American government as it is can't address contemporary needs. I'm in Seattle and yesterday I went out to venture about town. I listened to local news on my car radio. I figured my odds of running into someone contagious and getting sick from corona to be one in a few thousand. The radio warned me about hard surfaces but a few minutes of genuine research the night before had told me hard surfaces were the least of my worries.

A few minutes listening to government sponsored ignorance was enough. I put music on. I needed to be concerned about breathing contaminated air. Nothing was being said about air. With about 400 identified cases in my city I figured a ratio of a few thousand to one gave appropriate odds in my ball park of life today. It is not a simple calculation and it can't be made without a few wild guesses.

I avoided human contact as much as I could. Had I heard a cough I would have vanished and scooted away from wherever I happened to be. Nobody coughed and alone on my way home I had a relaxing drive on near empty roads. The way it used to be.

I check Trumps mental state. I'm in Seattle and corona is spreading across the country. Trumps answer to the problem, the same answer he has for every problem, is close the borders. Blame foreigners as always and reassure everyone that this is only a temporary thing. No big deal, people die all the time. That is essentially what the Trumpster said yesterday. 'Just a temporary moment of time' he said. Donald Trump is criminally negligent. This is not a temporary thing and it is not a temporary moment in time. This ain't no disco. This ain't no fooling around. It would be better if we had a president who cared more for our nation than himself but if wishes were horses fools would ride.



This pandemic will rage for months. Only when enough people get sick and recover can the pandemic stop. Only when the number of new people a sick person can infect on average becomes less than one will the infection stop spreading.

A competent government would have put epidemiologists in charge immediately and picked the most competent among them to be Grand Vizar. But competence is not high on the agenda of American Politicians like Trump or Biden, and Trump is more politician than he ever was businessman.



Like info about peak oil and climate change, ecological collapse and extinction, overpopulation and carrying capacity; information about what is going to happen with the Corona virus is 'out there'.

The math is known. Alien children watching a documentary would have no trouble understanding what is going on. With gray faces and bulbous eyes they would ponder how a species with such highly developed technical abilities could not apprehend their self-defined terminal fate. Perhaps an alien narrator would pause a three-dimensional video and point out that it is difficult for creatures living in a petri-dish to understand what is happening inside their petri-dish when their petri-dish is their home.

Alien children would watch as humans attempt to dismiss the gravity of the corona virus pandemic and twist facts to conveniently fit personal agendas. They would watch as people flounder in denial of evidence which says 400,000 Americans can expect to die from COVID 19. They would marvel at how willing humans believe socially engineered lies just because authority proclaims them true.

The first four days a person has the corona virus they become infectious before they know they are sick. Very infectious. A person breathing the same air as someone infected can catch the virus. It is more contagious than the flu. Transmission through the air is the primary mode of infection.

Somehow an infected person was or still is employed at the Life Care Center of Kirkland WA. Kirkland borders Seattle through a lake. The Life Care Center of Kirkland is where the first American outbreak happened without doubt. But it is not the only nucleus of outbreak. Now reported cases in America number 1312, with less than half in WA state. (at the time of this writing) One hundred eighty people work at the Life Care Center of Kirkland. It is a big place which I have toured on Google Earth. It is a dozen miles away from me and it covers several city blocks. A large residential hospital for acute care patients.

The director in charge of the place gave an informative interview to local media. Sixty Life Care Center employees are out sick. Their place has been taken by federal employees who fill in gaps in an emergency situation like this. Not the CDC, I cant remember the agency mentioned. Three of the sixty employees are hospitalized Corona decimated the patients. About 10% of the Life Care Center patients have died. The Life Care patients all had underlying health problems or they would not have been in the facility and Life Care patients continue to die. The mortality rate in the patient population is triple the general public rate.

Today schools close and crowds of more than 250 are banned. Roads are as clear of traffic as roads were thirty years ago. Toilet paper has mysteriously sold out of local stores. Our media, joined to local business as always, is concerned the virus could cause a business cycle downturn. Mass media worries how long a recovery could be and this is the only public voice we have. Self serving nervous ninnies. The economy is only beginning to crash. Even a temporary interruption in business activity will cause problems they say. All manner of economic ills suddenly have the virus as cause. Pecuniary madness. Reality in America is, as always, avoided.

The pandemic is global. It will stop when so many people have had the disease that acquired resistance prevents new infections and not before. This is the reality we should be planning for.

This graph suggests the balance that should be the goal of preventative measures. A peak below the line would be best.

