Brane Space: SARS-Cov-2

Showing posts with label SARS-Cov-2. Show all posts

Thursday, September 10, 2020

New Anti-viral (GC373) Could Soon Be Added To The Arsenal Of Effective Covid-19 Treatments

Image of spike protein of SARS-Cov-2 virus is shown with three small antibodies (pink)attached to its receptor binding domains. (From Physics Today, Vol. 73, No. 9, p. 22)

Even as Dotard Donnie - flailing in his re-election bid - dredges up false hopes for a premature Covid vaccine, researchers are hard at work trying to expand the treatment arsenal for dealing with this difficult disease. As reported in the latest Physics Today (Vol. 73, No. 9, Sept., p. 22) work continues at a feverish pace to find effective treatments. We already know about remdesavir, but that can't be the only weapon in the arsenal.

Now we learn that researchers at the University of Alberta have reported at the August meeting of the American Crystallographic Association that a "dipeptide- based protease inhibitor used to treat a fatal coronavirus infection in cats also blocks replication of the SARS-Cov-2 virus in samples of monkey lung tissue". Since monkeys are a closer mammal relative to humans than cats, this discloses a promising line of work.

The antiviral (known as GC273) works by blocking the function of the main protease denoted M ^pro  . This is an enzyme that cleaves the polyproteins translated from viral RNA into individual proteins, i.e. once it enters human cells. We also now know, thanks to much more computational work, the sequence of how the viral spike protein attaches to the human cell host cell.

Basically, according to Kerstin Kleese van Dam - Director of Brookhaven National Laboratory's Computational Science Initiative (ibid.):

"When the spike is in its usual down or inward position, it is protected from the immune system. The spike becomes more vulnerable when it shifts to the up or outward position, required to enter the host cell."

This is good to know as it provides the key to at least controlling the virus using anti-virals. Indeed, the Alberta team has actually identified a pocket on the spike that changes shape during the transition from down to up. Also compound screening simulations "uncovered several molecules that might attach to the pocket and block cell invasion." According to van Dam:

"It's a bit like wedging a door open."

Joanne Lemieux, a biologist at the University of Alberta, asserts that GC273 has been shown to have no toxic effects on cats. Now, Anivive - a California company that develops pet medicines - has applied for a U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval to begin human trials with GC273.

Lemieux's group, after all, crystallized the  M^pro in combination with the drug already and produced three-dimensional images (see graphic above) of how it binds strongly to the active pocket on the enzyme. Although GC273 should theoretically be effective in its current form, the Alberta team is planning further crystallography experiments at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) and the Canadian Lightsource to see if a reformulation could be optimized for human use.

What's the advantage? In the words of one Scripps Research associate, Ian Wilson:

"We'll be able to use smaller crystals, collect higher quality data, get a better signal to noise ratio and collect more data sets per hour."

All of which is badly needed in a media and political environment in which too many false claims are made for cures or treatments (e.g. hydroxychloroquine) and very little can be trusted - especially emanating from the Trump regime.

What we do know, based on the success of the GC273 research, is that the potential for effective Covid treatments must couple solid experimental and computational efforts as well as strict adherence to scientific testing and confirmation. We look, therefore, to empirical science to provide answers, not to already damaged politicians like Trump - who will lie or say anything to try to sneak into office again

Indeed, now that he's admitted (on tape) yapping to Bob Woodward that he's a criminal liar and fraud - who deliberately lied to the American people when he knew how deadly the virus is yet downplayed its risk - it may be all over but the dirges. At least we can hope so.

See Also:

https://www.folio.ca/antiviral-used-to-treat-cat-coronavirus-could-hold-key-to-covid-19-u-of-a-researchers/

And:

Covid-19 | Donald Trump

Trump’s Lies Cost Tens of Thousands of American Lives — and Bob Woodward Has the Proof on Tape

Friday, July 24, 2020

The Virus Controls The Economy - Not The Reverse: From Restaurants to Retailers To Vegas, Americans Are Slowly Getting It

"The crisis we now find ourselves in is a human tragedy, an economic calamity but it is also a singular national humiliation. We're living in a moment when the U.S. is a laughingstock or a subject of pity around the world."- Chris Hayes on All In, July 2nd

As the SARS-Cov-2 virus continues its depredations, with 30,000 new deaths forecast in the next 3 weeks, it may finally be sinking in this is serious. The Covid 19 plague has already shattered all illusions that the summer heat would make it vanish and the economy would be going 'gangbusters'. Americans are gradually learning that the virus controls their economy, not vice versa. and until we get the damned thing under control - meaning decreasing cases in all 50 states- reopening is a fool's errand.

