COVID-19 Megathread 5: The Trumps catch COVID-19

[Tekken_Guy]

The good news is we'll probably be more prepared to deal with it, at least at the state level.

[Tekken_Guy]

I think it's another Tuesday effect.

[Tekken_Guy]

We'll be more prepared this time at least.

Not sure. The virus is mutating.

How will that change things?

[Tekken_Guy]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:2019%E2%80%9320_coronavirus_pandemic_data/United_States_medical_cases

The Wikipedia numbers seem a little different. About 200 fewer people died than on the Worldometer.

[Tekken_Guy]

So what are the chances schools don't meet in the fall?

Many universities seem to be leaning towards cancelling in-person classes.

Yep

No. Universities have discussed that it could happen and have been told to prepare for the possibility of that.  But I haven’t heard anything saying that it more likely than not will be online.

[Tekken_Guy]

So many Eeyores and Chicken Littles in this thread lol

What does that mean?

[Tekken_Guy]

Meanwhile we're plunging into another Great Depression. That frightens me most of all.

Which is why we need another New Deal.

[Tekken_Guy]

If the task force is disbanded, I don't think we'll ever be free of this pandemic. Not until we have a vaccine, which might never happen; we've never created a vaccine for a coronavirus.

We would have to learn to live with it, although I think it's impractical to expect social distancing, masks, and all the rest to continue indefinitely. Our society eventually acclimatized itself to HIV/AIDS, to give an example of what the path forward might look like if there is no vaccine.

HIV/AIDS is much easier to prevent transmission of. If this coronavirus is truly with us forever, we're looking at an eventual herd immunity scenario as the only realistic ending. Of course that probably means 1-2 million deaths.

We are only looking at 1-2 million deaths if we achieve herd immunity through a random spread throughout the population.  If we had targeted infections among the young and healthy, we could achieve herd immunity much more quickly with likely under 100,000 deaths.

That sounds like a good strategy. But why can’t it be implemented?

[Tekken_Guy]

This virus shows up at the perfect time to get Trump re-elected.

Explain?  This seems counterintuitive.  He can still win, but his path clearly seems harder now.

People will be too scared to vote in person, and mail-in voting is not going to be expanded.

Wisconsin, anyone?

[Tekken_Guy]

Right wing anti-lockdown Americans, please watch or listen to this video.

We could end coronavirus pandemic by July 4th

We can't "end" the pandemic, we may reduce it's numbers, but it will resurge in the winter no matter what. We should be fast forwarding to herd immunity.

We could at least have more measures to keep the pandemic under control by then.

[Tekken_Guy]

Right wing anti-lockdown Americans, please watch or listen to this video.

We could end coronavirus pandemic by July 4th

We can't "end" the pandemic, we may reduce it's numbers, but it will resurge in the winter no matter what. We should be fast forwarding to herd immunity.

Imho, we could have ended it back in early March, but as soon as it hit and spread through developing countries, it became impossible to prevent. By now it’s definitely impossible for us to end the pandemic without a vaccine/mutation/immunity.

The U.S’s main responsibility should be to protect our own citizens, not foreign countries. Then just do strict controls on foreign travel like we did with Ebola.

[Tekken_Guy]

Actually, I think that people got really scared about the economy. A lot of people are afraid a store or restaurant they love will be closed down forever. People fear the company they work for will go out of business.

Quite a lot of people are only concerned about protecting themselves or their families from the virus and don’t care who else dies.

If we had more confidence in our economy coming back afterwards we’d be all in for lockdowns. If people were as worried about bringing the virus home as they are about spreading it around, then everyone would be trying to stay home as much as possible.

[Tekken_Guy]

At this point, what other choice do we have?

I don't like it either, but I've had to learn to accept it until it can be treated, and move on.

But there's a way to say it without being dismissive and sounding like we shouldn't even bother to try and prevent the virus' spread anymore.

Agreed. We”re going to have to find a way to tell people “this will take a while, you’re going to have to make some changes” and “we give up on fighting the virus”.

This could motivate a lot of people to re-embrace an FDR-style welfare state. The GOP only wine by running on cultural issues and reducing bread-and-butter ones to vague “low taxes” and “repeal Obamacare” platitudes.