Hunkered. Bunkered. Shuttered. Furious.
OK. Everything is shut down because of the new flu. We have tanked the economy and all over the world we are seeing massive increases in government power and control. This to "fight" a virus.
Just a quick thought before I sneak outside to walk the dogs.
What about the next time?
Are we going to keep doing this every time there is some "virus"? And there will be another one and another one and another one.
I increasingly wonder if we deserve to survive as a functioning society.
ReplyDeleteFirst, we cripple our living standards to pander to the likes of a retarded teen-aged girl and her demented parents (and followers) over a bout of religious fanaticism concerning our imagined but computer-modeled climate sins.
Next, we upend social norms by insisting everyone cater to the needs of the mentally disturbed 0.1% of people who believe they are in the wrong bodies. (I actually have seen those who truly believed they were Jesus, ad I don't recall their being treated the same way).
And now, we destroy the livelihood of millions of people to reduce the chances of a moderate culling of the old and infirm by a perfectly natural process. This disruption will probably result in more premature deaths than the virus ever could (in case one asks, I am in that 'cullable' fraction...).
What more can we do to ourselves.
From the monastery on a mountain.
Social distancing . . .who comes up with this stuff?
DeleteMy kids were watching a video on epidemics the other day. An 'important part' of the 'epidemic response team' is 'social scientists'.... apparently.
DeleteTheir role was not nearly as clear as those of doctors, epidemiologists, and the like, but we were assured that they were indeed 'very important.' As you mention, who else would come up with 'social distancing'?
Video obviously made by someone who was an unemployed social scientist... scratch that, unemployed fast food worker.
I think a lot of this comes down to "stuff we couldn't measure, but now can." Like trace chemicals in foods, global temperatures, radioisotopes and such.
ReplyDeleteFukushima released some isotopes of Iodine which do not occur in nature. They were measured on the west coast of the US in a matter of days. People were wanting to panic. But radioactive isotopes can be identified with the absolute tiniest samples now, millions, billions, (or even more zeroes) of times smaller than what would be required to be a threat to our health.
If a bunch more people died of 'the flu' than typically die in Wuhan in the 1980's, nobody would have noticed it. We were unable to reliably distinguish between viruses or strains of viruses. Was it possible to distinguish? Yes. But it took a research effort and much time. Now we can identify a new strain of a virus in days.
There's a joke about a man who lived his life in the desert wanders to the seashore one day. Over the course of a few hours, he gets frightened by the tide coming in and flees to a mountain top, avoiding the flood.
- reader #1482
There is a rather strong parallel between the current Panic Virus and the Climate Change Scam. In both cases, the actual data is not really disturbing -- arguably, within the expected range of statistical noise. But the models! Oh my goodness!! The models predict disaster. So we need to submit ourselves to extreme (and damaging) actions to avoid the predicted problems.
ReplyDeleteI cannot shake the feeling that we are being played. But I am not sure who is playing us.
“I cannot shake the feeling that we are being played.” Thank you, as I have that same feeling. Statistically, Coronavirus thus far is rather insignificant. According to the John Hopkins website (https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6) barely 200k worldwide has been diagnosed, yet the powers-that-be seem more that willing, to the point of encouraging the destruction of the world’s economy! I fear that after this passes, and it will, that we will never return to the pre-virus state again. I hope I’m wrong, but I doubt it.
DeleteI'm convinced that this is a mix. The situation is serious, but the Propaganda Press has whipped up a hysterical frenzy.
ReplyDeleteOne staple of "lifeboat movies" is the hysteric who has to be slapped silly before he sinks the boat. And this needs to be done to the Propaganda Press. After all, if this is a wartime-like situation, wartime-like censorship can be applied.
In any event, things will NOT be the same afterward. In particular, China has forfeited its claim to superpower status...or even to be considered a modern Great Power. Infectious diseases are the common enemies of all mankind, modern states don't put "face" over stomping the disease out before it spreads.
And we're seeing just how much of a dead weight Government regulation really has been on industry. There's going to be a tremendous fight in about six months between people trying to reimpose the old system, and those trying to make reform permanent.
There seems to be some effect in reducing the spread here in Oregon. Our overnight numbers had 2 more deaths from the disease but only 5 new reported cases. The reported cases are pretty much only the unfortunate people that are symptomatic enough to warrant testing, often presenting acute symptoms.
ReplyDeleteAnother unusual data point... 80 year olds are around 20x more likely to die from covid as they are from influenza (probability of death for a case). However, 60 year olds are about 50x more likely to die from covid as they are from influenza.
ReplyDeleteThat changes the profile of "who's dying" to a lot of more experience and senior leadership of hospitals and politicians and stuff, which makes people more scared.
The absolute threat is still greatest in the elderly, but the differential threat compared to that of influenza, hits those not-quite-geriatric yet. Hospital directors and senior doctors will be very visible casualties, where if 10 influenza viruses came through, casualties would still be mainly limited to the 80+ range.
I presume readership here is predominantly gray-haired ... so be careful!
- reader #1482
Dying my hair a nice dark brown.
DeleteI'm safe...
Back in the middle of the twentieth century people were worried that automation would replace all our jobs, leaving most of us with nothing to do. In fact what happened was that, instead of lots of people doing jobs that absolutely needed to be done, such as providing food, clothing, etc., lots of people shifted over to producing goods and services that were wanted but not really needed -- that is, to producing goods and services that were nice but not necessary. Many got rich doing this. Examples would be entertainment of all sorts (movies, theaters, sports, etc. and the secondary industries associated with them), and having others do what you could easily do for yourself (car washes, restaurant meals and their associated secondary industries) or do without (vacations, most forms of college education, and their associated secondary industries).
