Coronavirus, The plague has arrived

[Jed_]

Maybe getting corona isn’t so bad after all?

[ChirpingGirl]

News accounts report today that the White House has ordered all coronavirus briefings to be treated as classified information. Without a security clearance, you can’t attend. Even if you are a HHS public health official with a specialty in pandemic virus quarantines. But Jared Kushner can attend.  So once again, politics over public health health and safety. I’m so sick of this shit. Trump is a bigger threat to the planet than any disease.

Toes desire to #votebluenomatterwho intensifies.

[ChirpingGirl]

The NBA is suspending the season. 

Oh well. Not like Chicago was going to the playoffs anyway. So I have even less of a reason to give a shit.

But this is just getting sillier by the day. If people were dropping dead by the thousands, I think there would be cause for concern. But now they're just cancelling everything and purposely slowing down our economy. What happens if grocery stores close? People will go fucking insane when they can't buy shit paper and Twinkies. 

What's next? Suspending golf season? Trump will have nothing to do over the Summer. 

[staci]

Do you want your children (or your brother) to go to a school room not knowing who if anyone is positive? Same thing CG.

[ChirpingGirl]

Do you want your children (or your brother) to go to a school room not knowing who if anyone is positive? Same thing CG.

I'm actually more concerned with the two people in this house who would be tasked with treating people who might be infected than it happening in the schools.   But I trust they know the proper precautions.

But to answer your question, yes I am concerned about it and you better believe I'll take action if it starts happening here. But it's still fucking silly it's gotten this far.  

CJ is not at the panic buying level yet.

[_priapism]

This is what happens to people who only watch Fox News.

The President’s speech tonight was so inspiring, Dow futures are already down 1000 points for tomorrow morning.

The Bear Market is here.  And Coronavirus will be everywhere in the next 60 to 90 days.

And you don’t need to stockpile toilet paper.  Just wash your hands and avoid crowds and closed environments.

[ChirpingGirl]

Just wait till Summer. A Midwestern Summer will kill any bacteria, virus, germ or will to live till Fall. 

It'll be so goddamn hot no one will even notice if they're sick with it. 

[Lois]

We can only hope Chirpy.  We don't know yet though, if this is a virus where sesonality will play a factor. However, Coronaviruses generally have seasonality, but we simply don't know if this one will.

Let's hope this is not one of the few that cause those annoying summer colds.

[MintJulie]

YOUNG AND UNAFRAID OF THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC? GOOD FOR YOU. NOW STOP KILLING PEOPLE

[_priapism]

YOUNG AND UNAFRAID OF THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC? GOOD FOR YOU. NOW STOP KILLING PEOPLE

It would appear that the coronavirus is now pretty much everywhere in the lower 48. We just don’t know how extensive the virus has spread, because we have had inadequate testing. The minute we begin testing, those numbers are going to shoot way up.

I saw that younger people have a very low mortality rate. But that number steadily climbs after the 50s kick in. And people in their 80s have a 14% mortality rate, which is pretty goddamn awful.

Of course, we all have a 100% mortality rate. I would just prefer if my exit doesn’t involve drowning in my own phlegm and blood.

[purpleshoes]

I don't mean to brag, but I've been avoiding people since long before anyone ever heard of coronavirus.

[_priapism]

I don't mean to brag, but I've been avoiding people since long before anyone ever heard of coronavirus.

I saw sign that said “I’m an introvert. I’ve been preparing for this moment my entire life.”

[watcher1]

First time in my lifetime that the two major Irish Day parades in Chicago are cancelled. But the restaurants and bars will still be open. Go figure.

[ChirpingGirl]

First time in my lifetime that the two major Irish Day parades in Chicago are cancelled. But the restaurants and bars will still be open. Go figure.

Dare not close the bars. 

[MissBarbara]

I posted this on February 18:

I guess the "coming plague" isn't going to come after all.

Officials in China this morning announced that new cases of the coronavirus have begin the decline, and a CNN news update I just received announced that 2,000 people worldwide have died of the virus.

Let's put that into perspective. Though I suck at math, with a worldwide population of about 7.7 billion people, that means that, thus far, 2.5974025974026E-5% of people have died of the virus. And haven't the slightest idea what that number means.

Look at it another way. Thus far, exactly one American has died of the coronavirus. And that's out of a population of about 327 million. I can't calculate that either, but it's a microscopic number. And that one American contracted the virus in Wuhan, China, ground zero of the outbreak, and she was both older and in poor health.

