What is the plan for the Pandemic?

Posted byChaplainmikePosted inUncategorized

What is the plan for the Pandemic?

Are you tired of the Pandemic?  Are you through with the Pandemic?  Well the Pandemic is not “through” with you.  This latest report warns:

US Covid-19 cases will begin to rapidly accelerate in a week as the country topped 60,000 new infections Tuesday — triple what the daily average was back in June, when restrictions had begun to ease.

Here is the case for Indiana on October 21st

In April when cases were peaking at 700 per day, Governor Holcomb and the state of Indiana instituted work-from-home policies along with a general lockdown that included bars and restaurants.  Look at today — there are over 1,700 cases per day and still rising. And here in Indiana there is talk of ending work-from-home and bringing people back into the buildings.

What the hell is going on?  The virus is spreading faster than it did in the spring.  I spoke with my boss today and told him I was frankly worried.  I don’t want to catch this disease.  People my age and with my pre-existing conditions are suffering greatly even after recovering even if they don’t die outright. What if I’m required to go back to work?

President Trump has apparently learned nothing from his bout with the disease.  And he IS denigrating Anthony Fauci in the press because HE IS EFFING DOING HIS JOB!!!

What we need is a plan that incorporates reasonable precautions that does not result in economic ruin.  But who is going to formulate and put into practice such a plan?  Is such a plan possible?  Or are we just doomed to having the coronavirus burn through our population until mass herd immunity is reached, assuming that is even possible?  Maybe if Biden is elected he will let Fauci take the lead in the pandemic response.  One can hope- and hope seems hard to come by these days…

123 thoughts on “What is the plan for the Pandemic?”

  1. Wife tested positive and is recovering from Covid with only manifestion being an annoying loss of sense and smell which is returning ever so slowly. I tested negative and am quarantined for a few days longer than her. We are in our early 60’s. All is well. Protect the vulnerable. Isolate the sick. Carry on. Pandemics put all politicians in their place. Put not your trust in princes.

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  2. Thank you. What’s frustrating for me is that social media gives everyone the ability to express themselves, but not necessarily to be heard…

    The Great Barrington Declaration is an attempt (I think) at trying to get something like this idea across, but it’s already being shot down.

    I think that we all have a deep-rooted apocalyptic bent (especially those of us who are actually living in comparative luxury and safety?). QAnon feeds on that, but the out-of-control COVID panic does too.

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  4. Melania didn’t get the personal helicopter ride, and the battery of experimental drugs ahead-of-schedule-for-the-symptoms. But then, she’s not running for president, and her avoiding prison doesn’t necessarily depend on who wins the election. Can a wife be made to testify?

    And God bless Piper. God bless him after all.

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  11. Agreed. His anti-Trump stance is probably counter to 90% of his Calvinist fan base, which I’m guessing is primarily pro-Trump. Just the fact that he says there’s more to being pro-life than being against abortion probably made most Calvinists heads explode.

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  12. lol. I have mixed feelings about Mr. Trump.

    Ambivalence defined: When your mother-in-law drives your new Mercedes over the cliff.

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  14. There’s the chances of it ending your life, and then there are the even greater chances that it will leave permanent damage, perhaps debilitating, in one of more of your organs or systems.

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  15. But all politics aside, there’s a bigger issue here. The dominant ethos and culture in America is most often very individualistic, very selfish, and very impatient.

    Does anyone else see Donnie the Golden Boy distilling down and concentrating all these into a single Superhuman body?

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  17. The others have been convinced that it’s all some vast plot against Trump, or something bent on denying them “freedom.”

    Catchphrase I’ve heard is “…AND TAKE AWAY OUR GUNS!!!”

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  21. It’s likely that a majority of Americans will not willingly take any early vaccine. You see, though it may be hard to believe, we have extremely diminished trust in the government, its agencies, and contractors.

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  22. I read recently in a story about Walt Whitman’s humanitarian work in the field hospitals during the Civil War how so many of the early amputations — and there were many of them — ended in death. But by the end of the war, the doctors had learned how to help far more of their patients survive. Btw, the history of Whitman’s self-offering, at great psychological cost to himself, to help the wounded soldiers is a touching and inspiring tribute to him.

