When something big in the news goes down I’ve learned from experience not to be too quick to write anything about it until the hype dies down and more information comes out. My long-time readers know what I’m talking about. In the early days of this blog I could get caught up in a story about how a guy got Zeroed Out and committed suicide or killed his family and himself, and people would run me up the flagpole for jumping to conclusions. That those conclusions were, in fact, accurate was irrelevant to critics. It was all about ‘hasty generalizations‘ and confirmation biases at the time of writing.
This new Corona Virus pandemic is something different though. There are a lot of people very eager to jump to those hasty generalizations in this global crisis – and pointing out their panic only makes them feel more justified in panicking. At the time of this writing we’re seeing a globalized response to a globalized virus. For all or our new order information, technology, access and connectivity the same old order human nature remain the same. Odd that the people who’ve criticized me for being too mechanistic about our evolved nature are the same people who are in a righteous panic caused by the nature I’ve been told we’re supposed to be evolved above now.
But today, instead of a localized panic, we get a global panic. Instead of localized disinformation, we have globalized disinformation.
“In the social media age, people have forgotten that it’s not remotely normal to be able to see hundreds of millions of people’s opinions & actions, let alone engage with them.
We’re living in the biggest experiment in human history and have little idea of the long term consequences.”
Zuby
Ironically, Zuby tweeted this quote about a week before the Corona Virus really became what it is now (late March, 2020). At the time I though it captured what was going on in our Global Sexual Marketplace so I saved the quote, but it’s true about a lot of new order areas of our modern globalized lives. And that includes global pandemics too.
I wrote about old order versus new order thinking a few months ago. This essay, The New Age of Enlightenment, is actually an excerpt from my upcoming fourth book in the Rational Male series and is a theme I carry through much of it. At the time of my writing it I had come to much of the same thinking as Zuby had here: it’s time we re-envision what a rapidly advancing global society looks like. My take began in the global sexual marketplace, but it’s expanded to many other areas of life. It’s a challenge to humanity to be sure. Reassessing what was old order wisdom worth preserving and abandoning what was simply inaccurate (or deliberately distorted) in the age of new order information and communication is something most people are unprepared for. Most people are too comfortable in the lives they built for themselves based on the foundation of old order ideals.
The Virus pandemic is proving this to us in real time and online 24 hours a day now. Faced with the rapid, systemic shutdown of every major economy on the planet, the global community now reverts to its very human, very predictable nature. The response to real, existential crisis is what defines the person, and what defines their ego-invested belief-sets – except everything is intensified.
Here’s what I’m seeing happen.
Believers’ Confirmation
Doomsday preppers rejoice. Christians, Catholics, [insert Millenarian Dominionist religion] all love and hate this crisis simultaneously. It both proves God’s love and God’s wrath in the same breath. And as I’ve expounded upon in the fourth book, there’s simply no arguing with people who have no questions. Don’t take this as a flame on believers – I get why they find comfort in it – it’s a simple observation of how crisis situations bring out what truly motivates people in a way we only rarely see.
Even the woo woo magical thinkers find a common confirmation of their spiritual-but-not-religious beliefs. They all told you so. They all knew it was coming. The tea leaves and energy ‘vibrations’ have all been off for months. If only we’d sent enough positive Juju out into the universe the Law of Attraction would have prevented all this! Likewise, they’re all equally unprepared for it. A reaffirmed faith (however they define it) will see them through. And maybe that’s a good attitude to have when panic and fear are the hot new commodities to sell on the worldwide stage (I’ll get to that in a moment).
Uncertainty is difficult for people, but there’s a lot of comfort in finding confirmation of beliefs in crisis and tragedy. And that belief doesn’t necessarily have to be religious. Political wonks are equally zealots now. This pandemic will define presidencies and, going forward, will likely determine the platforms of future world leaders for some time.
“Never let a good crisis go to waste” – especially in an age when the majority of the worlds’ people literally cannot escape seeing it in real time. For the political ideologist, on either side of the spectrum, how this pandemic is being handled by officials, and the prophecies of inevitable economic ruin, is just as belief-affirming as religious confirmations.
For the Left, this is the event they’ve always waited for to bring down a president who’s been effectively invincible since the Primaries of 2015. To use their own words, they can “finally get the motherfucker.” That it took a global pandemic is irrelevant. For the Right, it’s an illustration of how life will look under the fantasy Socialist tyranny they see in the Left. The wholesale closing of abortion clinics is an added bonus. In our own sphere, for MGTOW it’s the sweet humbling of women’s egos as, from all appearances, women turn to a new appreciation of conventionally masculine men and ape the mannerisms of traditional femininity – for now. For the Trad-Con sunhat ladies this feminist pivot is, again, reaffirming. Gone, almost overnight, are the bleating of social justice warriors with all discussions of socially constructed gender norms. Noticeable in its absence is all talk of Women’s History Month (March) and the need for reparations in gender inequities. Hell, in Finland the all-female, all-feminist, government is glaringly impotent from all accounts I’ve read.
Most of this is what I’d expect from the average global citizen in the face of a world changing, relatively lethal, pandemic. However, it’s the new order Outrage Brokers and Success Porn Hustlahs scrambling to place their bets on the next 9 months who are truly a wonder to behold now.
Outrage Brokers in the Apocalypse
Amongst all of this pandemic gnashing of teeth we get the inevitable grifters. If we’re honest, we knew most of these guys were leeches when times were good. Certainly not all of them, but the temptation of quitting an old order day job for the promise of a new order monthly direct deposit from Google for playing ‘life coach’ on a webcam was a dream come true for most. Now their true natures rise to the surface as they see the chuckwagon of the gig economy pulling away. And just like rats going through an Extinction Burst they frantically try every new angle that they might profit from.