Update (3/14) : This series of You Tube videos from Paul Beckwith explains things very well.

If quality mainstream media is more your thing here you go. As important as the info about the wild animal trade is what to do to fight the virus.

Update (3/15) : Dr. John Campbell makes videos that teach health care. My thanks to Dark Green Mountain for the link. Clicking the lower right corner will make the video full screen.

Update (3/17) : Dr. John Campbell updates the situation. America and the UK are shutting down. America shuts down using a cornucopia of quarantine procedures which vary from city to city and state to state. Trump continues to misunderstand the situation and provides poor leadership.



Update (3/20) : Dr. John Campbell has other more recent videos. So many videos so little time. I just watched a live Trump news video. Our POTHUS is incompetent, xenophobic, racist, and self-serving. A full quarantine needs to be implemented or the infection will continue to rapidly spread. Concentrating on travel restrictions is only part of the solution and it is insufficient to stop the spread of the virus. By itself travel restrictions will do nothing to stop the spread of the virus because it is already here.

Trump by his lack of action and misunderstanding of exponentials has sentenced hundreds of thousands of Americans to an early death. The insensitivity and stupidity of Donald Trump is appalling. Trump plays games with a national crisis to promote his private agenda. Fortunately we have states with governors who are stepping up to mitigate some of the the Trump chaos and lethargy.

Update (3/22) : Dr. John Campbell: The American authorities are fighting an enemy they cannot see and they are going to pay the price for that.

Clicking in the lower right corner makes the video full screen.

Update (3/24) : We must lock down. Without a testing program in place an American lockdown should not end before six weeks at least. The sooner a testing program is put in place to manage quarantine the better. Economic damage will be minimized by making the lockdown short but a testing program must be in place before it ends.

Clear instructions on how to bring the epidemic to an end are given in this video. Two meters or six feet of distance between people for a month. Bring R0 below 1 is the thing to do. First we must have a lockdown and when the lockdown ends cell phone tracking can be used to generate lists of people to be tested for quarantine. ( The deep state already tracks people and makes these sorts of lists. This is not part of the video. ) People with positive tests go into quarantine for two weeks and the economy goes on with full employment. ( A fantastical dream I know. )

This is what Trump brings to America for not considering people to be more important than dollars.

Above Conor McGregor urges Irish leaders to act now. Lock down the country. Arrest the corona virus spread and knock it out. Below the importance of not delaying lock down is shown.

Update (3/26) :

The understanding rolled over me like a breaking wave on the shore of a surging sea this morning.

If you were in a risk group and a medical advisor is telling you that COVID will rage until herd immunity is produced; you will want everyone to get sick but yourself. A normal person will not think this way but a sociopathic, narcissistic, asshole would.



Trump wants everyone to get sick with the COVID virus who is not protected by a ring of elite privilege. Trump wants everyone to get sick so he does not have to get sick and die himself. Trump would prefer you get sick and die instead because he is mentally ill. Everyone around Trump is tested and certified so to not infect the Trump rump.

Trump is not about saving the economy. Trump is about getting the herd immunity up enough so old rich boomers like himself can emerge from isolation after the virus can’t be spread and be maintained as the natural scourge it now is in an unprotected population. When COVID dies out and a vaccine is developed; the rich elite boomer will have triumphed. The 0.5% replaces the 1.0% as penury considerations and something more evil than simple greed reigns.



The Common Good with Robert Reich : The $500 Billion Bailout

Update (3/27) :

This is Dr. John Campbell's daily update. In his video is a report of a Madrid Doctor who dramatically reports on a shortage of ventilators. I had the video posted separately but suspect the Spanish Government had it taken down. I do not believe the Madrid Doctor Video is a hoax as a Spanish media source reported it to be. Part of the Madrid Doctor Video remains embedded in the video linked above.

The doghouse is in Newcastle Washington. The above message was produced by the Newcastle Mayor and her Deputy. This is K-Dog's Quarantine.

Update (3/28) :

Today Dr. John Campbell evaluates the quality of the global lockdowns. I liked he waxed on about reality vs. the fantasy of believing what you want. Fantasy infects the world in a myriad of places where reason should prevail. Ignorance is as dangerous as the virus. Governor Cuomo gave an interesting press conference today. Cuomo is listening to science as are many competent US governors; unlike the infection in the Oval Office.

This is a website within a website. There is a short video to watch. Join the solidarity.

