COVID-19, The Early Days Still
I'm not the biggest Joe Rogan fan but I will say that he does an excellent job with his guest selection.
This is a link to an interview with Michael Olsterholm who is an infectious disease "detective."
As of today, WHO has called COVID-19 a pandemic, which really isn't a surprise to anyone. With international flights and a two-week incubation period during which people are highly contegious, this has been the plot of many a thriller book and movie.
Gloves and masks are essentially worthless. No vaccine anytime soon. What about pre-emptive self-quarantines? Yes, if you can afford to do it and you are older. Closing schools is actually counterproductive as children really aren't catching COVID-19, a good thing, and then you're going to be pulling parents, many of whom work in the medical field out of circulation, a bad thing.
From a business standpoint, we are in for a world of hurt. Our economy relies on off-shore production of medical supplies. Never mind just gloves and masks and other items used to fight the virus, it's about all of those supplies for chronic illnesses which won't be manufactured because the crew manufacturing it is either sick, dead, or quarantined.
Extend that to food production, fuel, and daily necessities such as toilet paper and paper towels. Right now it's a joke, isn't it, hoarding TP? Hopefully we won't end up longing for the days of outhouses and the Sears-Roebuck catalogue.
Then, how automated are our water and sewage systems? With bottled water moving out the door faster than beer at a frat party, will we be able to rely on what comes out of the tap? How many people does it take to run a sanitation plant or ensure clean water? I don't think anyone of us wants backed up toilets on top of a fever.
All of that is fear mongering, isn't it? No, it's why people prep in the first place. Because illness is right up there with natural disasters, joblessness, and house fires. It's something which could disrupt our lives in a major way whether it's across the globe or not. Of course, if it is across the globe, it's not nearly as easy to come out of.
Not sure if I've recommended it before, but The Great Influenza is a fantastic book about the Spanish Flu which was fascinating even without the gaping muzzle of a new pandemic to stare down. Trust me, it's worth the time, it will also make you feel a whole lot better about what we are about to endure because it's nothing like what the 1920's faced.
In Rogan's interview, Olsterholm had telling words, "This isn't a COVID blizzard, it's a COVID winter." Grabbing a week of sick leave to hunker down and shelter in place isn't going to be be enough for this to burn itself out. Pace yourself physically and mentally, this is going to be a slog not a sprint.
The virus is out in nature now. It's a factor to be reckoned with from here on out, or at least until a vaccine can be developed. Now, THERE'S and interesting wrinkle... if this is a man made virus, will it have been engineered to mutate fast enough to make a virus near-on impossible, ala HIV?
The point of biological warfare isn't just to take your enemy sick and take them out of commission, but to leave the land in good enough shape for it to be occupied by your own forces. If you blanketed an area with fabricated ebola which could survive in the air for years, it would defeat the purpose - you couldn't occupy what you essentially turned into a wasteland as far as human occupation goes. And, therein may lie our salvation. If this is a biological weapon which escaped a lab, and I don't know that it is, but I don't know that it isn't, either, then the virologists will have wanted a mechanism by which to cleanse an affected area or at least make it inhabitable. That means either readily susceptible to a vaccine or a high burn out rate. Since the later doesn't seem the case, let us pray the former was their plan all along. It's a Hail Mary, but if China engineered this, then they may be further along the line to a vaccine than the rest of the world is - but that is pure conjecture on my part and likely a false hope, kind of like the last Star Wars film.
Of course, there's more - what will this new cause of social instability do to inherently unstable areas such as Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and pretty much all of Africa? There are those who will always seek to gain a foot up on the backs of those who are bent over and down and out.
"Never let a good crisis go to waste." -Rahm Emanuel (D)
What are the politicians cooking up other than being late with medical aid and water? But, wait, government is screwing things up, so we need to give more power to save us! Maybe that's the hope, that Tuesday, November 3rd will coincide with an America clutched in the fist of a powerful COVID-19 inspired fever dream and will vote for the Upside-Down.