These are the war profiteers of this new order era, but the pitch is the same as it was in the past – stoke fear, sell security.
It almost seems quaint that I brought up this exact formula as discussion topic on Rule Zero just 2 weeks ago. We were illustrating how the term Red Pill (and now MGTOW) has been coopted as a branding opportunity by “coaches” and “relationship experts” with very little experience beyond what they can glean from others in the sphere. The main point was this: it’s far easier to get views and build subscriber bases in next to no time when your material is all red meat outrage for ‘underserved’ Average Frustrated Chumps. Toss out a few “red pills”, paint a few of them black, and commiserate with the average 80-percenter guy’s reality with women, gynocentrism and then play on the same indignation porn that the mainstream has been selling to women for 3 decades now. All sizzle, no steak. Is it any wonder that critics think the Red Pill is populated with nihilistic, homicidal Incels?
But that’s the formula. It just took men longer to perfect it for a fresh generation of male consumers. Indignation might be an innate female need, but the past 3 generations of men have developed a taste for it as well. It’s what happens when boys are raised as defective girls.
It’s important to see this crisis through the emotional lens that the past 4 generations of men and women have been taught to prioritize. For over 50 years now we’ve been conditioned to see the female, emotions-first, experience as the correct interpretation of every facet of a globalizing society. This pandemic is no exception.
Because of their emotions-first nature fear is easy to sell to women. Women’s innate need for security is what made them the primary consumer in western societies, but now we have at least 2 generations of men who were educated to be defective women. ThoseVillage-educated emotions-first men are susceptible to the same sales formulas now. Feels before Reals isn’t just for women, and this pandemic crisis is proving it in spades.
The savvy hucksters know this. The not so savvy ones will attempt to go back to whatever cubicle job they think still exists for them before they quit their day jobs. But the career Outrage Brokers are already profiteering from that formula; feed the fear, sell security.
You know the names. Watch them. You’ll need to remember their nature when things shake out.
Zeroed Out
What even the best Red Pill rage-bait “entrepreneur” knows is that the vast majority of his/her soon-to-be-former supporters will be Zeroed Out in the coming months. There is no going back to what we thought of as normal. Even if we recover back to a comfortable normalcy fairly quickly this experience changes things. The game has changed, all games have changed, and the uncertainty of the basics will replace the leisure of having the personal concerns we used to entertain before the virus hit.
A lot of good men will be Zeroed Out in the wake of this crisis.
I think it ought to be part of any Red Pill aware man’s understanding that at many points in our lives we will be confronted with the prospects of having to rebuild ourselves. Failure, rejection and disappointment will happen for you, that’s just part of a man’s life, and it’s easy to rattle off platitudes about how many times you get back up being the measure of a man. But what I’m saying is there will be times when total reconstruction of your life will be a necessity.
You will be zeroed out at some point, and how you handle this is a much different situation than any temporary setback. This zeroing out is made all the more difficult when you confront the fact that what you believed to be so valuable, the equity you were told was what others would measure you by, was all part of your Blue Pill conditioning. At that point you need to understand that there is most definitely a hope for a better remake of yourself based on truths that were learned in the hardest way.
The red meat is still there. The chemical rush that comes from indignation-without-solution will always satisfy in the short term, but now it will be a reminder of what people had a luxury to pursue before all this shit went down. Grifters and Outrage Brokers know this. Zealots and Shamans know this. Black Pills, God-Pills, MGTOW and every Red Pill rebrand knows this. And the old order thinkers who were comfortable and self-righteous in the certainty of a condition that couldn’t ever end for them will all say they saw this coming while they shit their pants looking for a way to sustain themselves. The red meat is all that’s left for them, and they’ll climb over themselves to be the source of it.
I’m not throwing all this out there to freak anyone out. Freaking out is the reflexive response I’ve been seeing for 2 weeks now. It’s more infectious than the actual virus. I’m simply trying to put this crisis into rational, masculine perspective. That requires observation.
Yes, women are going to revert to their survival instincts; observe it, catalog it, use it to confirm what the Red Pill has been proposing for 20 years now.
Yes, lesser men will panic and expect you to panic along with them. Their imaginings and superstitions are a source of dopamine for them. Learn from their real nature.
Yes, the Outrage Brokers will all feed you fear and sell you product to allay that fear. They’ll all have a nootropic pill to cure Covid soon. Make a note of who they are.
And yes, you will likely be Zeroed Out in some manner in the coming year. Take comfort in knowing you’re definitely not alone. You, me, everyone will need to rebuild ourselves to some degree soon. Start analyzing you strengths, pay attention to what’s going on around you. You must be agile like never before. Many different aspects of Red Pill awareness will be confirmed for you, a lot probably have been already, learn from these confirmations. This is the Future Shock. Now is not the time to flounder in despair. Look for the opportunities.
Lady:
That’s not a BB gun
Get yer damned booger hook off the bang switch
Brandishing it out your window is a felony, aggravated if you had yer damned booger hook on the bang switch
If I were deliberately coming for your food your 10 fpe wouldn’t even rate an “Ow! quit it” out of me
You’ve already hoarded enough food to live on nothing but One A Day for several weeks
@kfg
AIn’t Brits lackwits cuties?
Show some sympathy for Palma, someone like that probably lives down the lane from him.
Stupidity in Philly.
Foolish passenger argues with SEPTA driver over whether passenger needs a mask or not. Driver tells him to get off the bus. Foolish passenger decides to argue that. Driver calls the cops.
