Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Today’s quotable

Posted in:

Illinois

* From the Atlantic…

During the Vietnam War, Vice Admiral James Stockdale spent seven years being tortured in a Hanoi prison. When asked about his experience, he noted that optimistic prison-mates eventually broke, as they passed one imagined deadline for release after another. Stockdale’s strategy, instead, was to meld hope with realism—“the need for absolute, unwavering faith that you can prevail,” as he put it, with “the discipline to begin by confronting the brutal facts, whatever they are.”

Do yourself a favor and read the rest of that article. Lots of sobering stuff in there about tests, drug shortages, the limitations and serious shortcomings of antibody tests and plenty more.

And, by the way, “brutal facts” does not mean twisted facts. It means real actual honest to goodness facts, which seem to be in short supply.

Also, it’s not been widely reported, but Abbott’s much acclaimed ID Now rapid test, which provides results in 5-13 minutes, can only process one sample at a time.

That means running the machine 24 hours without pauses or glitches, produces between 111 and 288 results. That’s fine for an individual hospital, but it’s not so great for widespread testing.

Stay frosty.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Apr 14, 20 @ 12:17 pm

Comments

I read the same article this morning.

We have a long, long road ahead.

Comment by thunderspirit Tuesday, Apr 14, 20 @ 12:24 pm
We have to confront the brutal facts. We have no choice.

Comment by Southern Skeptic Tuesday, Apr 14, 20 @ 12:44 pm
Frosty saves lives.

Comment by Candy Dogood Tuesday, Apr 14, 20 @ 12:46 pm
Ed Yong’s work covering the COVD-19 crisis for the Atlantic has been stellar. His posts are informative and thorough. I think Rich posted his recent article on COVD-19 on Capitol Fax but here it is along with others:

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/03/how-will-coronavirus-end/608719/

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/03/biography-new-coronavirus/608338/

Comment by Big Jer Tuesday, Apr 14, 20 @ 12:52 pm
There are serious questions arising as to the validity of the Abbott test results regarding false negatives…time to program hard and tight.

Comment by Dotnonymous Tuesday, Apr 14, 20 @ 12:54 pm
There are likely many similarities w the 1918 influenza pandemic, which attacked in three waves (2 in 1918, 1 in 1919), before giving way to the Roaring 20’s. Now, as then, the State and local health departments led the way in addressing that pandemic.

Comment by Ares Tuesday, Apr 14, 20 @ 1:01 pm
Stockdale was highest ranking of all POW’s……and ran as VP with Ross Perot. Medal of Honor winner. POW over 7 years. He was an absolute authority on the topic of confronting brutal facts.

Comment by Sayitaintso Tuesday, Apr 14, 20 @ 1:09 pm
==Stay frosty.==

Love this — best advice possible. Hooah [banned punctuation]

Comment by Flapdoodle Tuesday, Apr 14, 20 @ 1:19 pm
There are tons of those Abbot machines in place already …

Abbott’s ID Now platform, the most common point-of-care test currently available in the U.S., with more than 18,000 units spread across the country.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2020-03-27/abbott-launches-5-minute-covid-19-test-for-use-almost-anywhere

Comment by Donnie Elgin Tuesday, Apr 14, 20 @ 1:23 pm
Jim Stockdale - a revered son of Knox County, IL. When you are able, visit the Illinois Citizen Soldier Museum in Galesburg to learn more about this great American hero.

Comment by SilverStreak Tuesday, Apr 14, 20 @ 1:27 pm
The brutal facts are that if you are one of the extremely unlucky body chemistries - which we cannot identify - you get a lonely, slow and painful death. Or you’re maimed for the rest of your life. Further, if you are the breadwinner for a family, they then suffer.

Until technology can catch up and offer a viable solution, all the talking is for entertainment only. There can be no return to “normal”. By all accounts, that is realistically a year away at minimum. How will you adapt?

Comment by Captain Spatula Tuesday, Apr 14, 20 @ 1:33 pm
While Vietnam is closer in the historical timeline, I think a closer parallel would be how society had to react to the polio virus before a vaccine was finally available.

I had a long talk with an older member of my family who was young at this time, but still remembered what was happening around them.

At the start, we didn’t even know it was a virus or how it spread.

We made it through that, and we will make it through this.

Comment by TheInvisibleMan Tuesday, Apr 14, 20 @ 1:36 pm
- Contrarians will use the diminished body count to argue that the panic was needless -

I’m mostly mentally preparing not to hit these people.

Comment by Excitable Boy Tuesday, Apr 14, 20 @ 1:43 pm
It is also not wrong to point out that Mr. Yong has been in the more alarmist camp, in an earlier article predicting more than a million deaths in the US. It is important to consider the entire spectrum of thought.

Comment by Molly Maguire Tuesday, Apr 14, 20 @ 1:53 pm
Stockdale from Abingdon, Illinois. Attended Monmouth college. Medal of Honor awarded in 1976. Sadly, most famous for 1992 VP debate quote, “Who am I? Why am I here?

Comment by LawandOrder Tuesday, Apr 14, 20 @ 1:57 pm