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Fauci Picks Em

From July 2020:

How did they do it?

From Cuomo Advisers Altered Report on Covid-19 Nursing-Home Deaths (WSJ):

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s top advisers successfully pushed state health officials to strip a public report of data showing that more nursing-home residents had died of Covid-19 than the administration had acknowledged, according to people with knowledge of the report’s production.

The July report, which examined the factors that led to the spread of the virus in nursing homes, focused only on residents who died inside long-term-care facilities, leaving out those who had died in hospitals after becoming sick in nursing homes. As a result, the report said 6,432 nursing-home residents had died—a significant undercount of the death toll attributed to the state’s most vulnerable population, the people said. The initial version of the report said nearly 10,000 nursing-home residents had died in New York by July last year, one of the people said.

The changes Mr. Cuomo’s aides and health officials made to the nursing-home report, which haven’t been previously disclosed, reveal that the state possessed a fuller accounting of out-of-facility nursing-home deaths as early as the summer. The Health Department resisted calls by state and federal lawmakers, media outlets and others to release the data for another eight months.

State officials now say more than 15,000 residents of nursing homes and other long-term-care facilities were confirmed or presumed to have died from Covid-19 since March of last year—counting both those who died in long-term-care facilities and those who died later in hospitals. That figure is about 50% higher than earlier official death tolls.

Related: Governor Andrew Cuomo Deserves Emmy But Not Governorship

Romer: The FDA’s Massive Damage To People’s Health and Wealth

Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Romer provides “a recap with links about how the FDA responded to just a couple of issues since the start of the pandemic.”

Writes Romer:

It might be time to review the massive damage that the FDA is doing by restricting the supply and use of tests for the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Massive? With enough tests, the US could have avoided the enormous cost that this virus is imposing – at least 200,000 excess deaths and $8 trillion in lost output.

[…]

Many accounts have noted how the failure of the virus test developed by the CDC delayed the US response to the virus. The fact that has not gotten as much attention is that although the FDA promptly approved the broken test from the CDC, it took an excruciatingly long time to approve tests that actually worked.

Read The FDA’s Perpetual Process Machine.


Related articles:

Takeways from Yaron Brook Interview with Dr. Amesh Adalja on The CoronaVirus

Dr. Amesh Adalja is a Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security. His work is focused on emerging infectious disease, pandemic preparedness, and biosecurity.

Recommended Reading: COVID19: A Path Forward by Amesh Adalja

Some key takeaways:

  • Asynchronous outbreaks around the world – worldwide cases are coming again (South Korea) — the virus is not going anywhere;
  • We are going to be dealing with COVID-19 for the next two years until a vaccine is developed;
  • South Korea COVID-19 Response was “textbook”: acted quickly and took the right actions’;
  • Keep the number of cases so not to overwhelm hospital capacity — in Japan had to reimplement lockdown when cases spiked up again;
  • The jury is still out on Sweden: most deaths in nursing homes; still some restrictions on large crowds; Swedes tend to social distance “naturally” (Brook); not appropriate for U.S. hotspots like New York;
  • Taiwan “great success story” pounced on this and was very aggressive on testing; injustices against Taiwan; prohibited from WHO (and U.N.) because Taiwan government respects individual rights of citizens;
  • Virus mutations: “most mutations have no functional significance”; what matters is how virulent it is (speed of spread);
  • Death rates dependent on host (co-factors like obesity and diabetes); can run rampant in nursing homes (must lockdown and be “fortified”) which is high risk;
  • Not apocalyptic, but still dangerous: New virus with no protection against it (more deadly and challenging then flu — which we have antivirals for); what makes it deadly is that it can affect everybody; so even if a small amount (0.6);
  • Cannot extrapolate one area (high population density like New York City) to another (rural area);
  • Politicization has made it hard to get an objective opinion; CDC: “constrained” by the political environment; Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID): “made major breakthroughs”, “pioneer with HIV”, “icon in the field”;
  • How durable is immunity? People in South Korea were not reinfected — the test does not test for viable virus, but tests for materials (debris) from virus;
  • “Flattening the Curve” is not about saving lives, but spreading cases out over time so as to not overwhelm hospital capacity; as you peel back social distancing the number of cases will go up;
  • Hydroxychloroquine is not the answer, but the effectiveness depends on controlled grouped trials; the final solution is a vaccine;
  • Island nations (Iceland, New Zeland) are good at infectious diseases as they have a natural barrier;
  • Number of cases is less important then hospitalization rates;
  • California — lockdown (“blunt instrument”) of the entire state is not necessary at this time; should be done a county level;
  • 1968 Hong Kong Flu [influenza A subtype H3N2] compared to COVID-19: This will be worse, but not as bad as 1918 [1918–19 pandemic, which caused between 25 million and 50 million deaths].
  • A lot of gray areas: a lot of things we do not know the answer to and are “learning things on the fly”; lots of false alternatives being created between opening up completely and shutdowns;
  • What individuals should do: high-risk individuals should avoid COIV-19 at all costs; avoid contact with high-risk individuals so as to not infect them with the virus; different for every person’s risk tolerance; make sure people you visit consent to making contact with you.

