Monday, April 6, 2020

Evaluating the Crisis Response


Here's a question:

If the media is manipulating the story on Covid (empty beds, excess ventilators, hype, etc.),

If Fauci is not to be trusted (the models are off, we won't be done until not one more death),

If this is a big government over-reach (and I believe it is, but mostly at the state/local level),

How does this affect your opinion of President Trump?

Is he hostage to it? Can he politically challenge some of the decisions for the sake of the country?

I was just hoping for some perspectives on this.

20 comments:

  1. I think Trump is following the path of caution, but will remove many of the restrictions if the dire predictions continue to be signs of panic.

    So far, in my neck of the woods, Covin 19 doesn't even come close to yearly influenza.

    As far as the media, I have no faith in any reports. That's a bad thing, but necessary.

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    1. From Powerline https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/04/coronavirus-in-one-state-5.php
      • So far, only 48, or 14, of the 355 available ICU beds are in use. According to IHME, the model many officials are now relying on, Minnesota is expected to need 219 ICU beds today. Oops. They were only off by 350 percent.

      350%

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    2. Local medical facilities are furloughing staff. That doesn't match up to the predictions for this point in time. Either the predictions were wrong, we have yet to see the full consequences, or outright lying was used to create panic.

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    3. I see some saying that with all other business but Covid being rejected by hospitals, they are facing disaster.
      https://bunkerville.wordpress.com/2020/04/06/not-counted-the-death-of-hospitals/

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  2. New York!
    So far as our media is concerned, NY is the center of the universe. We're once again gonna suffer because of stupid people and stupid leadership there.
    Prez has an ego as big as all outdoors and for all his lifetime has portrayed himself as a manager and "deal-maker".
    In midstream, he can't change horses now, can he?
    I've seen the collapse of our money system coming for years, but I didn't see it coming due to disease.

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    Replies
    1. I am concerned as well.
      Trump has an interest in our money system, apart from the globalists. Hopefully there's something churning under that orange (not so orange anymore) hair.

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  3. If the media is manipulating the story on Covid (empty beds, excess ventilators, hype, etc.),

    There is no if about it. The commercial media writes in a manner that will please their readers. Time magazine, for example, knows what the readers of Time enjoy, and will edit its articles accordingly.

    If Fauci is not to be trusted...

    From Red State, Fauci states:

    During a recent task force meeting, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and one of the team’s leading voices, called into question modeling projections in general, according to the Post’s sources.

    “I’ve looked at all the models. I’ve spent a lot of time on the models. They don’t tell you anything. You can’t really rely upon models,” Dr. Fauci told other task force members this week, according to two officials with direct knowledge of the exchange.

    Words from The Man himself. No, the models can't be trusted, particularly the ones that point at Italy where the median age is around 63, or some you-name-it-stan Islamic country where the citizens are cheering everytime the number of deaths in the U.S. increases for any reason at all.

    If this is a big government over-reach...

    You're not alone. This is an opportunity, and no good catastrophe should ever be allowed to go to waste.

    How does this affect your opinion of President Trump?

    President Trump is doing the best he can. There isn't an elected official alive today that would have experienced a leadership role in the 1950s polio epidemic, or would remember how the general public coped with it, and that's the nearest thing we have to the current (commercial media described) crises.

    Me, I'm old enough to have seen some people crippled by polio when I was a child. I got polio shots, which hurt like a bitch, but which saved me from the disease.

    Consider this from NPR:
    Wiping Out Polio

    In 1952 alone, nearly 60,000 children were infected with the virus; thousands were paralyzed, and more than 3,000 died. Hospitals set up special units with iron lung machines to keep polio victims alive. Rich kids as well as poor were left paralyzed.

    Then in 1955, the U.S. began widespread vaccinations. By 1979, the virus had been completely eliminated across the country.

    1979. That should tell you something, but most people won't get it. It took 24 years to completely wipe out the polio virus, and it could have taken a lot less time.

