Posted on 03/27/2020 7:45:11 AM PDT by Kaslin
If I followed all my doctor's instructions to the letter, life would be excruciating. It would be tantamount to having Michael Bloomberg make my life choices, which is to say my life wouldn't be worth living. Human beings have never been as risk-averse as experts want them to be. We instinctively calculate the costs and benefits of engaging in activities that put our health at risk every day.
The coronavirus crisis, in fact, has been one of the few times in my life I've allowed medical experts to completely dictate my actions. I'm writing this piece bunkered down in my home office, staying inside as much as possible, employing a rigorous hand-washing regime and keeping far away from my now-menacing neighbors when I walk the dog. Like many Americans, I do this not only for my own well-being but for the well-being of those who are at greater risk.
I'm one of the lucky ones: I have a job and can work from home. Millions of others don't share that luxury. Many of them are calculating the costs of self-quarantining as it relates to their livelihood, businesses and futures -- and those are completely sane, unimpeachable considerations.
Yet, I've noticed pundits and politicians trying to shut down difficult discussions of the tradeoffs associated with managing the coronavirus crisis and its economic fallout by demanding that everyone shut up and listen to "doctors" and "scientists," as if no one else's opinion was useful.
Let's set aside the fact that many liberals have spent the past decade degrading the gravity of "science," a word now most often used by pundits to make wild, Malthusian claims about climate change or argue that there are more than two genders. Even if they hadn't, science is just one aspect of any equation: We should listen to scientists, but not only to scientists.
If all scientists agreed on how the United States should move forward in combating the current pandemic, which they don't, that still wouldn't be the end of the story. Virologists and epidemiologists concern themselves with the spread of disease and the physiological health of human beings, which is naturally of paramount importance right now. But economists concern themselves with whether those who survive the disease will have houses to live in after it's all over, which matters quite a bit, too, as do pundits' concerns about the violation of civil liberties and law enforcement officials' concerns about the possibility of rising criminality.
Science is most meaningful when we consider it together with morality, economic prosperity, human thriving and thousands of other factors that make our lives bearable. Those considerations don't dissipate simply because a new virus shows up. Mankind has dealt with pandemics for thousands of years.
Moreover, Americans deserve a full discussion of what a glide path to normalcy might look like. President Trump says he'd like to see the economy "raring" to go in two weeks. That seems highly optimistic. Former Fed chair Ben Bernanke says that if "not too much damage (is) done to (our) workforce and businesses during (this) shutdown, we could see a fairly quick rebound. Much closer to a major snowstorm" than the Great Depression, which would be tremendously encouraging if there weren't so many unknowns still in play. One thing that's certain is that we need to start talking about the endgame here, and about the point at which the cure might become worse than the disease.
No one can say with any certitude how this plays out yet, but asking these questions isn't kooky, out of bounds or unpatriotic; it's natural. The longer this goes on, the more the public will want answers. And doctors alone won't be able to provide them.
Study war, the enemy always decides when a conflict ends.
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This bug has a new structure that has never been seen before.
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Mutations will make vaccines ineffective. It mutates faster than we have ever seen before.
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THis bug has an ability to latch and inject into and onto healthy cells about 3 times more effective than we have seen before.
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We have to be more medically vigilant and reactive.
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There will be more to come.
Actually they said the genome is very stable so one vaccine will be good for years.
Possible ending.
Trump gets re-elected.
Hillary is put under arrest.
Pelosi gets kicked out of the House under discgrace for trading on insider information on the stock market.
Diane Feinstein kicked out of the senate and arrested for trading on insider information on the stock market.
Wishful thinking.
Decades ago I had a really nice patient who came to see me religiously every year. He weighed 450 pounds. Every year I would badger him to lose weight, diet, exercise “because if you don’t you will get diabetes, cholesterol, etc.”. Every year for four years. On the fifth year I looked him in the eye and said, “I hope you can forgive me. I have been hard on you all these years. After all this time I finally see all your numbers are excellent and always have been. For some reason I can’t explain you may be an unusual person for who obesity is not a risk. I can’t explain it but I have come to that conclusion. Please forgive me for badgering you. I promise I won’t do it again.”
People are different. I wasn’t a vet. I didn’t treat herds, I treated people. Medical science couldn’t predict he would be immune to obesity. You have to be sensitive to when a case is unusual and perceive that and act accordingly.
Perhaps the arrest of Charles Bieber, the head of Harvard’s Chemical Biology Dept and his $ 50,000 a month secret payments from the chinese will be discussed in the news. His ties to the Wuhan Lab is abscent from the news since his arrest.
And the other 2 Chinese associated with the story, 1 of which was caught trying to get on a plane to China with 21 vials of interesting goodies.
Maybe someone can Talk on this ?
The corona virus will ravage the unsanitary camp of homeless in NYC, LA, SF, Seattle, Chicago, Philthadelphia, etc. That will solve the camp problem but at the cost of many tens of thousands of normal people in those c/s/h/ities.
Yes and no, there will be a broad-based vaccine to cover this new family of bugs. Most will not get very sick.
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However, as we do right now, we will get flu vaccines for the current years’ virus’ that mutated from the previous year. Even then, a few recent mutations will make a lot of people sick.
Next year could be the “Year with no flu”.
Suggesting that it is man-made or manufactured?
Let’s just outlaw mutations. Get Nancy and Chuck on it.
We can give orders to the tide, while we are at it.
Related. I was wondering why I hadn’t heard any more updates from Tom Hanks and his wife.
Searched and found out they were released from the hospital about 10 days ago.
Actually proving that it is a natural mutation.
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Cells have an ability to merge or recombine. That is what happened here. A completely newly created DNA structure.
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Viral researchers can only alter existing bugs to some degree, genetically.
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Creating a new viral life form from two other virus’, that is so dangerous, would require a stroke of (bad) luck beyond comprehension, give the variety of trillions of different virus that exist safely in many mammals.
well go find an empty island and bring plenty of food and water and hide yourself and panic yourself sick there. You people are getting really annoying..
look out front. Are the corpses piling up? How many do you personally know have died? Does anyone who you know, know somebody that died?
The cowardice is sickening
Indeed.
Come join me on that “empty island” and we’ll bark at the moon together.
Yes, but it does not seem to be fatal, or even cause severe respiratory issues in all cases. The majority of people who contract this virus may not even be aware, and then recover on their own, without treatment.
In addition to saliva tests to determine if someone is actively positive for this virus (infectious), we need to start producing lots of blood tests, to determine if they already have immunity from previous exposure.
By sampling the population to see how many already have antibodies, we will know much better how far along the infection has really spread, and what the mortality rate really is. Otherwise, we are dealing with a dramatically skewed sample, of only the worst cases. As of now, those with little to no symptoms are generally not tested, and not included in the statistics at all.
Also, being able to certify which individuals already have immunity, clears them to get back to work, help others without protective equipment, or travel.
There is a glide path back for you.
Perhaps the arrest of Charles Bieber, the head of Harvard’s Chemical Biology Dept and his $ 50,000 a month secret payments from the chinese will be discussed in the news. His ties to the Wuhan Lab is abscent from the news since his arrest.
And the other 2 Chinese associated with the story, 1 of which was caught trying to get on a plane to China with 21 vials of interesting goodies.
Maybe someone can Talk on this ?
yes please
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