From a forthcoming chapter in Medical School 2020:
“I don’t think people realize what is coming. The virus is reported to have almost a 20 percent infection rate. On the cruise ship, one asymptomatic person infected 600 people. Our health system covers about 1 million people. We have 54 ICU beds. The numbers just don’t work.” He continues: “On top of this, this will be a supply crisis. Our health system reverts back to the medieval when we don’t have common medications. Penicillin is not made in the US anymore. There is going to be a huge shortage of needles. China supplies everything, and they are shut down.” Is he stockpiling? “Oh yeah.”
This conversation occurred last week. Our anonymous hero was shadowing the radiologists.
Separately, I was at a dinner party on Friday evening in a West LA house that Zillow estimates is worth $3.6 million. The guests on previous occasions spent about 90 percent of their time displaying their virtuous concern for others: Trump-hatred, wanting to help the vulnerable, social justice, etc. During this dinner, however, 90 percent of the conversation was about the rich white guests’ personal fears of contracting the coronavirus, whether to modify travel plans to minimize the risk, etc. (They mixed in a bit of Trump hatred by talking about how the $5 trillion/year Federal government would be powerless to do anything regarding coronavirus due to incompetent leadership by Trump and Pence. They have almost total faith in the power of the Federal government to solve problems, but only if the correct President and VP are installed at the top.)
[At least one Bernie supporter from 2016 had moved into the Elizabeth Warren camp. To judge by the dinner crowd, Warren’s appeal is strongest to women who don’t work and feel aggrieved that some people earn and/or have a lot of money. Bernie’s message is fundamentally about optimism that a slightly tweaked government (just one little tax on billionaires!) can deliver on every American’s dream while Warren is skimming off the most resentful subset of Bernie 2016 supporters?]
Given the large number of destitute people wandering around Los Angeles and/or camping on the sidewalk, I’m not too surprised that rich white people in LA have their personal welfare as Priority #1. But until coronavirus hit, there was some kind of social taboo about giving voice to this priority. Fear of death, apparently, has caused people to abandon any feeling of shame regarding selfish concern.
Philip,
When you go to the gatherings like this, how do you express your political views? Do you have more success than on Facebook? 😀
SK: Things go a lot more smoothly in person than on Facebook. For one thing, the idea that a civilized person wouldn’t align him/her/zer/themself with at least one of the esteemed Democrats running for President is unthinkable. Also unthinkable is the idea of a reduction in centralized/federal government in favor of state/local government. So I never get asked whether I think there is any contradiction in expressing a belief that all human beings are entitled to housing and that everyone should be allowed to migrate to the U.S. while simultaneously living in a $3.6 million house with three or four extra bedrooms, none of which are opened up to migrants or homeless.
Next time you are in LA pay a visit to your favorite toucan, Sam! There might even be an airplane or helicopter ride in it for you!
Calif* has at least 10 confirmed cases now, all in the bay area. When that happened in China, the communist party shut down the whole city. Not so in Calif* where it’s all about communism for everyone but ourselves.
The lion kingdom has accepted it’s eventually going to get it, but probably won’t die. Single men are luckier in fitness than finances. The mane impact will be the economic impact of having to stay home, but the blog comments will live on.
There’s no more rubbing alcohol in any stores. It’s the 1st time lions saw something in reality that resembled movies about outbreaks.
In Seattle suburb today it was impossible to enter Costco parking lot at *opening* time. So I went to Whole Foods, which was not crowded yet, but some shelves were just starting to get empty. Powder milk was gone, I grabbed last condensed milk, most of the regular pasta was gone, grabbed some of the last bags, grabbed last chicken nuggets.
Want some more condenced milk?
Go to an Asian store. They are half empty! (of people)
Actually, it appears that authorities in Wuhan and Hubei suppressed credible reports of the virus in December and delayed mitigation measures until a citywide lockdown was the only option. Had they not sent the local government goons after the doctor who spotted this in November (Li Wenliang) and listened to him, they might have been able to contain this more narrowly.
Immigrant virus doing the job American pillow owners won’t. How many houses and decent jobs can Corona open up? If the virus doesn’t get them the lack of diabetes meds will. Off shoring all our production was worth it. Biggest tragedy, there might not be anyone left who likes the Beatles and no one to care for old muscle cars/sarcasm.
The hilarity, the hilarity.
“have almost total faith in the power of the Federal government to solve problems, but only if the correct President and VP are installed at the top.”
Is it better to have a doctor or a witchdoctor in charge during a pandemic? Probably the one that believes in science…
Corona virus? I stopped drinking Corona beer, so I’m all good.
The situation is so desperate in New York City now that there is a whole neighborhood called Corona: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corona,_Queens
> They have almost total faith in the power of the Federal government to solve problems…
What they should be amazed by is the fact that this tiny speck of barely-alive gunk, an infinitesimal jumble of protein and ribonucleic acid (< 30,000 base pairs), is quite capable of bringing the entire world to its knees. All the accumulated scientific knowledge and our glorious technocracy is proving no match for something a little more than 100 nanometers across.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/coronaviridae
"The genome encodes four or five structural proteins (a spike protein [S], a small envelope protein [E], a membrane protein [M], a nucleocapsid protein [N], and sometimes a hemagglutinin-esterase protein [HE]), a varying number of open reading frames scattered among the structural genes, and a polyprotein that is processed into multiple (usually 16) nonstructural proteins. These nonstructural proteins participate in virus replication but are not incorporated into the virion."
Question: how is it that so many people in the upper echelons of Iran's government have come down with this virus in so short a span of time?
Not sure about Iran but there is obviously healing power in the faith.
Read how Indonesia’s health minister attributes his country’s lack of coronavirus cases to prayer:
https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3051068/we-owe-it-god-indonesia-prays-how-it-keeping
At least one Bernie supporter from 2016 had moved into the Elizabeth Warren camp. To judge by the dinner crowd, Warren’s appeal is strongest to women who don’t work and feel aggrieved that some people earn and/or have a lot of money. Bernie’s message is fundamentally about optimism that a slightly tweaked government (just one little tax on billionaires!) can deliver on every American’s dream while Warren is skimming off the most resentful subset of Bernie 2016 supporters?
Their positions on the issues (for those who are interested in issues) are quite similar. The lesson is that you shouldn’t use that dinner crowd if you want to compare the two candidates.