Drama ensues.
https://www.the-sun.com/news/669953/shock-moment-passenger-dragged-off-philadelphia-bus-cops-face-mask/
Even now, there’s another bus on the route in a few. Being a pain in the ass won’t get very far with bus drivers even in the best of times.
There’s more people in the stores out here in flyover wearing masks. So now, I’m looking for a mask like Rollo bought.
https://www.amazon.com/Bane-Mask-Fashion-Anti-Windproof/dp/B086HLVQLV/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=bane+mask&qid=1586642547&sr=8-1
I think I’ll just accessorize my mask with red nail polish.
“Rapper and reality TV personality Waka Flocka Flame says coronavirus is ‘fake’ and ‘minorities can’t catch it'” https://www.nydailynews.com/coronavirus/ny-coronavirus-waka-flacka-flame-fake-minorities-cant-catch-20200316-3ne5x24whbhspf6xrbxdxst2ji-story.html There’s a county next to mine–about a third the population of my county but about 30% minority–it has deaths almost double my county’s death count (that’s 6x the mortality rate of my county). Blacks, because of Tuskeegee, often distrust doctors, from what Daughter Gamer tells me. I suppose that they are slow to seek medical help because of distrust, yet the earlier covid19 is caught, the better the prognosis. It’s an awful fakking shame. On a site I frequent there’s an idiot… Read more »
“A new tally shows 2,246 people have died in nursing homes from the coronavirus in 24 states. The numbers were compiled by NBC News, which also reported that nearly 2,500 long-term care facilities in 36 states are battling coronavirus cases – an explosive 522 percent increase in just 10 days.” “As of Friday, more than half of New York’s 613 licensed nursing homes had reported coronavirus infections, with 4,630 total positive cases and 1,439 deaths, the Times reported. In New Jersey, nursing homes had been linked to 252 virus-related deaths, more than 90 of them in the past two days,… Read more »
It gives us time to do masculine shit like fix the house up, fix cars and listen to Metallica and Motorhead 🙂
As hard as the news is, it will pass.
Imagine how much less the effects would be if women weren’t working outside the home and old people weren’t stored up like grain.
Tradcon thought of the day.
@Palma. Bon Jovi. They’re not a rock band. What’s wrong with ya man? Can’t be Covid 19. You’ve already had that. You’re the guy who listens to Phil Collins while doing 90 down the M6. No Jacket Required is actually a good album
“Imagine how much less the effects would be if women weren’t working outside the home and old people weren’t stored up like grain.” +1000 no need for day care for kids to spread infections…old people living with their kids and watching the grandkids instead of being shoved into nursing homes to die… …I love spending time with Granddaughter Gamer! In other news, the Son In Law had a full time job for several months until furloughed recently…never gave a dime to support his daughter…he’s treated like an uncle by the DG and me…Mrs. G hates him and won’t be around… Read more »
@Blax likes The Atlantic…
…here’s an Atlantic article…tell me what you think of it…
“With Each Briefing, Trump Is Making Us Worse People”
https://outline.com/TxdFPZ
Never take the toll hahaha. Love you man. In a non gay way 🙂
Just getting to this post. I have been observing the hysteria cycle on this “crisis” for weeks now. Have held since early March that the mortality rate is about 0.3% and that the government response to the “Crisis” will cause 10x more harm than the virus itself. Almost all men I know are reacting to this way too much…heck, I probably am and I have been the subject of criticism for not joining in the chorus of nail biters. Interesting how my wife is mostly following my lead, but in the milieu of others at the store, also bought too… Read more »
GW I know few real men who are not panicking. Huh. All the men I interact with, both in reality and in virtual, are not panicking. Some of us have checked up on each other, “You guys all right? Got everything you need for now?” as well as checking on neighbors. A widow neighbor has gotten a stool out and is weeding, just so that she can be available to talk to anyone who walks by (from 2 meters away of course). The food co-op is open but only 5 customers at a time. I buy maybe two things, chat… Read more »
Lemme see if I can get a LOL out of Blaximus:
“Say hello to my little friends!”
CNN reporting “covid19” lines in “San Fran”…
https://twitter.com/johncardillo/status/1248744437418799105
This is after CNN was showing video of Italian hospitals while reporting on New York City hospitals…twice…
Maybe some local stations in NYC are doing the same thing as CNN?
#pushthepanic
Memphis new infections are steady state…running around 70 per day…deaths at 2% of confirmed cases…
…my hypothesis…patients have a lower viral load at initial infection in Memphis than NYC patients because less density…hence, lower mortality…
(Memphis is in Shelby County along with Germantown and Collierville.)
https://covid19.memphistn.gov/
Found this link where a NY ICU doc says that docs are treating the wrong covid disease–they are treating ARDS when the problem is hypoxia…
https://www.citizenfreepress.com/breaking/nyc-icu-doctor-sounds-the-alarm-we-are-treating-covid-patients-incorrectly/
Be sure to click on the link at the bottom.
@ASD:
I note that’s how they treated Boris. Even during the 48 hours when his condition was touch and go they didn’t intubate him, although I’ll further note that for those two days he took up the resource of two nurses.
@kfg
Why didn’t Fauci and his people figure this out themselves? Bilateral lung damage isn’t typical of viral pneumonia.
And why is Fauci restricting the use of hydroxychloroquine to hospitals? Does he want people to get massive organ damage? And why aren’t there trials using HCQ/zinc? HCQ/zinc cocktail has lots of strong anecdotal evidence to support trials of the cocktail.
@kfg
In my opinion, Fauci is a major screwup.
Pre publication un reviewed study from NYC concludes the single biggest risk factor for people with COVID-19 is obesity.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/nyu-scientists-largest-u-s-study-of-covid-19-finds-obesity-the-single-biggest-factor-in-new-york-critical-cases/
Source paper:
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.08.20057794v1
I’ve been saying that the only way I could be in a higher mortality risk group is if I were over 80 and on chemotherapy. Now I can just say “fat.”
