Coronavirus with an R0 of 3 or beyond

[Dreamtimer]

I should have written Serenity/Firefly. Serenity was the name of the pilot episode as well as the later movie. All of it is sooooo good.

[Fred Steeves]

When Wuhan was already in lockdown, it was Italy and Austria that made up for the epicenter of the pandemic, soon joined by Spain. And then, of course, the epicenter squarely moved to the US due to the incompetence of a certain narcissistic individual with testes bigger than his brain mass, and the arrogant defiance of a large group of uneducated people with inflated egos who all think that said narcissistic individual is a savior sent down from the heavens to liberate them from something dark and mysterious called socialism

How were Italy and Austria also a major target of this, if not for "the incompetence of a certain narcissistic individual with testes bigger than his brain mass, and the arrogant defiance of a large group of uneducated people with inflated egos who all think that said narcissistic individual is a savior sent down from the heavens to liberate them from something dark and mysterious called socialism".

?

[Chris]

How were Italy and Austria also a major target of this, if not for "the incompetence of a certain narcissistic individual with testes bigger than his brain mass, and the arrogant defiance of a large group of uneducated people with inflated egos who all think that said narcissistic individual is a savior sent down from the heavens to liberate them from something dark and mysterious called socialism".

?

This one's for you Fred

Fair or not, this is how the rest of the world sees the US right now, pretty much as a failed state. And my own country hasn't exactly been excelling at democracy lately either, so it's only fair...

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWl7kQZHZE0

[Dreamtimer]

A photo from the era of the Spanish flu in the early 20th century. Look closely...



(I like how it's the patriarch holding the cat)

[Dreamtimer]

This is a link to a pdf entitled THE STATE OF THE NATION: A 50-STATE COVID-19 SURVEY which covers Covid-19, re-opening and confidence in Governors as compared to confidence in the President. (Spoiler: all 50 governors win)

The COVID-19 Consortium for Understanding the Public’s Policy Preferences Across States

Partners: Northeastern University, Harvard University, Rutgers University

Authors: David Lazer (Northeastern University); Matthew A. Baum (Harvard University);
Katherine Ognyanova (Rutgers University); John Della Volpe (Harvard University) With: Alexi Quintana, Hanyu Chwe, Stefan McCabe (Northeastern University)

From April 17 to 26 we conducted a large, 50 state survey, the results of which are presented in this report. The first section of the report looks at the nation as a whole while the second section focuses on individual states and comparisons across states.

[Emil El Zapato]

interesting DT...

I was getting my UFO/Alien fix last night and realized that the Fatima (appearance of the Blessed Virgin Mary) coincided with the Spanish Flu epidemic. The 'documentary' claimed that the real event was a UFO experience. Cited were handwritten statements of seeing a large silver disc explaining the miracle of the bouncing sun. The 'warnings' were supposedly added later by Catholic clergy.

Perhaps it is time for a few more warnings or perhaps it is too late for that.

[Aragorn]

How were Italy and Austria also a major target of this, if not for "the incompetence of a certain narcissistic individual with testes bigger than his brain mass, and the arrogant defiance of a large group of uneducated people with inflated egos who all think that said narcissistic individual is a savior sent down from the heavens to liberate them from something dark and mysterious called socialism".

?

Italy and Austria were hotbeds for tourist activity, and it was directly from China that the virus spread to there ─ much more by Europeans who had been to Wuhan than by Chinese citizens who went to Italy and Austria for either business or pleasure. And both Italy and Austria have fairly right-wing governments that were incompetent in the way they handled the spread of the pandemic, because they were more interested in securing the sustained revenue from the tourist sector than in doing the right thing. That's a given. But they were the two places at the vanguard. It's where the virus hit first in Europe, soon followed by Spain.

However, the USA was last in line to become infected, and yet it has managed to become the global epicenter of the pandemic, with now one third of all global casualties, and that for a country that only makes up for 4% of the global population. The bulk of the blame for that lies with the incompetence of El Donaldo the Banana Republican™ and his administration, but there's also a significant part of the blame resting on the shoulders of the denialists, the vast majority of whom are Trump fans.

