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Friday, August 21, 2020

PANDEMIC PTSD-- Dr. Fauci's Psychoanalysis--A HOT LZ

     "...forced to wear facial protective covering as indicative of triggering the traumatic Zero Dark Thirty moment..."
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     Incline Village, Nev. (EOC)--Dr. Fauci, in some capacity the point "medico," (a term not included in the Associated Press 2020-22 Stylebook, 55th Edition) for response to the coronavirus emergency, has encouraged throughout the pandemic not to "despair." (1) The immunologist is confident the population will survive. From the outset, Dr. Fauci has juggled charts and graphs, while waving his hands illustrating surge versus mitigation, from the podium at the White House press briefings, but that certainly doesn't make him a mathematician. Any more than using words like "do not despair" qualifies him as a psychologist. The world needs no more patriarchal reassurances from those who lack the qualifications to give guidance.


     Next, there is the so-called "Bin Laden assassin," the hero Navy SEAL who has been claiming credit for liquidating the Al Qaeda arch-villain during a raid a long time ago when Obama was still president. Recently, he found himself standing tall in front of the Admiral for spouting off on social media that wearing a mask is something only done by (term omitted due to its derogatory nature). In addition, the ex-sniper just found himself under  the Uniform Code of Military Justice Article 86, AWOL, or is that just plain 86-ed, from flying on the airline where he made an (term omitted) out of himself in front of the American public he has sworn to protect and defend. (2) 
     Dr. Fauci, in his new role as psychoanalyst, might detect a certain hidden guilt complex in the SEAL lingering from the "Zero Dark-Thirty" raid that's left an indelible mark on the sailor after all these years. It's known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, and was first diagnosed in soldiers during the Vietnam War era. The online source for the American Psychiatric Association describes PTSD as;
     "a psychiatric disorder that may occur in people who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event such as a natural disaster, a serious accident, a terrorist act, war/combat, or rape or who have been threatened with death, sexual violence or serious injury." (3)
Of course it had other names in other wars, but it's the same symptoms, by definition. There is no telling if the Bin Laden raid was the only true near-death encounter the sailor had  but it would be the one that would generally fit the category of a PTSD related experience. 
     In an even more recent episode of yet another soldier who appears to misunderstand his role in being a defender of the American people, Turning Point USA spokesperson Rob Smith reacted to Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti's decision to cut the power on the Hollywood Hills covid-spreading party house, after fair warning;

Los Angeles mayor cuts power to Hollywood part house amid coronavirus pandemic

Turning Point USA spokesperson Rob Smith calls action 'authoritarian' and cites Democratic control as the reason for people moving out of cities.

Author of "Always a Soldier," Rob Smith, in an interview on Fox News on Friday said;


     "Well not only do they want to control the spread of covid, but they want to control every aspect of your life." 
It is unclear in this quote just who "they" are, which is the usual convenient cop-out for fear-mongering and anti-authority rhetoric, he didn't come out of the closet and finger the mayor as responsible. Whether it's just plain standard party propaganda from Turning Point USA or bona fide paranoia on soldier Rob Smith's part, is uncertain. If the latter is true, Dr. Fauci might consider this another case of wartime induced PTSD.
      Smith went on to call out the Democrats as "authoritarian" and responsible for "controlling most of our major cities." Again, controlling what is unclear unless it infers controlling the spread of the killer virus. Turning Point USA characterizes itself as a "Student Movement for Freedom." (4)  Any number of online references show that Smith is a decorated war hero but it is ambiguous as to whether he is currently enrolled in college. Smith's  background at Turning Point only shows an Army Commendation Medal and the Combat Infantry Badge, which calls into question his status as highly decorated. (5) This may be another case for Dr. Fauci's expertise in the field of psychoanalysis. Of course, in the case of Smith, there was also the Gulf War Syndrome, but the symptoms are more physiological. (6) Still, there is lingering doubt as to Smith, as in the case of the Navy SEAL above, of his apparent self- infatuation, possibly brought on by being a spokesperson or person of interest in today's social media driven culture. At the Mayo Clinic website, several symptoms of PTSD are given; 
      "...distressing memories of the traumatic event, severe emotional distress or physical reactions to something that reminds you of the traumatic event, avoiding places, activities or people that remind you of the traumatic event, negative thoughts about yourself, other people or the world." (7)
These are but a few that might indicate the behavior of the sailor on that Delta flight but for a closer look, The New Yorker published a standup after action report following the Bin Laden raid in 2011; 


      "That night, he wore a shirt and trousers in Desert Digital Camouflage, and carried a silenced Sig Sauer P226 pistol, along with extra ammunition; a CamelBak, for hydration; and gel shots, for endurance. He held a short-barrel, silenced M4 rifle. (Others seals had chosen the Heckler & Koch MP7.) A “blowout kit,” for treating field trauma, was tucked into the small of James’s back... He wore a noise-cancelling headset, which blocked out nearly everything besides his heartbeat." (8)
The story, written by Nicholas Schmidle, also notes the team wore night-vision goggles. If Dr, Fauci were to psychoanalyze the sailor who lost it on the Delta flight, he might discover the similarity to being in the confined space of the aircraft resembling the Chinook helicopter, with a veteran in a USMC baseball cap snoozing nearby and forced to wear facial protective covering as indicative of triggering the traumatic Zero Dark Thirty moment. There has been no report if the SEAL was under medication at the time or had too many drinks on the plane that caused him to go on his twitter rage. 
    Two cases alone do not signal a red flare in a hot LZ in the case of combat veterans somehow having trouble coping with covid. Normally soldiers back from the bush in-country dive for cover when a car backfires on a busy boulevard. But then again, with the pandemic possibly still in its incubating stages, the world may be a long way from getting back to "normal."


