Why Can’t Favored College Students Observe Pandemic Rules?

Posted on August 23, 2020 by Dennis SILVERMAN

Why Can’t Favored College Students Observe Pandemic Rules?

The costs of college, and the sacrifices and costs of getting into college are immense.  This is especially true at the nation’s top schools, like Notre Dame.  The question is why can’t the students there obey simple and common  pandemic rules, to allow in-person classes?  Clearly, I don’t have the answer, or I would be selling my advice to universities.  Here, it is just a rhetorical question to point out the sacrifices that students and their families pay for a college education, which a few students compromise for a party or two.

I do not mean that attending college for a year virtually is a great educational sacrifice, although it is a social sacrifice.  First of all, you still get the courses from the same invaluable faculty and assistants.  Second, having observed some classes, students didn’t necessarily attend in person before.  When they did, they often were on their laptops, not always taking notes.  This is especially true of large Freshmen and Softmore classes not in your major.  The buildings and labs that you may not access are built on long term loans, which still have to be paid off.  When you graduate with your degree from a distinguished school, it is no less valuable.

I use Notre Dame as an example only since they are trying to reopen with in-person classes early, and because they have great capabilities and I have a great respect for them.  If they can’t do it, other campuses will also have troubles.

This is a tv screen photo on CNN of colleges having problems opening in-person because of Coronavirus cases.

Notre Dame charges about $53,000 a year in tuition, and with an estimated $72,000 a year for total costs including room and board, books, and fees.  Obviously, if you get sent back home, you get to save on room and board.  The admission rate has been 18%, with 2,051 of new students enrolled.  Their average SAT score is 1445, and the average ACT score is 34.  The average GPA is around 4.

The preparation of students nationwide for SATs is a $1.1 billion industry.  Around 3/4ths of wealthy students get extra help on the SATs.  The children of the wealthy may also go to $40,000 a year prep schools.  A typical SAT prep course is $2,600 for 10 hours of private tutoring.  The Princeton Review and Kaplan charge $1,600 for 54 hours of preparation.  A cheaper private tutoring is $70/hour for 20 to 30 hours.

In supporting DACA students, I had calculated that by the time we have graduated a high school student in California, the State has put $140,000 into their education

With all of these college costs, mostly borne by parents or loans with some small federal grants, and the earning of grades for at least high school years, and the time and costs of test preparation and taking, why can’t college students obey the simple pandemic rules?  Again, I don’t know the answer.

In the old days, we used to call on “social pressure” to get people to follow common rules.  While this really comes down to “personal responsibility”, we have been led for five years by the “cult of Trump”, which celebrates a boss who obeys no rules, and has spent six months flouting the pandemic rules.  

The inspiration for this article is the song “Why can’t the English learn to speak?” Sung by Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison) in “My Fair Lady” by Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe.  It has the chorus line “Why can’t the English teach their children how to speak?”

Posted in Coronavirus, COVID-19, Department of Education, Donald Trump, Education, University Funding | Leave a comment

California Fires, Climate Change, and Poor Building Practices

Posted on August 22, 2020 by Dennis SILVERMAN

California Fires, Climate Change, and Poor Building Practices

There are now over 500 fires in California, covering over 1,000,000 acres since July, or about 1,600 square miles, which is a 40 mile square.  All of California’s firefighting equipment is involved, with 12,000 firefighters working 72 hour shifts.  The two largest fires are second and third in the all time fire area list.  More lightning is expected on Sunday, tomorrow.

I am not a fire expert, but there are some obvious physics of global and land warming, and urban encroachment, which exacerbate the fire risks before and during the fires. 

While the global average warming is 1 degree C or 1.8 degrees F, that includes 70% of the surface as slower to heat ocean.  Land warming has been 2.0 degrees C since 1880, or 3.8 degrees F.  The US has warmed 2.3 degrees F.  

