The Coronavirus thread

[Hines57]

This is fascinating! You’re saying there weren’t massive COVID outbreaks and subsequent shutdowns of processing plants? And people didn’t die? And the CDC didn’t visit Sioux Falls? And the meat processors haven’t issued warning statements about shortages citing the outbreaks and shutdowns as THEE REASON? There’s nothing real about that? It’s all made up by me? And the MSM is supporting me? I mean, I’m flattered but... REALLY???

You are allowed to go outside and talk a walk and blow off steam, Tim.

Went to the supermarket yesterday and there were no meat shortages. There may be a backlog getting the meat processed at the plants but there is plenty of meat in freezers ready to go to market. Don't let that suppress the fact that Jeffrey Epstein didn't kill himself and the lamestream media is at war with our President.

 

[wig]

I can't understand why Trog hasn't openly endorsed the voting ban.

It's really really confusing to me.

 

[Tim Steelersfan]

This is fascinating! You’re saying there weren’t massive COVID outbreaks and subsequent shutdowns of processing plants? And people didn’t die? And the CDC didn’t visit Sioux Falls? And the meat processors haven’t issued warning statements about shortages citing the outbreaks and shutdowns as THEE REASON? There’s nothing real about that? It’s all made up by me? And the MSM is supporting me? I mean, I’m flattered but... REALLY???

You are allowed to go outside and talk a walk and blow off steam, Tim.

Your position has undeniably unequivocally been that ANY disruption to the food supply chain has been ONE HUNDRED PERCENT due to sickness and has absolutely NOTHING to do with the lockdown.

You clearly know literally nothing about economics and supply chains.

No one has once countered that sickness hasn't hampered the food supply chain, it has.

You, conversely, have said - eyes over eyes and ears - the shutdown has had NO impact on the supply chain.

That is the equivalent of saying "it never rains."

Logistics have been hampered by the shutdown.
Food supply has been hampered massively by restaurants being forced to close.
Food supply has been hampered by the lockdown leading to food and supplies hoarding.
Food supply has been hampered by workers who are healthy staying at home.
Food supply has been hampered by distancing requirements in plants affecting production.
Food supply has been hampered by the shutdown essentially wiping out air travel leading to oil supply issues causing livestock feeding challenges.

Counter it and prove it wrong. I've given you every industry source possible. Including the UN, who says it's all true.

Second time I've asked you. Prove the claims above wrong. Go on.

 

[Tim Steelersfan]

Went to the supermarket yesterday and there were no meat shortages. There may be a backlog getting the meat processed at the plants but there is plenty of meat in freezers ready to go to market. Don't let that suppress the fact that Jeffrey Epstein didn't kill himself and the lamestream media is at war with our President.

Just wait LJF.

Even Pravda CNN reports on the causes. The virus sickening and the the impact on production issues.

Meat processors warn of shortages. Here's why they're getting hit so hard
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/28/business/meat-shortages-grocery-stores-coronavirus/index.html

New York (CNN Business)The coronavirus pandemic is wreaking havoc on the supply chain, hitting everyone from farmers to automakers to retailers.

But meat processing plants, especially, are in a crisis.

Over the past several weeks, a number of major meat suppliers have announced temporary closures as workers fall ill with Covid-19. The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union estimated Tuesday that 20 meatpacking and food processing workers have died so far.

The situation has gotten so severe, company executives warned, that the U.S. meat supply could be at risk. John Tyson, chairman of the Tyson (TSN) board, warned of limited supply if plant shortages continue.

"We definitely can see shortage of products in the grocery stores," said Jeff Sindelar, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's College of Agricultural and Life Sciences with an expertise in meat processing. If the larger processing plants continue to shut down or operate with limited capacity, certain products may be unavailable and others could get really expensive, he added.

The economics of meat processing

Meat processors could have initially set up their assembly lines with more space in between each person. But they didn't have the financial incentive. "Space is expensive," economist Steve Meyer noted.

Trying to space people out now presents a host of business problems.

With fewer people along an assembly line, the conveyor belts would have to slow down. That could mean less output — which could lead to shortages or more expensive meat for consumers.

