GARGLEBLASTER Loc: Spain

This year has been so traumatic that I wonder if in the near future we will refer to the years as PC, like 2020 PC (Post C***d!)

anotherview Loc: California

Nope. Instead, this period should confirm that politicians should not make medical decisions regarding a p******c. Shutting down large segments of the U.S. economy and increasing the national debt by $4 trillion document an overreaction to this medical problem.

Instead, leadership should have quarantined the threatened sub-groups for their protection: Older folk, obese individuals with diabetes, and individuals with serious medical conditions. This rational response also should have included immediate extraction of individuals from the unsafe nursing facilities.

This limited quarantine would have allowed the rest of the population to continue their daily lives and to keep their jobs.

Of course, face masks, social distancing, avoiding crowds, and stopping large family interactions would have achieved the purpose of preventing the spread of the Chinese k**ler v***s. Various sanitary measures, as now implemented, also would have limited its spread. These measures would have required some businesses to reconfigure their operation to r****d the v***s.

Leadership should have persuaded the news media at all times to offer a sober view of the p******c and the response to it.

HamB

A sober assessment.

yssirk123 Loc: New Jersey

The original "15 days to stop the spread" which began on ~March 16, 2020 will become 410 days...or one year, one month and 16 days if Joe Biden's announced 100 day mask order takes effect on inauguration day.

limey

Leadership??? Where was it? Non existent

GARGLEBLASTER Loc: Spain

This has gone completelty off topic. My original post was an attempt at gentle, ironic humour and suddenly it has become political.

tomcat

As they say, hindsight is always 20-20

tomcat

That’s what happens in a room full of left-wing socialists. They always have the best solutions and judge from 20-20 hind-sight, while at the same time, offering no valid alternatives

I thought your suggestion of pc was funny, but maybe pv instead. pc sounds too much like a computer and I h**e Microsoft machines

andesbill

I assume since you are against socialism, you refuse Medicare and Social Security, libraries and public education. Since nearly every industry is subsidized by the feds (socialism by another name) especially, f****l f**ls, auto, steel, agriculture, disasters, you live in an off grid home, without electricity, ride a horse, and produce your own food. If that isn’t you, than you are a democratic socialist in part, like nearly all Americans.
Where the political parties disagree, is in how much of the economy should be centralized. About this reasonable people can disagree. For example. Health care costs can bankrupt you (unless you have Medicare). How much health care should be subsidized, by whom (which taxpayers get hit hardest), who gets covered, and how completely. We may disagree, but we should still have this conversation (maybe in a bar after a few drinks, I’ll pay for the first round)

tomcat

Social security is not socialism, you nit. We paid for it already, out of our paychecks. Just like every liberal, you think that SS is an entitlement. What should change is the deduction given to the Fed govt'. With the present system, you lose any potential for earned interest every month. SS should continue to be deducted, but send to Fidelity every month.

JohnFrim Loc: Somewhere in the Great White North.

Only a dictator could pull off that kind of forced confinement. Had Trump been the dictator he wanted to be then maybe if he would have acted like a dictator-leader he could have corralled the v***s. But he was neither a dictator, nor a democratically elected leader. He was a failure as POTUS, and a LOSER as an incumbent.

So the next period in history that you refer to is more aptly PT -- Post Trump.

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

LOL... It was busy defending itself in an impeachment h**x, then it was busy laying out the plan for Operation "Warp Speed" pre-purchasing the v*****e which helped serve to fund its development and planning with the military the logistics for the distribution. I guess that somehow you think that the American people did not understand the danger of the p******c, apparently you did, is that because you are just that much smarter than everyone else or maybe it is because the general population was well aware of the danger presented by C***d.

anotherview Loc: California

The news media carried the ball in its own interest of profit-making. Leadership reacted to selected opinion. Fear of the p******c led to panic buying. Finger-pointing substituted for plain words. The news media only rarely depicted the impact of the k**ler v***s as affecting the sub-groups already mentioned.

The news media presented (and still does) the number of cases of infection as sufficient information -- without noting the national death rate and the sub-groups most impacted.

Instead, by simple math, say the population is 360 million and the number of deaths is 260 thousand. The resulting death rate is 0.072 percent, or said another way, 72 thousandths of one percent.

As well, most of the deaths from the v***s occur among these sub-groups: obese people with diabetes, people with serious medical conditions, and older folk. Hence, if not in one or more of these sub-groups, an individual has a near zero chance of dying from the k**ler v***s.

If the news media and leadership presented these simple facts to the public constantly, then of course the public would respond intelligently.
Panic would subside. The economy might (only might) slow slightly. Businesses would stay open. People would keep their jobs. Foreclosures and evictions would happen about the same as before the p******c. The nation would not sink into $4 trillion in debt as an economic fix.

Leadership would still have a responsibility for protecting the affected sub-groups. Quarantining them for a while would isolate them from the spread of the v***s.

The rest of the nation could go about its daily activity as usual.

Fotoartist Loc: Detroit, Michigan

Where do you think the v*****e came from? Brain dead in your Trump h**e?

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

Blah Blah Blah.... Trump wanted to be a dictator.... Rantings of a sick mind.