California is in a three week heat wave, and Northern California has moderate drought in the Eastern Sierra Nevada, and severe drought in the Western ranges.  

The warming has also allowed pine bark beetles to prosper, since it takes several nights of freezing to kill them under the bark.  The beetles kill the trees in areas, leaving large tinder patches.

To the heating, the heat wave, the drought and the beetle destruction, add the unusual 11,000 lightening strikes last weekend for ignition.

The urban encroachment makes very difficult work for firefighting and firefighters.  Their main goals are to evacuate people and protect property.  But forest and hillside building has narrow two or even one lane roads, and towns with minimal one road exits.  This is made worse by the Obstinates, who don’t evacuate when required, and can draw down water resources as well as requiring extra rescue trips that clog roads.

Any house on a hillside has a view.  But with Superegos, that it not good enough.  You have to level and build on the cliffs and the ridges, and the richest estates level hilltops.  Fires, of course, burn uphill.  In a lighting storm, the tallest pointed pine trees on hilltops, cliffs and ridges are the natural lightening rods.  Even if they catch fire, they are already on top, and do not go up hill.  For fire fighters, instead of just blocking fires from burning downhill, they have to wind up to the cliffs, ridges, and hilltops to protect the properties there.  Even if communities can not prevent such building (they can’t), the insurance companies can stop insuring such hazardous building.  Investors (pension funds), and the common insured paying higher rates to cover such hazardous buildings, are the voting masses of our society.

The town of Paradise was a tragedy that just grew over decades.  It was in the wrong place:  the side of a canyon which was a Santa Ana wind tunnel.  It had narrow roads, and the town had restricted travel to single lanes each way.  It would have taken 5 hours to evacuate it.  Unmanaged growth, and despite effective evaluations, no imposed modifications.

57% of the forests in California are National Forests, not under State management.  They are seriously underfunded, and the President was totally unaware that these were under his management.  The forest urbanization has prevented natural burnings to periodically naturally clean up the combustible parts of the forest.  After burning, the forests naturally reproduce.  In older areas, the houses are romantically buried within the surrounding trees, with no clearance.

While the fires have attacked some redwoods, they have thick bark, and have managed to survive for thousands of years.

In trying to consider fire safety first, you have to actually fight the people who are already grandfathered in, very wealthy and influential homeowners and developers, environmentalists who put fire safety last, and every few years, administrations who simply want to exploit forest resources.   Oddly enough, about 1,300 of our firefighters are inmates who are sent to defend these valuable properties.

 

Posted in Fire Risks | Leave a comment

California’s Vast Lightning Fires and Hazardous Air Pollution

Posted on August 20, 2020 by Dennis SILVERMAN

California’s Vast Lightning Fires and Hazardous Air Pollution

California has had 11,000 lightning strikes and 370 resulting fires, of which 23 are major fires.  Over 10,000 firefighters are fighting them.  We will show PurpleAir.com maps of the extremely hazardous air pollution over the fire areas.  California is also in the midst of a three week heat wave that may be a hundred year event.

Update:  Sunday, August 23, 4:30 pm.  The LNU and SCU fires are now both about 340,000 acres, or 530 square miles each.  Overall California burning is 1.3 million acres, or 2,000 square miles.  The CZU fire is at 67,000 acres, and the River fire and the Butte/Tehama/G fires are at 48,000 acres each.  3,500 structures have been damaged or destroyed, and 5 lives have been lost.  Over 100,000 have been evacuated.  An acre is about the size of a football field.  They are expecting more lightning tonight, as well as high wind gusts.

The two largest fires are: the LNU Lightning Complex fire in Napa County, of 131,000 acres; and the SCU Lightning Complex Fire in Contra Costa, Alameda, Santa Clara, and Stanislaus Counties, of 137,500 acres.  Converting 640 acres to a square mile, these are complexes of fires spread out over about 200 square miles each.

As of this evening, the total acreage under fire is 500,000, or about 800 square miles.  60,000 people have been evacuated, and 100,000 are under evacuation warnings.

