Maybe It's Time to Cull the Herd. Could this be why we now have the Covid-19 pandemic?

Image by Shutterbug75 from Pixabay

Okay, I don’t consider myself to be an expert in epidemiology, even though I spent my life working in the medical field. But I think I possess a good measure of intelligence and the common sense that if I don’t know something I will seek out information from experts who do know something. That includes the coronavirus.

I know that if I see someone with a cold, that person is infected by the virus which causes the common cold. I also know that unless I want to cough and sneeze and feel miserable for a week to ten days I should stay away from that person. Of course, we are not always conscious of who around us is suffering from a cold and we don’t always take precautions to prevent getting that cold. Sometimes we throw caution to the wind and don’t take any precautions and are willing to suffer the consequences.

During the autumn and winter months of every year, most of us become a bit more cautious because this time of year is commonly called the flu season. A high number of people receive the flu vaccine in hopes of not contracting the flu or at least getting a less virulent form of the flu. Most of us also are more aware of those around us who are showing symptoms and try to avoid those people. If a person has symptoms of the flu we know they can infect us and we can avoid contact with them. Not this coronavirus though.

Even though the seasonal flu can kill those in high-risk groups, such as the elderly, the immunocompromised and those with chronic respiratory conditions, such as asthma and COPD, the flu virus is not as highly contagious as the coronavirus. A person with the flu can spread the virus during the first day before exhibiting symptoms up to 5–7 days after becoming sick. So generally we know who to avoid to prevent being infected. In most cases, a completely healthy person will not spread the flu virus. If we cover our mouths when we cough and sneeze into our elbows when we sneeze we can help prevent spreading the virus. Of course as always, during cold and flu season and all seasons we should frequently wash our hands.

The coronavirus is deadly different. The CDC estimates it to be twice as contagious as the seasonal flu, which means that for the flu each sick person will affect 1.2 people, whereas the coronavirus will affect 2 to 2,5 people for every person infected. According to the CDC 1 in 1000 people die from the seasonal flu, whereas 10 in 1000 people die from Covid-19, making it 10 times deadlier.

supporting conservatives demonstrated against the stay at home orders given by Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Protesters wearing MAGA hats and waving MAGA flags and other Trump paraphernalia assembled in a tightly packed crowd in defiance of social distancing rules demanding their freedom. The scene was more reminiscent of a scene from the Zombie Apocolypse than a peaceful gathering of intelligent citizens practicing their freedom of speech.

A total of eight GOP governors have refused to issue stay at home orders to protect their citizens from the coronavirus for reasons ranging from self-quarantining being a matter of personal choice to issues of state’s rights. Interestingly these eight states were states that voted heavily in favor of Trump in 2016 and the ones he hopes to carry in 2020. The governors have chosen to please Trump instead of protecting the citizens of their respective states. And those morons are okay with that.

The state in which I live, New York State, has a Democratic Governor, Andrew Cuomo, who has, in my opinion, done a far better job of leading during this pandemic than the Moron-in Chief Trump has done. However, I live in a heavily Republican community where nothing a Democrat does could ever be seen as good. And this situation is no exception. Because these people watch Fox News they think Trump has done a fantastic job, while Cuomo has been trying to take their rights away. There were even rumors spread that Cuomo was sending busloads of dying Covid-19 patients from NYC to upstate New York so they could infect the people there. This is the way Republicans up here think!

For the average somewhat intelligent person it is difficult to understand how some people can be not acting in their best interest. I not only get annoyed and angry at their stupidity, but I also get fearful of their actions. I could give a shit if they become infected and die, but I do care that they could infect me or my loved ones. They’re not only being stupid they are being negligent and are possibly committing assault or even murder. If a person wants to kill himself by jumping off a tall building that’s okay with me, but when they jump and land on me, that’s a different story.

Other than the danger of these fools infecting myself and others there is the ever-present danger that these fools will again vote for Trump, after not realizing that he made the pandemic much worse. If we look at what types of people comprise Trump’s base we may look differently at how we feel about what they are doing in defiance of the know facts and logic regarding this pandemic.

