News notes from around the interweb:
- FDA rules limiting coronavirus testing seem like a very bad idea from a former FDA commissioner.
Since CDC and FDA haven’t authorized public health or hospital labs to run the tests, right now #CDC is the only place that can. So, screening has to be rationed. Our ability to detect secondary spread among people not directly tied to China travel is greatly limited.
— Scott Gottlieb, MD (@ScottGottliebMD) February 2, 2020
- The case against hotels working with online influencers
- Flying coronavirus class: Photos of American Diamond Princess passengers’ flight from hell
- Greyhound will no longer welcome border patrol searches of its buses without a warrant Greyhound had previously said they had no choice but to allow Customs and Border Protection searches, but the Department of Homeland Security concluded warrantless searches without the company’s consent violated the fourth amendment.
- Overnight at the Austin airport.
- Department of Homeland Security has banned use of Chinese-owned social networking site TikTok yet TSA posts videos there. Oops. After being called out on this TSA has instructed employees not to do this anymore.
Trump probably told the CDC to not let wide spread testing happen. I would not be surprised by anything he does!
Congrats JohnB, you win the award for dumbest comment of the week.
WR2 +1
Gottlieb’s tweet was Feb 2. On Feb5:
FDA issued an emergency use authorization allowing qualified public health labs to use the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2019-nCoV Real-Time RT-PCR Diagnostic Panel, previously only available at CDC laboratories. Two hundred kits are being shipped to CDC-qualified state and local U.S. public health labs and another 200 to select international labs, with each kit able to test 700-800 patient samples.
But the point is well taken as I’m told from an UNRELIABLE source that Las Vegas , after Chinese NY, had coronavirus cases that were labelled as CoronaVirus HKU1 despite not being so, apparently not nearly as transmissible but that patient(s) was (were) quarantined. I’ve no idea if it’s HKU1 or Covid and I actually don’t care:
I’m having all my hospital visits conducted at veterinary specialty hospitals .
To continue my last comment, whoever thought of putting a bunch of sick people with various diseases in the same building was an idiot.
WR2, keep up with the news, Johnb is correct
‘President Trump has lavished praise on Chinese President Xi Jinping for his handling of the growing coronavirus outbreak — a posture some in his administration are growing increasingly uncomfortable with as his advisers remain concerned about China’s lack of transparency and handling of the epidemic.
Worries about rattled financial markets and their effect on the economy as well as the delicate negotiations with China over a trade deal — a key to Trump’s reelection — have played a large role in influencing the president’s friendly posture toward China over the deadly coronavirus, according to several senior White House and administration officials. Trump has heralded Xi’s leadership and “discipline” in responding to the outbreak.’
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-soft-touch-with-chinas-xi-worries-advisers-who-say-more-is-needed-to-combat-coronavirus-outbreak/2020/02/16/93de385a-5019-11ea-9b5c-eac5b16dafaa_story.html#click=https://t.co/0QeqNu0C0X
@WR2. Sheese, Johnb is the second dumbest comment this week. James s is the dumbest comment this week.
Trump just loves his pals Kim, Putin and Xia. You can’t put anything past Trump lf it personally helps him materially.