The backlog would also be devastating for hog and livestock farmers, who are already struggling to sell their meat because of the plant closures. Consolidation in the industry has made it difficult for those producers to find smaller, local processors to handle their meat.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-new...ortages-end-week-amid-plant-closings-n1193401

Beef, chicken and pork could be as scarce as toilet paper soon because so many meat processing plants have been temporarily shut down amid the coronavirus pandemic, industry experts are warning.

"We've just completed our third week of reduced slaughter and production," Dennis Smith, a commodity broker/livestock analyst with Archer Financial Services in Chicago, said. "My guess is that about one week out, perhaps around May 1, shortages will begin developing at retail meat counters."

Overall meat production is down 25 percent, Smith said, "which is a huge decline."

"The cause of the shortage is reduced production due to labor issues at the packing plants," Smith said. "Some plants have closed for deep cleaning and will remain closed until the employee base has recovered from the virus. Others are implementing safety procedures which in effect slows processing speed at the plants."

But the pandemic has clogged the pipeline for getting more meat to grocery stores, the experts said.

"There are likely to be (meat) shortages in select parts of the country," Terry Reilly, a senior commodity analyst at Futures International in Chicago.

Reilly noted that last month in Chicago, in the early days of the crisis, there was a run on chicken as fearful consumers emptied the shelves. He said there's no reason to worry just yet about a meat shortage.

"There is a lot of frozen pork and beef sitting in freezers, so people shouldn't panic," Reilly said. "In San Diego, they're trying to figure out where to store all the fish that they would normally be serving the tourists."

Also, meat processing companies have a restaurant line and a grocery line. And with restaurants closed, the companies have shifted those supplies of frozen meats to the grocery stores.

 

[Tim Steelersfan]

There may be a backlog getting the meat processed at the plants but there is plenty of meat in freezers ready to go to market.

The amount of meat in freezers is a temporary stop gap.

We’re inching closer to a meat shortage. Prices are getting weird
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2020-04-22/meat-shortage-coronavirus

Much has been made of the frozen inventories that are kept in warehouses, which could help cushion the blow of plant closures — as long as they don’t last very long. While there are hundreds of millions of pounds of frozen meat in U.S. warehouses, the supplies account for only a fraction of what’s typically produced in any given month.

In March, frozen pork inventories dropped 4.2% from February, U.S. government data showed on Wednesday. It was biggest drop for the month of March since 2014, and the decline came before the major slaughterhouse shutdowns that started in April.

“For all the talk of cold-storage supplies, it’s just never a lot,” Bob Brown, an independent market consultant in Edmond, Okla., said about supplies of pork, beef and poultry. “It’s roughly a week’s worth of production in the freezer.”

 

[Tim Steelersfan]

Never Forget

------------------------

How Obama/Biden Wrecked the U.S. Medical Device Industry


As lawmakers ponder ways to bring back U.S. manufacturing of pharmaceuticals, their raw materials, medical supplies, and devices, it must be remembered a major part of this problem which has come back to bite us was created by the Obama/Biden administration and the medical device tax that was included in ObamaCare that was supposed to defray the costs of this doomed-to-failure new entitlement program.

As part of the Orwellian-named Affordable Care Act, sales of medical devices from implants to MRIs, research equipment and surgical instruments were to bear a 2.3 percent tax. The tax would be on gross sales and not just profits. Even packaging, shipping, and warranties were included when calculating what was to be taxed.

Because the Affordable Care Act was so unaffordable, it needed a running head start on revenue with imposition of the new tax beginning on January 1, 2013, while ObamaCare itself would begin a rolling implementation in 2014 with its more harmful aspects and the revelations that, no, you couldn’t keep your doctor or your plan even if you liked them. We would have to wait to find out that premiums would skyrocket, not decrease $2,500 as promised in another Obama/Biden lie, and deductibles would be so high that many of those with insurance couldn’t use it. Taxes first, questions later.

