It's a mad, mad world

 

WHY are all the packages of toilet paper disappearing? Why is the food flying off the shelves? Why are people purchasing everything in mass quantities FAR more than they'd need for this virus that's no worse than a simple cold for most, and not much worse than seasonal influenza for 15% of the people who get it? Well buckle up kids, it's gonna be a long ride. How selfish of them right?? People who need things can't get them right now and it's unfair!! Right?

Well first, let's talk about some new information presented today from the CDC, and well over FIFTY of the world's most renowned infectious disease experts and other scientists and medical professionals in the field. Many meetings among them were held that included all known data from COVID-19 and with the sole intent of finding out how many people in the US could be inflicted with this overblown and overhyped virus that was clearly not handled well by the Republicans. Or was it the Democrats? Most of society is divided right now, fueled by political bias and massive amounts of misinformation that was distributed for the beginning of this nightmare when the virus existed solely in the far East. Early news reports on all sides of the media spectrum effectively convinced that this wasn't going to really affect the US that much, and there was absolutely no reason to worry because it's not even that bad of an illness and the flu kills SO many more people per year right?

Before I show you the results of the data analysis predictions I offer my readers the opportunity to produce your credentials that qualify you to know more than the many, many experts researching this day and night for months, and change my mind. If you are not more qualified than these people, then sit down, shut up, and listen for just a few minutes. Let me say it louder for the people in the back. Unless you're a world-renowned infectious disease expert who has run data models and experiments for months, then sit down, shut up, and listen.

Here is the article from the NY Times that explains the results. I have highlighted the most pertinent information for emphasis.

 

Again, these numbers are based on a worst-case scenario with little or no intervention from the federal or local governments. (see more on this below). We have slowly begun to intervene and take the recommended precautions and actions necessary to ensure that these numbers CANNOT happen. 1.7 million deaths would mean that a LOT of people you know and love would die within months, 2 years tops. However with SO many people effectively convinced that this is nothing more than the flu we are most certainly not taking enough precautions as a nation to bring those numbers down to a digestible level. We have Covid positive celebrities touching everyone's microphones just to be "funny". I've heard dozens of people in public declare this entire response as "stupid" and "overdramatized". I've seen people not washing their hands after using the restroom. I've seen teens loudly claiming that they're not worried because kids can't get it. Until today, very few people were taking this seriously and even now, with the chaos that we are experiencing the majority of people who are taking it slightly more seriously, are not doing so out of respect to the potential spread of the virus, they are doing so to keep up with the masses in stockpiling goods, and out of fears of what this will all do to society for the short term. So people are carelessly still hugging, remaining in close quarters, getting on the road to head to Spring break, having large gatherings, and other equally irresponsible actions that are quite the opposite of the recommended precautions from the CDC, the WHO, federal and local governments and literally every expert out there. The longer it takes to actually take this thing seriously, the closer we inch to those impossible numbers given above.

All that said, allowing unconstitutional measures to be executed, lockdowns, mandates on business owners is clearly setting a dangerous precedent in terms of personal liberties, and in a truly free market things would be handled so much differently that it's hard to even gauge where society stands on the issue but I know this when you have republicans refusing to close schools simply because democrats said it should be done, it's quite obvious that the people and safety doesn't actually matter. Politics matter. Money matters. But YOU don't matter. And they're both wrong. Allow teachers to decide if they want to work or not. Allow parents who want to pull their kids, do so without fear of truancy laws. (I know at least 30 parents wanting to pull their kids but are afraid of getting in trouble. The ramifications of that are absolutely horrifying. Parents are in turmoil over the fact that they are so fearful of government backlash and fines and being arrested, that they're choosing to send their kids to school anyway when they REALLY don't want to. I get this, we had this fear too, but our kids safety and that of the adults in our family with health issues are far more important than any fines or associated risks with pulling them. Luckily, we can homeschool, and have done so before very successfully. So I think a lot of people are soon going to see how much easier it is to homeschool than they thought. (Credit for that point goes to someone else, but it's a brilliant fact.) No matter how dangerous Covid is or isn't, all of this should be taken seriously, precautions need to be taken. Even if you aren't likely to get sick, someone you care about probably is due to health issues. So quit fucking going in public okay?

Here's the rest of the article. I implore you to listen to Lauren at the end there. Or just pray like hell that all these experts don't know what they're talking about. Whichever you feel more comfortable with. If the latter is true, and you are not taking all possible precautions, then please, physically distance yourself from my immunocompromised family until I can be absolutely certain that no one I care about is going to die. I still love all of you no matter which side of the debate you fall on though, and air hugs and Vulcan salutes to you all and

"Let's be careful out there."

~ Sergeant Phil Esterhaus, Hill Street Blues