Below are the Sacramento Area on the West, and Lake Tahoe and Reno on the East,

The PurpleAir detectors are for particulates of PM2.5 or 2.5 microns or 2.5 micrometers.  These are small enough to get through the lungs and into the blood stream, causing health problems.  This picture from PurpleAir.com starts with the code of air quality starting with green for okay, yellow for moderate, orange for unhealthy for some, and red for unhealthy for all.  The darkening shades of maroon go beyond that to very unhealthy up to 300, and then Hazardous beyond that.  This is only a 10 minute average for the given local time.

This is an overview of the hazards faced across California.

We start with Southern California and work our way up North.  These are the Lancaster and Victorville areas, North of the San Gabriel mountains and Los Angeles.

This has Bakersfield to the East, and Paso Robles on the West.

Below is the CZU Lightning Complex Fire in the Santa Cruz and San Mateo area.

Below is the SCU Lightning Complex Fire of Contra Costa, Alameda, Santa Clara, and Stanislaus counties.

Below is the LNU Lightning Complex Fire of Napa County, which surrounds Lake Berryessa to the East.

Below are fires around Sacramento on the West, and Lake Tahoe on the East.

 

Western US Drought Map

The yellow areas are abnormally dry.  The light tan is moderate drought.  The orange is severe drought, and the red is extreme drought.  The Northern part of California is largely moderate and severe drought.

Posted in Air Quality, California Smog, Fire Risks | Leave a comment

Trump’s Destructive March to the End

Posted on August 19, 2020 by Dennis SILVERMAN

Trump’s Destructive March to the Sea

This title is an analogy to Sherman’s March to the Sea.  It wasn’t enough to defeat the Confederate Army.  Sherman marched through Georgia from Atlanta to Savannah, and destroyed all along his way.

We expected that after Trump lost the election, he would spend November, December and half of January issuing Executive Orders and Destroying Rules and Regulations that protect this Nation and Americans.  Trump had the audacity to start this early (or is being pressured by his industry backers based on his poor polls).  Nobody can keep track of the destruction of the thousand political appointees that he has installed.  Many are not even installed by Congress, but are acting and unqualified administrators (and not even registered with the actor’s union).  Here are just a few of the most damaging ones.

Trump has removed regulations on methane emissions in fracking and natural gas production.  These are now easy to detect, and very inexpensive to fix.  Even some in the industry were opposed to this move, since it gives an advantage to the worst polluters, and removes a key selling point for natural gas over coal.  Depending on the time scale, methane is 30 to 40 to 80 times more polluting than carbon dioxide.

Trump has sold out on ANWR, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a key seaside pathway for Arctic wildlife.  He is about to sell leases for oil exploration.  

We have detected the hidden and politically motivated destruction of the postal system, instead of fixing it.  It is largely being pursued because Trump sees Amazon’s founder and owner of the Washington Post, Jeff Bezos, as his political enemy.  Bezos does not control the editorial policy of the Washington Post.  Apparently, Amazon is more saving the post office than running it into the red.

Despite the worst pandemic in a hundred years, Trump is still trying to end Obamacare.  Healthcare for 22 million is at stake.  The underlying conditions that make the Coronavirus deadly are ones that have to be prevented or treated by regular health care, like obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure.

The denigration and removal of science from the government continues.  Trump has replaced Dr. Fauchi and Dr. Birx at his press conferences by Dr. Scott Atlas, who pushes for reopening.  Dr. Atlas is not an expert on pandemics and viruses as are Drs. Fauci and Birx.  His association with Stanford was as a doctor and faculty, as Chief of Neuroradiology from 1998 to 2012.  Now, he is a conservative member of the conservative Hoover Institute, which is political, and just happens to be located at Stanford.  He writes in news media and speaks on news networks, and advises politicians.  