Earlier the mindless followers of Trump, including at FOX News and the WSJ's op ed pages, had puzzled over why even aggressive tactics for reopening in red states have come a cropper. These nabobs were convinced that sheer will and courage in reopening would put the virus in its place, with American pluck the supreme victor. That lasted only until we've beheld ice trucks laden with corpses fill up, like in Texas' Rio Grande valley (Hidalgo County), where they are now seeing the folly of reopening too soon, i.e. before the cases had gone down.

As Dr. David Ho put it on Maddow Wednesday night: "The situation can still be saved but we have to act NOW!" By "act" he meant instituting a 2nd nationwide lockdown as well as universal masking and social distancing until the cases are on a downward trend again. Oh, and doing this along with contact tracing and ten times more testing. This is why over 150 medical -epidemiological experts have dispatched a letter to the powers - that-be to get it right this time around, e.g.

https://uspirg.org/sites/pirg/files/USP_Public-health_final-letter-shutdowns_V2.pdf

Enough then, with the BS and balderdash that the "economy can't sustain any more lockdowns" and "Masks take away my personal freedoms!"

People, in other words, have to grasp the tail doesn't wag the dog. The dog being the pandemic. The 'dog' (pandemic) determines how confident customers are in venturing out - whether to dine, buy school items, board a plane, or just shop in supermarkets. Right now nearly 72% of Americans aren't confident at all and as they see the new surge and its deadly toll, their lack of trust is fully justified.

That includes wifey and me. We will soon (next month) be celebrating our 45 th anniversary. But as much as we'd like to we will not be dining out. Too dangerous still - especially given our ages and each of us has conditions that would make us more vulnerable if infected. So we will order food for takeout then just pick it up, and watch a pay per view movie dining at home.

According to The Denver Post yesterday (p. 9A) restaurants that pulled the economy through the great recession ten years ago are no longer able to do so. Keeping to 50 percent (or lower) capacity does not a profit make. As the piece notes:

"Restaurants now are less likely to deliver an economic boost, having suffered lockdowns and occupancy restrictions. It's also unclear how readily Americans will return to dining out."

Well, from the polls available, not too readily. Especially the senior population that frequents restaurants the most. The article goes on:

"Before the pandemic restaurants had employed 11 million people nationwide- more than the number that worked in construction or in factories. They generated more revenue than grocery stores. From 1990 through February this year they generated more than twice as many restaurant jobs (91%) as overall jobs (40%)."

Going on to point out that as restaurants reluctantly closed their sales sank more than 50%- from $66b in February to $30 b in April. In March 5.4 million restaurant workers had to be let go. And while 1.4 million were rehired in May, that is set to crater once more as Covid 19 has surged in many Sunbelt states and new lockdowns loom.

Add to that 10 -11 million close to eviction because the eviction moratorium ends July 31, and 30 million plus who will lose their unemployment bonus of $600/week by the end of next week if congress (i.e. Reepo Senate) doesn't vote to extend them. If not, it's self-evident that spending - any kind - is set to crash as people rightly pull in the purse strings for simple financial self-preservation. So you can blame any further crash of the economy or an extended recession on the Repubs who've been dithering for over two months on whether to extend the unemployment bonus. Their worry? They feel too many would just loaf at home, not return to work - and watch TV soaps - like they would do in their place. Wastrel Reeptardo goofballs like Ted Yoho (FL). Oh, and morons like Sen. Ron Johnson (WSJ, today, p. A15, 'No More Blank Checks From Congress For Coronavirus') spouting the usual Repuke idiocy:

"There is no need to continue broad economic shutdowns with fatalities in these (low annual flu) ranges."

