Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Interview: Corona Is Slowing Down, Humanity Will Survive, Says Biophysicist Michael Levitt
CTech ^ | 3/13/2020 | Ari Libsker

Posted on 03/16/2020 11:24:54 AM PDT by catnipman

The Diamond Princess was the worst case scenario, according to Levitt. “If you compare the ship to a country—we are talking 250,000 people crowded into one square kilometer, which is horribly crowded. It is four times the crowding in Hong Kong. It is as if the entire Isaeli population was crammed into 30 square kilometers.” Furthermore, he said, the ship had a central air conditioning and heating system and a communal dining room. “Those are extremely comfortable conditions for the virus and still, only 20% were infected. It is a lot, but pretty similar to the infection rate of the common flu.”

As with the flu, most of those dying as a result of coronavirus are over 70 years old, Levitt said. “It is a known fact that the flu mostly kills the elderly—around three-quarters of flu mortalities are people over 65.” To put things in proportion: “there are years when flu is raging, like in the U.S. in 2017, when there were three times the regular number of mortalities. And still, we did not panic. That is my message: you need to think of corona like a severe flu. It is four to eight times as strong as a common flu, and yet, most people will remain healthy and humanity will survive.”

(Excerpt) Read more at calcalistech.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: coronavirus; levitt; michael
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-72 next last
To: FightforFreedomCA; RoosterRedux

Saw the same thing. Must be a different form of virus were suffering!


41 posted on 03/16/2020 12:04:11 PM PDT by LittleBillyInfidel (This tagline has been formatted to fit the screen. Some content has been edited.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: catnipman

Ridiculous. People were only on that ship for a few weeks and estimations of the rate of doubling of infections have been about 6.2 days.

You wouldn’t nearly expect the majority of the ship to be infected in the time they were aboard—especially since they were trying to keep people quarantined through much of it.


42 posted on 03/16/2020 12:04:11 PM PDT by 9YearLurker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Dagnabitt

Contrary to your headline it’s very sick people in NORTHERN Italy, with a high population of Chinese that have it bad.

“Almost all patients were already suffering from serious health problems, including cancer, when the coronavirus infection was detected,”


43 posted on 03/16/2020 12:04:21 PM PDT by Balding_Eagle ( The Great Wall of Trump ---- 100% sealing of the border. Coming soon.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]

To: catnipman

Who wants calm reasoning when you can run around with your hair on fire ... and somehow blame it on Trump?


44 posted on 03/16/2020 12:04:32 PM PDT by livius
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Balding_Eagle; Travis McGee
What kind of bogus chart is that? Influenza doesn't run a flatline in any given season. It doesn't start from zero and maintain a flatline along zero. It increases as the season goes on due to contagion. Ask ANY doctor. Or just ask me. Sheesh.

Is this your chart Travis? If so, please explain the non increase with the influenza line. Am I reading it wrong?

45 posted on 03/16/2020 12:05:18 PM PDT by A Navy Vet (I'm not Islamophobic - I'm Islamonauseous. Also LGBTQxyz nauseous.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: pburgh01

I picture a sad old man humping a moose on the side of the road the way these sick f*^@ks are riding Italy for their jollies, while they hope for another.


46 posted on 03/16/2020 12:05:28 PM PDT by VanDeKoik
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: MichaelRDanger

What about France? Coronavirus is starting to blow up there now, and the smoking right is very close to the US.


47 posted on 03/16/2020 12:05:38 PM PDT by Wayne07
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: Balding_Eagle

Actually the flu is more of a sinusoidal graph. It peaks October through April and reaches a trough in the summer months.


48 posted on 03/16/2020 12:11:36 PM PDT by FormerFRLurker (Keep calm and vote your conscience.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Wayne07

Mike just lost his credibility. This is not part of the CNN thought police narrative.


49 posted on 03/16/2020 12:11:58 PM PDT by Colt1851Navy (What was wrong with Nixon?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 47 | View Replies]

To: JonPreston
"Michael Levitt penned this gem 4 days ago, before Italy melted down. But thanks anyway."

The proximity settings and the math still work. The Milan area of northern Italy has long had thousands of Chinese working in textile mills. No big surprise that it is a hot spot. You think they don't have family visiting or going back to China to visit? Think Mexico and the US.

50 posted on 03/16/2020 12:14:26 PM PDT by A Navy Vet (I'm not Islamophobic - I'm Islamonauseous. Also LGBTQxyz nauseous.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: A Navy Vet

Yep, we’re in solid shape.


51 posted on 03/16/2020 12:15:46 PM PDT by JonPreston
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 50 | View Replies]

To: Stravinsky

He is making the false assumption that the rate of increase will remain exponential. That curve assumes that we as humanoids did nothing in the form of prevention. With all of this “social distancing” and other preventive measures, the rate will surely flatten out.