Dr. Atlas jokes about people having to even wear masks at home, which actually is recommended for people who are quarantining with vulnerable family.  He immediately appeared on Tucker Carlson at Fox News.  He said there that the data on masks is very controversial.  He said masks are okay next to a high-risk individual.  Apparently, passing to as many other low risk people is okay, forgetting that they can pass it on to high risk individuals without even knowing that they are passing it on.

Trump has made no progress on Nuclear Disarmament, but instead, has taken several steps backward.  He backed out of the Iran non-proliferation treaty, saying that he would negotiate a better one.  No progress.  He claimed that he would halt North Korea’s development and deployment of nuclear weapons.  No progress.  By next year, the intermediate range nuclear ban agreement with Russia will expire.  No progress.

At Trump’s photo op of the obsequious praise session for Israel and the UAE establishing diplomatic relations, Trump made several false claims on oil  He again stated that the US was now energy independent.  Yet we still import half of our oil, even though we export about the same amount.  It is a geographic trade off.  This year, Trump had to boost world and US oil prices to allow production of expensive US fracked oil.  Trump then stated that we no longer have to protect the Strait of Hormuz, yet 15% of US oil goes through it.   Protecting the Strait is something that we do for the world’s economy, and to limit the power of Iran.  Everybody in the Administration dealing with the Middle East was in the room, and could easily have corrected him.  None did.

Sherman’s March to the Sea took place starting with the burning of  Atlanta, Georgia on Nov. 15, 1864 to Dec. 21 at Savannah.  It was a scorched earth campaign.  They fed themselves off of local farms and livestock, and destroyed railroads, bridges, manufacturing and agricultural infrastructure.  Fortunately, Savannah surrendered, and was saved.  A decline in agriculture persisted until 1920.  After that, Sherman went through South Carolina to Charleston.

Posted in 2020 Election, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Department of Energy, Donald Trump, Fossil Fuel Energy, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Iran, Nuclear Weapons, Putin, Regulations, Russia, Trump Administration, Trump on Climate Change | Leave a comment

Trump’s Forces Plotting to “Win” the Election

Posted on August 17, 2020 by Dennis SILVERMAN

Trump’s Forces Plotting to “Win” the Election

It is apparent that the race is no longer Trump competing with Biden, but the Trump factions competing with each other for who can implement the most dastardly plot to deny votes to Democrats.  If you don’t write about this every day, it is even hard to remember what new insults to our voting process occur multiple times each day.

Yesterday, it was leaked that 500 post office size automatic sorting machines were not just taken out of use for an unknown reason, but were immediately, totally and irreparably destroyed.  They, or course, mainly served urban Democratic areas and areas with people of color.  500, unannounced, unjustified, that, of course, slowed down post office operations, which are crucial in many ways.  It is still 75 days until the election, but early voting may start after ballots are mailed out in several locations.

The unknown and inexperienced postal expert running the show is a large contributor to Trump, Louis DeJoy, who runs competing private postal services, and who was on Trump’s RNC committee in 2016.  He also invests in competing mail services.  Too many conflicts of interest there. 

Before that, there was the mysterious appearance of a little known politician called Kanye, who was suddenly being helped by Republican election experts to file in Wisconsin.  This would draw off Black and youth voters in the very close swing state.  I think the plan was to release him in several states.

Then, there was the op-ed in Newsweek, implying that Senator Harris was not an American citizen by birth.  Trump passed this on by praising the conservative lawyer who wrote it.  Trump knows more lawyers than anybody, and has 100,000 lawyers, special agents, and staff in the Justice Department to consult, at our expense.  Did he think of asking any of these?  Did he think maybe that it was his responsibility to do so before passing it on?  Trump, of course, started his political career slandering Democratic Candidate Obama with the claim that he was born elsewhere, or Birtherism.  Eventually, a half or so of Republicans believed Trump.  , Newsweek apologized for publishing the op-ed.  Finally, the Kush sort of implied that Senator Harris might be a citizen, and finally, it took the Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to declare that that was not an issue.  The entire incident undermined Trump more than it did Harris, we hope.

