Muh Muh Muh My Corona (virus)

We know a lot of the serious cases are now, especially in the Midwest. Packing plant workers.

The United States is simply not South Korea, which is the size of Indiana, a nation with almost zero language or cultural barriers - 96% of the nation is Korean - or travel ports of entry. What South Korea did cannot be done in the United States with anywhere near the efficiency, especially given our government.

Again: You want a different government, where the federal government holds way more power, wields it to your specifications, and does so on a dime despite concerning itself with world complications and matters that South Korea simply doesn't bother with.

The more appropriate geographic/complexity comparison is China, a nation comfortable with intended, purposeful human right abuses for the greater good that lies, almost at will, to make its nation look better. China locked down a city under martial law, more or less, and bolted people in their apartments, in some cases. It is a fascist government that its people are careful never to fuck with, doing things to people that would horrify Americans if they were doing it in America.

 

That has very little to do with testing. That was a matter of taking this thing seriously from the start and then creating and enacting a federal plan to produce and distribute tests, then track the results. President Trump never even took a tiny step in that direction. He not only did nothing to help get Americans tested for the virus. He actively worked against it, then dumped the responsibility on the states.

It really amazing how a non Republican such as yourself always finds himself attacking liberals and making excuses for President Trump.

 

No. Not at all. I want a *competent* government, one who looks at what is happening and quietly starts working the checklist developed in case we ever face a pandemic. A federal government who points the CDC, NIH, and FEMA at the problem, who starts to buy and contract for manufacture the PPE that will be needed. Same for Covid testing - the genome was mapped very early, and other countries developed and manufactured accurate tests. Trump shitcanned the existing contingency plans because Obama, ignored what was coming, put out uninformed and inaccurate assessments of the risk to the public, and put that idiot Jared in charge of the response. Predictably, political considerations and crony capitalism drove the response, not science and research. Trump pissed away six to eight weeks that could have made a huge difference in the response, and really did not become fully engaged until the stock market cratered. Once that happened it had his full attention, because that was how he measured the country's economic success that he planned to campaign on.

Even some of the things that China did, we could have/could do in a milder, less authoritarian way. There is a lot of vacant hotel space with no one traveling. The exposed and infected could be isolated there and monitored instead of being told to shelter at home with other family members who will likely become infected. It was in no way necessary that it become this bad.

There is to this day no overarching strategy and guidance to the states. Trump runs from that, because his playbook always starts with avoiding blame and deflecting it to someone else. If he puts the governors in charge, he can blame them for any mistakes made. Same old Trump bullshit.

I have said it repeatedly, beating this back is public health 101. Tests, lots of tests, both to diagnose and to identify hot spots. Pursue contact tracing of the infected aggressively, monitor those with potential exposure. Isolate the infected, monitor their progress, release or hospitalize them as appropriate. Find the hot spots and smother them with active measures to prevent further spread. It isn't that hard, but there has to be the will to do it and the leadership to get it done. We don't just have a leadership vacuum but a "leader" who actively spreads lies, nonsense, conspiracy theories, and hamstrings the people who are doing their best to put out the fire.

We don't lack the ability to beat this back, and eventually we'll do something very much like what I described. It's just a question of how long we'll put up with this nonsense before we force the needed changes.

 

Friday, May 8, was the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. The United States had about 418,000 deaths in World War II.

From the attack on Pearl Harbor (Dec. 7, 1941 – for those who don’t know) to September 1945 (the end of World War II in the East), about 45 1/2 months passed.

So, the United States experienced about 9,200 deaths per month during its involvement in World War II.

With about 83,000 deaths through 2 1/2 months of the coronavirus, we're at 33,000 per month.

So, 33K per month now compared with 9.2K per month in World War II.

Even with the population difference (about 2 1/2 times bigger population now than in the 1940s), we're seeing people die at a considerably faster rate than in World War II. Anybody wanna trade this for a world war?

Maybe my point is to hail the sacrifices made and the measures taken by the World War II generation in a situation that I regard as much more urgent. I have faith that we’ll survive the virus, but there was a very, very real chance in the early years of World War II that the bad guys would win.

I say this with grateful acknowledgement - VERY GRATEFUL acknowledgement - that my family's financial situation has not suffered on account of the coronavirus. I cannot overstate how grateful I am for that. (In fact, with less driving of offspring to activities, we're spending less than four months ago ... so maybe we're BETTER off ... ?)

I feel for those economically affected. One of my best friends was laid off from a job he held for more than 20 years. Another great friend had his freelance work turn to vapor. I believe they - along with many others - will receive some support via unemployment plus the stimulus checks, but it's not the same. I realize that.

Still, I think perspective is in order. Read a book about the sacrifices made in World War II - by the winning side. Read about what Britain endured in World War II.

And we're outraged we can't get our new furniture, a toaster, our designer coffee or our Olive Garden fix? We’re demanding the right to gather on beaches or in parks? I can just imagine how we would have responded to blackout orders during nighttime bombing. We really, really ought to be ashamed of ourselves.

This isn't government overstepping its bounds or whatever that fringe wants to frame it as. And I don't really care what that fringe frames it as. It's selfishness. It's utter disregard for anyone other than oneself.

 

Thank you for allowing that everyone's situation is different. My situation has no income. No unemployment. The stimulus check is all. I appreciate your recognition.

 

So.

What's the plan?

 

Too angry to post.

 

Alma has stated he is not a Re-scrub-lican. I believe him.

 

I will ask again. Whose sock puppet are you?

In answer to your actual post, if it walks like an elephant and shits like an elephant...

 

Understandable. I think we're all feeling a little bit of that these days.

 

WHOSE MAN ARE YOU?

 

I don’t know what that means. Sorry. (The puppet part. I understand the elephant.)

Some people are not either political party.