oldmanfan

I’m happy Biden is taking office but he should stop the tongue in cheek comedy. The country isn’t in the mood for it.

Ok, here we go again: 1. Don’t lie. He lied to the American people about the seriousness of the virus. We heard that on the Woodward tapes. 2. Immediately suspend ALL incoming travel from China 3. Immediately hold a summit with all governors, regardless of blue or red, and find out what they needed, then immediatelyenact his powers to mandate private sector to start making necessary supplies. Immediately, not a couple moths later. 4. Take air time as soon as we knew the virus was out there, and do a national address recognizing the seriousness, and stressing preventive measures. And as important new measures were found by research, do another such as when masking was found to be important. Don’t talk about such completely idiotic things as it’s only one patients, or that things would magically just end when you know it won’t. Have the guts early on to tell the public why they have to quarantine. 5. Actually listen to your scientific advisors. Have them communicate daily with the public and back them up instead of arguing. 6. When someone asks you what responsibility you have, you tell them as President you have the ultimate responsibility for what is being done. Instead of cowardly saying you have no responsibility. 7. When it became clear there was going to be an economic crisis, call the leaders of both parties to the White House, lick them in a room and not let them out till a deal is gone. 8. When things like hand washing, distancing and especially masks at mitigating factors became apparent as ways to decrease spread, be a public advocate for each. Wear a mask at all times, demand the people do likewise. Set the example. This is a start. These are what leaders do, not the fraud that’s posed as a leader. That is crap. Insisting that people followed the mitigating strategies, especially masking, would have saved many.

I’ve explained what he should have done before. You are too stubborn to accept that leaders are elected to lead, and you are too ignorant to accept that he lost the election. Get over yourself and join the real world.

This is the one thing they Founding Fathers did wrong. Giving the Executive branch unmitigated pardon power smacks too much of a king with unfettered power and is a main exception to checks and balances.

Trump didn’t create the virus. He created the horrible response to it that has led to over 250k deaths in our country.

How is this guy a coach of any kind in the NFL?

All the best to you and your family Steve H. Thanks for all you did for the Bills!

Agreed.

As both a scientist and a Christian, I must tell you that, sadly, there are many that fit your last sentence. I am not a big social media guy but I have been on Facebook to defend science since the pandemic started. And it is frightening how many invoke God to deny science. I can’t count how many people refuse to wear masks as the most glaring example because they refuse to accept actual data and fact, and then hide behind religion as a rationale for it, saying that they follow God and not science. It’s sickening. As bad as the deaths and morbidity and economic impact are of the pandemic, what may be the worst consequence is we have so many people who simply, stubbornly refuse to accept facts. God help our society.

First of all, science and religion are not mutually exclusive. I am a scientist and also a man of faith. I've been doing clinical work and research for over 40 years, and faithfully attend church and have served as council president, evangelism deacon, and other roles at my church. I believe God gives us all spiritual gifts He expects us to use to advance His kingdom, and for scientists it is using our brains and talents to discover new things and help alleviate disease. Francis Collins, head of the NIH, is both a devout Christian and brilliant scientist and I would refer anyone with an interest in this subject to read some of his writings on the subject. As to this Supreme Court ruling, as far as it comes to the Covid thing I am in agreement. Churches should not have different rules as far as restriction of numbers of people per amount of space and such as any other place. However, I would also agree with churches using their heads as far as their services. My church now limits the number who can attend to a level where we can perform appropriate distancing, we require masks, the choirs are not present because that increases spread, and our services are streamed live for members and others who feel safer worshipping from home. So long as the churches in NYS and Cali do the same, great. But if they choose to worship in a way that violates the state health code (no masks, no social distancing, etc.) in violation of guidelines for other public areas, then they should be closed down because at that point they threaten the health and well being of the entire community. I am concerned that this Court will take the phrase "religious freedom" to ridiculous ends. For example, we prescribe birth control pills for women to treat different reproductive disorders, not necessarily for birth control per se. And at least one or two patients have told us they've a had a pharmacist say he won't fill it because he rejects birth control based on his religious beliefs. That's crap. A pharmacist who refuses to fill a legal prescription written by a licensed physician has two choices: fill it or quit being a pharmacist. You religious beliefs don't mean my health is jeopardized. A similar thought with the bakers and baking cakes for a gay couple. Baking a cake has nothing to do with religion in my opinion.

American hero’s defend the Constitution, they don’t call for it to be suspended because they don’t like the outcome of an election.

There are several companies with vaccines that have passed Phase 3. I would have to read up more, but at least some of them are mRNA based and not attenuated virus, which should enable more rapid production. Storage for the Pfizer one will be a challenge since it requires very low temperature, but others not. It will be a real logistical effort to be sure but having enough for the US population by June 1 seems plausible. The best minds in the world are attacking it.

I never thought I'd live to see the day that the words Great Article and Lombardi would appear in the same sentence.

I'm in Indiana and have been tested 3 times thus far because I work in health care. All negative thankfully. I have no problem seeing increased amounts of testing to find those who should isolate.