"Medico," M*A*S*H, "Major Ego," season 7, episode 9, (1978)    https://www.allmovie.com/movie/mash--major-ego-v281232, 
Bin Laden compound photoillustration  by John Ritter from the New Yorker story.

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Sunday, August 16, 2020

PANDEMIC PRATTLE-- Coin Shortage Scandal--EOC/2020 EXCLUSIVE

     
    Italy, 1975:  "...shopkeeper surreptitiously showed the shopper the cash drawer devoid of coins..." 
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     Incline Village (EOC) -- Yet another unique variable of the virus sweeping the nation is the overnight disappearance of small change, a convenience, and an inconvenience, taken for granted just six months ago. Now it's become a mild nightmare. Stores are refusing to allow cash purchases and in reverse, are now limiting cash back on purchases. Media reports any number of reasons for the pocket change shortfall and the immediate report is that the Mint has cut back on production. (1) 


     The story seems to have no legs there unless a closer look at previous coin shortages offers alternative explanations, and room for the conspiracy trolls on social media to send up a red flare. 
Even before  the Civil War, valuable metals in short supply created demand for the "shinplaster," a paper substitute of small denomination that many at the time considered worthless. (2) The problem carried over into the War Between the States. The scarcity of metal prevailed during World War I as reported in the Miami Herald at the time;
     "There is a great scarcity of copper coin in France, and it is more than suspected that much of this cupriferous commodity has found its way to Germany, where it is used in the manufacture of munitions of war." (3)
A coin shortage in Egypt in October, 1941 resulted in the arrest of "several speculators, chiefly small-time money changers" for selling coins higher than their face value. (4) A similar situation arose about that same time in Cuba that was offset by using cellophane wrapped stamps. (5)



     One year after Pearl Harbor, it wasn't foreign governments out to cause a small change panic, but the Treasury indirectly blamed the nation's kids for a conspiracy to loot the coins from circulation, as reported in the Pennsylvania Republican and Herald;
     "Washington, Dec. 7 (UP) --The Treasury wants 30,000,000 school children to smash their piggy banks today and put their pennies and nickels back into circulation. The Treasury has sent letters to state, county and city school superintendents urging them to organize 'coin round-ups' to help meet the shortage of small change." (6)
From the archives, it appears a shortage of copper, nickel and silver, along with hoarding, persisted throughout World War II. The most serious numismatic shortfall occurred in the early Sixties. The rise of the vending machine was partly to blame as coins, once deposited for sodas and candy bars, would remain out of circulation for weeks until collected (7)
     In 1975, a strike at the Canadian mint in Ottawa placed that nation at a severe coin shortage, also related to money being used for "vending machines, parking meters, pay telephones and cookie jars." (8) That same year, some had seriously considered that precious metal shortages in relation to minted small change might be related to a conspiracy  in Italy. 


    Victor Simpson reporting for the Associated Press in The Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader in 1975 reported with a dateline out of Rome that the coin shortage there was related to other than basic economics; 
      "One newspaper suggested the coin shortage was a plot by a subversive group trying to make citizens lose faith in the ability of their government to run the country." (9)
Other stories blamed it on Japanese watch makers needing the raw materials for watchmaking. In a rather startling expose of just how far the coin shortage led to extremes in Italy back then, Ray Jones, a Pennsylvania Sentinel correspondent, had this to say about how shopkeepers handled the crisis;


     "The shopper, of course, always needs a few extra coins in case he needs bus money home...The storekeeper, in turn, always wants a few extra coins to make change on large purchases or for regular customers. The duplicity which results is an interesting, if slightly tragic commentary on human behavior...The average storekeeper has two cash drawers, one (usually devoid of coins) for public display and one with a coin 'reserve' . " (10)
Jones explains further that the shopper had to show his wallet to indicate he had no coins and the shopkeeper surreptitiously showed the shopper the cash drawer devoid of coins. 



    The coronavirus pandemic has created unprecedented situations and challenges for the world in 2020, one of which is the ongoing coin shortage. Current theories are in line to a certain degree with historical similar shortages. Current coin compositions can be found at the US Mint website. (11) Most contain copper and nickel with a balance of zinc and manganese; the nickel itself is 25 percent "Ni."  A world nickel shortage since 2019, as reported by Reuters, indicates the high-demand for the chemical element and a vital  component in manufacture of electric vehicles. An article in June by Tim Treadgold in Forbes points the finger, yet again, at China, for a "hidden stockpiling" of the commodity, (13) Certainly, with the help of a few reports as this and some serious investigating query by social media conspiracy hawks, it wouldn't take much to discover the true reason for the coin shortage. And don't forget to include General Motors and Elon Musk in those theories.
Footnotes:

"prattle" /'pradl/ -- talk at length in a foolish or inconsequential way
 


Cited 
(2) Shinplaster, The Raleigh Weekly Standard, 06 May 1840, Page 1.
(3) Copper, The Miami Herald, 09 Dec 1915, Page 4.
(4) Egypt, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 24 Oct 1941, Page 33
(5) Cuba, New Jersey Herld-News, 13 Nov 1941, Page 32
(6) Coin Round-Ups, Pennsylvania Republican and Herald, 7 Dec 1942, Page 1.
(7) Vending Machines, The Kansas City Star, 26 June 1960, Page 131.
(8) Canada, The BC Times, 21 Jan 1975, Page 2.
(9) Plot, Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, 30 July 1975, Page 20.
(10) Ray Jones, PA Sentinel, 20 Dec 1975, Page 28