The Failure of The COVID-19 Experts

Victor David Hanson makes some important observations in “The War between Experience and Credentials” (5 May 2020, National Review):

One of the most depressing aspects of the coronavirus epidemic has been the failure of the credentialed class — the alphabetic transnational and federal health organizations, the university modelers, the professional associations, and their media enablers. Their collective lapse was largely due to hubris and the assumption that titles and credentials meant they had no need to accept input and criticism from those far more engaged in the physical world — they saw no need to say, “At this time, I confess we are as confused as you are.”

In sum, the ER doctors, the nurses, and the public in general all eagerly welcomed the research of the experts. But the reverse — in which experts would listen to those with firsthand experience — was not true.

The asymmetrical result is that we all have paid a terrible price in misjudging the perfidy of China; the rot within the World Health Organization; the origins, transmission, infectiousness, and lethality of the virus; and the most effective, cost-to-benefit response to the epidemic in terms of saving lives lost to the infection versus the likely even more lives lost through the response.

Truly a must-read.

Cuomo: The Recipient of Charity that Keeps on Taking

From “Andrew Cuomo: Healthcare workers who volunteered to help New York with pandemic must pay state income taxes“, 6 May 2020, Washington Examiner:

Healthcare workers who traveled to New York to help patients during the coronavirus pandemic may not have realized they were also going to be assisting the state dig itself out of a financial hole. […]  “Ken Isaacs, the vice president of Samaritan’s Purse, a nonprofit organization that set up a temporary hospital in Central Park to help with the pandemic, told PIX 11 he was shocked to learn that workers who volunteered to come to the state would have to pay the state’s income tax.”

Thus, a nurse from Texas (which has no state income taxes), who volunteers to work in New York, will have to file paperwork, and pay taxes for money she is paid in Texas.

 

State Lockdowns Were Never Justified

Human Flourishing advocate Alex Epstein interviews philosopher Onkar Ghate, Senior Fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute, on why lockdowns are not a proper response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Topics they cover include:

  • We need objective, clearly defined laws specifying and limiting the power of government in regard to infectious diseases.
  • Why Sweden has more American infectious disease laws than America does.
  • How clearly defined laws lead to better preparedness by government, industry, and individuals.
  • Why more profit-making in the health care system is key to scaling capacity.
  • How governments have failed to do their proper job of identifying and isolating infectious individuals.
  • How far greater transparency from government would empower a free people to make rational decisions.
  • The right way to handle potential hospital capacity shortages.
  • How the idea of “free” health care promotes irresponsible behavior.
  • Why state-wide lockdowns were not the right policy with the evidence we had.
  • Why lockdowns were a panic-based, not reason-based policy that should be removed as quickly as possible.
  • How governments should make policy and communicate to citizens going forward.
  • Why now is the time to write to government officials—and what you should write.