Again, unable to process with his feeble intellect that it isn't fatalities driving the crisis but overwhelmed ICUs and health workers from the higher infection rates which translate into much higher intensive care rates. Because the ER- ICU teams are desperately trying to stop the infections from becoming fatalities. In addition, Johnson takes no account of the lasting damage: vascular, cognitive, to liver, to kidneys etc. - that outlasts being hospitalized and which 1 in 3 recovering patients will deal with for 3 weeks or more.

But despite these very real risks to workers with infection on returning to work amidst the current surge, this fool won't budge. He doesn't want another cent going to the 30 million Americans still unable to get work. They can go pound sand for all he cares.

Frustrated by pushing premature reopenings that have now resulted in many thousands more deaths and ICUs flooded, Trump has vowed to make it ten times worse by pushing schools to reopen for the fall. But does anyone with an IQ over 10 really believe that's going to make Covid deaths go down or help retailers and restaurants stay open? Prize-winning medical journalist Laurie Garrett isn't biting and lashed out at how Trump has rendered America's schools "medical and moral catastrophes" and they are nowhere near ready to reopen, e.g.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/07/24/americas-schools-are-a-moral-and-medical-catastrophe/

This is because in nearly all the areas considering school reopening, none have achieved the goal of 14 straight days of declining cases. Hence, the nation's retailers for sure aren't holding their breath to see a huge school purchase boom (WSJ, 'Retailers Face Hard Lesson', July 23, p. B12) The piece points out retailers - especially geared to school sales- can't even properly gauge inventory because of the existing uncertainty - including parents' fears. They don't know whether ordering tons of hoodies, calculators, and backpacks now will leave them still sitting on shelves in September.

Hell, the Trump morons have even railed against the CDC guidelines for schools to reopen as "too restrictive", and those don't even include a high grade HEPA filter in each classroom, as one Harvard prof has insisted be installed.

And until the money is spent to ensure these kind of adaptations - including enough space for limited capacity classes- Americans aren't buying. According to a Denver Post piece yesterday ('Very Few Americans Back Full Reopening of Schools', p. 14 A):

"Only about one in ten Americans think daycare centers, preschools or K12 schools should open this fall without restrictions, according to a new poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs."

And further 46 percent think "major adjustments" are needed, i.e. HEPA filters working in each classroom, while 31 percent don't believe any in person instruction should happen this fall. Of course, the wealthy have their own solutions which will work for them as the WSJ let us know 3 days ago, e.g

Amid Coronavirus, Parents 'Pod Up' to Form At-Home Schools ...

https://www.wsj.com/articles/amid-coronavirus-parents-pod-up-to-form-at-home-schools-11595323805

But this is a no-go for most American parents who will barely be able to make it if new stimulus checks and unemployment bonuses aren't forthcoming from the cheapskate Reepos.

The importance of infusing more lifeline checks to people is also underscored when we see (WSJ, July 23, 'Virus Effect On Retailers Worse Than Expected', p. B1):

"With a resurgence of coronavirus cases across much of the country, companies that were relatively healthy before the pandemic are showing signs of buckling. Bankruptcies in the sector are piling up, with more retailers seeking Chapter 11 protection so far in 2020 than all last year. "

The result? "The financial pain for U.S. retailers is worsening beyond what executives and analysts anticipated when the coronavirus began to spread."

Well, they fell off the mark in expectations because they miscalculated the degree of arrogance and over confidence in state governors who believed (like Texas' Guv Greg Abbott) they could just plow ahead with reopenings and devil take the virus. Except the virus is having the final say as bodies cram into ICUs and health workers are on their last legs from the stress and work of caring for so many. Indeed, in Texas' Hidalgo County, triage will now have to be implemented at hospitals to determine who can enter an ICU and who is beyond hope of saving.