Stranger things have happened. Time to request that absentee ballot, I think.
As of today, WHO has called COVID-19 a pandemic, which really isn't a surprise to anyone. With international flights and a two-week incubation period during which people are highly contegious, this has been the plot of many a thriller book and movie.
Gloves and masks are essentially worthless. No vaccine anytime soon. What about pre-emptive self-quarantines? Yes, if you can afford to do it and you are older. Closing schools is actually counterproductive as children really aren't catching COVID-19, a good thing, and then you're going to be pulling parents, many of whom work in the medical field out of circulation, a bad thing.
From a business standpoint, we are in for a world of hurt. Our economy relies on off-shore production of medical supplies. Never mind just gloves and masks and other items used to fight the virus, it's about all of those supplies for chronic illnesses which won't be manufactured because the crew manufacturing it is either sick, dead, or quarantined.
Extend that to food production, fuel, and daily necessities such as toilet paper and paper towels. Right now it's a joke, isn't it, hoarding TP? Hopefully we won't end up longing for the days of outhouses and the Sears-Roebuck catalogue.
Then, how automated are our water and sewage systems? With bottled water moving out the door faster than beer at a frat party, will we be able to rely on what comes out of the tap? How many people does it take to run a sanitation plant or ensure clean water? I don't think anyone of us wants backed up toilets on top of a fever.
All of that is fear mongering, isn't it? No, it's why people prep in the first place. Because illness is right up there with natural disasters, joblessness, and house fires. It's something which could disrupt our lives in a major way whether it's across the globe or not. Of course, if it is across the globe, it's not nearly as easy to come out of.
Not sure if I've recommended it before, but The Great Influenza is a fantastic book about the Spanish Flu which was fascinating even without the gaping muzzle of a new pandemic to stare down. Trust me, it's worth the time, it will also make you feel a whole lot better about what we are about to endure because it's nothing like what the 1920's faced.
In Rogan's interview, Olsterholm had telling words, "This isn't a COVID blizzard, it's a COVID winter." Grabbing a week of sick leave to hunker down and shelter in place isn't going to be be enough for this to burn itself out. Pace yourself physically and mentally, this is going to be a slog not a sprint.
The virus is out in nature now. It's a factor to be reckoned with from here on out, or at least until a vaccine can be developed. Now, THERE'S and interesting wrinkle... if this is a man made virus, will it have been engineered to mutate fast enough to make a virus near-on impossible, ala HIV?
The point of biological warfare isn't just to take your enemy sick and take them out of commission, but to leave the land in good enough shape for it to be occupied by your own forces. If you blanketed an area with fabricated ebola which could survive in the air for years, it would defeat the purpose - you couldn't occupy what you essentially turned into a wasteland as far as human occupation goes. And, therein may lie our salvation. If this is a biological weapon which escaped a lab, and I don't know that it is, but I don't know that it isn't, either, then the virologists will have wanted a mechanism by which to cleanse an affected area or at least make it inhabitable. That means either readily susceptible to a vaccine or a high burn out rate. Since the later doesn't seem the case, let us pray the former was their plan all along. It's a Hail Mary, but if China engineered this, then they may be further along the line to a vaccine than the rest of the world is - but that is pure conjecture on my part and likely a false hope, kind of like the last Star Wars film.
Of course, there's more - what will this new cause of social instability do to inherently unstable areas such as Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and pretty much all of Africa? There are those who will always seek to gain a foot up on the backs of those who are bent over and down and out.
"Never let a good crisis go to waste." -Rahm Emanuel (D)
What are the politicians cooking up other than being late with medical aid and water? But, wait, government is screwing things up, so we need to give more power to save us! Maybe that's the hope, that Tuesday, November 3rd will coincide with an America clutched in the fist of a powerful COVID-19 inspired fever dream and will vote for the Upside-Down.
Stranger things have happened. Time to request that absentee ballot, I think.