 

COVID-19 Roundup: (April 2020)

Fact 1: The overwhelming majority of people do not have any significant risk of dying from COVID-19.
Fact 2: Protecting older, at-risk people eliminates hospital overcrowding.
Fact 3: Vital population immunity is prevented by total isolation policies, prolonging the problem.
Fact 4: People are dying because other medical care is not getting done due to hypothetical projections.
Fact 5: We have a clearly defined population at risk who can be protected with targeted measures.

After providing evidence for the above facts he goes on to conclude:

The appropriate policy, based on fundamental biology and the evidence already in hand, is to institute a more focused strategy like some outlined in the first place: Strictly protect the known vulnerable, self-isolate the mildly sick and open most workplaces and small businesses with some prudent large-group precautions. This would allow the essential socializing to generate immunity among those with minimal risk of serious consequence, while saving lives, preventing overcrowding of hospitals and limiting the enormous harms compounded by continued total isolation.

A pandemic does not alter the role of a government. For example, it can limit the freedom of those individuals who carry the virus for limited periods to protect others, whose right to life would be violated. This could involve testing, tracing contacts, and tracking. When governments are involved in operating health care systems, as they are in most mixed economies, they would isolate nursing home residents and other vulnerable people, increase hospital capacity, and set guidelines for physical distancing—as opposed to violating everybody’s right to liberty by locking down economies.

We need to learn to appreciate progress—both what we’ve already done, and why we can’t stop now. We need to tell the amazing story of progress: how comfort, safety, health, and luxury have become commonplace, and what a dramatic achievement that has been.

More recently, in the wake of the Covid-19 virus outbreak, we’ve seen unwarranted, unprecedented violations of all three realms of freedom in America – mandates to close businesses, edicts that people stay in their homes (“shelter in place,” akin to a nationwide house arrest of innocents presumed guilty), decrees against assembling (compelling “social distancing”), orders restricting access to gun shops, even the classification of some street protests (against the illiberal controls) as prohibited because a “non-essential” activity.  We’ve yet to see challenges from the ACLU or court orders staying the rights violations. Why?

The lockdowns, whatever one thinks of them, were never sold to us as a way to eradicate the disease. They were sold as a way to “flatten the curve” so that the medical system didn’t become overwhelmed, leading to *unnecessary* deaths. […] We must open the economy as fast as we can. And we must do so while managing the disease as best we can. That includes selective isolation for the most vulnerable. (I have family members in this category…and, if it matters, they support re-opening the economy. They recognize that it would be immoral to demand that we sacrifice the whole country to reduce their odds of getting the disease.)

  • Alex Epstein’s video “A pro-freedom approach to fighting COVID-19″: (Power Hour, April 15, 2020):

If you’re seeking to avoid COVID-19, the hand sanitizer gel you carry in a pocket or purse did not exist until the 1960s. If you start to show symptoms, the pulse oximeter that tests your blood oxygenation was not developed until the 1970s. If your case worsens, the mechanical ventilator that keeps you alive was invented in the 1950s—in fact, no form of artificial respiration was widely available until the “iron lung” used to treat polio patients in the 1930s. Even the modern emergency medical system did not exist until recently: if during the 1918 flu pandemic you became seriously ill, there was no 911 hotline to call, and any ambulance that showed up would likely have been a modified van or hearse, with no equipment or trained staff.

If you are a scientist at an academic institution currently working on a COVID-19 related project and in need of funding, we invite you to apply for a Fast Grant. Fast Grants are $10k to $500k and decisions are made in under 48 hours. If you wish to apply to grants for scientific or biomedical COVID-19 projects, please apply through FastGrants.org.