We let ourselves get into this mess by not taking the virus seriously as other nations (like the United Arab Emirates - with the highest testing rate in the world) We also had too many stupid people who believed wearing masks was a political statement - and proceeded to start fights with workers in stores over defending their "rights". Ignoring the fact there are no rights without responsibilities. Finally, we were led to this tragic pass by not having a coordinated national strategy - because our leaders lacked both the vision and courage.

So no wonder now we see the likes of Michael Appel (of Appel Associates LLC) saying (ibid.):

"You're going to see as time goes on how the dominoes fall. The big question for any retailer is if they close tomorrow would anyone care."

The same could be asked of the casinos in Vegas- one of our favorite places and which we enjoyed in October of last year, e.g. the Bellagio Fountains at night seen from our 11th floor room:

Flash forward 8 months, now we learn (WSJ, July 23, p. B3) the Sands revenue alone has dropped 97% and pessimism has engulfed the town. During a conference call with Wall Street analysts Sands Chief operating officer Robert Goldstein "offered a pessimistic outlook for Las Vegas" To wit, "even if casino revenue rebounds conventions and other group events have supplanted gambling as the primary economic engine."

He goes on to tell the WSJ (ibid.)

"In all of the years I've been here in Las Vegas I've never felt more gloomy than I do today about what's happening in Las Vegas short term."

In essence, he said, all the Strip's resorts are now "running like a regional casino operator relying on nearby gamblers driving in."

In other words, the thousands of Vegas visitors who'd normally arrive daily by air to fill the resorts and casinos (like when we were there) are no longer doing so. (Again largely driven by fear of infection associated with getting on a plane.) So in Las Vegas now it's all local folk or none at all. No casino can survive for long in a restrictive (and artificial) bubble like that. Again, public -customer confidence dictates the economic register and that is determined by the fear (or not) of the virus. As long as we refuse to contain it - which means pursuing rigorous methods - we will not make headway.

The lessons, some of which are restated here (also in terms of the economic blowback), are summed in one takeaway:

There will be no going back to any kind of normality or vibrant economy until we get this virus under control.

And that does not mean each manjack doing his or her own thing, or blowing off the experts. It means pulling together as my folks and their generation did during World War II. No whining, no bitching or fighting with store workers - just putting on the big boy pants and acting like responsible adults for once! As opposed to toddlers in need of their personal sippy cups.

See Also:

As parents realize how badly the U.S. botched the next school year, we’re furious

And:

Donald Trump | Republicans

This Is Sickening. No, Really. Sickness-Unto-Death Sickening. Literally-and-Without-Exaggeration Sickening.

by Jaime O'Neill | July 24, 2020 - 7:14am | permalink

Excerpt:

"It is sickening that we mostly still can't find out if we're sick, can't get tested until it's often very late in this deadly game that is no game at all. It is sickening to inventory ourselves daily for symptoms, to attempt to self-diagnose without the tools to do so. It is sickening that we are told things that are later rescinded, or that the leader of our nation insists on spreading so much misinformation. It is sickening we can't get those tests we need, and it is sickening that so much time has passed and still less-than-nothing is forthcoming from the federal government, unless you count those unwanted storm troopers being sent to selected American cities."

And:

Covid-19 | Economic Policy | Republicans

While Republicans 'Flounder' on Covid-19 Relief, Millions Face Bare Cupboards and Eviction

And:

Covid-19 | Donald Trump

Trump’s Authoritarianism is Ill-Suited to a Pandemic

by Jill Richardson | July 24, 2020 - 5:47am | permalink

— from OtherWords

Excerpt:

"When he can’t pretend everything is fine, he blames the Chinese. But China is not responsible for Trump’s botched response to the pandemic. Now the Trump administration is actively interfering with the pandemic response.

Hospitals have been instructed to send COVID data to a central database in Washington, bypassing the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The information will no longer be accessible to the public, raising concern that the data is being hidden for political reasons and the lack of transparency will make it easier for the administration to mislead the public.

The administration is also blocking CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield from testifying before Congress about the safety of reopening schools. They are attempting to block GOP senators from allocating billions of dollars to the CDC, Pentagon, and State Department for pandemic response. And the administration even opposes sending billions to states for testing and contact tracing.

