President Trump sought to rescue his flagging reelection campaign with a chaotic, insult-laden clash with former vice president Joe Biden in the first presidential debate, in Cleveland on Tuesday night.
Trump, who has been trailing Biden in national polls for months, steamrolled Fox News moderator Chris Wallace to heckle Biden, interrupting him to make fun of his college grades, his son’s business dealings, and his performance against Senator Bernie Sanders. Trump attempted to dodge Biden’s criticisms over his handling of the coronavirus, which has taken more than 200,000 American lives, the economy, and his handling of race relations.
“The president does not have a plan,” Biden said, at one point calling Trump “the worst president America has ever had.”
The result was an often incoherent shouting match, with Biden flashing his anger at the near-constant interruptions and the two trading insults more often than policy proposals. The chaos made for a stark contrast with their extraordinary — and silent — environs, which lacked the customary large crowd as a safeguard against the spread of the virus.
Trump used the debate to air grievances and conspiracy theories. He contradicted his own top scientists by promising a vaccine before the end of the year, suggested local governments' virus restrictions are a plot to prevent him from being reelected, complained about “fake news,” and pushed the idea that Biden has a “manifesto” with Sanders and is controlled by socialists — a charge Biden forcefully denied.
'You have no idea’: A look at the reaction online to the first 2020 presidential debate
During an astonishing exchange over the issue of race, the president failed to condemn violence by white supremacist groups after he was asked multiple times to do so by Wallace.
“Proud boys, stand back and stand by,” Trump said, referring to a hate group, before claiming that far-left “antifa” groups are the real problem. Jonathan Greenblatt, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, tweeted in response that Trump “owes America an apology or an explanation. Now.”
The president also flatly rejected the concept of racial sensitivity training, seemingly suggesting it is not fair to white people.
“If you are a certain person, you had no status in life — it was sort of a reversal,” Trump said.
Biden responded by saying racial insensitivity is a problem and accused Trump “and his friends” of looking down on people “who are of a different faith, they look down on people who are a different color.”
The long-awaited matchup seemed unlikely to change the fundamental status of a remarkably stable race, one that has seen Biden leading nationwide through a health crisis and racial unrest. But it was still a remarkably unbridled brawl between a defensive president and his challenger. The two accused each other of lying, lobbed personal insults, and, at one point, Biden called Trump a racist. At times, Wallace yelled at them in an effort to control the proceedings. ...
WASHINGTON — The first presidential debate between President Trump and Joseph R. Biden Jr. unraveled into an ugly melee Tuesday, as Mr. Trump hectored and interrupted Mr. Biden nearly every time he spoke and the former vice president denounced the president as a “clown” and told him to “shut up.”
In a chaotic, 90-minute back-and-forth, the two major party nominees expressed a level of acrid contempt for each other unheard-of in modern American politics.
Mr. Trump, trailing in the polls and urgently hoping to revive his campaign, was plainly attempting to be the aggressor. But he interjected so insistently that Mr. Biden could scarcely answer the questions posed to him, forcing the moderator, Chris Wallace of Fox News, to repeatedly urge the president to let his opponent speak.
“Will you shut up, man?” Mr. Biden demanded of Mr. Trump at one point in obvious exasperation. “This is so unpresidential.” ..
The president’s bulldozer-style tactics represented a significant risk for an incumbent who’s trailing Mr. Biden because voters, including some who supported him in 2016, are so fatigued by his near-daily attacks and outbursts. Yet the former vice president veered between trying to ignore Mr. Trump by speaking directly into the camera to the voters, and giving in to temptation by hurling insults at the president. Mr. Biden called Mr. Trump a liar and a racist. ...
Wall Street turned positive on Wednesday morning, paring losses after a chaotic presidential debate between incumbent Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden heightened fears that a disputed ballot could lead to a messy transfer of power.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by around 200 points, with the S&P 500 up by 0.4 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq up 0.2 percent.
Nagging doubts over whether President Trump would agree to hand over the keys to the White House if he loses have grown in recent weeks. During the first debate on Tuesday, Trump declined to commit to accepting the results, repeating his unfounded complaint that mail-in ballots would lead to election fraud.
"The debate drew further attention to the potential for a contested election," said Hani Redha, a portfolio manager at Pinebridge. "It is likely market participants will continue to price in this issue, heightening volatility all the way to election day and its immediate aftermath." ...
'I heard it differently': Trump allies play defense on hate group remarks Far-right groups such as the Proud Boys quickly seized on the comments by the president, which they took as a call to action.
“The way to do that is the next opportunity the president has to clarify that answer because folks like you and others are confused by it, then he should do that,” Christie said. Sens. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.) also called on Trump to make things clear while giving him the benefit of the doubt. "I think he misspoke," Scott, the GOP's lone Black senator, told reporters on Capitol Hill. "I think he misspoke. I think he should correct it. If he doesn't correct it — I guess he didn't misspeak."
Memo to Senator Scott – he has not and will not correct this so yea, he did not misspeak.
The small amount of federal income taxes President Trump paid in both 2016 and 2017 — just $750 each year — has become the focus of much attention since it was revealed in a New York Times investigation. The figures below, drawn from Mr. Trump’s tax-return data for 2017, show how his accountants arrived at that figure for one of those years. ...
Rough figures:
+ Income: ~$15M - Business losses: ~$15M - Prior year losses: ~$12M
I fully expect that Trump will "correct" his "misspeak." He will woodenly read a teleprompter text written by Stephen Miller that has all the sincerity of a non-apology apology ("it was just locker room talk, folks.") and Republican sycophants will jump on the band wagon with praise for his courageous condemnation of hate groups.
In impromptu remarks, he will then go off script and insist that actually antifa, BLM and racial sensitivity training are the REAL racist hate groups that need to be dealt with "just like the U.S. Marshalls did to the guy in Portland." Republican Senators will claim to have not heard those remarks.
Canada ( 246) Germany ( 114) India ( 71) China ( 3)
Notice the ratios of deaths to coronavirus cases are 9.4%, 10.4% and 5.8% for the United Kingdom, Mexico and France respectively. These ratios are high, but have been significantly higher.
The Chinese mainland registered 19 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, all from overseas, the National Health Commission said on Wednesday.
This is the 45th consecutive day without domestic transmissions reported on the Chinese mainland. No deaths linked with the coronavirus were reported over the past 24 hours while 12 patients were discharged from hospitals.
The total number of confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland stands at 85,403 with a death toll of 4,634, while 375 asymptomatic patients are currently under medical observation.
There has been no coronavirus death on the Chinese mainland since May 17. There has been no community or domestic coronavirus case for 45 days. Since June began there have been only 2 limited community clusters of infections, in Beijing and Urumqi in Xinjiang, both of which were contained with mass testing, contact tracing and quarantine, and both outbreaks ended in a few weeks. Imported coronavirus cases are caught at entry points with required testing and immediate quarantine. Asymptomatic cases are all quarantined.
The flow of imported cases to China is low, but has been persistent. There are as a result 191 active imported coronavirus cases on the Chinese mainland, but of which only 3 cases are classed as serious or critical.
Republicans distanced themselves Wednesday from President Trump over his failure to unambiguously condemn white supremacists during the presidential debate the night before, as Mr. Trump faced a torrent of criticism including a rare rebuke from the Senate’s top Republican.
The president scrambled to defend himself on Wednesday afternoon, falsely claiming that he had “always denounced any form” of white supremacy. And after saying at the debate that the Proud Boys, a far-right group that has endorsed violence, should “stand by,” Mr. Trump asserted on Wednesday that he didn’t even know who the group is.
The president’s continued efforts to sow doubts about the integrity of the vote, both at the debate and on Wednesday, alarmed election-monitoring experts who said that they feared that he was laying the groundwork to delegitimize the election results. And his raucous, interruption-filled debate performance led the Commission on Presidential Debates to say Wednesday that it would make changes to the format of this year’s remaining debates.
Taken together, the developments suggested that the debate was shaking up the campaign with a little over a month left until the election.
The president’s comments on Wednesday came after Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the chamber’s only Black Republican, said that “white supremacy should be denounced at every turn. I think he misspoke, I think he should correct it. If he doesn’t correct it I guess he didn’t misspeak.”
Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader and a close ally of the president’s, told reporters Wednesday that he agreed with Mr. Scott, sharply rebuking Mr. Trump’s refusal to categorically denounce white supremacy during the presidential debate Tuesday night.
“With regard to the white supremacy issue, I want to associate myself with the remarks of Tim Scott,” Mr. McConnell said. “He said it was unacceptable not to condemn white supremacists and so I do so in the strongest possible way.”
Other Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill largely sought to distance themselves from the president’s remarks at the debate, and urged Mr. Trump to clearly denounce white supremacy.
Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 2 Republican, said Mr. Trump should “clear it up.” Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, told reporters “he should unequivocally condemn white supremacy.” Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, told reporters “it was the least educational debate of any presidential debate I’ve ever seen” and said that Mr. Trump should “absolutely” condemn white supremacy.
So on Wednesday Mr. Trump addressed the issue, retreating from his debate night comments that the Proud Boys, a far-right group that has endorsed violence, should “stand by.” Speaking to reporters as he left the White House for a campaign trip to Minnesota, he said: “I don’t know who Proud Boys are, but whoever they are, they have to stand down, let law enforcement do their work.”
But the president once again quickly added that left-wing violence was “the real problem” and falsely accused former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. of refusing to say the words “law enforcement” during Tuesday night’s presidential debate. ...
Patent Monopolies in Prescription Drugs Cause Corruption # 43,508 By Dean Baker
Economists and economic reporters all know that tariffs can lead to corruption. The idea is that if a government-imposed tariff raises the price of a product by 10-25 percent above the free market price, companies have a large incentive to find ways to avoid the tariff. This can mean reclassifying imports to get around the tariff or trying to curry favor with politicians to get exemptions. The New York Times and ProPublica have run several excellent pieces providing examples of such behavior (e.g. here, * here, ** and here *** ).
The reasonable takeaway from these stories is that tariffs should be applied sparingly and with clear purposes in mind. Indiscriminate use of tariffs is likely to lead to large-scale corruption, as corporations use their political power to gain special treatment.
We should be glad that reporters have actively worked to expose the abuses associated with the tariffs Donald Trump has imposed since coming into the White House. But what about the abuses associated with government-granted patent monopolies for prescription drugs? We literally never see a piece pointing out that patent protection creates an enormous incentive for corruption, in fact, one that is far larger than with the Trump tariffs.
Just to get some basic orientation, depending on the country and the product, Trump’s tariffs were generally between 10 and 25 percent. By contrast, government granted patent monopolies often raise the price of a protected drug by at least a factor of ten and often by a factor of one hundred or more. The impact of this protection is therefore equivalent to tariffs of 1,000 or 10,000 percent.
If we think that a tariff of 25 percent provides incentives for corruption, how can we not think that patent protection that is equivalent to tariffs of 1,000 or 10,000 percent provide grounds for corruption? That makes zero sense. Any numerate person who is concerned about the incentives for corruption created by Trump’s tariffs must be concerned about the incentives for corruption created by patent monopolies for prescription drugs.
And, we don’t have to look far. The immediate inspiration for this post is a New York Times article **** on how Pfizer is playing along with Trump in touting his late October date for a vaccine because they hope it will win them favor in any proposals he puts forward to lower drug prices.
If folks are missing the point here, the article implies that Pfizer might push forward for a vaccine approval, before there is sufficient evidence to establish safety and effectiveness, because it hopes Trump will allow it to enjoy larger patent monopoly rents....
Looking at data for a time, trying to make sense of the data before formal analysis, can be productive. While I have no formal sense of how easily coronavirus infections might spread in a Florida should social distancing rules and related cautions be disregarded as seems to be happening, I began by chance to look at Israel a few months ago because Branko Milanovic mentioned the seeming success Israel had in controlling the coronavirus. There was pressure on the Israeli government to normalize, and the pressure was acceded to. Quickly thereafter, I watched as the data showed a spread of infections. Public health resources were suddenly not sufficient to locate and isolate increasing infection sources and as Paul Krugman would point out a couple of weeks ago a disaster was in the making.
So, I have set down some Israeli data and possibly the data might be a little instructive for a rapidly opening Florida or even a slowly opening New York.
Having apparently approached a containment of the coronavirus in June, the Israeli government incautiously opened schools and businesses, and the result has been a persistent community infection spread contributing to what are now 248,133 cases in the small country as compared to 85,414 in all through all of mainland China.
Israel has now had 252,533 coronavirus cases in the small country as compared to 85,414 in all through all of mainland China. Israel has unfortunately just about three-times the number of coronavirus cases in mainland China. Paul Krugman noticed the Israeli “disaster” on September 14 when there were 160,000 coronavirus cases. The difficulty in limiting a new spread of infections in so highly developed a country has become startling to me.
The structure of the presidential debate, in a medical clinic, was an obvious public health failing. Because we are so little capable of looking to others to learn, we had not learned of the problems with the debate structure. Look to the contrasting way in which the opening of and addresses to the United Nations was conducted and understand the problem presented by the format of the debate.
Trump’s Approach to a Coronavirus Vaccine May Leave America Behind By DEAN BAKER
As with everything else, Donald Trump likes to boast about how quickly we are moving toward developing a coronavirus vaccine. By historic standards, he has a case. We may have a vaccine through the final Phase 3 tests and approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before the end of the year.
However, this pace may still leave us months behind China, which has four of the nine vaccines in the world now in Phase 3 testing. One or two months matters a great deal in this story. If we can begin to get people vaccinated sooner, it can mean hundreds of thousands fewer people will get infected and tens of thousands fewer will die. It will also mean that the economy and our lives can get back to normal one or two months sooner.
If we end up needlessly waiting for a vaccine, it will be because of the way Trump chose to pursue the vaccine’s development. In the first months after the pandemic broke out, scientists made extraordinarily rapid progress in understanding the virus’ key features. This resulted from an unprecedented level of international cooperation in which scientists quickly and freely shared their results on the web so that others could learn from successes and failures.
We could have continued in this mode of collaborative open research in the pursuit of treatments and vaccines. But this was not the path we pursued. As Trump pushed $10 billion of taxpayer dollars out the door to finance further research, it was with the understanding that any vaccines or treatments would be subject to government-granted patent monopolies, with the companies determining who gets a vaccine or treatment.
This is the basis for the vaccine race, where it now looks like we will be a second-place finisher, at best.
If we had gone the collaborative research route, we wouldn’t be a situation where we might be watching China jump ahead and begin vaccinating frontline workers and vulnerable populations while we still see the pandemic spread unabated. In that world, as soon as China, or any country, had developed a successful vaccine, everyone would have access to it, or at least every country with manufacturing capability. Since there would be no patent monopolies, we would just need the technical expertise (which we have) to begin to manufacture and distribute whatever vaccine(s) seemed the most promising.
If we had gone this route, we would have needed some international agreement on sharing research costs. This would presumably be based on a countries’ size and wealth. While we would not have time to work out a deal that all countries would see as perfectly fair in the rushed time frame we faced, in a context where we see more than a million deaths and the loss of trillions of dollars of economic output worldwide, it really doesn’t matter if we ended up paying $100 million too much or too little for research.
If we had gone the collaborative route, all the test results would be fully public as soon as they were available. That means that when China had results of its Phase 1 and Phase 2 trials, everyone would see how promising their vaccines were. As they moved forward with Phase 3 tests, the results would be available to the whole world at the same time that China’s researchers had them.
This raises two questions.
First, can we trust China to be fully open? We can never know for sure without having a deal, but the reality is that China has complied reasonably well with the international agreements into which it has entered. In any case, if China did not meet its commitments to openness, this would be a very visible breach. That presumably makes it less likely that China would back out of its commitments as opposed to something that is less transparent, like prohibited subsidies for exports....
Canada ( 246) Germany ( 114) India ( 73) China ( 3)
Notice the ratios of deaths to coronavirus cases are 9.0%, 10.3% and 5.5% for the United Kingdom, Mexico and France respectively. These ratios are high, but have been significantly higher.
The Chinese mainland registered 10 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, all from overseas, the National Health Commission said on Friday.
This is the 47th consecutive day without domestic transmissions reported on the Chinese mainland. No deaths linked with the coronavirus were reported over the past 24 hours while 7 patients were discharged from hospitals.
The total number of confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland stands at 85,424, with a death toll of 4,634, while 377 asymptomatic patients are under medical observation.
There has been no coronavirus death on the Chinese mainland since May 17. There has been no community or domestic coronavirus case for 47 days. Since June began there have been only 2 limited community clusters of infections, in Beijing and Urumqi in Xinjiang, both of which were contained with mass testing, contact tracing and quarantine, and both outbreaks ended in a few weeks. Imported coronavirus cases are caught at entry points with required testing and immediate quarantine. Asymptomatic cases are all quarantined.
The flow of imported cases to China is low, but has been persistent. There are as a result 189 active imported coronavirus cases on the Chinese mainland, but of which only 2 cases are classed as serious or critical.
Having apparently approached a containment of the coronavirus in June, the Israeli government incautiously opened schools and businesses, and the result has been a persistent community infection spread contributing to what are now 263,983 cases in the small country as compared to 85,434 in all through all of mainland China.