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Wednesday, August 12, 2020

COVID19--Heuristic Algorithmic Crashes--"HAL" REBOOTED


     "...I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that..."
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     Discovery One (EOC)-- Facing unprecedented input levels, state health department disease reporting systems are crashing across the board, leaving officials with blank faces unable to make reopening decisions. The problem isn't unique to the recent surge in cases, as well as increased testing results, but has been around since Washington state first discovered the abnormal presence of the coronavirus menace last spring. Since then, with the onset of an existential pandemic affecting everything from employment to tenant evictions, information technology systems are crashing. The following reports, curated from a variety of sources, indicate the degree of the problem:  (Note: As per the reported glitches, just how many are going unreported is uncertain)
12 August 2020--California

Tech Challenges Complicate California's COVID-19 Response

(TNS) - Before he became California governor last year, Gavin Newsom built his reputation as a tech-savvy Bay Area politician, who wrote a book arguing government should follow Silicon Valley's lead and embrace new technology. But five months into the biggest crisis of his governorship, technology problems have become major stumbling blocks to his coronavirus strategy.

12 August 2020-- Florida

Reporting glitch upends confidence as Florida adds 8,000 coronavirus cases

Coronavirus updates: Florida reaches 550,901 cases with 8,898 deaths; Palm Beach County has 37,934 cases with 970 deaths. * TO OUR READERS: The Palm Beach Post will continue to provide essential coverage of the coronavirus for free. You can have coronavirus news delivered directly to your inbox by signing up for our Coronavirus Newsletter.

12 August 2020--Kentucky

With computer glitch, state hits one-day coronavirus high - ABC 36 News

FRANKFORT, Ky. (WTVQ) - The state recorded its highest one-day total of new coronavirus cases Wednesday, partially because of a stack up in cases from a computer glitch in reporting but also because "the virus still is very real," Gov. Andy Beshear said.

11 August 2020--Oklahoma

894 New COVID-19 Cases Reported Tuesday In State, 820 More COVID-19 Cases Found In Backlog

A large number of new coronavirus cases were reported Tuesday and the state health department found a backlog of 820 cases, Oklahoma Interim Health Commissioner Lance Frye said. Frye said 894 new cases were tallied on Tuesday and the department found a backlog of 820 cases that was not reported.

07 August 2020--Iowa

Iowa Puts $21M in COVID-19 Aid Toward State Computer System

(TNS) - Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has transferred $21 million intended for Iowa coronavirus relief to help pay for a computer system already in the works before the pandemic. As of July 31, Reynolds has transferred $627.3 million from the $1.25 billion in federal funds Iowa got through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security, or CARES Act, passed by Congress in March, the Legislative Services Agency reported Wednesday.

26 July 2020--Texas

Dallas County Reports 605th COVID-19 Death, 800 New Cases

Dallas County officials reported 800 new cases and the county's 605th death related to the coronavirus on Sunday. The additional death was a Dallas man in his 40s who had been critically ill with the coronavirus in an area hospital. The man had underlying high-risk health conditions.

30 June 2020--Tennessee

Tennessee's COVID-19 reporting system shuts down for 9 hours due to high volumes of data : The Tennessee health department's COVID-19 daily reporting system experienced downtime on June 28 due to an unplanned shutdown, Times News reports.

The Tennessee health department's COVID-19 daily reporting system experienced downtime on June 28 due to an unplanned shutdown, reports. "An unplanned shutdown of the state surveillance system," which tracks COVID-19 testing and case/death counts, occurred at 3 a.m. on June 28, the Tennessee Department of Health told the publication.

07 May 2020--Minnesota

Minnesota reports 30 COVID-19 deaths, including two tied to food processing plants

Minnesota reported a single-day record of 30 deaths related to COVID-19 on Wednesday, including a worker in the 50s age range at the JBS plant in Worthington that has shut down amid a substantial outbreak of the infectious disease.

22 April 2020--Indiana

Daily coronavirus count dips, but Indiana official points out technical glitch

Indiana reported about 400 new cases of coronavirus both Tuesday and Wednesday, fewer than in many other days in the past. But state health officials warned that the lower numbers were not necessarily a reflection of what had actually occurred.

17 April 2020--Pennsylvania

Pa. underreported 18% of COVID deaths this week; state blames computer glitches

Wardle said that Gov. Tom Wolf was briefed on reporting issues by Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine and that the undercount was discussed again during an internal call today. He said the artificially low numbers had not affected policy decisions to ease aspects of the statewide shutdown, such as a recent move to reopen state liquor stores.

16 April 2020--Louisiana

Coronavirus numbers caught in reporting glitch

Errors in the Louisiana Department of Health's (LDH) recording of confirmed coronavirus cases have apparently hit Lincoln Parish for at least the second time. Wednesday's LDH update showed the parish with 41 positive cases, down from the 42 reported on Tuesday. But parish Director of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness Kip Franklin disputes the finding.

09 April 2020--Tennessee

Nashville mayor: National database glitch affecting health departments across Tennessee

A technical problem with a national database is hampering the abilities of health departments across the state of Tennessee in reporting new COVID-19 cases.

21 March 2020-- Washington state

Flood of coronavirus data overwhelms Washington state's disease-reporting system, leading to lag in data

Even as the novel coronavirus has spread from Washington's cities to its small towns and rural communities, Department of Health (DOH) officials acknowledged Tuesday they're wrestling with another thorny problem from the pandemic: A flood of case data is overwhelming the disease-reporting system.

 

"Open the pod bay doors, HAL..."


