Trump’s support base is heaviest in the over-65 crowd. There are a lot more Republicans than Democrats in nursing homes and assisted living facilities.
Heaven forbid that this doesn’t fizzle and that something doesn’t stop it from happening the way we’re afraid that it will… it is going to tear through those nursing homes and assisted living facilities and senior centers, leaving a heaping pile of unfortunate dead folks in it’s wake; since they are so much more vulnerable to things like this.
Perhaps more than enough to seriously alter the election results.
A pandemic may indeed hit Trump’s base harder than the Democrats’ base.
What I object to is framing this public emergency in terms of “Darwinism,” especially the not-so-subtle implication that this virus is some kind of cosmic comeuppance for Trump supporting science denialists. Screw that all to hell.
Can anyone even imagine that level of basic competence coming out of the White House, the Cabinet or other appointed leaders of Executive branch departments these days. Honestly?
More likely they would insist the cow guts get sourced from a campaign doner with zero experience with cattle, cow guts or procuring things for the government. He’ll buy 30 tons at market value, pad out the rest of the order with guts from downer cattle and horses and sell it to the government at a 500% markup. The White House will then insist that the majority of the cow guts go to labs in Texas despite the bulk of the work happening in California, New York and Massachusetts. When it becomes clear that the cow guts are contaminated, the stories will be described as lies pushed by the fake news media and the Democrats who, by the way, want you all dead. Meanwhile, the necessary cow guts will then be sourced from Australia at above market prices and flown here at an inflated cost using a chartered jet owned by a shell company connected to Don Jr, Ivanka and the really dumb one.
Boom. Three months wasted, needs finally met at triple the cost, with a nice chunk of money landing in Trump family pockets.
TBH you’ve hit on what bothers me about Trump the most. I frequently can not tell when he is knowingly lying or he actually believes the shit he is saying.
You’d think the fact that each strain of flu requires a different vaccine would have tipped him off that a vaccine won’t work on something that’s even slightly different, much less a different class of virus entirely, but he’s probably unaware of that. I swear, it’s amazing how someone can grow to adulthood and know as little about the world as Trump does.
I’ve found the concept of “bullshitting” to be amazingly useful for dealing with Trump’s untruths. If someone lies, they know - and care about the value of - the truth. If someone “bullshits,” the truth is totally irrelevant, which makes it far more dangerous. Trump is a consummate bullshitter, to the point where I’m not even sure if the concept of an independent reality outside his own head even exists for him. I suspect he’s cognitively like a very small child in that regard.
The New England Journal of Medicine concluded: “It is time to acknowledge that our belief in disease as a direct reflection of mental state is largely folklore.”
Ooh, easy, cowboy. Just because he’s looking in the general direction of the speaker and is nodding his head, does NOT mean he’s absorbing any of what is being said. He’s truly an egotistical moron
This. That 12-18 month figure already takes into consideration fast-tracking the review cycle and throwing the most advanced equipment at the problem.
The thing that will invariably take time is not checking the efficacy - that can be tested fairly quickly - but the safety. Making sure the treatment doesn’t kill people will take time, and can only be assured with testing in human subjects.
I think that parts of that are some fairly niche bits of information that generally most people don’t need to know - or retain, if they did know it - most of the time.
The problem is glibly glossing over your own ignorance and trying to Enron that shit.
Moreover, healthy lifestyles and positive attitudes would affect gross healthcare spending very little. Most healthcare spending happens in the last year of life. Everyone dies eventually. Postponing the inevitable has very little effect on the eventual cost. That’s the point that everyone seems to miss. (What’s my qualification to advance this argument? Does being the stepson of an undertaker count?)
Yeah. Imagine if those conducting the trial of TGN1412 had been pushed to go even faster.
Long ago, I was involved in treatment and research on veterans with Desert Storm Syndrome. Many took the pills they were given for chem/bio warfare attacks that didn’t go through stringent testing, just rushed through to the front lines. Some took them daily instead of in the event of a suspected attack. They had a lot of health problems.
I dunno - understanding that you can get a cold more than once, that you need to get a new flu shot each season, these are pretty basic bits of knowledge. Trump constantly shows ignorance that’s even more fundamental than that. It would be remarkable if he was just a failed New York real estate developer, but as president, it’s totally flabbergasting. That he not only glosses over his ignorance but also is convinced he’s actually knowledgeable is incomprehensible to me.