Israel has unfortunately more than three-times the number of coronavirus cases in mainland China. Paul Krugman noticed the Israeli “disaster” on September 14 when there were 160,000 coronavirus cases. The persisting difficulty in limiting a new spread of infections in so highly developed a country has become startling to me. Obviously there is a profound public health failing, but in what way?
Where the Dominican Republic has had the fastest per capita GDP growth in the Americas since 1971, Cuba has been continually beset and limited by United States economic sanctions. Cuba however has built excellent public health infrastructure, reflected in longer life expectancy and lower infant mortality than in the US or Dominican Republic and I think reflected in the way in which the spread of the coronavirus has been limited in Cuba relative to countries all through the Americas.
Bolivia's coup president has lifted restrictions on foreign NGO's. Decree 4353 ends rules placed by Evo Morales to stop NGO's, especially those from the US, from intervening in domestic politics.
Añez said; "Bolivia opens up to the world and to contact with western democracies."
7:47 AM · Oct 3, 2020
[ An especially important insight into the US use of NGO's to control or subvert governments. Such a use of NGO's has occurred over and over, while the action of "Coup President" Añez is especially revealing. ]
Bolivia's coup president has lifted restrictions on foreign NGO's. Decree 4353 ends rules placed by Evo Morales to stop NGO's, especially those from the US, from intervening in domestic politics.
Añez said; "Bolivia opens up to the world and to contact with western democracies."
7:47 AM · Oct 3, 2020
[ I vividly remember when a prominent economist found that Evo Morales was going to build a drinking water system for Bolivia as a public good, out of state funds rather than have a private builder from California build and operate the Bolivian water system. A private water system would have meant that poorer Bolivians would be unable to afford water from a national system. The economist taking a Washington Consensus or neoliberal perspective, considered a the building of a water system as a public good developmentally self-defeating. ]
Canada ( 250) Germany ( 114) India ( 74) China ( 3)
Notice the ratios of deaths to coronavirus cases are 8.8%, 10.4% and 5.3% for the United Kingdom, Mexico and France respectively. These ratios are high, but have been significantly higher, while falling recently.
The Chinese mainland on Saturday registered 16 new COVID-19 cases, all from overseas, the National Health Commission announced on Sunday.
This is the 49th consecutive day with zero domestic transmissions reported on the Chinese mainland. No deaths related to the coronavirus were reported over the past 24 hours while 10 patients were discharged from hospitals.
COVID-19 tally on the Chinese mainland stands at 85,450 infections and 4,634 fatalities, while 366 asymptomatic patients remain under medical observation.
There has been no coronavirus death on the Chinese mainland since May 17. There has been no community or domestic coronavirus case for 49 days. Since June began there have been only 2 limited community clusters of infections, in Beijing and Urumqi in Xinjiang, both of which were contained with mass testing, contact tracing and quarantine, and both outbreaks ended in a few weeks. Imported coronavirus cases are caught at entry points with required testing and immediate quarantine. Asymptomatic cases are all quarantined.
The flow of imported cases to China is low, but has been persistent. There are as a result 195 active imported coronavirus cases on the Chinese mainland, but of which only 2 cases are classed as serious or critical.
In Reversal, N.Y.C. Will Close Schools and Businesses in Hard-Hit Areas “Today, unfortunately, is not a day for celebration,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said. His plan would affect nine neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens. By Dana Rubinstein, Daniel E. Slotnik and Eliza Shapiro
Capitalism After the Pandemic Getting the Recovery Right By Mariana Mazzucato
After the 2008 financial crisis, governments across the world injected over $3 trillion into the financial system. The goal was to unfreeze credit markets and get the global economy working again. But instead of supporting the real economy—the part that involves the production of actual goods and services—the bulk of the aid ended up in the financial sector. Governments bailed out the big investment banks that had directly contributed to the crisis, and when the economy got going again, it was those companies that reaped the rewards of the recovery. Taxpayers, for their part, were left with a global economy that was just as broken, unequal, and carbon-intensive as before. “Never let a good crisis go to waste,” goes a popular policymaking maxim. But that is exactly what happened.
Now, as countries are reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdowns, they must avoid making the same mistake. In the months after the virus first surfaced, governments stepped in to address the concomitant economic and health crises, rolling out stimulus packages to protect jobs, issuing rules to slow the spread of the disease, and investing in the research and development of treatments and vaccines. These rescue efforts are necessary. But it is not enough for governments to simply intervene as the spender of last resort when markets fail or crises occur. They should actively shape markets so that they deliver the kind of long-term outcomes that benefit everyone.
The world missed the opportunity to do that back in 2008, but fate has handed it another chance....
The Chinese mainland on Sunday registered 20 new COVID-19 cases, all from overseas, the National Health Commission announced on Monday.
This is the 50th consecutive day with zero domestic transmissions reported on the Chinese mainland. No deaths related to the coronavirus were reported over the past 24 hours while 7 patients were discharged from hospitals.
The COVID-19 tally on the Chinese mainland stands at 85,470 infections and 4,634 fatalities, while 369 asymptomatic patients remain under medical observation.
[ There has been no coronavirus death on the Chinese mainland since May 17. There has been no community or domestic coronavirus case for 50 days. Since June began there have been only 2 limited community clusters of infections, in Beijing and Urumqi in Xinjiang, both of which were contained with mass testing, contact tracing and quarantine, and both outbreaks ended in a few weeks. Imported coronavirus cases are caught at entry points with required testing and immediate quarantine. Asymptomatic cases are all quarantined. ]
Having apparently approached a containment of the coronavirus in June, the Israeli government incautiously opened schools and businesses, and the result has been a persistent community infection spread contributing to what are now 271,563 cases in the small country as compared to 85,470 in all through all of mainland China.
Israel has unfortunately more than three-times the number of coronavirus cases in mainland China. Paul Krugman noticed the Israeli “disaster” on September 14 when there were 160,000 coronavirus cases. The persisting difficulty in limiting a new spread of infections in so highly developed a country has become startling to me. Obviously there is a profound public health infrastructure failing that shows a development failing and has to be addressed.
[ Evidently, just how difficult the situation is in the UK, which I have repeatedly sought to call attention to since the ratio of deaths to cases pointed to an undercount, is now understood. Awful, awful. ]
In the UK the number of cases rose rapidly. But the public – and authorities – are only learning this now because these cases were only published now as a backlog. The reason was apparently that the database is managed in Excel and the number of columns had reached the maximum.
Nearly One-Third of Covid Patients in Study Had Altered Mental State The hospitalized patients showed signs of deteriorating neurological function, ranging from confusion to coma-like unresponsiveness, new research indicates. By Pam Belluck
Nearly a third of hospitalized Covid-19 patients experienced some type of altered mental function — ranging from confusion to delirium to unresponsiveness — in the largest study to date of neurological symptoms among coronavirus patients in an American hospital system.
And patients with altered mental function had significantly worse medical outcomes, according to the study, * published on Monday in Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology. The study looked at the records of the first 509 coronavirus patients hospitalized, from March 5 to April 6, at 10 hospitals in the Northwestern Medicine health system in the Chicago area.
These patients stayed three times as long in the hospital as patients without altered mental function.
After they were discharged, only 32 percent of the patients with altered mental function were able to handle routine daily activities like cooking and paying bills, said Dr. Igor Koralnik, the senior author of the study and chief of neuro-infectious disease and global neurology at Northwestern Medicine. In contrast, 89 percent of patients without altered mental function were able to manage such activities without assistance.
Patients with altered mental function — the medical term is encephalopathy — were also nearly seven times as likely to die as those who did not have that type of problem....
Bidencare Would Be a Big Deal Don’t dismiss it because it isn’t Medicare for All. By Paul Krugman
On Monday morning America’s most prominent beneficiary of socialized medicine, in the process of receiving expensive, taxpayer-financed care at a government-run hospital, was tweeting furiously. One of President Trump’s manic missives particularly caught the eyes of health care experts: his exhortation to “PROTECT PREEXISTING CONDITIONS. VOTE!”
As always, it’s not clear whether Trump is merely being cynical or whether he is also genuinely ignorant.
He’s definitely lying when he claims to have a plan that’s better and cheaper than Obamacare. No such plan exists, and he has to know that.
But does he know that Americans with pre-existing medical conditions are already protected by the Affordable Care Act, which his administration is asking the Supreme Court to overturn? Does he realize that the reason his party has never offered an acceptable alternative to the A.C.A., in particular an alternative that would protect pre-existing conditions, is that no such alternative is possible? That’s less clear.
In any case, how the nation votes will indeed make a huge difference to the future of health care — and not just because Trump, if he holds on to power, will almost surely find a way to destroy Obamacare, causing tens of millions of Americans to lose health insurance. Joe Biden, if he wins (and gets a Democratic Senate), will make a big difference in the other direction, substantially expanding coverage and reducing premiums for middle-class families.