Trump’s message to states has largely been “you’re on your own,” declining a national leadership role and placing responsibility for handling the pandemic on the states. He’s also suggested that governors should “treat him well” to receive federal aid, using the pandemic as a bargaining chip to silence dissent from governors who disagree with him."

Friday, June 19, 2020

Yes, Bats Carry The Virus - BUT They Are Not The "Bad Guys"

Amidst continuing furor in the country, including mounting protests against police nationwide, and now learning of a widespread "Antifa hysteria" disabling the less capable and discriminating brains, e.g.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/17/opinion/antifa-protests.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=OpEd%20Columnists

As well as Trump endorsing Chinese concentration camps for the minority Uyghur Muslims, gleaned from John Bolton's just released book. (Of course, 99% of Bolton's content , i.e. regarding Trump being chaotic, despotic and "transactional" we already knew from earlier works - such as from authors like Michael Wolff, Bob Woodward, James Comey and Cliff Simms.) We are still not covering all bases in this time of historical upheaval.

Slowly retreating from the national 'radar' - in the yen to return to normality - is the persistent threat of the Covid 19 virus (SARS-COV-2)which is still filling up hospital ICUs and ravaging lives and lungs. In addition, millions of people are disrespecting the virus - its very nature of transmission - by turning the wearing of masks into a tribal identity issue. Beyond that, many of those non-mask tribes hail from red states and blame the virus and the bats carrying it for causing the lockdown and economic devastation - as opposed to Trump.

Let's recall again Trump wasted two weeks of critical time calling the pandemic a "hoax", after which he refused to organize a nationally coordinated response- forcing medical centers and health workers to compete for scarce ppe. He then stage managed chaotic PR "briefings" which overshadowed the medical professionals and substituted his own ignorant notions and beliefs. One casualty? A young patient who came into the emergency room with damage to his intestinal tract after having ingested bleach. The incident occurred just days after Trump suggested that "injection" of disinfectants should be researched as a potential coronavirus treatment . There followed - on top of all Trump's other misfires- an intentional gutting and muzzling of the CDC which caused Laurie Garrett to deliver a scathing assessment on 'Democracy Now'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_z297eni8c

As well as a withering piece on Trump's total incompetence:

Trump Has Sabotaged America's Coronavirus Response

The Trumpistas tried to fight back by confecting a cockeyed conspiracy ideation that China was ultimately to blame. Indeed, a WSJ May 2 (p. A3) that "the Education Department has asked the University of Texas system to provide documentation of its dealings with the Chinese laboratory U.S. officials are investigating", i.e.  the Wuhan Institute of Virology and its researcher Shi Zhenghi. The eminent scientist dubbed "Bat Woman" because of her work on bats. All this despite the fact (ibid.): "There is no concrete public evidence to confirm the theory the outbreak resulted from an accident at the lab." And so "the current dominant theory remains that the bats passed the virus to humans either directly or indirectly."

WSJ columnist Matt Ridley showed the connection between bats and the virus in his article:  The Bats Behind The Pandemic', WSJ, April 11-12, p. C5.

Therein he noted that:

"Bats have supplied most of the dangerous new diseases of the past two decades including: rabies, Ebola, Marburg and other highly dangerous viruses...even the "tasty" fruit bats carry the Hendra and Nipah viruses - and have been responsible for "small but lethal outbreaks in South Asia and Australia"

""One quarter of all mammal species are bats - and they have lots of different viruses. They also fly so can carry diseases long distances."

But this may be giving bats too much of a bad name in terms of being the source of the new coronavirus as well as spreading it, while letting humans off the hook. Why are humans on the hook in the first place? A recent (Feb. 18) article in The Nation by Sonia Smith sheds much needed light on how and why we are the real 'bad guys' and not the bats. Ms. Smith does concede that 60 percent of the most virulent microbial pathogens that have emerged since 1940 can be traced to bats and other wild creatures. But as she writes:

"That's not the fault of the wild animals. Though stories illustrated with pictures of the wild animals (like the fruit bat, see photo) abound and identify them as "the source" of the current Covid 19 outbreak" this is premature. The reason is that most of the microbes "live harmlessly" in the bodies of the animals - including the horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus affinis) the carrier of the Covid 19 virus.

