As a new week begins, some Chinese virus notes:
~What can disease-riddled New York learn from Italy? Well, Ã propos the photo at right, how about hotter curfew enforcers? Jill Filipovic tweets:
I think I speak for all New Yorkers when I say, Spain, hi, can you deploy some of that in our direction? We will comply with your orders.
No disrespect, but I'm not sure figure-hugging plunging-cleavage uniforms would work with the one-man small-town police departments of my neck of the woods.
~There are now over 350,000 Politburo Pandemic cases in some 170 out of 200 countries. A week ago there were ten nations with over a thousand cases; today there are twenty-five. If you take the very woolly statistics seriously, New York City currently has the same rate of infection as Italy.
In Italy itself, infected doctors and nurses comprise eight per cent of new cases, and the hospitals are so overwhelmed that medical care is being denied to anyone over sixty. That's it: They don't ask you your symptoms or reach for the stethoscope; your date of birth determines whether you get in the door. A G7 health system is now a Great War triage field hospital.
We were told this disease only impacts old people, but "old people" seems to be getting defined down from nonagenarians and octogenarians rather rapidly. When a venerable celeb in great shape steps out on the tiles, the Fleet Street tabloids coo that seventy is the new thirty; the way thing are going in the hospitals, thirty will be the new seventy.
~Fortunately, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer have a solution for the above. When it comes to the Coronavirus Bazillion Dollar Boondoggle Act, Congress remains deadloc... zzzzzzzzzzzz.
Bottom line: The Dems are insisting that Planned Parenthood supplemental abortion funding remains in the bill. At a time when Covid-19 is killing oldsters all over the map, we need to maintain demographic balance by killing even more babies.
In other political news, seven states have called off their presidential primary elections. That makes it increasingly unlikely that any Democrat candidate can rack up enough delegates to win the nomination before the convention in July. If there is a convention in July. Which I would doubt.
Biden has been trying to compensate for the death of the Democrat primary by issuing weird inert shadow broadcasts of Trump's daily pressers, as if he's the leader of a government in exile. Does anyone watch them? Does anyone care what he has to say?
~#MeFlu: In news from Harvey Weinstein's gaol cell, the fallen mogul has been stricken with Coronavirus, which suggests the Bureau of Prisons suicide-watch team is going for something subtler this time. In other Covid Celebrity of the Day news, Placido Domingo, who was himself recently #MeTooed, has also tested positive.
Still, I'm saddened to hear that Robin Hanbury-Tenison, the great explorer and president of the eerily apt Survival International, has joined their number. He was the first man to traverse the length of South America by river, spent a year and a half living with isolated tribes in the Brazilian rainforest, etc. Having survived all that and more, he then decided to visit France. His son writes:
He had just come back from skiing in France, and the government advice still said that the Alps were safe.
He and my mother had considered cancelling, but their insurance wouldn't have given them a refund. So they were careful to always wash their hands thoroughly and didn't go to any large gatherings. Besides, though he is 83 years old, he's the fittest man I know. We ran the London Marathon together for his 80th birthday, we ride horses across Bodmin Moor whenever the weather allows and he still beats me at tennis. He doesn't take any medication and has no existing health conditions.
But when he got back he developed a slight temperature and a dry persistent cough...
The doctor has told him he has a twenty per cent chance of survival.
~That's Russian TV hockey hostess Yulia Ushakova at left. She's currently getting slammed on the Internet for promoting Corona awareness by wearing surgical masks as a bikini, at a time when there are severe shortages thereof for medical staff - masks, that is, not bikinis.
It occurs to me Miss Ushakova may have accidentally offered a solution to the crisis, but the wrong way round. Instead of putting masks on breasts, why can't we put bras on mouths? Why can't Playtex and Hanes and the rest offer just to snip every brassière in two - and hey presto, two masks?
Just be careful to hoist the lingerie tightly to your jaw. Many a slip 'twixt cup and lip.
~It was a busy weekend at SteynOnline. We started with a special all-infected edition of our Clubland Q&A in which I took questions from Steyn Club members live around the vast planet-wide Coronaland on various aspects of the virus and its long-term implications. You can listen to the full show here. Kathy Shaidle's Saturday movie date revisited The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and our Sunday song selection marked the passing of Kenny Rogers with "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town". Our marquee presentation was the newest entry in my series of Tales for Our Time - this tale being all too horribly timely, A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe. Steyn Club members can hear me read Part One here and Part Two here. Part Three airs tonight. If you were too busy heading off the Charmin delivery truck at the pass this weekend, I hope you'll want to check out one or three of the foregoing as a new week begins.
Tales for Our Time and Clubland Q&A are made with the support of members of The Mark Steyn Club. For more on the Steyn Club, see here.
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Anger management issues here as our governor is one of the self-aggrandizing group of 'leaders' that think we can all lock ourselves in and lock the virus out...Couple that with the antics of the Dems in Congress and it's almost impossible not to go into orbit. To those Dems, here's one verse (the second) of 'Take Back Your Sink' -- yes, sung to the music composed by Frank Loesser, 1955, 'Take Bank Your Mink'):
Go back to school
Go back to work
What made you think
That we are such vapid fools?
Go back to life
The risk and the pat
We may be down
But we're not stupid as all that
Are the comments still flooding in about the officer in uniform? If I were in that guy's boots, I'm sure I would be excused for singing Lou Reed's "A Gift," (from Coney Island Baby lp) song as I drove to and from work.
Just watched Tucker Carlson. What the Dems proposed in their own version of "virus relief" is another chance to show how woke they are. If anything, identity politics is what COVID-19 is to us. The isms, lack of diversity, and other liberal talking points are the pandemic to the left. And they force quarantine the rest of us who aren't affected by it and only let us out when we have their one and only cure: Total conformity.
Identity politics just got a lot of people killed.
