The official number of Americans sick with coronavirus doubled over the weekend; markets are plunging. There’s a lot to talk about, so here’s a new open thread.
This tweet from Eric Trump really hasn’t aged very well.
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And, in a few minutes (3:00 PM EDT), Dolt 45 will finally be declaring a state of emergency–which I fear he may regard as a blank check to suspend any civil liberties he happens to find inconvenient. Indefinitely.
http://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1238478818135945216
If Trump does get sick, any hospital visit will be called part 2 of his physical.
@Full Metal Ox
I’m hoping he doesn’t know about how Abraham Lincoln enforced martial law over Kentucky during the Civil War, otherwise he’ll put martial law in place over the whole country.
@WWTH
Or it might just be unannounced, like that visit he made to Walter Reed that nobody will say the reason for.
@Ohlmann
People minimizing this crisis are not stupid, minimization is just another way to deal with anxiety, same as panicking. It’s not a rational way to deal, but then again, no-one’s always rational. I do the same, honestly. But I think most people can change their opinions, I know I did when we started learning more about the virus.
Besides, it’s not only about convincing people, it’s about combating misinformation. Misinformation can kill people right now. They need to be appropiately concerned, otherwise we won’t take this seriously enough to take precautions.
@Full Metal Ox
Most likely he will use the occasion to declare illegal immigration a public health hazard, and stage massive raids on sanctuary cities.
@Moogue: that quote reflect a lot of my frustration against the minimizer. That being said, if someone want to try to change one opinion, he should do so ; the main problem is that trying to argue is quickly taxing and soul-draining.
(the fact I hate people by default probably don’t help)
I have an important personal event next WE with 30ish people from all France. It probably will be done as scheduled ; since I hate the consequence of not doing it, I guess the next best thing will be to self isolate for at least 15 days afterwards, just in case.
@Diego Duarte
Which of course will exacerbate the spread of disease by moving people long distances and forcing grouping of people in tight spaces.
The group I’m most worried about is the people held in the cages at the border. They are at very high risk of coronavirus and are unlikely to receive medical attention at all.
@Naglfar:
@Diego Duarte:
For whatever it might be worth, I hoard toilet paper every autumn; I have mobility issues and use public transportation, which complicates shopping in bad weather.
Suffice to say that I was already well-stocked–which was fortunate, since the Walgreen’s across the street (my default source for toilet paper and other sundries) went out of business at the beginning of this month.)
This sort of emergency stockpiling stampede reveals what kinds of groceries people actually like–Meijer’s was stripped of apples, bananas, carrots, and tomatoes, but plenty of leeks, collards, and kale remained.
Oh, and speaking of the vital importance of information: there’ll be no more public library service in my county until at least April 5th–meaning that people without home Internet access are SOL.
@Naglfar : also other prisoners of all stripes, be them americans black people imprisoned without serious reasons, french detainees in thoses famously decayed prisons, (french) immigrants in camps waiting for deportations, and of course ouighours and other political detainees in China.
I don’t have good ideas for replacement of prison for at least some crimes, but the detention mania of a lot of countries is also a biological ticking bomb.
@Ohlmann
There have been a few instances already reported of sheriffs testing positive after interacting with jailed people, so jails in America are probably already going off.
Since this thread began, I’ve been thinking up various blaming opportunities for Trump admin/Republicans over this disaster. We can use them to play bingo, or something. In no particular order:
Blame the Left/Democrats, because they stand to gain from this politically. That’s good enough reason to suspect they somehow caused the disaster.
Blame China, because they failed to prevent/stamp out the early epidemic.
Blame “immigration”, because many salt-of-the-earth type Americans have no other concept of international travel. After all, the virus must entered the USA somehow. Probably illegally from Mexico, because people there have ALL the diseases.
Blame immigration, because without the existence of Chinese-American community, who’d bother to travel between US and China?
Blame the lack of sufficiently effective early US government response in the form of travel bans. This is naturally the fault of the Left, because they’re generally opposed to border control.
Blame the Democratic state and local governments that actually try to assess the situation, for fearmongering AND for failing to “keep the numbers down”.
Blame the stock traders for not being loyal to the Trump regime, after everything Republicans have done for the rich people.
Give some winks and nudges to brave truth-tellers who reveal that the whole disaster was deliberately machinated by someone evil (Chinese, Jews, Obama)
….
TOTAL UNEXPECTED WILD CARD
Blame Europe, because we trusted them as fellow civilized white people to not infect us with the China virus. They betrayed our trust, and now whatever happens with the US epidemic is ultimately their fault and not our responsibility. Also, they have now deserved a travel ban, regardless of whether that helps anything any more.
