Posted on 01/26/2020 7:46:08 AM PST by GulfMan
With almost hourly reports of new cases of Coronavirus popping up in American cities it feels as though the enemy is stealthily parachuting in nearly unseen during the night. We hear reports but they seem so innocuous and far away that we seemingly aren't all that alarmed.
However, if one steps back and thinks through what a worst case or near worst case scenario might look like - we might be doing so in the final few weeks of what we will remember as our past lives, before the virus, wishing we would have soaked more of what we once had in, and perhaps even done more to prepare.
It's one thing to get good treatment for Pneumonia at a hospital, but once they are overwhelmed, you're left on your own, and possibly without access to antibiotics. It's a bit scary to think about but our system can and probably would become overwhelmed. With nothing to do but shelter in place businesses would begin suffer, chain of supply would falter, the economy dramatically begins to slow, and then it really starts to enter an area that we have no familiarity with. The Coronavirus could take 9 months to run it's course, maybe a year or more.
If, and I say "If" the number of dead were well into the millions here in the United States the impact to the economy would be far more than we can predict. This economic death would be the second lethal phase to the Coronavirus tragedy.
With possibly millions of homes being dumped onto the US real estate market existing home values would plummet. Most most current homeowners would see their values cut in half, possibly worse. What of the Survivors 401k plans? Worthless? Cut by half? Banking institutions begin to scramble to recover debt owed to them that they now cannot recoup, many fail, real estate holdings become pennies on the dollar. What about the millions who no longer have jobs, how do they subsist?
These are merely the the things we can think through, but it's the things "that we don't know that we don't know" that truly worry me.
I pray in two months this is all but a close call. However, our world seemingly doesn't take the possibly of a deadly pandemic serious, we just don't. We talk a good game but it's all talk. We love to say "when" not "if" it happens, but as we are unwilling to shut down international travel until it would be too late we're just not serious.
I think "it" will happen, but will have been preventable, maybe not this time, but sometime. The "when" is going to surely be our stupidity at play, and unable to heed our own warnings, many will someday suffer needlessly.
Even at its worth, the Black Death took off only about a third of Europe’s population, and that at a time when nutrition, standards of hygiene and medical care were unbelievably bad or nonexistent.
There have been 14,000 direct flights from Wuhan since ‘patient zero’ was suspected, 5,000,000 + bodies have directly touched US soil, not counting everyone who took an indirect flight. We’re at, what, 9 identified or suspected cases in the US?
Let me put this in perspective. In the recent flu outbreak in my area, I personally know 5 people who have died as a result. All 5 had compromised immunity issues related to age and health. This is out of about 150 clients. That’s about a 4% mortality rate from the latest common flu outbreak for the general client population, and about 9% from those identified as being sick.
Now, if information comes out from Wuhan that the majority of mortality is young people with healthy immune systems, that’s the time to have concerns. No such information has been released, nor has general distribution even given any form of a snapshot as to whom is dying.
If you or any of your family catches the common cold or flu, you’re a vector for a worldwide pandemic. Start practicing best procedures - wash hands with soap and water (silently sing the ABC’s for how long) before eating, touching eyes, etc. Wash after touching your eyes or nose. I follow best practices, I still caught the flu.
I'll cane it myself, if it comes to that.
The cure is something on the order of anti-inflammatories, decongestents, oxygen, fluids, nutrition, rest, and the body’s immune system. And, in many cases, it works.
There have been 14,000 direct flights from Wuhan since ‘patient zero’ was suspected, 5,000,000 + bodies have directly touched US soil, ....
Source, please.
There is an excellent article available and current as of today (1/26/20) describing the virus in rational terms. Highly recommend reading it at livescience.com. Just my $.02.
It’ll be difficult, but I’m giving up my bat soup until this blows over.
There’s a story that this virus was stolen from Canada’s National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg by Chinese agents, where it was being tested for effects on animals.
The spies sent it to China’s biolab at Hubei, less than 20 miles from the seafood market where the outbreak allegedly started ....
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/did-china-steal-coronavirus-canada-and-weaponize-it
(yes I know it’s ZeroHedge but this story still sounds totally believable)
FWIW.
This is just the first strike from Skynet. Don’t doubt me.
My source was a WaPo article, in digging deeper, their quoted number of flights is a joke, there’s been less 200 direct flights from Wuhan to JFK & SF since the suspected “patient zero” was communicable, almost all of them on China Southern Airlines. They instead quoted the all of the flights from the airport. That means only 80,000 directly on US soil (and good luck calculating indirectly or exposed while in transit.)
A far less number, but still greatly exceeds the 9 suspected or identified cases in the US.
My teenager son was just reading the headlines from his phone, and one said there was a fourth confirmed case in the US. I told him to try again. He searched for the number of cases and got 20 or 21 in the US. He said that was from the CDC. But the CDC said there’s nothing to be concerned about at this time.
Like.
Eh. These bugs happen all the time. And they’re never as bad as the hype. Remember Swine Flu? SARS? Whatever the hell was before. Yeah they suck in commie countries with dense populations and crap medicine. But remember we had 3 patient zeros come into America and no patient 1s happened. Heck we even recently survived importing Ebola. It’s a cold. It’s a really nasty cold. We’ll be fine.
That's just what they'd want us to think...
When the Black death eliminated a goodly fraction of the people in Europe, the survivors were able to demand higher wages, better working conditions, better housing and more political freedom.
Dam!
Nobody ever told me the "silent" part.
I've wondered for the past 40 years why people always looked at me a little funny.
It looks like that 11 years AOC has prophesied has been shortened to 2 or 3 weeks. PANIC TIME!
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