Covid Amy

Mary Mallon was an asymptomatic carrier of the bacterium that causes typhoid fever. She acquired the infection in utero from her infected mother. Apparently, Mary’s fetal immune system negotiated a truce with the virus: I won’t kill you if you don’t kill me. In the first two decades of the 20th century, while Mary was working as a cook for a series of affluent families in the New York City area, she spread the disease to 53 people, 3 of whom died. Mary was forcibly quarantined on a small island in the East River on two separate occasions by the New York City Health Department for periods totaling 30 years. Typhoid Mary died in 1938 at age 69, after spending the last 23 years of her life in isolation.Amy Coney Barrett and her husband Jesse were diagnosed with Covid-19 “late this summer.” According to a friend, Jesse was asymptomatic but Amy felt "a little under the weather but recovered."On September 21, one day before the last day of summer and three days after the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Amy Coney Barrett met with Donald Trump in the White House. At that meeting, Trump offered her Ginsburg’s job and Amy accepted his offer. Five days later, on September 26, the two of them stood together on a dais in the White House Rose Garden in front of a crowd of Washington’s Republican elite, about 250 of them sitting in 11 rows of chairs, gathered hip to hip to hear Trump announce his nomination of Barrett to the Supreme Court. Five days after the Rose Garden ceremony, on Thursday, October 1 (or perhaps it was September 30 per a statement his doctor made yesterday morning but then retracted), and 10 (or 9) days after Don & Amy’s first meeting, Trump was diagnosed with Covid-19.Melania Trump sat in the first row of chairs at the Rose Garden event. She also was diagnosed with Covid-19 on Thursday, October 1 (or September 30, depending on who’s counting).Senator Mike Lee of Utah sat in the 2nd row of chairs. He also spoke with Amy at very close range at a reception inside the White House immediately afterwards. Then 3 days later, on Tuesday, September 29, he had a one-on-one meeting with Amy in the Capitol building. Mike was diagnosed with Covid-19 on Friday, October 2, six days after the Rose Garden event.Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina also sat in the 2nd row. Tillis spoke with Amy afterwards at the reception, had a one-on-one meeting with Amy in the Capitol four days later (Wednesday, September 30), and was diagnosed with Covid-19 on Friday, October 2.Kellyanne Conway was another of the second-row alumni. She received her Covid-19 award for Most Disingenuous Apparatchik on...Friday, October 2.John Jenkins, President of Notre Dame University, sat in the 3rd row of chairs, but still got his booby prize on October 2 along with the other boobies.Chris Christie, who sat in the 4th row of seats, was yet another disgusting old man who couldn’t resist chatting with the lovely Amy that day at the reception. Christie was diagnosed and hospitalized on Saturday, October 3.As far as we know, nobody sitting in rows 5 through 11 has yet contracted the disease.Is it possible that Amy Coney Barrett is still shedding coronavirus? Or, to use plain language, is the Notorious ACB a superspreader? It's known that many people who are asymptomatic do harbor the virus, and that some people, particularly children, never have symptoms but nevertheless can still infect others. According to the White House [feel free to discount the rest of this sentence], Amy Coney Barrett has repeatedly tested negative for Covid-19 since her nomination. It may nevertheless be relevant that one study found that the rapid PCR testing system used at the White House yielded false negatives 48% of the time. Covid-19 PCR tests are most reliable 6 to 8 days after the date of infection, according to this analysis of 7 previously published studies; the meta-analysis found that the rate of false negatives was close to 100% in the first 2 to 3 days, then fell to a low of 20% on day 8 before rising to 66% on day 21. After day 21, who knows? A case study from China described an asymptomatic young woman who left Wuhan in early January to visit relatives in another city and eventually infected five of them with coronavirus. The asymptomatic presumed coronavirus carrier, who was tested 4 times over a 2-week period that ended on February 8, had one positive amid 3 negative test results. An Italian study found equal viral loads in symptomatic and asymptomatic infections. Another study found that asymptomatic infections account for approximately 7% of coronavirus transmission.“Late summer” starts, to be generous, around August 6th. Assuming Amy was infected right at the beginning of late summer on August 7, she first met with Donald on day 45 of her disease course.So far, no Democratic senators have met one-on-one with Barrett. When Kamala Harris was asked six days ago whether she would meet with Barrett before the confirmation hearings scheduled to begin on October 12, she replied, “I’m sure that’s going to happen. We’ll see how it works out.”Don’t do it, Kamala! For the sake of the nation...for the sake of democracy...no tête-à-têtes with Amy Covid Barrett. via /r/bestofthefray https://ift.tt/2EZAPft