Kmgw9v Loc: Miami, Florida

I need clarification. It is your position that Fauci stills supports Obama, and the “political agenda” that I asked about is to exaggerate the severity of the virus to make Trump look bad, and impair his chances for reelection?
Please say what you really mean. I am not attacking, I am simply curious about Fauci’s motivation.

Paul Diamond Loc: Atlanta, GA, USA

I wish Ronald Reagan's words and his Presidency were helpful. I know many appreciate him and some revere him. I remember Reagan closing the 'mental hospitals' to save money that he could spend on fighting with the USSR over who could build and deploy the most super weapons. We won, in the end. But, I had a business trip to Philadelphia after Reagan had closed the hospitals and thousands were homeless across the USA. It was winter in Philly, and very, very cold. On the streets of Philadelphia were people lying in the open on steel grates in the sidewalk. They usually had coats and heavy clothing. But, they were huddled on those 'steam grates' for a little heat to avoid being frozen to death in the winter - so Reagan could use the money to build more weapons of war.

That was a price too high and much more terrifying.

What we are experiencing is massive for the USA. Many of the jobs that are lost will not be coming back any time in the forseeable future. But, we can all decide that we are in this together. And we, our country, will be stronger if we all try to work together without the childish bickering and partisan politics that have been used to divide us. - Now, that's a legacy to leave for future generations.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

The CDC seems to have two different offices counting.
This one seems way behind in their counting.

Indiana itself relates 1379 deaths to the Covid-19 virus
https://www.coronavirus.in.gov/
but this page shows only 762

To see the other count - the count that seems to be consistent with what even the Governor of ruby red Indiana uses - go to
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/cases-in-us.html

OneShot1 Loc: Wichita, KS, USA

Excellent! Well said!

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Haven't you seen the news shows of farmers dumping milk, potatoes etc? The processing plants are either closed or working at reduced capacity so they can't sell the stuff before it spoils. I saw a picture of one potato farmer with a dump truck full who went into a paved area in town and just dumped the potatoes for anyone who wanted them.
As to meat, esp beef, chicken etc. The processing plants that are open can't handle the volume, so the buyers aren't buying and transporting the animals and the farmers/ranchers lose money feeding etc and are worried they will have to start killing and burying the animals to slow down the march towards being bankrupt.

The bottle neck is the processing plants - to operate the workers have to be close and sickness can spread easily with all those workers close to each other in an enclosed area so the plants are closed or operating at minimum capacity.

The farmers and ranchers are producing, the truckers and railroads are transporting, the stores have people to stock shelves etc - with precautions but the middle of the food chain - processing plants - are not working as they should.

One report I read said a lot of the big processing plants are now owned by international corps and they are bringing in meat from their operations in other countries instead of buying US grown animals, at increased prices with the shortage that is just getting started while the plants that process American produced animals are shut or at reduced capacity.

Just like the meds and protective gear for medical people, the supply chain came to depend on other nations. All that stuff needs to be brought back to the US, even if we do have to pay a bit more due to the higher wages here.

There is a plant in, I believe it was Texas, that makes protective gear, esp N95 masks that has production lines shut down and the owner (he worked there when it used to be at full capacity and formed a partnership to buy it, then the wholesalers etc started buying from other countries) has been trying to get the government to finance him getting his plant up to full capacity again, (reconditioning the machines and training more workers will be expensive) but they ignore him. He is producing at about 1/4 capacity and selling N95 masks for less than $1 each while some states etc are paying 2-5 dollars for imported masks, China esp is gouging on the prices and some of their masks are such crap that when tested masks labeled N95 are sometimes only N20 or N25 in the real world.

We need to bring the production capacity back to the US and our territories. Modernize our plants for safety etc and just swallow any higher prices - it beats being at the mercy of nations like China for vital things. And I am willing to bet that with new processes, better machines and computer/robot controlled production - by workers trained to operate them making better wages we could get the prices back down and maybe even lower than before through volume etc.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

We all know that for political purposes all who are dying in this period, regardless of cause it seems, are counted as Chinese Flu.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

Those are not all the people who have died in my area.
I know for certain of people who have died, and the count in my county has not changed in that week.

Indiana, being a ruby Red state with a Republican Governor, has no politial stake in counting the way you say.

They count some one if they believe the death is associated with the Covid-19 virus.

Diocletian

First, I'm not sure what an increase or decline in US population has to do with overpopulation. According to Mirriam-Webster: Overpopulation. : the condition of having a population so dense as to cause environmental deterioration, an impaired quality of life, or a population crash.

Second: Definition of Climate/environmental degradation: the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems; habitat destruction; the extinction of wildlife; and pollution. ... When natural habitats are destroyed or natural resources are depleted, the environment is degraded.