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  23. I think we are doomed to having the virus rip through our population. We are nearly at the point of no return right now. I wonder if my wife and I will be left standing when it’s over.

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  24. He was back on his feet in less than a week. A man of his age, as morbidly obese as he is — give me a break.

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  26. While I appreciate your tone today Seneca, I do have a problem with “Those of you less than 60 with no co-morbid issues, live your life. Even if you get the virus, the chances of it ending your life are very small”. What we are seeing currently in Ontario, is a high infection rate in the under 40s migrating to that who are over 60. In order to keep the infection rate down in the over 60s, we also have to keep it down in the under 40s.

    As for co-morbidities, I am a relatively healthy 57 year old who is somewhat obese, and have type-1 diabetes (my body doesn’t produce insulin) that is generally under control. The fact is, through those three factors, age, obesity, type 1 diabetes, means that I have a 10% chance of dying if I catch the virus.

    So I do want younger people to take precautions, because the solitary confinement is getting to me.

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  28. I have no doubt we’ll have a better approach if Biden wins. If he doesn’t, it’s going to continue being a slow motion train wreck.

    But all politics aside, there’s a bigger issue here. The dominant ethos and culture in America is most often very individualistic, very selfish, and very impatient. That sometimes leads to amazing advances and achievements. But mostly it is a weakness (and a moral failing as well — an inability to sacrifice for a greater good). In the modern world, it puts us at a huge disadvantage. China is playing a long game strategically and economically. Russia much less so than China but still far more so than the U.S. And China in particular is positioned to be (maybe already is) a dominant world force and influence because of it. If the U.S. continues down this path, we will end up a second- or third-tier world power with few allies and many weaknesses, both internal and external. Total collapse is unlikely but not impossible.

    And yes, there will be a lot of casualties along the way. I may well be one of them as a high risk individual.So far I’m working from home for the foreseeable future, but whether I continue to do so is not ultimately up to me. My wife is a teacher and is home for now but I have no confidence she will be safe when they do make her return to the classroom. Same with my son and daughter-in-law.

    Evangelicals, meanwhile, have been largely silent or even regressive regarding how to deal with the pandemic. That doesn’t surprise me but it does continue to be an added source of discouragement.

    Any hope I have is muted at best.

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  29. ‘NO WONDER YOU WERE ON SOUTH PARK! YOU ARE A CARTOON!”
    — local afternoon drive-time interviewing Gloria Allred

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  30. Had a little epiphany this morning:

    Is it just me, or is Donny the Golden Boy almost a CARTOON of The Me Generation Baby Boomer? Condensing and distilling down everything WRONG about the Boomer generation like Calvary Chapel does to Christianity?

    Not only a Cartoon of himself, but a Cartoon of the whole ME Generation Boomer?

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  31. Melania was still coughing a couple of days ago. She certainly appears to be younger and healthier than Trump but where as he has recovered, she’s still recovering.. Viruii are strange things.

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  32. The fact that it threw a curve ball into his planned rallies by itself is reason to believe he had it. That many others from the Rose Garden ceremony also contracted it is another.

    Don’t over think it.

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  33. For perhaps the first time, I find an article written by him to be fascinating. There’s some actual thought going on in here, and in him. You can hear his angst. Nicely written.

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  37. Most of us do act like adults. The others have been convinced that it’s all some vast plot against Trump, or something bent on denying them “freedom.” That it’s the “freedom” to catch COVID-19 doesn’t bother them, because they’ve been convinced by their Glorious Leader that it’s nothing much. We need leadership that takes the disease seriously, and we’re not going to get it from Trump.

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  38. I wonder how much can be attributed to our human nature? I am taking precautions… you aren’t … BUT the reality is l also am taking risks. It is easy to mask when out and about. Is that how the virus is spreading, or is it like what we are seeing here locally? it is small(ish) gatherings of celebrations, funerals, weddings.

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  39. Those of you less than 60 with no co-morbid issues, live your life. Even if you get the virus, the chances of it ending your life are very small.

    Less does not equal very small. At all.

    My wife just got work that an under 60 co-worker just died from it.

    Stick it in your ear. You’re spreading death.

    And if CM wants to take this down as over the top, so be it.

