Remember the H1N1 Pandemic?
I Don’t Either

Typical flu season. Wait till this hoax is over and I hope everyone that fell for this feels like a fool.

My wife saw a post on Facebook yesterday that said in essence, "If people respond this way to a media-crisis, how will they respond to a real one?" Look at the impact. "They" have already taken away our freedom to assemble. My predictions is that the next move will be to give all government workers, at every level, at least a 2-week paid holiday. For health reasons, of course. My daughter said places could be fined for having more than 100 people in a room. This was after I asked how am I allowed to go to work, since there are well over 100 people in our building. As I said before, it will be over when the media SAYS it's over.

Only 63 dead? In Chicago this would be referred to as a slow month....

Isn’t it curious when the facts are revealed regarding these two pandemics that it becomes clear that politics are driving the response to this virus outbreak.. The only logical conclusion is that the hysteria is media driven for political purposes in order to damage the President and help the democrats. What troubles me is that it is working. Everyone is scared to death to even suggest that the upheaval we are experiencing is a direct result of media bias and democrat strategy. They believe they have finally “got” Trump. It is a disgusting display of the end justifying the means. It is a perfect storm created by some very dishonest people. We get no comparisons with other pandemics. We are told this is worst than the Black Death by far and anyone who does not agree is foolish and reckless. They put on their sanctimonious robes and strut to the microphones and gravely announce the possible death toll could be in the millions. The wholesale shutting down of events, schools, restaurants and bars is disturbing in that it is proclaimed to be wonderfully pro-active but feels like government oppression. We are assured that the number of cases will explode if we are not forced to quarantine ourselves. Small businesses are being destroyed. The chicken littles are crashing the economy not out of good intentions but out of pure malice for this President. It is the Deep State in a last ditch effort to destroy this administration. They have tried everything else and their efforts have been in vain. This is their last stand and they are going all out. God help us defeat this cabal of anti-American globalists. We need an act of divine intervention to defeat the evil that is determined to destroy our beloved country. Clearly, the democrats are prepared to do whatever it takes to defeat the President even if it hurts their fellow Americans. We cannot allow that to happen. Keep your wits about you and pray diligently for the President and his team.

Sadly, the existence of coronavirus is NOT a hoax. Nor is it a hoax that some will die from it. The truth is that not yet having a vaccine will complicate managing its effects. In some areas, the health system will be strained in trying to deal with it. Reducing travel and social interaction WILL reduce the contagion of any infectious disease. We do not accurately know the ability of the virus to spread. We do not accurately know the lethality of the virus. Such numbers are usually only fully available in a POST infection analysis. All the projections coming out now, good and bad, are NOT reliable. Is it good that people are a little scared and therefore are being goaded into not traveling, closing schools, shutting down sections of the economy, etc. in an attempt to slow the spread? Probably. However, the POST analysis may prove the "cure" was worse than the disease. Shutting down parts of the economy and schools is not without cost. We have no idea what that cost will add up to. It is also true that it is human nature to panic over the unusual. We jump into our cars with peace of mind yet 30,000 people die every year. Flu season can kill 60,000+ yet we don't panic over that. Some good news is that the new cases in China and South Korea have dropped dramatically over the last two weeks. In China, the number of deaths is around 3200 which is pretty low for a country of 1.4 billion people. Based on population, that would equate to about 750 deaths in the US. Are such direct comparisons meaningful? Not really, but people are tossing out the possibility of millions of deaths in the US. It is questionable whether China will see millions of deaths let alone the US. China is now approaching a flattening number of deaths, about a hundred in the past week. That "projects" out to 5200 a year. Even at the steepest part of the number of deaths in China, about 824 a week, 43,000 a year, (10,000 population adjusted in the US) that does not approach the millions of deaths that people are worried about. We should be preparing NOT panicking. The real problem we have is the "experts" who love to show off how smart they are and lack the humility to admit that they CANNOT know a lot of things about this virus. Mix that in with US politics during an election and global politics and the ONLY thing you can be sure of is that ACCURATE information will be almost impossible to come by. The certain steps to minimizing infection are: Wash your hands and commonly accessed surfaces. Avoid social contact, especially large groups. Minimize travel. Take aggressive actions to protect the vulnerable population; the elderly and those with existing medical problems. Healthcare facilities should be preparing to execute on plans that should ALREADY be in place for dealing with an epidemic. Stocking up on needed supplies, anticipating staffing, etc.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but it just seems like they are not telling us something. The new numbers out of Italy are a bit alarming - 300 deaths in one night? It makes me think one of two things: 1. Italy's healthcare system (being socialist) is woefully inept and ill-prepared to handle something like this OR 2. The experts have evidence or know that this virus has mutated and become much more deadly than the original version that swept through China and South Korea.

