Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Mar 12, 2020 9:56:33 GMT -8
This is really what the coronavirus is about. Dennis Prager had some good comments about this today. His shtick is basically, “So every flu season we’re going to shut down the economy of the world?”
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Post by kungfuzu on Mar 12, 2020 10:38:03 GMT -8
This is basically a media-driven pandemic. I could see this happening in Asia and it is why I knew that the effects on the economy would likely be drastic. Just to give you an idea of how phony this is let me give you a few facts which are easy to find.
1. An estimated 80,000 people died in the USA during the flu season of 2017-2018. That was from a site called " STAT NEWS." They quote the CDC.
2. The average age of the people who have died in Italy from the Corona Virus is almost 81. Nobody under 70 has died. That info is from the Swiss newspaper, Neue Zurcher Zeitung.
Eine Studie aus Italien, die auf der Analyse von 105 verstorbenen italienischen Patienten basierte, bestätigte diese Zahlen. Die Todesopfer in Italien waren im Durchschnitt 81 Jahre alt, alle waren über 70.
A study out of Italy which was based on analysis of 105 deceased Italian patients, confirmed the numbers. Those who died in Italy were on average 81 years old, all were over 70.
3. In the same NZZ article it was clearly stated that the single best-prepared country to fight the Corona Virus is the USA.
On a personal basis, I can tell you that those who know best are not terribly worried.
I had a bi-annual doctor's appointment today. When I checked in, I did fill out a three-question form about the Corona Virus. I suppose it is something the CDC is asking clinics to do.
I then met a nurse and we both had a good laugh at the gullibility and ignorance of the general public. She gave me a few stories about people asking if they should get another flu-vaccine and other such nonsense.
I also had a chuckle with my doctor although he was not as vocal as the nurse. In any case, he clearly wasn't overly concerned about catching the Corona Virus from me, as he shook my hand as I left.
24/7 news coverage 7 days a week is one of the worse pandemics plaguing the world today.
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Post by timothylane on Mar 12, 2020 10:51:37 GMT -8
Of course it helps that your area hasn't been hit much yet. I'll bet doctors up in Brad's bailiwick are much more concerned. So far there doesn't seem to be any sort of panic yet in my nursing home, but then so far Kentucky has also been hit only lightly. They did send someone around to check for respiratory symptoms a few days ago, probably for the Wuhan flu (I don't recall anything of the sort in previous years) though they didn't actually say.
I have a horrible feeling that we may indeed shut the economy down in future flu seasons. The West is going from being decadent to being moribund. If a new dark age is coming, I hope I don't live to see it. Somehow I doubt nursing home patients would live very long in any case.
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Post by kungfuzu on Mar 12, 2020 11:07:31 GMT -8
Maybe we haven't been hit much because the thing is not as great a threat as we have been led to believe. Or maybe, as I suspect, many more people have had the thing and haven't keeled over from it. Or perhaps, we are just being more reasonable and less lemming-like that others. In any case, we have three new cases less than 5 miles from us and I ain't going to change my life-style. I went to a Chinese restaurant for supper on Tuesday night and will probably go to another one over the weekend. I don't give a damn about this thing. I have always washed my hands, covered my nose and mouth when I sneeze and don't touch public door handles with my fingers. I pull down my shirt sleeve or pull out a Kleenex. I need to change 0 in my personal habits.
As to Brad's area, 26 people who died from the virus happen to be from that nursing home which would seem to have something less than a stellar reputation for cleanliness and general operating protocols.
I hope you are keeping on your staff to constantly clean and disinfect.
And another point which the article in the NZZ made was that those who died pretty much had at least three major underlying health problems in combination and not under control. Let's face it, being 80 years old with a number of serious health issues does not make for an extended stay. I may look up the percentages on deaths for 20 year-olds and 80 year-olds. Of course, these would be a bit misleading because many people die before reaching 80.
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Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Mar 12, 2020 11:09:26 GMT -8
Ditto. And it’s always great to hear real-world anecdotes.
Dennis Prager also had these points, which I mostly paraphrase:
+ The hysteria over global warming has softened people to believe hysterias.
+ People are indoctrinated by schools and the media not to think rationally.
+ People are indoctrinated to trust the experts.
+ The lies in the general media have made it difficult for people to distinguish between fact and fiction.
+ The message from the smug-set has always been “Leave religion and people will be more reasonable.” It’s been the opposite.
+ The, quote, “better educated” are more likely to believe the hysteria.
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Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
Posts: 10,912
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Post by Brad Nelson on Mar 12, 2020 11:11:54 GMT -8
Some so-called conservatives such as Lars Larson are okay with Governor Inslee of Washington banning gatherings of 250 or more. Yikes.
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Post by kungfuzu on Mar 12, 2020 11:17:28 GMT -8
I will take it a step further. The dishonest media has contributed to a general mistrust of institutions which we could once trust. This damages society as a whole, and not just in regard to the news.
The-Boy-Who-Cried-Wolf method of news will come back to haunt us one day. Not in a case such as this phony pandemic, but it something that is immediate and unforeseeable.
I.e. those who have graduate and post-graduate degrees. These people have always been around. They have been conditioned to believe. They, too often, made their way in life by spouting back that which they have been taught, not through observation and deep consideration of a subject. They believe something because it is written on a page, or announced over the TV or radio. They don't seem to understand that the people who write those articles and talk on TV and the radio have agendas. They don't seem to understand the messiness of life. They certainly don't get the famous military dictum "No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy." Pretty much the same holds true for life.
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Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
Posts: 10,912
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Post by Brad Nelson on Mar 12, 2020 11:22:02 GMT -8
Prager also noted that it may be impossible for people to learn from the "cry wolf" aspect of the media. I think he's right.
