May 24th US Covid Cases

Border controls won’t survive a court challenge. The Constitution is quite literally a reactive corrective to the Articles of Confederation, which allowed voters to cancel public debt *and* block borders/impose interstate tariffs.

Hence, this:

“[The Congress shall have Power] To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;”

“The Congress shall have Power…

To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.”

____

No state is permitted to close its borders. Only Congress, or the Executive as authorized by Congress, can impose interstate travel restrictions, and they are often successfully overruled. Unless, of course, the prohibited bodies are those of slaves, convicts or foreign aliens.

I don’t see border patrols happening. I do commend the few governors who are taking this matter seriously and extending stay at home orders for as long as possible. They have been met with immense pressure to reopen from Trump, Republicans, and far right protestors. Hopefully their choices to protect their citizens will pay off once we see deaths spike in states that reopened too soon by the end of June. There will definitely be a second wave. We’ll see if it’s enough to close the country down for a second time.

It does seem to help a lot to be relatively isolated: Hawaii or Montana. But, most States have no natural frontiers, or like California or Texas, are so vast it does not matter. Like lockdown without aggressive testing and contact tracing, for most states, “border controls” would be mere political theatre at best.

Many states have large rural spaces, and “hotspots” will be scattered incidents of the super spreader type, I suspect, while large cities maintain a steady “simmer”. I was out on the street last night and yesterday afternoon and there were seemingly spontaneous gatherings of young people around a few open businesses. And weekend parties of course in yards. A few of those “crowds” will keep things going. There are more than 2000 new cases per day now in my city and lockdown proved futile. We are a continuous conurbation of 15 million. Physically isolated from the rest of the country, I suppose, but what does it matter?

Today, I’m doing a survey of state website covid-19 preparation sections. I’ve looked at NJ, NY, and just now, Alabama. Alabama was surprisingly short – I thought they’d at least parrot the US government guidelines. Instead:

“Have an adequate supply of nonprescription drugs and other health supplies on hand, including pain relievers, stomach remedies, cough and cold medicines. Check your regular prescription drugs to make sure you have an adequate supply; refill your prescriptions if needed. Have a thermometer, tissues and hand sanitizer in case you become ill and must stay at home to recover. Talk with family members and loved ones about how they would be cared for if they got sick and what will be needed to care for them at home. Have a two-week supply of water and food available at home.”

I’m specifically looking for Vit D info. I predict not a single one will so much as mention vitamin D, much less tell people to get their blood levels measured, what a target value should be, and that dark skinned people are especially likely to be low in Vitamin D. (African Americans weigh in at 80% being deficient, compared to the overall population at 40%.)

Now that I think about it, I’ll also take note of whether hydroxychloroquine is mentioned. And, in the unlikely case it is, that it should be given early, and preferably with zinc. Of course, I expect no mention of HCQ, or zinc – either separately or in combination – either.

Why was/is it critical for states to warn their citizens – especially dark skinned citizens – to have adequate Vit D blood levels? While this is new information, the overall shape of the data is unsurprising. (Though still stunning, compared to what is known about vit D effectiveness vs. upper respiratory infections.)

From “https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/covid-19/the-second-study-on-vitamin-d-and-covid-19-is-now-out , we see that
“Just under half (49.7%) of cases had normal vitamin D status, and only 4% of them died.
Just over a quarter (27%) had insufficient vitamin D status, and most of them (88%) died.
Just under a quarter (23%) had deficient vitamin D status, and almost all of them (99%) died.”

Metamars;

Good to see something besides the “left’s” learned helplessness, or the “left’s”giddy joy over social-political implications* of the Covid-19 pandemic. And I say this as a strident FDRist.

However Metamars, I would note; most Americans get enough vitamin D3 from sunlight during the summer months, however, things are quite different during the winter months. Anybody above latitude 36 will not be able to produce anywhere near enough D3 from sunlight and unless you are eating fish twice a day or, hitting a tanning bed once a week you will be deficient in vitamin D3.

Now I know some jack-ass will get on here and denounce any and all preventive treatments as not being FDA/CDC approved. It’s part of the “left’s” learned helplessness, always looking to “approved” media outlets and government officials[D] for their daily guidance.

*And there are some long term pluses, many companies with computer intensive jobs, [call centers, come to mind], will find that they can dump the expense of a large office full of employees. This in turn will free employees from commuting long distances [good for the environment] and…just as importantly, free them of the cost of living overpriced urban enclaves, they will be free to live in lower cost smaller communities.

Metamars;

Good to see something besides the “left’s” learned helplessness, or the “left’s”giddy joy over social-political implications* of the Covid-19 pandemic. And I say this as a strident FDRist.

However Metamars, I would note; most Americans get enough vitamin D3 from sunlight during the summer months, however, things are quite different during the winter months. Anybody above latitude 36 will not be able to produce anywhere near enough D3 from sunlight and unless you are eating fish twice a day or, hitting a tanning bed once a week you will be deficient in vitamin D3.

Now I know some jack-ass will get on here and denounce any and all preventive treatments as not being FDA/CDC approved. It’s part of the “left’s” learned helplessness, always looking to “approved” media outlets and government officials[D] for their daily guidance.

*And there are some long term pluses, many companies with computer intensive jobs, [call centers, come to mind], will find that they can dump the expense of a large office full of employees. This in turn will free employees from commuting long distances [good for the environment] and…just as importantly, free them of the cost of living overpriced urban enclaves, they will be free to live in lower cost smaller communities.

@marku52, “Look at how fast the Schengen agreement in the EU fell apart. Once the virus got loose, it was everyman for himself.”

