Pollution is down, the air is cleaner.

So we got that going for us!

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Pro: The canals in Venice are as clean as ever.

Con: There are monkey gang fights in the streets of Thailand.

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Spanky with a great thread here. 100 percent right.

I'll add that mortality rate isn't the most important thing. Hospitalization rate is what matters because mortality rates for all emergencies go way up if hospitals are overwhelmed.

I hope the holdouts are right. In two weeks the hospitals are able to handle things and life goes back to somewhat normal.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

The fact that it isn't particularly lethal is one of the things that makes it so contagious. People are walking around with it all over the place. Many don't even have symptoms or they have symptoms so mild they would never think they have it.

When this first started I heard it repeated a lot that "we should take this seriously, but there is no need to panic." Unfortunately, we quickly got to the panic stage. I'm far more afraid of that than I am either the disease itself or the fact that a depression is now inevitable. We can deal with economic hard times. We'll have to. And yes, the disease is far more contagious than the seasonal flu and we don't have good ways of treating it right now and it's at least twice as lethal as the typical flu. But between the media and our leadership we're creating a climate of fear. We're pushing the shit out of certain aspects of our infrastructure. And people are afraid. We're not that far away from a societal collapse.

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Ecclesiastes 5:8

as long as the supermarkets stay reasonably stocked... the faucets work and we have electricity society will not collapse.... there will be cracks in the foundation that you'll want someone to take a look at though when it's over. lose one of those 3... i don want to think about that

Lose the internet, and society collapses within days.

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it is a subset of electricity

Even a restriction on use would create chaos.

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We may be closer to that than you think.

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Ecclesiastes 5:8

had a coworker last week put a tissue in a closed box with a piece of paper that said covid19 giving it to people as a present joke.... that guy is now washing his hands every 10 minutes and wiping everything down a few times a day

My question there though, is what has actually changed from last week other than perceptions?

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Ecclesiastes 5:8

i hope not, as much as i dread what the next 2 weeks will bring, at its core this virus is not lethal enough to permanently destroy society.... i thought that way a month ago and still feel that way today. unpleasant but should not be the end of times

But that's exactly what Nas and I have been saying while you've been taking shots at us. It's not that we don't think this virus is deadly or that it isn't capable of easily overwhelming our healthcare system. But it won't be the disease itself that destroys society. It will be the way we respond/react to it. There are tough decisions that need to be made. It seems like the ones that are being made are very scattered and wishy washy.

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Ecclesiastes 5:8

Panic got to him. To not toe the line or to question anything about the virus is now a moral failing, something that makes you a pariah. Of course, it's smart to be sanitary and cautious, but we don't need to crash the economy and replace reasonable values with hysteria, like characters in an episode of The Twilight Zone.

I dread the government and media response (not to mention hysterical people and the concern trolls who want to bully others, this time with the "don't be selfish and go outside!!" rationale) much more than the virus, which also has me pretty scared.

You think that’s bad.

Think of how bitchy everyone on CFMB is getting after only like a week of this.

Now imagine these people at home with their kids, or non existent lives until May.

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i can read and interpret data without needing media guidance on what it means. you seem to want to deny there is a problem... for reasons unknown

Not at all. As I said, it's rational to be cautious--my own hands are so chapped from washing that I look like Christ on the cross--but to shut down our society and to attempt to benefit from the human penchant for hysteria is frightening, especially in America, where we have rights that people in other countries don't have. What other rights are we gonna give back? Is CNN really the new public intellectual who is gonna tell us what to think? The changes to our society are scary enough, but the potential changes to our culture are scarier.

Maybe they can start building temporary hospitals rather than giving people a grand a week to stay inside and not question anything.

Every bit of data you read is filtered through someone else. Unless you're the one doing the research, and I assume that isn't the case. To suggest that the media isn't playing a part in shaping what you think and believe is just another version of "advertising doesn't work on me."

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Ecclesiastes 5:8

The playing dumb bit is really cute. The argument by people who aren't bootlicking the company line is this virus is not worth crashing this state's, country's or the globe's economy.

Don't see MANY virus "truthers". However, what MANY are beginning to realize the response and solutions to the virus and its effects are idiotic and make little sense.

Yep Kirkwood. It’s as if almost people are doing things to do them because they don’t know what they are doing. Sure they are not dumb and have good intentions I assume but this isn’t a simple solution problem.

The worst thing that can come from this is we achieve very acceptable results. No not because it’s bad few people died. But because they may assume this radical solution fits many other future issues.

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Elections have consequences.

I think it's the opposite. The year after will be about coming up with a logical, science based plan on how to deal with another potential pandemic. We really have been coming up with this as we have gone along. Last Wednesday, they were debating whether the Big Ten Tournament, a mostly meaningless college basketball tournament, should allow 14,000 fans to watch it in person. Less than a week later, we had basically banned any gathering over 50 people across the whole country. That's a remarkable change in a week. I can't think of anything that comes close to that in my lifetime besides 9/11 which basically shut down all air travel but didn't shut down much other parts of life.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Actually, it is. If people aren't dying this IS just a cold, save for a few exceptions of permanent respiratory problems

The only real justification for this is to save people from death, not from a dry cough.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Outside of Wuhan, its still under 1% worldwide.

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This is wrong. The hospitalization rate is the most important thing.

Let's say the mortality rate, with proper treatment, is 0%. However, the hospitalization rate is 20%. If the hospitals can treat all of those 20% of people then the mortality rate stays at 0. If those hospitals can only treat 10% of those people then a large majority of the other 10% will die.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Is there a site that shows cases and deaths from regular flu on a daily basis, similar to the worldometer site for coronavirus? It would be interesting to see how the flu, which kills 30-50k per year in the US, is tracking the last few weeks.

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What exactly is "proper treatment"? You make it sound as if there is a cure. Is treatment basically putting people on a respirator to give their bodies a chance to ride it out? How many people have actually lived thanks to extreme treatment such as this, compared to those who would have survived anyway?

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You are assuming a positive relation of logic and government.

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Elections have consequences.

It actually is. It's what's fueling the fear and panic. Fear and panic and what's going to overwhelm our system. No one really cares if a lot of people aren't dying. Last night told me everything that I needed to know about the media and our leaders fanning fear. They're no longer even mentioning the death totals. They're focus on the number of confirmed cases. Why? That number is significantly bigger.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

First I'll just say I agree with you. But I'd like to play a game. Let's call it "End Game".
What is the goal of End Game? How do you win End Game if the first rule is you have to tank an economy?

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014