I have one more thought on this that I don't know if anyone has felt at this point. Shouldn't the logical move be to quarantine those who may succumb to the virus than the ones who aren't affected? Those who have it and don't show any symptoms can live normal lives till the virus is out of their systems. We don't need to quarantine the whole population, just those who are the most vulnerable. We can go back to normal right now if we weren't so afraid. The "we're all in this together" line doesn't apply to getting the virus because not everyone gets sick from it. It only applies to the imposed quarantine that has ruined our economy and caused millions to potentially lose their jobs. We need to start looking at the future beyond this virus and not be prisoners of the moment and the way things are looking, we may survive the pandemic but what future will we have left for us afterwards?
If your county has closed it's gun stores you can bet it's transit system is still in operation.
I note that Chuck Schumer has a wish-list item that supports "renewables" as part of the Dems' ransom demands for their vote for the assistance package. Nancy has some further suggestions. Between the two of them, they are as bright as the illumination likely to be available from the output of a solar panel that has had a foot of snow on top for a month.
Why does anyone reference information coming out of China as accurate?? I'm really puzzled by this weird disconnect (when I'm not frustrated or worse). China lied about the virus, and then 'disappeared' people or let them 'confess' to overstating it [and subsequently die]. Now, China has no new cases or deaths!!
Because China only lied that one time.
Prior to reading this column i was absolutely certain i was a CIS gendered hetero-sexual male ..... but damn ..... that soldier boy is one good looking male specimen! Thankfully, I continued reading and was then treated to the picture of the equally stunning hockey hostess. I am happy to report my response to the image of this innovative, early adapting, inventrix has helped me regain my "equilibrium" in the manner in which it has traditionally expressed itself ,,,,, at least for now ...... that being said ..... if this was the type of quandary I found myself in after just one week of self-isolation, I'm truly fearful of what week two may bring, and absolutely terrified beyond that ......Help .....
As long as, in 2 weeks, you are not wearing your wife's bras on your chest but cutting them up into masks, you might be OK.
I am sick from the staggering venality and political opportunism of the Democrats on Capitol Hill. Talk about a plague that needs to be eradicated. We can't move forward to save the economy and provide all we need for the treatment of COVID-19 unless the murder of infants is fully funded and proceeds unabated and every leftist political interest group is paid off. Otherwise the whole nation can go to Hell. I live in a rural area and remember well when the Obama Administration got in full gear and you could see mom and pop businesses closing everywhere. People had non-essential vehicles and boats for sale everywhere and small business properties were seemingly all up for rent. Of course there were no takers available for any of these things. I don't want to see this happen again now that things have returned to normal over the past few years. The Democrats are a plague on our existence, but why do so many people remain delusional about this? Rush has often said that we need to keep a few liberal Democrats around to remind ourselves how wretched and destructive these people are just so long as they don't have the numbers to have real political power. Leftism is the plague of plagues in our time.
We haver Paul Lyin' Ryan to blame for this state of affairs. But for him we would have a strong GOP in the House as well as the Senate. I'm expecting the Dems to try for impeachment again, with the people locked down.
The same party that cried when Trump "held America hostage" when he shut down the government is now complicit when a virus decimates an economy that according to them Obama created. COVID-19 is just a chisel and identity politics is the hammer for which they want to shape America into the image that they want. They only want to help the chosen ones and let everyone else die. Don't know if they'll show the link but Tucker Carlson discussed it last night. Identity politics is the real virus and we're being quarantined by the left unless we take their one and only cure of total conformity.
With every passing day, I become increasingly convinced that we live in a society that genuinely needs to be ruled. That's not to say every individual within the population fits that profile. There are millions of exceptions. But in total, this simply isn't a population capable of actively sustaining its own liberty.
I suspect you are more right than you think.
Mark, your concern over the quality of the data is certainly justified. The CDC has a daily tracking of the onset of COVID-19 in the U.S. After looking at the data and its bar graph for a couple of days last week, it seemed to be a moving target. The onset reported for a particular day often increased in the following day's tabulation. So I downloaded their daily data on the 20th, the 21st, and today, the 23rd. The result was that on the 20th the total number of all daily onsets from the 12th of January thru the 18th of March was 1891. On the 21st of March, this total increased to 2267, and by the 23rd, the total (for March 18th) was 4015. This is no doubt due to delays in the collection of the data, but it points out that detecting the peak of the onset curve cannot be done without waiting for several weeks for the data to stabilize. For example, the data for the 6th of March increased from 1073 to 1393 between March 20th and March 23rd (today.) The same problem may exist for the daily count of the fatalities. The stability of the Chinese data following their lock down looks more and more suspicious if you take into account the inevitable reporting delays that we see in the U. S. Of course, if the consequence of submitting a late report is overly dire, which is a feature of all tyrannies, such reports might just get lost in the mail.
I noticed the retrospective change in deaths, too. Numbers by state for March 22 now show New York had over half of all US deaths: Mortality for the region is currently trending towards Lombardy and Madrid (or worse) according to the stats people.
One BIG reason why New York - City - has passed ALL OTHERS now in confirmed cases AND deaths:
In the very first week of "awareness," NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio urged EVERYONE who "had symptoms" of Coronavirus to "get to a hospital." Quite clearly de Blasio HAD NOT consulted any qualified Medical sources before making those statements!
In New York City VERY FEW people own cars (cost of parking often exceeds other costs of ownership). So his direction MEANT "...take a Bus, take the Subway, or take a Taxi !!!" No telling HOW MANY of the NEW cases in NYC resulted from HIS direction causing MASSIVE contamination.
New York City residents need to REMEMBER THAT for NEXT mayoral election. And maybe lawyesr will start SUING HIM - personally - for his ignorant CONTRIBUTION to the problem !!
Breaking News: Hanes has signed a government contract to convert one of their facilities to making medical masks but I don't think the vital N95's that Ms Ushakova needs.