The second part of this statement may come as news to many readers, because Biden’s health proposals haven’t drawn much attention so far.
Why not? One reason is that the election is — rightly — being seen mainly as a referendum on Trump rather than on likely Democratic policy. Another is that since the Democratic primary fight pitted Biden against rivals calling for radical changes in health policy, many people assume that the winner of that fight, who rejected those radical proposals, wouldn’t change much.
But while Biden is indeed proposing incremental change rather than Medicare for All, we’re talking about some big increments. Independent estimates suggest that under Biden’s plan, 15 million to 20 million Americans would gain health insurance. And premiums would fall sharply, especially for middle-class families....
Unlike tens of millions of people around the world who have contracted COVID-19 because of their poverty, bad luck, vulnerability as essential workers, or poor decisions by policymakers, U.S. President Donald Trump's infection is of his own making.
Trump's disdain for science and his brazen disregard for public-health advice led directly to his own illness; far worse, they have fueled America's soaring COVID-19 death toll – now at more than 214,000.
Since the pandemic began, public health experts around the world have begged the public to wear face masks, avoid large gatherings, and maintain physical distance from others, in order to stop the transmission of the virus. Leave it to Trump, a man of pathological disposition, to reject all such advice.
Barely two days before announcing that he and the First Lady had tested positive, Trump was mocking Joe Biden for wearing one. "I don't wear a mask like him," Trump said at the first presidential debate. "Every time you see him, he's got a mask. He could be speaking 200 feet away…and he shows up with the biggest mask I've ever seen."
Rejecting appeals by public health experts and local officials, Trump had been holding large rallies both indoors and outdoors in recent months, with non-masked attendees standing close together. And Trump spurned basic precautions in the White House, including physical distancing of staff and requiring face masks in meetings.
Trump's recklessness not only exposed himself, his wife, and his entourage to COVID-19; it also encouraged his supporters across America to mock public-health warnings and threaten infectious disease experts, thereby contributing to the spread of the disease. Many Americans lack basic scientific literacy and are easily swayed and encouraged by manipulators like Trump and his allies at Fox News. Trump not only blocked an effective federal public-health response, but incited dangerous behavior by his followers nationwide.
Like other world leaders who have contracted COVID-19, Trump could easily have avoided being infected by observing normal public-health strictures. It is not a coincidence that populist politicians in Trump's mold, notably UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, also became infected.
Like Trump, both Johnson and Bolsonaro systematically downplayed the threat of the pandemic and brazenly flaunted routine public-health measures. And, like the United States, the United Kingdom and Brazil are among the world's hardest-hit countries, with a COVID-19 death rate of 647 per million population in the U.S., 687 in Brazil, and 623 in the UK, compared with a global average death rate of 133 per million....
61 comments:
Trump isn't running against Biden, he's running against the election.
It will be more than a relief when Biden becomes president, it will be a mitzvah.
Heckling and interrupting Biden, Trump causes chaos in first presidential debate
via @BostonGlobe - September 29
President Trump sought to rescue his flagging reelection campaign with a chaotic, insult-laden clash with former vice president Joe Biden in the first presidential debate, in Cleveland on Tuesday night.
Trump, who has been trailing Biden in national polls for months, steamrolled Fox News moderator Chris Wallace to heckle Biden, interrupting him to make fun of his college grades, his son’s business dealings, and his performance against Senator Bernie Sanders. Trump attempted to dodge Biden’s criticisms over his handling of the coronavirus, which has taken more than 200,000 American lives, the economy, and his handling of race relations.
“The president does not have a plan,” Biden said, at one point calling Trump “the worst president America has ever had.”
The result was an often incoherent shouting match, with Biden flashing his anger at the near-constant interruptions and the two trading insults more often than policy proposals. The chaos made for a stark contrast with their extraordinary — and silent — environs, which lacked the customary large crowd as a safeguard against the spread of the virus.
Trump used the debate to air grievances and conspiracy theories. He contradicted his own top scientists by promising a vaccine before the end of the year, suggested local governments' virus restrictions are a plot to prevent him from being reelected, complained about “fake news,” and pushed the idea that Biden has a “manifesto” with Sanders and is controlled by socialists — a charge Biden forcefully denied.
'You have no idea’: A look at the reaction online to the first 2020 presidential debate
During an astonishing exchange over the issue of race, the president failed to condemn violence by white supremacist groups after he was asked multiple times to do so by Wallace.
“Proud boys, stand back and stand by,” Trump said, referring to a hate group, before claiming that far-left “antifa” groups are the real problem. Jonathan Greenblatt, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, tweeted in response that Trump “owes America an apology or an explanation. Now.”
The president also flatly rejected the concept of racial sensitivity training, seemingly suggesting it is not fair to white people.
“If you are a certain person, you had no status in life — it was sort of a reversal,” Trump said.
Biden responded by saying racial insensitivity is a problem and accused Trump “and his friends” of looking down on people “who are of a different faith, they look down on people who are a different color.”
The long-awaited matchup seemed unlikely to change the fundamental status of a remarkably stable race, one that has seen Biden leading nationwide through a health crisis and racial unrest. But it was still a remarkably unbridled brawl between a defensive president and his challenger. The two accused each other of lying, lobbed personal insults, and, at one point, Biden called Trump a racist. At times, Wallace yelled at them in an effort to control the proceedings. ...
With Cross Talk, Lies and Mockery, Trump Tramples Decorum in Debate With Biden
NY Times - September 29
WASHINGTON — The first presidential debate between President Trump and Joseph R. Biden Jr. unraveled into an ugly melee Tuesday, as Mr. Trump hectored and interrupted Mr. Biden nearly every time he spoke and the former vice president denounced the president as a “clown” and told him to “shut up.”
In a chaotic, 90-minute back-and-forth, the two major party nominees expressed a level of acrid contempt for each other unheard-of in modern American politics.
Mr. Trump, trailing in the polls and urgently hoping to revive his campaign, was plainly attempting to be the aggressor. But he interjected so insistently that Mr. Biden could scarcely answer the questions posed to him, forcing the moderator, Chris Wallace of Fox News, to repeatedly urge the president to let his opponent speak.
“Will you shut up, man?” Mr. Biden demanded of Mr. Trump at one point in obvious exasperation. “This is so unpresidential.” ..
The president’s bulldozer-style tactics represented a significant risk for an incumbent who’s trailing Mr. Biden because voters, including some who supported him in 2016, are so fatigued by his near-daily attacks and outbursts. Yet the former vice president veered between trying to ignore Mr. Trump by speaking directly into the camera to the voters, and giving in to temptation by hurling insults at the president. Mr. Biden called Mr. Trump a liar and a racist. ...
Trump is just a miserable specimen of humanity. Not that we needed any more proof.
I have to say, though, that Biden's attempt to out-Trump Trump on protectionism and Buy America nonsense is quite depressing.
It will always be a Dem tenet
that American workers building
what we need in the Good Old USA is
the way to go. How is that depressing?
Wall Street falls, then rises, after chaotic debate fuel investors' fears of contested election
Reuters via @nbcnews - September 30
Wall Street turned positive on Wednesday morning, paring losses after a chaotic presidential debate between incumbent Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden heightened fears that a disputed ballot could lead to a messy transfer of power.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by around 200 points, with the S&P 500 up by 0.4 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq up 0.2 percent.
Nagging doubts over whether President Trump would agree to hand over the keys to the White House if he loses have grown in recent weeks. During the first debate on Tuesday, Trump declined to commit to accepting the results, repeating his unfounded complaint that mail-in ballots would lead to election fraud.
"The debate drew further attention to the potential for a contested election," said Hani Redha, a portfolio manager at Pinebridge. "It is likely market participants will continue to price in this issue, heightening volatility all the way to election day and its immediate aftermath." ...
Chris BridgeGate Christie pretends he did not hear that obvious dog whistle last night:
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/30/chris-christie-defends-trump-debate-423610
'I heard it differently': Trump allies play defense on hate group remarks
Far-right groups such as the Proud Boys quickly seized on the comments by the president, which they took as a call to action.
“The way to do that is the next opportunity the president has to clarify that answer because folks like you and others are confused by it, then he should do that,” Christie said. Sens. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.) also called on Trump to make things clear while giving him the benefit of the doubt. "I think he misspoke," Scott, the GOP's lone Black senator, told reporters on Capitol Hill. "I think he misspoke. I think he should correct it. If he doesn't correct it — I guess he didn't misspeak."
Memo to Senator Scott – he has not and will not correct this so yea, he did not misspeak.
In context, presumably Trump was just putting the
Proud Boys on notice that they
should plan for poll watching appearances.
Or anything...
Trump Paid $750 in Federal Income Taxes in 2017. Here’s the Math.