A Pro-Privacy COVID-19 Contact Tracing App

According to the creators, the Decentralised Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing (DP-3T) project is “an open protocol for COVID-19 proximity tracing using Bluetooth Low Energy functionality on mobile devices that ensures personal data and computation stays entirely on an individual’s phone.”

Artist Nicky Case (with help from Prof Carmelo Troncoso & Prof Marcel Salathé) created a comic to explain how the protocol works:

You can see the long version here.

Updates:

Bill Gates on How To Respond To The COVID-19 Pandemic

“….Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates offers insights into the COVID-19 pandemic, discussing why testing and self-isolation are essential, which medical advancements show promise and what it will take for the world to endure this crisis.”

Takeaways:

  • Targeted Testing, as done in South Korea and Taiwan.
    • Gate’s did agree with Taiwan being shut-out of WHO, especially . (For the record, this is due to the China Communist dictatorship’s control over the UN. Taiwan was warning the WHO about what the NY Times was calling the ‘Wuhan Virus’ from December and was ignored.)
    • South Korea did not have to implement a nation-wide shut down because they did such an excellent job at early testing to isolate those with COVID-19.
    • Testing should be prioritized for health care workers in constant contact with patients and for those non-health-care workers who are symptomatic given the lack of supply of convenient COVID-19 kits to test everyone.
    • The COVID-19 testing problem will be resolved when reliable, in-home, self-test kits that deliver same-day results, are available.
  • Isolation & Shut-Down
    • If you cannot do a proper job on testing early, then you need to shut down movement to “flatten the curve“
    • Once the majority of COVID-19 carriers are isolated, the economy can reopen once you have done proper testing.
  • Mass vaccination in the long-run is the solution according to Gates. He has spent a hundred million dollars in advancing vaccination, particularly in third-world countries.

Delay in COVID Testing: “Too many chefs in the kitchen” or “All eggs in one basket”?

The interviewer, head of TED Chris Anderson, attempts to blame free-markets when he asks is the delay in the U.S. getting COVID-19 tests out in time due to “too many chefs in the kitchen.” (In a  market there are many biotech companies competing to produce the best test)

The actual cause of the delay in COVID-19 testing was that there was only one “universal” government chef in the kitchen — the CDC — which only approved one “universal” test created by the state and forbade all the “recipes” (tests) from other chefs (private companies) — and the CDC’s test did not work. CDC-FDA “universal” socialist medicine was the cause of the delay in this case.

A better metaphor would be “putting all your testing eggs in one government-controlled basket.”

Thankfully, private U.S. medical companies came to the rescue.

$$$

Related: The next outbreak? We’re not ready | Bill Gates (2015 Talk)

 

Stored Away 2013 Bat Sample Found To Contained Covid-19

Writes Matt Ridley on the Bats Behind The Pandemic (WSJ, April 9, 2020):

RaTG13 is the name, rank and serial number of an individual horseshoe bat of the species Rhinolophus affinis, or rather of a sample of its feces collected in 2013 in a cave in Yunnan, China. The sample was collected by hazmat-clad scientists from the Institute of Virology in Wuhan that year. Stored away and forgotten until January this year, the sample from the horseshoe bat contains the virus that causes Covid-19.

[…]

In a paper published in February last year, Patrick Woo and colleagues at Hong Kong University surveyed the coronaviruses found in bats and came to a prescient conclusion: “Bat–animal and bat–human interactions, such as the presence of live bats in wildlife wet markets and restaurants in Southern China, are important for interspecies transmission of [coronaviruses] and may lead to devastating global outbreaks.”

 

 

No Post-Mortem Tests: Germany’s Low COVID-19 Death Numbers

Better medical equipment, early testing, and younger patients are some of the explanations for Germany’s low COVID-19 death rates.

EuroNews mentions another possible factor: No post-mortem tests.