    The smart money (smart people) will take a hard look at the banking system and wonder a bit. We have experienced a run on toilet paper, for absolutely no good reason at all. Our stock market is based on supply and demand - largely demand - as is the public commodities market. If, for any reason at all, people started buying some random penny stock the same way they bought TP recently, the share price would skyrocket no matter what is was actually worth. Take the same frenzy and apply it to any S&L, Bank, or Credit Union. Depositors suddenly want their money, all of it, and all in hard currency. What do you think would happen thirty minutes after opening time, when the office runs out of money?

    I have a certain amount of cash and precious metals in my home. I also have a safe, fire control, food, medicines, guns and ammunition. I don't engage in public conversation about this with anyone outside of my family, all of whom are welcome to anything I own.

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    1. I grew up in the age of polio.
      I think I got the sugar cube after my older sister got the shot.
      A whole generation of women whose bathing suits would not cover the scar from that shot.

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    2. I always remembered it being the smallpox vaccination that left the big, round scar. Polio was just a shot, but the smallpox vaccinations was a big scratch on your skin that they put the vaccine into, and let it cook. BIG nasty scab, usually with some pus involved, and it left a very distinctive scar.

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    3. Well, it was a long time ago and she died last year and I can't ask her so I'll believe you, sir.
      But the sugar cube was polio.
      And a quick DDG search shows you are correct. Thank you.

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    4. I was one of those kids marched down to get the experimental vaccine. I've been brain dead ever since. Neither did it make me particularly close to my parents when I found out the possible ramifications of the vaccine.

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    5. Now we need a survey of those kids marched down to get the experimental vaccine, and see how many marched down to the Marine Recruitment Station.

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  4. Medicine is not our POTUS's wheelhouse. For that reason, he has sought out advice from the experts.

    Yes, Dr. Fauci is a foremost expert.

    BUT

    Dr. Fauci is an idealistic scientist.

    In the end, Trump will "open our country," and every subsequent case of Coronavirus will be blamed on him and politicized for the upcoming election.

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  5. No easy answer for Trump with this one.... he is stuck with the so called "experts" he has and no turning back for him..... He will have to open up the country at the end of the month and all hell will break lose.... and he will be blamed for every single death. I don't envy him his position.
    Of course there will be a heavy toll the cities and the race card will be played in full force.

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    1. I believe Michael Corleone, aka Cuomo of New York, played the race card today during his run up for the presidency. Why, he asked, are blacks impacted by the virus more than whites?

      We need to send the Banzinis over to visit with the Cuomos.

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  6. I am as stupid as they come when it comes to this virus stuff. However, my two oldest kids are in the medical field: one a doctor, one a director of regional labs (where they test blood samples) for Kaiser. While both told me to stay home, they are of the opinion this is overblown.

    My doctor son (Doctor of Physical Therapy) has been home for two plus weeks now as his hospital where he works shut it down. That should account for some of the talk.

    I do believe - compiling various sources and outlets - that this is a form of flu in layman's terms. However, my kids know I have medical issues but then again, most folks over 65 do. On top of that, I like cigars like George Burns... as does the Colonel.

    I believe he IS between a rock and a hard spot. He does love this country and to ME, IMO, the FakeNews has him trapped. FakeNews blew Italy out of the water as they have a TON of old folks and live in multi-generation households. From what I sense, this virus does target your lungs and people will die from it, sad to say, especially old ones. I may be one but c'est-ce-la-vie, n'est-ce pas? And until the number of cases can be ACCURATELY determined (the denominator in simple math), adding deaths for any reason to the numerator will make for hysteria which the Dems and FakeNews like Acosta want - to hurt Trump.

    As Bunkerville stated, the race card will eventually be played and he will be blamed for every death - with Pelosi cheering from the sidelines.

    In the end, I feel the death percentage/count will not differ much from the "flu" historically.

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    1. Koji,
      I'm not so worried about the death rate -- even though I'm one of "the old people."

      What I am concerned about: what recovery looks like.

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    2. Koji, thank you so much for that Kojent reply.
      Particularly with regard to the careers of your children and their experience.

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