Posts Made By: James Lacey

Originally Posted by Greg Shaffer

While I agree the situation requires fast, decisive, responsible action I tend to agree with Rich that we should not be throwing the entire nation into a financial meltdown over an infection whose mortality rate is far less than others we have been thru before without doing so......

We have never been through anything like COVID unless you are counting the flu epidemic of 1918. The COVID virus is novel, so none of us have resistance, and it's highly transmissible. Ergo, we are all going to get it sooner or later, and that translates to hundreds of millions of people in the US alone. The mortality rate for COVID is currently around 1% in the US. That translates to a lot of deaths in a brief period and a lot of suffering. Not to mention the chaos, panic, and tragedy caused by an overwhelmed healthcare system. Seasonal flu sickened 36 million people last year and caused 22,000 deaths. It's small potatoes compared to what COVID can potentially do. Even if you think 1% mortality for COVID is too high, and it may be, seasonal flu has a mortality rate of 0.06%. Whatever the actual mortality rate of COVID is, it's way deadlier than seasonal flu. By the way, the entire country of India, 1.3 billion people, just went into a shelter-in-place order for at least 21 days. Do you think countries like India, with 1.3 billion people, are doing this because COVID is far less deadly than the seasonal flu? I think they are doing it because they know the facts and are scared shitless about what will happen if they do nothing.

Originally Posted by Richard Davis

That statement has zero basis in fact.  You have no idea that we are all going to get Covid 19.  

It's what the CDC says, and they have on staff epidemiologists, statisticians, and a whole host of other experts who study and look at these types of problems for a living. They are way smarter than you or me when it comes to predicting what COVID 19 will or will not do. On top of that, COVID 19 has spread to every country on the earth in a matter of months. It is highly contagious, and it is beyond me how anyone at this point could think otherwise. We have seen what it has done not only in China but in Italy, Spain, and Iran. At this point, you have to be willfully ignorant or unbelievably arrogant to think the same can't happen in the USA. The USA is well on track to become one of the hardest hit. I do not doubt though that the black knight is impervious to truth or reason.

Originally Posted by Richard Davis

Prove it. Show me where the CDC says everyone will get this.  

Why? You would only discount it or marginalize it, not unlike the black knight who refuses to acknowledge he no longer can fight without legs or arms. All you have to go is go to the CDC website yourself and read their assessment. By the way, somewhere along the way, this morphed into absolutism where everyone gets it. Some people will escape infection, but the point is it's going to infect the majority of Americans over a short period.

Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

Maybe he can read a map...
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html

One of the oddest things about partisan politics these days is the outright discounting of and disdain for expertise. Both sides participate in this to some degree. Still, it's my opinion that the right is far worse about being hostile to any skilled knowledge that would challenge their political ideology. It's especially striking in this COVID-19 crisis. The outright rejection of expert knowledge and opinion only because it does not reflect favorably on Trump is pretty astounding.

Originally Posted by James Brown

There will be tension between outspoken conservatives who want to minimize damage to the economy and medical experts who want to exit the national quarantine much more slowly.  It is going to get ugly, politically.  I think that argument is necessary though, since the damage to the economy must be assessed and weighed against the risk to the health care system and the health of the citizens.  Finding the proper balance is going to be difficult.

Jim 

Nobody wants to see us return to business, as usual, more than myself. This crisis is killing the businesses my company depends on for their livelihood and hence mine. I will be fortunate to emerge from this with my job still intact. Honestly, I'm going to call it a win if all of my family comes out on the other side, healthy and alive. If I still have a job, that will be a bonus. However, the last thing I want to see us do is discount the experts and react to this crisis poorly. There is no one I'm willing to sacrifice matador style on the Wall Street bull sculpture. Besides, if we don't get it right, and slow the spread, then the enormous social and economic impacts from COVID spreading widely and rapidly would be far worse than the current situation. I say listen to the experts, and let's do this right and do it once and then learn from this and prepare adequately for the next time.

Originally Posted by Russ Carroll

It isn't like Trump is your goofy Uncle spouting off insane conspiracy stuff at Thanksgiving dinner. 

Right. We have Richard for that. In the case of Trump, though, what he says does matter. It's ridiculous to think that the owner of the world's most massive bully pulpit should get a pass simply because he can't tell the truth, or manage anything with a time-horizon longer than a day at most. More than ten days ago now, Trump said we would soon have drive-through testing set-up in parking lots around the country. Whatever happened to that?

Originally Posted by Richard Davis

Have you had sex with your wife since they came out and started shutting down the world?

Do you plan to have intimate relations with your wife in the next 2 months?

If you have and If you are planning that, then you Jim Brown MUST be the MOST irresponsible person on this planet.

So explain that and have the balls to answer the question above, OR keep your mouth shut about MY actions with respect to this virus.

Got it?   

I just have to say. This whole asking people about their sex life is not the plot twist I saw coming. Bravo Crazy Uncle Black Knight Richard. You have outdone yourself. This has to rank up their with challenging people to boxing matches.

Originally Posted by Richard Davis

Now then, let me provide the proof to beat down your ignorant statement that people don't die from the common cold.

And of course, that's not what Jim said at all. Anyone with even a tiny bit of reading comprehension skills knows this. So, that means either you are intentionally misrepresenting what Jim said, to have an easy target for attack, or you don't realize how mistaken you are. Either way, you look foolish latching onto this misrepresentation and then acting as if you have scored some fantastic rhetorical points.

Originally Posted by Richard Davis

Jim Brown said:

Because of this, no one dies from a cold, unless they are already very sick I suppose

You don't seriously expect us to ignore the conditional unless part and pretend like it doesn't exist, do you?

At this point, you are just obstinate and insisting on ignoring basic facts. This perplexing stubbornness is why we call you the black knight.

If I say, for example, "You will be sick unless you stop eating so much," it doesn't mean you will be sick. It means if you don't stop eating so much, then you will become sick.

At best, you are arguing a distinction that does not matter, and at worst, you are intellectually dishonest. Either way, you are fooling no one but yourself.

Originally Posted by Mel Maki

Anybody see his interview with the lady at MSNBC? It is no longer credible to pretend Biden is fit for duty. It is not debatable. He blanks out. Watch it. I can't say you are a credible person if you say he is up to the job! 

Mel,

As long as Trump is telling Pence to ignore governors in hard-hit places if they are not appreciative enough, and calling the governor of Michigan as "that woman." As long as Trump is one day telling Sean Hannity on Fox News that his hunch is that hospitals don't need tens of thousands of ventilators, and then the very next day yelling at GM on Twitter to start producing ventilators. As long as Trump is using official CDC mailings about coronavirus prevention guidelines to campaign for office. As long as Trump keeps gaslighting us about when testing will be widely available, and when hospitals and frontline health workers will have the supplies they need. As long as Trump continues to ignore the experts and instead demand outrageously effusive praise as the benchmark for influence in how we respond to the coronavirus as a nation. As long as Trump is doing little more than providing us with inept leadership, I don't want to hear a single word about who is fit for duty.