Guest “We gotta get out of this place” by Eric Burden and the Animals David Middleton
Apr 9, 2020
Save Lives And Avoid A Catastrophic Recession
Bjorn Lomborg
Getting the facts straight on how to make the world a better place.The potential impact of the corona pandemic is enormous. But draconian policies to tackle the virus also have colossal costs. Ignoring the trade-offs could land us with one of the worst possible outcomes.
An Imperial College landmark study on death impacts from different policies helped change the minds of both President Donald Trump and U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson toward the implementation of lockdown policies. It showed that without any policies, the coronavirus would kill half a million people in the UK and 2.2 million in the US.
[…]
Unfortunately, the study also shows that such a successful reduction in infection means few people have gained immunity. So if restrictions are lifted in September, a second wave of infections will once again overwhelm society and kill almost as many.
[…]
Look at the costs first. Most of the early predictions were moderate. But the world’s much more severe policies have exploded the costs. According to JP Morgan, China’s economy will shrink by an unheard-of 40 percent in the first quarter of 2020. For the US, Goldman Sachs envisages a 24 percent second-quarter GDP reduction and Morgan Stanley a 30 percent drop. More than 16 million Americans or 10 percent of the workforce have lost their jobs over the past three weeks.
Moreover, most governments seem to have committed to draconian policies to avoid most deaths over the long term. These will cost much, much more. Economists are now suggesting the costs of continued extreme policies could be comparable to Germany in the 1920s or the US in the 1930s, with massive economic costs, a third of the workforce unemployed and a generational loss of opportunities.
[…]
As weeks of shutdown turn into months, this will get much worse. With many more people at home, this will likely lead to higher levels of domestic violence and substance abuse.
[…]
Long-term shut-down policies can similarly lead to devastation: first destroying the economy, and then with their support withering and health regulations unravelling by September, a huge secondary wave of corona killing indiscriminately.
[…]
This middle ground is more like what Sweden has been doing — recommending people to work from home if possible, and asking those who are sick and over 70 to avoid social contacts. But most people still work, children go to school, most of society is still running. This is long-term sustainable. Shutting everything down is not.
We need to map a middle course that both saves most lives and avoids a catastrophic recession.
Forbes
Bjorn Lomborg’s The Skeptical Environmentalist should be on everyone’s reading list.
As I stated in my previous post, the ChiCom-19 Hostage Crisis will kill more people than the Kung Flu itself. An economic collapse of this magnitude will elevate the suicide rate, it has already started. And suicide is not the only way “high rates of unemployment, poverty and homelessness” kill people and entire communties.
Add all of that to this:
Unfortunately, the study also shows that such a successful reduction in infection means few people have gained immunity. So if restrictions are lifted in September, a second wave of infections will once again overwhelm society and kill almost as many.
Forbes
The much vaunted Imperial College study, says that the lockdown has to last for two years to work. That would kill more people than The Green New Deal as if it was managed by Rachel Carson.
Day 25 of America Held Hostage by ChiCom-19
Our pet T Rex, Teddy, has been social distancing since the end of the Cretaceous Period…
ChiCom-19 cases in Dallas County is now above the Dean Wormer Line (0.0%)… However, the Dallas County Mendoza Line crossing has now been pushed back to March 22, 2034…
| 4/10/2020 | |||
| Dallas County | CHICOM-19 | ||
| Population | Cases | Deaths | |
| 2,637,772 | 1,537 | 25 | 1.6% |
| % of population with | 0.0583% | 0.00095% | |
| % wth, rounded | 0.1% | 0.00% | |
| % without | 99.9417% | 99.9991% | |
| % without, rounded | 99.9% | 100.00% | |
| Menodoza Line (.200) | 22-Mar-2034 | 0.200 |
Actually one problem with all numbers about corona virus is that one important number is missing. That is the number of people already have been exposed to the virus. What number is possible here? Consider just a simple doubling every day. Today 1, tomorrow 2, then 4 then 8 and so on. This is exponential growth at 2^x were x is days. In just 100 days 2^100 is more than the population of the earth! So theoretically everyone could have caught this cold (its a cold not a flu virus). To determine this you need an anti-body test for covid, not a infection test (+ve or -ve) as is currently done.