Quoting from David Courbe, “Dissecting Germany’s low coronavirus death rate” Agence France-Presse (AFP):

Another explanation cited by Italian experts, could be that Germany, unlike other countries, tends not to test those who have already died.

“We don’t consider post-mortem tests to be a decisive factor. We work on the principle that patients are tested before they die,” the [disease control agency Robert Koch Institute (RKI)] told AFP.

That means that if a person dies in quarantine at home and does not go to hospital, there is a high chance they will not be included in the statistics, as Giovanni Maga of Italy’s National Research Council pointed out in an interview with Euronews.

WHO Hindered The Fight Against COVID-19

In an excellent article in the UK Telegraph, WHO must answer serious questions before it is trusted with leading a Covid-19 inquiry (April 3, 2020), Matt Ridley shows that WHO’s actions demonstrate that WHO placed politics and cronyism above world health:

[WHO]… failed to prepare the world for a pandemic, spending the years since the Sars and ebola alarms talking more about climate change, obesity and tobacco, while others, including the Wellcome Trust and the Gates foundation, actually set up a coalition for epidemic preparedness innovation, and countries like Singapore and South Korea put in place measures to cope with an outbreak like SARS in the future.

[WHO]… once the epidemic began in China, WHO downplayed its significance, tweeting as late as January 14 that “preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus”, when it had already been warned by the Taiwanese health authorities among others of strong evidence for medical staff in Wuhan becoming ill. The Chinese government at this stage had known for weeks that the virus was spreading, probably person to person, yet WHO then sycophantically praised the Chinese government.

[WHO]… has failed before. When the ebola outbreak in West Africa that was to kill 11,000 people began in late 2013, on its own admission WHO hindered the fight against the virus, obsessed with not letting others find out what was happening.

Government Temporarily Suspends Some Anti-Capitalist Healthcare Regulations

American’s For Tax Freedom has posted a list of over 150 suspended regulations to help the U.S. deal with the COVID-19 virus from China.

In all cases, these anti-capitalist, anti-free-market rules have been suspended because they increase the cost and decrease the efficiency and effectiveness of America’s health care system.

Which makes you wonder why such violations of individual rights (non-objective regulations) were put into place, to begin with.

Such “universal” regulations are a political virus that has weakened the U.S. health care for the past century.

They should all be repealed. — MDC

***

Some of the suspended federal regulations include:

FDA allows state leeway in virus testing

“The FDA will allow states to take responsibility for tests developed and used by laboratories within their borders. The labs will not have to pursue Emergency Use Authorization from the agency, an emergency clearance that is normally required.” – STAT News (3/16/20)

FDA loosens regulations on distribution of newly developed tests    

“Under certain circumstances, the agency will not object to any manufacturers that distribute newly developed tests before the FDA grants emergency clearance, and a similar stance will be taken toward labs that use these new tests.” – STAT News (3/16/20)

FDA issues emergency authorization of anti-malaria drug for coronavirus care

“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to BARDA to allow hydroxychloroquine sulfate and chloroquine phosphate products donated to the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) to be distributed and prescribed by doctors to hospitalized teen and adult patients with COVID-19, as appropriate, when a clinical trial is not available or feasible.” – Department of Health and Human Services (3/29/20)

Allowance of licensed health care professionals to work in a different state from which they are licensed

The “requirements that physicians or other health care professionals hold licenses in the State in which they provide services, if they have an equivalent license from another State (and are not affirmatively barred from practice in that State or any State a part of which is included in the emergency area)” are being waived. – U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (3/13/20)

Physician-owned hospitals can temporarily increase the number of their licensed beds, operating rooms, and procedure rooms

“Physician-owned hospitals can temporarily increase the number of their licensed beds, operating rooms, and procedure rooms. For example, a physician-owned hospital may temporarily convert observation beds to inpatient beds to accommodate patient surge during the public health emergency.” – Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (3/30/20)

Allows non-physician practitioners (physician assistants, nurse practitioners) a wider scope of practice, like ordering tests and medications