With a decadal outlook, the 2020 census will determine the number of House seats that go to each region and party.  Trump has cut the census registration period short by a month.  This is crucial since they are not doing as much door to door polling.  Trump has done nothing to get people to register over the internet, and poor people don’t have that option.  Trump has done nothing to get Latinx to register, by promising no connection to immigration or family status.  The census counts everybody, whether citizens or not.

While promising a plan for DACA, many years ago, and a few weeks ago, nothing has appeared.

This article is not about the policies of Republicans versus Democrats.  This is about the abuse of power of the would-be King Trump in guaranteeing that he will win the election.  The latest CNN poll show Trump and Biden being very close, including in 15 swing states.  There are still 78 days of surprises left until the election, not to mention the surprises after the election in determining its result.

Posted in 2020 Election, Donald Trump | Leave a comment

Birtherism, Pence, and Trump’s Muddying Masks and Voting

Posted on August 13, 2020 by Dennis SILVERMAN

Birtherism Strikes VP Mike Pence

While not explicit, the Constitution clearly assumes that a candidate for President or Vice President must be a human being who can think independently.  This clearly rules out a computer or cyborg from becoming President or VP.  We humans have to stick together on this, since soon, computers will surpass us in all areas.  Plus, computers can work 24/7, instead of just 2/5, and computers can monitor all TV channels in all languages, instead of just Fox News.   A computer also won’t waste 267 days during the most urgent times trying to hit a tiny ball into a tiny cup, over and over again.  Even if our current President only played 18 holes an outing, that’s about 83 x 267 = 22,161 shots (the 2.8 handicap probably includes 10 mulligans). 

Now, after four years of closely observing everything that VP Pence has said and done, it is 100% certain that he is an Obsequion, not a human.  The Constitution requires a Naturally born citizen.  There is nothing Natural about being born an Obsequion.  I would take a thinking Cyborg or even an algorithmic Cyborg over an Obsequion any day.  Should something happen to the President, an Obsequion will only imitate the way the President trained him.  But our President changes policies and statements every day.  So the Obsequion would only follow the last day’s policy, and would not adapt to advisors who always change it, and could not deal with any new situations.

The best question asked at the Trump political talk today within the White House was whether Trump regrets telling all of his lies.  Trump didn’t answer, but at least he didn’t storm out of the room.

What is it with Trump and basements?  Trump said that Biden wanted us all to hide in basements for three months.  Biden only said that we should wear masks when outside for three months.  Trump claims that he backs masks, but then said:  maybe they are great, maybe they are good, and maybe they are not so good, again muddying the most important message he could ever give.  Trump also yacked on about our freedoms.  Every one of our freedoms is limited by not harming others or ourselves, which is the whole point of wearing masks and taking vaccines (I just got my flu shot.). 

Trump also said that (Senator) Kamala Harris was not born in our country.  She was born in California, like I was.  It doesn’t matter that her parents were not citizens (14th Amendment).  I should note that they met at UC Berkeley, and that Senator Harris received her J.D. from UC Berkeley Hastings Law School.  She graduated from Howard University.  Senator Harris’s mother was a Biochemist, and her father an Economist.

By the way, I am very happy to have a woman candidate for Vice President.  Also, the University and Science profession has been talking about how to help professional people of color.  Having leaders of color clearly inspires students of color to rise to their best.

I get about 100 pieces of mail a month.  Sending me one ballot, and taking my one ballot mail is not going to be a disaster.  The only disasters will be Trump’s suits against mail-in ballots, installing a partisan backer to head and cripple the postal service, and withholding funds to count mail ballots.  Again, Trump explicitly told Iran, N. Korea, and China (not Russia) how to mess up the election by mailing fake ballots.  Forcing us to face uncleanable touch screen voting machines during a pandemic, after a half hour of claiming that he has done everything to fight the Coronavirus, is quite a hypocrisy by Trump.  It is so odd that Trump had not known from the start that it is mostly Republicans who vote by mail.  Trump had to backtrack on that for Florida and Arizona.

