President Trump's press conference today gave me a bit of hope, just a bit as I am an old pessimist, that we might be moving on from the current almost total economic shutdown to something more tolerable. The conference also confirmed for me--yet again--that most of the "journalists" covering the White House are either infantile or evil, slithering vipers.
The President made clear what many of us have been saying for some time, to wit, that we cannot let the "treatment" for the ChiCom virus prove worse than the effect of the virus itself.
He also stressed, to the obvious chagrin of the aforementioned "journalists," that he cannot and will not listen to only one advisor or one set of advisors. The "journos" kept hammering him on whether Dr. Fauci or some other medical personnel had concurred with a possible reopening of the economy in a week or so. Their game is brutally obvious. They want to portray Trump as having declared victory over the ChiCom virus, despite expert advice, and then, of course, play up continued infections and even deaths after the economy has restarted. They seemed not to understand--yeah, right--the President's point that as President he has to balance a number of factors and advice.
I would also note that there is no perfect decision, one free of all negative or unintended consequences.
The public health dimension is an important factor but it is not the only one, particularly, as we have discussed before, in light of the falling mortality rate for the ChiCom virus, a rate that seems headed for levels of the flu or less. DR. FAUCI IS NOT THE PRESIDENT, any more than any of the other public health "experts" of our enormous bureaucracy; they have a view which should be heard and considered, but it is not policy unless the President says it is.
A leader of the United States must factor into his decisions the national security, the overall economic health of the country, the future of that economy, and the impact on society of keeping the country idle. He also must ward off the destructive "rescue" efforts launched by the DemoCommunists who seek to take advantage of this crisis to inflict great portions of their insane social, economic, political, and environmental agenda.
I hope and pray that President Trump makes the right decision in the coming days, and puts an end to the ongoing destruction of our economy and society.
My wife and I are high risk. Age plus pulmonary issues. We are self isolating (sort of) and are retired so not a problem. I think the shutdowns are crazy and should be rapidly phased out. Kids and grandparents should not live together. People with major risk factors should stay out of crowds. Get hydroxychloroquine if you get symptoms.
ReplyDeleteSame here, Dr. K. My wife and I are both old enough to be high risk, and I'm on meds for BP and other problems. I sent my doctor a link to the short paper in The Lancet that identified ACE inhibitor meds as possible co-factors [https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanres/article/PIIS2213-2600%2820%2930116-8/fulltext]. As a precaution, he took me off lisinopril the next day and put me on amlodipine, a calcium channel blocker. I don’t know why this isn’t getting more attention.
DeleteBy the way, I greatly enjoy your comments over at the Althouse blog.
Hear! Hear!
ReplyDeleteOf course, since the journoscum tell us this is war, and President Trump is a war-time president, if he first wants to conscript the entire Washington Press Corpse into a new Lincoln Brigade and sent them off to Wuhan to help the Chinese by digging mass graves for the virus victims there, that would be quite acceptable too.
If he wants to appoint Ms. Pelosi as the "lead from the front" commander of the Wuhan Lincoln Brigade, that would be admirably bi-partisan of him.
Ha! Great ideas!
DeleteI have my doubts about China's numbers.
ReplyDeleteI won't believe anything the ChiComs say, will say, have said, may have inferred, might possibly could potentially have thought they might possibly could have said.
DeleteFilthy socialistic communists, or are they communistic socialists...
Right at the moment, Diamond Princess (imo, the best petridish we've got) has 8 of 700'ish cases resulting in death, with approximately 100 outstanding. Though I'm pretty sure the 8/700 is probably correct-so-far, I'm not certain how well the rest of the outstanding cases are being followed.
ReplyDeleteInfluenza case-fatality rate is just under 0.2%, but a cruise ship would fare worse than that due to the skew of ages on the older side. If no further deaths occur from the cohort, I'd say it's "worse on the death scale, but not 50-flus worse."
There's still an open question on after effects, and also on why covid seems to target 40-65yo range *comparably* more than elderly (but less in absolute fraction).
The rate of local spread does also seem unusual, as the observations of overcrowded hospitals in Italy appear pretty credible. That's a perception problem as opposed to a mortality problem.
Is there a threat? Yes. Is the democrat-media axis over-hyping it? Yes. Knowing the media is full of crap isn't going to make me take risks to my family regarding this Chicom Flu. (Which I've been calling 'The Woe of Wuhan'.. but don't tell my coworkers..)
As the population gradually fills with people who've been exposed and survived, the contagiousness will drop pretty quickly due to those natural barriers-to-spreading.
