Sunday, August 23, 2020

So....What Happened?


Dr. Sanjay Gupta has questions:

“It’s a little confusing, Wolf, to be honest,” said Dr. Gupta. “I don’t think this is a huge breakthrough in the sense that as Dr. Hahn mentioned, this convalescent plasma has been available and used under the expanded access programs, so this is a therapy out there and correctly as mentioned has been used to treat every infectious disease. The confusing part is, as you know, a couple of days ago the FDA put the brakes on an emergency use authorization, looking at the same data that came out of the Mayo Clinic and there weren’t a lot of randomized trials, right? You put some people in a group, and they get the medication, another group of similar people don’t get the medication and compare them. If you don’t randomize control, you don’t know.”

“What confused me, Wolf, they said they put the brakes on it, but today it’s full steam ahead with the emergency use authorization,” Dr. Gupta continued. “Sources on the Task Force said they hadn’t seen any new data and what inspired the significant change in a couple of days from no emergency use authorization to going forward on a Sunday night. We need that data, Wolf.”

“That’s the thing I think as medical reporters were sort of trying to grapple with, looking at the evidence saying here is the evidence that you were looking at,” Dr. Gupta explained. “Now it’s Sunday night. Was there new evidence submitted? See, the thing is, Wolf, there are observational studies to say, ‘Tens of thousands of people here use this and observe it to say these people over here if they get it within three days, if they’re not on a ventilator, under the age of 80 seem to be doing better,’ but that’s not the sort of data that’s typically the standard by which you make the authorizations.”
Maybe it's because the FDA had to get on "Trump time":

Navarro is a blithering idiot and a flaming ass in public.  I have no reason to doubt he's even worse in private.

“Before I heard [Dr.] Sanjay [Gupta] and the other experts, it struck me as a major coincidence that we have a major breakthrough Sunday night, and the convention begins Monday night,” said Cillizza. “There are no coincidences like that in politics, and I think what Donald Trump needs in the next four days to change the narrative. This election is about one thing, the coronavirus and his handling of it. A strong majority of the American public believes he is not handling it well. How do you solve that problem with you’re Donald Trump? You get a treatment or a vaccine to people sooner they expect that’s effective.”

The key word there is "effective."  Especially because grifters gonna grift:

“I think we’ll go through the same thing with the vaccine, particularly if it comes up anywhere near November 3rd, Election Day or close to it,” he continued. “Donald Trump making promises about what it can do and doubts about it, and whether it works. This is not coincidental. It is on purpose. This is Donald Trump trying to seed a narrative that he’s solving a problem that the American public doesn’t believe he has his arms around or an idea of how to solve.”

Trump wants a magic bullet.  He hasn't found it in shutting down the Postal Service or calling Biden a latent socialist or describing the imaginary hellholes of Portland (which most Americans couldn't find on a map) or Chicago (what else is new?) or New York (the '70's called, they want their image back). He thinks magic wishes will solve his problem, which isn't his problem anyway but someone else's.  He's not trying to create an escape plan or a scheme to overthrow democracy or a plan to take over the world.  He's just trying to fashion the psychic escape which will allow him to blame someone, anyone, for the failure even he will have to accept:  that he's a one-term President.

Heads are never gonna roll.  But he's gonna swear they did anyway.  As his sister said:  "The lying, holy shit."

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