COVID finally catches up with Giuliani. About time.

[dreamshark]

The only surprise is that it took so long. Why didn't he get infected when Chris Christie and everybody else in the POTUS cluster did? And with all the state capitols he's been jetting around to, conspicuously unmasked and undistanced? He must be very resistant to the virus. But he persisted and in the end he finally emulated his beloved leader and role model in contracting the infection. He must be so proud. And think of how many people he may have spread it to, coming to a screaming climax with a live interview on Fox News hours before he went into the hospital! Also in the great Republican tradition.

I wonder if anybody is keeping track of the link between COVID infections and political affiliation. Seriously, it seems like a great way to determine if the CDC recommendations actually have any effect at all on retarding the spread. If new infections are not at least 2:1 in favor of Republicans at this point, masks and quarantines probably don't help after all. 

Gosh, since most of the Trump campaign's legitimate lawyers have already quit in embarrassment, what are they going to do now? They may have to rehire Sidney Powell. 

Comments

[quadong]

I've thought about whether there is a serious Darwin Awards kind of effect with mask refusal. It must exist, but it might be very weak, because surely the main effect is that everyone gets more COVID. Republicans and Democrats might be somewhat physically segregated from each other, but not enough that the virus doesn't jump back and forth between the populations very frequently.

[dreamshark]

It's not just refusing to wear masks, it's heedlessly participating in private gatherings and crowded public venues against all public health advice. And these days bipartisan gatherings are probably the exception rather than the rule.

[quadong]

I agree, but then they all go to the same grocery stores and elementary schools as we do (roughly), and pass it all on. So it's amplified in the Republican crowd and then spreads in the general population. Probably someone's done a simulation of this. Well, it's like how an explosion of cases at a university can be caused by a small fraction of students attending large parties. I bet not all the cases are from the partiers, but from second or third generation infections from their non-partying contacts. Obviously the partiers are in worse shape, but maybe not by much.

[dreamshark]

And here's where it is so frustrating to have so many conflicting messages from The Experts. ARE people getting infected at grocery stores or not? The latest spate of "information" declares that no, shopping is hardly dangerous at all, it's all about the small gatherings. Some actual DATA would be really handy here, not just official speculation endlessly repeated.