On another note, former diamond princess inmates are at 8/700'ish for case-fatality with supposedly 100+ as-yet-unresolved. That is not-yet-useful data unfortunately.... even if it's being accurately reported.
My observation during the Michael Jackson trial: "Sometimes there's a trumped up witch hunt on.... and sometimes that hunt will stumble upon a witch."
- reader #1482
yikes.. restated myself.. I'm getting senile...
DeleteFunniest name for the flu so far has been the "Wu Ping Cough."
DeleteThe Diamond Princess IS an excellent petri dish. Use the total on board population for baseline data rather than just those who caught the virus. 3,700 on board, makes a big difference. Apples and oranges.
Deletegive them three more weekss and nearly 3700 would have caught it.
DeleteThere is one decision that is as near perfect as I can imagine... Electing Trump!
ReplyDeletelefties bantering about how this is actually a dry run.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2020-03-24/what-coronavirus-like-response-to-climate-crisis-would-look-like
Gotta love all the Lefties who are still in their 10 day waiting period to buy a handgun and wondering why their is so much red tape and paperwork...not to mention the Cali-Left who are stunned at needing a background check to buy ammo.
ReplyDeleteAll of a sudden they figured out the 2A is a good idea and they have been lied to by their minders that getting a gun was supposedly easier than getting a book from th library.
Lets see if their pee-brain can remember that come election time...but if not and their is a sudden glut of returned "used" guns on the market come September, well Christmas comes early.
I see that the sheriff in LA County has suspended efforts to close gun stores on advice of legal counsel. Hope that holds.
DeleteI think there is only one gun store in LA County, and with all the inane Calistan anti-gun laws, even if you actually could find a available firearm in stock, by the time the state will let you have possession of it, the need that pressed you to snap purchase will have abated.
DeleteAnd, how many of them lied on Question 11.e about using marijuana? Hello federal felony if anybody decides to pursue it.
ReplyDeleteYep...all them red flags suddenly don't sound too good.
DeleteLol...still lovin my 1911 in Gods Caliber.
I wonder if we aren't in a race between the researchers' search for usable medicines and our own immune systems starting to adjust to a new challenge. After all, there were some Indigenous Americans who survived the introduction of smallpox to the continent in 1519. It seems COVID-19 is nowhere near as lethal.
ReplyDeleteIs this virus really the product of China's wet markets and predilection for strange game? When living in Taiwan and Thailand, my wife and I often frequented markets where live poultry and other creatures were sold and slaughtered for customers. In Mainland China, we pass through many markets where odd creatures were sold a food. I've even eat a number of things strange to the Western palette (one of these days, I'll compare backwoods American opossum or raccoon to Chinese palm civet). Yet, God be thanked, we've shown now discernible ill effects. Further, I've lived in communities where Orthodox Jewish neighbors sometimes not only kept kosher, but glatt kosher at that, yet how many pandemics have been launched from communities with a noticeable Orthodox Jewish presence? For the record, I do not accept the fringe conspiracy-mongering that the JOOOOOOOOOZ are responsible for this and other calamities.
But I am intrgiued about the coincidence of Trump's quietly fusing CDC and NSC pandemic offices and China's biowarfare labds being located in Wuhan. Is it a case of our administration's simply reducing bureaucratic reduplication; or does it suggest that this administration may know a few things about Chinese programs that it doesn't want the Chinese to know that we know?
Karl Denniger at his market-ticker.com blog has an interesting take on the Kung Flu. He's been on it for several weeks now and has several disagreements with the ptb regarding their statistics. And he shows his math...
ReplyDeleteyes and no.. nobody puts stock in the Wuhan numbers.
DeleteItaly isn't baked yet.
Diamond Princess has over 100 unresolved cases.
Hand hygiene in hospitals is universally atrocious and may indeed be exacerbating this to the point where it may be measurable against background. It also might be how South Korea got ahead of the game (first drive-thru testing.. to keep ol' Dr. Poop McHands from making healthy people sick in an exam).
Pluses and minuses, I'd say the jury is still out.
- reader #1482
damnit that should be market-ticker.ORG. My bad.
Deletemedia is telling us now "more people than we think" are dying of covid... which starts to sound very global-warmy. "If only you'd listen to the experts, who we're paying to tell you what to do right here and now... you can avert DISASTER!"
ReplyDeleteI dunno.. if the hype is yet another an attempt by the democrat-media axis to 'get trump'... it's going to fail again... I mean.. he's 8-and-0 against mediocrat traps...
- reader #1482