Virus thread, the political one.

[vertical_doug]

Does anyone know the rules of holding senate confirmation hearings for Biden's cabinet picks? Can the Turtle just refuse to confirm anyone?

As all things, the answer is complicated. My understanding is the nomination goes to the relevant Senate Committee. The committee has a hearing and decides on whether to send the nomination to the floor for a full vote. (This is how the GOP bottled up Garland, they did not let the nomination out of committee.) There are 1200+ nominations needed senate confirmation, and there are enough pro-confirmation senators that this should happen. You may get some rogue trumpy senators that control a committee and seek to bottle stuff up.

Once you get the nominee to the floor, the ability to filibuster is gone, and a simple petition by 16 senators can force a vote.

That being said, they can surely slow walk process and make it painful.

[Clean39T]

As all things, the answer is complicated. My understanding is the nomination goes to the relevant Senate Committee. The committee has a hearing and decides on whether to send the nomination to the floor for a full vote. (This is how the GOP bottled up Garland, they did not let the nomination out of committee.) There are 1200+ nominations needed senate confirmation, and there are enough pro-confirmation senators that this should happen. You may get some rogue trumpy senators that control a committee and seek to bottle stuff up.

Once you get the nominee to the floor, the ability to filibuster is gone, and a simple petition by 16 senators can force a vote.

That being said, they can surely slow walk process and make it painful.

The Senate recently confirmed two Federal Energy Regulatory Commission seats, with little theater (and one of them is a Dem who lead the NRDC - not exactly the Q-anutcase approved pick) - https://www.ferc.gov/news-events/new...nts-commission - they can work together, they mostly choose not to when it meets the whims of the donors or riles the base in just the right way..

[BBB]

Just for contrast. Trump is banging on about stolen elections and meanwhile the virus doesn't really care for such empty platitudes. Hopefully Biden can steer the ship away from the rocks.

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...-looking-glass

[guido]

The difference in how the pandemic has affected the U.S. and South Korea remains staggering | Washington Post

"From Tuesday to Thursday, the United States recorded more than 8,000 deaths from covid-19. It was the deadliest three-day period on record, surpassing the record of 7,701 set from April 14 to 16. Then, New York City hospitals were overwhelmed as efforts to contain the virus had only recently been put into place. Now, more than nine months after the virus was first detected in our country, this three-day span was 5 percent higher.

The toll on Thursday alone was 2,753. In South Korea, where the virus was first detected on the same day as it was in the United States, the covid-19 death toll is 536.

Total. Since January. More people have died in the United States over five hours on Dec. 3 than have died of the disease in South Korea overall.

While South Korea was seeing more new cases as a function of population in February and early March, by St. Patrick’s Day the United States took the lead. We have not relinquished it since. (Numbers for this article come from Our World in Data.)

The last time the population-adjusted rate of new cases in the United States was less than twice that of South Korea was March 18. The last time we were seeing less than 10 times as many new cases as a function of population was March 23. Over the past month, we’ve averaged 100 times as many new cases per resident each day, even as South Korea has seen an increase in its daily case totals.

There has been a lot written contrasting the response to the virus in South Korea with the response in the United States, but there’s one obvious factor at play: testing. President Trump likes to tout the massive number of tests conducted by the United States, but we conduct so many tests in part because the virus remains uncontained. South Korea has conducted far fewer total tests in part because its system of isolating and containing infections is far more effective, obviating the need for broader testing."

[htwoopup]

WTF...https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/08/u...-privacy.html?

It seems bogus to me that you need names and addresses to make sure that people who move across state lines get the second jab. How long between jabs really and who's moving now anyway?

And, what about HIPPA?

This seems like a bogus info for other nefarious purposes to me but I am wondering if it changes anyone's mind about whether to do it...I gotta believe that if you were in certain communities that have been hard hit by this disease it would make it more likely that you wouldn't get vaccinated.

But maybe that is the point.

Kinda disgusted by this at this hour which is how I will stay for the day unless someone can come up with a legitimate reason for it.

[monadnocky]

WTF...https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/08/u...-privacy.html?

It seems bogus to me that you need names and addresses to make sure that people who move across state lines get the second jab. How long between jabs really and who's moving now anyway?

And, what about HIPPA?

This seems like a bogus info for other nefarious purposes to me but I am wondering if it changes anyone's mind about whether to do it...I gotta believe that if you were in certain communities that have been hard hit by this disease it would make it more likely that you wouldn't get vaccinated.

