wellbeing could well be because of his age and obvious weight problems.

GMB said...

"'It's ridiculous': Trump travel ban sows panic in European airports"

Its you two that are old and stupid. What is your problem with the travel ban? You are incapable of criticising the President in any intelligent fashion. There is much to criticise. But its beyond your capacities.

GMB said...

So I clicked on the article and there was no rational explanation for opposing the temporary travel ban. Thank goodness we don't have anyone as idiotic as Steve running things.

And no Trump didn't get three things wrong in his corona-virus speech. Watch the speech directly and don't rely on stupid people. She only came up with one inaccuracy and its a very understandable minor mistake. People will understand it as a mistake right away.

GMB said...

Tom Hywood ought to stop being a little bitch about it. Other people don't just have themselves to worry about. They've got to keep working to pay mortgages. They've got to worry about their kids getting it or in the case of this virus they have to be paranoid of passing it onto their ageing parents.

This is a nothing burger article Steve. By your own admission you've shown Singapore doing great things controlling this virus, yet when white guys act rationally you want to give them a bunch of static. Its just a form of leftist bitchiness here. No policy can be made out from this nothing-burger article of yours and yet your mentally defective Mini-Me just concurs with it all.

Not Trampis said...

put an idiot in the whitehouse and this is what to expect.

GMB said...

"The transparent appeal to xenophobia by Trump in his speech is all about his ignorant "base", and is an embarrassment to all serious people."

No you are a xenophobic liar. Your Russian xenophobia is on record and you are lying about Trumps speech. Blocking plane travel is about infection containment. It doesn't relate to xenophobia.

John said...

Trump doesn't look well which isn't surprising given he doesn't exercise and eats so much junk food. His saving grace is that he doesn't drink. Give him a break though, he is in his early 70's in one of the most stressful jobs in the world. The campaign will be the ultimate test, or would be but for Biden who bumbles along and seems equally incompetent.

I can't make up my mind about the virus and neither can Trump. Only two days ago he was boasting how doctors were amazed he knew so much about it and claiming he thought it may not be serious. Since then someone has whispered in his ear that it could become a very big problem. There is so much noise around this I can't be bothered trying to find out how serious this is.

GMB said...

To Northern ITALIANS I meant. Iranians and Northern Italians ... similar genome.

GMB said...

"Jha and other experts worry that misinformation from government officials and BJP lawmakers touting cow products and unproven homeopathic remedies as ways to prevent infection add to the country’s challenges in containing an outbreak."

We need more specifics to this story. Nincompoops are always singing the praises of expensive drugs which are very limited in their usefulness.