Another reminder: I will not publish rumor or hearsay in comments. If your paragraph starts with "We're now hearing about..." and does not include a link to an actual Official Person In The Know saying this thing you have heard, it's not going to get published on my blog.
Come on, this isn't that hard. Distinguish between rumor and facts. I encourage you to dig for facts -- and verification of them. Don't speculate, guess, or repeat something some guy you know heard from his brother-in-law's cousin. It doesn't help.
That rules out 99percent of what's on the Internet then
ReplyDeleteAin't that a pity?
ReplyDeleteHowever will the easily-panicked cope?
I myself have been impressed with nearly every group that you could name, as far as how they have responded to this pandemic, or virus, or whatever we want to call the crisis we are going through right now. The federal response has been pretty much all we could want, if you are fair. Given the information they had to work with,they got both public and private groups working together on all parts and responses to this outbreak,from the attempting to control the spread,to testing those whom they deem appropriate,to finding a vaccine and also a cure.
ReplyDeleteWhile the agencies are doing this,they are also keeping the American public as well informed as nearly anything that I can remember the government ever doing. No project, major of minor, has ever had briefings by the leadership, the president and the vice president,who is also in charge of the federal response. These briefings take place nearly every day. And the principals take questions from the reporters, until they seem satisfied.
I admit that I don't know much more about the corona virus than what I have read or seen from the government's website. What I do know is that it is not something to be taken lightly. When the governor from my state, Gretchen Whitmer, basically shuts down the state, other than necessary functions,but includes restaurants, gasoline stations, grocery stores, and medical places, you have to know that it is no joke and certainly not to be ignored.
I have mentioned in a couple of places that I have seen nothing but people being decent, kind, generous,and patient with each other, and with workers, in stores and convenience stores. I know that in some places that is not the case, and so I am grateful that I live in an area where people are able to look for the good in others.
My wife is much more affected by the entire pandemic and the concerns than I am. Not that I am not taking precautions, and limiting social contacts, but she is, to be frank, scared. I know that for those who don't feel that way, it is easy to just ignore those who have the feelings like that. But they are very valid feelings, and we can't just ignore them, because in the beginning of this pandemic,the information coming out was, to be honest, very scary and leaned towards possible horrific numbers, and very dangerous outcomes for a huge number of people in America. Now, as time goes by, the numbers seem to have come down, but the fear is still there for some. It is only by making sure that we follow the right precautions that we can minimize the fear to a manageable level. And I think that may be the right balance for everyone. Do the best you can to follow the recommended precautions and be confident that you are in a place that you can be able to handle any illness that may come along. Because when we see that say, 2% of the people are passing away from this virus, we must not forget that means that 98% of the people who get it survive.
My sincere hope is that once people begin to feel like we are getting a handle on this thing we are smart enough to listen to the experts to tell us when we really DO have a handle on this thing. My best analogy is that many a ball game or other contest has been lost when you don't play full out until victory is a sure thing. And my analogy is not great in that I don't want this virus scoring any "garbage points" (killing a few more people) at the end. There are no meaningless points in this deal.
ReplyDeleteI hold a PhD in engineering, so I can crunch numbers pretty well. Engineers get mathematical modeling. Why do I say that? Only to give my opinion some weight when I say it looks to me as if we have some incredibly capable people losing a lot of sleep working their butts off to give the President and the rest of the policy makers damn good advice.
Everything I have wondered about, it eventually comes up that they are already on that. They recognize the differences between countries, the differences in different parts of our country, the differences in timelines, and so much more. Further, I'm confident we are seeing only a small part of how sophisticated they are attacking this. They study this stuff like the military studies the history of warfare. They are running complicated models, more than one, and they are not letting up in refining the models. In addition, the more data they get, the more they have to work with, the better they do. I trust what they tell me.
I have some other opinions, and perhaps even some facts to support them. But I don't think Miss Roberta whats that here.
But we cannot let up! And we have to be smart about any "restarts."
And God Bless NYC! I don't like cities much, but Lord, to I feel for those folks!