A Coronavirus Reality Check
The View from the Middle
Weeks ago I made comparisons between the Coronavirus and the 2009-10 H1N1 (Swine Flu) pandemic. It seems that the mainstream media has finally caught up to me and has started to compare these two pandemics, because it gives us all great perspective through which we can view our current health crisis.
According to the CDC the Swine Flu infected almost 60 million people in the United States. To date, the Coronavirus has been contracted by less than 3,000 people in America. Just 10 years ago, H1N1 hospitalized over 265,000 people here and killed 12,650 Americans. As of today, the Coronavirus has killed 57 people in this country, and 37 of those mortalities have been in the state of Washington, and 25 of these fatalities came from one nursing home in Kirkland, Washington. Do the math, outside the state of Washington there have been only 20 deaths from Covid-19 (the Coronavirus) in The United States.
Despite the fact that the infection and mortality rates for the Swine Flu are almost identical to the Coronavirus, I don’t remember the 24-7 news coverage of the Swine Flu and the daily counts of infections and deaths. And, although President Obama didn’t declare H1N1 a national emergency until after 1,000 people in America died, I don’t remember anyone accusing him of being slow to act or calling it “The Obama” virus. And they shouldn’t have. President Obama didn’t bring the Swine Flu to this country and I’m sure he did the very best he could to address it once it got here. We, particularly the media, should be giving the same deference to President Trump.
I’m not saying that the Coronavirus is not a serious health challenge for this country and the world. China has reported almost 81,000 cases and 3,189 deaths, but it appears that the trajectory of this disease has flattened out there and they may be seeing the tail end of their Corona crisis. Italy may be suffering the worst harm from Covid-19. While Italy has only 5% of China’s population, it currently has 21,157 cases and 1,441 deaths. They have pretty much shut down the country, but because Italy’s population is more elderly and the disease seems to have attacked in a small area, Italy will need help from us and other European nations to resolve their problems.
While America still has a big challenge in front of it there is a silver lining surrounding the pandemic. The Coronavirus has united this country in a way that our politicians have failed to do for the last three years. President Trump has actually praised Nancy Pelosi and the House of Representatives for their swift action in passing the Family First Coronavirus Act, even after she tried to sneak some abortion funding into the bill. Gavin Newsom, Democrat governor of California, praised Trump and his administration for their quick response to his needs, and Vice President Pence complimented Newsome, Cuomo and all our governors for their cooperation.
At first, I thought the cancelation of March Madness, the suspension of the NBA season and the delay of Major League Baseball’s opening day was an overreaction, but even this has allowed the generosity of our people to shine through. Rookie NBA player Zion Williamson committed to cover the salaries of all of their arena workers for the next 30 days. It takes 700 to 1,000 people per game to staff an arena and Zion is covering them for nine or ten games. Nice!! Kevin Love, Blake Griffin and Giannis (the Greek Freak) Antetokounmpo have also made significant monetary commitments to support those hourly workers in their arenas. In addition, owners like Mark Cuban and Joe Tsai are working out plans to cover their workers. I expect more of this selflessness in the coming weeks. My applause to the NBA.
There is another positive development that will yield both short-term and long-term benefits to the country, and that is the public-private partnership that is being forged as we speak. Companies like Walmart, Walgreens and Quest Diagnostics are partnering with the federal government to enhance the access and speed of testing here in the US. This should flatten the curve of infection and transmission of this virus today; but, it will also serve as a roadmap for future administrations when new pandemics emerge. Trust me, there will be more.
Finally, I predict that there will be a big loser, long-term, and that will be China, and there will be a be winner, long-term, and that will be the United States. Companies around the world are discovering right now how dependent they are on China for critical products, especially in the healthcare industry. As companies in America and Europe re-evaluate their supply chains, they are going to be looking for dependability as well as lower costs. I predict that many US companies will move at least part or all of their manufacturing capabilities back to this country in order to avoid disruptions in the future.
Finally, this too shall pass. There will be more Americans infected with this virus, and unfortunately there will be more deaths, especially for people who are older and have other underlying health issues. We will, however, come out of this and I believe we will come out of it better, more united and more capable of handling the next pandemic. For now – wash your hands, clean common surfaces and if you get symptoms, get tested. But don’t panic. Live as normal a life as possible. Remember, no matter what anyone says, not everyone will get this virus, and 99% of the people who contract it will recover. I plan on being one of them!!