Health care equipment manufacturers were not amused and there were predictions that this onerous tax on medical devices would for makers overseas and into the welcoming arms of China. As Bill Flax wrote in Forbes in October 2012:

Cook Medical, America’s largest privately-owned medical device manufacturer has been adamant that shrinking margins may force investment overseas. “Cook will no longer be able to expand our manufacturing in the United States,” said company spokeswoman Allison Giles. “We’ve always resisted going abroad” but due to diminished returns “decisions will have to be made.”

Cook scuttled plans for five additional plants across the Midwest. It expects the device tax could cost $30 million annually, roughly equivalent to constructing its new Canton, IL factory. Says the company, “that’s one less facility per year that we’re going to be able to use because of the tax.”

Apart from forcing companies to cancel expansion plans and/or move overseas, one immediate effect of the medical device tax was to destroy jobs in an industry belatedly considered as part of our national security in an age of China-spawned pandemics. It was put on hiatus in December 2015 due to its disastrous effects on the medical device industry. It was scheduled to return at the end of 2019 until President Trump killed it, forcing it to be included in a federal spending package that he signed into law last December. As the U.S. Chamber of Commerce noted in February 2017:

From 2012 to 2015 the number of medtech jobs fell by almost 29,000. The decline started in 2012 when companies were preparing for the medical device tax to go into effect and then accelerated in 2013 and 2014.

A report and white paper from Roth Capital warned of the calamitous impact the device tax would have on the medical device industry, healthcare providers, and patients:

Roth also surveyed companies on their latest plans to manage through the implementation of the Medical Device tax next year. The report determined that (1) over 80% would either cut jobs or forego new hires and (2) more than 75% would either cut or forego new R&D projects as a result of the tax. The report also found that 85% of companies would be expanding overseas.

Even when it was in hiatus, the Obama/Biden medical device tax hung over the medical device industry like the proverbial sword of Damocles. Outsourcing didn’t seem such a bad thing As Rush Limbaugh has noted, liberal progressives like Obama and Biden employ a static analysis that says you can raise taxes and human and corporate behavior won’t change:

Do you all remember this thing called Obamacare? I’m sure you do. Do you remember the medical device tax that Obamacare instituted? Like all liberals, Obama believed that people that make things will pay anything. You put a tax on ’em, they’ll just keep paying the tax and they’ll just keep making the device. You put a tax on yachts, and people will pay the tax…

Well, guess what? The people that manufacture medical devices fled the USA, and they went overseas to various places to get ’em made. One of the places they went was China. They also went to Mexico. They went to places in Europe. And now people complain about a shortage. They want to chalk it up to somehow a fault or a deficiency of capitalism or of the United States. No siree, Bob. It was a by-product of a tax increase called Obamacare on medical devices.

Let us also not forget that during the H1N1 swine flu pandemic during which no foreign travel was suspended and a national emergency wasn’t declared until six months in, Democrats blame shortages of things like face masks and ventilators on Trump’s alleged ineptitude. Let’s roll the tape…

But the reason we don’t have the respirator masks goes back to the Obama/Biden administration when they were advised to replenish the stockpile that had been used during the H1N1 swine flu pandemic.

But it never happened, they never did it, according to the Washington Examiner:

The George W. Bush administration published the National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza plan in 2005, which called on the federal government to distribute medical supplies from the Strategic National Stockpile governed by the Health and Human Services Department in the event of an outbreak,

In 2009, the H1N1 outbreak hit the United States, leading to 274,304 hospitalizations, 12,469 deaths, and a depletion of N95 respirator masks.

A federally backed task force and a safety equipment organization both recommended to the Obama administration that the stockpile be replenished with the 100 million masks used after the H1N1 outbreak.

Charles Johnson, president of the International Safety Equipment Association, said that advice was never heeded.

“Our association is unaware of any major effort to restore the stockpile to cover that drawdown,” he said.

We need to remember the Obama?Biden days of swine and poses.

 

[CharlesDavenport]

I assume that we are doing aggressive contact tracing on those meat processing breakouts. Suspicious.

 

[Steeler Pride]

I assume that we are doing aggressive contact tracing on those meat processing breakouts. Suspicious.