     The above are just a few of the breakdowns of hardware on board spaceship Earth that have created major headaches for administrators, having sleepless nights trying to find a way to contain the virus amid surges, political stubbornness over relief legislation and the public at large in rebellion over simple mitigation mandates.
     The computer crashes are not restricted to infectious disease reporting. Unemployment has created chaos for many states with antiquated systems meant to deal with minor jobless claims being filed. 
      Is all of this being guided by some unforeseen force beyond the level of intelligent life in the universe? Perhaps it's all being controlled by the Heuristically Programmed ALgorithmic Computer, also known as "HAL"  on board Discovery One enroute to Jupiter...It appears 2001 is finally here.
    
Cited:

Credit, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), dir. Stanley Kubrick, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062622/
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Tuesday, August 11, 2020

COVID19 CALIFORNIA--Kamala Harris & Quest Diagnostics-- TEST LAB VENDETTA

     "...this historic settlement affirms that Medi-Cal exists to help the state's neediest families rather than to illicitly line private pockets.." (Atty Gen Harris, 2011)
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     INCLINE VILLAGE (EOC)-- If life were a movie and gangsters were in charge of laboratories, then the recent episode coming out of Sacramento might hint at why the director of the State Health Department resigned, reported by KCRA News today,
      "...the problem began with a computer server outage July 25 and was compounded by the state’s failure to renew a 2-year-old certificate for an intermediary for one of the nation’s largest commercial labs, meaning the state did not receive updates for five days from Quest Diagnostics." (1)
That failure to upgrade the test lab subscription cost the state 300,000 cases that went unreported right in a critical time with school just around the corner and expiration of the CARES Act supplemental unemployment income for jobless workers at the end of the month.(2)


     As in baseball, when an umpire doesn't like the way a pitcher buzzes a batter, the result is "history" between the two. In the case of Quest, the pitcher, and Medi-Cal, the umpire, that history began ten years ago in a False Claims Act settlement that netted the California health agency more than $240 million in back pay. The attorney general at the time was none other than Kamala Harris, chosen today by Democratic candidate for the White House, Joe Biden, to be his running mate; 
     "In a time of shrinking budgets, this historic settlement affirms that Medi-Cal exists to help the state's neediest families rather than to illicitly line private pockets,' said Attorney General Harris. 'Medi-Cal providers and others who try to cheat the state through false claims and illegal kickbacks should know that my office is watching and will prosecute.' " (3)
     In the case of last week's computer glitch, the governor promised to "hold people to account" according to that KCRA report from above. Without further explanation, the first to be fitted with cement shoes for a short trip to Folsom Lake was Sonia Angell, M.D., the state health director. (4) In spite of the well wishes from the governor on her departure, the entire affair stinks from the top down! For Quest Diagnostics, The Sacramento Bee reported in 2011 regarding the settlement itself, in a column by Mark Glover;
     " 'Our laboratory testing services were priced appropriately, and we deny all allegations in the complaint.' said Michael Prevoznik, Quest senior vice president and and general counsel." (5)


     Not so according to AG Harris who, in a 2011 formal press release at the attorney general's office noted Quest charged  Medi-Cal $8.59 for one test and charged others just under $1.50 for the same test. As swiftly as  conspiracy theory speculation sweeps across social media, it may be no different with the current status quo surrounding pandemic testing. That may be the reason for Quest, a vital link in the chain of command necessary for the governor's office to make life saving decisions, not to send up a red flare to Governor Newsom alerting him to the upcoming expiring subscription. Blackmail, extortion, scandal, all the ingredients of a cheap gangster flick. And what about Kamala? Anything more there that can be sensationalized over the scandal? 
     At the time, Quest wasn't the only one scalping the state health agency, Labcorp was squeezed in 2011 by the AG's office in another settlement just under $50 million for similar medical malpractice.
     Fast forward to the current pandemic testing shortage, news reports are now surfacing of a different story entirely in the effort to stay current with positivity. Bulletins by Matt Voltz and Phil Galewitz originating at the KHN health news website indicate the inability of Quest to keep up with demand;
     "Montana said Wednesday that it is dropping Quest Diagnostics, one of the nation’s largest diagnostic testing companies...it (Quest) told state officials last week that it was at capacity and would be unable to accommodate more tests for two or three weeks." (7)  Naturally it would be far more convenient to take advantage of a computer glitch at the California state level and allow the electronic certificate to expire rather than have the syndicate admit it can't handle its territory. But according to the certificate expiration imbroglio in the Luna-Shalby-Mozingo article in the LA Times last week;
     " 'Simultaneously, we discovered that we were not receiving data from one of our largest commercial labs for a period of five days,' (Dr. Mark) Ghaly said. 'This was due to a certificate that the state neglected to renew timely. This resulted in data not being able to transmit to the state.' Ghaly identified the lab as Quest Diagnostics and said the company had been unable to send test results to the state from July 31 through Aug. 4." (8)
     For a company that just a few years prior was hit with a whopping Kamala Harris fine combined with the fact it was falling behind and needed the invoice to cover costs, Ghaly might be overlooking some suspect details as to how the document conveniently expired and went unnoticed for a week. The legislative analysts office has reported that the Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) would release over $15 billion to the state for use other than state revenue loss. (9) With expiration of  the federal unemployment addon and the new White House directive for the state to cover 25 percent of the new package, the governor sees no solution to the deficit. (10) A great deal of that money is earmarked for testing and has become a proposed slush fund to cover other costs.


     Certainly no one could have foreseen something that Democratic VP nominee Kamala Harris did almost ten years ago might have a devastating affect on the dire straits the state finds itself in today. Back in 2011 the biggest concern was a blood count test and which doctors were getting a cut rate, petty thievery at best. Suddenly the testing monopoly by lab syndicates such as Quest and Labcorp are thrust into the spotlight and facing an old foe. No longer a nickel-dime numbers racket run by neighborhood dons, it involves billions of dollars of federal pandemic relief money.