Ms Ushakova's surgical mask bikini is good for morale for almost 50% of the population. Maybe more.
Built for speed, not comfort.
All Right - I'll be the one to say it. Last year "Hockey Night in Canada" canned the venerable Don Cherry for making remarks hostile to immigrants. Since the NHL season is cancelled I suggest that the producers of the show reorganize for next year with Ms. Ushakova as play-by-play announcer. She would be an immigrant so the people behind "Hockey Night" can preen themselves on their large-minded generosity. For the rest of us, well, hockey would be much more interesting, particularly the pre-game and intra-period shows.
The "snip in two" idea is actually a pretty good one. The fabric stores sell these cup inserts for strapless dresses and as I was browsing for face mask materials today saw them packaged there next to the empty elastic strips. I asked the shopper next to me what were face masks doing here. They certainly looked like splendid face masks, better than anything I see in the medical supply or hardware stores and they have the flesh tones to pick from.
I dunno, the Spanish soldier looks pretty gay to me (insert obligatory not that there's anything wrong with that here). Like the Village People.
I do find the chin strap on what we call a garrison cap in the U.S. military a bit odd.
Bahahahaaaa. See the tweets underneath:
- "Why do their uniforms have cleavage?!"
- "Wrong question. It's "Why does everyone else's uniform not?""
My thoughts exactly Laura.
But you're OK with the red tassel?
Did not notice the tassel. The hat is ridiculous all around. After looking at the whole uniform again I'm not thinking The Village People like Laura. I'm thinking this outfit could have been something Freddie Mercury would have worn while singing about fat bottomed girls that he really wasn't in to.
Oh Laura. A still photo conveys only so much. You haven't lived until you've watched them *march*.
Look for "Spanish Legion Parade" on youtube.
I have no doubt that these guys are very tough hombres. But ... wow.
Toby, I'm not sure I'm that brave.
I can respect that Laura.
But for my part: the sight of a hundred body-builders with tight waisted V-neck shirts: mincing along in double time and playing shrill little bugles, swishing their right arms up and down while pulling along a goat - it changed me.
Only now. Only now do I see the world.
Toby,
If you're really interested, Peter Kemp wrote an excellent book, "Thorns of Memory", about his experiences with them during the Spanish Civil War. Earlier, Franco learnt his trade with them as a young soldier in the various Rif Wars. They've a pretty illustrious history against Communism and Islam, although I don't know if they've done anything much since being withdrawn from Iraq. I'm half-surprised they even still exist.
"Why do their uniforms have cleavage?!"
They're cannon fodder and they know it.
Laura,
Excellent decision on your part. Per Toby's comment, these guys HAVE to be tough to march like that. Not that there is anything wrong with how they march (inserting obligatory not that there's anything wrong with that here).
So sad to hear about Robin Hanbury-Tenison apparently testing positive, despite taking personal precautions on his trip to France and the Alps.
Unfortunately, unless he and his wife managed to travel to and from via Solo Hang-glider, they were exposed to the 'contamination lottery' of today's mass-travel arrangements. Others take note.
Considering the rate of infection in Italy, one has to wonder how long THEY were exposed to large groups of Chinese tourists before Red China's government discovered ...or ADMITTED ...the degree of public infection, and likelihood of MASS exposures.
The Democrats in their Green Screw-You Deal hate private vehicles and want to make us all ride in busses and trains, including on top like some parts of India, which increases passenger capacity. Along comes a pandemic, which makes personal vehicles the only safe way to travel. The coronavirus has highlighted the idiocy of Democrat favorite policies like unlimited visas for travel from any country in the world, and open borders, and the banning of sanitary plastic drinking straws.
Michigan's governor just issued, using her Emergency Powers, a lockdown order this afternoon, for three weeks. Although I realize all the risks, I just can't get too excited. Maybe the crazy hoarders were right, as I'm not sure if I can go to Kroger. But since we Americans have become quite soft and wimpy, I suppose I'll relax at home in my woods, cling dutifully to my God and my Guns (although church is cancelled), pretend to Work From Home (until I'm dismissed), and watch my savings evaporate. Truly, it could be much worse, but a lockdown will be a catastrophic for some younger than me. I'm more worried about my kids.
I went to the hospital (Oregon) for some blood tests this morning and the place was nearly empty, minimum staff. Two operating room nurses were standing at the door wiping down the buttons for the handicap automatic doors and offering hand sanitizer.
COVID-19 has apparently cured all other diseases! Actually, one of the nurses explained that all elective procedures were put on hold. My question is what IS all the Monday morning traffic that I normally see? Who among them is really necessary? Is a lot of the foot traffic just visitors? I don't know any of the answers but I have a lot of time to think about things like this these days.
During December, January and February, the only thing the Democrats were thinking about was the impeachment and trial of President Trump. Their presidential candidates did not mention it during their debates or campaign speeches. The self-proclaimed "party of science" that obsesses about a global warming apocalypse 12 or 20 years in the future cannot be bothered to make any sensible scientific contributions to the battle against coronavirus. They are like a bunch of Dungeons and Dragons nerds who brag about their prowess as wizards battling dragons but can't handle the raccoons getting into their trash in the real world.
And THE WORST of these are Pelosi and Schumer. Talk about Rabid Raccoons in their attics!
The Coronavirus Task Force is tabulating NUMBER OF DEATHS DAILY, trying to get VITAL Medical Supplies - Masks, Cleaners, Ventilators, etc., authorized AND Relief for People NOW UNEMPLOYED because of Red China's BLUNDERS impacting the rest of the world ...and ALL that Pelosi and Schumer CARE ABOUT is LARDING UP the Authorization Bill with TONS of PORK for their MINIONS ....standing in the Doors of Congress and HOLDING THEIR BREATH until THEY get their way.