NOBODY, not Trump, NOBODY said the VIRUS was a hoax, NOBODY. So please knock it off with the Marxist memes that ARE lies. What IS a hoax is the national stupidity, panic, hair lighting on fire of EVERY Marxist regarding this virus. There is ZERO perspective and ZERO common sense from EVERY government office, from almost every state, with a lap dog media screaming fire in a crowded theater and blaming EVERYTHING about this virus on Trump. It is by design and you're just another moron if you think there is a need for national panic over something that pales in insignificance compared with EVERY SINGLE FLU SEASON for decades. And, with a nation, especially blue states, made up of fidiots who believe in purple unicorns and act like crazed animals, THAT is the most dangerous pandemic, NOT the Wuhan flu.

Italy. Socialized medicine. Lack of beds. Triage. Lots of sudden deaths. U.S. 3rd largest population country in the world (no one adjusts the numbers for that say, by using percentages (too many zeros)). Spread out all over the place. Better health care. And, let's face it, with the #Me,too movement, we've got social distancing down pat....er... we know how to do it. Question to ask panic-ers in May "So, how many rolls of toilet paper do YOU have left?"

The Italians do an enormous amount of business with China in the garment industry. They've had a good working relationship with them for years that goes all the way back to Marco Polo. Where do you think spaghetti came from. This may account for Italy's being a more concentrated hub for the Virus to grow rapidly outside of China. Since we have the tendency to exaggerate everything in this country, with the most, the best, the first, the number one type of mentality, I feel we have to take necessary precautions but the hysteria that's coming from some of the experts is bordering on the magnified nonsense. Hey, this is the United States of America. We won WW 2 and went to the moon. We can handle this.

I'm just waiting for some Governor to declare a State-wide Emergency due to the Flu, that will require the seizure of all citizen=held firearms. The Left is using this as a trial run for when they get back in power. Now the realize they can bypass the voting booth and the Constitution, just by declaring a National Emergency. Even the Global Warming Hoax could be used in this way.

Indeed, leftist hysteria at its best. When H1N1 ravaged the globe, I remember the msm's concern for Obie and that we were told to appreciate his hard work in trying to beat this terrible virus. Fast forward to today - the hysteria is here for one reason and one reason only - the msm still can't come to terms with the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. And it should be quite obvious more than ever how little regard the msm has for America. Funny how just a few weeks ago, the dims and the msm were trying to "get" Trump with the impeachment circus. Three precious months were wasted when the dims should have been focused on the corona virus. They must be really worried now about the fallout from AG Barr's and Durham's expected criminal investigation results. So the strategy - stall for time by using the virus as cover, try to unseat President Trump in November, then bury Spygate...for good. Then presto chango, no virus. Like it never even happened. It is up to us to make sure this travesty never happens. Defeat the dims, the msm, and leftism...for good.

I've not seen an article that mentions desire to avoid litigation as a factor in decisions to cancel and postpone activities. It has to be a driving factor for some of the decision makers. Can you imagine if MLB decided to keep playing while other major sports cancelled and postponed games and then people traced their exposure to a baseball game?

I'm watching Republicans and so-called conservatives dispense with civil liberties they way they would a gum wrapper.

The manufactured gas crisis of 1973 was far worse than any of these virus outbreaks. It took the country 48 years to become oil-independent thanks to our worthless leadership until Donald Trump came along. Remember the lines and the odd-even plate number days? Some backward states like NC still retain the HOV lanes. The toilet paper shortage is nothing, it's not even a shortage, it's media-driven panic.

For us older posters, it's all gravy anyway. Back in the 80's, we were told that we'd all be dead of AIDS by now. Back then, the target was Reagan. Now it's Trump.

#2, it depends on who the President of the USA is? The media created this panic to smear Trump. Yet, he tried to address it in January and we all know what the distraction was. There is nothing we can do to stop a virus but there are things we can do to slow it down. Cleaning and disinfecting seems like activities that have had corners cut because of laziness. Exercising and eating right? Well, do I need to go there? All of these things are life long activities that we need to be disciplined with so we can fend off what we can.

I am waiting for someone, anyone to figure out how long this virus has been circulating in our country. And guess what? It ain't from just December or January. I suspect this thing has been here since probably last summer AND people who got it thought they had the flu. Just in my circle of friends, people are now thinking about the "flu" they had months ago and how their symptoms were very much like this virus. And people have not been dropping in the streets. This is pure hate for our president and all of his voters. Hey, if things are so bad that the entire country has to be shutdown, shouldn't we be making plans to cancel the November election and ensure Trump continues as President? I mean in such a crisis, wouldn't it be dangerous to change horses in mid-stream? We should adopt Rahm Emanuel's philosophy, never let a good crisis go to waste. Cancel the November election to save the country. Y'all know, if Obama or Hillary were president, that is exactly what the media and Dems would be saying. I'm kidding of course, But it would be interesting to float the idea to flush out the perpetrators of this insanity.