[Fred Steeves]

However, the USA was last in line to become infected, and yet it has managed to become the global epicenter of the pandemic, with now one third of all global casualties, and that for a country that only makes up for 4% of the global population. The bulk of the blame for that lies with the incompetence of El Donaldo the Banana Republican™ and his administration, but there's also a significant part of the blame resting on the shoulders of the denialists, the vast majority of whom are Trump fans.

I hate seeing TDS and politics entering a pandemic conversation. Let’s go there then shall we?

Deaths per million population is a much more accurate calculus than simply going by total deaths per nation. Per these official world statistics, and making this political, Captain Chaos and crew have done a better job than many other nations, including your own.

Does this mean Netherlands is Right Wing as well?

Deaths:

US 196/million
Netherlands 286/million
Belgium 665/million

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries

[Emil El Zapato]

As always with Trump, beneficial things have happened despite him, not because of him. He would have killed us all by now if left to his own devices. Why do we have to keep debating this obvious reality? As a southern white guy, you might still be alive but I entertain that notion only because that is part and parcel of Trump's facade...pretend you actually care if ANYONE lives. I'm sure there are many that would be shocked by my admission that I can be subject to propaganda's ugly, snakelike grasp.

[Wind]

You're really going to defend Trump, Fred? I can understand playing the devil's advocate, but c'mon man.

[Aragorn]

I hate seeing TDS and politics entering a pandemic conversation. Let’s go there then shall we?

"TDS" ─ for us non-Americans, that's "Trump Derangement Syndrome" ─ is acronymese for one of the many, many derogatory labels the alt-right has invented as cloaked expletives for normal people, Fred. You know, like "snowflake", "safety pins", "safe spaces", "libtards", and so on. I don't know them all, but I'm sure bsbray could give you a complete list if you were to ask him nicely.

Are you so sure you want to go there?

Deaths per million population is a much more accurate calculus than simply going by total deaths per nation. Per these official world statistics, and making this political, Captain Chaos and crew have done a better job than many other nations, including your own.

Does this mean Netherlands is Right Wing as well?

Deaths:

US 196/million
Netherlands 286/million
Belgium 665/million

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries

Compared to the United States, most of Europe ─ and especially Western European countries like Belgium ─ is in essence one big metropolitan area, interspersed with a few suburbs and a bit of farmland. The population is a lot more densely packed here in Belgium than in the USA, and the same is true for traffic ─ especially international highway traffic, because Europe heavily relies on transport by road.

The Netherlands is a little less densely populated. And yes, for your information, the incumbent government of the Netherlands is a right-wing coalition, as is the one in Belgium ─ especially here in the Flanders, where the far-right won last year's elections by a vast majority.

But anyway, just to give you an example, Belgium is about 31'000 km² in size and has a population of 11'500'000 people. That's only a little bit more than the population of New York City. How many Covid-19 deaths are there again in New York City by now?

Let's see... <clickety click, tappety tap>... Oh wow, over 13'000, I see? Unless my calculator has suddenly gone berserk, that's 1'130 Covid-19 deaths per million people. Oopsie daisy, Fred. Do you want fries with that?

[Dreamtimer]

The credit, such as it is, goes to the American Citizens as opposed to our dear leader. Most of the self-quarantining has been voluntary. My family in AZ, GA, NC, WY and CA are all examples of this. They do it because they care. Both about their own families and also their communities and their nation.

[Wind]

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aJLNf1C7d4

[Dreamtimer]

I noticed more are wearing masks now.

And I guess Pence decided maybe he should, too. He's full of crap saying he didn't know he should wear one when he visited Mayo. He knew darn well because a) it was part of his own guidelines and b) they told him so when he arrived at the hospital.

Was he trying to show that he was wearing the shield of Jesus? Because that sure ain't supposed to be part of our politics or policy.

[Emil El Zapato]

It's interesting to note that it hasn't been that long when the right maintained that only those dirty 'leftists' spent public time bitchin' and protestin'.

I guess now they will have to say 'they only do it when they have a good reason'

scary, huh...these people had to wait to see a member of their ruling class wearing a mask before they would.... a very big <sigh>