Well, it was every country for itself, which in my opinion is fine. That’s what countries are for. That’s what they do is take care of themselves, unless they are failed states. And sure, I’m saying that from a point of privilege because I’m sitting in a country that in my opinion reacted aggressively once they got off their butts. If we had waited for Germany to tell us what to do, or for the EU to decide on something universal, that would have meant weeks of letting the virus run wild here.

To be clear, we’ll still suffer, because we’ve missed our chance to do things the way New Zealand and Taiwan and those other countries did. If the EU were overriding the protections we’ve put in place nationally, the way the federal government might force states to open in the US, then I’d be calling for exit.

In terms of influenza cases, I’d have to mostly agree with you that, on balance, people get enough vitamin D3 from sunlight during the summer. That’s because of a graph I’ve seen, showing that supplementation basically equalizes the rate of influenza cases in winter down to their low values in summer.

However, I don’t really know/recall the situation with other diseases. I do vaguely recall that protection from different diseases kicks in at different levels of vit D in blood, and that the measly 600 IU RDA is adequate wrt rickets (and maybe flu?), but not other conditions. Who knows where covid-19 will fall in this spectrum. Also, I’ve read figures on the order of 10,000 IU being created in a half hour of sun exposure, probably with a swim suit. That’s so in excess of 600 units per day, it makes it seem awfully inadequate.

I’m not sure what to say about characterizing the left as suffering from learned helplessness, in general. (Though some of the extreme “we’re doomed” climate change memes certainly predispose people in that direction.) In the context of the present discussion, I’ll note that I’m half done with my survey of state covid-19 web sites, and not a single one has said a word about vitamin D. So, the dysfunction and corruption I am pointing out does not appear to reflect a Dem/Repub dichotomy, nor a left/right dichotomy. Like Dr. Chris Martenson would say, this is about up/down. Or, as I would also say, it’s about the Medical Mafia. The collective brain trust in NIH, NIAID, and the FDA certainly exceeds my own capabilities, which includes 0 study of biochemistry. Why, then, do they not do the humane thing, and warn especially oldsters and dark-skinned Americans (and illegal immigrants, for that matter) that they need to assess their Vitamin D status?

As we all breathe the ‘same’ air, and mostly share the same hospital emergency rooms, and don’t want to kill or overstress the same front line medical workers, we do need a collective solution, at least in many respects. One might say that this is sort of a natural situation for a leftist solution, though a preferably non-compulsive one. (I’m advocating ubiquitous vit D testing, free for the poor – not compulsory testing; and free supplementation for those who can’t afford it and want it, not compulsory.)

I see no strong impetus, coming from left OR right, to do the obvious, humane, EASY, and civically responsible thing. My consumption of right wing news, these days, is mostly Fox, especially Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham, and breitbart.com, so I’m actually referring to whatever I’ve never noticed any article about vitamin D status. Both have been sympathetic to hydroxychloroquine, though, so there’s that. But some of that is driven by Trump being their boy, and he spoke up for it. (Laura Ingraham, I must say, appears motivated more by trying to do the right thing, and in fact makes Trump appear positively cowardly wrt hydroxychloroquine advocacy, in comparison.)

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BTW, the superb youtuber Ivor Cummins just posted a video a few hours, ago, called “Ep79 New Study on Vitamin D, UV and Latitude – Powerful Effects on Viral Dangers???”

If somebody wants to know the truth about the quality of the science re hydroxychloroquine, they probably can’t do better than listening to Dr. Chris Martenson on the subject. He’s like a 1 man wrecking crew of bad biomedical research. Youtube has removed at least one of his videos, but I don’t know if he has an alternative venue. You might want to view his videos, while you still can.

A Dr. Todaro was posting about hydroxychloriquine research on a google page, now apparently migrated to https://www.medicineuncensored.com. Previously, he didn’t really go into depth about the various studies. So, e.g., he posted about the retrospective ‘study’ done at the VA, called “pure garbage” by Dr. Martenson, but has only 1 paragraph of analysis. I haven’t had time to look at medicineuncensored.com.

BTW, there’s also a lot of lying by omission on hydroxychloroquine on Fox, also. Neil Cavuto claimed that Trump taking hydroxychloroquine would kill him. And I saw another piece, today (can’t remember the guy’s name), but the Dr. he interviewed was another liar. He lied by omission, talking about positive early reports, such as one out of France (he meant coauthored by Raoult), that had about 20 patients. What he failed to mention is the subsequent, much larger studies. Of course, he didn’t make reference to quantitative safety data, as has been discussed by Dr. Martenson. That would give away the game (though not to the innumerate.)

I assume that people who repeatedly talk up garbage research, and/or hit piece ‘debunking’ type articles, or endlessly troll with one liners, are actually paid trolls. Such people are immune to being educated or reasoned with, and since it’s intentional behavior, I assume the purpose is to demoralize. The MO I’ve noticed is that there’s usually a more detailed and verbose troll, who seems more ‘serious’, and 1 or 2 1-liner type trolls.

I hope I’ll be thanking such people in the near future, for motivating me to take action.

Meta,

In all honesty, they represent the worst, most obvious, let’s-dispense-with-dog-whistle-and-move-right-on-with-klaxons white nationalism.

Let’s mix some metaphors:

Those are poisoned waters, covered by a rickety bridge built entirely of shame and envy, with a public beach sanded in lies, blame and deliberate race-baiting, being patroled by a private security firm wholly owned and operated by private school elites who pretend to be crackers from out in stick country.