To Take On the Coronavirus, Go Medieval on It. Quarantines and restrictive measures served a purpose in the old days. They can now, too.

New York Times ^ | February 28, 2020 | Donald G. McNeil Jr.

[karpov]

...

Harsh measures horrify civil libertarians, but they often save lives, especially when they are imposed in the early days.

The best-known modern example is Cuba’s AIDS epidemic. In the 1980s, Cuba and the United States were both hit hard by the AIDS epidemic. In Cuba, the virus first infected thousands of soldiers, doctors and nurses who had served in Africa.

The Castro regime’s response — roundly condemned by other countries — was to make H.I.V. tests mandatory, and to force everyone infected into quarantine camps. The camps were not hellholes: they had bungalows, gardens, theater troupes, medical care, more food than people outside often had, and less homophobia than gay men often faced in macho rural Cuba. But no one could leave, except for brief family visits with an escort whose main job was to make sure that no sex took place.

Meanwhile, the United States took a pro-legal-rights approach. Even offering an H.I.V. test was made illegal without a separate counseling session, which scared many away from testing. Although gay bathhouses were epicenters of transmission, there were long divisive fights over closing them.

After triple therapy was developed in the mid-1990s, most Cuban camps closed.

But the difference in lives saved by choosing brutality over freedom was stark: Cuba’s H.I.V. infection rate was for decades about one-sixth that of the American one. New York City and Cuba have roughly the same population. In the epidemic’s first 30 years, fewer than 2,500 Cubans died of AIDS. Over 78,000 New Yorkers — mostly gay men — did.

As the virus creeps closer, stark choices will arise. The United States cannot shut out the whole world. Even if all air travel were stopped, the virus could reach Latin America or Canada and enter over our land borders.

[HereInTheHeartland]

Cuba?
They wants us to act like Cuba?
Did Bernie write this article?
Oh wait a minute, is the NYT so yes they do.

[null and void]

the NYT has always wanted smelly WalMart people quarantined...

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.

So far the false positive rate is 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 life, it's worth it.

[KobraKai]

The siege of Athens.

[ncalburt]

I agree .
I was screaming about Midway too .

Just set up the TB camp and hospital system of the 30’s thru 50’s .
It worked .
It stopped TB spread .
My family member were placed there .

[livius]

Actually, one of the things that set off the panic on this is seeing how the Chinese treated their own citizens - nailing or welding them into their apartment buildings, forcibly dragging them off to “hospitals” with people lying dead in the hallways, etc.

This is just a Dem cry for tyranny. Crisis is the cry of the tyrant.

Reasonable quarantine, yes; when I was growing up in NYC in the 50s, I still remember “quarantine” signs on people’s doors in their apartment building. Usually it was for some childhood disease, since this was before immunizations against things like whooping cough or scarlet fever. But they just stayed inside, got their food dropped off, were visited by the doctor regularly, and that was it.

But the hysteria of not letting people travel, forcibly removing them from their homes, etc. is just what the Dems have always wanted. It essentially shuts down the country and the activity of the citizens and makes them clients of the state, which of course is exactly what the Dems want.

Notice that the use Cuba as their shining example. For one thing, the Cuban government long had an anti-gay policy, so this was probably just the excuse they were waiting for; and another, of course, was that Cuba is a tiny island with very little travel on or off the island, except to certain limited tourist areas frequented by Europeans doing sex tourism (mostly looking for very young girls, because they were considered “clean”).

Bernie has sure revived Cuba nostalgia among the Dems. He’s brought out their inner totalitarian, which wasn’t very well hidden anyway.

If we want to do something truly positive, we could begin by improving public sanitation. Most of our cities have turned into cesspools (thanks to Dem policies) and there is certainly potential for all sorts of nasty diseases in them.

[Travis McGee]

This is what it's taking in China to bring it under control. Just imagine trying to enforce this in LA, Chicago, Baltimore, etc.

[Jim Noble]

What is happening is not about “the Dems” and what they want or don’t want, for Christ’s sake.

It’s real. It has nation-wrecking potential.

[9YearLurker]

Comparing NYC and Cuba really isn’t fair, as NYC is a magnet, like San Francisco, for gays to move to from across the country. Also, how much do we trust Cuba’s numbers? I doubt all AIDS-related US deaths were registered as such either.

Still, it makes sense that quarantines and moreso solitary confinement would limit transmission of social diseases.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

...or consistency. Nor are they bothered in the least by hypocrisy.

[livius]

It does not have “nation wrecking” potential. It is already receding in China and seems to be no worse than the flu.

There are vaccines and treatments in development. And while prudent measures are always good, turning your country into a police state and herding everybody into camps, while the dream of every Dem deep down inside, is not the solution.

A public sanitation campaign would do more than anything to stop the spread of this and all diseases. One thing nobody comments on is that the level of public sanitation and personal hygiene in China is abysmal. The Chinese, even women and people who look as if they should know better, are famous for hawking up lungers and spitting all over the streets, blowing their noses with their fingers, and sleeping and bathing in places used for cooking (I mean restaurant kitchens). The country uses human excrement as fertilizer, has ditches where people do their “necessities,” etc.

The US used to have clean streets and public transportation, and then for political reasons the Dems shut down sanitation campaigns, stopped anti-littering enforcement and anti-public defecation laws, revoked anti-vagrancy laws and laws preventing camping in public streets and parks - and presto, every city has turned into a squalid garbage dump just waiting for the right disease to come along.

But because “the homeless” and “the poor” (who presumably can’t be expected to keep their own neighborhoods clean, even though it costs them nothing) are Dem rallying cries, we are forced to put up with these breeding grounds of disease. They’ve already brought back typhus in Los Angeles.

[HypatiaTaught]

Okay, lets close all the tunnels and bridges going into NYC and ban flights from JFK and La Guardia.

---

Living in Long Island, I am forced to FLY from JFK to Vegas for business.

Can you please write a note to my boss?

Thanks in advance!

[New Jersey Realist]

You must have read me wrong. I was explaining the reactions of the dems. Of course, I know things always work out. Christ, Trump could cure cancer and the dems would accuse him of putting millions out of work.

[samtheman]

Yours really should be Post Of The Month.

Truly excellent.

[HypatiaTaught]

I agree our President can never “win” against the Looney Left.

If he calls for limits on travel and a sense of urgency, they will say his fear mongering. If he is presenting information as he is currently, “not too much to worry about”, etc., then the President doesn’t care about his citizens.

IMO, I do think the Corona Virus is a major concern and I personally have prepared. Don’t believe the small numbers by Iran and China, it is far greater. Also try telling Italy that this is something that is no big deal.

Good luck!

[Mr. Jeeves]

Well, the USA won’t be able to weld high-rise buildings shut and just leave the bodies inside, uncounted, to keep the “official” death rate down.

[redgolum]

Team Blue liked AIDS, as it was a useful political tool. Just like it is fascinated with COVID, as they view it as a way to kill Team Red.

[redgolum]

We wouldn’t stop an Ebola infected nurse from going

[Georgia Girl 2]

We are all going to die. Grab those go bags and bug out to your retreats people. Its TEOTWAWKI time. 60 yes count em 60 people in the US already infected.

[TigerClaws]

Great point. Dems have opened the door to diseases like this by turning wealthy cities into third world hellholes on the streets.

[kaktuskid]

As for Italy, don’t bring in hordes of Chinese to make garments in your sweatshops