Muh Muh Muh My Corona (virus)

Is that supposed to be a picture of an overwhelmed hospital where people are dying preventable deaths because our healthcare system has collapsed? Point is, the worst-case scenario didn't come to pass in the spring, and the dire predictions kept on coming long after we were out of the woods, and a lot of people eventually just tuned it out. Now, we're back at a point where the worst case scenario could come to pass, and a lot of people think it's just another overblown hurricane warning. I think it's mostly the president's fault for creating the chaos, if that makes me less evil

 

I remember that quote. It always struck me as likely to have a lot of truth in it. I just don't think anyone can argue this pandemic has been successfully managed. To me, it was clear in the spring that we'd end up in a spot like this in the winter if we didn't take steps to allow people to live normal, guilt-free lives when the risk of transmission was lowest. A lot of people insisted that anybody who wasn't spending the late spring, summer and early fall in a state of hyper vigilance was a grandma-killer who hated science and society. In May, we were still shaming people for daring to go outside their houses and do outdoor activities. People who let their kids play youth sports were accused of being negligent parents. People accused the MLB of setting the stage for a holocaust. Instead of allowing people to operate according to their own common sense during the low-risk period, we brow beat them and warned them of consequences that did not come to pass.

I blame Trump for creating an environment for the chaos. It's unfortunate. In the long run, maybe the worst case scenario is the best thing that can happen, because it will be that obvious and impossible to deny.

 

How is 270,000 dead, and 8 mos later we are still no better than before not a worst case scenario? When were we "out of the woods?

 

This whole conversation is about the integrity of the healthcare system. It has nothing to do with how many people died, or how awful and tragic the whole thing has been. The biggest concern in the spring was that the healthcare system was going to collapse. The original messaging from the scientific community was to flatten the curve. It would be impossible to prevent the spread of the virus, we just needed to make sure it spread in a way that did not overwhelm our healthcare system. The healthcare system was out of the woods by May. There was no longer a threat that our infrastructure would be overwhelmed. That is what I was referring to. The reflexive need to accuse someone else of not caring about 280,000 people dying is exactly the sort of thing I'm talking about. It makes people want to tell you to go fuck yourself.

 

https://twitter.com/ashishkjha/status/1334283952585138177

someone smarter than me coming to the same conclusion about a bad December but a rapid late winter/early spring recovery

 

Betsy DeVos and her chief benefactor are too stupid to understand situations such as this. And that educators end up in a mess as a result.

 

Them's fightin' words on this site. The goods prevented it. The bads fucked it up for the goods.

 

Hey I misunderstood you and for that I apologize (was taking things out of context).

At least near me, we are reaching a breaking point and its not illusory. Buddy is a nurse and last weekend their hospital went from 10 COVID patients to 19 in 3 days. The infrastructure is straining, especially the mental health of those that have done the fighting.

The reflex I have is that things have been bad and let's recognize that, not just say its hype.

 

It would have been possible to prevent the spread of the virus at various points in the timeline. It's impossible now and has been for awhile.

And it wasn't just Trump/Republican ineptitude, although that is where the majority of the blame goes.

 

Just compare to how the CDC addressed Ebola, SARS and MERS outbreaks. No one told them to sit tight while Wall St. was doing well; no one put the breaks on sending people to the area of the outbreak. No one said, "let's not test because that just makes it worse." Better containment was possible. We never got that chance though.

 

If they’d only kept those folks on that cruise ship ...

 

I didn't even mean to suggest that's what I think. That's what the actual experts were saying at the beginning of this thing. The only thing we could do once community spread began was to try to make sure that everybody didn't get it at the same time. Ban mass gatherings, lock down during surges, make sure vulnerable people were informed and equipped to take extra precautions. But the case numbers were going to be the case numbers one way or another. That's what they said.

Everything changed once Trump turned this into a political war. He radicalized both sides and it was no longer possible to have a thoughtful debate about the best way to get through this. You either were willing to sacrifice everything to reduce infections to zero or you were a bad person. You either thought the whole thing was a joke or you were a communist crackpot who hated liberty. The people who ended up paying for it were the kids and the elderly. Shame on everybody (but more of it on the people who thought you could elect a dipshit like Trump and not face serious consequences).