Antibody tests are only just being done. An early report out of Germany on a random test of 1000 people gave 15% positive, 15% having a response that is indicitive of a non-specific response (ie exposed to similar but not the same virus). So 30% of the population in Germany may already have had the virus! For many they may have never got sick enough to even know they got sick in the first place. The number of people with antibodies to covid is an important data point that has not even been measured often enough to get a feeling for. It makes a big difference to what we do in the future if 2% or 30% of the population has had the disease and we don’t even know which.
The people who get really sick or die with this virus is a number that would have been even greater with no action, so some lockdown was waranted, but this needs to be limited so that the cure is not worse than the disease.
We still do not have enough information to make clear decisions, but with new testing and a bit more time the way out of this mess should be made clearer.
But seriously, rah, thank you for your, and all the other truckers’, service. In this loony situation, you guys and gals are keeping us alive.
Just doing my job and thankful that I still have a job. Everyone working in the supply chains that provide the necessities we all need is vital and part of a thin line that is preventing this situation from descending into chaos. Last week while in a store my wife met a guy stocking that said he was working his third consecutive shift. Grocery store employees have to have a considerably greater chance of being infected than I do.
Correct… We have no idea what the actual denominator is.
I’m with you. Let my people go!
Now a little report from the road and other stuff:
500 drivers at the company I drive for have taken voluntary layoff and about 1/2 of the dispatchers are laid off. I am in a position where I would be one of the last drivers to go and I don’t see that happening.
On Thursday on the way home from Pottstown, PA with a 14,000 lb load of catalyst and ceramic filters for vehicle exhaust systems I encountered about every kind of precipitation one normally sees. Heavy rain and small hail while being loaded in Pottstown. Sleet, freezing rain, and snow at the highest elevations along the PA turnpike. The wispy kind of snow that blows over the road service at the highest elevations. The winds made me work and would have liked a heavier load. Got to stay right on top of it and can’t relax in heavy winds. One learns to take their cues from the blowing grass or trees as to where a gust will be hitting your rig. Took my break at the big rest area just east of Columbus, OH and then on the way home the next morning saw the heavy frost that had been deposited the night before. It was 34 F when I fueled the truck when I got back.
The governor of PA is a total A-hole. Service areas along the PA turnpike are for parking only. No restroom access and I didn’t see any portapotties. Most of them have a drive through for some kind of fast food that is open but trucks can’t go through it and it is illegal to walk up to one. I don’t know what the hell they expect drivers to do! Earlier last week during a run to Milton, PA up along I-80 and then up I-180 heading up towards the Buffalo, NY area only about 1/2 of the rest areas were open in PA. Anyone that tells you they’re all open doesn’t know what they’re talking about.
Now what is hilarious is that they’ve closed the toll booths in PA. They have signs saying “drive through, we’ll bill you”. It doesn’t matter to me since I have EZ-PASS but for years I’ve pointed out that there is no reason for the state to waste money having all the people working in the toll booths they do. Both PA and NY have tons of toll collectors working normally and it’s a waste of tax payer dollars.
As usual, when something goes wrong or something occurs where it would have been good for me to be home; I wasn’t. Serious heavy winds hit at my place Wednesday night. 80+ mph. stuff. Scared my girls. We’ve lived here since 2001 and my wife said it was the worst she had seen here. Power was out all night. A few good sized limbs came down.
Don’t know if there was a weak tornado near here or not, but at Menards a couple miles always, their lumber was blown out onto Hwy 109 blocking the road and forcing them to close it for a few hours. I’d say the lumber yard is about 150 yards from the highway and it’s surrounded by a wooden fence that is 8 or 10 feet high (or at least was) That seems to me to be something more than what 80 mph straight line winds would have done.
And on the bright side. No damage I can find to house or garage or sheds. My girls had raked leaves that day and put them in the fire ring but hadn’t burned them yet and we never will. They’re all gone!
Runs next week:
Sunday 12:00 depart with broker load to Conagra/Treehouse foods in Tonawanda, NY ( close to Niagara Falls). Deliver 11:00 Monday then pick up customer freight in Tonawanda, High temperature insulation at UniFrax where I was earlier this week. Bring that back to Anderson, IN. Should get back in at about 21:00 Monday night.