Thanks for helping put this health crisis in perspective!
ReplyDelete"To date, the Coronavirus has been contracted by less than 3,000 people" . . . "outside the state of Washington there have been only 20 deaths in The United States."
ReplyDeleteThis is simply untrue. That's just how many we've confirmed by testing. Literally every expert says that's merely a function of the lack of tests. We don't have enough tests because as little as two weeks ago the President was calling it a hoax. He terminated the pandemic response team at the NSC saying they could always be hired back. The CDC prevented private entities from using their own tests and we rejected the WHO's. The claim that all we have are 3000 cases is literally nuts.
"Live as normal a life as possible."
This is terrible advice. The President's own actual medical point man on this says isolate yourself to the extent possible. I know the President is contradicting him, but why in the world would you believe Donald Trump about this? Here's Fauci:
“I can say we will see more cases and things will get worse than they are right now,”
“I can’t give you a realistic number until we put into the factor of how we respond. If we’re complacent and don’t do really aggressive containment and mitigation, the number could go way up and be involved in many, many millions.”"
"Italy will need help from us and other European nations to resolve their problems."
The President tried to get the German company working on a vaccine to develop a vaccine just for the US and no one else.
"President Obama didn’t declare H1N1 a national emergency until after 1,000 people in America died, I don’t remember anyone accusing him of being slow to act or calling it “The Obama” virus."
This is the actual timeline from H1N1: The CDC said the first case was reported on April 15, 2009, and the government declared H1N1 a public health emergency on the April 26 before a single death occurred. The first test to detect the new virus was approved by the FDA two days later. Shipments of the new CDC test began May 1. Trump and Hannity are lying to you.
"many US companies will move at least part or all of their manufacturing capabilities back to this country in order to avoid disruptions in the future."
This prediction will not come to pass.
"The Coronavirus has united this country in a way that our politicians have failed to do for the last three years." And from a couple weeks ago: "We should all be condemning any politicization of this or any virus or disease that threatens our country."
1. Trump: “I told Mike not to be complimentary of that governor because that governor is a snake,”
2. Yesterday: "We are doing very precise Medical Screenings at our airports." This is a lie.
3. Retweeted: "Joe Biden just lied, saying coronavirus tests should be in the millions, not thousands."
4. " President Obama made changes that only complicated things further...." Again, a lie.
5. "Sleepy Joe Biden was in charge of the H1N1 Swine Flu epidemic which killed thousands of people."
He's also found time to tweet about Hillary Clinton, the Dem candidate for governor of Florida, illegal immigration, and of course more childish "Sleepy Joe Biden" insults.
The President has literally said he takes no responsibility for the federal government's actions. And because there's always a tweet where he's said the opposite, we have this:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/398887965302091776
This is your leadership.
And of course, we'll always have this gem from 2015 - and no I'm not misspelling his quote: "If the Dow Joans ever falls more than 1000 'points' in a single day, the president should be 'loaded' into a very big cannon and shot into the sun at tremendous speed. No excuses."
Yes, leadership indeed.
For your health's sake, ignore President Trump and whatever Fox is telling you. Especially if you're over 60.
News flash. You can't trust the CDC, the NIH, or even CNN or ABC or the NY times. That's where my facts came from.
DeleteMatt has made himself, I guess, the sole provider of truth in this issue, and he blames Trump for everything. Still suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome. Take two reality pills and call me in the morning.
Don't bother answering this. I will not allow you to add to the absolute hysteria that is going on today. 99% of people who contract this virus will survive. I even hope you're one of them.
Cite them then. For example, what's your cite for your Obama H1N1 claims? If you think I'm being untruthful please share with me which parts, and I'm happy to link to the source. I only didn't link to save space but will be happy to do so. I am not the sole provider of truth at all. I'm happy to give you links to literally everything I said.
DeleteOf course 99% of people will survive. Heck the 10 year survival rate of prostate cancer is 98%. That doesn't mean you don't do what you can to avoid it.
And telling us the overall survival rate of corona doesn't tell us much. The better question is what is the survival rate among the elderly?
Again, if you think I'm misleading anyone in any way, please point out which statement you think is misleading, and I'll be glad to link you to the source. For the President's, most of them come from his Twitter account, so I assume you can find those.