Trump’s supporters include white supremacists, misogynists, religious bigots, homophobes, racists, Nazis, and the miscreants of society. Or as Hilary called them, “deplorables”. All of these people together managed to elect this sorry excuse of a human being. This happened because so many people did not vote, thinking that it would not make a difference. Even though these deplorables are sadly outnumbered their votes counted. And it could happen again.

As this pandemic continues to change the way we live and work, or not work, the same people will resist what is good for themselves and the general population. Those same ignorant fools will gather in large numbers in their Red states without masks in defiance of the experts. They will continue to join their MAGA neighbors in the bars and the churches, while the rest of us continue to social distance. They will continue to scoff at science and belittle the healthcare workers risking their lives to save us all. And then, little by little, or big by big, they will begin to get sick and die off. Trump’s base will be decimated, saving the rest of our society. They will never listen to reason, so maybe they should be left to their fate.

People Are Dying, It’s time to end Trump’s reality show!

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It’s shocking and depressing to wake up each morning to the news that the numbers of positive cases of the coronavirus and the number of deaths from it are dramatically rising. I can’t help but think that one month ago the leader of our county muttered these words, “and again when you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that’s a pretty good job we’ve done”. Now thanks to Trump’s inactions and incompetence we have 75,665 positive cases and 11,000, and the numbers are still rising!

Every day the Moron-in-Chief appears for his daily briefings. People expecting to hear about life and death information, and how our government is helping them, hear nothing but lies, misinformation, conspiracy theories, attacks on his enemies and the press and self-aggrandizing pronouncements. We are put through a sickening parade of the sycophants in his administration kissing his ass, in order to keep him happy and keep their jobs. Even when the two medical experts are allowed to speak, Trump contradicts them if they tell the truth, as dire as it may be. Instead, he spouts irresponsible and dangerous information, offering false hope to his supporters.

At a time when the leader of our country should be uniting us and giving honest emotional support he, instead, continues to divide the country with his racist remarks and failing to take responsibility for his failure to meet this emergency head-on. Instead, he blames Obama, China, Europe, Democratic governors, the press, and anyone else he can think of for his disastrous response to the pandemic. He still believes the pandemic is a conspiracy to ruin his chances for re-election.

Americans are suffering and dying because of him and it’s going to get worse. Enough is enough. This is not a Trumpian reality show! It’s not about him. It’s about us and our country. It’s time for this shit show to end. The more he talks, the more people will die. His cabinet will never dare correct or criticize him, so we can’t depend on them to do the right and moral thing. The GOP members of Congress are either terrified of him or are complicit in his reign of terror and will do nothing to remove him.

Take the fat son of a bitch off the briefing stage and put his ass on a golf course with all the KFC and Big Macs he can eat and leave him there until this thing is over. He can’t harm us there. Then put Dr. Fauci in charge of a panel of experts and have them give the daily briefing to the American public. This will save lives.

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Mainstream Media, You're Doing It Again! Stop airing Trump's mini rallies!

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When Trump ran for president in 2016 most people thought he was a joke, including the mainstream media who saw his campaign as a way to boost their ratings. Every time Trump as much as farted the media were there to cover it. Every word, every action, every appearance was covered, at the expense of the rest of the candidates of both parties. All of this free media coverage of a supposed billionaire, who could well worth afford to pay for it. Every time you turned your TV on there was Donald Trump. His opponents in the Republican primary were summarily ignored, as well as was Clinton, in the general election. They were complicit in allowing Trump and the GOP to demonize Clinton with all matters of lies and conspiracy theories. Shockingly Trump won the electoral college vote, while Clinton won the popular vote. Thanks in part to the MSM we now have a narcissistic, racist, misogynist, homophobic, xenophobic, amoral, incompetent, and dangerous bully as a president!