Tuesday 12:00 depart with Nestles product from their Plant in Anderson, IN for Nestles DC in Breinigsville, PA (West of Allentown). Same place I delivered at Thursday morning this week. It’s a drop & hook so I drop the empty trailer, hook to an empty, then take a 10 hour break, then they’ll be sending me a broker load from somewhere to pick up on Wednesday.
Got to restock the truck so a trip to the grocery store is necessary. Been using up my food and drink I keep in it faster than usual because I’m doing my best to stay out of truck stops.
Drop the loaded trailer and hook to an empty at Breinigsville.
Praying for you, rah.
(almost every morning, for years, now)
Hope your wife is doing okay (praying for her about the health issue you mentioned about a week ago).
Really enjoyed reading your account above. You should write a book, Road Warrior’s Log, or something like that.
Take care out there.
Thank you so much for your prayers. My wife is ok though she always has a migraine when there are sudden changes in pressure. Just spent 1 1/2 hours picking up sticks from the yard and am going out to hit it again. Half of the stuff is from my neighbors trees across the street. I had mine trimmed about 4 years ago but he never has. Can’t blame him really. Young guy with a family and I reckon it would cost him over $10,000 to get all of his trees trimmed. Anyway, I’m going to mow my yard today before the grass gets so high the dog gets lost in it.
🙂
Rob McKenna, is that you…?
(h/t Douglas Adams)
The problem is if it came to a vote you would lose.
Of course I would lose in a vote. The sensationalism over this thing, including some fake news, has known no bounds. It won’t be long though before the side effects of cure is going to be worse than the disease however. And I’m sure a significant number of other people will start changing their minds once their money starts running short. And to be quite frank, I doubt that this could go on another 30 days without a significant segment of the population starting to revolt in one way or another.
I’m not saying that COVID-19 is not all it’s cracked up to be. I am saying though that the projections being made by the “experts” are wrong and obviously have been wrong from the beginning and I’m not buying the line that the lockdowns are the sole or even the primary reason for that.
Youtube: 41m31s: 3 April: Perspectives on the Pandemic | Professor Knut Wittkowski | Episode 2
posted by Journeyman Pictures
In this explosive second edition of Perspectives on the Pandemic, Professor Knut Wittkowski, for twenty years head of The Rockefeller University’s Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research Design, says that social distancing and lockdown is the absolutely worst way to deal with an airborne respiratory virus.
Further, he offers data to show that China and South Korea had already reached their peak number of cases when they instituted their containment measures. In other words, nature had already achieved, or nearly achieved, herd immunity.
I heard Professor Wittkowski on The Mark Levin Show yesterday. If he’s right, the worst possible thing we could have done is to shut the schools down.
Youtube: 17:34 – 6 Apr: Montana physician Dr. Annie Bukacek discusses how COVID 19 death certificates are being manipulated
Dr. Bukacek is a longtime Montana physician with over 30 years’ experience practicing medicine. Signing death certificates is a routine part of her job.
In this brief video, Dr. Bukacek blows the whistle on the way the CDC is instructing physicians to exaggerate COVID 19 deaths on death certificates
pat: Thank you. That powerful expert witness testimony should be run on every news channel every hour, every day, until everyone has heard it.
It resoundingly exposes the fact:
To die WITH is not to die OF.
“The truth [about COVID19] will set you free.”
Eric Burdon, and the Animals
for those who missed seeing this:
Youtube: 1h2m: 26 Mar: Perspectives on the Pandemic | Dr John Ioannidis of Stanford University | Episode 1
Perspectives on the Pandemic Episode 1: Dealing with Coronavirus, a fiasco in the making? As the coronavirus pandemic takes hold, we are making decisions without reliable data.
Interview highlights: …
I’m still waiting for the headline. “CV19 has killed more than any Flu Epidemic since WW2”.
It may be more deadly than an average Flu but the Diamond Princess, Vo Euganeo, San Miguel County suggest that it’s not as bad as modelled. France has had problems with infections in Senior Citizen Care Homes with about a third of deaths occurring in these homes. But even in a location with a population of the most vulnerable, over 70 at least one pre-existing condition there are, as far as I know, no examples of nearly all residents dieing.
