Unhinged

Lysol Spritzers:  Well, it initially looked like yesterday’s virus rally would be just more of the same, short on reality but heavy on lies and it was, but then it went truly off the rails, which is notable because it’s not like these rallies are ever all that sane.  To bolster the assertion that he made back in February, the one where he said that the coronavirus would be gone once temperatures starting rising, Trump had Bill Bryan a senior Homeland Security scientist present the preliminary findings of his study of COVID 19’s behavior.  Bryan reported that the virus’ half-life is shorter in high temperatures and in high humidity than in cold dry environments, something that’s probably true but that provides little comfort to people living in places like hot and humid Singapore and southern Florida, where the virus continues to circulate. Bryan then talked about how the virus could be killed by disinfectants and heat, not much of a surprise to those of us who’ve been spraying Lysol on everything while scorching our laundry and hands in hot water. Bryan’s conclusion was that exercising outdoors was better than doing so in a gym and that outdoor bar-b-ques were preferable to indoor gatherings. Things got really weird when Trump turned to Bryan and asked if anyone had considered injecting disinfectant into the virus afflicted or subjecting them to intense heat, you know sticking them in the microwave or in ramped up tanning beds or maybe poking hot rods down throats, to hasten recovery.  When asked her view, “Dr Debby” who tries hard not to contradict Trump in public, mumbled something about fever being the body’s way of killing viruses.  Poison control centers, where calls have already been up due to accidental disinfectant ingestion, better gear up, their call volume is going to skyrocket because as we all know, Trump’s base clings on his every word.  As to Dr Debby, it turns out that she’s the one who got Trump to turn on Georgia Governor Kemp and his plan to open up tattoo parlors, hair salons and bowling allies even though he had initially told Kemp that doing so was okay with him.  Debby pulled that short straw after virus guru Fauci made it clear that he thought Kemp’s plan was bat sh*t crazy and was prepared to say so in public. Yesterday Trump threw some more shade at Kemp, again saying that though he could do what he wanted to do he shouldn’t open up those facilities. Sadly for Georgia so far Kemp hasn’t changed his plans, head to Georgia to cover your gray, but while you’re there go to a tanning salon too, it may turn out to be your only hope because it’s looking more and more like Trump’s other miracle cure, the hydroxychloroquine/Z-Pac combo that he, a few of his entrepreneurial friends and everyone at Fox had been pushing doesn’t work. Earlier in the week preliminary results of a VA study showed that neither the combo or hydroxychloroquine alone helped although it did hurt some patients and last night the results of a New York study confirmed that the drugs do not advance recovery.          

Testing, Testing, Testing:  Trump still insists that he’s testing more people than all the other countries in the world combined, comparing us favorably to Germany where lots of testing really is being done largely because Angela Merkel is a trained scientist who gets it. Trump refused to acknowledge that we are way down the lead table on a per capital basis and that testing is one of those things that his open-up criteria requires.  While insisting that not all governors want more testing capability, an assertion that he hasn’t backed up, he bragged about all those machines that his team has located but continued to remain silent about the reagent shortage and doesn’t appear to be using his presidential powers to ramp up reagent production. When asked about a recent interview where Dr Fauci said that far more testing was needed, Trump said that he was right and Fauci was wrong and when asked about the recent demotion of vaccine expert Dr Bright he ignored the question. He continued to brag about ventilators, questioning why the press no longer asks him about them and then slammed the fake news Washington Post and its Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Phil Rucker after he pressed him on whether it was a good idea to push the hot weather/disinfectant solution.  And of course he found a moment to attack “sleepy” Joe Biden who he called out for hiding in his basement.  Trump is clearly not happy that recent polls show Biden beating him in key swing states Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.  Biden should stay in the basement, right now Trump’s daily rallies are doing his job for him.      

Et Cetera:  Mike Bloomberg is helping NYS gets its testing/tracking program in gear.  Bill Gates says that the world won’t get back to normal until most of us are vaccinated because most people get that going into crowded places will be too risky until then.  And NYS Governor Cuomo, who appears to have lost his “bestie governor” position to California’s Gavin Newsom who said something nice about Trump yesterday, reports that about 21% of NYC residents and 14% of NYS residents have virus antibodies in their blood, far short of what’s needed for herd immunity to take effect but higher than was expected.  Additionally Cuomo wants Senate Leader Mitch McConnell to know that his suggestion that blue states like New York should just declare bankruptcy rather than get any money from the Federal government is reckless, dumb and counterproductive because if NY doesn’t get its economy up and running the country will suffer and by the way, it’s states like New York that fund his state of Kentucky which gets far more from the Federal government than it contributes.  Unfortunately, former New Yorker Trump who now says that McConnell’s idea is worth considering, appears to have forgotten that he promised Cuomo earlier this week that money would be forthcoming in the next recovery bill.  Are you surprised about that? 

Stay safe!