We cannot go by chance. Any less than full adherence to epidemiologically correct quarantine methods by any members of our society will be a mockery to what we are attempting to do and will put the rest of our great nation in danger. We can't take a chance and allow an exponential wave of infection that will decimate our nation and the world. Abide by the measures and begin the countdown to freedom.

A COVID-19 Data Explorer. This tools allows the growth rate of the pandemic between countries to be compared. Comparing the infection growth rate between Italy and the US, infection growth rate has been more rapid in the US. I think most Americans would be surprised that the spread has been faster in America than in Italy. America is ten days behind Italy. The virus arrived in Italy first and that is why they have had more dead so far. Significantly America did not heed the Italian experience before it was too late to follow the same trajectory. I am pleased with the conduct of the Governor of WA, Jay Inslee, in the crisis.



Update (3/29) :

The low bar on the number of dead from Trumps incompetent handling of the COVID-19 crisis we now know is going to be at least 200,000. Using other mouths Trumped eked that number out today in his press conference. Will Trump be responsible for these deaths? The answer is yes, as this article explains.

South Korea and the United States both learned of COVID-19 at the same time. On exactly the same day by way of their first cases. January 20th of this year. South Korea responded by showing strong leadership but Trump dismissed the threat. The Guardian article linked above gives information which Nancy Pelosi is reluctant to provide in her video. I give the article to provide the information she is reluctant to mention. 200,000 or more will die from Trump's incompetence but America is so ill-informed Trump's approval rating rises.

This is a bizarre nation which apparently does not care about its future or the life and health of its citizens.

A timeline of the early Trump incompetence and lies.

David Cay Johnston breaks it down.

Incompetence continues and Trump remains ignorant of basic epidemiology and exponential growth. Even with the death of two thousand already Trump does not comprehend that half a lock-down is hardly better than none at all. Trump reacts but proactive measures, not reactions, are needed. Passively reacting to circumstances as they present is not the way to deal with this crisis. Yet that is what Trump does. Trump ruins our economy and his lack of strong and effective leadership prevents serious efforts to stop the pandemic from getting started. State Governors do the best they can without the support and Federal leadership they need. Precious time is wasted and lives are lost. The orange man Antichrist has triggered Armageddon.

Update (3/30) :

There are no red states

There are no blue states

There are no red casualties

There are no blue casualties

There are only casualties

Now there is only the red white and blue



I hope

A video of Italian mayors bitching. Trump complains about state governors wanting to keep everyone home. He should live in an Italian town! Clicking in the lower right corner makes the video full screen.

Dr. John Campbell covers the international situation today. India and South Africa will be hit hard. Tonight the number of total dead in the US will pass the number of reported dead in China.

Update (3/31) :

Today I start with Dr.John. He has good basic info we all need. John bangs the be proactive drum. Governments and the World Health Organization have been reactive, not anticipatory. This passivity means always being a step behind the pandemic. Only determined proactive action can succeed in eliminating the COVID-19 scourge.

Forteen minutes into the video there is mention of Phones to control the spread of the virus. Traffic lights on phones were used in China. It worked, and people generally give up freedom for security. So expect a phone semaphore coming to a government near you. America itself is already fully surveiled but people are unaware or ignore this fact. This condition of ignorance means being aware of what is actually happening now is an improvement. Positive awareness, not a loss of freedom. The freedom horse was already out of the barn.

Green to tell you if you are clear to go out and Red if you have been assigned quarrantine. GPS and cell tower software lets servers know everyones movements already meaning lists of people to quarantine can be easily made along with listening in for bad words and plots against the state. Blinking Red will mean you can expect a knock on the door.

I am watching the Trump Dog and Pony Show live. 200K dead, who coulda knowd? Epidemiologists did, and I am getting ill. Once again Trump turns everything into all about himself. Trump is a pied-piper who beguiles many with the tricks of a charlatain and a con man. Trump lies and can't be trusted. Allowing Trump to prosper now ruines the lives of coutless numbers of Americans and people around the world.

OMFG now Trump is taking credit for saving Italy. Trump has pulled one of his tricks and exploits the befuddlement and his trick has worked again. Trump realizes this and is getting excited for none can see our emperor wears no clothes. Trump thinks it is important that he stays healthy, he really does and is saying so now.

The lies do not stop. Trump in the middle of a national disater claims success and great leadership. I hope these press conferences stop. It is irresponsible to cover these lies. Finally this one has mercifully ended.

This was published recently on a local neighborhood blog. Sommerset WA is five miles from me and Carli Yip of Somerset passes this along.