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  40. The War on Drugs is totally different than a war on COVID. While both are public health issues, drug addiction isn’t contagious; a virus is.

    But I am sure you know this and are just being provocative.

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  41. This was intended as a response to Tom Parker’s post, way up-thread, that begins “There will be books written. . . .”.

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  42. “I have serious doubts that the President has truly contracted the virus.”

    Same here. I did as soon as it was announced. I still doubt that he had it.

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  44. Let’s hope (and work so that) a Biden/Harris win will result in most of those ugly things will be driven back under their rocks. Maybe then, we can get some policies–guided by science and coordinated from the top of the government–in place to get COVID-19 under control and stop letting people die from ignorance, willful or not.

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  45. I have serious doubts that the President has truly contracted the virus.
    I see it as an electioneering gambit to sew up the fundagelical vote (again) and to coax those on the ‘fence’ so to speak.
    Something the Padisha Emperor (Shaddam IV) would pull at the urging of Count Fenring.

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  46. I would think almost no I-monkers would be interested in President Trump initiating a new program, “The war on Covid” similar to the “War on drugs” which we engaged in for decades.
    He is the boss of No State governments. He can cajole and urge but after that….

    The numbers will climb, the numbers will flatten. Various groups of Americans will act in different ways, ordering people to act in certain ways generally just gets their “back up.” Tends to be counter-productive. Those of you in the vulnerable groups; stay safe as you can.

    Those of you less than 60 with no co-morbid issues, live your life. Even if you get the virus, the chances of it ending your life are very small.

    But for those of you taking care of elderly friends/relatives; more precautions are probably called for.

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  47. Ever since the Great Coryphaeus was rushed to Walter Reed, my experience has been that there has been a significant uptick in mask-wearing. It kinda put the fear into people for a brief while. Of course, its fading.

    Maybe we attribute too much to politics, tribal markings, and BFYTW. Mask-wearing is an inconvenience and Americans hate inconvenience above just about everything.

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  48. I am actually a vaccine guinea pig if you will; I’m in my early 70s. Had the first shot a couple of weeks ago, second one due in about 10 days. Of course, I do not know if I got the real deal or the placebo. I would hope it’s the real deal. I’d love to have this behind me; assuming the vaccine will have some effectiveness.

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  49. Problem is, among Christians anti-mask (like anti-vaxx) has become the Litmus Test of Salvation and Faith.

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  50. Yes, but science has shown that wearing them helps keep the virus at bay.

    And keeping your Vitamin D levels up also seems to help.
    The severity of a COVID infection seems to depend on the initial amount of virus, so anything that reduces that initial amount will increase the chance of a mild or asymptomatic case. (Unfortunately, you’ll still be a carrier, which is why this virus spreads so well.)

    But that’s “Science” Falsely So-Called (1 Tim 6:20).
    WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON?????

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  52. I have seen what happens when Spite becomes your Personal LORD and Savior. Happened in my family. IT’S NOT PRETTY.

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  53. I know something about historical pandemics (like Spanish Flu); that was my source instead of Trump Tweets and Q-Drops. Following that pattern, I figured about a year (and a winter wave) to get things under control. I stopped attending the liturgies in person two-three weeks before the shutdown, from observation of crowd behavior at Mass – according to my church, that was within the realm of Matter of Conscience; some three weeks later it went from Matter of Conscience to official. Even now, with outdoor Masses and minimal re-opening, those my age or with pre-existing conditions are advised to stay home and attend through Livestreams (which all the parishes in my diocese have been pretty good at doing).

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  54. I think what the anti-mask people are actually saying is that they don’t want to *look* afraid, i.e. they believe others will judge them as weak, cowardly, unmanly, etc. if they signal by wearing a mask that they are worried about contracting the virus.

    But ironically, showing the whole world that you’re susceptible to peer pressure and concerned what other people think about you is not a display of strength; it’s a display of insecurity. Doing the right thing to protect your neighbors and your family even if people will make fun of you for it takes a whole lot more strength of character than taking unnecessary risks with other people’s lives just to prove you’re “not afraid.”

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  55. I was unaware before COVID hit that another “essential service” was Telemarketers. I have been under Telemarketer Robocall siege ever since.

