We may not get to visit this year. The border is closed to all un-essential traffic until Aug 31 but may remain closed until 2021 

The US-Canada border may remain closed until 2021 – RCI
The Canada-United States border will be closed to non-essential traffic until August 31 to contain Covid 19.

https://www.en24news.com/en/2020/07/the-us-canada-border-may-remain-closed-until-2021-rci.html

70,000 new cases today in the USA. Here's how I feel:

I'm standing on the edge of the ocean, let's say the freezing cold waters of the North Atlantic. Out in the water a mile or so away is a huge platform full of people, Americans, some of whom are my friends and all of them people I might have met or could meet in the future. They're waitresses in restaurants or gas station staff or cashiers at the grocery stores where we buy our food or the lady who registers us at the rv campground or the ticket taker at the museum or aquarium or the State trooper who gave me directions or or......
What are they doing? They're jumping off the platform into the water without life jackets into the ocean with them. Effectively they're committing suicide. But some of them are dragging others involuntarily with them. They're dying in front of my eyes.

I can't do anything. I can't help. I'm sad. We are citizens of different countries but that doesn't matter. They're people.

That's how I feel.

A friend of mine in Seattle recently said it was like getting into a car with a drunk driver. Even worse: in the trunk of that car: completely helpless to the stupidity of the driver.


From over here, I am torn: I have no sympathy for drunk drivers and wouldn't be bothered if they wrapped themselves around a tree or drove off a cliff. But I am also afraid for my friend in the trunk, and hope that things end well for him.   I look at the wilfully ignorant people in the US and just shake my head in frustration and sorrow.

I have never appreciated living in Europe more than I do now.

The controversy continues. All the Ways the Influential Hydroxychloroquine Study Was Crap

“A controversial, highly influential study involving the drug hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for covid-19—one that helped launch months of research and failed clinical trials—has now been sharply criticized within the pages of the same scientific journal that published it. The new post-publication peer review highlights a variety of serious flaws in the study and concludes that the authors were “fully irresponsible” in how they presented their findings.”

This made me laugh and also die a little inside.

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Quote from: Papa Lazarou on July 14, 2020, 03:20:58 PM

you wouldn't believe the levels of crap from the right wing in the UK.

The common person in both UK and US crap seems to be Rupert Murdoch.

good point

The information out there is sure controversial.  After reading that, I'm not sure if the AAPS needs to start self-medicating or if they should stop.

I am so done with... people. And the media. And the politicians.

I’m not seeing a problem with that. 

With how the virus is mutating, unless a vaccine affects something common to all strains, odds are it will be like the flu shot...trying to compensate for last year's flu bugs.

With how the virus is mutating, unless a vaccine affects something common to all strains, odds are it will be like the flu shot...trying to compensate for last year's flu bugs.

flu vaccines are a bit more sophisticated than that...

Quote from: Skee on July 16, 2020, 01:16:59 PM

I thought that was the strategy behind developing an mRNA vaccine instead of a traditional vaccine.  Really nothing to worry about, if we cut testing by 75%, remove the data from the CDC, and follow that with a proper dosing regimen of hydroxyclorquine, the problem will go away like it never existed. 

I know, I know, it’s that subtle touch of cynicism that gets me into trouble every time.

Stop being cynical and endorse grocery products.

 

Quote from: Papa Lazarou on July 16, 2020, 01:27:27 PM

Quote from: Skee on July 16, 2020, 01:16:59 PM

I thought that was the strategy behind developing an mRNA vaccine instead of a traditional vaccine.  Really nothing to worry about, if we cut testing by 75%, remove the data from the CDC, and follow that with a proper dosing regimen of hydroxyclorquine, the problem will go away like it never existed. 

I know, I know, it’s that subtle touch of cynicism that gets me into trouble every time.

Stop being cynical and endorse grocery products.