But wait! Doesn't that make this bat the bad guy?

Not really, because (ibid.):

"The problem is the way that cutting down forests and expanding towns and industrial activities creates pathways for the animal microbes to adapt to the human body...Cutting down bats' forests forces them to roost in trees in backyards and farms instead, increasing the likelihood that a human might take a bite of a piece of fruit covered in bat saliva. Or hunt and slaughter a local bat, exposing oneself to the virus sheltering in the bat's tissues."

So here's the point: viruses were on Earth billions of years before humans and there is no way all can be eliminated. In the case of their presence in bats and other wild creatures we behold a kind of peaceful co-existence. The viruses just inhabit those animal tissues for the most part but don't kill the beasts. But when humans enter the picture - say by destruction of bat wild habitat- that's when things get ugly.

Again, the fictional (2011) movie 'Contagion' probably has one of the most illuminating scenes - but near the end- on how "Patient Zero" (Gwenneth Paltrow's character ) became infected. To recount: we see a flock of bats originally perched on trees which then fly over a pig farm in Guangdong province and drop bat guano over the pig feeding area. The guano is already infected with the unknown virus. The pigs then consume the guano, and become infected themselves.

In the film the Chinese hog butcher slaughters one of these pigs, gets pig blood all over his hands - wipes it off. He then greets Gweneth Paltrow's character (on a visit on behalf of her corporation) and she shakes the butcher's hand. She then becomes "Patient zero" - which we learn only at the end- though we suspect it earlier. When she then visits a bar full of people and glasses with which she makes contact, we know how this pandemic began. Who is to blame? Well, not the bats whose habitat was violently upended by the industrial activity of Patient zero's corporation. In the words of biologist Christine Kreuder Johnson, Director for the Epicenter for Disease Dynamics at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine:

“Spillover of viruses from animals are a direct result of our actions involving wildlife and their habitat. The consequence is they’re sharing their viruses with us. These actions simultaneously threaten species survival and increase the risk of spillover. In an unfortunate convergence of many factors, this brings about the kind of mess we’re in now.”

Something to consider next time we plan to barge into a bat's habitat- or that of any other creature. Want to keep viral outbreaks down? Then we need to stop invading the living spaces of other animals with which we share this planet. In the case of bats, before we contemplate slaughtering them to protect human health, we may want to consider their role in global biodiversity and ecosystem health as well as beneficial neighbors. Included in the last are:their role in pollination, dispersal of fruits and consumption of insects - especially those responsible for many dread human diseases. As one scientist has pointed out: "The good they do outweighs any potential negatives."

In the meantime we can assert the real 'bad guys' are the HUMAN cretins who continue to threaten public health officials, both via social media and live - including showing up at their homes with weapons. Idiots like the "Freedom Angels" that stalk and harass health officials online (e.g. on Facebook) as well as other misfits, worms and vermin. And what are all these crazies exercised about? Well, being mandated to wear masks, and practicing social distancing - the only ways to avoid another lockdown, or nationwide quarantine. The only practical means to avoid hundreds of thousands more infections and hospital ICUs being flooded with desperately ill Covid patients.

See Also:

The Bat Behind The Coronavirus Pandemic ID'd - A...

Monday, April 6, 2020

A Czech Friend's Message Of Concern At Trump's American Carnage In This Crisis - And Janice's Reply

"I'm a WARTIME president and I'm gonna stamp out all you loser, corona -carrying bats before this is over! Y-y- you h-hear me, M-m-mister B--b-bat? Now, excuse me while I sic Jared on ya!"