Let me know if you need further clarification.

Diocletian

Please do not call it "Chinese Flu". This term puts those with Asian faces in harms way.

huntmj

The way things are now we may as well be in prison. My wife and I have maybe 5 more years to do long haul travel and there are so many things to see, I'm happy to take a reasonable risk.
I agree with SMP there is anxiety and some hysteria evidenced by watching and listening to people every day. Some folks are going to come out of this with mental health problems.
I don't believe anything the media say now and if the experts agreed on a set of facts then I would be happy to follow them, but they don't

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

Like Spanish flu puts Spaniards in harms way??????

What a bunch of PC BS.

Diocletian

https://people.com/health/coronavirus-racist-attacks-against-asians/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_incidents_of_xenophobia_and_racism_related_to_the_COVID-19_pandemic
https://www.reddit.com/r/asian/comments/gceq16/threats_against_asian_americans_are_on_the_rise/
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/23/us/chinese-coronavirus-racist-attacks.html
https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/20/us/coronavirus-racist-attacks-against-asian-americans/index.html

When we have a POS that encourages violence against Latinos, immigrants, Muslim-American, African-Americans, and now Asians, and other minority and marginalized groups, it incites the white supremacists and other hate groups to attack them physically. When he, and you, call it the "Chinese flu", those people who have Asian faces, whether Americans or not, are at risk. Simple fact.

As far as being "PC BS" I always thought those people who cry "PC" were really trying to justify being homophobic, xenophobic, racist, misogynistic, bigoted, fanatical, hateful, chauvinistic, and contemptuous.

RAR_man Loc: stow, MA

the media and certain pols have made neurotics out of the general population. I'm so against what's going on:

- media running fast and loose with stats that they dont have the brains to understand or qualify
- govt agencies, embarrassed by their early predictions, trying to boost the numbers any way they can to help justify their inadequate modeling attempts
- governors demanding from the Federal govt what they should have been responsible for in the first place
- governors and mayors empowering themselves with much too much power (power hungry maniacs)
- tired of hearing "if it saves just one life..." where people are dying routinely because of inadequate policies, failed programs, ignoring of realities. This statement is focused MAINLY at state and local level
- inadequate control of borders that routinely contribute to crime and disease

I heard this AM how the cv death rate in NYC is going down and the infection rate is rising nationwide!!!!! Would somebody please clarify? I'm not talking clarification like NYT, WAPO, CNN or MSNBC. I want data i can trust. If the infection rate is going up because more and more tests are being done and more and more cv+ are being found, that makes lots of sense. The overall death rate in the US is DECREASING.

Nobody seems to want to talk about the vast majority of cv+ are asymptomatic which means there is large-scale immunity.

Tired of idiots talking about how wearing a mask will prevent someone from contracting cv. I'm willing to admit it MAY cut down on it. Mask's primary function is to prevent transmission rather than eliminate contraction. I had an argument with someone recently about this. There was no convincing them that any mucous membrane is a vector for contraction. Eyes, for instance.

so tired of people sneering and calling out "stupid" if they see someone 20 ft away without a mask.

Something's got to give. CDC/NIH was wrong about cv from the start. Now they are in cover-ass mode, for sure.

Economy has to open for...mental health...for money to eat and live. Govt's were never meant to be there fore the purpose of providing money, food, shelter for the population on a large scale. some small number of individuals, yes. no problem

GA seems to be doing fine now that they are partially open. Forbidding someone fishing or golfing or closing a beach or park is idiocy. Just educate people where necessary. Dumping sand on skate parks? What a--holes dreamed that up. Just tell kids to keep distance is more than enough and govt appropriate.

We have to get back. BTW, I am in a high risk group. I know how to protect myself, as everyone should know too.

Good luck to us and stop listening to the idiot talking heads that blather without knowing what they're saying

Stay well, UHHs

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

You’ll have to provide a reference before getting meaningful comments.

Of course it is possible for death rate in NYC to go down; what did you hear about infection rate there?

Nationally infection rate consists of many pieces; some could go up while NYC goes down. Is someone claiming that? Asymptomatic rate could be different from symptomatic rate; is someone claiming that? Is this based on tests or just what someone guesses???

RAR_man Loc: stow, MA

you vocalized the problem. No one is providing context or qualification of the data. Lousy situation. Typical bad reporting. When i went to college, generally the most stupid students majored in journalism. Mind you i've known some outstanding journalists, too. But one would think the most basic of actions in reporting would be to qualify data and put it in context.

There is no disputing the fact that the vast majority of cv pluses are asymptomatic. Also, it is a fact that if a positive dies, for any reason, they are included in the death toll. I've heard several docs on TV mention that they thought that was dopey.

I just want to know the REAL numbers (qualified data and context). Its the engineer in me.