Yesterday Costco was letting in a shopper one at a time while they queued everyone else outside the store in a line. Now how is keeping everyone close together in a line better than letting them in the store? Overreaction.

The largest Chinese population in Europe is in Northern Italy. Coincidence? I think not. 25% of the Italian population is 65+. Italy has a lot of old smokers. Older Italians live in old crowded cities, close together and life is very communal. Charming yes but in this instance deadly. This outbreak has been mostly regional and has strained the regional healthcare system to breaking. This lack of ability to adequately move resources and assist hard hit regions as well as open borders and unfettered immigration was a time bomb, a huge failure on the part of the EU.

As a professional mathematician and system designer, allow me to point out another factor that is starting to play heavily into these global decisions (pandemics, climate change, fracking, etc.). Namely, that world leaders are depending on experts using computer models/big data analytics to project a variety of outcomes (worst case, best case, most likely case) and provide risk assessments for various actions. The truth is that most of these global issues have an incredible number of known variables as well as unknown variables that make early projections highly questionable (in time, with more data and more historical cases to compare the models get refined). So when I heard yesterday of some of the projections for the coronavirus (tens of millions of cases, possibly tens to hundreds of thousands of deaths) my immediate reaction was, "OK, that's the worst case projection of the computer model,what's the Most Likely case (not even Best case) for America, given its healthcare infrastructure, food sources/nutrition, etc." Of course the worst case numbers scare everyone, and in particular the politicians who in an election year know they would be blamed. 2009 (H1N1, Obama) was not an election year. 2020 (coronavirus, Trump) is an election year on steroids and Tide pods. I think it's irresponsible in the extreme to throw those worst case numbers around without qualifying them and also putting forth the Most Likely numbers from the modeling scenarios. Ditto, all the governors racing to declare such extreme state measures without providing the people with a more complete discussion and rationale for those decisions. If we had heard the details for their rationale we may have totally agreed. But we didn't, and for that, such measures are rightfully suspect. Most importantly, this sets a precedent that provides a future would-be dictator (President, Governor, Mayor) the opportunity to take executive action that takes away one or more constitutionally guaranteed freedoms (speech, assembly, firearms, etc.) on unsupported evidence of a true "emergency". We need to demand to see the underlying data and modeling that supposedly justifies such future decisions from now on.

The Wuhan Virus (excuse me, the COVID-19) isn't a hoax. The pandemic panic over it is. It's global warming, distilled into a more concentrated version, with enough fear-mongering behind it (it is an actual disease that can kill people) to enable the government to exercise extraordinary powers and enable Wall Street to destroy trillions in wealth over... well, the Wall Street panic is over nothing, in that no real disruption in global supply chains has taken place. I'm not sure if it will take down Trump, but it's sure a more effective effort to do so than shampeachment.

This isn't a hoax. This version of the flu is apparently from 10 to 30 times as deadly as the common flu, based on the information from China - which may be all lies, or incomplete. But, by getting out in front of it, and dramatically minimizing the spread, we can protect people. IF (as yet not totally proven) it is 10 times as deadly as the recent common flu, which killed 20,000 from Oct of last year until Feb this year inside the USA, that could be 200,000 dead in the USA in five months. If the actual mortality rate turns out to be 20 or 30 times the common flu (which is what the imperfect/possibly intentionally manipulated) Chinese data shows, you can do the math, 20,000 times 20 or 30 for a few months......that is pretty ugly. The real problem is until you "run the experiment" much of this 'death rate' information is difficult to predict accurately. What effect does modern American health care have on the death rate seen (if accurate) in China? Hard to know if a Chinese care death rate of 30 times common flu translates to a American death rate of 3 times common flu with our health care, our air and water quality, our food quality, many other variables, or maybe it stays at 28 times as deadly. Impossible to know at this time. It is not a hoax, that is certain. To exactly what multiplier it is worse than common flu is unknowable right now. People will have to die to get that answer.....not a great way to find out. Better to avoid transmitting it and let them live.

Nope. I took my flu shot, and washed my hands ......irregularly. Most of this is way overblown by the Enemedia, with the attempt to harm Trump.

I agree, this is way overblown. I'm just surprised that the dims are so evil to bring the economy down to get President Trump. If anyone can bring us through this, it is President Trump. It'll be interesting to see who Joe Biden gets for his VP who will then become President. Shame on the dims to have this poor man out running for President.

Why are you surprised, #24? Bill Maher and a couple of far left politicians have been saying for months that they wanted to tank the economy in order to get Trump. This is their excuse to do it.