The other hypocrisy, is that during the pandemic and the coming holiday season, people are going to be mostly shopping by mail.  Expanding the mail system is a key part of our economic recovery.  Ruining the postal system is counter to the President’s and the country’s economic recovery.  The mail system also delivers medicine on a tight schedule.  They also deliver bills with deadlines.  Trump is so far removed from ordinary life, that he knows nothing of this.

There are now 166,000 American deaths definitely tested to be due to the Coronavirus.  But the total excess deaths in the country from March 1st to July 25th are 219,000.   There have been around 1,000 Coronavirus deaths a day for 18 days since then, so the current number of excess deaths must be greater than 237,000.  Also, the US deaths on July 24 were 144,000, which adds about 20,000.  The 237,000 total deaths is 43% larger than the tested deaths.  While some of the extra deaths are from the Coronavirus, others are from delayed or poor health care because of the pandemic.  They would not have occurred if we had successfully stopped the virus as other countries have.

Posted in 2020 Election, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Donald Trump, Freedoms, Humor | Leave a comment

The Year-Ending Holiday Trifecta of Pandemic Spreading

Posted on August 9, 2020 by Dennis SILVERMAN

The Year-Ending Holiday Trifecta of Pandemic Spreading

While we are soon to get through the openings of schools at the end of a shorted out summer, the holidays in the fall and winter will easily restart another wave of the Coronavirus. 

Today, we have passed 5 million Coronavirus cases nationally, which is 1.5% of the US population.  Year to date, there have been 162,000 nationwide Coronavirus deaths, or 10% of all deaths to date.

California has just passed 10,000 deaths, with 7,000 hospitalized, and over a half million cases, at 556,000.  The cases are 1.4% of the California population.

The season begins with Labor Day on September 7, still celebrating the summer.  But the real Trifecta will begin with Halloween on Saturday, October 31st.  What parent can deny their kids the fun of Halloween?  The real scary kids will be the ones not wearing masks.   I would let the candy sit for a few days before you even touch the wrappers.  The worst neighborhoods will be ones where the kids have been in school and passing around colds, the flu, and the Coronavirus. 

The next superinfection date is Thanksgiving on Nov. 26.  This is twenty-three days after the election, so we may well know who the winner is, to give great thanks for.  Hopefully we can celebrate that we have finally reduced the virus, but since Virus Stupidity still reigns freely, it is not guaranteed.  While Trump is pardoning the Thanksgiving Turkey, he might throw in pardons for a number of his mob accomplices as well.

That is followed by Christmas on Dec. 25th, which is preceded by weeks of shopping, probably largely on-line.  Then there is New Year’s day, without the Rose Parade, but hopefully with some college football games.  If not, maybe they will throw in some NFL games if college football is discontinued.  This period with close family visits and vacations is the most effective for passing on the virus.  It also involves people moving around the country, further spreading hot spots.  Kids are at home, and college students return home. This involves a lot of packed airplane flights.  We still have no data on the safety of flights and carriers.

All of this still takes place during the Trump regime, with still ambiguous guidance.  Republican Governors who are Trump loyalists will still be serving their roles and blocking effective local urban actions.  Movie theaters will undoubtedly be open during Thanksgiving and the holidays.  Again, there is the germ trifecta of colds, seasonal flu, and the Coronavirus. 

Hopefully, some of the vaccines will start becoming available.  Advances in therapeutics and epidemiological knowledge should help prevent and treat cases.  We have to keep pushing for people to take the flu vaccine, in order not to mix up hospital treatments between the flu and the Coronavirus.  The flu vaccine is already available, but not yet the high dosage shots.  In an effective society, virtual learning, social distancing, and masking could also give us the most cold and influenza free season ever.

