Lebowski

Go Hoosiers!

Again, final time, and a little more bluntly, do it your effin' self. I've found folks doing there own leg work and researching on their own is a lot more productive and self rewarding. Most importantly, if you don't believe me, I'm cool with that too. It's your own personal health, not mine. You be you. Have a good day kind sir.

You clearly didn't read my post to its entirety. I'm not even going to try when it comes to poop like this. You clearly have the means to research yourself. And I'm definitely not going to be apart of your own decisions of whatever you decide regarding your own personal health. You be you. Have a good day kind sir.

If you say so. I think you might have misread my post though. But whatever, I'm not here to debate you. By all means you be you. Have a good day sir.

Yes, foolish that people died over something so incredibly trivial. Actually, the data behind the science says wearing a mask helps prevent the spread of COVID-19. And when this virus spreads more people die. It's not really an argument nor do I even understand why it's becoming an argument. I say that because we have a shared interested. We have a common enemy. And in the past when we've had a common enemy all of us have risen together as a people. And we have accomplished things that at the time seemed like we should have not been able to accomplish. But now asking someone to wear a mask has become a step too far?! Look, I'm not going to do the leg work for you as I strongly believe in folks educating themselves when it comes to life threatening diseases but I encourage you to seriously take the time to research what our medical professionals are saying about wearing masks. Here in my neck of the woods (SW Indiana), like two weeks ago about half of the community would be wearing masks. Now it's about 10%. There's also an uptick of positive cases just south of me in Kentucky. I think, and I could be wrong, the Heartland is just getting ready to know this virus a little more personally.

Today I heard something from leadership that actually made me agree. Science is starting to guide the decisions being made. They spoke of starting up schools to where the faculty is young and healthy. So the idea is the younger generations hold down the fort while the older generations bunker down thus minimizing deaths due to this pandemic. I don't recall if I mentioned this already but I believe we'll start seeing this applied throughout the country at all levels. I also believe this will be a solid middle ground for all the political hacks. Once companies are able to manufacture testing kits at a large scale I believe we'll start seeing the older generations get back to work. But right now there's a shortage of reagent. Keep in mind folks, throughout the history of mankind there's only been two (smallpox and rinderpest) infectious diseases eradicated. And one of those diseases isn't human related. We're in this for the long haul and folks need to start thinking this way. And I'm sure this has been mentioned on here as well but the reason we have/had a shutdown/lockdown isn't due to trying to stop COVID-19 but minimize hospitalizations. We will likely have to go through more shutdowns in the future. I foresee this being our reality for quite some time. Like I've said multiple times, folks will eventually stop seeing the colors red and blue but instead will watch it dissolve into COVID.

Science is exposing deficient and efficient leadership during this pandemic. It's pretty easy to decide for yourself on how and who to 'blame' in this particular situation as science allows intelligent fact base outcomes. Politics tends to make things gray but science doesn't allow that. In other words, truth is hard to manipulate with this pandemic. Also, I think the word 'blame' is probably the wrong word in this scenario. I would use words like 'inept' or 'incompetent' to ask the question you're trying to ask. Because, unless I'm mistaken, I think that was the point of Brass Cannon's post about South Korea. I don't think anyone is blaming government for the pandemic, I could be wrong though. For me, I currently don't have faith in the federal leadership based on what science is telling me. But that's just me. South Korea is the gold standard for this pandemic and we should learn from them.

Just saw this morning that Dr. Michael Osterholm said the US population is 5-15% infected and it's the number one cause of death. He promised this country will see a 60-70% infection rate. Not sure where he got those numbers but I believe him over our current leadership. Take it for what it is.

If you say so. I'm not here to change your already made up mind. Have a good day sir and stay safe.

You also added 'but the Democrats are cheering for failure.' I'm just pointing out that's happening on both sides.

It's not just one party. And you're kidding yourself if you think it is.

That's not true.

100% agree. Unfortunately there's a life threatening pandemic going on and a lot of people are tuned in looking for guidance from the Commander in Chief. It's part of the job. So I don't fault the criticism nor think it's not warranted. He signed up for this gig.

I hear folks prefer pangolin tacos.

I would call it a major connection and the smoking gun but I'm just some dude on the internet filled with pointless opinions in the grand scheme of things. Yeah, since this pandemic started, multiple times a day my wife says, 'Stop eating meat people!' And I agree with you wholeheartedly about animals. I'm trying to go completely plant based diet but it's difficult for me. I'm addicted to eggs, cheese and pizza.

While in my home the family tries to follow a vegan diet. But we are flexitarian when it comes to actually labeling our diet. I find when I order out vegan options are slim to none in my area and I do enjoy eating all the meat based products from time to time. During this pandemic we have been 'treating ourselves' with taco night once a week, so we've been cheating in the house but it gives me something to look forward too! ;-) Here's the thing, eating meat is believed to have started this whole pandemic. Something to think about.

Where in the world did I say it doesn't work?

Outcomes of hydroxychloroquine usage: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.16.20065920v1.full.pdf Let's all hope our professionals can find something to defeat this virus.

Hide and watch.

I don't know. I'm having trouble finding the most recent forecasts. As of April 17, 2020, the expert consensus is that the US will have reported around 47k COVID-19 deaths by May 1, with a 90% percent chance of having between 32k and 82k. Keep in mind depending on what forecast/survey you read will depend on the projection amount. For example, this survey forecast deaths will increase to around 47k by May 1, although they think there could be as many as 82k by that time. The experts also think fatalities are most likely to peak in May, but they still see about a 1 in 3 chance that deaths won't peak until June or later. They also expect that between 8 and 11 states will report more than 1k deaths by May 1.

That's cherry picking. This virus is still being studied. Experts will continue to inform us when new information isn't on par to what they understand the science to be. Science 101 dude.

I'm not sure I'm following you. What's the debate? And how is this a 'we vs us' thing? In my experience science typically doesn't debate. Those that try to understand the science use it to help make decisions and have fact based conversation. And when folks don't agree with it and try to frame their own conversation typically science comes back to wreck havoc on those folk. As it has throughout mankind.

Exactly. That's my point about seeing this virus through the shade of a certain color. At some point this virus will dissolve all that.

Come to my town. You might change your mind regarding the amount of people saying those things. Last week, I literally had to explain to a very good highly intelligent friend with an engineering degree that while car fatalities are high and are unfortunate the comparison is misleading and disingenuous. I had to explain the math and how an exponential virus works. I then proceeded to send him a link so he could get a nice visual and better understanding of why we are reacting the way we are. On a personal note/dig to my good friend, it appears his Purdue degree doesn't seem to be working out to well for him! ;-) https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/not-like-the-flu-not-like-car-crashes-not-like Just yesterday, my neighbor compared this virus to the flu. I'm not sure if you've seen all the protest taking place at state capitals across the nation where there are various signs of why folks are protesting. Some of those signs are just Darwinism happening right before our very eyes. On March 24, 2020, Trump said this regarding COVID-19: "We lose thousands of people a year to the flu. We never turn the country off..” “We lose much more than that to automobile accidents. We didn’t call up the automobile companies and say, ‘Stop making cars,’” So I have to ask you, why do you think the people I've been experiencing are saying these things? I mean Dr. Phil is a popular dude and he made similar comments to Trump days (April 16, 2020) later, on a news media outlet that highly influences a large percent of the population and the talking head he was addressing just nodded her head in agreement.

I don't. When you see and hear people compare COVID-19 fatalities to car accidents and drowning fatalities per year we have a long way to go. A long way.