Supposedly, the one here in Indiana was about 400 individuals. How in the hell do you even attempt to contract trace 400 people. You could potentially have 40,000 people to quarantine. The whole concept of contact tracing a virus that many studies show is far more widespread than originally thought is a fallacy at best.

 

[Tim Steelersfan]

Wow.

YouTube removed the viral video of frontline doctors calling for an end to quarantine and comparing COVID-19 to the flu

'Violating YouTube's Terms of Service'

Last week, two frontline doctors who said they have administered more than 5,000 coronavirus tests, made headlines when they compared the coronavirus to the seasonal flu and called for an end to quarantine practices.

The two physicians, Dan Erickson and Artin Massihi of Accelerated Urgent Care in Bakersfield, California, presented their medical advice in a video briefing with KERO-TV that the news outlet then uploaded to YouTube. The video quickly went viral, garnering more than 5.46 million views.

But on Monday, the video was taken down for "violating YouTube's Terms of Service."

In a follow-up report, KERO-TV confirmed that the first of two videos playing the press briefing in full was removed. The news outlet submitted an appeal to YouTube about the removal, but has not yet heard back.

In a statement to the outlet following the video's removal, Dr. Erickson said, "Anytime you push against the grain, you are going to have people who don't like it."

TheBlaze reached out to YouTube's press division for a more specific answer on why the video was taken down, but YouTube did not immediately respond.

Interestingly, Erickson and Massihi spoke to Fox News host Laura Ingraham Monday evening just before the video was removed. After the interview, when Ingraham discovered the video had been taken down, she noted relevant comments regarding censorship that YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki had recently made.

"Anything that would go against World Health Organization recommendations would be a violation of our policy ... [removal] is another really important part of of our policy," Wojcicki reportedly said.

 

[CharlesDavenport]

Supposedly, the one here in Indiana was about 400 individuals. How in the hell do you even attempt to contract trace 400 people. You could potentially have 40,000 people to quarantine. The whole concept of contact tracing a virus that many studies show is far more widespread than originally thought is a fallacy at best.

I don't know what the process is, but they need to figure out how some of the largest most critical food processing plants in the US, in places like South Dakota and Iowa, became hot zones.

 

[Tim Steelersfan]

Supposedly, the one here in Indiana was about 400 individuals. How in the hell do you even attempt to contract trace 400 people. You could potentially have 40,000 people to quarantine. The whole concept of contact tracing a virus that many studies show is far more widespread than originally thought is a fallacy at best.

 

[wig]

Again... It isn't one little bit about tracing, or testing to know who got it and how contagious it is.

This is aaaaaaalll about the politics. I gauran-*******-tee you if elections were held tomorrow and Joe Biden won, we'd be out of quarantine in less than 2 weeks. Tops.

This is truly sickening.

 

[Superman]

I don't know what the process is, but they need to figure out how some of the largest most critical food processing plants in the US, in places like South Dakota and Iowa, became hot zones.

obviously work at meat processing plants pays so handsomely that these people are able to have their own economy - one that includes jet-setting and worldwide travel via private, personal plane. One doesn't need to really have much imagination that a single group of people from Iowa would have the desire to travel to Wuhan, China based on their exorbitant income. And, Wuhan is like a traveler's playground. So much to do, see and take in. When traveling, people tend to bring back gifts to allow their friends and family to share in their travel experience. What better gift than one of Rona?

 

[Superman]

Again... It isn't one little bit about tracing, or testing to know who got it and how contagious it is.

This is aaaaaaalll about the politics. I gauran-*******-tee you if elections were held tomorrow and Joe Biden won, we'd be out of quarantine in less than 2 weeks. Tops.

This is truly sickening.

and if we had a Democrat in the White Office, the Dims would be pushing to refrain from the upcoming election until January 2021 at earliest.

 

[Hines57]

Just wait LJF.

Even Pravda CNN reports on the causes. The virus sickening and the the impact on production issues.

Meat processors warn of shortages. Here's why they're getting hit so hard
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/28/business/meat-shortages-grocery-stores-coronavirus/index.html

New York (CNN Business)The coronavirus pandemic is wreaking havoc on the supply chain, hitting everyone from farmers to automakers to retailers.