Up until recently, the MSM has refrained from reporting Trump’s obnoxious and oftentimes illegal actions. They have referred to his incessant daily lying as him offering mistruths or misinformation. His staff even coined a new word for his lies, calling them alternative truths. All the while Trump viciously attacked the press and individual reporters for reporting something that he viewed as unflattering to him, the media did little or nothing. I must note here that I am not referring to Fox News as being a part of the MSM, as it is merely the propaganda arm of the Trump regime and does not cover any factual news regarding Dear Leader.

Now that we are amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the media has slithered back into their pre-election coverage of Trump. Whether it is fear of Trump or plain stupidity they are allowing him free reign of their news coverage. Since Trump’s election, he has not stopped performing at his MAGA rallies, holding them regularly, to stoke up his moronic followers and wallowing in their cultlike adoration. That is until a few weeks ago. Because of the coronavirus, large gatherings have been canceled or forbidden to stop the spread of the disease. These actions have taken away Trump’s only source of Trump’s much-needed validation. At his rallies, he can behave as racist and disgusting as he wants, attacking minorities, immigrants, the handicapped, non-Christians and anyone who doesn’t dote on every Adderal infected word he mutters. He has no shame and his followers aren’t intelligent enough to care.

Not one to be discouraged by a national public health concern, Trump has found a way to rally his deplorable supporters, without holding a public mass rally. Instead, he is holding daily press briefings on the status of the government’s response to the pandemic. He is not addressing the American people with these briefings. He is addressing his supporters by injecting racism into his remarks and calling the coronavirus the Chinese virus. Instead of being presidential and a real man he is blaming Obama, the Democrats and anyone else who doesn’t profess their undying loyalty to him. When he was asked to speak to those people who were afraid of getting sick and dying he attacked the reporter for asking a “nasty” question. He rambles on and on giving false hope and false information, openly disagreeing and contradicting medical experts standing on the podium with him. He is even touting unproven medicines with dangerous side effects a possible cures, just to make himself look like a hero.

Daily he stands, shoulder to shoulder, with his team instead of maintaining a safe social distance, carrying on with a reality type of shit show for his supporters. He shows no concern for those who are suffering from the virus or the families of those who have died from it. Instead, he lies about how many tests are available and how masks and ventilators are being delivered to the hotspots. Perhaps more annoying than his lying is how each member of his administration has to preface their remarks about telling how grateful they are that Trump is doing a tremendous job in meeting this crisis. He never mentions the first responders, the nurses, the truckers or the little people dealing with this crisis.

After the mandatory ass-kissing, the members of his team, except for Dr. Fauci, go on to repeat his useless information. At times Dr. Fauci has stepped up to contradict Trump with the medical facts on the spread of the virus, much to Trump’s dismay. Mysteriously Dr. Fauci has disappeared from the latest briefings. No doubt Trump will fire him soon, for telling the truth to the American people.

Only a couple of weeks ago Trump called the pandemic a hoax orchestrated by the Democrats to hurt him. Naturally, Fox News and the GOP went along with his paranoic lies and conspiracy theories. He was afraid that if the number of cases rose, the economy would tank, along with his re-election chances. He was and still is more concerned with the economy and his businesses along with those of his millionaire friends than the health of the American people. He reluctantly went along with shutting down businesses to slow the spread of the disease, but as of today, he says he wants people to go back to work. He lyingly stated that more people will die from suicide due to the economy than will die from the virus.

Usually, Trump will attack the press, the Democrats in Congress and the governors who have criticized his handling of the health emergency. He attacks his opponents personally and complains about how much money he has lost while serving as president. ( So why doesn’t he quit?) Recently when he was informed that Mitt Romney had tested positive for the virus, he smirked and said, “that’s too bad”. He is incapable of showing any empathy, in comparison to New York Governor Cuomo in his daily briefings, for which he is receiving national bipartisan praise for his leadership.

