Patterico's Pontifications

5/16/2020

Weekend Open Thread

Filed under: General — Dana @ 9:38 am



[guest post by Dana]

Good morning. Here are a few interesting news items to chew over. Please feel free to share anything that’s on your radar.

First news item

Floating petri dishes? Count me out:

A representative from the American Express travel franchise Cruise Planners told [TMZ] that cruise bookings increased exponentially after Carnival announced it intends to resume some cruises in August.

Three days after the announcement, the travel company’s Carnival bookings went up by 600 percent when compared to the three days before the news broke. This current vacation frenzy is notably 200 percent higher than the bookings Cruise Planners received during the same period last year.

Second news item

SMDH:

President Donald Trump wondered whether testing for Covid-19 coronavirus is “overrated.” He then proceeded to say, “And don’t forget, we have more cases than anybody in the world. But why? Because we do more testing.”

Next, he clarified: “When you test, you have a case. When you test, you find something is wrong with people. If we didn’t do any testing, we would have very few cases.”

Third news item

$3 Trillion Coronavirus Relief Package Headed To Senate :

The House of Representatives passed a $3 trillion stimulus package meant to alleviate the economic damage brought on by the new coronavirus Friday evening….The bill provides funding for state and local governments, direct checks to citizens similar to the $1,200 already sent, and further funding for COVID-19 testing and research.

Fourth news item

Texas reopens, coronavirus cases increase:

Texas has seen a steady rise in novel coronavirus cases and fatalities since reopening just over two weeks ago…There are now 45,198 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. That is an increase of 1,347 cases from Thursday to Friday. The new numbers have not yet been recorded for Saturday…the steady increase shows that the curve has not yet flattened in Texas…The state also experienced its highest and second-highest daily death toll just a day apart. On Thursday, 58 deaths were recorded in 24 hours and Friday that number dropped only slightly to 56, according to the health department. The total number of fatalities is at 1,272.

Fifth news item

POTUS and “great people”:

Sixth news item

Troubling news:

In an alarming development, five sailors aboard the Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier in Guam have retested positive for COVID-19 after quarantining for the disease, and have been removed from the embattled warship a second time, the Navy announced Friday.

The news raises questions about whether the massive vessel with nearly 5,000 sailors can safely return to sea. It also adds uncertainty to the broader understanding of the virus’ ability to reinfect individuals, effective quarantine requirements and the accuracy of testing.

All five sailors had previously tested positive and were evacuated off the ship, which has been stuck in Guam since late March after the virus swept through the close quarters of the nuclear-powered carrier. They spent at least 14 days in quarantine on the island; the healthy sailors isolated in individual hotel rooms and the infected sailors together in group quarantine on the naval base. The sailors were allowed back on the Roosevelt only after testing negative twice, the tests administered at least 48 hours apart.

Have a great weekend.

–Dana


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