Over half the Care Homes in Scotland have been infected with similar results as France, using the limited data from news headlines
I am one of the most important people in the world .{disagreement means incarceration}
Sorry Xi and others .
I have decided life is of greater value than money .
Anyone who wishes to disagree can bet their house or life on it.
How many houses do you have vs a life ?
Decisions…decisions…?
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/recovered-coronavirus-patients-are-testing-positive-again-in-south-korea/ar-BB12st0E
My take is our young fit and productive won’t take lockdown for more than a month and who could blame them eh boomers?
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/coronavirus/a-tale-of-two-states-hundreds-flock-to-the-ocean-for-a-day-in-the-sun-in-sydney-while-queensland-police-check-everyone-trying-to-cross-over-the-border/ar-BB12sU6L
I’ll wear the rules for as long as my offspring and theirs tolerate it but then my boomer peers can get stuffed and go hide in their homes because it’s been a good life whatever happens. Tossed the smoking 5 years ago but I’m not giving up the vaping now for the grim reaper. LOL.
” Lomborg has a poignant point that the economic imperative will at some stage overwhelm the pandemic problem ”
I agree entirely. Sooner or later authorities will have to make the inevitable decision. It will probably be not so difficult for you in the North should the changing season have its typical effect.
The Southern Hemisphere countries have death:case ratios much lower than the Northern but for us winter is coming. If we don’t nail this virus within 4 weeks then we will have on our hands the worst of both the condition and the control.
There is only one concrete conclusion to be made from this mess. Nearly all countries were totally unprepared for this outbreak. Why? Surely there was plenty of warning. Enjoy prosperity now, pay and pray later.
Which economy will come out of this the best? Japan, I betcha.
The decision by a country about the timing of breakouts from total lockdown may be dictated not simply by the position on the bell – curve of cases and deaths , but by that country’s relative situation compared to economic rivals and partners.
Take the case of US v China. The latter has recovered from the economic shutdown of PART of the country and will be powering ahead, especially in contacts with the relatively untouched SE Asia and Africa. By contrast the US has wrestled itself to the ground and the country’s bureaucrats seem determined to keep it there indefinitely.
The case of the UK is even worse : whilst Sweden, Germany and probably very soon Spain and Italy are resuming normal economic activity , the UK has no such plans for months ahead , and it is supposed to be negotiating our Brexit deal when most of our Govt ministers are either sick or distracted by the virus issues and the “opponents” are fighting fit.
Destroying your economy in order to save the lives (for a handful of years ) of those of us who have already enjoyed a fairly full and active life might just be acceptable if all countries were doing it in sync , but when some are seen to be taking of an early escape from lockdown then a light might come on in even the dimmest brains in Washington and London . Or am I too optimistic?
“taking ADVANTAGE of an early escape…..”
There’s a helluva lot we don’t know. History may tell a different story. But I would like a little more sympathy shown for the very hard decisions that western governments are having to make. Neither Donald Trump, nor Boris Johnson, nor Angela Merkel would have contemplated any of this when they offered themselves and their prospectuses up to the electorate. But now they have to deal with it. It may well define their term of office. And, as is normal in politics, none of them have any real grasp of science.
Bjorn Lomborg is, as usual, talking a lot of sense. Reminding us of facts that get lost in the highly-charged and virus-laden atmosphere of the present. Yes, as a libertarian and vehement free-marketeer, I can see that a long, retrospective analysis of the effects of lockdown may show that it does, in fact, cost many more lives than allowing the virus to take its course with little adjustment to our daily lives. There are good reasons, epidemiologically and economically, why this is likely true.
But we are human. Despite some doubters, I can assure that DJT and BJ are human too. Faced with very large and immediate consequences, the desire to slow the spread of the virus by means of government action, and by actual laws curtailing liberties, is overwhelming. It would be a very brave and perhaps foolhardy executive that rowed against the tide on this one. The deaths that occur in ITU, with Covid-19 on the certificates, are obvious and immediate. The cries of the relatives and friends are loud and desperate for action. The media hover above, waiting to pounce. The deaths that occur over a very long period due to the lockdowns will be varied and diffuse, and the death certificates will not bear witness to what has gone before. They will not be recognised for what they are – in the west at least.