 

Also 

the idiots here would make a game out of it to see who could hold on to the hot wire the longest. 

https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/fox-35-investigates-questions-raised-after-fatal-motorcycle-crash-listed-as-covid-19-death

You could die from an S&M session taken too far and some people will attribute it to COVID-19.

https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/fox-35-investigates-questions-raised-after-fatal-motorcycle-crash-listed-as-covid-19-death

This happens far too often in traffic stats.  One of my main issues is the stats on speeding and crashes.  They count speeding as causing or contributing to a crash even when common sense says it wasn't, such as when the speeding was slightly over the limit by 5 or so mph.  Then they use the nonsensical stats to justify lowering the speed limits or raising ticket prices.

But I'm not surprised this is from Florida.  Many years ago their public health sector was pulling the panic alarm because motorcycle crashes had increased by a significant percentage over the course of 10 or 20 years.  Draconian bills were introduced to the state legislature.  But fortunately there was a professional statistician who rode, and the error was caught.  The public health folks had looked at crash numbers only and didn't account for the increase in motorcycle riders during the same time period.  It turned out that there had been a significant rise in motorcycle riders such that when the stats were looked at in terms of crashes per licensed rider, the state was actually getting safer. The bills were withdrawn or defeated.

I used to work with state level public health administrators, and would push them to be certain that their statistics were painting an accurate picture. If I got some guff back, I pointed out this Florida disaster.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-53389977

"just a normal electric fence that you would find in a field".....Asked if it was switched on, Mr McFadden said: "Come and find out - there is a fear factor and it works."

If this is true, would that mean any second wave response in previously hard-hit areas will be significantly muted?  Good news if so for Florida, AZ, NYC, London, etc.

https://news.ki.se/immunity-to-covid-19-is-probably-higher-than-tests-have-shown

Quote

“Our results indicate that public immunity to COVID-19 is probably significantly higher than antibody tests have suggested,” says Professor Hans-Gustaf Ljunggren at the Center for Infectious Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, and co-senior author.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-53389977

"just a normal electric fence that you would find in a field".....Asked if it was switched on, Mr McFadden said: "Come and find out - there is a fear factor and it works."

Quote from: mr.awesome on July 17, 2020, 11:11:05 AM

the idiots here would make a game out of it to see who could hold on to the hot wire the longest. 

And more fun than mechanical bull riding for sure.  Yeehaw

Since Chornbe isn't here to do it, I will:


 

Freedumb!

So maybe cold weather kills the virus...

...because suggesting that Canada’s relatively low rates are due to having a well-informed electorate led by semi-intelligent politicians with a modicum of personal integrity (I’ll give the Politicos that much credit) is really going to PO a large number of your southern neighbors. 

How about we agree on a statistic that I just made up that the US does tremendously many more times as much testing as Canada to explain these numbers. 



I’m already in the doghouse at home for considering an out-of-state motorcycle ride in October, so you guys booting me to the cellar might actually work in my favor.

Europe has 51 countries with a population of about 740 million.
The USA is about 330 million.
European deaths about 200,000
US deaths about 160,000.
If you use the European ratio then there’s about 65,000 too many deaths in the USA. Why? I’m not sure but I’m getting it’s the masks. I still have no clue about the Germany/France difference either. 30,000 dead French. Less than 10,000 Germans. Germany even has 20,000 more cases than France. So ??

I'm not an apologist for the US.  But, it appears to be getting slammed a bit in this thread. 

Europe has 51 countries with a population of about 740 million.
The USA is about 330 million.
European deaths about 200,000  706,000
US deaths about 160,000.
If you use the European ratio then there’s about 65,000 too many deaths in the USA. Why? I’m not sure but I’m getting it’s the masks. I still have no clue about the Germany/France difference either. 30,000 dead French. Less than 10,000 Germans. Germany even has 20,000 more cases than France. So ??

FTFY

USA Population 330 million.  Agreed
European Population 740 million.  Agreed

USA COVID Cases To Date 4.8 million
European COVID Cases To Date 18.8 million 
The number of cases per million in the US is 1.7X better than Europe

USA COVID Deaths To Date 159K 
European COVID Deaths To Date  706K   
The number of deaths per million in the US is 2X better than Europe