We DON'T HAVE TIME to Impeach THEM ...need to get the Surgeon General to declare them MENTALLY INCOMPETENT and REMOVE THEM FROM OFFICE immediately !!
Touchè Raymond. I like that last word picture!
I'm beginning to believe there is an alien race living amongst us. In today's paper a journalist decried 'senior hours' at local groceries because there were too many present for 'social distancing' to work. All of the nation's groceries are packed all of the time especially since most have shortened their hours out of sheer necessity. Social distancing in a crowded supermarket!! She must be an alien - we can't really be producing people this stupid can we? I went shopping last Monday and I must have passed within 2 or 3 feet of scores of people
inhaling minute quantities of their breath as we passed by. At checkout I found myself surrounded in a sea of my fellow citizens all standing close to one another sharing each other's exhaled air. Social distancing in a supermarket!? Are we all going insane? I tried to explain yesterday how we can accomplish home delivery of groceries faster than we may think with an unprecedented national effort. It can and must be done if we have any hope of stopping the spread of this 2.2 virus. Call me crazy if you like, that's fine - I'm a big boy and can take it.
Too everyone - yes I fully realize that most supermarkets home deliver - just keep in mind that they have neither the resources or manpower to deliver to any more than a small fraction to their customers. This we need to change and fast. I'm confident with Trump at the helm this will be addressed soon.
I had the same exact thought today. Alien takeover! I went over to Sams where we buy our meat and fish and this is before 9 am. They had a few dozen people in a corralled outdoor area standing 15 or 20' apart and they all have shopping carts positioned next to each shopper.
Each shopping cart is flipped upside down as if to suggest the parking lot is a disinfected surface. I drove in a circle around and thought these people look like circus animals waiting to be hosed down. I can only imagine they are allowing a certain number of shoppers in at a time. Others must wait their green-light for entry.
Moving on to the next market up the hill, shoppers were coming and going normally. Many shelves are empty, though. At the meat counter they had store guards making sure shoppers only put one item of a certain category of meat in each cart. Then scouted out the materials to sew up the face masks for some collection sites. Plenty of fabric but no more elastic with no ETA. The fabric stores are handing out free mask kits but they no longer have the necessary elastic in the kit. They collect the finished ones and send off to be sterilized then delivered to local hospitals. Local dentists have been asked to send the hospitals' needed supplies straight to the local hospitals, but that is only hearsay.
The governor is about to announce the state is going to start same policy at NY and CA. New Mexico is largely a rural ranching state with oil and gas. A drive north or south on I 25, or east to west on I 40 would make you wonder where are the inhabitants for most of your drive. We're also a very poor state. Lots of mom and pop cafes all over. They'll be crushed. Grisham is going to send our economy straight to damnation. I do want people to be safe, of course, but there ought to be a more sophisticated approach to deal with this with all of our technology available to people.
Great exchange, R. and F. I hope that it will be widely read. "Being sensible" seems to have gone the way of the horsewhip - any reference to it gets one pilloried, and death by a thousand cuts awaits anyone who actually exercises it.
There have been bad influenza epidemics before. I'm all for taking them seriously, but there is a certain human respectability in acting within the parameters of being sensible. And, honestly, being sensible is probably all we can ask for from people, and even that is too much for many.
Of course, we'd put our faith in medical science, but the standing of scientists isn't all that good just now. Let's hope that the folk who invent and mass-produce effective medicines and vaccines know more about their business that the climate clowns. Like you, I can't see that the economic seppuku will much retard the spread, if I am to believe what is said about the Wuhan lurgy's virulence, in light of what actually happens on the ground.
Many of us opposed this insane national shutdown of most of the economy and drew a lot of return fire on this web-site. That's fine, but what made me very angry was demeaning us for being callous or insensitive to human life. The larger point I was raising about crowded supermarkets continuing to spread this virus is that it very likely wasn't possible to stop a 2.2 virus in the first place. I've researched this going back to 1918 and the only virus outbreak I could find that was nearly as contagious as this one was the Spanish flu of that year with a R-naught of about 2.0. Tens of millions perished and it spread like a Calif. wildfire. Corona stands alone as the most infectious of them all. You might as well stand on a beach and try to hold back the tide.
Well put, R., and you obviously know your onions.
I hope you won't mind my ruminating on something you touched on. You mustn't be provoked by folk who get personally aggressive on these boards. There are few enough of them, anyway, but there are such folk, and just lately there have been some unsightly spats even here. When one has a case that is strong in its own right then patience with folk who need to resort to, shall we say, other discussion tactics is the greatest virtue. Please don't misunderstand: I know just how provocative the best of folk can be. (Hell, I accomplish it without even trying!) I suppose we all have a little private hierarchy of provocations. Mine begins with being lied to, and high on the list are holier-than-thou and how-dare-you. I duck some conversations completely in which I know that my views will invite rebuttals of that sort.
Too bad, because the debate is invaluable and a lot of fun, and on these boards it is a great deal more open-minded and tolerant of divergent opinion than elsewhere. One has to deal diplomatically with cases which threaten to turn nasty, both to keep the spirit of open discussion alive and because at base we often all agree even when we seem not to. Well, that's what I try to do. I leave it to you to judge with what success. I never decide on how a debate went by who has the last say, and I think few folk on these boards do. We could do worse than follow the boss-man's example by saying our piece and letting the discussion go where it will. I wish I had the self-discipline.
It helps that most of us are prepared to acknowledge that we're all just theorising and speculating, and are testing out our own thinking rather than formulating policy. Still, any policy-maker following these boards might be in immediate danger of learning something.
Sounds like a good idea with a million or so unemployed waitstaff looking for a side gig until this all blows over.
In my opinion, this is the most polite, even genteel, community I've come across on-line. I've never come close to being offended by anyone here,though opinions don't stray too far from my own very often. On a couple occasions, I've related some hateful things I've seen posted on social media that might have struck a nerve -hit too close to home - and either the moderator has a very keen sense of what is better left unsaid or my disgust at the topic is just a coincidence.