It is fascinating to see so many eminent epidemiologists saying different things about this. There are many different opinions on the best course of action – or inaction. We won’t know how to judge this until a lot more work has been done and a lot more good data is available. The argument over masks may be crucial. But I would suggest that these only modify the detail of the reaction – the length and severity of lockdowns. Do any of you who propose no action (even if history proves you right) think it really possible that any government in the west could follow your advice? I think not. We are human. Work within that limit.
“But we are human. Despite some doubters, I can assure that DJT and BJ are human too. Faced with very large and immediate consequences, the desire to slow the spread of the virus by means of government action, and by actual laws curtailing liberties, is overwhelming.”
Agreed and they have to try the China lockdown road Western democratic style but fast developing news is threating to overwhelm that and why leaders like Trump and their inner circle are now talking about the most momentous decision they ever have to make-
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/mainland-china-reports-46-new-coronavirus-cases-up-from-42-a-day-earlier/ar-BB12sQKz
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/public-health-police-find-bodies-feces-at-dorval-seniors-residence-sources/ar-BB12s3vp
and that’s on top of the South Korea news that Covid19 could reappear in the rcovered.
It may simply be beyond any Govt intervention to halt a global pandemic running its course and survival of the fittest now. That will certainly smash globalism if it hasn’t already as you watch national borders being closed and even states within them circling the wagons. Streuth even over Easter in Oz with tourist towns they don’t want city slickers coming to occupy their own holiday homes and Chinese Australians are feeling the heat.
If you’re an EU or UN bureaucrat (WHO?) you’re about to face the dole queue as general populations everywhere come to understand Big Gummint can’t solve all their problems all the time or print their way out of them. The latter is Econ101 for Lomborg. Don’t know about your money but our plastic stuff makes lousy toilet paper sanitary wipes or N95 face masks when you can’t exchange it for the real deal.
This argument makes the sa,me mistake arguments about global waming makes : i.e. that noting changes, which is not only wrong, but totally preposterous. We have 39 treaments being tested, many quite promising and we’ll have an effective tretment long before we have a vaccine, which is the ONLY way the poplation can obtain long term resistance. These treatments are also very likely to offer prophylactic protection, which is, in effect, a short term vaccine. Technology will conquer the virus. Sweden is about as similar to the U.S. as Borneo and offers no practical method of conquering the virus. Also there will be tests available to determine who has contrated the virus and is therefore immune – these people can retur to their normal lives.
Normal lives? LOL, not while the rest of the nation is in lockdown. How is that NORMAL to you?
Actually, I assume that people that can PROVE they are immune will head to the front of the hiring line.
for some reason the links to transcripts for the videos featuring Dr. Knut Wittkowski and Dr John Ioannidis are no longer working.
however, I located them at the following:
TRANSCRIPT & PDF: Perspectives on the Pandemic II:
A Conversation with Dr. Knut Wittkowski
Interviewed by John Kirby, Libby Handros and Lee Davis
The Press & The Public Project
New York City, April 1 & 2, 2020
[41:02.18] WITTKOWSKI: I think people in the United States and maybe other countries as well are more docile than they should be. People should talk with their politicians, question them, ask them to explain, because if people don’t stand up to their rights, their rights will be forgotten. I’m Knut Wittkowski. I was at the Rockefeller University, I have been an epidemiologist for 35 years, and I have been modeling epidemics for 35 years. It’s a pleasure to have the ability to help people to understand, but it’s a struggle to get heard.
https://ratical.org/PerspectivesOnPandemic-II.html
TRANSCRIPT: The Press and the Public: Perspectives on the Pandemic
A Conversation with Dr. John Ioanniddis, Stanford University, March 23rd, 2020
https://www.thepressandthepublic.com/perspectives-on-the-pandemic
Fed up with all the speculation, the truth is nobody knows because there is yet no widely available anti body test.
In UK the chief medical officer has no information to go on, so he has to make a call, what would you do?
Determine a way to get better data and tell the people how you will do it.
I would do what the independent health authority in Sweden did: ignore wacky models based on little if any hard data, and, most particularly, ignore the hopelessly politicised world health organisation.
