GaryPinC

Agree about the US role, it's really going to come down to how sincere HTS is building a legit, respectful, and tolerant government. Otherwise the country will descend into chaos with multiple countries trying to tip that balance in their favor. I expect the new government will work an agreement with Russia to allow their bases to remain in exchange for recognition.

Amazing how this is all seems a bit understated given all the other conflicts in the world, and no one has the political will to intervene. A lot of disparate Syrian factions working together for this. Sure seems like Assad will be out very soon. Let's hope there's a sincerity to balance all these groups after Assad is out or it'll truly get ugly.

Do people really pooh-pooh it? I know I deeply appreciate it given the 17+ years previous. If the grass we're eating now isn't growing us to our goal, do we keep munching happily or do we take a chance across the fence and trust our FO to get us to the right meadow, even if we have to go through a bad one or two? I don't want the greatest qb in our history to follow the Dan Marino path. At some point we may need to change our leadership and luck. McD is showing good improvement this year, let's hope he carries it through the playoffs. I already watched us lose 4 superbowls in a row with our star-studded defense getting taken to the woodshed for the first three. If only Levy had the guts to fire Walt Corey and bring in a new voice/system for that talent. I think any team does. That's where coaching to create favorable situations and having as many playmakers as you can out on the field comes in.

I fall in between groups 2 and 4 in that he has shown improvement with things like 4th downs and believes in continuous improvement but come the playoffs he has always seemed to be too content to stay one TD or a TD + FG ahead and go conservative (runs + prevent defense). He needs to realize that the playoffs require more mental flexibility to look for, exploit and continue to exploit any advantages. So, early in the season I was leaning to group 4. For question 1, yes his strategy vs KC to keep the ball out of Mahomes' hands at the end is new for him and has helped me to lean back to group 2, that he'll figure it out. I need to see how the season ends to fully commit to that group though. For question 2, it could impact my perception, it depends on how he coaches the game more than the win or loss. If he's coaching smart and dynamic, well that's what's important because sometimes luck and injuries just can't be beaten. One of the other things that gives me hope is the last few games he seems to finally be loosening up and that's huge to me too. I understand the value of his structure and rigid system but it doesn't always fit the game situation. He has to be willing to adapt. I deeply appreciate the amazing culture he has set up and want him to win SBs and be the man. OTOH, we have been stuck at a level and Josh's career is moving quickly by. At some point we may have to rely on his culture and find a different voice and perspective to get us to that next Superbowl level. But I hope to hell it's all McD!

My impression was that both teams just wanted to inflict a cloud of dust on each other. Michigan needed to. OSU had too much at stake and too many other options to play their game. They just wanted to have a slap fight. Yeah, I blame Day less for the playcalling and think having him take it over for now is a good idea too.

That's a fail. Got to get it right. UM rightfully fired their OC, I know they won, but one play action pass to a delayed tight end on that last goal line drive was a guaranteed touchdown. Instead he had to try and bludgeon the best goal line D in the country.

Hopefully after 4 years, Day will realize he needs to turn the offense over to someone else. I can imagine him being told that by the AD as a condition for staying, hopefully it happens that way.

The funny thing is none of her kids are from him! Just wait till he sees the condition she leaves his house in!

Yes, I agree that a change of 99% is going to have obvious and/or multiple causes. That does not make it garbage and no one can know that with certainty, especially in this case, as the CDC rigorously collects data on influenza, both direct and indirect. Multiple data collections strongly suggest the point I have been trying to make, a level of validity with these numbers. I did dig up some of the total tests/positives as below but this other data was more readily available: One set of data across all the years is hospitalizations per 100,000 population. 2019-2020: 66.2 2020-2021: 0.8 2021-2022: 22.6 2022-2023: 64.4 2023-2024: 83.1 In the 2021-2022 season CDC reports a COVID/Influenza co-infection rate of about 5%. It's hard to say how this translates to 2020-2021 because Covid was still a novel virus whereas in 2021-2022 it was becoming endemic but obviously the coinfection will hide numbers from 2020-2021. I didn't dig into the subsequent years. I also did find total tests/positives for most of the years with a caveat for 2021-2022: 2018/19: 1,226,548 15.5% 2019/20: 1,491,430 16.8% 2020/21: 1,480,295 0.8% ***2021/22: 2,850,954 4.5% *****pulled from a scientific paper which cited CDC pages for this data that no longer exist 2022/23: 4,023,390 8.9% 2023/24: 3,910,204 9.0% Certainly a procedural change as you suspected that mandates more influenza testing post-Covid

Don't discount the effects of smoking/drinking/hard living.