Polite and genteel is how we like it, A. As you note, it's very rare for the discussions in which we all delight to become personal, or touchy. Sometimes we become a little enraptured by the topic under discussion, I suppose. We can cope with that.
Should the Spanish Legion fellows do a calendar to compete with the Canadian police and fire guys that was deemed inappropriate by the wizards in charge?
With the bars and gyms closed, I'm sure they're happy to have a day job. The legion does also have female members, and I'm sure they could pack few extra surgical masks.
Just extrapolating a bit from Senator Sinema's rant about her colleague Rand Paul's positive CV test, but how far are we from seeing big, red 'C's painted on your neighbors' doors?
They're Spanish Legion. Bodybuilders need day jobs too, I suppose.
The numbers in Italy have improved two days in a row. Both the number of new cases and the number of deaths have declined. We can hope and pray that this the the end of the beginning.
Well, to be honest, I don't think anybody here expected the Spanish Inquisition.
Thank you for that!
That's because our principal weapon is surprise,
Don't forget fear. Our principle weapon is both fear and surprise!
So true! And let's not forget ruthless efficiency. And an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope.
...and nice red uniforms, or tassels on our hats!
To summarize: Amongst our weaponry are such diverse elements as: Fear. Surprise. Ruthless efficiency. An almost fanatical devotion to the Pope. And nice red uniforms...
Thanks for starting this most useful discussion. Great to know there are Python fans in Club Steyn. Reminds me of a couple friends I had at work back when I worked. We knew most routines almost by heart, at the slightest opportunity we'd be pining for the fjords. G'day Bruce! We had to live in a lake! Luxury. We got evicted from our lake. There's some lovely filth over here, Dennis!
Glad to make the acquaintance of a Steyn and a Python fan. Stay safe, we don't want to go on the cart.
Also glad to make the acquaintance of a Steyn and a Python fan! And to quote a great man other than Mark S, "And now for something completely different." Stay safe and stay healthy!!!
Is that a smart phone in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?
Not to engage in social proximity by linking two posts, but your stirring reading of Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year reminds me that the Black Death was spawned in Europe (almost certainly) by flea-infested rats from the Far East. And what New Year did our Chinese friends just celebrate, spurring tens of millions of people to travel hither and yon just as this cursed plague was bestirring itself (January 25-February 4)? The Year of the...you guessed it, Rat.
Oh Fate, you wit. It is to laugh. Ha-ha.
PS: Glad to see you're feeling better, or at least faking it.
Hang on a minute: how could the Black Death have been "spawned" in Europe, when the infected rodents started out on the borders of, ermmm, China?
Is there some kind of pattern here?
THAT'S RAAAAAAAAAAACIST
Racism, or xenophobia, anyway, has a history with rodents. I think the Welsh for "mouse" is "llygoden," but a rat is "llygoden Ffrengig," i.e. "French mouse." I can't speak Welsh (so I can't guarantee that I have that right), but my father could and, although something of a Francophile, he still found it funny.
"Rattus rattus" is the Black Rat (or plague rat), but "Rattus norvegicus" is the Brown Rat. Since Carl Linnaeus, the father of species classification, presumably named the Brown Rat and, since he was Swedish, one has to assume he had something against Norwegians.
"...which suggests the Bureau of Prisons suicide-watch team is going for something subtler this time."
Mark, your wit is, without question, the best. Why is it that so many of the Clinton's associates and collaborators end up in the 6-6-6 club; 6 feet under, 6 foot jail cell, or on one of the 6 major TV news network?
Arkancide is a terrible thing.
Do the Clintons have some kind of henchman from the Ozarks, like Jaws or Odd Job in the Bond movies, who does their dirty work for them, perhaps employed as a librarian at the Clinton Presidential Library between assignments?
My initial thought was fried eggs, sunny side up.
In my youth, I prefered over easy. Now, considering the times and my age, it's all scrambled.
Same! I'm sure they're perfectly fine to be used for their intended purpose, too. Though perhaps not the bikini bottom mask...
Always carry a spare.
Yulia's stunt is stupid, of course, but I don't seem to mind that much.
I'm sorry, I can't resist posting this apropos of bra cups Yulia's stunt and Mark's comments about it. Some years ago when I was attending a service at someone else's shul I noticed in front of me a woman sitting in front of me with a bra cup on her head in lieu of a kippa or a hat. I couldn't believe my eyes so I asked the woman who was with me whether my lying eyes were deceiving me and she confirmed that they were not. Reduce, reuse, recyle or what?
Doesn't she realize... we're in the... midst of a shortage of...
... ventilators?
If only science could have come up with this. Weird.
This is why it is so important to stockpile N95 masks.
Ah, the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel!
A cunning stunt KK, certainly. A quick online search should bring up a clip of an ingenious UK trader (Mike Watts of Bath Guildhall Market) brilliantly repurposing a tiny pair of Union Jack knickers as a face mask. ('union jack knickers face mask' works for me on DuckDuckGo)
China has contained the facts but not their virus, and they also have African Swine Fever running rampant with concurrent outbreaks of Spanish and Avian 'flu.
We should be able to map Italy's situation onto China's to get a picture of their real situation, and to see New York's future.
The political horse trading is repulsive.
So Perry, the sick pigs are walking on their hind legs as in Animal Farm?
Agreed, P.: and it's not even as if it's their own horses they're trading. Someone else always pays in the end.
At the risk of being accused as an ist (a new shorthand, all-purpose pejorative I claim copyright in, n.b.) for reporting a few figures instead of posting something baroque about the Chinese flu, these might be interesting:
Yesterday nationwide new deaths and new cases both jumped, but this was primarily from New York and its neighbor Connecticut.
In all of CA yesterday there was a single new death and only 47 new cases (out of 1800 total).