HOLD THE LINE, Jonathan Smith

As an infectious disease epidemiologist (although a lowly one), at this point I feel morally obligated to provide some information on what we are seeing from a transmission dynamic perspective and how they apply to the social distancing measures. Like any good scientist I have noticed two things that are either not articulated or not present in the “literature” of social media. I have also relied on my much smarter infectious disease epidemiologist friends for peer review of this post; any edits are from peer review. Specifically, I want to make two aspects of these measures very clear and unambiguous. First, we are in the very infancy of this epidemic’s trajectory. That means even with these measures we will see cases and deaths continue to rise globally, nationally, and in our own communities in the coming weeks. This may lead some people to think that the social distancing measures are not working. They are. They may feel futile. They aren’t. You will feel discouraged. You should. This is normal in chaos. But this is normal epidemic trajectory. Stay calm. This enemy that we are facing is very good at what it does; we are not failing. We need everyone to hold the line as the epidemic inevitably gets worse. This is not my opinion; this is the unforgiving math of epidemics for which I and my colleagues have dedicated our lives to understanding with great nuance, and this disease is no exception. I want to help the community brace for this impact. Stay strong and with solidarity knowing with absolute certainty that what you are doing is saving lives, even as people begin getting sick and dying. You may feel like giving in. Don’t. Second, although social distancing measures have been (at least temporarily) well-received, there is an obvious-but-overlooked phenomenon when considering groups (i.e. families) in transmission dynamics. While social distancing decreases contact with members of society, it of course increases your contacts with group (i.e. family) members. This small and obvious fact has surprisingly profound implications on disease transmission dynamics. Study after study demonstrates that even if there is only a little bit of connection between groups (i.e. social dinners, playdates/ playgrounds, etc.), the epidemic isn’t much different than if there was no measure in place. The same underlying fundamentals of disease transmission apply, and the result is that the community is left with all of the social and economic disruption but very little public health benefit. You should perceive your entire family to function as a single individual unit; if one person puts themselves at risk, everyone in the unit is at risk. Seemingly small social chains get large and complex with alarming speed. If your son visits his girlfriend, and you later sneak over for coffee with a neighbor, your neighbor is now connected to the infected office worker that your son’s girlfriend’s mother shook hands with. This sounds silly, it’s not. This is not a joke or a hypothetical. We as epidemiologists see it borne out in the data time and time again and no one listens. Conversely, any break in that chain breaks disease transmission along that chain. In contrast to hand-washing and other personal measures, social distancing measures are not about individuals, they are about societies working in unison. These measures also take a long time to see the results. It is hard (even for me) to conceptualize how on a population level ‘one quick little get together’ can undermine the entire framework of a public health intervention, but it does. I promise you it does. I promise. I promise. I promise. You can’t cheat it. People are already itching to cheat on the social distancing precautions just a “little”- a playdate, a haircut, or picking up a needless item at the store, etc. From a transmission dynamics standpoint, this very quickly recreates a highly connected social network that undermines all of the work the community has done so far. Until we get a viable vaccine this unprecedented outbreak will not be overcome in one grand, sweeping gesture, rather only by the collection of individual choices our community makes in the coming months. This virus is unforgiving to unwise choices. My goal in writing this is to prevent communities from getting ‘sucker-punched’ by what the epidemiological community knows will happen in the coming weeks. It will be easy to be drawn to the idea that what we are doing isn’t working and become paralyzed by fear, or to ‘cheat’ a little bit in the coming weeks. By knowing what to expect, and knowing the importance of maintaining these measures, my hope is to encourage continued community spirit, strategizing, and action to persevere in this time of uncertainty.

Update (4/01) :

Today I learn that people will not be evacuated off cruise ships and quarantined in Florida. This is unconscionable. There are plenty of Bates Motels in FL in which to sequester cruise ship passengers for two weeks.

Take R0 to less than one for the crisis to be done as Dr. John says in the top video. The lower video is because I like things explained in more than one way. R0 less than one for the crisis to be done is what social distancing does. The smaller R0 is the better. If R0 is too close to one many lock-down cycles are needed to wipe the virus out. The goal of reducing R0 is to turn an exponential growth rate into a decaying exponential death rate. A cycle is the length of time it takes for the virus to run its course from initial infection to recovery in an individual patient. A patient recovers when they become non-infectious.

