Sometimes, life imitates art. Sometimes, the universe makes a hard left turn. Our resident cartoonist, Josh, came up with this after it was suggested on another blog. From the Wikipedia description:
The Mouse That Roared is a 1955 Cold War satirical novel by Irish American writer Leonard Wibberley, which launched a series of satirical books about an imaginary country in Europe called the Duchy of Grand Fenwick. Wibberley went beyond the merely comic, using the premise to make commentaries about modern politics and world situations, including the nuclear arms race, nuclear weapons in general, and the politics of the United States.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mouse_That_Roared
The Mouse Coughs… H/t John P.A. Ioannidis via @JWSpry
https://climatism.blog/2020/03/21/corona-panic-a-fiasco-in-the-making/
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The global reaction to the Wuhan virus has been waaay overblown.
The US is finally conducting large-scale Wuhan testing (the CDC completely screwed up the test kits and testing protocols) which will likely show millions of Americans have already had the Wuhan flu, and were either asymptomatic or had such minor reactions they attributed it to the regular flu.
The drug hydroxychlorquine already seems to be a very effective cure for severe Wuhan virus cases, and a Wuhan vaccine is already in phase I testing, which is an historic record for vaccine development.
Moreover, the Wuhan virus seems to have negligible mutations, so once a vaccine is developed, it should be very effective against in preventing the Wuhan flu next flu season.
Preliminary analysis by a Dr. Levitt of Stanford U. (a Nobel Laureate) seems to suggest the ACTUAL death rate of the Wuhan virus could be as low as 0.06%, which is even lower than the regular flu at 0.1%… Remember when WHO said the Wuhan flu had a death rate as high as 3~5%?…not so much…
Leftist media and political hacks have criminally sensationalized and politicized this terrible virus and must be held accountable for their deplorable reporting.
I found the movie on amazon and you tube. Great commentary and satire.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/0M6ILA5I4VKZH72R3O4T5H5BBJ/ref=imdbref_tt_wbr_pvt_aiv?tag=imdbtag_tt_wbr_pvt_aiv-20
https://ok.ru/video/1050879789720
I find it interesting, sad actually given the current political climate, that these books and movie can make such politically controversial points with humor such that all sides can enjoy.
The movie is 1959 and the premise is if we declare war against the USA, lose the war, USA will take care of us and here we are 61 years later still doing the same thing…
Long-respected epidemiologist Dr. Michael T. Osterholm of the University of Minnesota CIDRAP Infected by Deadly British Virus: `You Can’t Change Our System!’
Osterholm co-authored a WaPo piece on March 21, cynically arguing against a national lock-down on the grounds that there are only two ways to halt the COVID-19 epidemic: to lock down the entire country for 18 months until a vaccine is developed; or to let the virus spread, on the basis of the so-called “herd immunity” theory that eventually the virus will burn itself out.
This unscientific “only two choices” proposition is gaining steam these days, spread by Fox News (amongst others) and many a politician of differing ideological persuasions, most of whom can’t count past 2.
Osterholm, however, identifies the source from which he contracted this growing contagion: Britain’s Imperial College of London, and its much-ballyhooed March 17 computer model of the likely course of COVID-19 under differing public health measures.
That Imperial College study argued what Osterholm wrote. (leave aside for the moment the fact that the Imperial College team under Prof. Neil Ferguson has just today “corrected” — actually completely changed — its model’s conclusions, for the third time.)
Osterholm gives the nature of the virus away in one key paragraph:
“We are in uncharted territory,” he wrote. “But the best alternative will probably entail letting those at low risk for serious disease continue to work, keep business and manufacturing operating, and run society, while at the same time advising higher-risk individuals to protect themselves through physical distancing and ramping up our health-care capacity as aggressively as possible. With this battle plan, we could gradually build up immunity without destroying the financial structure on which our lives are based}.” [Emphasis added]
The fact that Osterholm insists that the financial structure actually behind the threat to all of civilization must be saved, at great risk to humanity — accepting that it is “the structure on which are lives are based” — identifies the British origin of what he is arguing for.
More reason to immediately quarantine WallStreet and the City of London.
Meanwhile Mnuchin et. al. have $450 billion FED bailout secrecy package using the COVID narrative.
Well, “doomer”.
If we find ourselves ‘out’ of this predicament (flattened curve) in say 30 days (the use of Hydroxychloroquine OUGHT to be showing signs of efficacy by then), will you eat your hat?
See press release:
Coronavirus cure: French researchers completed new additional study on 80 patients, results show a combination of Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin to be effective in treating COVID-19, March 27, 2020
https://techstartups.com/2020/03/27/coronavirus-cure-new-results-french-study-shows-combination-hydroxychloroquine-plaquenil-azithromycin-successfully-treated-80-coronavirus-patients-significant-dr/
In Australia the latest info is that there have been 14 deaths out of 3809 confirmed cases. This is a mortality rate of .367. See:
https://www.health.gov.au/news/health-alerts/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov-health-alert/coronavirus-covid-19-current-situation-and-case-numbers
for the latest Aust. Govt figures. Of interest is a graph showing both the cumulative numbers and the day to day additions. Unfortunately this is only up to date to 2359 on 27th, and warns that the most recent figures may be inaccurate due to delays in reporting, but even with the latest figures for the 24 hours to 0600 this morning, the new incidences appear to have plateaued at about 400 to 430 per day. If this is so, it indicates that soon new figures will show a drop as requiring the general population not to go out except for essential work and or shopping will mean that there will be few new infections.
Also of interest is the fact that about 2/3 of new infections recently have been due to Australians returning from infected areas. All Australians returning, no matter where from – have to go into hotels where they can be kept under guard and checked for a fortnight.
Re ICU beds, Australia had about 2200 prior to the epidemic. There have only been about 30 cases since the start of the epidemic where severely ill people have had to use these beds. (Number using these at any one time has varied between about 11 and 17.) No problem, as general use beds have been converted to ICU beds in case things get remarkably worse – we now have around 4000 potential ICU beds. In WA, mild cases of infection are now being treated in private hospitals, as the most important factor is lack of stress and isolation from other people. Public Hospitals can be a nightmare for the patients – as my wife found during her recovery from a stroke. Much better to keep Covid 19 patients out of public hospitals.