Category Archives: healthcare

Exclusive: Pressed by Trump, U.S. pushed unproven coronavirus treatment guidance – Reuters

“The president is short-circuiting the process with his gut feelings,” said Jeffrey Flier, a former dean of Harvard Medical School. “We are in an emergency and we need to rely on our government to ensure that all these potential therapies are tested in the most effective and objective way.”

Source: Exclusive: Pressed by Trump, U.S. pushed unproven coronavirus treatment guidance – Reuters

Coronavirus Live Updates: C.D.C. Recommends Wearing Masks in Public – The New York Times

Mr. Trump added that he does not approve of voting by mail, an idea gaining currency amid concerns that in-person voting would expose people to the coronavirus. “I think a lot of people cheat with mail-in in voting,” he said.

Ned says: People have been voting absentee for more than 50 years with no cheating. He just wants fewer voters because that’s how he knows his ilk may still has a chance of winning some elections. We need new leadership across the land to save our lives and our democracy.

COMMENTARY: Masks-for-all for COVID-19 not based on sound data | CIDRAP

Sweeping mask recommendations—as many have proposed—will not reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission, as evidenced by the widespread practice of wearing such masks in Hubei province, China, before and during its mass COVID-19 transmission experience earlier this year. Our review of relevant studies indicates that cloth masks will be ineffective at preventing SARS-CoV-2 transmission, whether worn as source control or as PPE.  Surgical masks likely have some utility as source control (meaning the wearer limits virus dispersal to another person) from a symptomatic patient in a healthcare setting to stop the spread of large cough particles and limit the lateral dispersion of cough particles. They may also have very limited utility as source control or PPE in households. Respirators, though, are the only option that can ensure protection for frontline workers dealing with COVID-19 cases, once all of the strategies for optimizing respirator supply have been implemented.

Source: COMMENTARY: Masks-for-all for COVID-19 not based on sound data | CIDRAP

Coronavirus: Hong Kong may turn sports and expo centres into temporary hospitals, sources say | South China Morning Post

Coliseum in Hung Hom is one option being considered as public hospitals begin to run out of isolation space. Contingency plan comes as city reports 41 new infections, most of them from overseas.
— Read on www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3077587/coronavirus-patient-backlog-hospital-admission

Florida governor: sick passengers on cruise ship cannot be ‘dumped’ here | US news | The Guardian

Four people have died on coronavirus-stricken Zaandam liner and health of passengers and crew has worsened in past week

Source: Florida governor: sick passengers on cruise ship cannot be ‘dumped’ here | US news | The Guardian

June 4, 1939:  Jewish refugee ship turned away from Florida coast http://www.floridahistorynetwork.com/june-4-1939—jewish-refugee-ship-turned-away-from-florida-coast.html

So on June 4, 1939, the MS St. Louis anchored four miles off Miami Beach and was sighted by the Coast Guard, which immediately dispatched boats to the ship, as recounted in the Miami Daily News.

“Soon after the arrival of the coast guard craft the St. Louis hoisted anchor and put to sea, accompanied by the guard detail,” the story said. “The coast guard patrol boat C-244, out of Fort Lauderdale, stood by the ship as it slanted down the coast, barely making way, to prevent any possibility of attempts of refugees to jump off and swim ashore.”

A Coast Guard crewman told of running in close to the ship. “‘It doesn’t seem possible that so many people could crowd aboard one ship,'” he said.

Two days later, the St. Louis was heading north — and back to Europe. It did not return to Germany. Jewish organizations negotiated with four European nations to accept the passengers. Great Britain took 288, but the other 620 were taken by France, Belgium and the Netherlands

Opinion | Covid-19 Brings Out All the Usual Zombies – The New York Times

The bottom line is that as with so many things Trump, the awfulness of the man in the White House isn’t the whole story behind terrible policy. Yes, he’s ignorant, incompetent, vindictive and utterly lacking in empathy. But his failures on pandemic policy owe as much to the nature of the movement he serves as they do to his personal inadequacies.

Trump’s narcissism has taken a new twist. And now he has American blood on his hands | Jonathan Freedland | Opinion | The Guardian

The US president always was capricious and vengeful, but now that character flaw is a matter of life and death. State governors are crying out for federal help, not for themselves but for the people they represent: the nurses and doctors who need protective equipment and testing kits, the patients who need ventilators. But instead of leaping to their aid, Trump tells the governors it’s their responsibility, even though they have a fraction of the procurement power of the US government – adding that if they want help, they’d better grovel. “It’s a two-way street,” Trump said this week. “They have to treat us well.” Even when lives are on the line, his ego with its paper-thin skin comes first. Americans are paying the price for his lack of foresight, his closure of a pandemic task force for no better reason than it was established by Barack Obama – he hates anything with his predecessor’s name on it – and his failure to heed the warnings of a pandemic preparedness exercise, codenamed Crimson Contagion, that identified glaring gaps as recently as last October.

Source: Trump’s narcissism has taken a new twist. And now he has American blood on his hands | Jonathan Freedland | Opinion | The Guardian