I don't blame Trump for "everything." I'm just not in the habit of pretending when someone lies that they didn't for political purposes. I agree with your wishes for nonpartisanship, or for decency, and the numerous posts you've made on civil discourse. I just don't understand why you keep excusing the actual President of the United States when he falls short of your standards. Not my standards, your own.
Republicans used to rail against moral relativism. They were right. What happened?
You are always misleading in that you only point out the negative. You have no balance. And, I never suggested that people should not try to avoid the Coronavirus. Check out my article from March 2nd. You can live your life in an underground bunker for the next six weeks, but that is not my plan. I'm going to take the CDC's advice and live as normally as possible. I'm going to support local businesses where I can, because I think that is important. You may hope that the economy crashes just so that you can get Trump out of office. I don't want people to suffer economically or physically in this and I felt the same way in 2009 when the Swine Flu was running rampant through the country. Here are the links to the sites I used for my data. The wikipedia page changes daily, but I used Sunday's version. There are many reports from the CDC. This one is a little different on the swine flu but shows even more infections and hospitalizations and slightly fewer deaths, but the differences are immaterial.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21342903
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E2%80%9320_coronavirus_pandemic
Matt,
DeleteHere's an article by Mitch Albom, you may have heard of him. It seems he's been reading my articles, although he doesn't reference them (just kidding). This would be good for you in particular to read.
https://www.freep.com/story/sports/columnists/mitch-albom/2020/03/15/mitch-albom-coronavirus/5050402002/
"You are always misleading in that you only point out the negative."
DeleteI'm pointing out the truth. I'm sorry if it's negative or it doesn't look good for a person's preferred party or beliefs. We've gotten to a point where people are so emotionally wedded to political parties or politicians that the can't accept a negative fact about them. So they immediately resort to whataboutism or simply say it's not true or say (pick your politician) Derangement Syndrome. I don't understand being wedded to a political party to that degree unless you're getting some serious financial benefit out of it like a Sheldon Adelson.
"You can live your life in an underground bunker for the next six weeks, but that is not my plan. . . You may hope that the economy crashes just so that you can get Trump out of office. "
Or we go to the hyperbole beyond what the other person said rather than address what they actually said.
" I'm going to take the CDC's advice and live as normally as possible."
This is what the CDC advises if there's an outbreak in your community (which will include NW Arkansas if it doesn't already):
Stay home as much as possible.
Consider ways of getting food brought to your house through family, social, or commercial networks
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/specific-groups/high-risk-complications.html
That's not "normal" by any stretch of the imagination.
The comment on the swine flu was a Trump echo of what he's been trying to sell on what that administration did. Your link doesn't support that, because what Trump said wasn't true.
Moreover, what kind of leadership is it that says "yeah, we might be bad, but that guy is worse based on things I just made up." Coupled with "I accept no responsibility at all" it's the total platform of today's Republican party in a nutshell.
The Albom article is a good one. You should tell our current leadership in the White House to read it. I don't think anyone there has.
DeleteObviously, neither have you. They ARE being balanced. It is you who is not.
DeleteYou seem to find stating the facts as not being "balanced." I don't understand the obsession with "balance." If someone's house is on fire, we can acknowledge it's a disaster without saying "to be balanced, the neighbor's house on both sides is still standing, so on balance, we're pretty good."
DeleteThis just came out from the Arkansas Activities Association. Not "normal" in any way:
ReplyDelete"Due to growing concerns over COVID-19, and after the announcement from the Governor and the Arkansas Department of Education, the AAA will implement a dead period for all member schools starting Tuesday, March 17th, 2020. During this time, coaches (licensed teacher coaches and registered volunteers, shall be prohibited from engaging in any type of activity involving student-athletes whether it be practice, training, weightlifting, tryouts, competition, or travel. Further, school athletic facilities will be closed during this period."
And Mr. Trump told governors today: "“Respirators, ventilators, all of the equipment — try getting it yourselves,”
ReplyDeleteAt some point don't you acknowledge even a little bit the fact that the White House was unprepared and minimized this and has increased the fallout as a result? Even a little?
That's actually good advice. What he said was to try to get it themselves first to avoid the federal government red tape, and if that fails appeal to Washington. Abraham Lincoln said, "if you look for the bad in a person, expecting to find it, you surely will." Your starting point is always - Trump is terrible so this must be wrong. If you can rid yourself of this blind hatred, you'll be able to see things in a balanced way.