Good question, I have never argued the numbers are normal. They inarguably are not normal. I have argued with your opinion that they are garbage. For me as a scientist, they most certainly are not. There may be inaccuracies but there is also truth in those numbers. I understand you feel they are garbage because "procedure changed" and with federal support some hospitals may have utilized certain patients to maximize that. I have attempted to explain and support my arguments with evidence. You can provide very little evidence in return. Ok. An entire Flu strain vanished after Covid. A strain that was common enough to be included in the yearly vaccine. That is a BIG deal. It's far from normal and it's absence has been re-confirmed for years now. The CDC rigorously studies subtype prevalence and structures next year's vaccine around them. It can't be explained by procedural changes or anything that has formed your opinion. It alone confirms that influenza took a big hit during Covid. It alone disproves your opinion the numbers are "garbage" as their must be truth behind them. How much remains to be seen but it is undeniable influenza prevalence was reduced during Covid and not simply hidden behind it. Couple that with the reduction of deaths and positive tests and there's a complex truth there. Unfortunately complex truths can take years to understand. Most certainly smart people are currently working to understand it. But your last response to me: "The numbers are garbage, regardless of what anyone says, but why are they garbage? If they are garbage because the procedure changed caused it I will accept that," So that's it? Your truth is the only truth regardless of actual evidence? People smarter than you and I specializing in this science must say your truth or you will reject it? I offer to you that if you would open your mind to other truths in a bigger picture, you wouldn't worry about being perceived as a jerk. I don't know you but I believe every person is capable of being open minded so that's also part of this discussion, if not for you then for others on this board. It's good to respectfully discuss, and I appreciate that you've been respectful in this. It's good to consider other possible truths.

You have a great point, I still can't absolve the coaching though. Even the announcers knew how to beat that defense. If you can't design your game plan appropriately with Howard then cycle in a QB who can. The Michigan game is a job breaker.

Jeremiah Smith 5 for 35 yards. That's a sick joke. No cohesive offensive strategy, no balance, effort to establish Howard and his targets. That was the worst coaching job on one side of the ball since 2018 when Harbaugh's DC played a base defense nonstop the entire game en route to getting blown out by OSU. There's a lot to like about Ryan Day but it's no longer enough. Chip Kelly to the rescue! Not.😂

Uhhhhhh. Hmmmmmm. Nope. Don't want to speculate what you will do better than her.

Let's be clear, I do cardiology research and as stated previously I have zero contact with patients. None of my research involves humans and human tissue. You have piqued my curiosity and I will ask my colleagues about any changes in influenza testing during the pandemic, and if they tested in conjunction with Covid. I will also ask about if there was greater/unnecessary care given to uninsured and how much. Let's be clear though, the funds weren't for everyone, simply the uninsured, which at the time was about 8.5%of the population. https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/interactive/percentage-without-health-insurance-coverage-by-state-2021-2022.html Hospitals were still getting paid by insurance companies also. The uninsured brought in a percentage they didn't normally see and it helped keep them afloat, especially rural ones. Did hospitals take advantage of it? No doubt. Is 8.5% enough to account for the total influenza numbers? No, not without better evidence. While surprising, I have no issue trusting decades of influenza standards of care and procedural testing to give numbers at least close to accurate. There's simply no compelling evidence otherwise, unless you've got something better. And we'll see what my colleagues say.

😂 I am a researcher at the primary level 1 trauma center in Cleveland. While not in healthcare, 2 of my colleagues are long-standing ER docs. I am required to have knowledge of hospital disaster protocols already in place in case my help is needed, but for Covid many improvements had to be made in practice. Improvements dealt with the shutdown, pandemic nature and managing patient flow, care, beds, and safety. Do you have any idea what a mostly unreported logistical challenge it was with the crush of patients going through ER's? What specific protocol changes do you feel impacted quality or compromised care? I'll be happy to ask my docs and post about their experiences with whatever you base this on. Also, I and my family had to be tested asymptomatically as required in summer of 2021 by the state of Hawaii. States, conferences, and many gatherings instituted these procedures for a short time. Do your statistics on asymptomatic testing account for this? Or are you referring to influenza? Still no real evidence from you to back up your arguments/opinions and discuss. I'm happy to be wrong and learn something today!

Where is this documented? What procedures did hospitals change? Covid had an asymptomatic component. Or are you referring to influenza? Are you blaming Trump for this as much of it occurred during his administration?