NY Times - September 30
The small amount of federal income taxes President Trump paid in both 2016 and 2017 — just $750 each year — has become the focus of much attention since it was revealed in a New York Times investigation. The figures below, drawn from Mr. Trump’s tax-return data for 2017, show how his accountants arrived at that figure for one of those years. ...
Rough figures:
+ Income: ~$15M
- Business losses: ~$15M
- Prior year losses: ~$12M
net: -$12,819,400
(Figures at the link.)
I fully expect that Trump will "correct" his "misspeak." He will woodenly read a teleprompter text written by Stephen Miller that has all the sincerity of a non-apology apology ("it was just locker room talk, folks.") and Republican sycophants will jump on the band wagon with praise for his courageous condemnation of hate groups.
In impromptu remarks, he will then go off script and insist that actually antifa, BLM and racial sensitivity training are the REAL racist hate groups that need to be dealt with "just like the U.S. Marshalls did to the guy in Portland." Republican Senators will claim to have not heard those remarks.
September 29, 2020
Coronavirus
US
Cases ( 7,406,146)
Deaths ( 210,785)
India
Cases ( 6,223,519)
Deaths ( 97,529)
Mexico
Cases ( 733,717)
Deaths ( 76,603)
France
Cases ( 550,690)
Deaths ( 31,893)
UK
Cases ( 446,156)
Deaths ( 42,072)
Germany
Cases ( 290,466)
Deaths ( 9,556)
Canada
Cases ( 156,961)
Deaths ( 9,291)
China
Cases ( 85,384)
Deaths ( 4,634)
September 29, 2020
Coronavirus (Deaths per million)
US ( 636)
UK ( 619)
Mexico ( 593)
France ( 488)
Canada ( 246)
Germany ( 114)
India ( 71)
China ( 3)
Notice the ratios of deaths to coronavirus cases are 9.4%, 10.4% and 5.8% for the United Kingdom, Mexico and France respectively. These ratios are high, but have been significantly higher.
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-09-30/Chinese-mainland-reports-19-new-COVID-19-cases-all-from-overseas-UclKuKqnq8/index.html
September 30, 2020
Chinese mainland reports 19 new COVID-19 cases
The Chinese mainland registered 19 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, all from overseas, the National Health Commission said on Wednesday.
This is the 45th consecutive day without domestic transmissions reported on the Chinese mainland. No deaths linked with the coronavirus were reported over the past 24 hours while 12 patients were discharged from hospitals.
The total number of confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland stands at 85,403 with a death toll of 4,634, while 375 asymptomatic patients are currently under medical observation.
Chinese mainland new imported cases
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-09-30/Chinese-mainland-reports-19-new-COVID-19-cases-all-from-overseas-UclKuKqnq8/img/d93d73c5d1224cfb89740402751783a5/d93d73c5d1224cfb89740402751783a5.jpeg
Chinese mainland new asymptomatic cases
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-09-29/Chinese-mainland-reports-12-new-COVID-19-cases-all-from-overseas-UaHGEV3u0g/img/f7fe0b879e2e41ffb489d8dc32c91cab/f7fe0b879e2e41ffb489d8dc32c91cab.jpeg
There has been no coronavirus death on the Chinese mainland since May 17. There has been no community or domestic coronavirus case for 45 days. Since June began there have been only 2 limited community clusters of infections, in Beijing and Urumqi in Xinjiang, both of which were contained with mass testing, contact tracing and quarantine, and both outbreaks ended in a few weeks. Imported coronavirus cases are caught at entry points with required testing and immediate quarantine. Asymptomatic cases are all quarantined.
The flow of imported cases to China is low, but has been persistent. There are as a result 191 active imported coronavirus cases on the Chinese mainland, but of which only 3 cases are classed as serious or critical.
The president scrambled to defend himself on Wednesday afternoon, falsely claiming that he had “always denounced any form” of white supremacy.
Republicans distanced themselves from Trump for failing to denounce white supremacy, and the president scrambled to defend himself.
NY Times - September 30
Republicans distanced themselves Wednesday from President Trump over his failure to unambiguously condemn white supremacists during the presidential debate the night before, as Mr. Trump faced a torrent of criticism including a rare rebuke from the Senate’s top Republican.
The president scrambled to defend himself on Wednesday afternoon, falsely claiming that he had “always denounced any form” of white supremacy. And after saying at the debate that the Proud Boys, a far-right group that has endorsed violence, should “stand by,” Mr. Trump asserted on Wednesday that he didn’t even know who the group is.
The president’s continued efforts to sow doubts about the integrity of the vote, both at the debate and on Wednesday, alarmed election-monitoring experts who said that they feared that he was laying the groundwork to delegitimize the election results. And his raucous, interruption-filled debate performance led the Commission on Presidential Debates to say Wednesday that it would make changes to the format of this year’s remaining debates.
Taken together, the developments suggested that the debate was shaking up the campaign with a little over a month left until the election.
The president’s comments on Wednesday came after Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the chamber’s only Black Republican, said that “white supremacy should be denounced at every turn. I think he misspoke, I think he should correct it. If he doesn’t correct it I guess he didn’t misspeak.”
Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader and a close ally of the president’s, told reporters Wednesday that he agreed with Mr. Scott, sharply rebuking Mr. Trump’s refusal to categorically denounce white supremacy during the presidential debate Tuesday night.
“With regard to the white supremacy issue, I want to associate myself with the remarks of Tim Scott,” Mr. McConnell said. “He said it was unacceptable not to condemn white supremacists and so I do so in the strongest possible way.”
Other Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill largely sought to distance themselves from the president’s remarks at the debate, and urged Mr. Trump to clearly denounce white supremacy.
Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 2 Republican, said Mr. Trump should “clear it up.” Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, told reporters “he should unequivocally condemn white supremacy.” Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, told reporters “it was the least educational debate of any presidential debate I’ve ever seen” and said that Mr. Trump should “absolutely” condemn white supremacy.
So on Wednesday Mr. Trump addressed the issue, retreating from his debate night comments that the Proud Boys, a far-right group that has endorsed violence, should “stand by.” Speaking to reporters as he left the White House for a campaign trip to Minnesota, he said: “I don’t know who Proud Boys are, but whoever they are, they have to stand down, let law enforcement do their work.”
But the president once again quickly added that left-wing violence was “the real problem” and falsely accused former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. of refusing to say the words “law enforcement” during Tuesday night’s presidential debate. ...
https://cepr.net/patent-monopolies-in-prescription-drugs-cause-corruption-43508/
September 30, 2020
Patent Monopolies in Prescription Drugs Cause Corruption # 43,508
By Dean Baker
Economists and economic reporters all know that tariffs can lead to corruption. The idea is that if a government-imposed tariff raises the price of a product by 10-25 percent above the free market price, companies have a large incentive to find ways to avoid the tariff. This can mean reclassifying imports to get around the tariff or trying to curry favor with politicians to get exemptions. The New York Times and ProPublica have run several excellent pieces providing examples of such behavior (e.g. here, * here, ** and here *** ).
The reasonable takeaway from these stories is that tariffs should be applied sparingly and with clear purposes in mind. Indiscriminate use of tariffs is likely to lead to large-scale corruption, as corporations use their political power to gain special treatment.
We should be glad that reporters have actively worked to expose the abuses associated with the tariffs Donald Trump has imposed since coming into the White House. But what about the abuses associated with government-granted patent monopolies for prescription drugs? We literally never see a piece pointing out that patent protection creates an enormous incentive for corruption, in fact, one that is far larger than with the Trump tariffs.
Just to get some basic orientation, depending on the country and the product, Trump’s tariffs were generally between 10 and 25 percent. By contrast, government granted patent monopolies often raise the price of a protected drug by at least a factor of ten and often by a factor of one hundred or more. The impact of this protection is therefore equivalent to tariffs of 1,000 or 10,000 percent.
If we think that a tariff of 25 percent provides incentives for corruption, how can we not think that patent protection that is equivalent to tariffs of 1,000 or 10,000 percent provide grounds for corruption? That makes zero sense. Any numerate person who is concerned about the incentives for corruption created by Trump’s tariffs must be concerned about the incentives for corruption created by patent monopolies for prescription drugs.
And, we don’t have to look far. The immediate inspiration for this post is a New York Times article **** on how Pfizer is playing along with Trump in touting his late October date for a vaccine because they hope it will win them favor in any proposals he puts forward to lower drug prices.
If folks are missing the point here, the article implies that Pfizer might push forward for a vaccine approval, before there is sufficient evidence to establish safety and effectiveness, because it hopes Trump will allow it to enjoy larger patent monopoly rents....