But meat processing plants, especially, are in a crisis.

Over the past several weeks, a number of major meat suppliers have announced temporary closures as workers fall ill with Covid-19. The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union estimated Tuesday that 20 meatpacking and food processing workers have died so far.

The situation has gotten so severe, company executives warned, that the U.S. meat supply could be at risk. John Tyson, chairman of the Tyson (TSN) board, warned of limited supply if plant shortages continue.

"We definitely can see shortage of products in the grocery stores," said Jeff Sindelar, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's College of Agricultural and Life Sciences with an expertise in meat processing. If the larger processing plants continue to shut down or operate with limited capacity, certain products may be unavailable and others could get really expensive, he added.

The economics of meat processing

Meat processors could have initially set up their assembly lines with more space in between each person. But they didn't have the financial incentive. "Space is expensive," economist Steve Meyer noted.

Trying to space people out now presents a host of business problems.

With fewer people along an assembly line, the conveyor belts would have to slow down. That could mean less output — which could lead to shortages or more expensive meat for consumers.

The backlog would also be devastating for hog and livestock farmers, who are already struggling to sell their meat because of the plant closures. Consolidation in the industry has made it difficult for those producers to find smaller, local processors to handle their meat.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-new...ortages-end-week-amid-plant-closings-n1193401

Trump just used DPA on meat processors. Back to work

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...-s-issuing-order-for-tyson-s-unique-liability

 

[Superman]

and Dims say they'll work from home

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/co..._D2E_AsCTT-ctMLxX26uYcdyxsP55rVBnPNcbMkWOm9Cs

Reversing course, House won't return to D.C. next week because of coronavirus threat
“We made a judgement that we will not come back next week,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said in a phone call with reporters.

April 28, 2020, 12:00 PM EDT / Updated April 28, 2020, 1:40 PM EDT
By Rebecca Shabad and Haley Talbot
WASHINGTON — A day after announcing that the House would reconvene in Washington next week, House Democrats reversed course and announced Tuesday that lawmakers will not be returning to the Capitol after all because of the coronavirus threat.

“We made a judgement that we will not come back next week,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said in a phone call with reporters.

Hoyer said he spoke with the House physician late Monday about the decision. The majority leader cited a rising number of coronavirus cases in the Washington metropolitan area.

“We will not come back next week, but we hope to come back very soon to consider CARES 2 legislation,” Hoyer said, referring to the next round of major coronavirus relief legislation, which would mirror the $2 trillion package signed into law in late March.

Asked about the decision, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said during a separate press call, "We had no choice. If the Capitol physician recommends that we not come back, then we have to take that guidance in the interest of the safety of the people who work here."

"We could not take any chances," she added, noting that many people beyond just lawmakers work at the Capitol, such as office and custodial staff.

Pelosi said she doesn't think the physical absence of House members puts them at a disadvantage. Lawmakers are "constantly working" and preparing legislation for the next round of coronavirus aid, she said.

Democratic leaders originally told rank-and-file members during a caucus conference call on Monday that the House was expected to be in session starting next Monday, May 4. They also advised members that floor votes would also be possible next week.

Meanwhile, the Senate is expected to return to the Capitol next Monday.

“We will modify routines in ways that are smart and safe, but we will honor our constitutional duty to the American people and conduct critical business in person,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announced in a statement Monday afternoon.

“The Senate must focus on concrete steps to strengthen our response to this complex crisis. We cannot get distracted by pre-existing partisan wish lists or calls to paper over decades of reckless decisions that had nothing to do with COVID-19,” McConnell added.

Many members live in states where stay-at-home orders are in effect, and one such order is in effect for Washington, D.C., at least through May 15. Mayor Muriel Bowser has said that the number of COVID-19 cases there was expected to peak later than in New York City. According to data provided by the District of Columbia, as of Monday, nearly 4,000 people in the city have tested positive for the disease and 190 people have died.

Bowser said during a press conference Monday that D.C. has not met the criteria needed to begin reopening, which is 14 days of sustained decline in the number of cases.