Wiping the virus out in a single quarantine cycle is possible; but in a world of billions only in theory and not at all in practice. A perfect quarantine gives R0 equal to zero. A sloppy quarantine might not even get R0 below one. If R0 were close to one above or below then the virus would slowly spread through the population until naturally acquired resistance brought down R0 enough so the virus dies out. This would be an unusual situation of slow increase or slow decrease.

A premature end of quarantine launches the virus into new exponential growth with an initial condition set by the number of remaining infected. Travel with mandatory quarantine will be needed after the immediate crisis passes and self quarantine ends to prevent new outbreaks. Social distancing and self quarantine brings down R0 significantly below one but not to zero. In the absence of good testing self quarantine must go on for a very long time to wipe the virus out because multiple cycles are needed if R0 is greater than zero. With testing, targeted quarantine ends virus spread after the initial crisis. Success of targeted quarantine will depend on the quality of governance. And an understanding of exponentials.

Update (4/02) :

Wear A Mask

Professor of infectious diseases Kim Woo-joo from South Korea University's Guro Hospital gives advice. With thirty years experience fighting infectious diseases the advice is, wear a mask. I highly recommend this video. South Korea knows what to do to fight a pandemic. Self-quarantined in WA state for longer than the rest of the country we now have people bringing COVID-19 back in across our state borders like South Korea does.

America is border-less and still we remain without a unified national response. That will not work. I hope the American people's intolerance for incompetence grows like I hope the COVID-19 pandemic fails to grow. Watch this video because it appears a victim of the virus does not build up long term immunity to COVID-19. If true only quarantine measures can stop the virus. There will be limited or no herd immunity. Community control will be the only way to contain and eliminate the virus.

It is a pleasure to listen to Professor Kim Woo-joo. I am grateful he has honored us with his advice.

Look at what South Korea did, and what we did. Their population is one-sixth of ours, Look at the cases they have. Look at the mortality they have. It’s a trifle compared to what we’re dealing with right now because we’ve had a very weak response and they had a really strong response. Rishi Desai, : MD, MPH ( <- link )

Update (4/03) :

A surfer is arrested for violating California stay at home.

"The time has come, my fellow bovidae. The two-leggeds have been locked away! Who knows for how long? Feast your eyes on the endless bounty...the hedges, trees, grass, dandelions, all of it! All YOURS for the taking. Go, my friends, feast! Fill your bellies, feast your eyes, and run free while the two-leggeds wither locked away." - King Goat, (Cam of West Kingdom)

Update (4/04) :

Save the Rich.

What I'm watching right now. This plague will exacerbate class differences. Listening to Jeremy Scahill was refreshing after being FORCED to have to listen to the pied-piper Trump hijack of reality. Listening to the cheetoh is an obligation of being informed with a most bitter taste.

Now I'm listening to Erick Weinstein at Joe Rogan. Very long. Erick is saying:

"

Here's the thing we are coming up on Passover and we Jews have a tradition that I wish everybody had which is that we read one stupid story every goddamn year. Just to drill it into your head to make sure it's always fresh.



When it's time to leave, when it's time to change don't wait for the bread to rise. This is what I say to every Jewish person; 'Like you're sitting around waiting for the bread to rise?'



They all know the story which is you eat the goddamn matzah because the people who waited for the bread to rise are no longer with us. Their descendants are no longer with us, and it is time to revolt. This leadership class is unworkable.



"

This is a good listen. But not the whole thing.

Ten Weeks to Crush the Curve

There is flattening the curve, but that is not good enough. The curve must be crushed. Over the next few weeks 'flatten the curve' will become a mantra and it has been one for me until now. It was an accurate enough thing to say while everyone was going in the wrong direction. Now that the growth of the pandumic has grown so it can't be ignored by power any longer; emphasis will be on flattening the curve. That is not good enough. We need the curve to be crushed and for the infection to be wiped out.

The New England Journal of Medicine says it will take 10 weeks. Here is the link. This is not fake news.

Update (4/05) :

Today I present a special video. The admins of the Doomstead Diner discuss the Corona Virus. I am one of them. It is a few days old but on listening to it I don't thing it is too out of date yet. I interrupted too much. Skype conferences, live and learn. Are we still going in the direction of a million dead? I pray not. Thank you RE, Mosta and Surly.

Next I have a link. Since I am in the video above I won't compete against myself with other videos today. That's fine because I have a very good read instead. I don't do guests posts or repost articles. But if I did I'd repost this one.

"

It is hard to forecast what a post-COVID-19 world will be like, but the deck of cards has been reshuffled. Global corporate capitalism was sick, in all possible ways: a voracious sociopath bent on growth and without empathy, morals, and foresight. Right now it has a fever, it is coughing, and it has lost its sense of taste and smell. Truly, it is on life support.