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Post by kungfuzu on Mar 12, 2020 11:57:35 GMT -8
A short but enlightening piece on the Virus.
The "smug set" are either liars or dummies. One of the reasons religion works is that it lays down rules. And the rules can generally be explained and they work. Why is this? Because the rules are based on human nature, not on some imaginary perfect man.
I find those who believe in the idea of the perfect man much more credulous than those who believe in the idea of God. We can't disprove the existence of God, in fact, logically speaking, some sort of superior being i.e. "Cause" must exist. Yet after millennia of history, which prove that there is no such thing and can be no such thing as a perfect man, leftist fools can still not give up on their faith. Who is being more gullible?
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Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Mar 12, 2020 12:06:56 GMT -8
One commenter said:
I've had something floating around in my system very low-level for the last couple of weeks. It never broke out into anything but I could tell it was there. Flu? Cold? Corona? Who knows? But that is likely the reality of it. The coronavirus has already been all over and these new detections are likely the result of now finding what you are looking for. I think Artler first made this point.
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Post by kungfuzu on Mar 12, 2020 12:12:14 GMT -8
The Chinese have known about this since November at the very latest. On Saturday, a friend reminded me that I had given him a heads-up on it before Christmas.
It hit me yesterday that my son may have had this. When he gets a cold or flu he normally has a low-grade fever for a day or so. He is then fine. But in January or late December he ran a fever of over 100 degrees for 4 or 5 days. When we got him to the doctor, he was tested and told it was a cold virus. That makes me wonder.
Other than the fever, he was not very badly effected. He rested a little more than normal, but that was it.
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Post by timothylane on Mar 12, 2020 12:23:10 GMT -8
Actually, some have applied the Boy Who Cried "Wolf" to the relative phlegmatism of American's responses to the Wuhan flu, at least in most places. Everything the left doesn't like is going to kill us all (even relatively trivial matters such as the dispute over net neutrality), and after a while people no longer believe it. But it raises up a ruckus in the blogosphere. And the Wuhan flu is certainly a serious matter. The death rate does seem to be high -- but it's also exaggerated because so many people get it and hardly notice.
On the other hand, it seems to have hit Iran even harder than China. Especially Qom. I would mention karma, but that isn't a Muslim concept.
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Post by kungfuzu on Mar 12, 2020 12:56:40 GMT -8
Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of people. I do wonder what is going on though. I am sure the medical system in Iran is not very good, but it would also appear that the health of those running things must be fairly poor. A lot of high-ranking Iranian government officials are keeling over. Allah be praised!
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Post by kungfuzu on Mar 12, 2020 13:00:33 GMT -8
What a schmuck. I can't say that I would lose much sleep if some of the sports franchises went bust. The only people I would feel sorry for would be the hourly workers.
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Post by timothylane on Mar 12, 2020 13:26:49 GMT -8
Yes, there are a lot of "little people" hurt when sports games are canceled or played before empty stands, or cultural events are canceled, or when no one goes to bars or restaurants. A lot of people are being hurt. This is even a case where some sort of subsidies can be justified, though there is the trivial detail that (as David Crockett was reminded once by a constituent) that the Constitution doesn't authorize federal expenditures for charity.
Just a short while ago, FNC had someone on who noted that the real problem is anxiety. People are so frightened by all the bad news and become tense and anxious. Or, in other words, "we have nothing to fear but fear itself." And though the usual quote doesn't extend that far, I do know that FDR explained what he meant was unreasoning fear, or in other words panic.
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Post by timothylane on Mar 12, 2020 14:31:46 GMT -8
Gavin Noisome in California joined Jay Inslee in banning events with more than 250 people. He exempted Disneyland, but they're closing down for the rest of March anyway. Of course, this also doesn't apply to the homeless encampments in many California cities (and the piles of crap resulting from them). The link is:
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Post by kungfuzu on Mar 12, 2020 15:05:54 GMT -8
The link is to an article which I found, largely, correct, even though it would appear to be written by a leftist.
As is the case with most people, the writer sees the problem emerging from his opponents i.e. business interests. Of course, conservatives see the problem arising from leftist interests. For years, I have been preaching that leftist and ultra-capitalist interests have merged in areas and learned to cooperate with each other. It is called modern feudalism. Some might call it technocratism.
I don't know if people will learn anything from this Wuhan-virus debacle, but if they learn that a country needs to have control over certain basic industries and must keep some large percentage of these on-shore, then we will be better off.
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Post by kungfuzu on Mar 12, 2020 15:30:07 GMT -8
I already suspected that this was happening.
European health systems, being socialist national health, are set up to treat people pretty well until they reach about 75. After that, a patient is often given more palliative care as opposed to major surgery or costly drugs. I know this from the experience of a few older people I had pretty close contact with.
The possible overwhelming of a hospital system is the big medical risks with the Wuhan-virus.
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Post by timothylane on Mar 12, 2020 15:43:59 GMT -8
Death panels, anyone? One reason I opposed Obamacare from the beginning was the suspicion that -- as an elderly conservative -- I would be denied by Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel's provisions.
Ira Levin went even further in his dystopian novel, This Perfect Day. People all lived up to a certain age (I think around 60), and then died. "Christ, Marx, Wood, and Wei led us to this perfect day."
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Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Mar 12, 2020 17:48:21 GMT -8
I do believe all this is the result of having become acclimated to hysteria along with the expectation that all harm should be ameliorated by the government. This is, as I have said often, a chick thing. Where are the men (including Trump) standing up and telling people "This is flu season. Wash your hands but life goes on"?
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