To roll out my favorite T.S. Eliot line, this is how the world ends: Not with a bang, but a whimper...

I was wrong.

And I was wrong in both what I said, and the reason why I said it.

While during the ensuing 3-4 weeks, the situation in the U.S. has changed radically, and it's still true that the mainstream news media has gone absurdly overboard, the fact that the virus has spread rapidly in the U.S., Americans have contracted the virus in the U.S., and many people have died as a result of contracting the virus, proves me wrong.

I was watching the USWNT play on ESPN last night, and around 9:15 pm a huge banner began scrolling across the bottom of the screen announcing that the NBA has postponed all play until further notice. With the benefit of 3-4 weeks of hindsight, that decision made sense to me. And that's only one of several historically unprecedented steps being taken right now in the sports world (the NCAA basketball tournaments will be played in empty arenas -- and might even be cancelled, the MLS has suspended matches, European soccer leagues have suspended or cancelled many matches, reports indicate that the NHL will likely follow the NBA's lead, and on and on. All of this, too, makes sense to me.

It is still being widely reported -- by people other than public health officials -- how the seasonal flu is more widespread and more deadly than the coronavirus. That might be true -- at this exact moment. But no one, not even the aforementioned health officials -- can predict what might happen in the next few days and weeks.

Most important of all, if I were to contract the virus, I would very likely suffer little more than the equivalent of a mild case of the flu. I'm comparatively young, and in good health. But it isn't about me, it's about older people, especially older people with preexisting health conditions. They're at significant risk, including the real risk of death. And it isn't about the NBA players themselves, it's about their parents, grandparents, and any other older person they come in contact with.

When I opened the NY Times this morning, the first thing I read was the front page story about how NYC has joined major U.S. cities like Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia -- along with all of Ireland -- and cancelled the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade. This is an historically unprecedented event. This would have been the 258th consecutive time the parade has gone on in NYC. To put that into perspective, the first parade was held in 1762. That's over a decade before the first battles of the Revolutionary War, and the parade has been hosted every year since then. While NYC has "postponed" the parade, it's unlikely it will be rescheduled.

And that leads to my final point. No one can say if these waves of postponements and cancellations are overreactions, or premature, or unnecessary. Those judgements can old be made in hindsight. Even the leading experts at the CDC and WHO cannot predict right now what course the virus will take. These steps, to my mind, are extremely unfortunate but, to my mind, necessary.

[Jed_]

Just wash your hands and avoid crowds and closed environments.

Pretty much what I’m doing.  I informed my Peruvian a couple days we will not go to a concert on Friday, so don’t buy the tickets.  Of my group of 5 at work, 3 are out today using various excuses.

On the hand washing, I began counting the seconds yesterday.  It’s like the old saying, if you shake it more than once, you’re playing with it.  You’re supposed to wash your hands for 20 seconds, but anything beyond 10 seconds begins to resemble masturbation.

[Lois]

The big difference between the flu and the corna virus is not so much the death rate, but that we have a vaccine for one of them.

[Jed_]

Sorry MissB, but I think the media (at least the responsible outlets) are doing what they are supposed to and reporting as accurately as they can exactly what people are the most interested in hearing about from the media.  I do not see anything absurd.

That is unless you are referring to Fox and other related ilk, in which this is all a plot of the Dems to make Trump look bad.  The Democrats really don’t have to do a thing to make Trump look bad, he does that rather thoroughly on his own.

[_priapism]

When I opened the NY Times this morning, the first thing I read was the front page story about how NYC has joined major U.S. cities like Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia -- along with all of Ireland -- and cancelled the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade. This is an historically unprecedented event. This would have been the 258th consecutive time the parade has gone on in NYC. To put that into perspective, the first parade was held in 1762. That's over a decade before the first battles of the Revolutionary War, and the parade has been hosted every year since then. While NYC has "postponed" the parade, it's unlikely it will be rescheduled.

And that leads to my final point. No one can say if these waves of postponements and cancellations are overreactions, or premature, or unnecessary. Those judgements can old be made in hindsight. Even the leading experts at the CDC and WHO cannot predict right now what course the virus will take. These steps, to my mind, are extremely unfortunate but, to my mind, necessary.

Why we are cancelling parades and sporting events.  A good read...

Philadelphia Threw a WWI Parade That Gave Thousands of Onlookers the Flu

[_priapism]

Faux Noise is now referring to COVID-19 as the “Wuhan Flu,” because the Führer wants to distance himself from it by blaming it on China.

Oh, and Dow is down another 1,700 today.