But maybe that is the point.

Kinda disgusted by this at this hour which is how I will stay for the day unless someone can come up with a legitimate reason for it.

No f'n way. There is no way this is going to happen. It's a gross, obscene violation of medical privacy rights.
Tell me that there is no way that this is going to happen.

[monadnocky]

"We’re in a pandemic,” said Dr. Carlos del Rio, an infectious disease expert at Emory University in Atlanta. “Privacy has its role, but it cannot be what drives decision-making when you’re trying to do a monumental task like vaccinating millions of Americans with a vaccine that requires two doses.”

This is chilling. No, you cannot arbitrarily suspend medical privacy rights because we are in a pandemic, and, besides, I don't see how "privacy rights" as what "drives decision-making."
Why are you, a physician, not getting this?

[Todd Amunrud]

No f'n way. There is no way this is going to happen. It's a gross, obscene violation of medical privacy rights.
Tell me that there is no way that this is going to happen.

According to the article, my state, Minnesota, is refusing to share detailed information. Only vaccination rates. We have a state registry, MIIC, that will be updated(my understanding). But this is private medical information that only a patient can share with others. A signed release of information is required to release MIIC.

[Paul Jacobs]

This is interesting to me. As a retired surgeon, I understand medical confidentiality. In the UK, Covid-19 vaccination started today and is being administered through the NHS. I will be offered the vaccine when my turn comes based on criteria like age, occupation (no-longer applicable), and clinical risk factors. I will be contacted by the NHS, I imagine, in the same way they approached me two weeks ago to have the annual flu vaccine. They are able to do this because they hold the relevant information like name, date of birth, address, probably next of kin, medical history etc. against my NHS number in the NHS database and it has never occurred to me to be unhappy about this.

[vertical_doug]

This is interesting to me. As a retired surgeon, I understand medical confidentiality. In the UK, Covid-19 vaccination started today and is being administered through the NHS. I will be offered the vaccine when my turn comes based on criteria like age, occupation (no-longer applicable), and clinical risk factors. I will be contacted by the NHS, I imagine, in the same way they approached me two weeks ago to have the annual flu vaccine. They are able to do this because they hold the relevant information like name, date of birth, address, probably next of kin, medical history etc. against my NHS number in the NHS database and it has never occurred to me to be unhappy about this.

I live in both world's so let me take a crack at it. With NHS, you have a government agency with a defined patient confidentiality and a whole code of practice for patient consent to use the data. Even with this, there have been issues in the past with NHS. One that comes to mind was NHS contracting out some data to DeepMind (Google's AI subsidiary) to try to develop new scans, methods etc. The research is good, but it pushed the boundaries of patient consent.

In the US, where there is no standard like the NHS and many people do not even have a primary care physician, paranoia about abuse of medical information is understandable. The task probably gets outsourced to someone like Palantir or Google who you may or may not want to trust to with the data. Also, we have no GDPR in the US.

The simple way to solve this is in the US you make the shot free, but patient gives consent and contact information so they can be contacted and reminded to get the second dose. It doesn't solve the problem, but at least the patient has to give consent.
They can't force you to get the second shot, but at least they can remind you.

If you search the threads, I think you will find a whole thread on DNA sequences with the likes of 23andMe etc. There dna arrays are pretty crud, but they still know the 'what' you are. This is data I would not want to give to a private company. With the 100,000 genome project in the NHS, this is also data I would not want to disclose to a private company.
https://www.velocipedesalon.com/foru...ing-44605.html

(I do occasionally wear a tinfoil hat. I look good in it. )

[Paul Jacobs]

Thank you for the informative response.

[72gmc]

If we weren't still in the midst of a four-year assault on science and marginalized people, we might be able to build on trust and some amount of reliance that people would feel safe to come forward for their second shot.

[SpeedyChix]

That federal data requirement isn't passing the sniff test. Didn't need to do any of that for a two-dose shingles vaccine. This is no different. The pharmacy knew how to get ahold of me for my second dose. With flu shots the batch # is recorded with your info if that needs to be traced back. I'm not coming up with a good reason the Feds "need" to have this info.

[72gmc]

Meanwhile ...

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/1...atchdog-444238

The excerpts of the loyalist's email are telling. Aside from the naked attempt to edit a scientific publication for political purposes, he doesn't even write well.