I'm sorry, I'm not going to simply accept your opinions without some actual, you know, evidence. The CDC has had set protocols and monitoring of influenza since 1956. Hospitals have set procedures when to test for influenza. I've shown you that testing was consistent, and other corroborating evidence supports the fact that influenza severity and occurrence took a big, multi year hit during Covid. Let's start with the nearly 1.5 million tests administered during the 20-21 season. Tested and recorded results. How are these incorrect or invalid? What actual evidence compels you to invalidate and declare the situation impossible? Near as I can find, all government hospital financial support was for either the uninsured or Medicaid/Medicare patients only. Procedural changes were made to enable quicker, more flexible care in a time of crisis. For example, eliminating the need for physician referral to test for Covid, allowing facilities designated rehabilitation only to be used as primary care beds, and loosening restrictions to enable quickly hiring more medical personnel. What government mandated procedural changes are you pointing at as being a problem? Many of these were started under the Trump administration and all financial programs were approved by Congress. The conspiracy I am referring to is the assertion that many hospitals across the country unlawfully and improperly diagnosed and cared for patients on a massive scale to take advantage of government funds, invalidating or overinflating covid and influenza numbers. Can you help me out with specifics and evidence to your arguments? To your point, I can't just accept your opinions when there's acceptable hard facts that indicate otherwise.

The stats are eye opening and are definitely unique but that was a unique moment in time. You do realize viral infections have a lot of overlapping symptoms? The only way to be certain is by testing, especially if the patient is in serious condition. That's why we're testing people. The testing rate was inline with historical rates, so on the surface the precipitous drop in positives roughly corresponds to the drop in influenza deaths you asked about. When I responded previously that the number of positives dropped to less than 1% of normal it's the same thing as you saying the illness rate dropped 99%. The stats are surprising but those are the stats, gathered using the same protocols and system as in previous years. You may feel they make no sense and there's a giant conspiracy here but I feel differently, especially as the death numbers were still reduced but starting to rise again during the 21-22 season. So it wasn't like one unbelievable year and the stats were back to normal next year. Also, here's an entire flu strain that hasn't been seen since before Covid: https://www.npr.org/2024/10/18/nx-s1-5155997/influenza-strains-disappearance-attributed-to-covid-protocols-alters-2024-flu-shot There are going to be a variety of factors behind this phenomenon. There are some convinced that simply the isolation, masking, and distance were behind this. I'm not confident in that simplicity, science needs time to understand it. Circling back to your original question and post, for me there are too many corroborating facts on far too large a scale to buy into your conspiracy theory. For reasons not yet fully understood, influenza took a big hit during Covid.

Certainly the cherry on the cake and maybe with Chicago's inept FO you are right.

The thing with Williams is he's a slow runner, limited escape-ability. As a rookie that's especially toxic and needs time to develop his mental game. I'm with others that the clock mismanagement is totally on Eberflus. Bad enough he hasn't sufficiently prepared his rookie QB for that scenario but job ending that he didn't recognize it and burn the last timeout to regroup and preserve clock time.

Interesting about your SIL, how often had she been getting Covid shots before that? Not unreasonable that too frequent of shots kept the immune system upregulated and fed into a rheumatoid condition. One of the cool things about Covid is the increasing knowledge about viral transmission. Years ago I got my first flu shot in Jan/Feb and got ill 2 days later. No real explanation why from the docs. A few years ago our hospital instituted mandatory flu shots in early fall and I've never gotten sick from them. What I realize now is that I had probably already had the actual flu before my first time flu vaccine, and much like the follow-up covid dose, my immune system was primed and responded overwhelmingly, resulting in feeling ill.

https://www.cdc.gov/flu-burden/php/data-vis/2020-2021.html Number of Specimens tested were essentially the same as the previous (mostly non-covid)year https://usafacts.org/articles/how-many-people-die-flu/ At this point, yes, it was low two years in a row though I am always open to discussion as there is still much we didn't know. But, I trust the CDC didn't change their influenza data collection methods for these years and you can see the amount of tests administered is inline with a normal flu season. Should tests have been higher? Maybe, but it's not significantly lower and the amount of positives (not deaths) is less than 1% of normal! Were there hospitals that were using a positive covid test to gain funding? Most likely, but do I believe it was widespread enough to give us these numbers? Hell no, too many liability issues at stake. Much like the 2020 election that hyperinflated isolated incidents of voter fraud, the same mentality is at work here by the same people. Do you have solid, respected data that says otherwise?

Yes they did. If a patient has to be hospitalized from a viral infection, they're going to do their best to figure out which it is. Is it possible a positive Covid test precluded further testing? Possibly, but I didn't really discuss to that detail with the ER doc I work with. But if the patient is Covid negative they will run through their other tests to best help them save the patient's life. And Covid was everywhere. At the time when the science of it was so unknown medical professionals had to fear for their lives and their family's.

Influenza is easily tested for, your pet theory is extremely unlikely. "NIH Chief" Cholan has an MS and is Chief of the Data Standards Branch, National Library of Medicine. A former scientist who manages a library branch. Bravo "NIH Chief".