Cited:
(5) Settlement, Sacramento Bee, 20 May 2011, Page B6.
(6) Labcorp, Visalia Times-Delta, 31 Aug 2011, Page 14

Atty Gen Harris image, The Sacramento Bee, 04 Jan 2011, Page A3

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Monday, August 10, 2020

COVID19 CALCULUS--White House Quadratic Equation-- {dx/dt} SOLUTION

     "...it is a stretch of the imagination to believe that anybody at all was 'actively seeking work.' " 

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      INCLINE VILLAGE (EOC)-- Any number of responses to the president's four point emergency relief policy executed this week might be evaluated as either noteworthy or meaningless;


     "Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine praised Trump for issuing the order. 'He’s trying to do something. He’s trying to move the ball forward,' DeWine said. Still, he was noncommittal about whether Ohio would participate. 'We’re looking at it right now to see whether we can do this,' he said. " (1)
     The governor has the authority to make a contribution in the equation by working with the White House. On the other hand, former presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, had no positive comments about the equation; 
      “ 'It’s a stunt,' Mr Trump’s former presidential rival told MSNBC. 'There’s no doubt about it, it’s most likely, as even Republican senators have said, unconstitutional, bypassing the Congress, trying to spend money that he has no authority to direct.' " (2)
Former candidate Clinton would certainly know about "no authority" as she hasn't any herself other than to appear on talk shows and news programs and attempt to undermine the White House effort.  The article written by Andrew Naughtie for The Independent follows under the headline, "Hillary Clinton attacks..." As reported today in the Times Union by Emilio Munson, the governor  of New York, Mario Cuomo's reaction was; 
     "With the state already facing a $13 billion deficit this year — which is expected to nearly triple over the next four years — Cuomo likened the executive order to 'handing a drowning man an anchor.' He also blasted the change as 'unrealistic' and possibly illegal." (3)
The White House emergency executive order would cost the state an additional $4 billion. The same article cites Governor Andy Beshear of Kentucky as also being cash strapped. The governor added that his unemployment system is 20 years old and unable to adjust to the new demands."
The governor's comment about the updated system appears to contradict what White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said in a CBS staff report today; 
      "I don't think there will be a huge delay. Labor Department has been working with the states. The states are the ones that process the federal benefits before. So, I don't see any reason why it would be all that difficult," (4)
That appeared to be in reaction to Senator Schumer's (D-NY) comment that "Most states will take months to implement it, because it's brand new. It's sort of put together with spit and paste."   
With regard to that frail state-to-state unemployment benefit system, the original CARES Act called for those who qualified for the additional $600 perk above and beyond their normal unemployment benefit, Section 2107 stipulated an "Actively Seeking Work" clause; 



     "(A) IN GENERAL.—Subject to subparagraph (C), for purposes of paragraph (2)(D), the term 'actively seeking work' means, with respect to any individual, that such individual— (i) is registered for employment services in such a manner and to such extent as prescribed by the State agency; (ii) has engaged in an active search for employment that is appropriate in light of the employment available in the labor market, the individual’s skills and capabilities, and includes a number of employer contacts that is consistent with the standards communicated to the individual by the State; (iii) has maintained a record of such work search, including employers contacted, method of contact, and date contacted; and (iv) when requested, has provided such work search record to the State agency." (5)
     If the state unemployment systems are in shambles as the governor of Kentucky so apologetically emphasizes, it would not be possible to keep track of the efforts of the individual seeking work in the labor market. In addition, with innumerable reports of sunbathers flooding the beaches from Florida to California this summer, it is a stretch of the imagination to believe that anybody at all was "actively seeking work." That, of course, is speculation. Yet another example of the possible breakdown of state information tech systems, the California Health Director, Dr. Sonia Angell, resigned over what may have been related to the recent crash of the test reporting system. (6)
    Not all differential equations have a complete solution. It is then necessary to find which parts of the equation are workable and which ones will need to undergo transformation and substitution in order to be solved. No one way back at the beginning of summer could have seen the Levitt surge-mitigation projection (7) go from a rather innocuous log bell curve to a parabolic explosion of confirmed cases. It was the result of rapid improvement in testing that gave a much clearer picture of the dilemma, especially the part of the failed CARES Act solution that ended the weekly unemployment bonus at the end of July. To what degree other shortcomings of the initial stimulus package begin to appear remains to be seen. 
     The president has attempted a bit of intuitive calculus, a bit of analytics in opposition to the rather straightforward inductive process of Congress where every coefficient and unknown variable needed to be carefully scrutinized, qualified and quantified  before proceeding. In a pandemic of unprecedented modern day proportions, that process failed.

Mnuchin says new federal jobless aid will be available from states within 2 weeks

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Monday said that states will be able to "execute" new weekly federal unemployment benefits of up to $400 within two weeks, after the Trump administration repeatedly declined to offer a timeline for the new benefits announced by President Donald Trump over the weekend, following the collapse of coronavirus relief negotiations with Democrats.

 
UPDATE: (08/11/20/0930PDT) --Unemployment data for each state can be found at the Department of Labor website. (8) That data notes an interesting trend. Taking California as an example, claims by the end of February, 2020 showed 161 thousand. By the end of March, when the statewide lockdown was ordered, the claims jumped to 1.65 million. By May, the level was at 2.35 million claims. but by the end of May it dropped to around 1 million. There is no indication as to whether the dramatic drop in May was attributed to benefits running our or an increase in the workforce, which may have been the reason given. 
     If the former is true, it shows that benefits did not last very long. Why would someone go back to work if they made more money with the extra $600 weekly from the CARES Act than they would by working? For May, weeks claimed shows 13 million with compensated roughly the same. That means, on average, the claims were good for 13 weeks per worker, a little over four months. According to an article by Richard Harroch reporting in Forbes (9), the total number of weeks for California are 26 with an additional provided by the CARES Act. That is in conflict with the Labor Department stats where only 13 weeks were used on average. It may be related to how many weeks the claimant qualified for and not the maximum number available. 
     Depending on the persistence of the virus in the population and its affect on an increase in joblessness, the overall benefit extension would only be necessary ideally until the winter holidays. There would be a limit of diminishing returns when unemployment benefits across the board for each state would not only be exhausted, but claims would eventually drop off. 