@Lumipuna
In case anyone wants it, I made an online bingo card with the likely targets of his blame that you mentioned and a few others he might try to blame.
https://mfbc.us/m/pghcqg?_ga=2.47570663.1592908633.1584131621-1153257929.1584131621
@Naglfar and Lumipuna
Turns out he did blame the Democrats and especially the Obama administration. Did you watch the part where he said the previous administration allowed the swine flu to kill 14 thousand people, and when the reporter reminded him that by this time the Obama administration had tested 1 million people, he cut her off entirely?
@Diego Duarte
I haven’t watched yet, but I’m not really surprised. In the past he also has tried to make it look like 9/11 was on Obama’s watch.
I’m seeing conspiracy theories which say something along the lines of this: The global super-elite’s control is coming undone, thanks to the effort of [insert favorite far-right politician here], so the virus was released to cause chaos so they can kill off any threats to their rule largely unnoticed and reassert control after. Not to worry, [favored politician] has a secret plot to stop them.
And then there are the ones who think it’s some sort of hoax which is being used to “genocide” people. I think that they’re trying to imply that it’s just the normal cold or flu and certain groups of people are being executed and everyone told “it was virus”, but I’ve only seen a few examples of that so far and they were barely coherent.
@Snowberry
And that fits right in to QAnon conspiracy theories about how Trump is on to the secret globalist satanic elite pedophile plot and is able to counter step each thing they throw at him.
If you were expecting coherence from delusional MAGA conspiracy theorists, I feel you may have set your expectations far too high.
So proud of my boomer sister. Earlier today, she sent me a multiply-forwarded email of “advice” about the coronavirus, which was mostly bullshit. I was just figuring out how to politely debunk it when she sent a followup saying “turns out that email I sent earlier is bullshit”. So I don’t always have to be the bad guy.
I am suffering from either the flu or the coronavirus (I have symptoms that are common to both). I am thankful to have took most of the week in telecommute, but still have a bunch of people to warn. And rather obviously, I am a bit anxious.
In particular, a week ago I met a friend, and I have learned yesterday his mother who live with him is under chimiotherapie. For understandable reason I am very, very worried for her.
(and for me ? well, we’ll see, but nothing dramatic for now. We’ll see, but honestly I am much less afraid of dying than of an hospitalization, and I am much less afraid of an hospitalization than of the fear of having contaminated a poor, cancerous elder :x)
@Ohlmann
I really feel for you because I have the same fear of harming others. With any luck, this elderly woman will remain free of any virus.
Also with any luck, you’ll be fine and recover on your own. I’m sending you my best wishes. Get well soon!
Recent report on Covid-19
In summary (as far as I can interpret; but best check for yourselves):
Symptoms are really variable.
Lot of people will be infected but be asymptomatic.
Most contagion seems to be in smaller groups like families rather than large gatherings or just generally being out and about.
Appears to be somewhat less lethal than SARS or MERS.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2002032
Many thanks Kats. Admittely, currently it feel like a pretty bad flu, but not something dangerous for me. Accordingly, I try to focus on not being dangerous to other.
I did take the risk of voting today. There was a self service for hand sanitizer and I brought my own pen. Because while Macron is closer to Obama than Trump, he is still a dangerous state dismantler.
@Alan Robertshaw : yes, while it’s much more dangerous than the flu (by an order of magnitude), it’s also almost one order of magnitude less deadly than the MERS. The problem seem to be the combination of somewhat high transmissibility, somewhat high mortality, and somewhat failed health systems.
Is the US attempting to profit off the eventual vaccine? There’s this report today:
I get that the US government’s primary responsibility is to Americans, but it’s not like there will not be enough of this vaccine to go around unless the US secures exclusivity. If CureVac come up with a vaccine, and trials are successful, they can license it to other companies for manufacturing. So, is the US simply thinking of the fabulous profit they could make if they control the vaccine? Or do they intend to ensure that, say, Iran can’t get any?
@Moggie
I’d guess it’s both. In a capitalist state, profit comes before lives, so it seems quite likely they’d try to have a monopoly to turn a profit for Trump and friends. I’m also expecting that the US government would not want to allow China access to a vaccine to “punish” them.
IDK, maybe Trump thinks he can save months in development schedule if they first develop just enough vaccine for the US, and only then for other countries. He’s probably thinking in terms of some real estate development analogy.
I think it’s too complicated for him. He want something, he buy the exclusivity. He don’t go farther than that.