 

[Troglodyte]

Your position has undeniably unequivocally been that ANY disruption to the food supply chain has been ONE HUNDRED PERCENT due to sickness and has absolutely NOTHING to do with the lockdown.

You clearly know literally nothing about economics and supply chains.

No one has once countered that sickness hasn't hampered the food supply chain, it has.

You, conversely, have said - eyes over eyes and ears - the shutdown has had NO impact on the supply chain.

That is the equivalent of saying "it never rains."

Logistics have been hampered by the shutdown.
Food supply has been hampered massively by restaurants being forced to close.
Food supply has been hampered by the lockdown leading to food and supplies hoarding.
Food supply has been hampered by workers who are healthy staying at home.
Food supply has been hampered by distancing requirements in plants affecting production.
Food supply has been hampered by the shutdown essentially wiping out air travel leading to oil supply issues causing livestock feeding challenges.

Counter it and prove it wrong. I've given you every industry source possible. Including the UN, who says it's all true.

Second time I've asked you. Prove the claims above wrong. Go on.

You might want to tune into reality, Tim. Trump is going to sign an executive order compelling meat processors to stay open. Guess he doesn’t understand the economics?

 

[Steeltime]

You might want to tune into reality, Tim. Trump is going to sign an executive order compelling meat processors to stay open. Guess he doesn’t understand the economics?

If, as you apparently claim (repeatedly), there is no break in the supply chain for meat, and that meat processing is closed solely due to so many employees being sick, then (1) why would Trump issue an order that the plants stay open and (2) what the **** good would an executive order do to make sick employees better?

Alternatively if, as TSF and I have argued, the plant shutdowns are a break in the supply chain related (not completely, dude - RELATED) to Chinese flu lockdowns, then an executive order could fix that by making the meat processing plants an essential job and mitigating the lockdown.

Right?

 

[Superman]

You might want to tune into reality, Tim. Trump is going to sign an executive order compelling meat processors to stay open. Guess he doesn’t understand the economics?

so now we have a Dictator decreeing which companies are valuable and which are not?

 

[IndySteel]

 

[Sarge]

Does anyone else feel like we are watching a bad sitcom? What a ******* **** show.

 

[Superman]

to update, we have now surpassed the 1,000,000th case in the country.
58k dead from Covid.

worldwide, there are 3,121,026 cases and 216,508 deaths.

 

[Yinzerlyn]

to update, we have now surpassed the 1,000,000th case in the country.
58k dead from Covid.

worldwide, there are 3,121,026 cases and 216,508 deaths.

What’s the percentage of deaths vs. world population??? I can’t math, but I imagine it’s not very big.

 

[Steelr4evr]

Does anyone else feel like we are watching a bad sitcom? What a ******* **** show.

It's a bad made sitcom part truth,but as it plays on fiction. The tyrannical part is real. Some of these govenors are having a great time with this. As well as the lefties who seem more than willing to crash the country into a tree doing 190mph. Don't worry we will save you. Orange man bad. Let's vote by mail. Trust us. We will count them all.


Last year i laughed at the window licking nut jobs they had running for president. I said no way they had a chance. They'd have to crash the economy for them to have a shot.......then here comes the rona....hmmmm.

They still have some dirty old man with dementia and a stinky finger.

 

[Steeltime]

to update, we have now surpassed the 1,000,000th case in the country.
58k dead from Covid.

worldwide, there are 3,121,026 cases and 216,508 deaths.

Every antibody study - every single one - has shown that 10x as many people had the virus as have been reported as being "diagnosed." No different than the flu, really, where 30 million in America get the virus but only 3 million go to the hospital for it or are "diagnosed" with the flu.

That would mean that in America, at least 10,000,000 have had the virus and 58,000 died, a mortality rate of 0.6%. Definitely worse than the flu, but nowhere close to the doomsday projection of 4% or 5% mortality.

Worldwide, that would mean that approximately 31.2 million have had the virus and 216,508 died, for a mortality rate of 0.7%. Again, worse than the flu, no doubt.

But 5% mortality? Get the **** out.

I mean it, go, get outside. **** the lockdown.