And, with a resulting situation in voluntarily mildly locked down Sweden looking very little different to that of near neighbour, compulsorily locked down, Denmark, that not only looks to have been an outstanding exemplary decision, but also an extremely embarrassing one for the politicised health services of the supposedly rest of ‘liberal, democratic and free’ Europe
Weird, this is the website that deleted my post about how costly this lockdown was because it is so invested in maintaining the lockdown at all costs. And here it is allowing an article that suggests ending the lockdown. Very weird.
Are you confused about which website you are posting on?
This is WUWT where there are guest authors posting that there never should have been any lockdown or at least the benefit of that has passed, as well as those who accuse the other guest authors of wanting to let the elderly die to save a buck.
Maybe you messed up trying to post. Try again. It’s very unlikely that mods would delete any comments here unless you threatened violence or went completely off the rails promoting some off-topic theory like @nti-v@x or chemtra!ls.
Can you provide evidence that any vaccine which is mandatory somewhere in the US is useful somewhere in the US?
Bjorn Lomborg is a very smart guy. His words should be read well, all of them. (see full article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bjornlomborg/2020/04/09/save-lives-and-avoid-a-catastrophic-recession/#4621aa406f92)
As soon as numbers will go down our countries and states will have had more time to prepare for the future. A lot is to be learned from the better pupils in the classroom. South Korea is perhaps the best example. Mass testing, the use of intelligent apps, transparency and putting the ‘public health’ and ‘the common economy’ above individual wishes are important ingredients.
After a false start for example Sweden and the Netherlands are figuring out other intelligent strategies. For the Netherlands (more densely populated than Sweden) social distancing of 1.5 meter plays a main role. In the very near future ‘smart apps’ are supposed to play an important role as well, suggesting that ‘public health’ is more important than some individual rights. ‘Public interest’ always has been important in both the Netherlands and Sweden, something that is quite handy in case of an epidemic.
In all countries the economic costs are weighing heavily. Therefore it is smart to reconsider ‘old [individual] rights’ to find appropriate solutions for this virus that is damaging societies and economies.
The virus was able to spread quickly thanks to our modern and interconnected world. Let us use the maximum of opportunities provided by this modern world to minimize the damage for economy and society. We are all dependend on both.
Let’s quickly accept reasonable changes in order to avoid further economic costs. There is not so much choice.
Remember the American general in Vietnam stating we “had to destroy Hue City in order to save it?” That’s what we’re doing with the lock-down.
It’s impossible to lock down the US long enough for this pandemic to die out. We are only delaying Covid-19 infections and deaths. Assuming an infection provides future immunity, we are also delaying achieving herd immunity.
Given at least 18 months to develop effective vaccines and additional months to get enough people inoculated, we’re looking at 2 years before we develop herd immunity.
“As I stated in my previous post, the ChiCom-19 Hostage Crisis will kill more people than the Kung Flu itself. ”
I wondered how many MBL baseball players got the Coronavirus.
So googled it.
And found this:
https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/a-timeline-of-how-the-coronavirus-pandemic-has-impacted-major-league-baseball/
Apparently, they going to play baseball this year.
Which is cool because I thought they should do this.
Anyhow, all I saw was some minor league player got it, maybe others have,
but the news of planning to start season, was my actual question.
The second wave will be much less of an emergency.
Our testing is now rammed up so we can find and react to outbreaks very early. We have much more equipment to use in intervention. Methods that didn’t work have been discarded. Methods that do work (like prone respiration) will be used from day one. Treatments of all kinds are being tested right now and will be ready for immediate use. If overflow capacity is needed experienced workers will build and supply it much more quickly. And on and on.
As long as the second wave does not overwhelm the health care system. Life will go on as usual. The USA daily death rate is about 8,000 a day. At its worst the Coronavirus adds 2,000 a day. A second wave should be lower and more spread out causing much less disruption. The key is immediate response to hot spots with pockets of mitigation in these localize areas.
But “think of the virus mutation”!!! Which is the new “think of the children”.
“Moreover, most governments seem to have committed to draconian policies to avoid most deaths over the long term.”