Here’s evidence that TDS is sometimes fatal…
“Even with hydroxychloroquine politicized, 53% GOP would take it, just 18% of Democrats”
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/even-hydroxychloroquine-politicized-53-gop-would-take-it-just-18-of-democrats
Is Plaquenil/hydroxychloroquine dangerous when used to treat covid19? Let’s check with doctors who used it to treat patients with chronic disease like rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. “Hydroxychloroquine typically is very well tolerated. Serious side effects are rare. The most common side effects are nausea and diarrhea, which often improve with time. Less common side effects include rash, changes in skin pigment (such as darkening or dark spots), hair changes, and muscle weakness. Rarely, hydroxychloroquine can lead to anemia in some individuals. This can happen in individuals with a condition known as G6PD deficiency or porphyria. In rare cases, hydroxychloroquine can… Read more »
Here’s another lovely article from The Atlantic…what do you think? Here’s what I think… The author couldn’t stay on topic and used his “excursions” to bash President Trump. Yellow journalism at its worst. Sh*tty writing. The author is an academic, not a clinician. He can’t judge when anecdotal evidence should be followed and won’t use any regimen unless it has been proven in controlled clinical trials. Not someone you’d want to rely on if you had a fire at your house. He’d refuse to use your milk buckets that hadn’t received official approval to fight fires. The author is in… Read more »
Could someone please check my statistical calculation? Statistics on Zelenko’s results. If there are about 500 people age 65+ in Zelenko’s village of Kiryas Joel and he’s treated 700 patients including 200 referrals from a nearby town, then with a 3.4% ccmr we should expect there to have been 24 deaths. But there were zero. Let’s run the numbers on that. 0.966(exp 700)= 3 e(exp-11) which is nil. (I forgot that you would have to obtain this result 24 times, so the value is even smaller (exp 24). So there is virtually no chance that Zelenko’s results aren’t better than… Read more »
Daughter Gamer told me the treatment protocol used by ICU docs at the medium size hospital where she works: 200mg Plaquenil bid (maybe double this on day 1) 220mg zinc daily Vitamin C Vitamin D 1 unit packed cells second day of treatment if needed (maybe if pO2 below 92?) No zpak (azithromycin) They aren’t using vents–just oxygen–for most patients. Only one death out of 40 patients. Amazing, because the patients are from the inner city and go AMA all the time. Patients are slow to seek treatment and the disease is often very advanced when the doc first sees… Read more »
@ASD:
The problem isn’t the math, the problem is independent replication. Otherwise all those numbers are indistinguishable from being simply arse pulled.
The reason Zelenko’s claims aren’t to be dismissed outright is that they are prima facie plausible by understood mechanisms. He didn’t just pull the protocol out of his arse, he thought about it and worked out a possible solution.
“Daughter Gamer told me the treatment protocol used by ICU docs at the medium size hospital where she works . . .”
Well, there ya go, although that’s a 2.5% mortality rate.
@kfg
Sure. So did you check my math? I wasn’t sure you had.
Zelenko’s work is plausible and strong on an anecdotal basis. And there is also Cardillo’s anecdotal support.
Zelenko’s patients were middle class and he caught them early. The patients trusted docs, unlike many blacks (because Tuskeegee, per Daughter Gamer). Progressives are least likely to take HCQ (only 18%). Most blacks are progressives. There’s no fixing stupidity (refusing effective treatment). So 2.5% mortality rate is probably the lowest you’ll find where there’s a significant black population.
“So did you check my math?” I read it but didn’t critique it, because the critical flaw is that the numbers are assertions. Do it again with critical observation so we can have some confidence in the numbers. As the mechanism of the protocol is plausible and the negative side effects nil there shouldn’t be any ethical barrier to gathering lots and lots of numbers from lots and lots of trials in a relatively short time. “So 2.5% mortality rate is probably the lowest you’ll find where there’s a significant black population.” I’ll say this; it’s a damned sight better… Read more »
@kfg
Do you doubt Zelenko’s numbers or my report of Zelenko’s numbers? Not seeing the critical flaw.
Zelenko’s pool is about fished out. Cardillo hasn’t reported any numbers except remission of symptoms in 8-12 hours where patients are severely ill incoming. No report of any deaths.
Who will push clinical trials of Plaquenil/zinc? There’s no money in it. And trials can only help Trump if they work. And if it works, who cares about trials? 65% of docs are apparently using Plaquenil; not sure what percent are also using zinc. The quacks that aren’t will lose business.
“Do you doubt Zelenko’s numbers or my report of Zelenko’s numbers?” There is no reason to accept them at face value and a number of reasons not to do so. There is no way I can distinguish them from bald assertions, so that’s what they are. The reason, and the only reason, I give Zelenko attention is because I look at his protocol and think, “Oh. Hey. Ya know, that could work! Let’s try that. Let’s try that a lot and find out. Which is what I meant by trials. Not formal, clinical trials. Lots of people treated by lots… Read more »
@kfg
You could watch a video about Zelenko and see him describe his thought process. Evaluate his critical thinking skills.
I wouldn’t use zpak with HCQ, tho. QT risks from synergism are unknown.
“You could watch a video about Zelenko and see him describe his thought process. Evaluate his critical thinking skills.”
I could, and I have just said, repeatedly, that that is what impresses me.
“I wouldn’t use zpak with HCQ, tho.”
I am just generally leery of using antibiotics as a prophylactic, but have to note that there is at least the possibility that it preserved my life once or thrice in my youth when it was up on the razor’s edge.
