Normalcy bias trumps masks . HAD to go to Home Depot today. Even now only maybe 10% were wearing masks. Very few of the employees. Until new data proves me wrong I am going with fewer masks in the future. That is until the 2nd worse wave hits.I have an alternative to Home Depot. Home Depot is closer, but, at Menards, employees are required to wear masks and that either prompts more customers to wear masks, or attracts the more intelligent crowd that is already wearing masks and prefer to shop at businesses that require employees to wear masks. I will drive further and do all my shopping at Menards, boycotting Home Depot until they become more responsible. I will continue to do this after the economy is reopened, whatever re-opening means. Home Depot may eventually notice people are avoiding their store and change their policies. Re-opening the economy is not going to convince me to adopt pre-Covid-19 practices. Those days are gone, at least for now.
Not usually a conspiracy theorist but the timing of the Gilead Remdesivir announcement is surely interesting. Its getting more air play than a GDP number that was 30% worse than the consensus expectations.
I am very happy to find this: law giving a doctor the right to prescribe HCQ
link
link
The government of France misapplied a law decreed the 23rd of March and now they have lost in justice.
Luckily the number of cases is now dropping and near its end - as the government is now responsible to replenish the stocks of HCQ if need be.
https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichJuriAdmin.do;jsessionid=E8864BEB38049E0F353AA6F0674CD671.tplgfr38s_3?oldAction=rechJuriAdmin&idTexte=CETATEXT000041820848&fastReqId=647036764&fastPos=13
Do you have a reference US Strength for the Gilead news?
I am asking as I have been waiting to follow up on your very observation.
I posted on the Tuesday April 21st after a Zerohedge article mentionned the failure of their product in a test trial for COVID. On the Friday morning, April 17th Gilead had a gap opening (opened at a higher price the the previous day’s close) by over 11%. This juiced the stock market to a new high which it now eclipsed again. Gold was hammered down simultaneously with the good news of this “cure”.
I have been waiting for the rainy day to bring this out in the open again.
You are quite right the GDP numbers are bad: Real Consumer Spending -7.6% ouch!
But that does not matter for the time being, the FED has the peddle to the metal, stock futures are up 1.7% and Gold which you would have a real hard time buying the actual metal is down in the futures market.
Don’t forget this is Wizard of Oz stuff. There is a FED announcement tonight (meaning a meeting right now).
Never give a sucker an even break. WC Fields
PS Boy you can’t make this stuff up!
Gilead
In this video Dr Didier talks about the West not being prepared for the type of virus “aiguë” (acute) that COVID-19 represents. He talks about HCQ then at the 2min43 mark he talks about Remdesivir :
… unless you are looking to create a new molecule
… Remdesivir is not (yet) manufactured and it is very, very toxic so regardless it wouldn’t have its place in the treatment of a sickness like this, in 90% of the cases which are pneumonia “habituel” usual. And one ends up asking oneself if this (Remdesivir) is not some kind of virtual medication.
Followed by a story about TripAdvisor - where a vitual restaurant got so many likes that it became the most popular restaurant in London in spite of the fact that it did not exist.
So you have to be careful about information - there are certainly (large sums sic) billions being exchanged - it is going to work, it is not going to work…
la chance the likelihood that this medication would be used is very faible (weak)
then he touches on the immunological reaction to this drug is too violent (his words)
later he mentions either you do clinical studies now - which you risk to have a solution after the battle (has finished).
Dr Didier video here
I had to go on a supply run yesterday and noticed something similar. My smallish town is in rural farm country. Most of the macho men around here seem to think they are immune or somehow tough enough to take on coronavirus with no issues…dummies. Of the few places I went yesterday only Menards had a crowd of about 1/3 of people wearing masks and most, but not all, employees as well.
That said, the American people are going to fail miserably at mask wearing, hand washing and social distancing. Our instant gratification society wants corona done with and are already reverting back to form. We have no discipline coupled with low IQs and a dangerous hubris.
Add to the equation millions upon millions of over leveraged debt slaves that never thought their materialism and unearned greed would catch up with them, business owners that are desperate and likely deeply in debt and dependent on continuous commerce to survive, a population the majority of which cannot take care of their own basic needs because of the easy life the USA has provided them, a FED that won’t allow price discovery and destroys the value of currency and I don’t see how we come out of this looking anything like what we have previously known.
