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I am not comparing apples to prunes with the response for both the MERS and SARS epidemic. THey are both corona virus by the way. The difference is that those epidemics were stopped before they became a pandemic, and that takes expertise and money.
I refer back to Chris Christie's quote, who is a long time friend of Trump. " Trump is surrounded by amateurs, grifters, weaklings, convicted, and unconvicted felons. Trump had a revolving door of deeply flawed individuals who were hustled into jobs they were never suited for, sometimes seemingly without so much as a background check via Google or Wikipedia." Maybe Christie is right.
I saw Ben Carson stumble through an interview about having a plan in place to safely transport the people from the cruise ship. It was pathetic. The delay in testing was a big blunder as well.
It's a common dilemma. The individuals in the system are both knowledgeable and corrupt. So one often must weigh institutional knowledge and corruption vs naive integrity.
“including funding for the agency’s efforts in China. But that was the result of the anticipated depletion of previously allotted funding, not a direct cut by the Trump administration.”
Please leave politics out of this.
Even if we had a response team double the size, for the first month or so of the virus outbreak in China they kept repeating it was not an issue, not a problem, they don’t need help.
Some of the issues in the US definitely are CDC-related. More funding might have helped. Some issues though sit with state governments and their responses. Note that the WHO, which has nothing to do with the current Administration, still has not called this outbreak a pandemic.
What I read about MERS and SARS was that their transmission rate was lower and their mortality rate higher. This can cause a virus to “burn out” before it becomes a pandemic by killing its hosts (or getting them quarantined) faster than it can spread. COVID-19 spreads faster and can take 5 days before symptoms become noticeable.
You're very intelligent, I appreciate your opinions. Here's a suggestion. The CDC has a great time line about the 2003 SARS epidemic. It high lights the response to it and how it was stopped before it became a pandemic. Read it and compare the difference in response between that out break and this one.
Business Insider also has a great article "How the coronavirus compares to SARS, swine flu,Zika, and other epidemics."
"For one, we know that the coronavirus outbreak is not as deadly as the SARS epidemic of 2003, which killed around 10% of the 8,098 confirmed cases of the respiratory illness. And it's far less deadly than Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS, which killed around 34% of roughly 2,500 confirmed cases since it was first reported in Saudi Arabia. However, both of those illnesses were far more contained than Covid-19.
So if the outbreaks of MERS and SARS in 2003 were better contained, what was different?
I think you are 100% correct that China tried to deny and hide the severity and scope of the virus. Instead of listening to that astute young physician that ultimately died from Covid-19, they arrested him and made him reverse his statement.
Unfortunately, I'm seeing that same mentality here. "It's just a cold" Limbaugh. That idiot factor is being echoed across social media.
One only has to look at Italy to see the devastation that is heading our way if we do not aggressively mitigate this. Look at New York and Washington State.
If you agree that China was being less than honest what do you make of Trump's head in the sand response? Yes, there are still people out there that believe that this will go away soon and are out there spreading it because they don't take it seriously.
Leave politics out of this? Politics may be the very reason this pandemic is raging now.
You're very intelligent, I appreciate your opinions. Here's a suggestion. The CDC has a great time line about the 2003 SARS epidemic. It high lights the response to it and how it was stopped before it became a pandemic. Read it and compare the difference in response between that out break and this one.
Business Insider also has a great article "How the coronavirus compares to SARS, swine flu,Zika, and other epidemics."
"For one, we know that the coronavirus outbreak is not as deadly as the SARS epidemic of 2003, which killed around 10% of the 8,098 confirmed cases of the respiratory illness. And it's far less deadly than Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS, which killed around 34% of roughly 2,500 confirmed cases since it was first reported in Saudi Arabia. However, both of those illnesses were far more contained than Covid-19.
So if the outbreaks of MERS and SARS in 2003 were better contained, what was different?
I think you are 100% correct that China tried to deny and hide the severity and scope of the virus. Instead of listening to that astute young physician that ultimately died from Covid-19, they arrested him and made him reverse his statement.
Unfortunately, I'm seeing that same mentality here. "It's just a cold" Limbaugh. That idiot factor is being echoed across social media.
One only has to look at Italy to see the devastation that is heading our way if we do not aggressively mitigate this. Look at New York and Washington State.
If you agree that China was being less than honest what do you make of Trump's head in the sand response? Yes, there are still people out there that believe that this will go away soon and are out there spreading it because they don't take it seriously.
Leave politics out of this? Politics may be the very reason this pandemic is raging now.
Thank you for a cogent response.
I don’t get my news from Hannity or Limbaugh but I know some do. Just as some listen to Samantha Bee. I wish people would realize these are all entertainment programs and not news.
I do agree that politics are creating a problem - on both sides of the aisle. One side is downplaying it too much and the other making it a panic situation.
...
One only has to look at Italy to see the devastation that is heading our way if we do not aggressively mitigate this. Look at New York and Washington State.
If you agree that China was being less than honest what do you make of Trump's head in the sand response? Yes, there are still people out there that believe that this will go away soon and are out there spreading it because they don't take it seriously.
Leave politics out of this? Politics may be the very reason this pandemic is raging now.
Trump prevented, in this country, the disaster that Italy is experiencing. That isn't head in the sand, that is leadership. You keep repeating Leftist talking points that have already been debunked. That is why we want you to leave politics out of this. It is because we want honesty, and are not getting it.
The WHO has now called it a pandemic. But in my mind that's like when a government calls a State of Emergency - it doesn't mean that it's necessarily an emergency, but it frees up certain things to help.
My prediction is still the same, we will peak in 4-6 weeks, have a bunch more deaths (old, infirm mostly) and then things will return to some sense of sanity.
The WHO has now called it a pandemic. But in my mind that's like when a government calls a State of Emergency - it doesn't mean that it's necessarily an emergency, but it frees up certain things to help.
...
The Merriam Webster dictionary definition of pandemic doesn't match the definition used by the WHO. This has been a pandemic for about 10-15 days by the WHO definition, but I notice the MWdictionary examples were recently rewritten, possibly to keep from having to call every seasonal flu outbreak a pandemic.
Breaking news: Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear is conducting a press conference as I write this, declaring that all Kentucky K-12 schools, public and private, should close for the next two weeks, and that teachers should send assignments home and students should take textbooks and other educational materials home with them. If schools' spring breaks are the following week, they are expected to remain closed for a total of three weeks.
No word about daycares and preschools - yet.
Also, both the boys' and girl's Sweet Sixteen state basketball tournaments are called off (girls' tourney is this week, boys' next).
Beshear is strongly urging social distancing and flattening the curve (had we even heard those phrases last week??)
The WHO has now called it a pandemic. But in my mind that's like when a government calls a State of Emergency - it doesn't mean that it's necessarily an emergency, but it frees up certain things to help.
My prediction is still the same, we will peak in 4-6 weeks, have a bunch more deaths (old, infirm mostly) and then things will return to some sense of sanity.
Who is WHO?...sorry...couldn't resist.
I suppose all the panic is better than doing nothing, but still; I know if I get this I won't die.
However, it has woken me up to this section a bit more.
What is my plan should a real pandemic strike?.
Fortunately I have friends and relatives in very remote areas, as my current metro area would not be an option.
I actually keep a mountain bike and vehicle rack on hand just for this sort of mass panic, in case roads become gridlocked with sick people.
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