On an even more positive note, Washington state, which has been hardest hit west of the east coast, had zero new deaths and zero new cases yesterday. Much of the midwest and Florida likewise seem to be trending the right way, although a few southern states are having problems. It is possible some states have simply not yet reported Sunday tallies; CA has, and they are clearly positive.
Which is "CA": Canada, or California? We outsiders get them confused, for some reason.
In this context CA is Cali. Occasionally CA is also used for China. I can tell you this: CA residents get upset when CA and even CA are confused with their beloved CA.
Agree, John - perhaps a reason to cautiously optimistic. Updated deaths in the US are 132 on March 23 (a third in NY) versus 112 on March 22.
The doubling time was predicted to be more favourable in the US (around 4 days) compared to Europe (under 3 days) even in the absence of distancing measures. Perhaps it will be better still.
And I thought I was only angry with Evil China....Ms Pelosi has usurped their position as a target of my ire. Actually, she never really left that status.
It's no coincidence that liberals love China. They share a slavish devotion to abortion. Evil is an apt descriptor of both.
That's for sure. Prime Minister Trudeau has both praised China's "basic dictatorship" and made being pro-choice a requirement for all sitting members of the Liberal Party (or should I say, simply, the Party).
Considering the word "Liberal" in the title I shouldn't be shocked...but I am.
Mark, two quick thoughts:
In light of the guidance from our health authorities that 85% of the population will have little or no symptoms from COVID-19 and, once you've have it you're both immune and no longer infectious, wouldn't a more sensible approach be to move the discussion away from how many infections there are to focusing on assisting the 'at risk' populations? Allowing the virus to run its course through the 'not at risk' population as quickly as possible – thereby making the vast majority of citizens both immune and not infectious - would be the quickest way to reduce risk for everyone. Enforced isolation of healthy people will only ensure that there are potential hosts available should the virus be re-introduced into the community – once again endangering the 'at risk' populations.
One other thought...I believe the short-term risks of shutting down the economy are similar or worse than COVID-19, in the medium to long-term I think a reasonable person would say the risks of economic collapse are far, far worse than COVID-19. The most balanced approach to dealing with COVID-19 is to get it out of the community as quickly as possible, continue to protect and care for those 'at risk' and, get the economy moving again to avoid an even worse crisis.
Keep it up my friend, you're indispensable.
Mike, I agree with both of your thoughts...the build up of community immunity as the virus runs its course...and to avoid the collateral damage of unbridled central government "management" of the economy. I believe Trump is attempting some level of restraint but the Pelosi's, etc. are continuing to stonewall policy at best, and create bad policy at worst, thereby killing people and economies. Nothing new under the sun.
I agree with Mike as well. Do I want to see people get COVID-19? The answer is of course no. But at some point we need to expose ourselves to the populous under the assumption that it's still out there. We need to focus on having a future after this and just surviving shouldn't be the only prize in this. We need to have things go at least back to where we can get our lives back together before anything else. Pelosi and others use this crisis as a means of sneaking in Planned Parenthood and other crap otherwise there's no "bipartisanship". We need to tell these people that we're not playing games anymore. We don't have two months supply of food and toilet paper to wait this out and who knows if it's truly over after that? We're all human and as they said before, you can have it and not know it and still can pass it to someone. If that's the case, it's better to come out of hiding and deal with it when it happens but not assume it's anything else if you do. Do what you think is necessary for yourself and your families but don't expect everyone to be in the same financial situation as you.
I agree with both points, Mike. Earlier this morning I was expressing the same exact thoughts to my wife. My hope is that Trump will take a stand in this direction soon by the 1st of April. Even when it means well, government, especially the Left and most bureaucrats, have no comprehension of either the Law of Diminishing Returns or the Law of Unintended Consequences. Throw in TDS and the Left's rapacious lust for power and the threat of WuFlu seems mild by comparison.
It's a fair question, Mike, but I think every decision taken lightly with regard to the Thanks A Lot, China Virus (â„¢Janet Long) has proved a mistake. It doesn't kill just the old or sick (though it certainly hits them worst); it spreads seemingly farther and faster than we thought possible; it doesn't immediately announce itself in an infected patient--and when it does, it's symptoms can be mild in one person (often mistakable for something much more benign) and fatal in another. The big, big reason why we have to stop infecting each other is that if we all get sick at once, we can't adequately care for even the minuscule percentage of those needing hospitalization. One percent of 330 million Americans is still 3.3 million Wet Market Malaise victims alone, needing oxygen, ventilators, complete isolation, and other intensive care for days. At the expense of the rest of us, with our humdrum maladies about which no figs are given. I was taking advantage of the empty roads to enjoy a bike ride a couple of days ago. I hit something and took a header over the handlebars, landing on my head and left shoulder. I'm fine now, but as I slowly regained my senses (my dignity was a goner), I wondered if I should go to the clinic to get myself checked out. The thought of waiting at the end of a long line of fevered patients with their dry coughs, however, acted as a tonic. My limp was merely a Silly Walk, and my scrapes and contusions 'twere but scratches. ("I've had worse.")
Agree completely...Most recent data 362,052 cases of covid worldwide (open, recovered and dead collectively). Divide number of cases by 8 billion (8,000,000,000) people on planet. That's 0.000045265 individuals who have been infected or about 9 in 200,000. We are shutting everything down and destroying civilization because of that? For context go to the CDC website and read Flu Facts pages. On average 8 in 100 people get the seasonal flu each year. (Interestingly, all the hysteria-producing anecdotes about age distribution, lethality and complications – i.e. respiratory distress – accompany the seasonal flu, too.) Now, for the real nugget: What would happen if each day we tracked every new case, death and complication from seasonal flu – and ran to cameras and microphones to announce them, as well as made cluster diagrams? Seasonal flu would look very much like covid-19; and at this juncture it would look worse. People must buck up and insist that every activity that makes us human reopen.
