Posted on 03/22/2020 6:18:50 AM PDT by Kaslin
Great job, President Trump. You've done the impossible. You've turned perhaps the worst crisis in USA history and one of the darkest periods Americans have ever suffered into a show of leadership and a jump in approval.
The latest ABC News/IPSOS poll shows a dramatic turnaround. At 55% to 43%, Americans approve of President Donald Trump's handling of this crisis. The numbers were nearly completely reversed only a week ago. Bravo.
But I have some advice you need to hear.
Now, keep in mind, I'm not one of the people who ever said this was a hoax. It's 100% real. It's a terrible health care crisis and tragedy.
But did it have to be a terrible economic crisis and tragedy, too? And who does that help, exactly? If Grandma, Grandpa or someone you love is sick, critically ill or, God forbid, at death's door, does it help that you've also lost your job, or your small business has just closed? Does it help that you just lost your income or life savings? Do you feel better about a health tragedy if you also have a personal economic tragedy to deal with?
The common-sense answer is of course not.
That's why we should follow the South Korean model, or at least as close to it as possible. The country has had the most success in the world at fighting and surviving the coronavirus pandemic. In a nation of 51 million (about 10 million more than the population of California), South Korea has had under 9,000 cases and under 100 deaths.
So why is the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, predicting that roughly 25.5 million of his citizens will get the virus? On what is he basing that number? If he assumes a 3% mortality rate, he must expect 500,000 to 1 million deaths just in California. But based on what?
And is it irresponsible to scare his citizens half to death with over-the-top, hysterical, worst-worst-worst-case guesses modeled on computers?
Keep in mind the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention predicted over 1,000,000 cases of Ebola in Africa just a few years back. The actual number? Under 30,000. These are guesses on a computer screen -- hysterical, worst-case guesses.
These are two places similar in size, yet the governor of California is expecting a million deaths in his state versus under 100 deaths in South Korea? And Newsom is shutting down the state and California's economy based on those wild, worst-case guesses?
Even if, God willing, we beat this terrible virus, what's the point if, after it's all over, we face a ruined economy, no job, a bankrupt business, no assets, no way to pay bills? This is madness.
Or what if COVID-19 turns into COVID-20 through COVID-30 and they attack us repeatedly over the next decade? Will we close down the economy twice a year every year?
Try that a few times and we'll all be living in caves, using candles for light and newspapers for toilet paper, and carrying our supplies home on donkey carts. America will be a combination of Venezuela and "Mad Max."
My idea from day one was to put those already sick, the elderly, those with compromised immune systems and those at highest risk in quarantine for one to two months.
But ask and encourage everyone else -- the young, the healthy, business owners and their employees -- to carry on and live life. Those least at risk should be asked to keep their businesses open, keep the economy going, go out to eat, keep their communities' small businesses in business, all so the sick, elderly and at-risk population have something to come back to in one to two months.
That's a Winston Churchill-like, stiff-upper-lip response.
I dare you to ask all those who are now laid off, jobless or with shuttered businesses whether they'd be willing to risk getting sick, or even risk a small chance of dying if they could get their business or job back. I'm betting the answer from a vast majority would be an emphatic YES! Let's put the heroes of the American business world to work!
The healthy need to go on living. We need to keep commerce going. Someone has to pay the bills and taxes, or our nation will be in ruins -- even if we beat this monster.
I found out yesterday from Dr. Mehmet Oz, a brilliant, breath-of-fresh-air guest on my national radio show, that this is almost exactly the plan carried out in South Korea. The sick and at-risk were quarantined. Everyone else went to work. No businesses were closed. No economy was shut down. Now there's under 100 dead in a country of 51 million. And they still have their economy and jobs.
So, Mr. President, please study the South Korean model. Let's not ruin the greatest country and economy in world history. The business of America is business. Let's get back to it -- while we protect the most vulnerable and fight this terrible virus with everything we've got.
Eventually we all are going to die. That is a fact and has nothing to do with that Chinese virus.
We do know what they did and the author probably does as well. They mobilized resources to track cases. Sacramento admitted they couldn’t last week. The author probably knows this as well. Sort of disingenuous but why ascribe malignancy to what should rightfully be attributed to incompetence. Which is fine. Root is a lawyer IIRC, not a doctor.
THAT is a very good question. Let’s get through the next week and we can deal with it. My wife says “Never borrow trouble from tomorrow.”
None of the flubros will answer my questions about that.