Azithromycin as well as other macrolide antibiotics have considerable anti-inflammatory properties (including reducing cytokine feed forward cycles. Cytokines are tiny inter and intra-cellular mediators of inflammation. Think of a “spinning up” of inflammation, or similarily a snowball/avalanche effect.) I use Zithromax as a short term anti-inflammatory in skin conditions. E.g., a bad flair up of zits. In this use is is anti-inflammatory as well as anti-bacterial. We also use other topical and oral antibiotics for the same reason. They are both antibiotic, but also very anti-inflammatory. Doxycycline and minocycline antibiotics are used in skin conditions (bullous pemphigoid) and rhumatologic conditions… Read more »
Shake my hand.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, left, shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping before a meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Jan. 28:
@SJF I enjoyed reading your thesis. 🙂 Some questions arose. First, what is the synergistic effect of taking HCQ/zpak on QT interval? Second, why does covid present bilaterally in the lungs if it is a pneumonia (covid scans typically show ground glass image on the outer lobes)? Third, why are covid patients hypoxic, yet with generally clear lung images on the CT scans? Fourth, does that really sound like ARDS? Fifth, might giving the patient a unit of packed cells on day 2 help alleviate low pO2? Sixth, might giving O2 be better than intubating patients if there’s no breathing… Read more »
“First, what is the synergistic effect of taking HCQ/zpak on QT interval?” It’s double. For people at risk. IOW, a patient that has risk of prolonged QT interval and heart arrhythmia. Zithromax does prolong QT interval. But doesn’t cause Torsades de Points. https://emcrit.org/pulmcrit/myth-busting-azithromycin-does-not-cause-torsade-de-pointes-or-increase-mortality/ More importantly, not all QT prolongation is created equal. Some drugs may prolong the QT interval without increasing the risk of arrhythmia (Thomsen 2006). In a rabbit heart model, supratherapeutic azithromycin levels prolong a differentcomponent of the action potential compared to erythromycin (Milberg 2002). Rather than prolonging repolarization (a pattern which tends to cause Torsade de Pointes),… Read more »
@SJF
Thank you very much. That was a wonderful reply. Is your area seeing much covid?
“Is your area seeing much covid?”
Yes. Very much. With the usual insular protective bubble in my zip code.
@SJF
How about where you practice?
My zip has a few cases. The county has high mortality rate. Even though it’s supposedly a “bubble” county. I don’t know if it’s because the docs here suck or because the progs here refuse HCQ because TDS. Patients are doing better in Memphis than here.
SJF, thanks for those write-ups on the wu, that was interesting reading.
A couple of Jet blue flight attendants and one pilot died recently of wu related complications.
They were in their 30s.
It’s difficult to get medical logic understanding on what to do and how to behave. And how bad it is and what the possibilities are. On the one hand, it’s super contagious. The infected cruise line passengers traveling on planes and going through Florida airports and then flying back home was a travesty. In some situations it spread like wildfire. On the other hand, social isolation practices cut down the odds of actually getting infected in the odds equation. The chance of getting it is not the same chance of having morbidity or mortality if infected. @ASD I’m just on… Read more »
@liz Sorry to hear about the Jet Blue deaths. Did you all know them? Being around infected people in confined places is a recipe for a heavy viral load, which can be fatal even in young, healthy people. And it can magnify the mortality risk even if you’re already infected. And I know that airplanes can have a lot of air pushed out and filtered, but sometimes that ain’t necessarily so, like when the plane is sitting on the runway waiting to take off. You don’t get much air out of the overhead vents until you’re flying. I’m still not… Read more »
Hey Gamer, 🙂
It wasn’t anyone we know.
Mike flies for SWA now and gets notified when stuff like that happens.
Right now, it’s really slow.
Airports are kind of like ghost towns and he averages only about 6 or 7 people a flight.
I think it was most risky a few weeks back (when they weren’t allowed to wear masks)
Saw Camp Humphreys is reopening their base facilities (this is in South Korea).
That is good news….
Random sampling in my area, about 4% tested positive.
@Liz I would be interested in the raising son’s dynamic. How are those boy’s doing. And do you have any reservations about their path’s in life and how they should proceed? Just open. Ended questions there. From what I know you and your husband are sharp as tacks and can deal with anything moving forward. Bless your boys. My mom raised four son’s no daughters. And both my my mom and dad were good ones. On balance normal. Witch I judge you as. Normal and healthy. How are doing with it all? Don’t be shy. On spilling your feelings. Hah.… Read more »
So Liz.
Just a straight up question.
How are you doing?
Cheers SJF! 🙂 We’re good. Mike retired from the USAF, and life is….much easier as far as all that goes. Life in the civilian world is incredibly sweet. Thought we’d bought our forever home, but I’m staring at about two feet of snowfall in the last couple of days. Not sure how far into our dotage we’re going to feel like dealing with this. Especially when our boys aren’t around to shovel or plow. It’s been kind of a blessing during this time our family is all together again (our oldest came home for spring break and that’s when the… Read more »
Hi backatcha, @liz
I’m watching this CDC clusterfakk and smh. Trump needs to let the Surgeon General run things, not Fauci. The SG is a practicing physician, unlike Fauci the academic.
Kids’ doing college from home may be the thing for a bit. But is college even worth the cost? I hope your kids all have a plan.
Does anyone else see something weird in the daily change graph death line for NY?
https://corona.help/country/united-states/state/new-york
Interesting story from a nurse who contracted covid but was denied hydroxychloroquine.
https://politichicks.com/2020/04/i-survived-china-wuhan-virus-a-covid-19-nightmare-insiders-report/
Virginia is currently a very dangerous place to live.