[NOTE to young women (and MS's photo suggests this is not too graphic to post): If febrile for any reason, do not use tampons. (Toxic shock is not wholly a thing of the past.) Bacterial infections often set in among young women with flu because of tampon (and related device) use. Ditto for older people using catheters, which is why medical professionals want to do away with them whenever possible.]
I've had the same thoughts Mike. As time ticks on this will have to be addressed. Italy has already decided that certain demographics in their nation are no longer eligible for health care. At the other end, many western nations believe aborting their future citizens is a worthwhile strategy.
Perhaps nations like Iran will end up as the winners. A percentage of their population will be lost quickly, and just as quickly replaced by a new generation - corona boomers. Meanwhile, others nations will pour bazillions into health-care systems that can't cope, and at best only defer the inevitable to next year's flu season.
But who knows? Perhaps a Canadian scientist will come up with a cure this week? It could happen.
Jewlepathy, David. Watch for my next batch of links for some thoughts on that.
"Seasonal flu would look very much like covid-19; and at this juncture it would look worse."
Sorry, but Wuhan did not rush to build two hospitals in 10 days because of seasonal flu. Lombardy does not have healthcare workers in respiratory distress - 10 percent of ICU patients - because of seasonal flu. These phenomena are far more significant than any seasonal flu events (including flu-tampon-sepsis outbreaks that might occur with seasonal flu).
As mentioned in a comment last week: "A team of Singapore-based scientists has uncovered the first glimmer of hope that the COVID-19 virus could be mutating into a less virulent strain after discovering key protein suspected to affect the virus's transmission and severity has disappeared in some patients." (Amanda Hodge, The Australian, 18 March, 2020.)
So, *hopefully* - with the (avoidable) draconian lockdown measures taken - the more serious emerging cases won't have a simultaneous need for the many thousands of ventilators being procured in the US and elsewhere. Many people may not want a tube, as you said previously, but many reasonably expect that such (informed) decisions should be theirs, which has not been the case in Italy.
All the economic devastation could have been prevented if this had been taken seriously, as Singaporeans et al did (post-SARS). There has been been no rush on their hospital/ ICU system, and minimal disruption to their local economy. YouTube - PM Lee on COVID-19: Situation in Singapore under control; not moving DORSCON level to red (March 12, 2020).
To persist with a "just seasonal flu" attitude - and our economic ties to China - beyond 2020 would seem ill-advised.
100% Mike. Completely agree.
Absolutely agree Diane. Influenza statistics should be compared to those of Covid-19. It would calm people, and bring some sanity to the issue. The shut-down of society and the economy is going to prove much more deadly than this new corona virus. Something is very wrong here. What ' health authoritie's are doing is dangerous and irrational. Mike, above, has it right.
Lock down hospitals and care homes, the vulnerable stay home, and let the virus run it's natural course in the population. You cannot contain a contagious virus. You just can't using these draconian measures, you can just slow it down, and pro-long the misery. Support the hospitals, protect the vulnerable, and let society operate normally. This virus is only dangerous to the elderly and weak, not the general population.
Yes, President Trump would not have handled this crisis the way 'health authorities' are. He would not have shut down society or the economy. He doesn't have any choice except to go along with it. He is the only sane one in the room as usual. He'll find a way to save the economy of the US and help the World. He is reassuring people and announcing a very hopeful new drug therapy. Let's hope that it becomes a life-saver, and helps countries avert economic disaster.
On the thought of collapsing the economy to defeat the disease, the only analogy I can come up with is that of using a shotgun to kill a housefly. Inside one's house.
Thank you, D.: well put. I imagine, though, that we'd all agree that this is a particularly nasty 'flu and that, if there were affordable and effective things we could do about it, then we should. We'd also no doubt agree that every unaffordable, ineffective measure diminishes the capacity to implement affordable, effective ones when these do come to hand.
Here's what bothers me about politicians at the helm: they're not going to pass up the opportunity to be seen doing something, they have a rare knack for doing the wrong something for the wrong reasons, and they're terrified of being caught doing nothing even when nobody can think of the best thing to do - and it's always somebody else's money. Always.
I think it might be time for a re-writing of Aesop's story of the hare and the tortoise running a race.
Those must have been some powerful brainwaves to reach SoCal from Toronto and penetrate my thick skull! I will eagerly look forward to your next batch of links. I will make it a point to enjoy a bowl of Coronapocalypse chicken soup while perusing through them!
I'm finding your exchanges with D. to be thoroughly worthwhile, K. Thanks to both for that.
As to persistence with economic (and cultural) ties with China, I couldn't agree more. China is a pretty toxic bedfellow, it would seem.
On the question of whether the Wuhan lurgy should be compared with seasonal 'flu, of course, one's instinct would be to defer to your medical expertise. D. does seem to know whereof she speaks, too, so I try to see the sense in both points of view. Not difficult - plenty there. For me, for what it is worth, the question is what can be done affordably and effectively which will limit the damage done directly and indirectly by the epidemic. The indirect, economic damage is the one of which I have some modest understanding, and it will quite evidently be huge enough without amplification.
That leads to the question of what time will be bought for and at what price. You suggest that a critical quantum of ventilators and intensive care facilities need to be constructed. How much time must be bought for that, and at what cost? I don't mean that you have to answer the question (and I doubt that the decision-makers can, within any acceptable approximation), but I do hope to underscore that there is some risk involved whichever way one bets.
Most folk quite reasonably prefer to stake less on such bets, and to wish that politicians would be equally cautious with other people's money and future. The discussion of it is an entirely worthwhile pursuit.
