There are so many things that could absolutely break our current healthcare system. Covid-19 seems like a pretty damn good candidate.
19 Likes
Ok, so I thought the headline was saying that the CDC has said that coronavirus is inevitable, but Trump isn’t and he can be voted out."
Which would have been cool.
20 Likes
I had both The Coming Plague and The Hot Zone on a to read list. I only read The Hot Zone and that was scary enough for me.
11 Likes
Hey that’s 6000 years old buddy!! /s
5 Likes
If this is so serious why isn’t Jared in charge?
16 Likes
Just fyi
Starting from a bad place. Headed for a worse place.
11 Likes
Like SARS, it’s not the influenza virus at all. Also, by official accounts, it appears that many people who get infected by COVID-19 either show NO symptoms, or very minor symptoms. For all we know, MANY more people have been infected than official numbers – but this almost certainly means that the mortality rate might be MUCH lower than 1-2%. The fact is, we just don’t know right now.
Pushing worst-case scenarios strikes me as, at the very least, premature at this point.
9 Likes
A piece on NPR this evening actually said that even kids as young as babies and infants seem to do OK with it. Which strikes me as a bit odd, because young kids are obviously a population that needs to be very careful with flu infection. I’m curious what it would be that makes even very young people quite resilient to COVID-19?
5 Likes
Possible hypothesis, which I talked about elsewhere, revolves around the virus’s target, a protein called ACE-2, which is dramatically increased in density in smokers. Very few young kids smoke. In China at least, there is a pretty dramatic difference in outcomes between the sexes, with men fairing much worse. 50% of men in China smoke. Less than 2% of women smoke. That is probably not the whole story, but stands a decent chance of being a part of it.
25 Likes
Mindless fucking idiocy is inevitable.
1 Like
some nations see that as an opportunity.
1 Like
To at least partially diagnose the eyes, it looks like he’s got bigger spraytan blocking goggles now.
Okay, back to the pandemic!
1 Like
That’s what I said.
That seems pretty obvious at this point.
I can’t see how anything I have written could be construed that way…
1 Like
At the time I worked at the company where the events in the Hot Zone happened–but in a different part of the country. We had no idea any of this was happening until the book came out (and I was a chemist working on pesticides so I was really out of the loop).
The other big thing that happened that year was that allegedly someone told a tobacco company rep to put out their cigarette in the cafeteria, and we lost a big contract because of it. I had heard about that; the next section over from mine was doing the tobacco studies.
10 Likes
FTFY. This is going to turn into a real shit show cooking on top of the current dumpster fire.
1 Like
Tobacco smokers, or does this include marijuana as well, do you know? What about former smokers? TIA!
2 Likes
Your wording made it sound like you were saying it was a form of influenza. It was vague, it could have been interpreted differently than how I did.
Was a general statement, not aimed at your comment.
Color me troll, by effect if not intent.
Given the grave risks of ignorance, I’m delighted to be corrected by stronger factual data.
Thx.
5 Likes
There’s also the undocumented 10 million or so who have been taught to actively fear the president and his government. And many Americans have been whipped into a froth that the absolute worst thing that can be done to them is to permit a penny of their hard earned cash being allowed to go towards helping an “illegal”. The other terrible fear the republicans may hold is that some people who are sick may not have covid, but only flu, or even just a cold or allergy. And whatever efforts we bring toward covid could have the terrifying outcome of giving an uninsured person free health care. Which could lead to European style socialism. They are more afraid of this than plague. It’s cutting off your nose to spite your face, and literally dying from the infection.
The president is clearly very concerned. About the stock market.
13 Likes
Reality show president. He’ll leak that he’s looking at other VP’s, And then leak how much he loves Pence and of course he’s not looking at other VP’s. And then he’ll leak that he’s absolutely furious at the leaks, and whoever is leaking is the true enemy of America, conspiring with the press/democrats/never-trumpers…
So, yeah, pandemics gonna pandem, but he’ll be happy with his ratings, and have Pence to blame for the stock market.
7 Likes