At the risk of preaching to the choir… “Treatment Suggestions for COVID19 1.Be reasonably confident that your patient has COVID19. a.Use the CDC criteria for symptoms, signs and exposure history b.Medications DO NOT work for prevention or prophylaxis,and excessive, unnecessary use risks overdosing. c.Your patient should have a positive test for COVID19 before taking medication. 2.Explain to patients that there are NO FDA approved medications for this disease. 3.You may explain to patients that there have been some small, preliminary studies that suggest that hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine may be beneficial to prevent lung complications. 4.Although the treatment course is short,… Read more »
Yeah, I’m kind of watching Sweden now to see what happens without a lockdown. We’ll see if the cost to gains equation figures. Someone asked how everyone’s new year’s resolutions were going yesterday and someone answered, “well, I vowed I would stay inside and learn about gay tiger meth cults, so I’d say it’s going pretty well” Thought that was funny. 😆 Kids’ doing college from home may be the thing for a bit. But is college even worth the cost? I hope your kids all have a plan. Yeah. Our first didn’t cost us anything. He has two full… Read more »
“Does anyone else see something weird in the daily change graph death line for NY?” No. What? And what is the import? It’s pretty evident that certain types of people can social distance and some others can’t. And ASD, it took a while but I finally go my zinc in the mail from Amazon. 50 mg zinc. 120 pills. As Zinc Piccolinate. Took a couple weeks. To get into my stockpile. To complement my Selenium. And don’t tell anyone that I may or may not have sneaked in some Hydroxychloroquine into the stockpile. A dick move. Front-run-ing. Take it as… Read more »
@SJF The graph showed two consecutive points on the NY daily death line that were outside three standard deviations. Those two points are an artifact. Maybe they included flu deaths being counted as covid. We don’t know. Definitely an artifact to be rejected. Yesterday, the normal trend line resumed. Good for you getting the zinc. Of course, I already had some. P Looks like covid is very widespread now and within a month we will have moved on. Even in my area in flyover we have likely reached 15% infection. Docs here suck at treating covid, tho. Probably running a… Read more »
I’m hearing that you need 50 g of elemental zinc. That means that you’ll have to calculate the dose from the stoichiometry of whatever supplemental type of zinc you’re using…sulfate, gluconate, piccolinate….
Yes 50mg.,not g. The elemental zinc in the supplement I bought is 50mg. elemental zinc from zinc picolinate. Not the total grams of the zinc picolinate. And furthermore it lists the daily value of zinc as 333% which is derived from a daily value (recommended daily allowance) of 11mg. for men. I couldn’t find zinc anywhere and bought it on Amazon for $39 for 120 pills. The product I bought took 10 days to ship and is no longer available. “A friend of mine” bought 60 plaquenil 200 mg. generic pills for $27.50 on March 20th. Trump mentioned it March… Read more »
@SJF
Right. Milligrams of Zinc, not grams.
In a county near mine there is a university hospital whose ads on radio boast about their “academic medicine.” However, the hospital is in a county where the confirmed case mortality rate is above 10%. Michigan has the highest mortality rates of the states, and this county is worse than Michigan. The county isn’t densely populated. And it’s in flyover country. Academics don’t pay much attention to clinicians. When there’s an emergency, clinicians find an answer quickly. Academics are slow to follow. In an emergency, academics have the worst numbers. But when you want a protocol proven with peer-reviewed double… Read more »
@ASD Here is a good article in the NYT about triaging Covid-19 patients through the ER and keeping oxygen saturation up. Protip: have a pulse oximeter on hand ( or finger). It was in my google newfeed. When trying to read a NYT article in Chrome, if it tells you reached your limit on read articles and to sign in or sign up, just erase your cookies from the site in your browser. (Click on the padlock symbol next to the url in the brower dialog box. Then click on cookies and erase them. Also, you can’t view NYT in… Read more »
@SJF You probably won’t be surprised to learn that I’ve had a pulse ox in the house for years which I had purchased. Not Daughter Gamer. Not Mrs. Gamer. Me. Because I was a Boy Scout. A lot in that NYT article had been posted by an ED doc from NO a few weeks ago which I pasted in a post a while back.. Covid seems to manifest early as viral “anemia” and progress to viral pneumonia. Your breathing rate doesn’t change because of hypoxia, but because of acidosis. You can have hypoxia without acidosis. It’s rare, except with covid.… Read more »
@SJF
Oh, Daughter Gamer told me that Memphis docs are sometimes dosing covid patients with heparin.
Heparin…or bring back leeches…
https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19/85577
Think it’s standard to give anticoagulants to all hospital patients for VTE prophylaxis, at least in the US.
Are they giving higher doses to Covid patients?
Sounds like a nasty business, the wu.
@liz
DG said “It depends.” lol
This is interesting. Even a world wide pandemic does not stop the gender gap narrative.
‘You might have noticed that in the media (for example, the BBC, the Guardian), and even in the world of health (for example, the World Health Organisation and the Lancet), a commonly recurring narrative has developed around the pandemic: More men are dying, but the real victims are women. Moreover, this narrative usually implies that men’s deaths are largely due to men’s poor decisions about health behaviour.’
https://quillette.com/2020/04/22/covid-19s-gender-gap/
Some of you medical types might find this interesting…
https://www.evms.edu/media/evms_public/departments/internal_medicine/EVMS_Critical_Care_COVID-19_Protocol.pdf
SFC Ton is back with suggestions on conditioning while social isolating.
https://tonsplace.wordpress.com/2020/04/08/staying-fit-while-social-distancing/
“SFC Ton is back”
Good to see.