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  56. I have been told that the reason Africa is relatively unaffected by the coronavirus at present is because they learned valuable public health lessons from the Ebola outbreaks in the late 00s and early 10s, and their citizens actually obey public health directives.

    Same with East and Southeast Asia from the SARS outbreak around the same time.

    That’s why in many of those countries masking up is universal (instead of Sissy) when any respiratory virus hits. And their flu seasons hit a lot less hard.

    Since COVID and Flu spread by the same vectors (Primary Airborne, Secondary Fomite), the same precautions will work on both.

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  57. That’s to be expected with a new plague with its own quirks.

    Like Ventilators — remember the Ventilator Crisis from about six months ago? With all other kinds of respiratory collapse through viral pneumonia, Ventilators cut the death rate quite a bit for the really bad ICU cases With COVID, they INCREASED the chance of dying, and other methods (like Proning) proved much more effective. Because this virus is primarily vascular (blood vessel), and the pneumonia came from hitting the point of entry (the lungs) the hardest. Ventilators worked in every other viral pneumonia EXCEPT this one.

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  58. I think of prudence as driving on the correct side of the road, driving defensively, and obeying traffic laws so as to minimize the risk of getting in an accident.
    I think of fear as refusing to get in a car at all because of the knowledge that people sometimes are harmed or die in motor vehicle accidents.

    I wear a mask to minimize the risk of spreading COVID to others. Could it still happen? Yes, but science has shown that wearing them helps keep the virus at bay. I don’t wear it out of fear but out of prudence.

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  61. “BUT WE’LL STOP ABORTION! WE’LL HAVE PRAYER BACK IN SCHOOLS! ALL OUR ENEMIES WILL BE CRUSHED! WE’LL BE COURT FAVORITES! WE’LL HAVE A TRULY CHRISITAN NATION JUST LIKE AT THE END OF LEFT BEHIND!!!!!”

    With all the rest of us as Eggs Broken for this Perfect Christian Omelet.

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  62. Fear

    I see this word get tossed out a lot by the people who are against mask wearing.

    My question is what is the difference between prudence and fear. I know my answer. But I’m curious about the group’s thinking on this.

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  63. My children have both said that after seeing their fellow church goers’ blind fealty to Trump and the GOP and the inability of many of them to understand the need to take precautions against COVID, they will no longer be attending church. My church is online but is having in person, socially distanced live services. I went once but realized that everyone took off their masks once they sat down. I won’t return any time soon. And to be honest, I don’t miss it.
    I have attended 2 small funerals. The last one, one of the mourners showed up in a Trump/Pence mask, which he took off the minute he sat down. Who does that? And why?
    I am more and more thinking that I have spent years being conned with the whole church thing.

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  64. “temporary lockdown” on March 20.

    In mid March only two of the people I talked to about this thought it would likely got a minimum of 6 months and more likely 18 months or more. And one of them was me.

    Multiple people have moved to my island lately.

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  65. Per the CDC official deaths used in the stats can take 6 to 8 weeks before they are all in. Which leads to the deniers claiming the CDC keeps bumping the death counts up.

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  66. Netflix also has a great documentary series called Pandemic: How to Prevent an Outbreak. Scientists, infectious disease experts, epidemiologists, and the like have for years been predicting a pandemic like the one we are living through. There really is no excuse for cities, states, and countries not to have been prepared, but here were are. This is the first pandemic in my lifetime, but I doubt it will be my last.

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  70. by saying he will provide justices to undo R v. W, Trump is now ‘accepted’ by ‘christians’ but there is a COST:

    they also accepted the misogyny, the lies, the cruelty to children, the destruction of American norms, the trashing of our military as ‘losers’, the transfer of huge amounts of the treasury upwards to the super-rich, the ‘I do’t accept any responsibility’, and ‘the Constitution says I can do anything I want’

    so now these ‘christians’ are left holding the whole steaming stinking bag of trumpism in exchange for ‘what they wanted’ . . . some ‘deal’, er ‘transaction’

    was it worth it?

    No

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  72. I began serious disaffiliation after 2001-09-11.

