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The coronavirus pandemic could deplete the Social Security program four years earlier than previously predicted, according to a new analysis by the Penn Wharton Budget Model. As the outbreak continues to batter the American economy and increase jobless claims by the millions, revenue into Social Security, which is funded by a payroll tax, has been hard hit.
The Soc Security trust will be depleted by the mid-2030 with or without the virus, but not the Soc Security program. The worst case scenario is 23% reduction in benefits, not the wipeout of Soc Security. But they keep raising the income limit subject to Soc Security tax, and keep not giving out much COLA, so the reduction in benefits will be probably lesser than the worst case scenario, and will happen gradually and smoothly - ie, benefits are unlikely to grow much over the next 15 years, but I don't think there will be a sudden dramatic drop to less money than the previous month.
There are virologists who do not think the virus was made in a lab. Why would researchers choose an endangered species, illegal to possess, as the source for a virus from which to make a chimera? Also, when SARS has "escaped" from labs in the past it has done so by infecting someone working in the lab. Those "aerosolized droplets rich with viral particles" are not going to just waft through the lab out into the street and infect someone there.
Why is it necessary for SARS-CoV-2 to be man-made but SARS-CoV-1 and MERS-CoV were not? Both of those are also "perfectly adapted for human infection". In addition, there is no way for someone creating the virus to be able to predict in advance that it would behave the way SARS-CoV-2 has done and engineer it to do so. If the wild animal source was a pangolin, then it likely disappeared from the market before the Chinese investigators came looking for it or was hidden from them, and virus was found in environmental samples from the wet market.
Flu viruses are not "eradicated regularly every year". They mutate; descendants of the virus that caused the 2009 pandemic still exist, and that virus is a descendant of the 2018 flu virus. We do not achieve herd immunity with flu, though we could if more would take the vaccine.
"The impact of this [flu] pandemic was not limited to 1918–1919. All influenza A pandemics since that time, and indeed almost all cases of influenza A worldwide (excepting human infections from avian viruses such as H5N1 and H7N7), have been caused by descendants of the 1918 virus, including "drifted" H1N1 viruses and reassorted H2N2 and H3N2 viruses. The latter are composed of key genes from the 1918 virus, updated by subsequently incorporated avian influenza genes that code for novel surface proteins, making the 1918 virus indeed the "mother" of all pandemics."
Mother Nature is quite capable of creating SARS-CoV-2 with no human help, and that is the simplest explanation.
The bats, from which the researchers in Wuhan regularly obtain the wild type of the coronavirus that they study, are not an endangered species to my knowledge. We don't know who from the lab may have had an asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic infection with the chimera virus. The previous SARS and MERS viruses did not transmit among the humans with anything remotely like the extreme ease of transmission of COVID-19, ie, they were not particularly perfectly adapted for human infection. Extensively mutated influenza viruses that "descended" from the 1918 virus do not represent the evidence that the 1918 virus is still around - I descended from the same ancestor as a chimpanzee with whom I share 97% of genes, but I am not the same creature as that ancestor.
The bats, from which the researchers in Wuhan regularly obtain the wild type of the coronavirus that they study, are not an endangered species to my knowledge. We don't know who from the lab may have had an asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic infection with the chimera virus. The previous SARS and MERS viruses did not transmit among the humans with anything remotely like the extreme ease of transmission of COVID-19, ie, they were not particularly perfectly adapted for human infection. Extensively mutated influenza viruses that "descended" from the 1918 virus do not represent the evidence that the 1918 virus is still around - I descended from the same ancestor as a chimpanzee with whom I share 97% of genes, but I am not the same creature as that ancestor.
The endangered species I am referring to is the pangolin, which is not a bat, but an anteater.
Another poster I responded to said that flu viruses are routinely eliminated each season. That is not true. If the 1918 flu virus had been eliminated, it would have had no mutated descendants at all.
SARS and MERS may not have been as easily transmitted as SARS-CoV-2 but they cause(d) nasty infections in humans, so you can hardly say they were not "perfectly adapted for human infection."
Two interesting pieces of information today in the news:
1. viral load correlates with asymptomatic vs. symptomatic vs. critical/deadly course of covid infection
2. under standardized conditions, the 17.5% transmission rate of covid is brought down to about 3.5% by wearing a mask such as simple surgical mask (no other protective measures, no distancing), and to about 2.5% by 6 ft distance (no other protective measures, no mask). I am not sure how exactly this was measured, but it was reported in a very reputable medical journal.
My particular distress is related to my usual problem-solving routines, that I have practiced most of my adult life. Problems usually have a beginning, a middle and an end. During that time I try very hard to find a solution so the end comes about quicker. But now, there has been a beginning, a possible middle, and there is no end in sight. And no matter how much I do or don't do, nothing works. There is no solution. There is nothing to be done. Except wait and rely on others to fix this.
But I would hate even more laying in a hospital bed breathing from a ventilator trying to avoid choking to death on my own spit. That's an awful way to die.
I'm rooting for the biotech geniuses at places like Oxford and Moderna to deliver. I think they will.
I spent my career in high tech. I've learned that if you have enough really smart people and excellent leadership, they will figure it out. Every time.
But I would hate even more laying in a hospital bed breathing from a ventilator trying to avoid choking to death on my own spit. That's an awful way to die.
I'm rooting for the biotech geniuses at places like Oxford and Moderna to deliver. I think they will.
I spent my career in high tech. I've learned that if you have enough really smart people and excellent leadership, they will figure it out. Every time.
Ha, that 100-day-or-so mark did just pass. You know what marked it for me? Back in March, as part of trying to stay healthy, I bought a container of 100 multi-vitamins for women 50+ and have been taking one every day.
I took the last one the day before yesterday and had to run out and buy more. Hoping that I don't finish the new container before I get to see the ones I love again.
Strange as it may sound, DH, our son, & I are grateful we may have experienced Covid early on, in very early March, when said son had what by every indication might have been Covid, after visiting a friend who had experienced symptoms after returning from a California business trip.
At the time no one in our area was testing or even looking for Covid. Both son & his friend tested negative for flu & strep, had every classic Covid symptom, notably fever, dry coughs, and severe shortness of breath. DH & I were his caretakers & took no precautions other than hand washing. Son eventually recovered fully with no after effects.
Several days after son's initial symptoms, I had a couple of bad days, i.e., dry cough, fatigue, diarrhea but otherwise no biggie. Then a week or so later I had some really weird stuff going on with my toes: deep purple reddish spots & rash that itched bad enough, almost painfully, to keep me up at night. A few weeks later I googled & discovered that itchy, rashy toes are frequently late stage Covid signs.
To summarize, I'm pretty sure son, my husband (who was heavily exposed to both son & his friend), & I have had Covid. If so, we're lucky survivors.
Tonight I stumbled across this & couldn't agree more:
"COVID-19 is nowhere near done with us, and our leaders and neighbors are not necessarily making decisions with your health as their top priority. If they were, we would have widespread free testing, health care support, and contact tracing in every town in the nation. If they were, we would not have people coming to blows or worse over mask-wearing requirements or closed bars and restaurants."
To summarize, I'm pretty sure son, my husband (who was heavily exposed to both son & his friend), & I have had Covid. If so, we're lucky survivors.
Have you considered antibody testing?
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