Coronavirus Thread

[Sveedy]

And the asterisk that will follow The Fall of America will be a roll of toilet paper.

[smoggyama]

I concur with the previous posts. The press would better serve the public by explaining how Congress spends our money rather than hyperbolizing single events like this virus and celebrity deaths and scandals. NPR is no better than FOX. (which invites the question: Is it impossible for Donald Trump to do anything right, even by mistake? And what if he were black?) There is an upside to the COVID 19. Public awareness of hygiene. We are instructed to do what we should already be doing in the first place. Wash your hands, clean key pads, touch screens, countertops, door handles. Don't sneeze into the refrigerator! Imagine if this virus had a serious morbidity rate like smallpox or AIDS. And Amazon has stopped the sale of masks and hand sanitizer by profiteers? B.S. is what that is. We live in a free market society? A mask does almost nothing to protect the wearer. and hate crimes? a crime is a crime regardless of ones motives.

[bmdubya1198]

I concur with the previous posts. The press would better serve the public by explaining how Congress spends our money rather than hyperbolizing single events like this virus and celebrity deaths and scandals. NPR is no better than FOX. (which invites the question: Is it impossible for Donald Trump to do anything right, even by mistake? And what if he were black?) There is an upside to the COVID 19. Public awareness of hygiene. We are instructed to do what we should already be doing in the first place. Wash your hands, clean key pads, touch screens, countertops, door handles. Don't sneeze into the refrigerator! Imagine if this virus had a serious morbidity rate like smallpox or AIDS. And Amazon has stopped the sale of masks and hand sanitizer by profiteers? B.S. is what that is. We live in a free market society? A mask does almost nothing to protect the wearer. and hate crimes? a crime is a crime regardless of ones motives.

Yeah, I have to agree. President Trump is going to be criticized no matter what he does, there's no way around that now unfortunately... too many people just want to be angry at him simply because they don't like him. He's the president, you don't have to like him and not everybody is going to agree with him, but especially in a time of crisis it's important to just let him do his job!
News channels are definitely equally bad on either side depending on the topic... you kind of have to pick and choose what is fact. I wish it wasn't down to this these days, but that's the world we live in. I think most news anchors on the national level are too biased one way or the other.
Either way, in this situation they need to try and keep everybody calm rather than freak everyone out. It's not doing anybody any good that people are scared into hoarding toilet paper and hand soap.

And not to defend crazy price gouging, but supply and demand... when supply is low and demand is high, I think it should be okay to raise prices WITHIN REASON to control supply. For example, I can't find toilet paper around here anywhere. I'd be happy to pay a little extra if it means that will deter the loonies from buying a pallet's worth for themselves.
As for the people on Facebook and wherever else posting (at least what I hope are) fake listings for hand sanitizer for $150 or so, if that was real then THAT is price gouging that shouldn't be allowed. $10 for a normally $5 pack of toilet paper at the grocery store? Not as ridiculous.
Then again, another option is for stores to more heavily enforce limits on products, because it really is an issue for some people being unable to afford higher prices. For example, Walmart is now limiting water to 6 cases per person, and other stores are limiting to 2-4.

[Sveedy]

I want to respect this threads parameters but sorry - I have to respond. I'm NOT going to let the President off the hook for this one. He has demonstrated his complete lack of scientific understand from day one:

Rick Perry for Energy Sec when Perry had no scientific background.
Rex Tillerson from Exxon for Sec, of State.
Saying climate change is a Chinese hoax created to ruin our economy.
He tweeted that many children become autistic after receiving vaccines.
And don't forget that exercise is bad for you, because your like a battery and will run out of juice.

Most notably right now - He disbanded the White House Office for Epidemic and Pandemic response, which was created by George Bush and built upon by Obama. But because of that last name, it had to go !

Lastly, for now, his decision to not buy the test kits from the WHO, when they are being used world wide and work, because he wanted an
" American one " has put this country in the position we find ourselves in and will undoubtedly cost lives.

Sorry but the so called " buck " stops with him, even if he says, as he did yesterday, that he holds NO responsibility for what is going on.

Truly pathetic...

[abscate]

Back on topic

The two parameters interest are

-fatality rate, estimated now at 1.4%
- infection rate...this is the one we can control. Notwithstanding stupid flight restrictions except for citizens, etc.

Bad flu season kills 50,000 Americans and 500,000 worldwide annually

If we don’t contain with good practices at home, we will see 500,000 deaths here if -that 1.4% holds

[matthew1]

Test kits are the bottleneck. Sad, because these are dumb-simple devices that we could produce by the millions, buy by the millions, or accept as donation by the millions.

So stupid, our situation. So easily prevented.

[FlyingVolvo]

I want to respect this threads parameters but sorry - I have to respond. I'm NOT going to let the President off the hook for this one. He has demonstrated his complete lack of scientific understand from day one:

Rick Perry for Energy Sec when Perry had no scientific background.
Rex Tillerson from Exxon for Sec, of State.
Saying climate change is a Chinese hoax created to ruin our economy.
He tweeted that many children become autistic after receiving vaccines.
And don't forget that exercise is bad for you, because your like a battery and will run out of juice.

Most notably right now - He disbanded the White House Office for Epidemic and Pandemic response, which was created by George Bush and built upon by Obama. But because of that last name, it had to go !

Lastly, for now, his decision to not buy the test kits from the WHO, when they are being used world wide and work, because he wanted an
" American one " has put this country in the position we find ourselves in and will undoubtedly cost lives.

Sorry but the so called " buck " stops with him, even if he says, as he did yesterday, that he holds NO responsibility for what is going on.

Truly pathetic...

[93Regina]

apocalypse right now.

Garry Kasparov - Long lines & empty shelves in stores and a leader nobody believes on TV saying everything is fine. Back in the USSR!

[93Regina]

Is it impossible for Donald Trump to do anything right, even by mistake?

It's best to view a person's history, and then evaluate. Trump was tweeting [aka verbal bashing] during Obama's era

Trump's Ebola obsession reveals the hypocrisy of his coronavirus response now
...
...
...
Trump was quick to criticize the appointment of Obama's Ebola czar,
Ron Klain, tweeting that he had "zero experience in the medical area
and zero experience in infectious disease control. A TOTAL JOKE!" And
yet, Trump saw fit to tap Vice President Mike Pence to lead the
federal government's coronavirus response. Pence, of course, has no
experience in medicine or infectious disease control. In fact, his one
brush with public health crises was a complete disaster.


More at the cite

[cn90]

I am not an alarmist but everyone should read this article published last night in the Lancet.
Pay attention to the graph between Feb. 21, 2020 and March 13, 2020.
The USA is about 3-4 weeks behind in the Italy's curve!

Tsunamis usually hit in waves, the first wave is usually small and serves as a warning before the big ones hit.

What we see in Italy is the small wave. The bigger waves are yet to come.

COVID-19 and Italy: what next?
Prof Andrea Remuzzi, EngD, Prof Giuseppe Remuzzi, MD

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanc ... 9/fulltext


PS: The USA is completely unprepared for this. Largely bc DT got rid of pandemic team (Global Health Security Team) in 2018, and our president downplayed this a few weeks ago.

In a WH press conference on Feb. 26, 2020, DT said we had 15 cases and it will be zero soon!
I don't make up this stuff, read it for yourself:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-st ... onference/