Cited




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Thursday, August 6, 2020

COVID19 -- Dr. Fauci's Death Threats--THE "STIGMA SYNDROME"

     
     "I am a clinical scientist who has been extremely careful to only ask for voluntary testing and counseling." (Anthony Fauci, 1981)

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     (LAB107)--Way back in April, when the pandemic became a credible threat to the American public, so too did threats emerge directed at the White House task force point immunologist, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. The doctor hasn't come right out and given any specifics on the content of the threats. At this point, it would be of interest to examine the doctor's archival footprint that might be of some use as to the profile of those responsible for the intimidation. 
     Of course, the usual suspect is the online troller who doesn't have a good thing to say about anyone and has the opportunity to bash individuals using available social media resources. Those are easy enough to trace. There may be others, with long standing grudges against the doctor for something he might have said during his career in public service, where statements were made that, at the time, may have been misconstrued. 



     During the AIDS epidemic, for instance, in 1978, Dr. Fauci, while employed by the National Institutes of Health, made a comment in the Pennsylvania Indiana Gazette related to a vaccine in development as a possible cure for the disease;
     " 'This is a preventive approach, he explained. If an AIDS vaccine is developed, 'people should learn to change their behavior and if, as in human nature, they slip,' they could hope the vaccine they had taken had "decreased their chances of getting infected.' " (1)
     Considering the AIDS epidemic was related to a generally unacceptable alternate lifestyle at the time, or at least created a homophobic backlash across the nation, a statement from an immunologist about  people needing to "change their behavior" might well have created indignance and animosity in the gay community. Again, with respect to AIDS, still in the news in 1981, columnist Mike McManus asked Dr. Fauci rather pointed questions regarding the epidemic;
     "Since there are now drugs to help those who may be infected, do you favor 'contract tracing' in which state or local health departments interview AIDS patients, asking who their sexual partners have been, so that these people can be contacted and tested confidentially?" (2)
     Apparently McManus meant "contact tracing," a method used in the current pandemic to locate the source of the infected person, or it was misprinted in the article. The inquiry was met with boos and Dr. Fauci had to "wave the 400-500 people quiet." Again, the reference went back to the gay community and the unfair association the virus had with it. Dr. Fauci's reply in that particular conference, which McManus datelines to Washington was;
     "I am a clinical scientist who has been extremely careful to only ask for voluntary testing and counseling."
     That reply seemed a bit out of step with his comment in 1978 about those who were infected should "change their behavior."  By 1983, the transmission of AIDS, according to Dr. Fauci, might be linked to personal contact among family members where he was quoted in the Palm Beach Post as saying, "then AIDS takes on an entirely new dimension." (3) In relation to that comment was a study done at the time and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), relating to children who had contracted the virus from adults in their families. That study apparently made no mention of the common perception of the time that the virus was related to;
     "...adults with known AIDS risk factors such as intravenous drug abuse, homosexuality or Haitian origins. There was no evidence the children (of eight New Jersey families) had been sexually abused or given illicit drugs." (4)


     Clearly, the opportunity to categorize those with certain lifestyles or ethnic backgrounds isn't anything new as found in the precedent set during the AIDS era. The association, however, was inferred by the JAMA article that the families were comprised of gay black islanders who abused their kids and fed them heroin. It set the stage for the "stigma syndrome," in other words, extra baggage Dr. Fauci inherited just by being a part of the medical profession at the time and carried over that resentment into the next century, and the present coronavirus pandemic. Not only that, the bold new revelation by the director of the National Institutes of Health deflected animosity the heterosexual white majority held against the gays and blacks and placed the illness in the lap of that very highly critical majority. Whether he was aware of it or not, Dr. Fauci wasn't helping himself out at all in a popularity contest similar to the one today where his poll ratings go up and down in relation to the charts behind him in the White House press briefing room. What is also astonishing about the immunologist's current predicament is that something that is so innocuous is so obvious.
     No wonder that about the same time Dr. Fauci's stigma syndrome first began to develop during the AIDS era, an article in the International Summaries of the National Criminal Justice Reference Service published in 1978, titled "The Effects of Imprisonment of the Self-Image of 'Lifers'," actually described symptoms of the Group I stigma syndrome;
     "The subject feels uncertain and helpless in many situations, the subject has difficulty meeting the demands of his occupation," (5) among others.
In the Group II category, when the "lifer" attempts to reintegrate into society, the subject "represses a great deal and often cannot really voice his opinion." Unfortunately, Dr. Fauci finds himself that very lifer, a cellmate bunkie to a hostile pandemicized society where he takes the blame instead of gay Haitians, and translated to modern standards, the communist Chinese. 


