Coronavirus Outbreak...

[Leonhard]

I'm not particularly concerned at this moment. The media is hyping it, and it is a bit severe, but the common flu kills more people each year.

[Mountain Man]

I don't see how this can hurt Trump. Any market/economic downturn from now to the election he can scapegoat something that was totally out of his control.

Democrats are already ratcheting up their "Trump didn't do enough to stop the virus" narrative.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2...s-is-too-late/

So Trump isn't doing enough. But if he suggests closing the border, it's just a "scare tactic". Gotta love Democrat logic.

[seanD]

Democrats are already ratcheting up their "Trump didn't do enough to stop the virus" narrative.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2...s-is-too-late/

So Trump isn't doing enough. But if he suggests closing the border, it's just a "scare tactic". Gotta love Democrat logic.

Well, yeah, that's what they do.

[MaxVel]

I'm not particularly concerned at this moment. The media is hyping it, and it is a bit severe, but the common flu kills more people each year.

Yeah, but the overall mortality rate for Covid-19 appears to be around 1.5 % (flu is about 0.1%, I think). So if we see high numbers of people being infected (like get the flu each year) then we will see a lot more deaths from Covid-19 than the flu. Especially in the over 80 age group, where mortality looks to be about 15%.

Of course, it's hard to know how accurate figures are, given the lack of transparency from China, and aspects like the long incubation time / symptomless cases in some people, difficulty of diagnosis, etc, so it could be lower than that (i.e. a lot of people infected that are undiagnosed and don't die). I expect mortality rates are going to be higher in areas with large numbers of cases as treatment facilities get overwhelmed and can't help everyone who needs it.

It's going to be an interesting next few weeks. There are cases in the city I live near to, I'm planning for the possibility of spending some significant time 'confined to quarters'. I'd recommend everyone make some planning now for that possibility - lay in some non-perishable food, drinking water, stock up on medications etc. There is the possibility of supply-chain disruptions, panic buying, business closures etc even if ultimately the virus doesn't prove to be as bad as currently feared.

Also: Read Psalm 91 , and put verse 14 in to practice.

[seanD]

I'm not particularly concerned at this moment. The media is hyping it, and it is a bit severe, but the common flu kills more people each year.

I'm no epidemiologist, but isn't it kind of silly making comparisons to the common flu when A) we don't have accurate data on the coronavirus, and B) the data we do have has only been collected for 2 months it's been around? If you gave the common flu just 2 months to spread, would it spread as fast and be as deadly?

[Starlight]

[demi-conservative]

Is the coronavirus really any worse than the common flu?

Who knows? Preventing panic is the main thing.

[seanD]

I feel sorry for Pence.

[Tassman]

So Trump isn't doing enough. But if he suggests closing the border, it's just a "scare tactic". Gotta love Democrat logic.

Trump has done too much. Steps that were put in place by Obama after the Ebola outbreak were scrapped by Trump. And the post of global health czar was eliminated and CDC funding cut.

All done by Trump.

"US preparedness to deal with the threat of corona-virus has been hampered by the personnel and budget cuts made by the Trump administration over the past three years, according to health experts.

There is no one in the White House tasked specifically to oversee a coordinated government-wide response in the event of a pandemic, since the post of senior director for global health security and bio-threats on the national security council (NSC) was eliminated last May".

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...-underprepared

[Mountain Man]

Who knows? Preventing panic is the main thing.

And along come the liberals screaming, "We're all going to die! And it's all Trump's fault!"

[Mountain Man]

I feel sorry for Pence.

Are you going put this remark into context?

[seanD]

And along come the liberals screaming, "We're all going to die! And it's all Trump's fault!"

It works in CDC's best interest to milk it for all its worth. Thanks to SL's post, which I didn't know, this would give them even more of an incentive to hype it. Conservatives are saying the head of CDC is part of the anti-Trump resistance, thus is trying to make Trump look bad. I think the conspiracy is just greed. Another government bureaucrat seeking an opportunity to increase their budget.

[Darfius]

To answer OP's question, it's too late to contain the spread of the virus because contrary to ignorant claims made in this thread, the media downplayed the threat ("it's not as bad as the flu") until the truth was no longer possible to hide and the government is making active attempts to spread the virus by housing the infected at a former residential center for the mentally disabled (rather than a facility equipped to quarantine a level 3 or 4 biosafety hazard).

This is not the flu. The flu doesn't make people pass out in the streets, a claim proven by so many viral videos coming out of China, Iran and South Korea that not even snopes--that purveyor of disinformation--can outright deny it.

This virus is going to at the very least cause a global recession, but if you've been paying attention to the over 700 million Chinese people forcibly quarantined for a month and running with empty streets and shut down factories, it will likely be worse. The amount of American medication, electronics and machine parts the Chinese supply is staggering and they've been at a standstill for far longer than an interconnected global system can absorb.

[Sparko]

I feel sorry for Pence.

Hey at least he can talk clearly. I thought Trump's speech last night was horrible. He just kept repeating himself and didn't seem to know what to say. Didn't inspire any confidence in me at all. At least he had the sense to let other people speak.

[demi-conservative]

It works in CDC's best interest to milk it for all its worth. Thanks to SL's post, which I didn't know, this would give them even more of an incentive to hype it. Conservatives are saying the head of CDC is part of the anti-Trump resistance, thus is trying to make Trump look bad. I think the conspiracy is just greed. Another government bureaucrat seeking an opportunity to increase their budget.

The CDC was perfectly correct in what it said, which is that a community spread of the coronavirus is most likely to happen, and these are likely measures that business and schools should prepare to carry out. Many developed countries around the world are a) not able to prevent community spread and b) enacting similar measures. Maxvel is reasoning along the same lines at his own individual level.

It's simply a sober judgment.