Yeah, that’s what I thought. After hearing from a Korean doc about how fast they bent the curve in Korea because SARS changed them forever…into people who know how to take a pandemic seriously and take fucking precautions. I mean, after Trunp, America was never going to be the same anyway. I just hope, with both things, the way we’ll have changed will be to be fucking ready next time with a stockpile of masks and an emoluments clause with teeth…
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It, well, it wasn’t functioning before.
The pandemic has pointed out everywhere
we (I speak specifically of the US, everybody else has
to make up their own minds) as a society have
fallen well short.
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Fair point; this catastrophe has very thoroughly demonstrated that all the US really had by this point was a thinly veiled facade…
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You cannot control a pandemic outbreak without (1) universal quality healthcare, and (2) universal and adequate income support for the quarantined (which, at the moment, needs to be pretty much everybody).
The bipartisan US ruling class is unwilling to permit either of these things to happen. They have decided that permanent pandemic is preferable to allowing the population a taste of economic justice.
So, now they’re working on framing this situation as a regrettable inevitability.
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The silver lining to this is the hope that the changes to social safety nets that come out of this will be similar to what came after the Great Depression.
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I find the two comments right above mine/this one very difficult to reconcile. 
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We’ll never get back to pre-Spanish Flu conditions.
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The headline does not accurately convey the actual content of Dr. Fauci’s comments. That sort of consideration might be something to think about, before posting, because a number of us are very close to despair right now.
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I read a story on The Cut the other day of a woman getting Coronavirus with and infant and toddler in a Brooklyn apartment. It was fucking harrowing. It hit extra hard because we have two small children in a Brooklyn apartment. But then…the comments, my god the horror. I’m no internet spring chicken and can usually stomach a lot, but shit.
At the end of her deeply personal, vulnerable essay, she had offhandedly mentioned “an idiot president” in the roundup of stresses we are dealing with, and that somehow called down the brigades of lonely grandpas, coked up day-traders and Russian script-kiddies. The amount of very specific and unique victim blaming and pseudo how-dare-you-politicize-this concern trolling, all heaped with bizarre, twisted tinelines that PROVE trump is SAVING US, just rocked me to my core.
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I keep thinking about Naomi Klein’s book The Shock Doctrine and how they are gonna just pull economic Shock therapy here, we are Puerto Rico now.
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If you can execute that plan without a job, consider yourself very lucky. Few can. At some point we will figure out how to get things essentially back to normal for most people. I do hope we learn from this and fix a lot of structural problems. And by we I don’t just mean the USA. Outside of South Korea no one gets an “A”.
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I suppose that, just as we don’t usually turn to sociologists or historians for medical speculation, we probably shouldn’t be giving too much credence to sociological speculation from a medical doctor.
If his statement is mainly about the medical aspects of this pandemic, then I hope he is correct.
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Republican Spokesman (I imagine it’ll be an old white guy), “As the CHINESE Virus* so disproportionately killed our supporters in the run up to this election; we have decided that any vote for a Republican Candidate will count triple! Anything else would just be politicizing this terrible event.”
*Clearly the effect of outside interference in US politics; and not due to Trump Voters ignoring scientific guidance.
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Not necessarily. What if acquired immunity to the disease doesn’t last lifetime, but for example only one year on average and less for some people? Then it would be 2-3 million deaths and untold suffering for nothing.
Here’s an interesting publication about SARS:
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Based on Wisconsin, it looks like the plan is to steadfastly combine forcing people to vote in person in crowded poling places with persuading their base that it isn’t that bad. So the GOP will be “sacrificing their voters to Moloch,” leaving them with even fewer in 2024.
edited to add: Of course the recent Wisconsin decisions affect the primary, which at this point is mostly a Democratic thing. So perhaps the idea is to kill off a bunch of Democrats before the general election in November.
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I guess Trump figures that’ll be some other sucker’s problem. He’ll be counting the profits of his two terms in power.
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Have you heard about this drug I have a stake in? Lots of people are telling me it’s a miracle! I’ve been trying to get my good friend Boris to take it. Can you imagine what that would do for sales if he took it and recovered? I’m telling you, huge sales!
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If only Jim Henson were still around; he could be forced to make a “Boris” puppet that could appear on Fox Nooz extolling the virtues of this totally safe and effective wonder drug.
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He already is a muppet, but not in the Jim Henson sense
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