Quality control or not, it’s criminal. You can let slip the quality control maybe on junk electronics and toys. But there’s no excuse on N95 masks.
I’m more leaning to believe that they are systematically selling us the B or C stock that they won’t use themselves. Ripping us off while causing more death and economy-sapping spread. Win-win from our friends from China.
They pulled the same stunt in Canada a while back. The Canadians went nuts, but could do very little.
It’s the CCP. That second “C” stands for “communist”. Tells you all you need to know.
Yes for sure. If it were just lax quality then it would still be criminally negligent.
I’m thinking that its more likely misrepresentation and intentional fraud. 22% efficient on something as regulated as a N95 is probably not just quality problems. And presumably it was not just a % bad masks among the order but the entire 140k units were junk. That sounds more like intentional deceit. 
The masks going political are part of the usual anti-science crap rooted in mistrust of authority.
Azimov said it best:
‘There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”’
FL median age of new positive cases is 35-40ish. Median age of deaths is 80-85ish. The next wave isn’t going to result in nearly as many deaths or serious cases.
These are confirmed cases ages. Since the original testing rules (with tiny testing capacity) limited tests to primary elderly and hospitalized, is it surprising that the age of confirmed cases is decreasing since there’s now a moderate testing capacity? This does not really suggest the actual ages of those infected is changing.
There is no “next wave” discussion to be had. Infections barely decreased from the first peak at all before marching higher. This IS still the start of the first wave in Florida and most of the rest of the US…
Officials pretending the virus is “fading away” doesn’t make it so
Neither did deaths in FL show passing the first wave, they only decreased about 25% from the peak and are already increasing again.
The “second wave” discussion only applies in places like NY. Where there was a clear peak and retreat delineating a first wave. The rest of us are just starting to experience impacts from the first wave (because in most places we had less/delayed seeding of the virus than the areas that got hit in March/April)
It doesn’t help when it comes out that masks were said to be not beneficial early on simply because they didn’t want to run out. Is there any better way to foster mistrust?
It’s hard to tell for sure, but the age distribution of new cases certainly suggests a younger cohort, which is also what you’d expect given the recent protests weren’t largely nursing home residents or retirees.
My guess is the recent national trend is likely to continue, specifically increasing cases and flattish to eventually declining death rates. I expect this due to a combination of more testing finding milder cases in younger people, (some) older people being more careful than younger ones, and better treatment approaches. Time will tell.
But this is NOT the recent/current/ongoing national trend. Death rates and hospitalization rates are trending UP. (Death rates lag a few weeks, a little more than hospitalization lags. We’ll see the higher new peak death rates shortly, we’re already at setting new peaks in hospitalization rates in many states.) Not “flattish to eventually declining”. Everywhere except some of the hardest early hit places that are also most careful on resuming activities in a safe manner.
NY’s declining rates have provided camouflage for the increases everywhere else if you’ve just been looking at “national numbers” as a single set of numbers and not looking at individual states. Just subtract NY and NJ chart from the national chart and you will see this…
For instance, TX is already down to about half of the available ICU beds as compared to May. And we’re nearly setting new highs for the “positivity rate” on tests even though we have much higher testing capacity than we did before.
Makes sense. But interesting look at how the highest income people cut their spending the most (And the job /income losses are primarily hititng the lowest income).
Just guessing here… People that have little money will still spend almost everything they can get – from unemployment, the extra $600 and the one-time $1200 – to pay rent, buy food, and cover other essentials. Folks in the upper income levels spend their disposable income in entertainment (cruises, travel to Europe, dinning, …) which has been curtailed by the lock down.
Are you looking at the same charts I am? I agree about hospitalizations, but death rates?
That does not look like an UP trend to me. Even in a few weeks if things get somewhat worse, it might only flatten off rather than start rising to where it was before (due to the various factors I cited, younger average age of cases, better treatments, etc).
NY’s declining rates have provided camouflage for the increases everywhere else if you’ve just been looking at “national numbers” as a single set of numbers and not looking at individual states. Just subtract NY and NJ chart from the national chart and you will see this…
I’m not quite sure what you’re saying here - is that that non-NY/NJ death rates are rising and NY/NJ rates are falling? If so, as seems likely, doesn’t that still mean at least for now rates are falling nationally fairly significantly as the chart above shows?
A lot has been made of the Swedish approach to the virus, so I thought this follow up article was interesting.
A doctor in Sweden is speaking out against the Swedish approach to care. Basically he describes their standard treatment for anyone 80+ or 60+ with health issues who gets serious covid disease is morphine / euthanasia. So not just that the ICUs and hospitals refuse to take these people (yah, cost saving socialism) but they’re not giving outpatient level care in the nursing homes and are jumping straight to “oh well, make you comfortable while you die” instead of giving them extra oxygen or similar.
He also had some interesting comments on the level of state propaganda in Sweden on the virus, such that mask wearing is not just not required, it’s actively discouraged and hence now socially unacceptable. Hour long interview if you want more here.
That is surely what happened in the State of New York. And some would argue in New Jersey and in Pennsylvania, too . . . and also elsewhere.
We older folks are, after all, an expensive burden on the glorious new society. Gotta get rid of us one way or another.
And that is precisely what they did . . . by the tens of thousands.
Yes. That’s what I was referring to.
And no. The WH, governors, and the task force as well (before it was disbanded), have been clear from day one that every state is a separate situation. You need to look at the states separately.
Yes and yes.
Here’s a bit dated article showing the cases in NY vs the rest of the nation :
(This is cases but I think the trends track the same pattern as deaths)
The trends have remained the same. NY is still down. But the rest of the nation has been going up and getting worse since reopening. Of course it varies by state/region.
And yes as you say the national picture still looks like the graphic you show above.
But in the early days, when it was pointed out that the national numbers’ growth was misleading for those exact same reasons, it was summarily dismissed as poppycock…
I agree. That and the early labeling of COVID-19 as a hoax, did nothing but confuse people. Why should they believe the officials telling them one thing now when they promoted the opposite 3 months ago?
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Following President Donald Trump’s admission during a campaign rally in Oklahoma over the weekend that he ordered administration officials to “slow the testing down” in response to the recent surge in COVID-19 cases, two leading Democratic senators on Sunday slammed the Health and Human Services Department for failing to spend $14 billion in funds Congress approved in April to expand coronavirus testing and tracing.
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