Newsflash: Two months before the novel coronavirus is thought to have begun its deadly advance in Wuhan, China, the Trump administration ended a $200-million pandemic early-warning program aimed at training scientists in China and other countries to detect and respond to such a threat. The project, launched by the U.S. Agency for International Development in 2009, identified 1,200 viruses that had the potential to erupt into pandemics, including more than 160 novel coronaviruses. The initiative, called PREDICT, also trained and supported staff in 60 foreign laboratories — including the Wuhan lab that identified SARS-CoV-2, the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

"I'm okay with rallying round the flag but let's not rally around the guy that missed all the red flags. Yeah, America has been slow and inefficient in responding to this crisis - and yet our leader's approval rating is up. Because that's what we do. In times of crisis our leaders get a bump in the polls whether it's justified or not. Because a crisis is no time to think. So rallying around this president is just another of those irrational things we do in a crisis, like hoarding Charmin... or praying.

Especially if a president says he's a wartime leader.....If this is a war, Trump lost it in January. He is not FDR, or JFK. He's LOL. So it's more than a little disturbing he's getting a bump in the polls from all this. Which tells us we're once more rallying around the guy that made it worse. Let's stop doing this thing of lionizing someone just because they were there when the shit hit the fan. " - Bill Maher, on Real Time, April 3rd

"Sharing an integrated market with a much larger and more powerful bully of a country will always have downsides, especially when that country elects a leader with an “America First” agenda. You might wake up one morning to tariffs on steel, for instance, and be suddenly forced to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement. Irritating? Sure. Economically damaging? A bit. But being cut off from life-saving supplies during the worst pandemic in living memory? That could be utterly catastrophic." - Toronto Star, "Trump Blocking Exports Of Medical Equipment Puts Canada's Trust In U.S. To Potentially Deadly Test'

"In Trump’s White House, certain symptoms remain: a president who governs as if producing and starring in a reality television show, with each day a new episode and each news cycle his own creation, a successive installment to be conquered. ...The pattern reveals a commander in chief unsure of how to defeat 'the silent enemy' as he has labeled it... It might never be known how many thousands of deaths, or millions of infections, might have been prevented with a response that was more coherent, more urgent and effective." - ' Denial, Dysfunction, Delays: Tracing The Trump Administration's Failures Over The First 70 Days Of The Virus Fight', The Washington Post, April 4

"A better leader would curb his baser instincts in the face of this crisis. Since Mr. Trump is not wired that way, it falls to the media to serve the public interest by no longer airing his briefings live." - Michelle Cottle, 'Drop The Curtain On The Trump Follies', NY Times

"I wouldn't originally have believed sixty percent of Americans could be conned so easily, as these Gallup and other polls seem to show. Especially by a brash bully and carnival barker who's never accomplished anything constructive in his entire life. But then I realized I was using an IQ standard from a parliamentary democracy like Barbados. I should have been using the IQ standard from an online 'college' offering degrees in collecting dog poop." Janice, after learning Trump's approval continues to bump upward in polls

The chaotic, reckless, belligerent and incompetent American response to the coronavirus pandemic has sparked outrage from Canada to Germany and from Brazil to China (now sending much needed ventilators, masks to desperate U.S. cities). It has also unmasked Trump as a despotic, narcissist traitor who really ought to be impeached again and hung this time. E.g.

Noah Bookbinder

Trump Is Gutting Our Democracy While We’re Dealing with Coronavirus

Especially after bellowing that doctors and nurses are "taking more supplies than they need", i.e. pilfering PPEs. Even as these genuine heroes are crying out and pleading every day for protective equipment.

Incredibly, sane citizens have shuddered as they've beheld Dotard's poll approval numbers climb even in the face of this mega-failure embodying a confounding absence of leadership as well as grifting in the midst of it. The latter has manifested in sabotaging states' efforts to get hold of PPEs by having FEMA swoop in to outbid them - then sell to private clients. And in the midst of this we see assorted ignorant twits and morons write twaddle such as the Denver Post letter below - beseeching us all to decline "partisan" attacks:

This asswit Zang - clearly in the lower IQ realm Janice has repeatedly cited (bumping Trump's poll numbers) - expects the rest of us who see what's going on and to refrain from calling out the culprit behind this clusterfuck. But to quote Bill Maher from the end of his 'New Rules' segment Friday night: "Please spare us your non-partisan virtue signaling!" Indeed. And while you're at it spare us the transparent idiocy. Bill was perhaps thinking of a recent piece by Ian Silverii of Progress Now, who'd written:

"Your chance of exposure or survival could very well depend on the partisanship of your governor, i.e. on whether or not he was nice enough to Donald Trump. Which is as un-American as it is terrifying."