Wilson was not responsible for the virus but he was responsible for how the government reacted to it to protect the citizens. Same with Trump. Leaders lead, they don’t rule. Leaders during a national crisis are truthful with the citizens. Leaders rally the people together, they don’t actively try to separate them. Leaders bring the legislators together and demand and get legislation to help the people through a national crisis. Trump failed all those precisely because he wanted to rule. He wanted to be dictator that is never wrong and that looked to blame others and only take credit when it made him feel good, never responsibility. Thank God he’ll be out soon.

The IFI numbers are probably lower due to a combination of more people getting vaccinated (I'd have to check numbers on that) and the mitigating strategies used for Covid like masks and such. The flu is different than Covid, it doesn't have anywhere near as long an incubation period before symptoms and illness show up (usually a day or two) so you are less likely to spread it - you feel sick quicker and stay home. Trump is responsible for not taking this seriously enough from the get go, as is the PM in Italy when they got overwhelmed, as was Boris Johnson when England got hit. They are the leaders of their countries; they have responsibility for marshalling what needs to be marshalled to fight it. What did Trump do? Lied about the severity as can now be seen from the Woodward interview. Refused to encourage the mitigating strategies known to have an effect on transmission. And when asked, he abdicated saying he felt no responsibility at all. Real Presidents like Washington and Jackson and Polk aand Lincoln and the Roosevelts and Truman and Eisenhower and Reagan must have thrown up in their graves if they heard that.

I am a scientists and what bothers me is the seeming refusal of some in our society to refuse to accept data and factual evidence. I understand skepticism; I am skeptical myself of certain things government does. I would tell you those that work in the CDC and NIH should be trusted; there are a lot of very smart folks there that have dedicated their lives to public health. Thanks for wearing the masks and doing your part. What about Europe? What data are you referring to? Who si the no one who called it a fake disease? Clarify what you're trying to get to and I'd be happy to respond. I will say that it is not hysteria to try and control a pandemic.

They also have influenza-like illness (ILI) on the graph, and the Covid symptoms are pretty well accepted now so it does not overly concern me. The most common ones are fever, non-productive (dry) cough, and breathing issues but also rarer things as loss of taste/smell, sore throat, etc. It's possible some symptoms are over thought as Covid, it is also possible you have folks out there with what they think are a cold or allergies that have the virus. The combination of a positive test along with Covid-like symptoms are the best way to judge, so that's the advantage of increasing testing as much as possible, to find those with symptoms that actually have the virus. I'm a good example of that; I have seasonal allergies and I get this seasonal bronchitis every year that I have to take steroids for. I started to feel those symptoms, and went in immediately for Covid testing, which was negative. Looking at the data it favors a higher infection risk, and the data on increased hospitalizations is very concerning. I have a lot of friends working on the front lines who are really worried about being overwhelmed again.

The amplification cycle is the problem. With too high an amplification cycle, the PCR test is hyper-sensitive. Most commercial tests set this threshold at 40, whereas it would be more clinical meaningful if much lower, say at 30. Otherwise as the NY Times notes, Death counts are back in vogue, each and every one blamed on President Trump, even the deaths cause by NY Governor Cuomo sending infected patients into nursing homes. We are told that COVID is killing hundreds of thousands. Johns Hopkins University recently published a study which found, In other words, the same number of people died this year compared to last year, with the only variable this year being the Wuhan virus. It seems deaths due to heart and respiratory disease, influenza, and pneumonia are down this year, the difference made up in deaths attributed to COVID, but the total number of deaths unchanged from last year to this year. Garbage in, garbage out. With an overly sensitive test, almost 90 percent of the so-called surge is fake news, fear porn to justify unnecessary lockdowns and business closures. https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/11/the_covid_case_con_continues.html#ixzz6fOkIPRzR Carry on with your Dark Winter. The most recent CDC data below shows that Covid-like illness and hospitalizations are on the rise. Most state heath departments show the same. And interviews with many physicians and nurses indicate that hospitals are becoming overcrowded and overwhelmed with Covid patients - they don't treat asymptomatic people. Deaths are down due to the heroic efforts of the front line medical people and the research that has gone in to more effective treatment options. Like it or not, and you clearly don't, this is a real pandemic with a virus that wreaks havoc on the population of the world and is killing people and causing long term damage to survivors. And your boy knew about it early on as shown by the Woodward interviews and he did squat. This is a real disease

Our country has been held hostage for 4 years to the whims of a petulant child, who childish rants have grown past the point of absurdity because he lost the election. My advice to the media: Treat him like any other spoiled 3 year old brat and ignore him and he'll go away. Once he gets convicted for various crimes in NYS we'll finally be rid of him.

I'm not sure what's more impressive, being able to write such a great tribute, or drinking so much so early to put you in the mood to write it.

I don’t count Harvey Johnson as he was Ralph’s jack of all trades and never thought of himself as a HC. To me it was Rauch. To use OJ as a decoy qualifies as the dumbest move ever.

Let’s not.

Here here. Thus is beyond ridiculous.

I read your stuff. I disagree. They forced the Broncos to put a kid out there who had never played in the league before, in a position where he could have been seriously injured. If the Broncos didn’t have someone to play they should have been made to forfeit. Same with the Ravens. Same with the Titans against us. And the league should have paid the other (winning as it were) team’s salaries for that game.