Covid-19 and the madness of crowds

So this past week, Trump and the White House has been pushing the idea that there could be 100,000 to 240,000 deaths in the U.S. due to the virus but no one knows where they are getting these numbers.

Edited by mathman0806 - April 03 2020 at 10:48

A sign seen today in the window of one of my local stores.

Edited by Psychedelic Paul - April 03 2020 at 11:59

dr wu23 wrote: 3:30 CST US...just checked CDC data...239,279 cases....5,443 deaths.... that's 2.2 % death rate. My wife and I are avoiding contact even with the family...been going to the office to answer the phone and dispense work that was done over the last 2 weeks. No new eye exams....not sure when I will see new people again..if ever...thinking about retiring end of summer anyway before all this happened. Time to hang up my white lab coat.

^ So 'one' shouldn't choose to live in cool places like New Orleans, Memphis, Key West or Austin ...

New Orleans, Memphis, Key West and Austin are not Oklahoma, not by a long shot.

I know Oklahoma, I used to live in Commerce TX, if you drove a while north and west, you were at a bar in Okie town where the number one rule was, never mention you are from Texas, or have any support for the Cowboys, Longhorns etc ... thems fightin words, and okies don't front.

New Orleans just went thru MardiGras, and a bunch of NCAA football bowl games including NCAA Championship Game that included many gatherings and interviews over several days. Plus Bourbon Street being open 24/7 up till a week or so ago, we are told it is boarded up now.

Anti-government extremist Ammon Bundy led a meeting where he agitated for Idahoans to physically defy the state’s stay-at-home order, which is meant to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Bundy is perhaps best known for leading the armed, 10-day occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon in 2016. But these days he’s threatening to rise up against the public health measures to ward off COVID-19.

“The right to travel is not theirs to take,” Bundy announced to the crowd. “The right to assemble is not theirs to take. The right to worship how and when and where we want is not theirs to take.” If a business owner decides to keep their business open in violation of the state order, Bundy said, he would organize a group to “surround them and protect them.” In American history, Bundy argued, dying for liberty’s sake had been celebrated.

https://www.joemygod.com/2020/04/militia-leader-vows-to-defend-lockdown-violators/?fbclid=IwAR3sIcl1txWAnsb4hivLPVp0jNPH0o5CA6Pa7axlNQy4iZTsD6jbZUUseEc

Psychedelic Paul wrote: Life is carrying on as normal in Belarus. All of the shops are open and no sporting events have been cancelled. The President has recommended people drink lots of vodka and take regular saunas to beat the virus. President Lukashenko  was out playing ice hockey the other night to prove that life goes on as normal in his country. Despite having no lockdown, there's only been around 150 cases of Covid-19 in the whole of Belarus so far and only one reported death from Covid-19 of an elderly man with underlying health problems.

Lukashenko's an idiot.

I wouldn't put much credence in official figures from Belarus, but let's see what happens there. I doubt it is going to be pretty.

Washington state, the original U.S. hot spot for COVID19, started mandating social distancing 1 month ago. Other places in the U.S. that were many days behind Washington have exploded with cases. We continue to increase here, and definitely have a load of bafoons that continue to defy the mandate, but there has definitely been a flattening of the curve. Other places like California Bay Area counties, San Francisco, Santa Clara, San Mateo, Alameda all could have been in the same situation as the New York metro area, but were early adopters of stay-at-home mandates.

One of the hotspots here was a choir of 112 people, 60 of which defied the mandate to have a rehearsal on March 10. 45 got sick within the week and 2 have died. I would be curious to know what the infection rate is among the 52 members that stayed home.

Heed the warnings. Learn from the hubris of others.

My wife just sent me a clip of an article that says Washington and California have an 8% positive test rate compared to 35% in NY and NJ. 26% in Louisiana 15% in several others. All those states started distancing orders about 2 weeks after Washington and California.