With each one of his unhinged diatribes masquerading as Covid-19 briefings, the major news networks have aired them without any concurrent fact-checking. This activity has drawn strong criticism on social media, such as Twitter and Facebook. For the first time today, his self indulging appearance was only broadcast on Fox News as a virtual town hall meeting. This is where he announced that he will most likely disregard the advice of medical experts and have people go back to work, by April 12, Easter. He announced that he wanted the churches filled on Easter Sunday! Trump’s death wish for the American people!

Hopefully, today was not a one-time event with the major news agencies not airing his mini rallies. The mainstream media must step up to protect the American people from the dangerous deranged psychopath’s attack on the truth and the health of our nation. Fox News will certainly not step up to the plate to help save lives, but eventually, after the number of deaths skyrocket, they may do their humane duty. Don’t hold your breath though. They will defend Trump to our deaths.

We had our chance only a few months ago to remove this inept excuse for a human through his impeachment, but the cowardly, fearful and greedy GOP reneged on their oaths of office and refused to remove him. For the health and safety of each and every one of us, Trump must somehow be removed from office. Either through another immediate and speedy impeachment, the use of Article 25 or his institutionalization to a psychiatric facility. This article from Yale University is very interesting and addresses this issue.

We’re only just at the beginning of this pandemic in this country and we have a long and treacherous way to go. We need advice and guidance from medical experts and others involved in infectious diseases if we are to have any hope. We need the truth. We need information that is not watered down to meet the narcissistic needs of the moron in the White House. We must be able to trust and count on our news media to save our lives and our country.

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Knew He Was a Disaster, But you enabled him anyway

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Like most people in this country, I’m aware of Covid-19 and have been following the government’s reaction to it. Unlike many people, I have not panicked or started hoarding toilet paper. Sometimes though I think I should start to panic and prepare for the worst.

I am a member of the high-risk population as I am 72 and suffer from both asthma and COPD. I cannot help but remember how much I suffered from the flu almost one year ago today. I was hospitalized then and I thought that was going to be the end. I fear that if I get the coronavirus I will not survive. With those thoughts still fresh in my mind I admit that I have a healthy fear of this pandemic. But it’s more than fear. My fear is accompanied by shame and downright anger!

The world has known about this virus since December, but because of the coverup of the Chinese Communist government, nothing was done, until the virus had taken hold in the population. The United States was aware of Covid-19 and how dangerous it had become in mid-January but did nothing. Our government had its own coverup. The stable genius in the White House dismantled the team of experts whose task it was to address epidemics such as this one, solely because of his jealousy and hatred of President Obama.

As the virus spread to Europe and Asia, China moved into high gear to address the epidemic. When South Korea was hit hard by the virus they acted quickly to test those exposed to the virus and protect their citizens. South Korea and Germany developed their own Covid-19 tests and offered them to the United States, but our CDC arrogantly refused them and instead chose to develop or own tests. This action put the United States way behind the rest of the world in dealing with the virus. The United States, which once was at the forefront of worldwide disease prevention and control was now lagging behind third world countries, all because of a childish, narcissistic moron who is incapable of carrying out the duties of his office. What a frigging shame!

As the virus was introduced into our country, instead of meeting the public health threat head-on, Trump and his ignorant sycophants, led by FOX news called the virus a hoax manufactured by the Democrats to hurt Trump. Time and time again Trump downplayed the dangers of the virus, worrying more about how the stock market losses would affect his businesses and his reelection chances, over the health of the American people. Every statement he made in January and February and even now in regards to the virus and its danger to the American people has been a lie. And still, The Republicans do nothing except bury their heads in the sand.

As Italy has literally shut down in hopes of containing the virus in the face of increasing numbers of cases and deaths, Trump has done nothing, but brag about how “perfect” his response to the virus has been. South Korea has managed to test approximately 210,000 people since testing began while the United States has managed to test a little over 8,000 people. South Korea is showing what a competent reaction to the health crisis should be, while the President of the United States is golfing and blaming others for his incompetence.

