Posted on 03/12/2020 4:41:18 AM PDT by Kaslin
Try this thought experiment. Envision the coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, as a living, breathing enemy -- which, of course, is exactly what it is.
But imagine for a moment that we are in real war with a cognizant, thinking and clever enemy whose sole reason to live is to hurt, maim or kill as many of us as it can.
COVID-19 may not have jets, tanks or nukes, like our past enemies. But its arsenal, numbers, cunning and willpower are said to be formidable.
To win its war against Americans, COVID-19 must infect and sicken lots of Americans each day. If it cannot infect enough victims to multiply and sustain a hungry army of viruses, COVID-19 will soon sputter and die. It will get trapped in just a few hosts among an otherwise victorious and healthy nation of about 330 million.
Nature has given COVID-19 some weapons that its defeated cousins -- the H1N1 swine flu and the MERS and SARS viruses -- lacked.
It is more clever by being less lethal -- and a little tougher in its ability to live outside a host. Viral resiliency ensures that it rarely turns into a suicide bomber by dying with a terminally sick host, and that it does not perish so quickly when orphaned in the air and on surfaces.
The coronavirus has allies. It infiltrates our defenses by using our own weapons against us -- our dirty hands, the habitual touching of the face, and indiscreet sneezing and coughing.
Poor personal and public hygiene gives the virus some sustenance and camouflage. To win -- defined as sickening or killing thousands of us -- COVID-19 counts on our laxity. It hates careful individuals who block its invasion into the eyes, nose and mouth.
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
Exactly.
Are you saying we’re on the same trajectory as Italy?
Agreed. See the link at 99.
When Wuhan virus began to spread in China, they immediately put key military bases on strict quarantine.
To save the personnel intact for after the pandemic.
Do you ever wonder why there are so many McDonalds ads?
Wouldn't one ad played once suffice?
It’s not only me!
Come on.
The overreaction has already flattened Italy and it’s on its way here, and folks are still not getting it.
Fixed it.
I had one guy say he didn't care about my 91 year old mother, his lived to 94...
Unfortunately, the media which has a far greater impact on the American public than you could ever hope to have, doesn't agree with you and is, in fact, fighting against you. Don't you see that?
YOUNG AND UNAFRAID OF THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC? GOOD FOR YOU. NOW STOP KILLING PEOPLE | OPINION
A DOCTOR IN WESTERN EUROPE
ON 3/11/20
Put aside statistics. Here is how it looks in practice. Most of my childhood friends are now doctors working in north Italy. In Milan, in Bergamo, in Padua, they are having to choose between intubating a 40-year-old with two kids, a 40-year old who is fit and healthy with no co-morbidities, and a 60-year-old with high blood pressure, because they don’t have enough beds. In the hallway, meanwhile, there are another 15 people waiting who are already hardly breathing and need oxygen.
The army is trying to bring some of them to other regions with helicopters but it’s not enough: the flow is just too much, too many people are getting sick at the same time.
We are still awaiting the peak of the epidemic in Europe: probably early April for Italy, mid-April for Germany and Switzerland, somewhere around that time for the UK. In the U.S., the infection has only just begun.
But until we’re past the peak, the only solution is to impose social restrictions.
And if your government is hesitating, these restrictions are up to you. Stay put. Do not travel. Cancel that family reunion, the promotion party and the big night out. This really sucks, but these are special times. Don’t take risks. Do not go to places where you are more than 20 people in the same room. It’s not safe and it’s not worth it.
But why the urgency, if most people survive?
Here’s why: Fatality is the wrong yardstick. Catching the virus can mess up your life in many, many more ways than just straight-up killing you. “We are all young”—okay. “Even if we get the bug, we will survive”—fantastic. How about needing four months of physical therapy before you even feel human again. Or getting scar tissue in your lungs and having your activity level restricted for the rest of your life. Not to mention having every chance of catching another bug in hospital, while you’re being treated or waiting to get checked with an immune system distracted even by the false alarm of an ordinary flu. No travel for leisure or business is worth this risk.
Now, odds are, you might catch coronavirus and might not even get symptoms. Great. Good for you. Very bad for everyone else, from your own grandparents to the random older person who got on the subway train a stop or two after you got off. You’re fine, you’re barely even sneezing or coughing, but you’re walking around and you kill a couple of old ladies without even knowing it. Is that fair? You tell me.
Great analogy.
Corna virus survivors in Milan heading to he soccer game.
Well, there will always be those who will try to exploit a tragedy for political gain. Hopefully the saner people in government can get an emergency stay of this clown’s action.
An amazing number of people will agree with that post.
Just watch.
I regret sarcasticly commenting that if you want a false low fatality rate, why stop calculating with everyone known to be infected as the denominator? Why stop with everyone in the country? Why not use the entire population of the planet as the denominator!
Damned if a couple didn’t do just that!!!
*sigh* H.L. Mencken was right...
I'm not taking issue with you or the work you are doing to educate ... and I do appreciate your work. My point is what the far more (thusfar, anyway) widespread panic-inducing reporting (without the "rest of the story") is doing to individual people and to our social structure as a whole -- Problems I think will far outlive the threat of the virus. Just making a point. Cheers! --Glenn
You also have to take into account that there are currently no real accurate figures on the number of people infected as so many hardly exhibit symptoms so that pushes a skewed death toll percentage.
Corona virus hits the wall at about 80 degrees. Warm weather for most of us is only weeks away. The flu season will be over in 4-6 weeks.
Most viruses mutate weaker not stronger.
Viruses peak and then ebb. It appears to have peaked in China.
The chances of 150 million Americans contracting this virus is hysterical speculation by the congressional physician.
In a few weeks this virus will struggle to make the news cycle. Meanwhile 20,000 Americans have already died this year from the regular flu and it doesn’t even make the six oclock news but a hundred or so deaths from corona virus is crashing our stock market.
The best way to avoid the coronavirus is to wash your hands and turn off the TV.
Both of them?
It’s not ‘how many people are infected’.
It’s how many are in the ICU.
And do you have enough free ICU beds for anyone who needs one.
Because after that, you have to triage like Italy is doing. And that means nobody over 65 gets one and if you have any health issues in general you don’t get one either (diabetes, hypertension, cancer, obesity).
“The best way to avoid the coronavirus is to wash your hands”
It’s airborne:
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/487110-tests-indicate-coronavirus-can-survive-in-the-air
Article has a link to the paper describing this.
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