Artful Dodger

I'm one who believes we should open back up as soon as is possible once the risks have been mitigated, but when President Trump issued his guidelines for reopening last Friday, he suggested that reopening was "implementable on a statewide basis at governors' discretion." And yet four days later, the attorney general is threatening governors with legal action if they impose stringent rules for dealing with the coronavirus. So what's changed between last Friday and today? No wonder governors get so frustrated with Trump.

It's truly an odd coincidence that out of hundreds of large Chinese cities, the viral outbreak developed in the city where China has its most prominent virology research lab.

I don't have any more information. But if it's not true, then we're royally effed until they develop a vaccine.

I actually agree with you. If people are going to die anyway, we might has well have a working economy. We can't all sit around for an entire next year waiting for a vaccine to be developed. So once we've got enough masks and ventilators and hospital beds, then people should gradually get back to work and practice social distancing as much as possible, recognizing that some people are going to get sick and some will die. But once you've had the virus and survived, you've got immunity, and then you can resume living a normal life. I just don't understand why so many people celebrate a plateauing in the number of cases as some kind of major victory. If you can't leave your home, it's not much of a victory.

Last time I looked, Austria was in Europe.

From the Guardian newspaper: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/10/less-than-1-of-austria-infected-with-coronavirus-new-study-shows "Less than 1% of the Austrian population is “acutely infected” with coronavirus, new research based on testing a representative sample of more than 1,500 people suggests." "The research, if replicated and confirmed elsewhere, would appear to scotch hopes of countries being remotely close to relying on “herd immunity” – where enough of the population is exposed to the virus to build up a combined immunity – as a viable policy option." If the same is true for the United States, it means that if we open up in May, the country will be in about the same place it is now, except that hopefully we'll have more masks and ventilators available for the many people who are going to get sick and need to be hospitalized. Social distancing and shutdowns were never meant to eliminate the virus; they were meant to ensure that we don't all get sick at the same time and overwhelm hospitals. You can bend the curve, but the curve is still there. The price for opening up the economy is that a lot of people are going to die. That's true if we open up in May; it will be true if we open up in July. It will be true until a vaccine is developed.

800 people died in Italy today from the CoronaVirus. That's a big number no matter how you look at it. 600 died yesterday; 400 died the day before. Yesterday, 221 people died in the US from the CoronaVirus. 172 died two days ago; 122 died three days ago. Are you starting to see a pattern here?

That's really bad, but at least part of it is due to the lack of available testing until now, which, as I think of it, is also really bad.

Older than Methusalah, who couldn't accelerate through the hole either after he turned 600.

It's not where you are; it's where you're going.

In the "one less thing to worry about department", due to the CoronaVirus, ISIS has banned its followers from carrying out jihad in plague stricken countries. https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/isis-issues-travel-warning-over-coronavirus-pandemic/ ISIS also suggests that the Faithful should wash their hands frequently and place their hands over their mouths when sneezing.

Don't think so. Through its slow reaction to this viral outbreak, China has discredited itself in the eyes of much of the world which is now dealing with a public health crisis. China has been going hard on soft power around the world, and it's going to take a long time to regain that trust. They also managed to cripple their economy and will likely throw the rest of the world into recession. It's also highlighted for the rest of the world how much stuff, including pharmaceuticals, comes from China, and that will probably change in the future. All these things are of much greater consequence to them than some temporary problems in Hong Kong. This is a complete disaster for them. It's a real life example of a butterfly effect. Someone ate bat soup made from a bat that didn't live right, and three months later, the world economy is nosediving into a recession and trillions of dollars have been lost in the stock market. Or it's equally likely it came from a lab and escaped accidentally; we'll never know.

That, and the fact that if large numbers of people get sick at the same time, medical facilities are overwhelmed. If you can bend the infection curve down so that not everyone gets sick at the same time, then the mortality rate goes down.

If Trump had been on the case since at least January, surely we would have had more than a few thousand working testing kits by now, the middle of March?

Rex Ryan and his pregnant brother Rob. Clowns shouldn't be allowed to coach football teams.

One good way to achieve equity is to drag everyone down to the same level. And probably many of these same parents who are now whining about these policies voted for the members of the Seattle school board that put them into place.

Anyone notice that the Liberal Protests topic is beating this one by a nose? But it looks as if it's a pretty even race.

He's incredibly patient and waits for his blocks. I like how when he's knocked down, he pops up immediately, hands the ball to the ref and runs back to the huddle. I also like the fact that he doesn't hot dog it when he reaches the ends zone. As Marv used to say, "Act like you've been there." He's a classy kid.

I don't know if they're overrated, but it's very instructive to imagine their grandkids trying to make it through a real depression and fight in a real world war.

A big difference between this game and the Music City Miracle game is that for the earlier game, Bills' fans hadn't yet developed the fatalism we have now. In 2000, we hadn't yet learned to expect things to go wrong. Now we have. So I wasn't all that surprised when the the Texans came back. When I completely lose the emotional detachment I've had to build up over the last twenty years as a Bills fan- I lost a lot of it this year - I'll know that the Bills are truly back and no longer a snake bitten franchise.

Both the bad sack and the lateral are directly due to inexperience. Hopefully they'll go away in time.

Yes, without a doubt. He just needs to control his energy a bit better and play more within himself. This was his very first playoff game, and he'll get there with a little more experience.

This is why the Bills need more playmakers on offense, so Allen doesn't feel as if he has to do it all himself.

I thought the kid was pretty good, but as the game went on he began to unravel a little bit, probably due to inexperience. Beginning in the fourth quarter, Allen sitting on the bench looked as if he was going into shock. He seemed depressed. It used to drive me crazy when after an interception, Jim Kelly would walk to the sidelines smiling, but it's probably the better approach. With another year under his belt, Allen won't make mistakes like the lateral to nowhere. He just needs to dial it back a little bit. It was a game effort for a first playoff game.

Allen's hands which have some trouble holding onto the ball. Allen's brain which caused him to lateral the ball to nowhere. Allen's football sense which caused him to take some really foolish sacks at the worst possible time. I like Allen, and I think he's going to be really good. He's already pretty good. He's a playmaker on a team with too few playmakers and he's a a gamer who almost led the team back to win, but his inexperience cost us this game.