    The rhetoric which suddenly had license to be on full display… and the absolute to-the-bone pandering cowardice of the clergy in response to that [of those clergy who were not in full-throated participation].

    That didn’t come out of nowhere. It has become clear that White Supremacy and Nationalism was always there, waiting, quietly nurtured.

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  73. But yet they want to place their rules on others even when they are in the minority. Rules for others, but not for themselves. They want to be the rulers and everyone else are just subjects.

    Seen this act many times before by them.

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  75. Hope appears to be in short supply right now, but it shouldn’t entirely die.

    I have been told that the reason Africa is relatively unaffected by the coronavirus at present is because they learned valuable public health lessons from the Ebola outbreaks in the late 00s and early 10s, and their citizens actually obey public health directives.

    Netflix has a powerful movie on their rotation currently, 93 Days, which details the Nigerian response to a powerful diplomat arriving in Lagos exhibiting symptoms of Ebola. Lagos is a city of over 12 million people with daily flights to every major world metropolis, and the response of the health care workers who came into direct contact with the diplomat, the WHO workers, and the Nigerian government kept the disease from killing more than a handful, about 65, I believe.

    They saved all of our cupcakes. Watch the movie. Danny Glover is in it.

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  76. So, it’s really just a matter of people needing to act like adults…

    Americans? Act like ADULTS?
    GREAT JOKE!

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  77. If people would follow rules and take precautions, and adapt…

    “AND YOU CAN’T MAKE ME!!!!!!! NYAAAAH!!!!!!!!”

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  78. I’ve been working from home since the “temporary lockdown” on March 20.

    At the time it was only going to be two weeks, but I was keeping my eyes and ears open and figured my life was going to be on Pause for around a year.

    So far the only fever I’m running is a slowly-increasing Cabin Fever.

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  79. The Lord is my shepherd…

    I’m just thankful for the love, care, credentials and faithfulness of our Good Shepherd through this.

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  81. The medical community does indeed seem to know better how to handle more severe cases than it did a few months ago. There is a sliver of hope in that, as long as the hospitalization rate doesn’t crush the system.

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  82. Only “TRUMP CAN DO NO WRONG! HAIL TRUMP!”

    And the Christians are screaming the loudest.
    I’m waiting for them to dance around slashing themselves with knives in Worship.

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  83. Death rates always lag case rates.

    By two or three weeks.
    And hospitialization rates lag by one to two weeks.
    And because of incubation period, case rates always lag the actual infection rate by one to two weeks.

    But then ALL the above is Fake News from The Deep State(TM).

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  84. I ask myself the question everyday-“Were the people I spent in church with for 44 years of my life pretenders. Did I really invest myself in multiple ways and was it all a sham? That question disturbs me on many levels.

    I know it is not very christian of me, but I do not wish to spend any time with these folks. I count myself as a DONE.

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  86. I thought the “THANK YOU PRESIDENT TRUMP!” vaccine was going to be distributed BEFORE the Election.

    Even if said vaccine is sugar water.

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  88. Problem is, we have a lot of people like that woman in the 1962 B&W version of Day of the Triffids:
    “EVERYTHING IS BACK TO NORMAL!”
    “EVERYTHING IS BACK TO NORMAL!”
    “EVERYTHING IS BACK TO NORMAL!”

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  89. Ben, I can’t tell you how refreshing it was to read your paragraph. It has been so wearying to see so many of my friends just demand the miracle of having the economy shut down. They don’t seem to grasp how that would make things ten times harder on the poor, yet they accuse others of wanting to sacrifice humans for money. The complete lack of understanding of market forces, supply chains, capital investments, and of the tangible benefits all those provide, is astounding. I know there’s a couple of them who have to scramble for a living more than others, but in general the ones shouting the loudest are the more privileged.

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  90. I will never understand how “christians” have willingly joined into has madness.

    Simple.
    Trump gives the Christians What They Want.
    ergo, Trump is LORD.

    (You can even buy gold-plated Trump Prayer Coins for $55 each — $500 a dozen and save! — and hold and stare at His face while you Pray!)

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  93. What should sober us all up quick is the thought of NEXT TIME. What if the mortality rate was 30 – 50% of infections? Like some awful contemporary version of the black plague? Global warming only increases the conditions under which these nightmare scenarios become more likely. Our ancestors will not forgive us our shortsightedness and stupidity. But they’ll probably have their minds on other things.