Preprint: COVID-19: Attacks the 1-Beta Chain of Hemoglobin and Captures the Porphyrin to Inhibit Human Heme Metabolism “The novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) is an infectious acute respiratory infection caused by the novel coronavirus. The virus is a positive-strand RNA virus with high homology to bat coronavirus. In this study, conserved domain analysis, homology modeling, and molecular docking were used to compare the biological roles of certain proteins of the novel coronavirus. The results showed the ORF8 and surface glycoprotein could bind to the porphyrin, respectively. At the same time, orf1ab, ORF10, and ORF3a proteins could coordinate attack the heme on… Read more »
Interesting links, Gamer. I’ve been looking for images of slides of covid-infected erythrocytes and haven’t been able to find any. Wonder if they sickle or clump? I don’t know, but I don’t think the shape would change (unless the body interprets it as anemia in which case it would start pumping out rbcs early, and they would be a little less mature (with nuclei), and maybe smaller and rounder (you see this in iron deficiency anemia). But Rbcs “live” for 120 days so that probably wouldn’t manifest for a while. There might be a difference in color as there is… Read more »
Sorry, just thinking further I guess if there is clotting the spleen might be impacted and start lysing rbcs, so one might see some fragments on a slide. Don’t know. I’m kind of curious too.
@ASD Knock on wood, I’m still seeing super low numbers of positive cases around me. I did see that patient that tested positive three weeks ago and got rid of a couple skin cancers on her this past Monday. And I ain’t dead yet. And it reflects both population density and socio-economic class. In this area. And this social distancing is working to not spread it around. Hardly anyone is going out and most everyone in public is wearing a mask and not coughing. Because the cough, cough, socioeconomic classes are stratified in public density and the ability to socially… Read more »
Meanwhile, this New York Post article and video is fucking awful to see:
https://nypost.com/2020/04/22/yonkers-er-doctor-describes-nightmare-of-coronavirus-frontline/
And it brings in to focus the concepts that have been batted around in the manosphere for some time now: Playing to win/Playing not to lose.
@SJF Too bad about the one death in your zip. My zip has 15k people and 10 cases. Our county dashboard doesn’t list deaths. Daughter Gamer was swabbed (very unpleasant) and came back negative. So she doesn’t have to quarantine from her baby. DG is getting lots of referrals at her locums gig. The other doc got fired. Lazy and pissed off too many other groups with his management screwups. DG gets gets a daily stipend and is paid for working beyond a minimum number of hours. She worked a couple of all-nighters. Now DG has more work than she… Read more »
Sjf This isn’t a game at all. We’re seeing an average of 400+ deaths a day still. We’ve long since passed the 911 death toll. There are lessons to be learned here for those that feel safe because ” not so bad here “. It wasn’t so bad here in January. The stuff happening in hospitals is being suppressed for the most part. Imo, if you want to get rid of some of the callous indifference, live broadcast should happen, uncensored, from icu and emergency rooms daily, broadcast nationwide into people’s homes. 1 doctor pronouncing 6 people dead in one… Read more »
@Blax You’d be surprised how many docs are quacks who can’t work outside of a protocol. Can’t think for themselves and have no critical thinking skills. But they excelled at cramming for tests, so they must be smart. There is a treatment that seems to prevent covid from progressing from hypoxia to ARDS. ARDS requires intubation on a vent and that means 50% survival rate or less. If the progress is stopped at hypoxia, which is often treated with a nasal cannula, then the patient has an excellent chance at recovery. Why aren’t you asking the following questions? Why hasn’t… Read more »
We got hit pretty bad by Irene here. When an on location TV reporter was asked about the condition of Middleburgh he replied, “There is no Middleburgh.” Sandy, however, was “a bit of nasty weather.” We weren’t being callous when we went about our business through it, it simply didn’t affect us the way it did The City and The Island. We used that to send you some help, because we could. Yes, people here are getting sick. They are, in fact, dying. I last went out for food two weeks ago, wore gloves and pulled on a mask when… Read more »
reply to no one in particular….
https://nypost.com/2020/04/23/hydroxychloroquine-had-no-effect-on-seriously-ill-in-new-york-study/
…. buuuttt, of course that will not penetrate at all.
Hydroxychloroquine is not the active ingredient of the protocol, it is the engine which delivers the active ingredient to the cells. The active ingredient was not administered.
Furthermore, that was not a study. It is just as much anecdote as the results that suggest the protocol is effective.
Perhaps the protocol is useless, or worse, but I like honesty in these affairs and on its face this “study” has the appearance of an a priori attempt to fail.
kfg “Monday afternoon, April 24 the Virginia Department of Health’s (VDH) website has reported 74 cases of COVID-19 found in Mecklenburg County and now 7 deaths. The VDH’s website has changed to reflect the number of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths in each county. Mecklenburg has 74 cases, 19 reported hospitalizations, and is now reflecting 7 deaths. No other information has been provided at this time regarding the 7 deaths.” http://www.thenewsprogress.com/news/article_6ade5ff6-8657-11ea-baf2-bb1e87469993.html People in my tiny populated community in Va. are in lockdown mode, and have been for a month. New confirmed COVID-19 cases in Virginia increase by 542, deaths by 37… Read more »
meanwhile…
http://lenkiefer.com/img/charts_2020_04_03/claimsSA_2020_04_03.gif
winter is coming? This summer?
Blaximus
1 doctor pronouncing 6 people dead in one shift doesn’t resonate. The county doesn’t read the post.
However bad things are in some hospitals in the NYC area, it’s worse in assisted living / nursing homes. I believe a signifcant percentage of deaths, on the order of 50%, have / are happening in those facilities. It’s like a brush fire.
