I was trying to take a day off, but my inbox and the things I'm reading in the paper are driving me crazy.
Let's start with this article I actually read last night, when I saw it retweeted by Ethan Smith of the "Wall Street Journal." (Now is the time when Twitter is really shining, it's the best way to keep up with coronavirus news. Follow certain people and they'll link you to stories... I'll admit, I'm following mostly left-leaning people, but start with Maggie Haberman: @maggieNYT Maggie is linking to relevant "Times" stories and other stories you should be paying attention to. And Frank Rich, one of the savviest observers out there: @frankrichny And if you want to keep up with how the youth are coping, follow Taylor Lorenz: @TaylorLorenz Of course you should follow more people, but that would be a completely different article. If you've never used Twitter, or thought it was too difficult to use, start now. Download the Twitter app and follow these people. And if you're on the desktop, I still recommend Tweetdeck, Twitter does not have a desktop app, illustrating where the action is at.)
Whew! I got a bit off point there.
So, Ethan Smith linked to this article from ProPublica:
"A Medical Worker Describes Terrifying Lung Failure From COVID-19 - Even in His Young Patients - 'It first struck me how different it was when I saw my first coronavirus patient go bad. I was like, Holy shit, this is not the flu. Watching this relatively young guy, gasping for air, pink frothy secretions coming out of his tube.'": bit.ly/398Vkzy
Read this, it's required. This is what happens when you're on a ventilator. And they're already running out of ventilators. And if you think you're immune:
"12-year-old girl with coronavirus is on a ventilator and fighting for her life": cnn.it/3biv1bp
She had no pre-existing conditions and she hadn't traveled.
Which brings me to the most important story of the day.
"How the Virus Got Out - The most extensive travel restrictions to stop an outbreak in human history haven't been enough. We analyzed the movements of hundreds of millions of people to show why.": nyti.ms/2wkMPEg
This is mostly graphic, very little reading is involved, please take the time to scroll down and read this, because many people are math-challenged and don't understand what exponential means and sometimes you need pictures to get you to comprehend concepts.
TIMING IS OF THE ESSENCE!
You don't have to read this whole story about how Italy bungled their handling of Covid-19, I'll just quote the lines that stood out to me:
"Italy is still paying the price of those early mixed messages by scientists and politicians. The people who have died in staggering numbers recently - more than 2,300 in the last four days - were mostly infected during the confusion of a week or two ago."
Well, then there's the final sentence of the above-linked article:
"Americans and others, he said, 'need to be ready.'"
Earlier today I read that people believe they can fight this with "confidence." As in "I'm healthy, I didn't travel to China, I don't live in New York, this doesn't apply to me and I won't get it and if I do it won't be that bad." WRONG!
If you add the last two stories together, you can see that what appears calm today is insanity tomorrow. Because incubation can take up to 14 days, you hang with people who are carriers, who might appear totally healthy, you yourself might think you're totally healthy and then BAM!
And then there is this headline:
"Cuomo warns 80% will get virus over '9 months...'": bit.ly/2QCN3xg
Here's the bottom line. The odds of you getting the coronavirus are better than even. If you're a thinking person you know that you want to get it LATER RATHER THAN SOONER! Those who are staying home and interacting with no one are at a distinct advantage, they'll miss the initial hospital rush and overcrowding and by time they get it there will be enough infrastructure to serve them. There's gonna be triage, people are gonna be left to die. If you read the initial story linked above, you'll see that most people on ventilators are in their 40s and 50s at this guy's hospital, meaning if you're older...you might not get a ventilator, you might be left to die.
My older sister Jill sent me a must-read article this morning:
"Where Is Joe?": bit.ly/33FjmB9
I was driving last night listening to Fox, and the anchor was harping on the absence of Joe Biden, who when finally confronted said:
"I find myself, literally on the phone with my key advisors, medical advisors and economic advisors literally four or five hours a day, going through detailed memoranda on what we should be doing."
Huh? Bernie Sanders is proffering solutions, raising money, and Joe Biden is silent?
I GET IT I GET IT I GET IT, BERNIE'S DONE!
But in last week's debate, Bernie emphasized leadership, and Biden is showing none.
From this same article:
"One other explanation is that Joe Biden is not speaking out because he has nothing to say. Historian Gabriel Winant rightly points out that one reason Biden's performance is so bad is that 'the response the situation actually demands would negate the whole logic of (establishment Democrats') power and lead inexorably to its end.' That's because Biden's whole campaign has been spent attacking the left for demanding massive new public investment, paid leave and guaranteed income, and bold, immediate action to fight crises, plus free healthcare for all - and now we need all of the things centrist Democrats have long said we can't have or will have to wait many years for. In a Great Depression, you need a New Deal, and we're facing a Great Depression with a Democratic party that has rejected the foundations of New Deal social democracy. How can proud incrementalists and defenders of the status quo ever hope to fix this?"
And in this "Current Affairs" article they link to another story that brings the truth home:
"The Post-Trump Phase of the Post-Truth Era Could Be Starting Soon - Joe Biden's relentless lying in last night's debate, and the media's astonishingly servile reaction, have made it clear that the 'post-truth' era will not be over when the Trump administration ends." bit.ly/2WERQC7
You may be heartened by the closing of the Florida beaches, the efforts people have made to stay home in Washington, California, Illinois and New York. But my my inbox is littered with writers from these states sending pictures and telling stories of people out and about in close proximity, if not actually touching each other! Let me see, if I told you you could go outside and play for a week or two, but then you would have to stay home for months and the odds were you and everybody you knew would get a horrible, life-threatening illness, would you? OF COURSE NOT!
This is kind of like 9/11, when Bush queried, who could conceive of people flying airplanes into buildings? Well, the same "deep state" that Trump keeps excoriating, they knew. And we've seen this movie in China and Italy and elsewhere but somehow we think we're immune because we're the good ole' U.S.A., the land of freedom, home of the American Dream? HOGWASH!
I leave you with this e-mail from Benji Rogers:
"I now have 19 friends and family with Corona symptoms, up from 2. Only one has been tested and had it confirmed.
Mostly based out of the UK and EU.
This is quite a picture: avatorl.org/covid-19/
Be well mate.
Benj"
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