If all of those declared bankruptcy what would that do to the hospital system.
What will this whole thing do to the insurance companies if we take the ‘power through it’ method of dealing with it?
Seems like the ‘save my restaurant and portfolio’ people haven’t thought about the long term consequences of this.
Because the power through it method is a perfect way to get single payer. Simply because all the insurance companies would outright fail.
And when THAT happens, because of the linked nature of finances and underwriters...what would THAT do to the market and the economy.
Unless we completely deny hospital admission/medical care for anyone who has this and needs more than chicken soup and tylenol...
No, what she said made sense. If you don’t feel well you should stay home. What if she had a wreck with her car while she was driving because she got dizzy?
https://www.nola.com/news/coronavirus/article_35531ff4-66d9-11ea-95b0-7797f71d169a.html
This guy will likely survive.
What will his medical bill be?
Can he afford that?
What will paying that off do to his consumption habits going forward? Will he be able to afford a car anytime soon? Or eating out? Or a vacation anywhere? What about his mortgage?
If he bails on the medical bills by declaring bankruptcy, who untimately eats that?
If a lot of people who get this and survive do that...what will that to do the economy?
Seems like Trump’s advice may HAVE included all the possibilities.
If insurance companies fail from this, we WILL have single payer.
And the way risk is underwritten...it WILL destroy the economy too.
For some reason I had Erick Erickson in mind. You are wrong that he is a Never Trumper. He was upset with him because of what he said about a certain person, and I can understand that. I also thought Donald Trump was wrong about that. Erick Erickson will vote for President Trump in November. Read his Columns
My son had a bad motorcycle accident and spent a week in a coma in ICU another month in the hospital and another in rehab. It came to $40,000. His lawyers advice was to declare bankruptcy so he could pay off his debts which he did over the next few years. Of course, HE decided to ride a motorcycle. If anybody should get financial assistance these people should and will.
No. I heard his comments that so many are questioning. He did not call the virus a hoax.
He specifically called out the lying news media's reporting of his comments which they deliberately reported out of context as being a hoax.
It was undeniable what the President really said. He told the truth and once again the lying news media is pitching a fit that he called them out on it.
He swings to the President's side when he feels it will benefit him and then quickly chastises President Trump over any little problem.His radio show is insufferable (especially his fake hysterical laugh at something that really isn't that funny.
Last week on his show he was in full End of the World mode and a guy who was a head EMT called to correct him on some the medical claims he was making. Erick shut him down fast and said "I have the facts on my side".
That being said,I guess I could be considered a "Flu Bro". The response is wildly out of proportion to the danger.
Everyone is running around like chickenheads, buying up everything and spouting Doomsday scenarios. Where the reality is quite different.
FUEE
You useless POS
Here is another fact: the Kansas City Chiefs won the Superbowl in 2020. Now tell me who is going to win 2021.
Pretty sure it will be a football team.
While I agree South Korea has done better than most, their numbers, PER MILLION of population are still quite high, current daily deaths at .16 per million compared with .09 per million in the US.
“ The number of new deaths everyday is not a “model”. It’s a fact.”
Yes, and the fact is the numbers are very low. Especially when compared to, say, a normal freaking flu.
One word. Tamiflu.
Why? If the most at-risk self-quarantine then having tests day 1 is irrelevant. This is about changing the behavior of specific people to reduce risk.
I’ve been saying the same thing. We can reduce the total deaths by getting through it all as quickly as possible while quarantining the most at-risk. Thousands die of the flu every year and we don’t come close to behaving this way. Will some that are not part of the typical “at risk” group die? Yes, as usual. Destroying modern society will also kill people.
One of the most important variables is the *duration* of the virus life. The longer it lives the more will die. We are causing it to live longer.
“The leftist policies of open borders and reckless welfare spending caused the Wuhan virus to proliferate in NY and CA the way it has. And the economic effect is already devastating. God only knows how long it will take to recover.”
From “The Gods of the Copybook Headings”... by Kipling.
“And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!”
“As of Saturday evening, the U.S. had conducted more than 182,000 tests total, yielding more than 23,000 confirmed positive results, according to the COVID Tracking Project. As of a week ago, the number of tests conducted was just over 20,000....
...New York City is now in dire straits, with more than 7,500 confirmed cases in the city alone as of late Friday, according to the city’s Department of Health.”
How much of the growth of cases has been due to testing? And roughly 30% of all cases are in New York City. Hmmmmm...
20,000+ vs 205.
No contest.
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