References:
https://cepr.net/patent-monopolies-in-prescription-drugs-cause-corruption-43508/
September 30, 2020
Patent Monopolies in Prescription Drugs Cause Corruption # 43,508
By Dean Baker
* https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/05/us/politics/nucor-us-steel-tariff-exemptions.html
** https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/23/business/economy/columbia-sportswear-trump-trade-war.html
*** https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-one-huge-companys-mostly-successful-campaign-to-escape-trumps-tariffs
**** https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/30/health/pfizer-covid-vaccine.html
***** https://deanbaker.net/images/stories/documents/Rigged.pdf
Looking at data for a time, trying to make sense of the data before formal analysis, can be productive. While I have no formal sense of how easily coronavirus infections might spread in a Florida should social distancing rules and related cautions be disregarded as seems to be happening, I began by chance to look at Israel a few months ago because Branko Milanovic mentioned the seeming success Israel had in controlling the coronavirus. There was pressure on the Israeli government to normalize, and the pressure was acceded to. Quickly thereafter, I watched as the data showed a spread of infections. Public health resources were suddenly not sufficient to locate and isolate increasing infection sources and as Paul Krugman would point out a couple of weeks ago a disaster was in the making.
So, I have set down some Israeli data and possibly the data might be a little instructive for a rapidly opening Florida or even a slowly opening New York.
October 1, 2020
Coronavirus
Israel
Cases ( 248,133)
Deaths ( 1,571)
Deaths per million ( 171)
July 4, 2020
Coronavirus
Israel
Cases ( 29,170)
Deaths ( 330)
Deaths per million ( 36)
Having apparently approached a containment of the coronavirus in June, the Israeli government incautiously opened schools and businesses, and the result has been a persistent community infection spread contributing to what are now 248,133 cases in the small country as compared to 85,414 in all through all of mainland China.
October 1, 2020
Coronavirus
Israel
Cases ( 252,533)
Deaths ( 1,600)
Deaths per million ( 174)
Israel has now had 252,533 coronavirus cases in the small country as compared to 85,414 in all through all of mainland China. Israel has unfortunately just about three-times the number of coronavirus cases in mainland China. Paul Krugman noticed the Israeli “disaster” on September 14 when there were 160,000 coronavirus cases. The difficulty in limiting a new spread of infections in so highly developed a country has become startling to me.
October 1, 2020
Coronavirus
New York
Cases ( 494,607)
Deaths ( 33,266)
Deaths per million ( 1,710)
Care must continue to be taken since new infections persist though at a relatively low level.
October 1, 2020
Coronavirus
Massachusetts
Cases ( 132,870)
Deaths ( 9,480)
Deaths per million ( 1,375)
New infections persist.
The structure of the presidential debate, in a medical clinic, was an obvious public health failing. Because we are so little capable of looking to others to learn, we had not learned of the problems with the debate structure. Look to the contrasting way in which the opening of and addresses to the United Nations was conducted and understand the problem presented by the format of the debate.
October 2, 2020
Coronavirus
US
Cases ( 7,500,703)
Deaths ( 212,727)
https://cepr.net/trumps-approach-to-a-coronavirus-vaccine-may-leave-america-behind/
October 1, 2020
Trump’s Approach to a Coronavirus Vaccine May Leave America Behind
By DEAN BAKER
As with everything else, Donald Trump likes to boast about how quickly we are moving toward developing a coronavirus vaccine. By historic standards, he has a case. We may have a vaccine through the final Phase 3 tests and approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before the end of the year.
However, this pace may still leave us months behind China, which has four of the nine vaccines in the world now in Phase 3 testing. One or two months matters a great deal in this story. If we can begin to get people vaccinated sooner, it can mean hundreds of thousands fewer people will get infected and tens of thousands fewer will die. It will also mean that the economy and our lives can get back to normal one or two months sooner.
If we end up needlessly waiting for a vaccine, it will be because of the way Trump chose to pursue the vaccine’s development. In the first months after the pandemic broke out, scientists made extraordinarily rapid progress in understanding the virus’ key features. This resulted from an unprecedented level of international cooperation in which scientists quickly and freely shared their results on the web so that others could learn from successes and failures.
We could have continued in this mode of collaborative open research in the pursuit of treatments and vaccines. But this was not the path we pursued. As Trump pushed $10 billion of taxpayer dollars out the door to finance further research, it was with the understanding that any vaccines or treatments would be subject to government-granted patent monopolies, with the companies determining who gets a vaccine or treatment.
This is the basis for the vaccine race, where it now looks like we will be a second-place finisher, at best.
If we had gone the collaborative research route, we wouldn’t be a situation where we might be watching China jump ahead and begin vaccinating frontline workers and vulnerable populations while we still see the pandemic spread unabated. In that world, as soon as China, or any country, had developed a successful vaccine, everyone would have access to it, or at least every country with manufacturing capability. Since there would be no patent monopolies, we would just need the technical expertise (which we have) to begin to manufacture and distribute whatever vaccine(s) seemed the most promising.
If we had gone this route, we would have needed some international agreement on sharing research costs. This would presumably be based on a countries’ size and wealth. While we would not have time to work out a deal that all countries would see as perfectly fair in the rushed time frame we faced, in a context where we see more than a million deaths and the loss of trillions of dollars of economic output worldwide, it really doesn’t matter if we ended up paying $100 million too much or too little for research.
If we had gone the collaborative route, all the test results would be fully public as soon as they were available. That means that when China had results of its Phase 1 and Phase 2 trials, everyone would see how promising their vaccines were. As they moved forward with Phase 3 tests, the results would be available to the whole world at the same time that China’s researchers had them.
This raises two questions.
First, can we trust China to be fully open? We can never know for sure without having a deal, but the reality is that China has complied reasonably well with the international agreements into which it has entered. In any case, if China did not meet its commitments to openness, this would be a very visible breach. That presumably makes it less likely that China would back out of its commitments as opposed to something that is less transparent, like prohibited subsidies for exports....
October 2, 2020
Coronavirus
US
Cases ( 7,531,397)
Deaths ( 213,305)
India
Cases ( 6,471,734)
Deaths ( 100,873)
Mexico
Cases ( 748,315)
Deaths ( 77,078)
France
Cases ( 589,653)
Deaths ( 32,155)
UK
Cases ( 467,146)
Deaths ( 42,268)
Germany
Cases ( 298,362)
Deaths ( 9,596)
Canada
Cases ( 162,320)
Deaths ( 9,402)
China
Cases ( 85,424)
Deaths ( 4,634)
October 2, 2020
Coronavirus (Deaths per million)
US ( 642)
UK ( 623)
Mexico ( 604)
France ( 492)
Canada ( 246)
Germany ( 114)
India ( 73)
China ( 3)
Notice the ratios of deaths to coronavirus cases are 9.0%, 10.3% and 5.5% for the United Kingdom, Mexico and France respectively. These ratios are high, but have been significantly higher.
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-10-02/Chinese-mainland-reports-10-new-COVID-19-cases-all-from-overseas-UfH3L8loCQ/index.html
October 2, 2020
Chinese mainland reports 10 new COVID-19 cases
The Chinese mainland registered 10 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, all from overseas, the National Health Commission said on Friday.
This is the 47th consecutive day without domestic transmissions reported on the Chinese mainland. No deaths linked with the coronavirus were reported over the past 24 hours while 7 patients were discharged from hospitals.
The total number of confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland stands at 85,424, with a death toll of 4,634, while 377 asymptomatic patients are under medical observation.
Chinese mainland new imported cases
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-10-02/Chinese-mainland-reports-10-new-COVID-19-cases-all-from-overseas-UfH3L8loCQ/img/c8376d6408f84e6ebf4decdb33031128/c8376d6408f84e6ebf4decdb33031128.jpeg
Chinese mainland new asymptomatic cases
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-10-02/Chinese-mainland-reports-10-new-COVID-19-cases-all-from-overseas-UfH3L8loCQ/img/8241382a9c404889b2182b940711599f/8241382a9c404889b2182b940711599f.jpeg
There has been no coronavirus death on the Chinese mainland since May 17. There has been no community or domestic coronavirus case for 47 days. Since June began there have been only 2 limited community clusters of infections, in Beijing and Urumqi in Xinjiang, both of which were contained with mass testing, contact tracing and quarantine, and both outbreaks ended in a few weeks. Imported coronavirus cases are caught at entry points with required testing and immediate quarantine. Asymptomatic cases are all quarantined.
The flow of imported cases to China is low, but has been persistent. There are as a result 189 active imported coronavirus cases on the Chinese mainland, but of which only 2 cases are classed as serious or critical.
October 3, 2020
Coronavirus
Israel
Cases ( 263,983)
Deaths ( 1,679)
Deaths per million ( 183)
July 4, 2020
Coronavirus
Israel
Cases ( 29,170)
Deaths ( 330)
Deaths per million ( 36)
Having apparently approached a containment of the coronavirus in June, the Israeli government incautiously opened schools and businesses, and the result has been a persistent community infection spread contributing to what are now 263,983 cases in the small country as compared to 85,434 in all through all of mainland China.
Israel has unfortunately more than three-times the number of coronavirus cases in mainland China. Paul Krugman noticed the Israeli “disaster” on September 14 when there were 160,000 coronavirus cases. The persisting difficulty in limiting a new spread of infections in so highly developed a country has become startling to me. Obviously there is a profound public health failing, but in what way?
October 3, 2020
Coronavirus
Dominican Republic
Cases ( 113,926)
Deaths ( 2,128)
Deaths per million ( 196)
Cuba
Cases ( 5,780)
Deaths ( 122)
Deaths per million ( 11)
Where the Dominican Republic has had the fastest per capita GDP growth in the Americas since 1971, Cuba has been continually beset and limited by United States economic sanctions. Cuba however has built excellent public health infrastructure, reflected in longer life expectancy and lower infant mortality than in the US or Dominican Republic and I think reflected in the way in which the spread of the coronavirus has been limited in Cuba relative to countries all through the Americas.
https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1312358721708847105
Kawsachun News @KawsachunNews
Bolivia's coup president has lifted restrictions on foreign NGO's. Decree 4353 ends rules placed by Evo Morales to stop NGO's, especially those from the US, from intervening in domestic politics.
Añez said; "Bolivia opens up to the world and to contact with western democracies."
7:47 AM · Oct 3, 2020
[ An especially important insight into the US use of NGO's to control or subvert governments. Such a use of NGO's has occurred over and over, while the action of "Coup President" Añez is especially revealing. ]
https://twitter.com/KawsachunNews/status/1312358721708847105
Kawsachun News @KawsachunNews
Bolivia's coup president has lifted restrictions on foreign NGO's. Decree 4353 ends rules placed by Evo Morales to stop NGO's, especially those from the US, from intervening in domestic politics.
Añez said; "Bolivia opens up to the world and to contact with western democracies."
7:47 AM · Oct 3, 2020
[ I vividly remember when a prominent economist found that Evo Morales was going to build a drinking water system for Bolivia as a public good, out of state funds rather than have a private builder from California build and operate the Bolivian water system. A private water system would have meant that poorer Bolivians would be unable to afford water from a national system. The economist taking a Washington Consensus or neoliberal perspective, considered a the building of a water system as a public good developmentally self-defeating. ]
October 3, 2020
Coronavirus
US
Cases ( 7,600,141)
Deaths ( 214,269)
October 3, 2020
Coronavirus
US
Cases ( 7,600,846)
Deaths ( 214,277)
India
Cases ( 6,547,413)
Deaths ( 101,812)
Mexico
Cases ( 753,090)
Deaths ( 78,492)
France
Cases ( 606,625)
Deaths ( 32,198)
UK
Cases ( 480,017)
Deaths ( 42,317)
Germany
Cases ( 300,028)
Deaths ( 9,597)
Canada
Cases ( 164,471)
Deaths ( 9,462)
China
Cases ( 85,434)
Deaths ( 4,634)
October 3, 2020
Coronavirus (Deaths per million)
US ( 646)
UK ( 623)
Mexico ( 607)
France ( 493)
Canada ( 250)
Germany ( 114)
India ( 74)
China ( 3)
Notice the ratios of deaths to coronavirus cases are 8.8%, 10.4% and 5.3% for the United Kingdom, Mexico and France respectively. These ratios are high, but have been significantly higher, while falling recently.
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-10-04/Chinese-mainland-reports-16-new-COVID-19-cases-all-from-overseas-Uj38CDd0yY/index.html
October 4, 2020
Chinese mainland reports 16 new COVID-19 cases
The Chinese mainland on Saturday registered 16 new COVID-19 cases, all from overseas, the National Health Commission announced on Sunday.
This is the 49th consecutive day with zero domestic transmissions reported on the Chinese mainland. No deaths related to the coronavirus were reported over the past 24 hours while 10 patients were discharged from hospitals.
COVID-19 tally on the Chinese mainland stands at 85,450 infections and 4,634 fatalities, while 366 asymptomatic patients remain under medical observation.
Chinese mainland new imported cases
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-10-04/Chinese-mainland-reports-16-new-COVID-19-cases-all-from-overseas-Uj38CDd0yY/img/3047203ff5d0428796d653c28de57110/3047203ff5d0428796d653c28de57110.jpeg
Chinese mainland new asymptomatic cases
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-10-04/Chinese-mainland-reports-16-new-COVID-19-cases-all-from-overseas-Uj38CDd0yY/img/c6e344532b044d21870d5e7f102ac40a/c6e344532b044d21870d5e7f102ac40a.jpeg
There has been no coronavirus death on the Chinese mainland since May 17. There has been no community or domestic coronavirus case for 49 days. Since June began there have been only 2 limited community clusters of infections, in Beijing and Urumqi in Xinjiang, both of which were contained with mass testing, contact tracing and quarantine, and both outbreaks ended in a few weeks. Imported coronavirus cases are caught at entry points with required testing and immediate quarantine. Asymptomatic cases are all quarantined.
The flow of imported cases to China is low, but has been persistent. There are as a result 195 active imported coronavirus cases on the Chinese mainland, but of which only 2 cases are classed as serious or critical.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/04/nyregion/nyc-covid-shutdown-zip-codes.html
October 4, 2020
In Reversal, N.Y.C. Will Close Schools and Businesses in Hard-Hit Areas
“Today, unfortunately, is not a day for celebration,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said. His plan would affect nine neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens.
By Dana Rubinstein, Daniel E. Slotnik and Eliza Shapiro
October 3, 2020
Coronavirus
New York
Cases ( 498,034)
Deaths ( 33,290)
Deaths per million ( 1,711)
October 4, 2020
Coronavirus
Israel
Cases ( 266,775)
Deaths ( 1,719)
Deaths per million ( 187)
July 4, 2020
Coronavirus
Israel
Cases ( 29,170)
Deaths ( 330)
Deaths per million ( 36)
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2020-10-02/capitalism-after-covid-19-pandemic
October 2, 2020
Capitalism After the Pandemic
Getting the Recovery Right
By Mariana Mazzucato
After the 2008 financial crisis, governments across the world injected over $3 trillion into the financial system. The goal was to unfreeze credit markets and get the global economy working again. But instead of supporting the real economy—the part that involves the production of actual goods and services—the bulk of the aid ended up in the financial sector. Governments bailed out the big investment banks that had directly contributed to the crisis, and when the economy got going again, it was those companies that reaped the rewards of the recovery. Taxpayers, for their part, were left with a global economy that was just as broken, unequal, and carbon-intensive as before. “Never let a good crisis go to waste,” goes a popular policymaking maxim. But that is exactly what happened.
Now, as countries are reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdowns, they must avoid making the same mistake. In the months after the virus first surfaced, governments stepped in to address the concomitant economic and health crises, rolling out stimulus packages to protect jobs, issuing rules to slow the spread of the disease, and investing in the research and development of treatments and vaccines. These rescue efforts are necessary. But it is not enough for governments to simply intervene as the spender of last resort when markets fail or crises occur. They should actively shape markets so that they deliver the kind of long-term outcomes that benefit everyone.
The world missed the opportunity to do that back in 2008, but fate has handed it another chance....
Surely there is a profound, tragic problem in infrastructure development in the UK:
October 5, 2020
Coronavirus
UK
Cases ( 515,571)
Deaths ( 42,369)
Deaths per million ( 623)
Germany
Cases ( 302,542)
Deaths ( 9,606)
Deaths per million ( 115)
October 4, 2020
Coronavirus
US
Cases ( 7,636,912)
Deaths ( 214,611)
India
Cases ( 6,622,180)
Deaths ( 102,714)
Mexico
Cases ( 757,953)
Deaths ( 78,880)
France
Cases ( 619,190)
Deaths ( 32,230)
UK
Cases ( 502,978)
Deaths ( 42,350)
Germany
Cases ( 301,571)
Deaths ( 9,602)
Canada
Cases ( 166,156)
Deaths ( 9,481)
China
Cases ( 85,450)
Deaths ( 4,634)
[ Infections appear to be spreading significantly again in western Europe. ]
October 4, 2020
Coronavirus (Deaths per million)
US ( 647)
UK ( 623)
Mexico ( 610)
France ( 493)
Canada ( 251)
Germany ( 115)
India ( 74)
China ( 3)
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-10-05/Chinese-mainland-reports-20-new-COVID-19-cases-all-from-overseas-UkFF5KnHt6/index.html
October 5, 2020
Chinese mainland reports 20 new COVID-19 cases
The Chinese mainland on Sunday registered 20 new COVID-19 cases, all from overseas, the National Health Commission announced on Monday.