The flux of recent events in our nation prompted a message I thought I'd share (on What's App) from our Czech friend Martin. We had last seen Martin (and his then gf Gabriella) in Prague in Sept. 2015, for dinner at one of the city's outdoor bistros. Now teaching English with his wife in Doha, Qatar, he's appalled like many outside the U.S. at what's going on under the deranged Trump. Also that the traitor's poll approval numbers have actually gone up. He also worries our exponential increase in cases, deaths can have horrific consequences for the rest of the world. His message follows:
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"Hi, Phil and Janice, just checking in to see how everyone is holding up. Without enhancing panic, I'm really concerned with how the U.S. is handling this issue and therefore concerned for you, as well as your extended family in the U.S., Canada, Trinidad and Barbados. Panic never helps but with the wrong leader directing the most powerful nation on Earth it is close to being justified.. I know that the two of you (like the rest of us) will do your best to stay safe, but it's your compatriots who I'm most concerned with. It's beyond comprehension to know that there are still people in the U.S. who think this is all a hoax or some partisan trick to try to get Trump. . And for that reason, I worry for all of you in the States. The U.S. is far off from 'flattening the curve'.

Here in Doha, the entire country, with the exception of the front line employees (grocery, pharmacy, emergency services, medical staff), is under quarantine and lockdown. The border is completely closed, no person in or out, regardless of status. No Qatari nationals in or out, no residents, simply nobody through the border. There are only two places to go in Doha, the grocery store or the hospital. 16 people were arrested the other day for violating quarantine, they needed to get out of the house and decided to go for a drive, they were all arrested. The government here is not taking any chances.

Not sure of how this is being handled in Barbados or Trinidad. Someone mentioned that a state of emergency was now in effect in T&T. These are difficult and challenging times, we will get through this in the long run. Please look after yourselves and use whatever means are at your disposal to remain safe and out of harms way. Here, for example. I set out to pick up some items from the grocery store, but drove away when I saw how busy the grocery store actually was; even here people are still having difficulty with the concept of social distancing, despite the governments efforts.

Your safety, to a great extent, is in your hands. Please be proactive, don't wait for your elected officials to look out for your best interests, look into what you can do to protect yourselves. We're all in different situations, some of us still have to go to work, some can work from home, others fortunate to be retired.. Just know what your options are and take the necessary precautions. Having the choice to stay home or not should not be a mental decision anymore, if you have the option, choose to stay home."

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Janice responded in her own Whats App message a day later:

Well said indeed, Martin. The fact that there are still some in this country that believe the coronavirus pandemic is a hoax, started by the Democrats to try to bring Trump down, is just a result of the dumbing down of the population by the frighteningly large cult following of the orange- hued 'Dear Leader'.

It's hard for a democracy to survive when such a president comes into power, has a loyal propaganda arm (Fox) which practically runs the government and poisons the public mind against mainstream media, appoints a loyal lackey as Attorney General that carries out his authoritarian wishes and taps into a pool of racists who believe the country belongs to them alone.

This former TV personality, arrested mental development or not, is a master manipulator, as evidenced by rising poll numbers despite the disastrous lack of real leadership in this crisis. I fear for us too, now and in the future.

In Colorado, though, we are in a shutdown, where we are asked to stay at home and only go out only to the grocery, pharmacy, medical providers and restaurant take-out windows. We can walk outside with social distancing. Some people, especially the young, ignore the directives, but there will probably soon be penalties for that. We are being careful, and protecting ourselves as well as we can. You're right, the US is so far away from flattening the curve that we know we're are in for a long and difficult journey. What exactly that will entail, with the "leadership" we currently have is anybody's guess. I know this is a very dire view, but it's the way I feel.

On a positive note, we both were elated to learn that a team of 100 Cuban nurses arrived in Barbados yesterday to assist with COVID-19 patients. Take that, Mary Anastasia O'Grady! See e.g.