"

This from CNN Health. Genuine Fake Trump News :

"

A leading epidemiologist advising the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated the peak of deaths in the US coronavirus pandemic will be three weeks from now, after which "most of the damage will be done," and says it may be possible to only isolate the vulnerable, allowing many back to work.

"

The source is not named. That is one clue. Trump controls the information. Trump dismisses science. Trump controls the CDC and they publish what he wants.

If the CDC believed it themselves the source would have a name. Real epidemiologists say 10 weeks to kill the seeds of the exponential function. Now we must endure scientific false propaganda from sources we can no longer trust. From sources we should be able to trust but can't. Now with more than a thousand deaths a day Trump continues to value a rich man's economy over life.

Update (4/06) :

Another article by Gilbert Mercier. Gilbert is saying what I want to say. Before the pandemic, our world was indeed sick. Collapse was going to happen. The COVID-19 virus could be the nudge of a boulder off the top of a steep hill.

Update (4/08) :

What does this have to do with the COVID virus? Quite a bit. The connections are many. Tonight I'll dream of being able to leave the house. I will dream of the lock-down being over. I'll dream I'm part of a marching band.



Oh when the change comes marching in

When the change comes marching in

Oh lord I want to be in that number

When the change comes marching in



A video to remind us there will be life after COVID-19 was a nice break but sadly the virus will be with us for a long time. Eliminating the virus spread must be our top priority. This video is a few weeks old but it has basic information which still has not been disseminated! Dr. Vuong has made other videos. I encourage you to visit Dr. Vuong's You Tube Channel. Information in this video is inconsistent with what the Trump administration wants you to know. Sadly our Republican leaders deem controlling the narative to be more important than saving lives.

Dr. Vuong's You Tube Channel. ( <- link ) " Our first responders, our doctors, our nurses, our techs, our phlebotomists, our nursing assistants. God bless them. They are starting to suffer burnout. We're getting reports from Italian doctors they're all working 110 hour weeks. They're running out of personal protection equipment. They're worried about passing this on to their own families. We have colleagues, doctors, intensivists and nurses who have died now. I've gotten sick of it! Quit being a smartass. Doctors and Nurses have died trying to help your family members and you won't take this seriously. You think this is a political media thing and people have died trying to help your family members."

Update (4/09) :

Paul Beckwith does some numbers for me. I might check Paul's numbers but why? We agree and I'm not going to quibble the details. Trump is separated from reality and his actions, more specifically his lack of them, are directly resulting in the deaths of thousands.

" How the US people are letting one guy completely devastate and destroy their country is beyond me. If I didn't know better I would say that Trump's objective, his goal, is to destroy his own country. And people are letting him get away with it."

Update (4/10) :

Tony Ventrella our deputy mayor speaks. I am fortunate to live in an affluent neighborhood where people can afford to socially distance. I can follow Tony's advice and I wish everyone could. Our dogs are going to be exausted this weekend they will be walked so much.

Update (4/11) :

The Machine Stops by E. M. Forster

This story is crazy. It has the internet and describes the passivity and futility of modern life in an uncanny and prescient way. I won't give the ending away but if you are the kind of person who pauses when you read the words, Western Industrial Civilization you will enjoy the read.

Nicole Foss in discussion with Aaron Wissner talks about COVID-19 issues not covered by mainstream media. I look at the view numbers and this video deserves more looks. Unpopular and awkward truths are revealed.

Dr. David Korowicz has over a decade of experience in catastrophic risk. This includes the impacts of pandemics and constraints on the operation of society as a result of catastrophe. David gave this webinar on April 9, 2020. I attended along with about 50 other people. I was able to ask a couple of questions.

Update (4/14) :

I reached a point with my daily updates where I don't think I needed to say there was a pandemic going on any more. People were getting the message.

Now New York can't keep up with the dead. That is sad but I am happy about what I have been doing here. I have put out important info before the mainstream media has consistently. I thought with the public now being fully aware of the pandemic the job of voices in the wilderness such as myself were finished.

Sadly this turns out not to be true. Biden is a yes-man vegetable for the corporatocracy and Trump is cleary senile because a Methylphenidate deprived 6th grader with behaviour problems could have learned how pandemics work by now. Trump still has not. So no video here so far today. More info instead:

CDC recommends that people wear a cloth face covering to cover their nose and mouth in the community setting. This is an additional public health measure people should take to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in addition to (not instead of) social distancing, frequent hand cleaning and other everyday preventive actions.