“CMS is issuing waivers so that hospitals can use other practitioners, such as physician assistants and nurse practitioners, to the fullest extent possible, in accordance with a state’s emergency preparedness or pandemic plan. These clinicians can perform services such as order tests and medications that may have previously required a physician’s order where this is permitted under state law.” – Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (3/30/20)

American’s For Tax Freedom also lists suspended state rules and regulations. Most of these deal with licensing restrictions that:

  • prevent medical professionals from working outside of the state they are licensed,
  • limit the actions and care that physician assistants’ can perform,
  • limit the number of medical professionals,
  • limit the creation of hospitals and nursing homes via so-called “Certificates of Need.”

Visit American’s For Tax Freedom for the full (and updated) list.

Yaron Brook on How a Capitalist Society Would Respond to the Health Care Crisis

Yaron Brook, in an excellent Twitter thread, makes an off the cuff outline of how he thinks a free-market would respond to the COVID-19 crisis:

In a truly capitalist society, here is how the market responds:

1. Health insurance companies monitor for health risks (they have an economic interest to do so).

2. Warn early — implement plans with hospitals, that have been developed well in advance.

3. Demand from hospitals for extra equipment, causes prices to go up quickly.

4. The market responds by bringing on new capacity quickly.

5. Groceries raise prices on high in-demand goods, thus reducing “hoarding” and assuring continued supply.

6. Hospitals (all private, and in a completely private market) activate emergency plans (which they have a profit-motive to have) for additional beds (in mothballed buildings, local hotels, or other facilities).

7. Private pharmaceutical companies and labs develop tests at the request of hospitals and clinics.

8. Private clinics start testing in mass.

9. Goverment’s job — to make sure those who are a threat to others, are isolated.

10. Private media and health experts, provide objective (non-political) advice to individuals and companies on how to deal, in the context of their own lives, with the pandemic.

11. Testing provides individuals and companies with the kind of information crucial to making rational decisions.

12. Private labs and pharma companies rush to innovate treatments and vaccines.

13. Private testing and certification organizations (“FDA” replacements) ramp up to approve test kits, treatments, and vaccines.

14. Business adjusts to peoples’ preferences for safety. Put in necessary protections and conveniences…

15. People who don’t follow the reasonable guidelines suffer social ostracism and left to suffer consequences.

16. Insurance contracts could be written in ways that say — if you want to be covered, behave…

Feel free to add — private market responses to pandemic…

You can read the original thread and the responses here.

A $300 3D-Printable Automated Ventilator

 

A team at Rice University has developed an automated bag valve mask ventilation unit that can be built for less than $300 in parts and help patients in treatment for COVID-19. The university expects to make plans to build the unit freely available online. Up-to-date details about the project, dubbed the ApolloBVM, and its progress are available here: http://oedk.rice.edu/apollobvm/

From U.S. Hospitals Have a Ventilator Shortage. A Team of Rice Engineers Say They Have a Solution (Texas Monthly):

Tonight, [Thomas] Herring and five other engineers are rushing to finish a project that is arguably among the most consequential in the world at the moment, one that could be deployed to the public as early as next week: a $300 3D-printable automated ventilator.

If successful, the ventilation unit—a DIY device that looks like the work of a high school robotics club—could go into mass production as early as next week, offering hospitals around the world a way to address a ventilator shortage that is expected to kill thousands of coronavirus patients suffering from the respiratory illness in the coming weeks.

…

High-quality ventilators like the kinds hospitals rely on can easily cost $10,000 apiece. Faced with shortages, doctors might soon have to make tough decisions about redistributing them from older patients to younger, healthier ones, many experts believe.

Many hospitals have an abundant supply, however, of bag valve masks, which are hand-operated ventilators that are inefficient and difficult for one person to operate for more than an hour at a time; they require a rotation of people to keep the patient alive.