I agree Les, regardless of social stigma, I will be very careful in public and even in who I allow into my home. I fear the outcome of our attempt at a hasty return to what was. In time, I think we could learn more and adapt, but patience is not a American virtue. I’m fortunate that I can hunker down for a while and I assume you can too, but how long can anyone maintain that…It’s certainly not going to get any easier and is likely, in my opinion, to get not only much worse, but so foreign to most of us that no matter the preparation, none of us are secure. Hope is not a strategy.
Demographics, population density, social norms, and geography all introduce complexities that cannot be accurately modeled, tracked, or predicted. People seem to think that the covid pandemic is linear and simple. It is not. We can’t even say that immunity is possible at this point, nor do we at all understand the long term implications to individual health even in “recovery”.
I have flipped.
When I saw the video I posted here
I believe in this doctor, maybe weird looking, but he is one of the best in his field.
If the worst is over - then that explains why Fauci and company are in a big big rush to make their millions before it’s game over. Because according to the model, here in France it is going to be game over by the end of May - at least for this wave. That doesn’t give Fauci much time to get people worried. Because when the hospitals empty - MSM might start talking about other dangers?
We are being played. Don’t wear masks, wear masks. There will be 65 million deaths, well maybe not so many. It’s like the Spanish flu - Dr Didier says no - the Spanish flu started in the SUMMERTIME. Viruses vary. Some just disappear.
It is our turn to push back - Good Morning America
Are our leaders worthy of our Trust?
Remember the point Chris made about comparing the two. The flu is basically ignored by society. The Honey Badger virus is most certainly NOT ignored, and still has a higher death rate, or will soon enough.
This past weekend I had a Honey Badger test at Thorek Hospital in Chicago (negative - but no idea if I had had it).
Observations - the support staff was quite lackadaisical about mask wearing. Some had masks on, but the nose not covered; others had a mask on, but pushed out of the way below the chin. I asked the attending physician about it. He said it was very difficult to wear a mask all day.
I then asked the doctor about intubation. He said they have a full ward of Badger patients right now. Recently, protocol had been changed, so no more automatic intubation. I said: “So, you are probably using those other masks to get air to the patients.” Doctor: “No. They leak and we don’t want to spread the virus.” I wondered to him why that would matter if it saved lives. He shrugged.
I asked about the hydroxychloroquine, also. He said one doctor had been prescribing it awhile back, but that doctor was no longer at that hospital. He said there were concerns about the heart. I said I had heard about that, but there did not seem to be studies supporting it, other countries used it as standard practice, and early studies were showing it worked if used early. He shrugged.
Sounds like a typical moral relativist American to me.
It would be nice to have that option, unfortunately there is no Menards here. I usually use the local lumber yards and hardware stores ( I try to avoid Chinese outlet stores).
Home Depot does limit the number of people in the store, they offer pickup, and they supposedly close early to disinfect, but one has to wonder how you disinfect a 50,000 sf. building full of merchandise.
I use the big box store because it is less crowded and I can avoid aisles with people in them. Of course I use my own personal protection, mask , gloves, wipes etc.
It is good to remember that this site is atypical. The info from everyone is pretty well vetted and fringe opinions w/o data don’t travel well here. It is also good to remember that the average IQ for Amerikaans is 98. That is the average. The US education system is ranked 27th in the world, and in any given year high schools GRADUATE 25% of its students who are functionally illiterate. This is all to say I am not optimistic about the future in regards to much here.
As has been said here many times you are on your own. I do not expect the majority to wear masks for the foreseeable future, for cultural, and intelligence reasons.
In a word–No. I, too, feel that we’re being played. But by whom—or, better yet, by how many ‘whoms’. We all can see the obvious ‘whoms’. But, there are bound to be many in the background.
Hanlon’s razor is a saying that reads: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
I think we’re seeing multiple examples of each. Time to say, “Screw 'em all, and the horse they rode in on.”, and make a better, more simple, less dependent world for ourselves. I think that whether or not this virus was man-made, there are too many who seem to believe that a good pandemic should never be allowed to go to waste…just sayin’.
In India many people habitually use turmeric and neem leaves against microbiological infections.