  By late Fall of 1983, Dr Fauci appeared to have reversed course on the transmission of the deadly HIV virus as reported in the Maryland Star Democrat; 
      "Meanwhile, also on Monday here, a national authority on the ailment said medical information does not show that AIDS is spreading to the nation's general population. Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, chief of the laboratory of communal regulators at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said AIDS continues to be confined to homosexual and bisexual males, intravenous drug users, Haitians and hemophiliacs." (6)
     Again, the immunologist appeared to have reversed course, possibly to head off controversy although that is questionable. It is, however, a similar pattern in the current medical emergency where the doctor has found himself either contradicting his own findings or under criticism from leadership. A month later in 1983, Dr. Fauci was reported to have stated that AIDS was tapering off in New York, but the statement was challenged by other experts who said it "may simply be differences in reporting." (7) That appears to be a sticking point in optimistic forecasts of today's pandemic outlook as well.  Hysteria over the spread of the Acquired Immunity Deficiency Syndrome had boiled over in the media with so-called experts blaming "African AIDS" in men spreading it to prostitutes who infected heterosexual men who then took it home to their wives. In late 1984, Dr. Fauci said;
     "Africans may have other diseases that expose people to AIDS. That probably will not happen in the United States, he says." (8)
     That episode in the controversial life of Dr. Anthony S. Fauci eventually drew to a close but another one waited on the horizon, with similar circumstances. Today he is saddled with repeating history, facing the same challenges and shortcomings, suffering the same stigma syndrome he had to endure during the AIDS era of the last century. Adding to that is a new one brought about by the information technology age, that of the death threat, for himself and his family. We don't know who is making the threats, the doctor and is family have adequate security. Considering this one chapter in his life, it just goes to show what he had to go through and who were his patients, his subjects, and perhaps his hidden enemies in the ranks. 

    There is one lingering thought. That of the "facilitator" who is aware of the immunologist's controversial status during the AIDS era and is deliberately using it (as a tactic) to undermine the current effort by Dr. Fauci to end the coronavirus pandemic. 
Cited
(1) AIDS Vaccine, Indiana (PA) Gazette, 14 July 1978, Page 4
(2) Contract tracing, Indiana (PA) Gazette, 24 Feb 1981, Page 2.
(3) Family contact,  Palm Beach Post, 06 May 1983, Page 97.
(4) JAMA study, The Galveston Daily News, 08 May 1983, Page 16.
(5) Lifer, International Summaries, Volume 2, 1978 (Pages 150-153)
(6) HIV Confined, Maryland Star Democrat, 19 Oct 1983, Page 3.
(7) New York cases, Steve Sternberg, Miami Herald, 15 Nov 1983, Page 122
(8) African AIDS, The Shreveport Journal, 27 Nov 1984, Page 7.
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Wednesday, August 5, 2020

COVID19 & HR 6800--Disinformation Research Funding-- NSF AWARD PROPOSAL

     "...the government will now be tasked in deciding who gets research money to uncover just how disinformation gets out into the public domain ..."     

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     (LAB107) -- Apparently kids can get sick from the virus just like everybody else even though the president insisted they are immune. In response to that recent statement, Facebook removed that insistence, calling it "Covid misinformation." But a spokeswoman for the president's re-election campaign didn't agree, as reported by Donnie O'Sullivan on CNN Business;
     "Courtney Parella, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign, said in response to Facebook's takedown that the President was 'stating a fact that children are less susceptible to the coronavirus.' She accused Silicon Valley of being biased against the President and said 'social media companies are not the arbiters of truth.' " (1)


     Exactly where the truth lies and where the White House is at odds with social media over it, may well be settled in the near future if HR 6800 is passed with the proposed grants for the National Science Foundation (NSF). The current HR 6800 "emergency supplemental appropriations" related to coronavirus relief, passed by the House of Representatives in May and now up for approval in the senate, awards money to the National Science Foundation; 
      "For an additional amount for 'Research and Related Activities', $125,000,000, to remain available until September 30, 2022, to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, including to fund research grants, of which $1,000,000 shall be for a study on the spread of COVID–19 related disinformation:" (2)


The section describes research grant funding with a focus on six main points: disinformation and public response, sources of that false info, the role of social media in dissemination, is money being made on the false information, strategies and limitations of disinformation mitigation.
     Given the immense sums of money being doled out if the legislation passes through the senate and the president signs off on it, the disinformation grants amount to a mere pittance compared to some of the bigger expenditures in the proposed bill. But it does represent a new trend, not just by responsible social media as "arbiters of truth," but the government will now be tasked in deciding who gets research money to uncover just how disinformation gets out into the public domain, and somehow manages to go viral, just like the virus itself. 



    The overall transfer of funds to the NSF amounts to $125 million even though only $1 million of that is for disinformation research, as outlined in Title II of Division A of HR 6800. But it's an important step in putting the guilty parties on notice as to possible legislation in the future that will have a more criminal negligence tone to disinformation.  Currently, there doesn't appear to be any direct updates available over at the NSF regarding funding for disinformation, or mention of the proposal in HR 6800. (3)

Facebook removed a Trump post because it violated the company's policies banning 'harmful COVID misinformation'

Facebook took down a post by President Donald Trump for violating its policies against misinformation, the company confirmed. Trump posted a video of his interview with Fox News where he falsely claimed that children are "almost immune" from COVID-19, which CNN reporter Donie O'Sullivan captured before it was removed from Facebook.

References

NSF Logo from government site.
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Tuesday, August 4, 2020

COVID19 UNMASKED--Learned vs Acquired Behavior--THE BIRX-FAUCI FAIL

     "...the Birx-Fauci team fails as expert in its limited immunology role mandating social rules..."  
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     (LAB107)--US Congress House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was recently critical of White House Task Force point doctor, Deborah Birx, calling her out for incompetence;
     " 'I think the president has been spreading disinformation about the virus and she is his appointee, so I don't have confidence there, no,' Ms Pelosi told ABC." (1)
The overall dissatisfaction as expressed by the Speaker might reflect the actual lack of diversity in the task force team itself as the root cause of that doubt. Before going into exactly where the fault or failure for the current coronavirus official national policy lies, review of why that shortfall exists is necessary. 
 

