Is 'grim reaper' Mitch McConnell finally facing his day of reckoning?

[turbinetree]

Written by Heather Digby Parton / Salon April 24, 2020

Thursday’s White House coronavirus rally will go down in history as the day the president directed the scientists to investigate whether ultraviolet light can somehow be put inside COVID-19 patients to kill the virus, or whether disinfectant can be injected into their lungs to clean them. He was very proud of himself, obviously believing that he’d discovered some kind of breakthrough after hearing a briefing about how ordinary people can kill the virus in their homes.

One shudders to think what it must be like to be in meetings with this person. It brings to mind former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s famous quote after trying to teach him some basics about international relations: “He’s a fucking moron.”

Katherine Eban’s reporting for Vanity Fair about the White House hydroxychloroquine debacle reveals that Trump sent government health agencies into a tailspin trying to fulfill his desire for a miracle cure. So if anyone was thinking that these “directives” from Dr. Trump are ignored, we now know better. We can only imagine what kind of “trials” for internal UV light and Clorox cures they are scrambling to set up as we speak.

But that wasn’t the only disturbing thing Trump had to say. One might have thought he’d spend the entire rally patting himself on the back for Thursday’s passage of the CARE Act extension to help small business, but he seemed uninterested in that. When asked about the desperately needed help for state and local government, which he’d previously said he favored, this was the president’s response:

https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/is-grim-reaper-mitch-mcconnell-finally-facing-his-day-of-reckoning/

[msongs]

1. subscription required. nt

[crickets]

4. What? I read it with no problem. nt

[ProfessorGAC]

2. OK, So Here's What We Do

"Get a black light, some of that Christmas tube light stuff, shove it down the throat and turn on the light.
Then we use a nasal spray bottle full of Clorox up each nostril."
This synopsis of the Trump family phone call tonight was provided as a public service.

[Midnightwalk]

5. I learned today blood irradiation therapy is a thing

From Wikipedia

Blood irradiation therapy is a procedure in which the blood is exposed to low level red light (often laser light) for therapeutic reasons. Most research on blood irradiation therapy has been conducted in Germany (by UV lamps), and in Russia (in all variants)[1][2][3][4] while smaller-scale research has been performed in other countries such as Great Britain.[5] The practice itself was developed in the U.S.

It’s still a distraction and trump is an idiot and the disinfectant thing is asinine but we should be aware of that.

I made the same joke earlier but suggested a different orifice.

[ProfessorGAC]

6. I See One Problem

It's red light. Viruses are not negatively affected by red light.
I wonder if any such work was ever done with an excimer laser for uV light.
Did you see what this therapy was for?

[Midnightwalk]

7. I googled blood treatment uv

And went to the Wikipedia article. The excerpt mentioned uv lamps. The article did have more details on various treatments but not much stuck. Definitely UV don’t remember lasers.

If I remember there’s one approved treatment for transplants.

[ProfessorGAC]

8. Lasers Were Mentioned In The OP

Otherwise I wouldn't have jumped to that equipment.
uV does have powerful chemical effects and is likely to be effective in the chemical breakdown of pathogens or contaminants. Lasers are likely considers because they're tunable to a VERY narrow wavelength band. Close to one specific wavelength. (180nm, for instance, which is a wavelength that triggers many chemical reactions, aggressively.)
I've never heard of these procedures of course, but I do have expertise is the spectral chemistry aspects. How that allies to biomedical applications is for other experts to discuss.

[captain queeg]

3. Remember early on when he asked the medical people if the regular flu vaccine could be used?

He was so proud of himself, like he was a genius for thinking of it. Someone immediately said no, but someone else then said probably not to ease his fragile ego.