Hi PP Peeps
unrelated to todays appreciated video - was out shopping after a while to get some stock and bearings for reality in the field. Noticed significant uptick in traffic - shockingly would say between 50% to 70% of normal vs. next to no cars on road maybe 3 weeks ago.
Walmart - all staff wearing masks - outside 2 employees supposedly making sure store is not too crowded - parking lot was 90-100% of normal - not too bad since WM is in the woods and does not server high density area. Shoppers 90% masks - 10% who have an Mr.&Mrs. Invincible posture and unprotected.
Stocked pretty well except for paper section, cleaning supplies, protective gear and very few food shelve spots empty.
Heard one staff calling for social distancing enforcer to reign in on some folks in an isle - so would say they do something - certainly not with military drill or precision but ok -
Still I decided too much risk - wanted to share - sofar no food supply disruption noticeable.
date 28th afternoon
safe travels!
I had a pickup at Lowe’s yesterday evening at 6:45pm (they close at 7pm right now). The parking lot was full! I ordered online and then just parked in their “store pickup” location and called them and they brought my item out and dumped it in the back of my truck. I had to wait about 20 minutes for them to come out. In the meantime I watched at least a 100 customers go in and out. I counted FOUR people with masks (or bandannas or anything over their mouth/nose). The amazing part is that two of the four with masks each had another person with them that weren’t wearing a mask. Did they flip a coin to see who got to wear it that day? 
The employee that delivered my order wasn’t wearing a mask as well.
www.telegraaf.nl/nieuws/798018564/helft-coronapatienten-op-intensive-care-heeft-stollingen
You need Google translate but it says that research has found that more of 50% from a sample of 184 patients in ICU in The Netherlands had some form of blood coagulation as a second serious disease symptom together with the Lung function.
Some folks know that I became enamored with chaga mushroom, aka Inonotus Obliquus, very early on in our corona virus discussion here at PP.com. I was introduced to this old school medicinal mushroom by Clif High, who discussed his association with an herbalist in Wuhan whose elderly cohort of patients seemed to be protected from infection by the Chaga tea he was providing them. We know for instance that Chaga is very high on the list of food sources of the natural antioxidant superoxide dismutase (SOD).
Dot #1 is today’s MedCram video wherein Dr. Seheult describes Covid-19 as being potentially best described as an endothelial disease wherein the damage is done by oxidative stress, itself caused by the lack of inhibitory effect on Oxygen radical formation through the destruction of ACE-II. It’s all explained here;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aj2vB_VITXQ
Dot #2 Is the realization, as pointed out by Dr. Seheult, that one way to combat the oxidative stress is to quickly sop up the free radicals via superoxide dismutase. What is not discussed is how to boost SOD. This is where Chaga comes in;
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333843352_The_pharmacological_potential_and_possible_molecular_mechanisms_of_action_of_Inonotus_obliquus_from_preclinical_studies
The use of mushrooms as functional foods and in the treatment of diseases has a long history. Inonotus obliquus is a mushroom belonging to the Hymenochaetaceae family and has possible anticancer, antiviral, and hypoglycemic properties. Chemical analysis of this mushroom has allowed the identification of various constituents such as melanins, phenolic compounds, and lanostane‐type triterpenoids. A plethora of findings have highlighted the potential molecular mechanisms of actions of thismushroom such as its ability to scavenge reactive oxygen species, inhibit the growth of tumors, decrease inflammation and insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes, and stimulate the immune system.
And this;
Results showed that I. obliquus polysaccharides can scavenge all ROS tested above in a dose-dependent manner. IOA and its product IOA-1 could rescue PC12 cell viability from 38.6% to 79.8% and 83.0% at a concentration of 20µg/mL. Similarly, IOW and its product IOW-1 at the same dose, can also increase cell viability to 84.9% and 88.6% respectively. The antioxidative activities of water-soluble and alkali-soluble polysaccharide constituents from I. obliquus might contribute to diverse medicinal and nutritional values of this mushroom.
Now are you interested in Chaga? Watch the MedCram video and tell me this is not getting very, very interesting......
Int J Health Sci (Qassim). 2018 May-Jun; 12(3): 88–93.Therapeutic potentials of superoxide dismutase
Superoxide dismutases (SODs) constitute a very important antioxidant defense against oxidative stress in the body. The enzyme acts as a good therapeutic agent against reactive oxygen species-mediated diseases.