This is the 50th consecutive day with zero domestic transmissions reported on the Chinese mainland. No deaths related to the coronavirus were reported over the past 24 hours while 7 patients were discharged from hospitals.
The COVID-19 tally on the Chinese mainland stands at 85,470 infections and 4,634 fatalities, while 369 asymptomatic patients remain under medical observation.
[ There has been no coronavirus death on the Chinese mainland since May 17. There has been no community or domestic coronavirus case for 50 days. Since June began there have been only 2 limited community clusters of infections, in Beijing and Urumqi in Xinjiang, both of which were contained with mass testing, contact tracing and quarantine, and both outbreaks ended in a few weeks. Imported coronavirus cases are caught at entry points with required testing and immediate quarantine. Asymptomatic cases are all quarantined. ]
October 5, 2020
Coronavirus
Israel
Cases ( 271,563)
Deaths ( 1,749)
Deaths per million ( 190)
July 4, 2020
Coronavirus
Israel
Cases ( 29,170)
Deaths ( 330)
Deaths per million ( 36)
Having apparently approached a containment of the coronavirus in June, the Israeli government incautiously opened schools and businesses, and the result has been a persistent community infection spread contributing to what are now 271,563 cases in the small country as compared to 85,470 in all through all of mainland China.
Israel has unfortunately more than three-times the number of coronavirus cases in mainland China. Paul Krugman noticed the Israeli “disaster” on September 14 when there were 160,000 coronavirus cases. The persisting difficulty in limiting a new spread of infections in so highly developed a country has become startling to me. Obviously there is a profound public health infrastructure failing that shows a development failing and has to be addressed.
October 5, 2020
Coronavirus
UK
Cases ( 515,571)
Deaths ( 42,369)
Deaths per million ( 623)
Germany
Cases ( 304,424)
Deaths ( 9,615)
Deaths per million ( 115)
October 5, 2020
Coronavirus
UK
Cases ( 515,571)
Deaths ( 42,369)
Deaths per million ( 623)
[ Evidently, just how difficult the situation is in the UK, which I have repeatedly sought to call attention to since the ratio of deaths to cases pointed to an undercount, is now understood. Awful, awful. ]
https://twitter.com/paulkrugman/status/1313120078293012487
Paul Krugman @paulkrugman
Words fail me. Numbers too.
Max Roser @MaxCRoser
In the UK the number of cases rose rapidly. But the public – and authorities – are only learning this now because these cases were only published now as a backlog. The reason was apparently that the database is managed in Excel and the number of columns had reached the maximum.
10:13 AM · Oct 5, 2020
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/05/health/Covid-patients-mental-state.html
October 5, 2020
Nearly One-Third of Covid Patients in Study Had Altered Mental State
The hospitalized patients showed signs of deteriorating neurological function, ranging from confusion to coma-like unresponsiveness, new research indicates.
By Pam Belluck
Nearly a third of hospitalized Covid-19 patients experienced some type of altered mental function — ranging from confusion to delirium to unresponsiveness — in the largest study to date of neurological symptoms among coronavirus patients in an American hospital system.
And patients with altered mental function had significantly worse medical outcomes, according to the study, * published on Monday in Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology. The study looked at the records of the first 509 coronavirus patients hospitalized, from March 5 to April 6, at 10 hospitals in the Northwestern Medicine health system in the Chicago area.
These patients stayed three times as long in the hospital as patients without altered mental function.
After they were discharged, only 32 percent of the patients with altered mental function were able to handle routine daily activities like cooking and paying bills, said Dr. Igor Koralnik, the senior author of the study and chief of neuro-infectious disease and global neurology at Northwestern Medicine. In contrast, 89 percent of patients without altered mental function were able to manage such activities without assistance.
Patients with altered mental function — the medical term is encephalopathy — were also nearly seven times as likely to die as those who did not have that type of problem....
* https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/acn3.51210
There are 14,176 US coronavirus patients listed as "serious, critical" on October 5.
October 5, 2020
Coronavirus
US
Cases ( 7,668,358)
Deaths ( 214,889)
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/05/opinion/joe-biden-health-care.html
October 5, 2020
Bidencare Would Be a Big Deal
Don’t dismiss it because it isn’t Medicare for All.
By Paul Krugman
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/05/opinion/joe-biden-health-care.html
October 5, 2020
Bidencare Would Be a Big Deal
Don’t dismiss it because it isn’t Medicare for All.
By Paul Krugman
On Monday morning America’s most prominent beneficiary of socialized medicine, in the process of receiving expensive, taxpayer-financed care at a government-run hospital, was tweeting furiously. One of President Trump’s manic missives particularly caught the eyes of health care experts: his exhortation to “PROTECT PREEXISTING CONDITIONS. VOTE!”
As always, it’s not clear whether Trump is merely being cynical or whether he is also genuinely ignorant.
He’s definitely lying when he claims to have a plan that’s better and cheaper than Obamacare. No such plan exists, and he has to know that.
But does he know that Americans with pre-existing medical conditions are already protected by the Affordable Care Act, which his administration is asking the Supreme Court to overturn? Does he realize that the reason his party has never offered an acceptable alternative to the A.C.A., in particular an alternative that would protect pre-existing conditions, is that no such alternative is possible? That’s less clear.
In any case, how the nation votes will indeed make a huge difference to the future of health care — and not just because Trump, if he holds on to power, will almost surely find a way to destroy Obamacare, causing tens of millions of Americans to lose health insurance. Joe Biden, if he wins (and gets a Democratic Senate), will make a big difference in the other direction, substantially expanding coverage and reducing premiums for middle-class families.
The second part of this statement may come as news to many readers, because Biden’s health proposals haven’t drawn much attention so far.
Why not? One reason is that the election is — rightly — being seen mainly as a referendum on Trump rather than on likely Democratic policy. Another is that since the Democratic primary fight pitted Biden against rivals calling for radical changes in health policy, many people assume that the winner of that fight, who rejected those radical proposals, wouldn’t change much.
But while Biden is indeed proposing incremental change rather than Medicare for All, we’re talking about some big increments. Independent estimates suggest that under Biden’s plan, 15 million to 20 million Americans would gain health insurance. And premiums would fall sharply, especially for middle-class families....
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-10-05/The-lies-that-infected-Trump-UlAHECE5gI/index.html
October 5, 2020
The lies that infected Trump
By Jeffrey D. Sachs
Unlike tens of millions of people around the world who have contracted COVID-19 because of their poverty, bad luck, vulnerability as essential workers, or poor decisions by policymakers, U.S. President Donald Trump's infection is of his own making.
Trump's disdain for science and his brazen disregard for public-health advice led directly to his own illness; far worse, they have fueled America's soaring COVID-19 death toll – now at more than 214,000.
Since the pandemic began, public health experts around the world have begged the public to wear face masks, avoid large gatherings, and maintain physical distance from others, in order to stop the transmission of the virus. Leave it to Trump, a man of pathological disposition, to reject all such advice.
Barely two days before announcing that he and the First Lady had tested positive, Trump was mocking Joe Biden for wearing one. "I don't wear a mask like him," Trump said at the first presidential debate. "Every time you see him, he's got a mask. He could be speaking 200 feet away…and he shows up with the biggest mask I've ever seen."
Rejecting appeals by public health experts and local officials, Trump had been holding large rallies both indoors and outdoors in recent months, with non-masked attendees standing close together. And Trump spurned basic precautions in the White House, including physical distancing of staff and requiring face masks in meetings.
Trump's recklessness not only exposed himself, his wife, and his entourage to COVID-19; it also encouraged his supporters across America to mock public-health warnings and threaten infectious disease experts, thereby contributing to the spread of the disease. Many Americans lack basic scientific literacy and are easily swayed and encouraged by manipulators like Trump and his allies at Fox News. Trump not only blocked an effective federal public-health response, but incited dangerous behavior by his followers nationwide.
Like other world leaders who have contracted COVID-19, Trump could easily have avoided being infected by observing normal public-health strictures. It is not a coincidence that populist politicians in Trump's mold, notably UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, also became infected.
Like Trump, both Johnson and Bolsonaro systematically downplayed the threat of the pandemic and brazenly flaunted routine public-health measures. And, like the United States, the United Kingdom and Brazil are among the world's hardest-hit countries, with a COVID-19 death rate of 647 per million population in the U.S., 687 in Brazil, and 623 in the UK, compared with a global average death rate of 133 per million....
October 6, 2020
Coronavirus
Israel
Cases ( 276,439)
Deaths ( 1,784)
Deaths per million ( 194)
July 4, 2020
Coronavirus
Israel
Cases ( 29,170)
Deaths ( 330)
Deaths per million ( 36)
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