CORRECTION to my earlier comment: Here in Massachusetts, we have 777 confirmed cases, 79 hospitalizations, and nine deaths. So, my one-percent hospitalization rate was off by a factor of 11 (assuming the dead died in the hospital). Adjust the numbers accordingly--or let me: 333,000,000 Americans x .11 = 36,300,000 potentially needing hospitalization (in the ICU, no less) at roughly the same time. That's the population of Canada--which is fine, they're lovely guests, but we'll run out of beds (to say nothing of chairs, teaspoons, and pillow cases) before we've seen to Saskatchewan.
I regret the error.
"For me, for what it is worth, the question is what can be done affordably and effectively which will limit the damage done directly and indirectly by the epidemic."
My thoughts exactly, S. I'm not an expert on anything being discussed here; just an observer. As I've said - often - the economic consequences of this are an absolute disaster, all the more because they were foreseeable and largely avoidable (as Singapore and others - post SARS - have shown). Like you, I'm in favour of mitigating *both* the human an economic damage (without trivialising one in favour of the other).
As to the practical aspects you mention, see "USACE Support to COVID-19 Response" statements by
Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite (USACE Commanding General and 54th U.S. Army Chief of Engineers) on YouTube: it will blow your mind. Super-impressive. It's the closest thing to building intensive care hospitals in 10 days, as in Wuhan. It's not a project that would be undertaken for seasonal flu, I'm guessing. PS. Does it count as "socialised medicine"?
By the way, Boris Johnson seems to have a good grasp of the broader implications of collapsing the health care system: people don't just die of COVID, they also die of everything else - from seasonal flu to auto accidents (causes of death cited by Trump).
With you, K. You do a much better job than I of getting to the kernel on which everybody sensible agrees.
Indeed, the United States has an impressive military, and a commensurate military hospital and construction capacity. We'll see how it copes with this epidemic, but of course one might predict that the odds are against it, simply because other countries do not have such capacity and this beggar travels. Scale is on the wrong side. I speculate that we're going to be seeing many empty tourist hotels being turned into ad hoc hospitals, but that too might well not suffice.
I imagine it's not controversial to suggest that much rides on the invention and mass-production of medicines, vaccines and tests, and on hopes that the virus will become less lethal quite quickly. It is natural for people to become impatient about matters so far beyond their control, and to forget that this is often the case with regular epidemics, however dangerous: seasonal 'flu and bubonic plague alike. All the man in the street has available are largely palliative - and I mean psychologically palliative, not even actually palliative - preventative measures like consuming vitamin C tablets. And now "social distancing". Can be disquieting, I suppose.
You go unerringly to the points of language which complicate the debate. However this epidemic is referred to, it should be taken seriously, naturally. It should also be kept in perspective. As far as I'm concerned, they can call it what they like, as long as it is kept in the proper perspective, not that I would know precisely what that is. That is an important element of what I have so appreciated about your exchange with D. I'd hesitate to speak of the civil response as socialised medicine, though, because socialised medicine is institutional, and this kind of response is not, although it does entail the provision of medical and hospital care for all by means of public funds. Socialised medicine in concept is about ongoing medical provision. How to be concrete about that? Suppose Japan had had a system of socialised medicine in place when the bomb was dropped on the citizenry of Hiroshima. It would not have been any more up to the job than as if it hadn't existed at all. That kind of medical need falls outside the ambit of socialised medicine. Of course, the lefties are going to cash in big-time if the national Wuhan lurgy response is effective, and try to argue on that basis of that success that socialised medicine is an indispensable good which must be immediately and permanently introduced, but actually very little of any effective response would have fallen within the ambit of socialised medicine. To go back to Hiroshima, it would matter not a whit whether hospitals which could treat radiation and burns were funded by the state or privately.
Oh hell, I haven't been awfully articulate, have I? Best I leave it to you, and my many betters on these boards, to cut straight to the bone. Nice to have been included in the conversation, though.
"That kind of medical need falls outside the ambit of socialised medicine."
Of course... I was being facetious - and making your point, that communist China and capitalist America are responding in exactly the same way.
Good for the USA. We certainly don't have that capacity, as you note. That said, not getting sick in the first place (versus landing in ICU) is the far better option in this case: infected cruisers flooding into Sydney and Bondi Beach-goers flouting the restrictions have reduced the collective chances of that.
Further to your many excellent points, you might be interested in (the great) Judith Sloan's piece in The Australian - "Coronavirus: This isn't an experiment for wonks - lives are at stake".
Mortified to have missed your joke and its excellent point, K.: I'm such a donkey! That aside, entirely agree on everything you posted. Yes, human behaviour often defies political edict. I'm always reminded of the king in de Saint-Exupéry's "Le petit prince", who wisely confined his commands to what his subjects were going to do anyway. "Lockdown" was never going to be nearly as effective as the politicians ordained. To make it work, you have to do it Chinese fashion, and license the police to shoot at anybody caught out of doors. That's how traffic control was said to work in Namibia, whenever President Nujoma and his outriders took to the streets. Effective: I never saw a traffic jam in Windhoek.
So much to learn from China and Africa. Imagine all the people, living for today, ah, ah, ah, no need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man. I've heard that before, if only I could remember...
Well, if I missed your joke, at least I caught Lennon's.
Off to scout out the Sloan article.
Sounds about right. Swine flu in US 2009-10 infected 61 million and killed almost 12,500. Wake me up when we arrive.
But that would mean locking up all the old geezer politicians (see last few debates) and their geriatric, fat cat donors! That's why the obvious never occurred to them.
Disgusting but predictable at the same time that the left would use a global crisis to push their radical agendas in exchange for "bipartisanship" in the fight against COVID-19. We don't owe a thing to these globalists who kiss up to China and demand we open our borders to allow known and preventable diseases to be commonplace in America. In Africa, they have even more deadlier diseases in their countries and their solution is continual pleas for financial and medical aid and whoever dies, dies. Africa should be the example of how we viewed diseases and viruses. Donate money and medical supplies and hope things turn around and repeat. That can't be the plan moving forward be it in Africa or anywhere in the world.