The U.S. Has Flattened the Curve. Next Up Is 'Squashing' It — and That's Not Going Well

Time ^ | APRIL 27, 2020 | Chris Wilson

[MinorityRepublican]

*snip*

While the country as a whole has successfully flattened the curve, it has yet to show the extended period of decline necessary to declare ourselves out of the woods — a “squashing” of the curve.

[MinorityRepublican]

We were told that we were supposed to "flatten the curve" not to "crush it". Singapore crushed it only to miss the virus in their migrant camps so now it's out of control. We can only postpone the inevitable, not stop the virus.

[BookmanTheJanitor]

Keep moving those goalposts, eh, Time?

[dp0622]

So then how about we stop being wusses and get out there and tell the elderly and sick to stay at home. It’s a good thing they didn’t investigate whether fighting in world war II would cause American deaths. The answer would have been yes. And quarantine for all American men probably would have made it difficult to win world war II.

and yes each death was terrible but it needed to be done. Or far much worse waited.

Just like now

[DannyTN]

Masks for everyone is how we squash it.

Too many essential employees and too many shoppers for essential items aren’t wearing them, so it’s still spreading.

[null and void]

Good luck with that.

Are you ready to try water cannons, truncheons, attack dogs and bullets?

We The People have more guns and ammo...

...and we know where the governors' mansions are!

Bring Out Your Dead

Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.

The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.

The false positive rate was 100%.

At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.

*sigh* Such is life, and death...

If a quarantine saves just one child's or one old fart’s life, it's worth it.

[null and void]

So then how about we ... tell the elderly and sick to stay at home.

That's the nully hacienda.

Works for me.

[canuck_conservative]

Note that the masks are basically useless.

They’re “N95”, which means they’re designed to screen out 95% of particles, like from grinding or smoke ... not 100%, and they aren’t fine enough to stop viruses. (That’s why they’re only a few bucks each.)

But everyone seems to think they’re some kind of impenetrable barrier!

[DesertRhino]

Yeah, I’m not playing in that game. I have declared it over, and lots of other Americans have too.

[Clutch Martin]

I look at as more of Walking the Tightrope rather than flattening a curve because once the curve is relatively flat and then you reverse course it’s just going to come back and bite you in the ass. Viruses are funny that way. This isn’t the first virus in the history of this country that we’ve had a quarantine on at this scale yes but viruses don’t care about scale. A viral outbreak will scale up or down depending on the host population.

[rlmorel]

People are going to die. You cannot “crush” a thing like this. They are trying to keep it alive no matter what.

We need to just get on with things and let the chips fall where they may.

[dp0622]

It seems to me lockdowns can only be effective if there isn’t a single person carrying the virus and able to transmit it by the time the lockdown is over. Because everybody in lockdown has not been exposed to it so that one person will infect 5 who will infect 5 and so on.

Sometimes you just have to get the dirty work over and move on with life.

my mom is 87 and she said she’d rather see the country going full-throttle even with a Chance of her dying, than seeing this.

See people out there who are terrified like little girls, my 87 year old mother is much more likely to get it than you and she’s much less afraid and cares much more about the country.

she’s also not terrified of death because she has real religion and real belief.

a lot of people that we all know were exposed for what they really are because of this virus.

The best times don’t show you what a person is made of but the worst do

Think about that tonight

[BenLurkin]

Has it been fifteen days yet?

[AFB-XYZ]

Oh, green steaming piles of equine solid waste. Masks are nothing but (1) a silly-looking way to virtue-signal, and (2) a way for totalitarian-minded governmental entities to prolong control over the pearl-clutching portion of the population. The rest of us have lives to live and jobs to get back to.

[willyd]

Flattening the curve = drag this on until the election is over

[poinq]

Personally I have declared the quarantine over a little while ago. I avoid places and people who take it too seriously. I won’t wear a mask. I don’t care if I am 6 feet away from a coughing, sweating neighbor. I just don’t care. If you are vulnerable I respect your right to try to hide. But I am not doing any of it. If I think I have the virus, I will stay inside for a while. But until then I am in Illinois and I am doing what I want.

[going hot]

a lot of people that we all know were exposed for what they really are because of this virus.

Burned up a lot of goodwill, bona fides, and respect.

[null and void]

I hope the voters notice that!

[mmichaels1970]

Oh, so we’re doing THAT now are we? Scum. Pure scum.

[dp0622]

To a crisp.

and some of them will talk tough again one day about this or that or the government and and how they are really going to strike hard one day and I will know it’s all lies.

[MAGAthon]

the writer:

Twitter: Chris Wilson, Director of data journalism, Time
https://twitter.com/chriswilsondc?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

lol.