It should not be a binary decision to suddenly end quarantine measures and restart the economy. It should be done according to a plan. Quarantine measures must be adapted to the workplace where possible. R0 must be kept less than 1. Trump has no plan.

Listening and seeing Trump in his press conference today was a nightmare. In the midst of a global pandemic Trump cuts funding for the World Heath Organization. Proving that not all life on this planet is sentient. He lied too.



Update (4/15) :

Back by popular demand, Professor Woo-Joo Kim. Watch the first interview for context. My update for 4/02 (above) has the video. Now professor Woo-Joo Kim from Korea University Guro Hospital, the top South Korean coronavirus expert; will answer questions which viewers of his first video have asked.

Update (4/17) :

Nassim Taleb understands math. Prioritizing public health is the best thing for the economy. Nassim makes the point. Logically it is a false dichotomy to consider the economy as separate. Three hundred years ago 'gettin back to work' would be called 'penny wise and pound foolish'. Trump closed the border with China on the last day in January for reasons I doubt had anything to do with the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump likes to close borders. It is what he does. Trump spent the month of February ignoring the crisis. How to get people working again without bringing 'R0' up. We put safety first. With that focus the virus can be tamed and defeated.

Update (4/18) :

We Are The Virus Vegematic

Life in lockdown. Some cope better than others.

" When I was young I was really influenced by the whole hippie culture now I mean I was young in the 60s very young too young to be a hippie I was just a kid but I certainly read hippie literature and it's sort of well I just aspired to be a really good hippie with my life I figured that was a good thing to do with my life so I grew my hair long and countless battles with my dad over it and I got myself a jean jacket and frayed jeans and some little round John Lennon glasses I was I was an aspiring hippie well of course you know being an aspiring hippie meant that I would have to go out and find him got a weed to smoke because that's what the hippies all did so I promptly went out and spent my last five dollars that I'd earned cutting the neighbors grass and bought some prime oregano."

" I deny all culpability for my generation. My generation sold out a long time ago and I'm sorry, but I didn't and that's why I'm still here."

My generation sold out a long time ago and I'm sorry, but I didn't!

Update (4/19) :

She talks To Her Past Self The Butterfly Effect, can't say too much!

How do you tell your past self to do a Costco run without raising alarm? I always imagined being able to go back in time and having a conversation with myself. I think I'll stop doing that now.

It would be a good time to get a rescue dog. They need a lot of attention. As to big cats, I'll give that freak no play.



Update (4/25) :

Keisha Lance Bottoms It's like the 'Twilight Zone'

The Covid-19 crisis disturbed the forces which people think make the world go round. But I doubt Covid has changed the raging tides in the Bay of Fundy by a millimeter. It changed the way I do my blog for a while, and now I am starting other changes. Everyone in the world has been affected.

Poor generalship brought Covid Storm Troopers to knock on every door in America. It knocks on every door in the world, but counties with money can buy safety long enough for vaccines to be made. But that is an optional choice. Only a few countries have made that choice and I wish I was in one of them. Sorry to the citizens of Atlanta but could Trump please trade places with Mayor Bottoms for a few years? It would really help things out.

Go Keisha!

I am fortunate enough to live in a state where our governor has a brain. I know Keisha Bottoms wishes she could say the same. This crisis is bringing out the best and the worst in people everywhere. The worst being people who think only of themselves or worry too much about being put in a hole in the ground like Las Vegas mayor Carolyn Goodman. Not in her defense I'll guess she gets some nasty phone calls.

They Live among us and in normal circumstances pass for normal.

These times are showing who has lizard blood and who does not. A few years ago I read "A Journal of the Plague Year" by Daniel Defoe. The book chronicles the London Plague of 1665.

The book is often compared to the actual, contemporary accounts of the plague in the diary of Samuel Pepys. Defoe's account, which appears to include much research, is far more systematic and detailed than Pepys's first-person account.

When I read the book I thought it interesting but not of much use. People today are more sophisticated than in 1665 I figured. I figured wrong. It turns out that today's situation is not much different than it was back then. People are reacting with the same intelligence, stupidity, compassion and selfishness now as they did then. Takeaways from that book are guiding what I do with my blogging. People are generally behaving just like they did in London 1665. In the early days there is a resistance to understanding and as I learn faster than average I was making daily updates. I had a vain hope I was helping. Does the book give me insight in what will happen next? Yes it does.