DeleteIt's good advice because the federal government was so unprepared. Because for over a month its leader ignored and belittled the risk.
DeleteYou can pretend that didn't happen, but it's true. In this age, there's literally video of it all.
If you need the video, I'm happy to link it. But I think you know it's out there.
From Asa Hutchinson today, who is not known to be a flaming liberal:
Delete""We have to note that we do not have the testing that we need to really be confident that we don't have a greater issue than what we have. As the testing increases, it is likely that the number of cases that have been identified will increase as well."
Here's two statements from the President, less than 4 hours apart. The first, a very good sentiment, extremely Presidential:
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1239567267312152576
The second, just another political potshot at an enemy:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1239620630523322368
And he ended last night with:
"Joe Biden is a train wreck on illegal immigration and would harm national security."
https://twitter.com/parscale/status/1239377885623959555
Surely you can't condone this nonsense day after day, hour after hour.
To his credit, the President is finally beginning to conduct himself in a Presidential manner given his public statements released this afternoon and in his press conference. Doing the right thing, even later than you should, is never wrong. Kudos to him.
ReplyDeleteHe's still pretty misguided about what's happened so far ("I'd rate it a 10 (out of 10)" he says) but being truthful with the people is a vast improvement over the last month.
I will enjoy watching Fox News personalities twist themselves in knots from "it's a media conspiracy" and "it's a Chinese bioweapon (Tom Cotton)" to "the President is taking this seriously."
Wow, you finally said something good about Trump. You've only written about 50,000 words to this blog condemning him. That's real balance. In the end, Trump should be measured by the results of his and his administration's efforts. However, as John Kennedy said, "victory (success) has a thousand fathers, but defeat (failure) is an orphan." When the final tally comes in and if it is positive (fewer than expected infections, deaths, etc) every governor, senator and House Rep will be claiming credit. Politicians are a pathetic breed. Make sure you don't act like one.
DeleteI watched the entire press conference yesterday, and I thought it was great. I particularly liked the 15 day plan for a number of reasons which I will explain in a blog today, but we'll see if CNN, MSNBC, etc concentrates on Trump's breathing pattern instead of his message. The 15 day plan is from the experts and should be echoed by anyone in the media.
Ok, we've beat this dead horse. Read my blog today and criticize it! I'm pretty sure you don't have a positive bone in your body.
Since when is it anyone's duty to embrace "balance"? When Bill Clinton was President I didn't excuse his behavior by saying "it's ok, because Newt Gingrich is on wife #2" or "Dennis Hastert was a child predator." That's a kind of moral relativism the Republican Party used to reject.
DeleteCondemning all politicians as a reason to excuse one is lazy thinking. It's like condemning all police because one goes out of control. People are individuals, or as CS Lewis said, immortal splendors or immortal horrors, and should not be lumped in that way just to excuse criticism of one.
I am extremely positive. I can tell you I think Romney, Obama, McCain, GWB, Dole, Bush I, Reagan, Mondale and Carter were good men, even if I didn't agree with their politics all the time. They exhibited the sins of all men at times, but all had humility in the face of God. I am positive that soon the leader of our country will again have at least an ounce of character that I can tell my children to admire. I cannot say that now, I admit. Can you?
By the way, I'm not criticizing your blog. We are debating politics, and doing so civilly. I thank you for the format to do that.
DeleteAt the end of the day, we are doing what Americans have engaged in since our founding and before. This disagreement should be celebrated, because at the end of the day I'd still have a beer with you, would help you out in a time of need, and appreciate your personal intellectual and moral gifts and contributions to society.
Not agreeing with you on the President doesn't change that.
Here's why we should all embrace "balance" - because it delivers truth. Here's balance - Bill Clinton is a morally depraved human being, a pathological liar and a narcissist, and those aren't his only bad qualities. But was he a good President? He worked well with Newt Gingrich, balanced the budget and delivered a pretty good economy. In fact, read the book "Broke" by, of all people, Glenn Beck. It paints Bill as a pretty good President.
DeleteBut if all I focused on were Bill's failings, which I could do all day long, that would not be telling the whole truth. You should be doing the same for Trump.