If Trump is voted out of office, we can expect little attention to combatting the Coronavirus by the administration, but a great rush to continue dismantling government regulations by executive orders, and filling any vacant judgeships and long term non-partisan boards.  A massive burning of records and erasure of emails will also ensue, for sure violating the government records act.  Book deals for exposes and self-justifications will also proliferate.  I doubt if the Trump Administration will leave any advice for managing their programs, or any aid in the transition.  We expect Trump principals to hasten to be richly rewarded in returning to positions with industries that they managed while in the government.  This was another massive infection which we have suffered from for the past four years.

Of course, neither we nor anybody else discusses the very real possibility that Trump becomes infected by the Coronavirus with his unmasked and closely packed audiences, despite the most sincere efforts of the secret service.  If you notice the tall guys who are the only ones wearing masks at Trump gatherings, and who seem more interested in the audience than Trump himself, draw your own conclusions.

In short, we have a long time with massive hurdles to finish out the year and Trump term of office in combatting the Coronavirus. 

Posted in Coronavirus, COVID-19, Donald Trump, Health Care | Leave a comment

The Donald: Come Join Us in Trumplandia

Posted on August 9, 2020 by Dennis SILVERMAN

The Donald:  Come Join Us in Trumplandia

In Trumplandia, The Donald has Absolute Power, and there is no Congress or Federal Courts, or Supreme Court.  Or Constitution, or laws, for that matter.

Trumplandia, apparently, is just pretending that everybody lives in the lounge of a Trump National Golf Club.  These people are too rich to ever be infected by a virus, which only infects commoners, who actually work for a living.  Thus, these Trumplanders never need to socially distance, or wear masks, or take viral tests.  A membership in the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster only cost $300,000 in 2005.

There are no rental contracts, or state renters laws and evictions.  The Health Secretary has the right to declare an emergency!?  If evictions lead to more infections, he can stop evictions (not really, apparently, he can only “consider” it).  Unfortunately, a third of renters may not be able to meet their full rent.

Also in Trumplandia, the Majority Leader of the Senate, Mitch “Stoneheart” McConnell, has decided that having given $2 trillion to the rich and corporations for a tax cut, followed by $3 trillion in Coronavirus business bailout funds, he cannot fund the deficits in states to fund hospitals, first responders, or even teachers.  Now that the virus and its costs have spread to all states, it is not just a “Blue State” bailout proposal, as he once stated.

You realize, that if the State needs $100 to get the Trump $300, all they have to do is to virtually collect the $100 from each person to be paid, let them get the $300 from the Trump, along with the $100 virtual refund from the State to make it legit.  To the recipient, they still get the $300 and satisfy the state contribution.  As the Nation’s Con Man in Chief, Trump should have realized this.

The Donald, King of Trumplandia, has again abused his Throne for his reelection, or we should say, Re-Coronation, by saying that after you collect six months of Payroll Tax delays, only He will permanently cancel those taxes, but only if He is reelected.  Actually, in most cases, the employer will just collect the payroll taxes, and keep them for his or her business.

Previously, Trump had his new head of the Postal Service slow deliveries by taking money from the budget, and cancelling overtime.  This will delay deliveries of mail-in ballots, and in receiving processing them before the election.  The @realRepublicans finally got through to The Donald and informed him that it was mainly Republicans who used mail-in ballots.  So The Donald declared that mail-in ballots were fine in the crucial swing states of Florida and Arizona.

With the new revelation (?) That Russia is interfering for Trump in the election, The Donald just shrugged his shoulders, but took no action.  Actually, with 80 million American voters fed up with Trumplandia, I don’t think a few Russian hackers can make much difference. 

I can’t believe that Trump really discussed putting his puss on Mt. Rushmore with South Dakota’s Governor.  His wooing of her ended when he learned that the Monument is a Federal one, and Trump himself controls it.  For a few bucks, Trump could just shine his photo in color on the unsculpted rock at night, along with his name, and his signature.  He could even have a tape of him giving a special self praising speech broadcast in the park. 