     Clearly, the task force was designed using Centers for Disease Control (CDC)  medical experts and immunologists on point, with the Surgeon General's office and Admiral Giroir of the Health and Human Services (HHS), among others. The briefings aired on national television were composed of those members with Vice President Mike Pence as task force director. The briefings gave considerable attention to charts and graphs related to surge and mitigation and evolving from those briefings was a mitigation plan using stay-at-home, testing and face protection mandates. All were in some way or another related to the physiological aspect of medicine, there were no team members related to psychological and social aspects. Then came the "June Swoon."
     In competition with the White House task force were many and myriad state mandates, all in variation with others and still others in direct conflict. The northern states were locked in a bitter struggle with New York City the ground zero for positive cases and deaths. As the weather warmed up, the public at large ignored social-distancing and invaded beaches in the South, where coronavirus rose again in horrible numbers. Out West, a similar situation forced California to reverse course on reopening with hospital ICU beds filled as fast as made available. Throughout all of that development, the economic issue was addressed with bonus unemployment stipends and stimulus checks to the people. That was July, now it's August and the pandemic seems to have only gotten worse.
     Many believed that summer heat would cause a decrease in number of cases, that proved to be false. The President came under fire for his approach, calling for malaria pills as a cure, that also proved false. The President even broke ranks with his own task force and drafted a platoon of outsiders with dubious medical credentials to enforce his claims, which changed on a daily basis. The level of disinformation surrounding the pandemic had reached astronomical proportions. (2) It is no wonder, then, that Speaker Pelosi doubted the direction of the White House in its response.    


     From the beginning, the graphs and charts may have been wrong. The optimism shared at the podium in the briefings didn't pan out with exponential bell curves showing lag times with respect to surge and mitigation. By early summer, with testing ramped up to give a clear picture of the prevalence of the virus in the population, combined with the public's rejection of the campaign of confusion out of the government, confirmed cases changed that graph from a bell curve to a parabolic curve upwards with no limit on the top side. That parabola is a function of two things: first, the lack of expert personnel in the task force beyond physiologists and immunologists; second, the negative response of the population because of that lack of sociologists and psychologists in that same task force. The problem needs to be addressed by understanding the difference between learned and acquired behavior.
     Borrowing from Noam Chomsky, the linguist has developed a theory known as Universal Grammar, or a set of rules innate in all humans at birth that gives each individual the skill to speak the native tongue without a great deal of effort, beginning with childhood. (3) It sets the stage for "learned behavior."  How that differs from "acquired behavior" may be closely scrutinized with respect to the growing resentment of the mitigation component related to the face mask mandate. Directly related to the quadratic increase in positive cases and deaths along with the flouting of social-distancing rules, the public finds itself unable to learn the mask mandate or adjust to the demand of an acquired behavior. It is here also where the Birx-Fauci team fails as expert in its limited immunology role mandating social rules. 
     Borrowing again, this time from psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), there are limits to what childhood trauma such as bedwetting and a castration complex can reveal about why many in society refuse to wear a mask at the grocery store and deliberately cough on the produce. There is, however, a deeper rooting of the particular mask refusal syndrome discoverable in Freud's pleasure principle-death drive theory (4) A better explanation comes in the form of the difference in classical (Ivan Pavlov, 1849-1936) versus operant (B. F. Skinner,. 1904-1990) conditioning;
     "Operant conditioning is a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior. Through operant conditioning, an individual makes an association between a particular behavior and a consequence." (5)
   

      Skinner broke ranks with Pavlov and his dogs by suggesting certain traits are not just learned or anticipated, but behavior needed to be reinforced. That did not mean the population had to have the proverbial tabula rasa (6) on collective behavior, It infers here that since the population had never "learned" to wear a mask in public, it had to be an "acquired" trait. Many theoreticians in the fields of linguistics and sociology might consider the two terms to mean essentially the same thing, in the case of pandemic mechanics, they do not. The individual has never learned to wear a mask and must be conditioned operationally to do so, using force if necessary to enforce the mandate. 
    The dilemma facing the government is how to make the public adhere to the rules of social distancing and facial protective coverings. By all accounts, the pandemic may never go away, but we have only heard from the experts on the physiology side of the medical profession. Word of a vaccine cure changes with the direction of the wind, and that doesn't address the current infected population, just a long range solution still being developed in the laboratory. On a much larger scale, the role of natural selection has yet to be determined as to whether the human race is fit to survive the pandemic but that is left to another legion of experts.

Footnotes: 

     The current HR 6800 "emergency supplemental appropriations" related to coronavirus relief, passed by the House of Representatives in May and now up for approval in the senate, awards money to the National Science Foundation; 
     "For an additional amount for 'Research and Related Activities', $125,000,000, to remain available until September 30, 2022, to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, including to fund research grants, of which $1,000,000 shall be for a study on the spread of COVID–19 related disinformation:" (7)
     The section describes research grant funding with a focus on six main points: disinformation and public response, sources of that false info, the role of social media in dissemination, is money being made on the false information, strategies and limitations of disinformation mitigation. The section fails to suggest research directed at the lack of qualified experts on the task force other than those in a physiology capacity. The vacuum created by the limited knowledge of the task force staff with respect to sociological reaction to mitigation measures is a direct contributor to that disinformation.

Late Addition:  08/06/2020/1400 PDT:

McConnell: Wearing a mask is 'single most significant thing' to fight pandemic

Senate Majority Leader (R-Ky.) on Thursday said wearing a mask is the single most important thing Americans can do to contain the coronavirus pandemic and get the U.S. economy back on its feet, setting up a contrast with , who rarely wears a mask.

Cited




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