ReplyDeleteWhen a panic of this sort comes along it is very easy for frightened people to notice that we do not really need all this "nice" stuff -- it's not in the same category as the "necessary" stuff such as food, clothing, shelter, clean water, doctors, police, and so on. Suddenly we are faced with that 1950's automation nightmare. A few of us work at stuff that's really, no fooling, necessary; but everybody else, not so much. That nice-but-not-necessary stuff gets cancelled.
Soon people realize that there is a definite chance that afterwards, having personally experienced how much was being spent on stuff that is not really needed, the entire economy will look very different with many skills becoming much less in demand because consumers are now willing to cut back and do without. If it doesn't happen after this pandemic scare, then maybe after the next one or the one after that (the alarms seem to be happening every several years.) Of course that would mean a more or less permanent loss for those who used to make a good living satisfying demand for all that stuff that is nice but not necessary.
No wonder the stock market is dropping like a rock!
A large increase has been in the medical/healthcare industry. Not only have costs gone up in that sector, actual-value-to-people has skyrocketed.
Delete- reader #1482
get a hold of some Chloroquine phosphate, it's an anti malarial autoimmune drug that reports are indicating is very useful in prevention and treatment check out JAMES DELINGPOLE'S articles.
ReplyDeletehttps://thesilicongraybeard.blogspot.com/2020/03/remember-flu-boat.html
ReplyDeleteThis metaresearch and the report it draws upon (https://www.niid.go.jp/niid/en/2019-ncov-e/9417-covid-dp-fe-02.html), how well validated is the follow-on data?
DeleteI don't see a reporting of who was responsible for following through on final numbers for Diamond Princess passengers. Health officials were removing newly-discovered-infected passengers from the ship up to the point of full disembarkation, iirc.
My question is whether the status of those patients was fully resolved before the report was released? I can't tell.
Russia did not work. Mueller failed. Ukraine hurt Biden more than Trump. So now a flu where they can push anything Trump does as a failure.
ReplyDeleteHis travel ban was zenophobic...until the doctors said it was the single best move that bought them time to prepare.
Then the testing regime failed...until Trump walked out with the heads of ALL the pharmas with an agreement to cooperate in the development and production of whatever is needed.
Then the market was driven by fear into freefall (im ready to pull the trigger starting at 18k and buy in at discount prices. I figure 2 years to ride it up to 30k). The press hounded him and his solution was...stimulus by giving the people a delay in tax payments and checks that will definitely be needed to keep food on the table. A trillion dollars to the middle and lower class.
So now we are back to racism for daring to name the virus for its point of origin...like all other diseases. And now even the Bernie Bros are looking at the MSM and realizing that people are dyeing, horribly according to the News, and their worried about what to call it???
In the meantime Trump is running the theme that it will be America who kicks its butt and saves the world...and now has the perfect reason to pull every bit of strategic manufacturing out of China and back to America (thank you China for threatening to withhold medicines from the US..LOL...YUUUGE strategic error). Something that will expand the recovery even more as all those jobs return home.
The next move I fully expect is for a push about May or June to delay the election to prevent contagion as everyone goes to the polls. Which gives the Dems the time they need to figure out how to get both Biden and Bernie out of the way and redo their entire Primary.
So far, even in the face of a world wide pandemic, Nations shutting down completely, panic and (media driven) fear...Trump comes out stronger than ever. The Right Leader at the Right time.
We have tanked the economy and all over the world we are seeing massive increases in government power and control. This to "fight" a virus.
DeleteLet's be sure to remember the way back.
President Trump has had to fight everybody except the deplorables to give him maneuver room to work on and solve the problem. Every Time!!!! The man has more energy that all of us put together. I think that the Chicoms really sh*t in their messkit when they blamed the virus on the US and threatened to withhold the medicines that they supply us. This will cost them more than just medicines. I do not know where the export factories will go but they won't remain in China. When manufacturing and exports go there, then you will see unemployed in cities start unrest, and the Chicoms will burn through fiscal reserves like Jack the Bear. With these two situations, I see them as a pair of threats to the existance of the Chinese Communist regime. Every disaster is a new opportunity, as my friend's boss told him after the 1964 Alaska earthquake.
DeleteAll this talk about how troublesome this is, is not born out by reality.
ReplyDeleteEvidence:
In the last week, our dear host here has posted no less than five ruminations! Silver lining...
- reader #1482
"If language is not correct, then what is said is not what is meant; if what is said is not what is meant, then what must be done remains undone; if this remains undone, morals and art will deteriorate; if justice goes astray, the people will stand about in helpless confusion. Hence there must be no arbitrariness in what is said. This matters above everything."
ReplyDeleteConfucius.
Trump intuitively understands the rectification of names and is willing to use a Chinese philosophy against China.
ABC news Cecilia Vega,
VEGA: Why do you keep calling this the Chinese virus, there are reports of dozens of incidents of bias against Chinese Americans in this country. Your own aide, Secretary Azar says he does not use this term. He says ethnicity does not cause the virus. Why do you keep using this? A lot of people think it’s racist.
TRUMP: Because it comes from China. It’s not racist at all. No, not at all. It comes from China, that’s why. It comes from China. I want to be accurate.
Did you see Andrew Cuomo's address this morning? I usually disagree with him about just about everything; but this one was masterful and badly needed.
ReplyDeleteYes. He actually came off as a leader should. Agree or disagree with him.
DeleteGovernor Newsom declared all but martial law in California. Why? All the businesses are shuttered. All government maintained public and recreational areas are closed. Why the shelter-in-place? Where are people going to go if they're *not* going to be arrested for going outside?
ReplyDelete- reader #1482