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  94. Well in our interconnected world this won’t be the last time such a thing will happen. One can only hope somebody is paying attention and we can learn something from the experience.

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  95. They have the same solution for COV-19 as Repeal and Replace Obamacare. Oh, wait a minute they want to repeal it, but do not have a replacement plan.

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  96. We’re never going to be able to completely stop all behavior that might transmit the virus, so ideally the plan would be formulated in terms of a total risk budget for a particular community. In other words, you can avoid a spike if enough people in your community take enough precautions, and it just becomes a matter of weighing how onerous each precaution is versus how well it works, or how big a risk is versus how much it benefits society.

    For example, if we can’t afford to have both the bars and the schools open, which do we choose? If some people need to work in person, can others socially distance more strictly to compensate? Can people take relatively painless precautions, like wearing masks, to avoid needing to impose more draconian measures?

    So, it’s really just a matter of people needing to act like adults, and sometimes take a heavier burden of responsibility to compensate for essential workers or others who have no choice but to take risks. If people are unable to do that it’s not because the government is failing them, it’s because they just don’t have the capacity for responsible adult behavior.

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  98. > But ours is on top of a lot of dead bodies relate to theirs.

    We also cannot effectively count our infections and/or deaths due to our dysfunctional and byzantine heath care system.

    … can health care in the USA even, honestly, be referred to as a “system”? “mess” is probably a better term. When an org-chart is indistinguishable from the stain of a coffee splatter…

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  100. My best client (I do contract tech) has decided to just close their office for good for the duration. And when safer look for a new physical place to work. Now they are only 20 people so it’s way more feasible for them than a company with 10K people or even 100 people.

    And they (and I) had to scramble last week as the office manager’s husband got Covid-19 and she and others had been in the office are various times packing things up for storage or trash and suddenly 1/2 dozen of use got to super stay away from each other and get tested.

    While not having a physical office will be hard in some ways (they’ve been 98% there since mid-March anyway) they figure they’d rather stay in business than have Covid-19 run through their staff and bankrupt the company.

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  101. > classes of people forced to take way more pandemic risk so that other classes of people can take less

    I understand the angst about the disparate impacts; however I don’t understand the “so that”.

    FYI, I’m “essential service”, so I’ve never not reported. There is no shortage of White Collar “essential service”.

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  102. > Unfortunately, the above doesn’t happen

    Yep.

    > long hard look in the mirror

    Regardless of leadership 20% of Americans are not going to comply; their true party affiliation is Spite. 😦

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  103. You have cherry picked your data and time lines.

    Europe locked down hard at first then gradually re-opened. Over the last bit they have been trying to re-open things for practical and also due to political pressure.

    We (US) locked down sort of medium then ran away from most anything that would stop it. And keep trying to do the minimal that just might work. And so far it hasn’t.

    So both places have had a rise in cases and deaths lately.

    The big different is the US has a lot more deaths due to use trying to do the minimum, if that. Europe has far fewer deaths (on a per population basis) than us.

    So both places are seeing rises. But ours is on top of a lot of dead bodies relate to theirs.

    And Europe is talking about way more stern measures in the near future than the US. Look at the UK. They are talking about lock downs lasting another 5 months while our dear leader says let’s just ignore it and get on with our lives.

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  105. If people would follow rules and take precautions, and adapt, economic shutdown would not be an option. Most office work can be done from home. While not every one can do distance learning, a lot can. If people follow the rules about distancing in grocery stores and restaurants and even pubs and churches, infection rates would drop.

    Unfortunately, the above doesn’t happen. I have read over and over at the despair of many when they see their fellow citizens disregard matters- in England, France, the US – even here. We don’t have the infection rates the US and Europe has, but we also don’t have the complete leadership abdication or the population density.

    But while people rightly criticize leaders, especially Trump, we should also take a long hard look in the mirror.

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  106. Well said. COVID has made the previous distancing between upper middle and lower middle class much wider. Traditionally, western countries had poor, middle class, and rich. We have now further separated poor and lower middle from the upper middle. The poor and lower middle class never went to isolation, never shutdown, never stopped working.