Put Your Glasses On People!

And :



Update (4/28) :

Is Covid-19 shattering our illusions? with Greg Bennick. Greg turns out to be in the Seattle Area like me.

Perhaps the best we can do is fashion something, an object or ourselves, and offer it to the life force. To keep moving forward and create knowing that there are failures at every turn. If we use our rational mind and reflect continually on our actions, moving forward culturally and individually. This is the message Greg wants to get across. If there is no light at the end of the tunnel, use a lantern. Keep going. Put one foot in front of the other.

It is an old article and we know how things turned out. That, in this case makes it very relevant.



Update (4/29) :

Who is driving the US protests against coronavirus lockdown?

We don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee;

We don't take no trips on LSD

We don't burn no draft cards down on Main Street;

We like livin' right, and bein' free...



And I'm proud to be an Okie from Muskogee,

A place where even squares can have a ball.

We still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse,

And white lightnin's still the biggest thrill of all.

The Cyrenaics are unabashed sensual hedonists: the highest good is my own pleasure, with all else being valuable only as a means to securing my own pleasure, and bodily pleasures are better than mental pleasures. Their iconoclastic theory stands well outside the mainstream of Greek ethical thought, with the traditional virtues of moderation, justice, and friendship being disparaged by them.



Update (4/30) :

Can the lessons be remembered? I hope so but only hard work will make it so. This is a time for the affluent worker bee, like those in the video; to take stock of things.

People who struggle and exist paycheck to paycheck have a different view. Pause to understand that the world became a very unfair place. Should life be fair, it isn't?

The world is an unfair place and then we die. This is true. But when people can make life a bit more fair they should do it.



Update (5/05) :

Parties on the beach can kill this is true. We have a criminally negligent POTHUS who encourages bad behavior and most people, sad to say are not smart enough to ignore Trump because he is an authority figure. Hence, rants by boomers are needed. I should do one. This guy's performance is one of a kind.

The POTUS problem we can fix, vote K-Dog! Mauna Loa CO2 update for the month was posted today. From a year ago CO2 is up seven-tenths of a percent. I hope our genius parks a Tesla in his driveway. But the self-righteousness is justified. Being righteous interests few. I wonder if I can get him to pretend he is a truck and his chalk dust is CO2.



Update (5/07) :

I checked in with Dr.John thinking he was going to update me about what is going on in the rest from the world. As far as I can tell the global south is just beginning to experience exponential growth which appears in statistics.

I'd like to know more. But what Dr. John covers is fascinating. In particular if you have children.

Dr. John covered what is going on in Western Industrial Civilization as car drivers know it well. No offense to Johns' eclectic tribe of viewers shown at the end of this segment. Some of whom who don't drive and only travel instead.

Dr. John wants you to take supplemental vitamin D. In particular if your skin is dark.



Update (5/18) :

Dr. John is interviewed by American Media above. Below Dr. John covers the same material at his own pace.

Updates here have slowed down as we have reached a stage in the pandemic where people pretty much believe what they want to believe. If someone wants knowledge about Covid, finding it depends on personal abilities now. Many people provide Covid info. Your willingness to know what is really going on is up to you. The info is out there. I'll be learning more of course. But this endless updated article will be ending soon.

I am slowing down here. I have a code project that requires I do some learning and churning. C++ to be specific. I taught C++ to myself long ago in theory but actually using it in a Windows environment is a different experience. I'd say more but for now my project is top secret. The good thing is the skill could eventually get me paid work and because I know what I know the practical knowledge of using the language in a desktop environment is being picked up fast. My efforts here must be at my leisure.

Another interesting video. I am in it. Produced by RE at the Doomstead Diner.



Update (5/20) :

I wisely did not say two days ago that this would not be the end of my update format. I wanted to but life calls and I can't take the time to move this endless tome to a new page yet. To get back to writing short 'whatevers' in an article format. A format which makes me cough up thousand words at a go and I commit to doing once a week.

But life calls and the world does not stop spinning. When I came across the above video I knew it had to be part of a Covid update. I was aware of Chilean protest before the Covicalypse. Life on three dollars an hour sucks. Chile is what happens to a society when everything is privatized. It was a dark day when the empire took out Allende. Chile was Thatcherized and the empire required that a price be put on breathing Chilean air.

'Just get out of here' a woman yelled at police. Riots are exactly what many predicted would happen in the face of widespread unemployment and growing hardships brought on by confinement and a deepening recession.