OK, I truly need to move on. Go to my next post and you can continue your criticism there.
Balance doesn't deliver truth. Truth stands alone.
DeleteHere's a very personal example. I'm Catholic. If I'm talking about the Church's sex abuse scandal, I do not require "balance" by pointing out all the good Catholic charities do. The Catholic Church's response to the scandal has historically been poor. Full Stop.
That is a truth. It need not be balanced. It is simply a truth. I don't need to say, "well, maybe but the Atheists did X" or "the Baptists did Y" or "the Assemblies of God did Z." That is not balance. That is deflection and I would be being dishonest to myself and my own morality if I could not speak truthfully about the sex abuse problems in my own Church. Indeed, I would be failing my Church because I would be trying to minimize the immorality of the conduct I'm speaking about.
Now, if we finish that conversation and you want to talk about the Baptists and what you perceive to be their failings, then ok.
That's a different conversation, though, and it is not relevant to the failings of the Catholic Church. Those do not need to be tempered with "balance." They need to be exposed to unvarnished truth, and truth alone.
That make sense?
Absolutely not. If you, or we as a society, only highlight the bad things about the Catholic Church or any church, people would never hear about the good things the Church does. Soon there would be no church, because no one would know about any of the good. It is lying by omission.
DeleteAnd this doesn't just cover the Church. It covers government, politicians (although I'm still looking for a good one : - ), big business, the list goes on and on. You hide the truth by your lack of balance. I have criticized Trump a million times (a little exaggeration). I've called him a bully. I called him unelectable. But your and the Dems and the mainstream media's constant assault on him forces me to tell the other side of every story, because YOU won't do it.
Now, I am truly done with the conversation. Don't bother answering. At least not here. Go to my next post!
Of course Trump can't stop being Trump for long. Back to playing Triumph the Insult Comic Dog:
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1239906156463652868
The leader of the Republican party.
Good thing Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders have never insulted Trump. Neither has Hillary, CNN, ABC, etc, etc, etc. Face it Matt. You have blinders on. I don't like the insults going either direction. Can you admit that Joe, Bernie, Hillary and the lame stream media are disgustingly uncivil also?
DeleteShow me even one politician who has the sheer volume of daily personal, childlike insults of Donald Trump.
DeleteNot "the media," whatever you consider that to be. You can always find some idiot in the literally hundreds of shows every day that will say something stupid on both sides of the partisan divide. Fox once went apopletic about Obama wearing a tan suit for goodness sake.
I'm talking a member of Congress, or a Governor. Heck, even a cabinet member. An elected leader. Or heck even a business leader not named John McAfee.
Please, find me one single politician who even approaches Trump's daily barrage of childlike insults that are far beneath the dignity of his office.
You're a good man. That you can't say these kinds of things are wrong without engaging in tortured whataboutism is somewhat frightening. When good men can't call something that is clearly morally wrong out, where are we as a society? Can good men no longer hold the leaders of their own team to account on basic matters of dignity and morality? That's the true Trump Derangement Syndrome - to rob good men of their moral courage to speak against immoral things.
I don't expect it from the Dems, but I used to from the Republicans. Now it seems that there's no difference between them when it comes to these things.
The "it" in that last paragraph is moral courage.
DeleteBecause he never stops, here's a quote from today:
Delete"I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic."
He knows you know he's lying. He knows there is video proof of it. He knows his followers know he's lying.
Yet he also knows that what he said is true - He could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and wouldn't lose a vote. Those followers will scramble to show someone somewhere that they don't like lied about something at one time, big or small, as if that makes it all ok. Or they'll parse his previous words into oblivion, or claim someone tricked him, etc. He's both a very stable genius and easily duped, depending on when you ask them. He's both the greatest judge of talent, and the guy whose failures are excused by the lack of quality in the people he appoints. It's heads I win, tails you lose every time to them.
This is not leadership. This is not dignity. This is not moral. Day after day after day it goes on. Why do the same people who found Bill Clinton's lying so morally reprehensible not find those repulsive?
I cannot figure that out.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHere's a couple of good articles from a pinko writer at National Review:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nationalreview.com/the-tuesday/character-in-the-time-of-coronavirus/
And on the challenges for Trump's re-election:
https://nypost.com/2020/03/14/trump-hits-a-slump-as-biden-and-the-coronavirus-continue-to-rise/