” . . . it’s still concerning as the majority of my family/siblings live in Va.” The majority of mine are in the NYC metro area, including my great aunt born before WWI. I am not lacking in personal stake and concern for what’s going on down there, or dismissing it as only an “old person’s” problem. She has a better chance than many because she’s out in commuter country still living in her own separated house, shared only by one of her sons who looks after her, not stuffed in the corner of some former brake lining factory with… Read more »
Yup. Every single day the numbers are horrific.
Elizabeth NJ is right next door. My wife’s cousin works there.
There’s a fresh outbreak at a nursing home 5 blocks from my house, but they are moving seniors to other newly established facilities with more health care professionals, even some national guard medics.
There was a study done on the effectiveness of snake antivenin where some people were swimming in a lake far from town and ventured into an unseen swirl of cottonmouths. Four people were delivered to the hospital by ambulance four hours after being bitten with systemic organ failure. Surprisingly, the antivenin failed to save them.
Now nobody gives antivenin any more because this study proved that snake antivenin doesn’t work.
Thus ends the parable.
Nursing homes…sometimes there’s a little hope… In one of the largest known examples, the medical director of a Texas City nursing home has given hydroxychloroquine to roughly 39 of the residents who have tested positive for COVID-19. Since starting a 5-day regimen of hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and the vitamin zinc, the first group of patients either improved or stayed the same, said Dr. Robin Armstrong. None has gone to the hospital. He acknowledged it is not clear whether the drugs are to thank or the patients’ own immune response. “That’s a hard thing to tease out,” Armstrong said. “We are compiling… Read more »
…. not factual ” Water moccasins’ venom is potent. “Cottonmouth venom is composed mainly of hemotoxins that break down blood cells, preventing the blood from clotting or coagulating,” Viernum said. The results can be serious or even deadly, though Viernum and other experts emphasize that fatalities are very rare. Viernum further described the effects of the bite, saying that the hemotoxins lead to “hemorrhaging throughout the circulatory system wherever the venom has spread,” she said. “Envenomation from a cottonmouth can lead to temporary and/or permanent tissue and muscle damage; loss of an extremity, depending on the location of the bite;… Read more »
“Since starting a 5-day regimen of hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and the vitamin zinc, the first group of patients either improved or stayed the same, said Dr. Robin Armstrong. None has gone to the hospital. He acknowledged it is not clear whether the drugs are to thank or the patients’ own immune response.”
Zinc isn’t a vitamin.
Never has been.
Facts matter. Being accurate matters.
“There’s a fresh outbreak at a nursing home 5 blocks from my house, but they are moving seniors to other newly established facilities with more health care professionals, even some national guard medics.” National Guard medics…sounds like someone in NJ is getting both neurons to fire at the same time. Funny thing, in a populous county near mine there are a lot of nursing home deaths. Maybe in my county, too, but it’s not making the news. The daily deaths in my county seem to be slowing. (The infection rate has been level for a couple of weeks.) Maybe the… Read more »
” . . . the vitamin zinc . . .”
This “journalist” is university educated (Vanderbilt) and formerly worked as a reporter and producer at PBS NewsHour.
Presumably she has an editor with the same or greater education and/or experience.
@kfg
Presumably one is trying to communicate with people who aren’t university educated and consider zinc a vitamin. They can point to zinc as something that’s in their vitamin pill.
Getting picky about words is silly when talking about life and death and medical treatment for mortal illness.
Since zinc is in vitamins and in things like prostate supplements, adding additional zinc should be done with caution. It’s easy to overdose and make yourself nauseous and maybe cause a copper deficiency.
kfg
Lol. A few years back, a Penn graduate asked me ” Is cancer a virus?” with a completely straight face.
His father had been stricken with cancer for years and years, and the man went with him to all doctor visits and hospitalizations.
Yet, he was clueless as to what was actually happening.
“Getting picky about words is silly when talking about life and death and medical treatment for mortal illness.” No it’s not. If a mechanic told me he was putting motor oil in my transmission, I’d run out of his shop. Zinc is amazing and necessary on it’s own. but it’s not a vitamin. According to a doctor 20 some years ago, I needed to have my prostate removed, and I was basically rendered infertile. I still have my prostate and a 20 year old daughter. Zinc ( among other things ) is a real health improver depending on what ails… Read more »
People here also die of bee stings.
And peanuts!
Cancer isn’t a virus, but some viruses can cause cancer.
The question wasn’t really so idiotic.
“Cancer isn’t a virus, but some viruses can cause cancer.
The question wasn’t really so idiotic.”
No, it was totally idiotic from an ” educated ” person.
He didn’t ask if a virus caused cancer, he asked if cancer was a virus.
I didn’t look for a reason to bail him out of what he said.
“Getting picky about words is silly when talking about life and death and medical treatment for mortal illness.” You are not just wrong, but critically wrong. The function of a journalist when reporting facts is to be correct, because they are teaching people what is correct and factual. The article was supposed to go through two levels of review, one of them fact checking, before it was approved for publication to make sure it was correct. At least three people failed to do their job properly. At least one of them must have had access to Wikipedia before publication. Because… Read more »
@kfg You are making a mountain out of a molehill. Compare the article which I selected from other articles (e.g., blaze, wfaa, npr). The other articles left out the critical detail that the doc used zinc. (Search: “armstrong nursing hydroxychloroquine”) Now which of the reporters made bigger errors? Which of them made critical errors? Calling a supplement a “vitamin” effectively communicates important details…the informational distinction between “zinc as vitamin” and “zinc as ionic salt” (if we’re being really, really picky) is trivial in the case in question, except that the more technical distinction is likely to confuse. The reporter who… Read more »