Jump to content

Mr. Acheson--it's time.


Recommended Posts

5 hours ago, HockeyDad said:

Honestly - No. I have not read any such comments.   I have a 25 year old daughter putting her own personal health at risk for the sake of a few “older people”.  

We are all in her debt.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

But comments like those I mentioned definitely are out there.

"The fundamental problem is whether we are going to tank the entire economy to save 2.5% of the population which is (1) generally expensive to maintain and (2) not productive."

"No one reached out to me and said, 'As a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance on your survival in exchange for keeping the America that all America loves for your children and grandchildren?' And if that's the exchange, I'm all in."

"Speaking for myself, though, I would rather assume some risk to my own life than to extend measures for so long and/or to such an extent as to have such a cataclysmic impact on the economy as to decimate the health, welfare, happiness, and very lives of younger generations and society at large."

"Of course, it sounds very callous to talk about considering the costs. It seems harsh to ask whether the nation might be better off letting a few hundred thousand people die. Probably for that reason, few have been willing to do so publicly thus far. Yet honestly facing reality is not callous, and refusing even to consider whether the present response constitutes an even greater evil than the one it intends to mitigate would be cowardly."

- - - - - - - - - - - -

It seems like years ago that people were saying COVID19 was no big deal because the flu kills anywhere from 12,000 to 61,000 Americans each year (though it would be more if not for people getting flu shots annually). But now we have people talking about letting hundreds of thousands or even millions die (2.5% of Americans = 8 million) in order not to disturb the economy.

Old people cost too much and don't contribute! Sacrifices must be made!

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Now I fully acknowledge that two of the four comments quoted above come from apparent senior citizens, and thus are noble, in a way. But it's a false choice, because:

"Any state whose hospitals get overwhelmed and whose doctors start denying elderly COVID19 patients access to ventilators because they need to be saved for middle-aged patients is going to go back into lockdown. Just accept that and take precautions now before disaster hits.

There’s no actual economic gain to be had by running into the brick wall of health care capacity and then shutting the bars and restaurants down. To get on the 'pro-growth' side of the tradeoff you’d need to push through a period where corpses pile up untreated. It’s absurd."

- - - - - - - - - - - -

The other "no big deal" argument some are making points to the fact that 38,000 people died in car crashes in the U.S. last year.

Here's the total COVID19 death toll in this country this month. Again, this is the cumulative total, not the new deaths per day:

Mar. 1: 2 ... 3/2: 6 ...  3/3: 9 ...  3/4: 11 ...  3/5: 12 ...  3/6: 17 ...  3/7: 19 ...  3/8: 21 ...  3/9: 26 ...  3/10: 31 ... 3/11: 38 ...  3/12: 41 ...  3/13: 49...  3/14: 58 ... 3/15: 65 ... 

3/16: 87 ...  3/17: 111 ...  3/18: 149 ...  3/19: 195 ...  3/20: 263 ...  3/21: 323 ...  3/22: 413 ... Mar. 23: 541.

At that rate of increase (averaging 33% per day), there would be 380,000 COVID19 deaths in this country by April 15.

Well, you know what they say about death and taxes.

(Now it almost certainly won't be that high that fast, because plenty of steps are now being taken to fight the outbreak. That said, the number of automobile deaths each year would be about four times higher than it is if not for a lot of money spent on safety features.)

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Anyway, the Director of Johns Hopkins explains the importance of recent state orders limiting activity (more info at link):

 

Edited by N.E. Brigand
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, skevinp said:

What are you accusing me of?

Not accusing you of anything.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ouch. The first person to die of COVID19 from Zimbabwe is a 30-year-old TV reporter there... who apparently contracted the disease in New York.

But some good news: it appears Italy has finally turned the corner. They had "only" 601 new deaths today. While the most deaths in one day in the U.S. so far is 128 (and that was today), in Italy there were 793 people who died just two days ago. The number of new cases is also starting to decline there.

Edited by N.E. Brigand
Link to comment
Share on other sites

There's an article in today's The Record (sorry,it won't link) about the postponement of the Summer Olympics.

One paragraph stood out  :

"This was a move everyone could see coming.Everyone but the IOC and Tokyo organizers that is.

For weeks, they fought hard to maintain the charade that everything would be fine.

That this summer's Games could go ahead as scheduled,despite much of the world being at a standstill."

 

Edited by rpbobcat
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Moderators need to ramp-up their attention to the way this Message Board is being heavily co-opted to induce fear. Those who persist need to be quarantined, not just constantly reminded. 

  • Like 4
  • Thanks 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 minutes ago, Fred Windish said:

Moderators need to ramp-up their attention to the way this Message Board is being heavily co-opted to induce fear. Those who persist need to be quarantined, not just constantly reminded. 

Amen Fred. It’s beyond time to stop the divisiveness.  Before someone pulls the trigger on their next post declaring, no matter how obliquely, someone (generally from the opposite political party) is doing it wrong, maybe go look in the mirror and ask yourself what YOU are going to do today to help make things better. Otherwise the snark posts are transparent, no matter how you try to cleverly mask it. Thank you. 

  • Like 3
  • Thanks 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...