As the Republicans continued to call Covid-19 a hoax and downplay its dangers to the American public, members of Congress have themselves been exposed to the virus while attending CPAC, a mecca for conservatives. While the average American cannot receive a Covid-19 test, because of the unavailability of tests, these special friends of Trump have easily and quickly been tested. It is now known that Trump, himself, has had exposure to the virus from his contact with these people, as well as from his meeting with a representative of the Brazilian government. As of this writing, Trump has not been tested and refuses to be tested. I guess the captain wants to go down with the ship.

My anger and hopelessness came to a head with Trump’s address to the nation last night regarding his plan to manage the virus. His plan includes giving the virus a nationality. It is now officially a “foreign virus”. He also formulated a travel ban, barring people from flying into the US from Europe, except for the UK and Ireland. The asshole doesn’t realize that people can fly from anywhere in Europe to the UK or Ireland then fly to the US! It is also interesting that the two countries excluded from this ban are those countries housing Trump’s failing golf resorts! Any question where his sympathies lie?

His speech to the nation did not address testing at all. There was no acknowledgment of the shortage of tests and if and when mass testing will become available. He did say that his administration is working on a plan to deal with the financial implications of the pandemic, but no mention of anything concrete. His statements regarding an economic stimulus plan were directed towards business and shoring up the stock market, instead of assisting those families having to deal with the illness and the hardships suffered by the uninsured or underinsured, those without sick leave, those without childcare and those living from paycheck to paycheck. In other words, he showed no concern for the health and welfare of the average American.

Since his speech, it has become apparent that this country is in serious trouble and people like me are in very serious trouble. From time to time during the average day, my breathing becomes difficult. I dealt with it as always, but now I can’t help but think “is this it?”. Could this be the beginning of the end? Even though I live in a county with only one positive case of coronavirus, so far, I can’t help but be concerned. I know there are many people in my situation and there are many more in extremely serious conditions throughout the country. I know there are scientists, doctors, technicians and healthcare workers working 24/7 to bring this pandemic under control. At the same time though I see Trump put my fate and the fate of our citizenry in the hands of Jared Kushner, who has absolutely no qualifications to do anything. It’s now up to Kushner to decide whether or not a public health state of emergency should be declared!

As I listen to the reports that the NBA and MLB have canceled or delayed their seasons, and colleges and universities have closed campuses and initiated online classes I can see the lives of Americans changing. I know my life will begin to change, as the virus will become more prevalent and hits closer to my community. At the same time, I see these changes I see that the Republicans are not changing. I see that the Democratic House of Representatives has unveiled a plan to help workers cope with the financial effects of not being able to work due to being infected by the virus. The plan includes paid sick leave for those who have none. I also see that the Republicans are vehemently opposed to the plan. Nothing here has changed.

There have been many comments made regarding politicizing the coronavirus threat, mostly from Trump supporters, but that’s a lot of bullshit. When it comes to my life and the lives of my family and my friends I am going to place the majority of the blame for the coronavirus threat not being handled competently and in a timely fashion squarely where it belongs. On Donald J. Trump and the Republican party! As Trump’s presidency rolled out we all could see how much of a racist he was. We all could see how corrupt he was. We all could see how vindictive and narcissistic he was. We could all see how incompetent he was. We also could see how much of a liar he was. We all knew, deep down, that Trump would destroy our country, one way or the other.

We had one chance to stop this destruction, with his impeachment and removal from office. But Republicans failed their party, their oaths of office and their country. They were terrified to vote against him for fear of being the targets of his vile vindictive retaliatory tweets. Or they were willing participants in his rape of the American taxpayer, or they too were beholding to Putin. The GOP is remarkably standing with him in the face of disaster. Before this pandemic is over there will be economic pandemonium and worse, many lives lost. If nothing is done the GOP will forever bear the responsibility of this apocalypse.

It’s time for Congress to get rid of Trump. Utilize the 25th Amendment or impeach him as soon as possible before he can cause more damage and more deaths. We can’t afford to wait for the election. We need a credible and competent government now!

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