Sorry, no new news to report …

It seems the politicized panic peddlers continue to deliberately sensationalize non-news for the purpose of generating an audience.

My favorites include dramatic charts based on misleading metrics such as the increase in the number of “confirmed” cases, which is expected to dramatically rise in proportion to increases in testing. Very rarely do the pundits point out that this says nothing about the penetration of the disease into the community because the majority of people have not been tested, and those who were tested were likely to have been pre-screened and present with severe symptoms. Likewise, there is no real determination of the cause of death in those who are much older and have serious underlying conditions. Some suggest that a good proportion of these individuals would have died by yearend.

Then there are the dramatic pleas for additional ventilators and personal protective gear.

Like the New York “resident” doctor quoted in the Atlantic who claimed…

“Every day, in our hastily assembled COVID-19 unit, I put on my gown, face shield, three sets of gloves, and N95 respirator mask, which stays on for the entirety of my 12-hour shift, save for one or two breaks for cold pizza and coffee. Before the pandemic, I would wear a new mask for every new patient. Not now. There are not enough to go around. The bridge of my nose is raw, chapped, and on the verge of bleeding. But I consider myself one of the lucky ones. My hospital still has a supply of masks—albeit a dwindling one—to protect me and my colleagues.”

“Nevertheless, we need to perform an alarming number of of intubations. Our ventilators are almost all in use, and the ICUs are at capacity. Although our hospital has received extra vents here and there from other hospitals in the region that can spare them, those few additions are merely a stopgap. Will we soon have patients sharing vents? We wouldn’t be the first hospital to attempt that unusual and suboptimal practice, which gained traction after the Las Vegas shooting, when scores of young trauma patients were vented in pairs. But these COVID-19 patients have delicate lungs, which makes vent-sharing far more dangerous. Nevertheless, we’ve already started studying the mechanics of how to make this happen, as a last-ditch effort.: <Source>

Of course, The Atlantic has a known bias against the President and his Administration as do a significant number of media outlets in New York. Truth does not seem to matter as much as being first with a breaking story or attracting or retaining that revenue-generating audience.

Contrast that with the statement of the Governor of New York with presidential aspirations, Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo denies any shortages at the current time and that his requests for additional equipment are based on projections supplied by epidemiological models, which may or may not come true. Moreover, when President Trump pointed out that Cuomo has a stockpile of ventilators,  Cuomo admitted it was true, insisting that no hospital has called for them to be released. With 6,000 ventilators in stock and less than 2,000 people in state intensive care units, the claims seem wildly exaggerated or deliberately misleading.

And, then there are the hysterical unsourced stories filled with anecdotes and pictures of nurses wearing garbage bags over their protective gear.

Would the media deliberately exaggerate the news of an emergency?

As a newsman struggles heroically against the wind, widen the shot to see two guys strolling by.

How deep? Keep that shot tight!

Anderson Cooper – In Danger? Not so much.

Danger! Virus!

Show me the emergency memo that authorized this practice.

Explain this … "Another nurse described 'issues with supplies for about a year now,' during which it got 'to the point where we had to hide our own supplies and go to other units looking for stuff because even the supply room would have nothing most of the time.'”

If this supply issue pre-dated the emergence of the coronavirus, what does that say for the hospital inspectors like JACHO (Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations), a nonprofit, tax-exempt 501 organization that accredits more than 22,000 US health care organizations and programs? Or the Division of Hospitals and Diagnostic and Treatment Centers of the New York State Department of Health? Or the hospital administrator? Or the doctors and nurses? Or the extremely vocal, politically active 1199SEIU (Service Employees International Union), which represents tens of thousands of hospital-based members who work throughout the mega-health systems in New York? Or is this a stunt to dramatize the need for supplies to meet a projected crisis.

What science actually shows…

A view through the microscope…

That’s right! House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is partly to blame.

Where was the Adam Schiff and the House Intelligence Committee when our intelligence agencies were telling us something terrible was happening in China? Working on impeaching the President on nonsensical and nonexistent grounds.

Where was the House Subcommittee on Health whose jurisdiction includes public health and quarantine; hospital construction; mental health; biomedical research and development; health information technology, privacy, and cybersecurity; public health insurance (Medicare, Medicaid) and private health insurance; medical malpractice and medical malpractice insurance; the regulation of food, drugs, devices, cosmetics, and tobacco (the Food and Drug Administration); drug abuse; the Department of Health and Human Services; the National Institutes of Health; the Centers for Disease Control; Indian Health Service; and all aspects of the above-referenced jurisdiction related to the Department of Homeland Security?

Bottom line…

Not even worthwhile watching the mainstream media or most cable news programs that are mostly commentary and fake news.

This, too, shall pass. Hopefully, the Democrats will be held accountable for their misfeasance and malfeasance and some Republicans for their fecklessness and lack of cojones.

We are so screwed.

-- steve