All things political. Coronavirus Edition. (1 Viewer)

[Maxp]

I fear we are really going to be in a bad place due to the obvious cuts to the federal agencies that deal with infectious disease, but also the negative effect the Affordable Care act has had on non urban hospitals. Our front line defenses are ineffectual and our ability to treat the populous is probably at an all time low. Factor in the cost of healthcare and I can see our system crashing. What do you think about the politics of this virus?

 

[Lapaz]

How would more testing in the U.S. have helped stop him from getting the virus? I am all for comedy, so help me understand the joke.

If we had much more tests, we would identify many more people that are currently asymptomatically spreading the virus, which would drastically reduce the odds of spreading.

 

[JimEverett]

If we had much more tests, we would identify many more people that are currently asymptomatically spreading the virus, which would drastically reduce the odds of spreading.

The "joke" referenced lack of testing in the U.S. Not lack of testing in Australia - where Tom Hanks and presumably contracted the virus. That is why I asked. Australia has problems with testing, as do many other countries given the demand.

 

[wardorican]

I didn't vote for DeSantis in Florida, but I will say, I'm often impressed with how he handles situations like this. He's very pragmatic. He doesn't seem too stuck on ideology, but rather looks at results and what's the right call.

Gov. DeSantis gives a Wednesday update on the coronavirus outbreak in Florida

Gov. Ron DeSantis addressed the public during a press conference regarding the coronavirus outbreak in Florida. DeSantis continues to urge anyone who travels to a country with a coronavirus outbreak and has any flu-like symptoms to self-isolate for 14 days. The Governor is also restricting...

www.winknews.com

 

[not2rich]

Okay. Was just wondering since it is not just U.S. testing. It is a worldwide shortage.

I've read and heard numerous stories about the ability to test being delayed, such as this one:

How testing failures allowed coronavirus to sweep the U.S.

The Trump administration’s decision to forgo a World Health Organization test and create its own had fateful consequences, experts say.

www.politico.com

And also how South Korea, for example, is testing at a much higher rate than we are.

 

[wardorican]

I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but a virus that supposedly had a connection to a lab in china with the ability to cripple entire economies?

Must be an election year in America

You sure that you're not a conspiracy theorist?

BTW, it's not true.

The conspiracy theories about the origins of the coronavirus, debunked

Rumor is the coronavirus was released from a lab in Wuhan, China. Here’s how we know it didn’t.

www.vox.com

 

[SystemShock]

Except this virus can spread much more easily than HIV. I was thinking the NBA should've suspended the season before a player got infected, since the issue was having crowds of thousands together.

HIV was as good ( or as bad ) as a death sentence in the 80's.
I remember hospitals burning anything AIDS patients touched.

 

[Heathen]

You sure that you're not a conspiracy theorist?

BTW, it's not true.

The conspiracy theories about the origins of the coronavirus, debunked

Rumor is the coronavirus was released from a lab in Wuhan, China. Here’s how we know it didn’t.

www.vox.com

Yes, I'm sure. We need a facetious font.

 

[B4YOU]

Trump’s speech tonight was a complete failure. Markets reacted by Dow futures dropping by 1000 points. His statements are being corrected on Twitter. The payroll tax cuts are ill defined and ineffective for anyone who gets fired or furloughed. The EU travel ban is a sieve. It wasn’t even a call for people to pull together or a rally for faith in American government. Trump looked and sounded beaten.

 

[V Chip]

Geez, wasn’t he just reading that speech from a teleprompter? He got so much just wrong.

No, the idiots who wrote the speech got so much wrong. He just read what they wrote.

And yes, idiots, because Kusher and white nationalist Stephen Miller mostly wrote it.

 

[SystemShock]

If we had much more tests, we would identify many more people that are currently asymptomatically spreading the virus, which would drastically reduce the odds of spreading.

We would also find out that COVID-19 is not the death sentence is being made out to be, but we can't have anything cutting into our panic high.

 

[B4YOU]

Even conservatives think the speech was bad.

'Disturbing In So Many Ways': Conservatives Pan Trump's Coronavirus Speech

The president's big speech isn't going over well at all.

m.huffpost.com

 

[MT15]

HIV was as good ( or as bad ) as a death sentence in the 80's.
I remember hospitals burning anything AIDS patients touched.

Maybe somewhere, but not in the US that I’m aware of. I lived through it, when we didn’t know how it was spread, but I never heard of burnings.

 

[samiam5211]

We would also find out that COVID-19 is not the death sentence is being made out to be, and we can't have anything cutting into our panic high.

It is being made out to be a virus that causes a significant percentage of deaths of people in at risk groups. There are tens of millions of people in the US who fall into at risk groups.

The health care systems will be overwhelmed, and many people will die just from lack of available medical services.

You and I may have a less than 0.5% chance of dying.

That doesn't mean that there won't be hundreds of thousands or millions of deaths.

You will be fine, but you should care enough about those who won't be fine to take the spread of the virus seriously.

 

[SystemShock]

It is being made out to be a virus that causes a significant percentage of deaths of people in at risk groups. There are tens of millions of people in the US who fall into at risk groups.

The health care systems will be overwhelmed, and many people will die just from lack of available medical services.

You and I may have a less than 0.5% chance of dying.

That doesn't mean that there won't be hundreds of thousands or millions of deaths.

You will be fine, but you should care enough about those who won't be fine to take the spread of the virus seriously.

... and I was told health care systems... meh, never mind.

... anyway, about the significant percentage of deaths, I guess "significant percentage" is in the eye of the beholder, but we actually don't know what the percentage of deaths of those infected really is. We can tell who died of the virus, but we can only estimate how many people have actually contracted the virus. As it stands right now, I believe the number of deaths among known cases sits at 3%, but considering how insufficient screening continues to be, and how persistent we are told this strain of coronavirus is, I don't think it unreasonable to say that the death rate is much lower than that.

As for at risk people, perhaps the better approach is that they be restricted, they self quarantine, i.e., that we target the at risk groups. You are at risk? You get the mask, you get the Purell... But we are too dumb to do that. We are more likely to panic and fight for toilet paper at the supermarket, and hoard Purell and ammunition.

As for taking the spread of the virus seriously, I am not dismissing it. But what I see, is a panicked overreaction, fueled by the events in China and social media "experts" and "influencers" who are only in it for the clicks and the views.

 

[reubenray]

This is for all of you Trump hater posters. I knew no matter what he said last night you would be against it.

What did you want Trump to say or do last night? These question are not to stir the pot, but I would like your opinion on what exactly you think needs to be done and if these are even feasible.

 

[Nebaghead]

This is a good article about social distancing. Backed up with good data. I'm glad I work remote and spring break is coming up for the kids and my wife. My wife is a High School teacher and they were told to get their e-learning plans updated. We are guessing they are going to go to e-learning after spring break next week.

 

[superchuck500]

"It's really working out. A lot of good things are going to happen."

 

[SystemShock]

Maybe somewhere, but not in the US that I’m aware of. I lived through it, when we didn’t know how it was spread, but I never heard of burnings.

I lived through it too... I was a junior in college when the news came that it wasn't a homosexual disease after all.