The Rice prototype automates the pumping of the bag and can be specifically calibrated for each patient’s needs. With mechanized bag valve masks on hand, hospitals could buy themselves some time, allowing them to redistribute limited resources, move patients to other facilities, or allow family members the chance to say goodbye to loved ones who have no chance of recovery and might otherwise be taken off in-demand machines.

…

The Rice team believes they can eventually lower the cost of their units to somewhere between $100 and $200. The low cost was built into the engineering. The machines were designed using laser cutters and 3D printers, as well as parts that can be found in most hardware stores. “Houston and the rest of the U.S. may have manufacturers that can make these things by the hundreds,” Kavalewitz said, “but a small hospital in Malawi doesn’t have that luxury, but we’ll be able to give the plans to save lives.”

…

The Department of Defense is interested in their design and several Texas Fortune 500 companies have expressed interest in producing the model, team members say. The governor of Tennessee has also expressed interest in purchasing the machines once they’re completed.

Read the rest here.

 

Amesh Adalja: COVID19-A Path Forward

In his essay on COVID19: A Path Forward, Dr. Amesh Adalja, a virus, bio-security expert writes on the importance of how draconian measures to foght COVID-19 can be worse then virus itself:

Plans of prolonged, enforced confinement aimed at preserving life at any cost are premised on a misunderstanding of human life and what makes it worth living. When discussing treatment options with a patient, I often invoke the concept of “quality of life”. Patients regularly choose to take on some risk to their longevity in order to preserve or enhance their quality of life. Individual preferences and shared decision-making with physicians guide medical decision making and also should apply to each individual’s decision regarding the degree of social distancing that is appropriate for them.

A degraded quality of life, particularly over time, itself generates its own risks of death. If the lockdown is prolonged, we can expect increases in deaths from cancer, cardiovascular disease, stroke, mental illness, and substance abuse. How many cancers will metastasize while colonoscopies or biopsies deemed “elective” will be postponed?

Quality of life consists largely in the ability to engage in the activities that make up our lives, and central to these activities is work. Most of us need to work to support ourselves, and many people, including myself, derive meaning from their work. Moreover, humans, as a species, survive by productive work. Jobs cannot be easily parsed into “life-sustaining” and “non-life-sustaining” enterprises. All work consists in the creating of something we need to sustain human life physically and psychologically. Some of these needs are more acute than others, but all contribute to our ability and will to live. Stopping people from working is like depriving a limb of blood flow. Though action is sometimes necessary in an emergency, irreparable and irreversible harm will occur if it is prolonged. A prolonged freeze of the economy — even in the face of a deadly pandemic — will cause a long-term damage far greater than any purported benefit.

He also presents five recommendations, and concludes on a positive note:

In the past infectious diseases claimed more lives per capita than are projected to be at risk from this pandemic, but humans rarely responded by retreating from activity. In the years when smallpox ravaged the planet and rubella crippled babies, humans went to the moon.

A $10 ten minute test for the coronavirus?

  • 10-minute test for coronavirus exposure utilizing blood from a finger prick can be performed anywhere by trained professionals, e.g. airports, schools, work, doctor’s office
  • Biomerica has begun shipping samples of this COVID-19 test to multiple Ministries of Health and government agencies that have requested the product through the Company’s distributors in the Middle East, Europe, and other countries
  • Price point of this single-use, disposable product as low as $10 per patient
  • Biomerica has filed a provisional patent on rapid test technology to identify multiple coronavirus strains including the strain responsible for COVID-19

Read more here.

 

Updates:

How does a coronavirus home test kit work, and how do I get one?
The UK Government has bought 3.5million finger-prick antibody tests that could soon radically transform the UK’s response to Covid-19.

Ten-Minute Coronavirus Test for $1 Could Be Game Changer
U.K. company, Senegalese institute developing hand-held kit. Kits to be manufactured in Africa, sell for less than a dollar