Larry Kudlow was on CNN trying to make sense of Trump’s dreams of Trumplandia, but tripped all over himself.  I don’t think Kudlow totally smoked the pipe of Trumpomania.  

Do you think Trump will ever click his heels together three times to come back to @realAmerica?  I doubt it.

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Possible Sources of T Cells Leading to Asymptomatic Coronavirus Cases

Posted on August 8, 2020 by Dennis SILVERMAN

Possible Sources of T Cells Leading to Asymptomatic Coronavirus Cases

Some people and older blood samples show the presence of T cells, which could be leading to asymptomatic Covid-19 or SARS-CoV-2 cases.  In blood samples of a few years ago, T cells were present which recognized the Coronavirus.  While antibodies fade in 2-3 months, the T cells could be the source of longer range resistance.

In 40% of Coronavirus infections people are asymptomatic.  Is this because small exposures of innoculous lead to mild cases?  Do people have partial immunity?  Are T cells from childhood vaccinations?  Are they from colds, which come in four forms of Coronaviruses?  If less dosage leads to milder or asymptomatic cases, then people should be wearing masks to protect themselves, like N95 masks.

In a large study of patients with medical histories, covered in the Washington Post, the recent pneumonia vaccine had a 28% reduction in risk.  The polio vaccine led to a 43% reduction in risk.

I was questioning mild exposures and the pneumonia vaccines at the start of the Coronavirus, but was told then that infections came from superspreaders, and that the pneumonia from the Coronavirus is different from standard pneumonia.  Both are true, but there appears to be a roll for both mild exposures and the present vaccines.  

Again:  I am not a doctor.

Posted in Coronavirus, COVID-19, Health Care | Leave a comment

The Obese Require Larger Vaccine Dosages

Posted on August 8, 2020 by Dennis SILVERMAN

The Obese Require Larger Vaccine Dosages.

From Dr. Darria Long on CNN and a Medscape article by Sarah Varney, we find that obesity hinders the effectiveness of influenza vaccines.  As some comedian says:  again, this is something you could have told me six months ago!  The punch line, is to try giving higher vaccine doses to obese people, just as you give seniors double doses of the influenza vaccines.  This may apply to some Coronavirus vaccines as well.  We will discuss the reason for this difference later.

Obese is defined as a body mass index of 30 or more.  Morbidly obese is a body mass index of 40 or more.  Dr. Long gives an example of a woman at 5’6” and 200 pounds.  If she could lose 30 pounds, she would reduce the risk of needing a ventilator by 30%.  If she could lose 50 pounds, she would reduce the need for a ventilator by 80%.  Clearly, these are impossible goals to attain in even a 6 month period.

The real usefulness of both of these outlooks, are to motivate obese people to avoid getting the Coronavirus in the first place, using all of the methods that are now well known.  I would add to those to get an N95 mask to avoid catching the virus as well as spreading it.

From Dr. Long, obesity provides more Ace II receptors which the Coronavirus latches onto with its spikes, in order to enter cells and multiply.  In addition, obesity leads to more blood clots and a cytokine storm, as well as more weight on the lungs. 

107 million Americans are obese, that is with a Body Mass Index greater than or equal to 30.  Elsewhere, it is stated that 42.4% of American adults are obese.  About 9% of American adults are morbidly obese with a BMI of 40 or over, which is about 100 pounds overweight. 

From Medscape, “fat induces a chronic state of inflammation, which seems to interfere with the immune response to vaccines, leaving people subject to illness”.  With the normal dose of vaccine, obese people are twice as likely to get influenza.  It is still better to get vaccinated.

The new influenza vaccine is at my pharmacy now, but I was told that it might take a month for the senior or double doses to come out.

Again:  I am not a doctor.

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