Wrong. Governments have committed to draconian policies to avoid near-term, visible deaths in Group A – those from coronavirus – at the expense of less visible, later deaths in Group B – deaths from poverty, lack of societal resources, and innovations not achieved during the coming Great Depression. It is not known whether these policies will result in fewer total deaths, more total deaths, or about the same number of deaths “over the long term” (meaning, generations).
It is known that people in richer nations live longer and live healthier than people in poorer nations, so the cost in lives is REAL, but HIDDEN. Perfect for politicians who can pretend to rescue “A” by surreptitiously murdering “B.”
Piling on misery, the Republic-of-Oprah “here’s a check for everyone” pacifier will further indebt future generations, sapping their depleted resources even more. A perfect storm of ignorance, arrogance and power.
Not only that, the noisy anti Raoult anti Trump crowd is saying that any other choice is CRIMINAL, and also that the Raoult protocol can only be validated with a pure and perfect comparison between the treatment and no drug.
Texas governor Abbott has stated next week he will announce a plan for opening the economy & getting people working again.
EXCELLENT
I’m sure many Texans contacted governor Abbott to express their desire to get working.
The People of the several states need to contact their governor with the same message: Open the economy, “Let me go to work so I can support & protect my family.”
Governors are politicians, they keep track of how many phone calls, emails, text messages, and gov. website messages they receive.
This is how it’s gets done across the country: contact your governor, let them know what you think.
We are a democracy!
Good news, James!
GO, TEXAS!
Sigh. In my state (WA), the governor is merely the ventriloquist’s dummy for the “renewables” racket which runs our state. If it benefits them to keep kids out of school, etc., he will do it.
“Don’t worry. The government will pay for it,” would be his stiff-jawed, mildly (ever since they fixed the rolling eyeballs problem, only mildly) disturbingly stilted, response.
I saw the US charts for Covid this afternoon. The cases are rising exponentially. How could you reasonably reduce restrictions as opposed to increase them?
lol.
“The cases are rising”
SO. WHAT?
Check out the “charts” for Italy (no, I am not going to find them for you). Roughly 98% of those who died from COVID19 had serious underlying healthy issues.
MOST PEOPLE DO NOT DIE FROM COVID19.
Thus, the exponential rise in “cases” (granting that your assertion is correct) is a big — fat — SO WHAT.
Restrictions on our liberty should end now.
David, your T. rex needs a sign proudly proclaiming: “I thrived with CO2 at 1,000ppm!”
Maybe someone can start a program where the children like Henry and Izaak can put their money to help those whose lives are being destroyed by the lockdown! I would think about 50% of their total wealth would be apropos, what say you? If they want to go full on Socialist they could give 75-90% just to save the lives of others! Anything less in juvenile selfishness!
In the UK the objective has been to reduce transmission so that our NHS system is not overwhelmed and that those who need treatment get appropriate treatment and lives that can be saved are saved. The picture is complicated because of the associated need for treatment for other conditions and risks of mental illness and poverty associated with our level of lockdown. …a complex balance. I have heard that the R0 value in the UK is now 0.6 down from 2.7 so new cases should start to decrease with a 2-3 week lag in reduction of deaths. But with an R0 of 0.6 the number of new cases under the current regime should quickly reduce over the next say 4 weeks.
Then there can be some well planned loosening of lockdown to start the journey to normality as long as R0 doesn’t rise above 1.
One day there may be a vaccine or effective drugs but until then a slow process of normalisation enabling economic growth has to be the rational approach as long as it minimises unnecessary deaths.
That’s how we live under normal conditions other wise we’d shut everything down to stop flu spreading.
“In the UK the objective has been to reduce transmission so that our NHS system is not overwhelmed and that those who need treatment get appropriate treatment and lives that can be saved are saved. ”
That is exactly what flattening the curve is all about. Not saving lives directly but by extending the time over which a given number of cases occur there by trying to stop the health care system from being overwhelmed. The thing is though that here in the US we have not come anywhere close to overwhelming the existing health care system except in a very few urban hot spots. And yet pretty much all of us are being locked down like we are living in a hot spot. It’s already obvious that the doomsday projections were way off. It is just as obvious that it’s time to start backing off the restrictions in my areas with low case loads. This shut down is not economically sustainable and every day it goes on it causes more damage. Damage that will be felt for generations in some cases.