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  107. Yep. I’m starting back at my office soon. Thing is, we can keep the risks to a minimum of we all wear our effing masks.

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  108. Death rates always lag case rates. If cases spike, deaths will too. Hospital capacity hasn’t increased since this mess began.

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  109. He has exploited so many former bad traits.What ugly things that were hiding under rocks for years now are proudly displayed by some. I will never understand how “christians” have willingly joined into has madness.

    Maybe it is semantics but I do not consider myself a Christian any more. I consider myself a follower of Christ. I did not feel this way before 2016.

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  110. Mike, while I understand your fear of getting COVID if forced to go back to your workplace, I’ve been forced to go back to mine since the end of June, and now my wife has more-or-less been forced to go to most of her in-person work as well. Reopening makes little difference to us in that respect, we’ve been dealing with the fear of work-related exposure for months now, and I’m frankly tired of a country divided between classes of people forced to take way more pandemic risk so that other classes of people can take less. We have developed the same mentality about this that we have about warfare, with whole classes of people detached from the risk involved.

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  111. I’m afraid it was. Social Darwinism runs deep in the U.S., but the Trump presidency has definitely put the habit on steroids. Trump exploits an already existing trait of the American Way.

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  112. There will be books written about how this president managed Covid-19 and if the authors are honest they likely will say Trump could not have handled this any worse than he did.

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  115. CDC reports nearly 300,000 excess deaths in 2020 compared with previous years. The US death count specifically for covid-19 is 216,000. News of a decline may be encouraging,but the deaths are already four times Vietnam.

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  117. > Are you tired of the Pandemic?

    Yes, very.

    > who is going to formulate … such a plan?
    > Is such a plan possible?

    No. Conservatives do not believe in Collective Action; they cannot have a solution.

    > Or are we just doomed to having the coronavirus burn through our population

    Yes.

    > until mass herd immunity is reached, assuming that is even possible?

    We’ll find out.

    The suburbs where I live are on fire with COVID19 (again). The admission rates at the hospitals that ring the city are soaring. And then patients get transferred into the enormous central medical facilities. I was just talking to an enraged medical employee yesterday.

    Funny thing, I’d like to build a wall! Let the selfish fools stay out there and fend for ___ ____ selves.

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  119. If there’s good news it is this: Death rates have continued to decline. The medical community has honed its treatments.

    AND Pfizer and others probably introducing the vaccine for the public in November.

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  120. In Europe, there’s been a significant uptick in cases; as noted in France, Italy, England. What all those countries have in common is this:

    They are not led by President Trump. So blaming Trump for what is happening world wide in Corona virus upticks is just politics.l

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  121. (This is from April, but I unfortunately don’t have the ear of any governments)

    The first precondition is to have the infection rate under control: that is, hospitals not over-stretched. In some European countries, this is already the case. Following this, the idea would be a *progressive* relaxation of confinement restrictions, in a *controlled fashion*, such that hospitals would continue to be able to function correctly. This would be *targeted* to non-vulnerable people, also excluding families and carers of vulnerable people.

    This return to the norm may also need to be *voluntary*. Though the exact risk for non-vulnerable people is clearly vastly smaller, it is not zero. It would be difficult for governments to impose this risk on an unwilling subsection of the population, but individuals may choose to accept the risk. There are probably plenty of small business owners who would take a 1/10’000 – say – risk of serious symptoms over a 100% certainty of going bust.

    With exposure limited to non-vulnerable people, the rate of hospitalisations would be far lower than we have been seeing so far. This would allow for much greater numbers of people to be potentially exposed without overwhelming the hospitals.

    A progressive, controlled, targeted and voluntary return to ‘normal’ life would allow populations to build up an effective barrier to mass reinfections, whilst protecting the most vulnerable, minimising fatalities and also releasing the stranglehold on the economy that underpins all our wellbeing.

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  122. I guess I’m not quite as concerned with the number of daily cases increasing, alarming as it is, as I am with the percentage rate of positive tests. I suspect that the rate of positive results has been increasing too but I do not know for sure. If the rate of positive test results is increasing that is far more alarming than the increase in number of cases. Does anyone have this data?

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