52 posted on 03/16/2020 12:16:47 PM PDT by crusty old prospector
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: FormerFRLurker

Yeah, that flu line is a dead giveaway.

One could argue about the Corona line, but the flu line is a laugh.

Anyway, I’m sure that graph was intended to generate panic and thus the need for accuracy fell second or third to the ‘in your face’ Corona line.

Oh, and I’ve had defenders of the chart try and tell me that once flu is underway the line will straighten out. Seesh.


53 posted on 03/16/2020 12:17:33 PM PDT by Balding_Eagle ( The Great Wall of Trump ---- 100% sealing of the border. Coming soon.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 48 | View Replies]

To: pburgh01

Sums it up quite well. Wonder what his DU handle is? Mavis Tragee?


54 posted on 03/16/2020 12:17:49 PM PDT by Codeflier (FearRepublic.com - keeping the media panic narrative going 24/7 to finally bring down Trump)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: Dagnabitt
So we are destroying our economy, ruining long planned events for millions, taking our children out of school, closing health and recreation facilities and crushing small business owners and workers, etc because some elderly people in a country where smoking is rampant and where many Chinese workers returned at the end of January from visiting China for the Chinese New Year are dying from a new virus. And in a country ill-prepared for so many sick people to need respirators. None of these conditions apply to the USA in general.

.COVID-19 is either a bioweapon about to explode or an evil plot to destroy our country. To quote Rahm Emmanuel: Never let a crisis go to waste.

. Are we trying to stop our economy and freedoms until no one dies? The average number of co-morbities in the people who died in Italy is 2.7.

55 posted on 03/16/2020 12:22:13 PM PDT by Freee-dame
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]

To: pburgh01
Travis McGee is a liberal troll idiot.

No, he is not. While he may be quite strident about the risk of COVID-19, the worst you could say is that he is wrong. While you may disagree with him on this, the guy is a solid Freeper.

56 posted on 03/16/2020 12:23:12 PM PDT by Paradox (Don't call them mainstream, there is nothing mainstream about the MSM.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: Buckeye McFrog; pburgh01; Travis McGee

Travis McGee is a liberal troll idiot.
...............................................................
And he has literally circled the planet 75 times with that B.S. graph that even a high-school C student in biology and math could pick out the glaring error with the flu line.
********************************************************
Well he’s neither a liberal nor an idiot but he certainly has been trolling with his HUGELY EXCESSIVE alarmism regarding this Wuhan Coronavirus (WCV). He has tried to impart hysteria by implying that the WCV is today’s equivalent to the 1918 Spanish Flu. I think he envisions himself as a heroic Paul Revere on a “ride” to warn everyone (that being we idiotic rubes on Free Republic) about “what’s coming”.

Despite his alarmism, he’s very much a coward when it comes to specifying what HIS personal prediction as to the number of infected and number of deaths will be. I’m convinced that he must KNOW that the WCV outbreak is NOT a Spanish Flu level event and not even remotely close to it. He MUST understand that the scientific/medical/communications environment of 2020 is not that of 1918. If folks challenge him on his degree of alarmism he calls them names and says they are “just the flu” people.

He is, in essence, just some person who is reveling in his TROLLISH BEHAVIOR.

While I agree with the actions of President Trump’s team my family is taking all precautions,I am a “NOT THE SPANISH FLU” person and proud of my sanity and sense of proportion.


57 posted on 03/16/2020 12:28:19 PM PDT by House Atreides (Boycott the NFL 100% — PERMANENTLY)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: A Navy Vet
Trump's simple response is that during his campaign he was determined to bring most if not all production back to the USA.

He should be pounding this home, over and over. Especially in light of the demented Biden defending China.

58 posted on 03/16/2020 12:28:20 PM PDT by Salvey
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: catnipman

I swear, people think this is the Black Death. This guy will probably get excoriated for trying to even discuss the issue.


59 posted on 03/16/2020 12:29:28 PM PDT by rlmorel (Finding middle ground with tyranny or evil makes you either a tyrant or evil. Often both.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: pburgh01

He isn’t that. As another poster said, he may be wrong about his estimation of the biological severity of the coronavirus, but he is a solid conservative who has been a real treasure of valid information on this website for years.

I would recommend you retract that statement.

Obviously, you can do what you like, but folks who know better will likely view you in a different light if you let it stand.


60 posted on 03/16/2020 12:34:35 PM PDT by rlmorel (Finding middle ground with tyranny or evil makes you either a tyrant or evil. Often both.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-72 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson