Meat Packing Plants, Prisons, Jails, Military Housing, College Dorms, School Classrooms?

[MineralMan]

Add Senior living facilities, hospitals, cruise ships, and nursing homes to that list.

What do all of those things have in common?

Close quarters and people we don't think much about most of the time. All are breeding grounds for the COVID-19 pandemic.

You could also say that all of those places are essential.

So, under Donald J. Trump's plan to "reopen the country" we'll just keep sending people into those places to keep the pandemic going strong. What a great idea, Donwald! What could go wrong?

You The Man!

Feh!

[First Speaker]

1. This crisis has brought out the best in us...and the worst...

...America has often been called a "lucky" nation. Well, our luck has run out, possibly. To have the single worst human being in America as President during the worst crisis in generations is a sign of something... …hopefully, we'll have new leadership. In nine months. If the country survives that long...

[MineralMan]

3. I Reckon Naught to Luck.

We make our own luck, or make our own downfall. I hope we learn in time to save ourselves.

[Ohiogal]

2. "Back to normal"isn't going to happen until we have a vaccine

That’s been given to the entire population. Do most people understand this?

And measures have been taken to thwart another pandemic coming along. Whatever those may be.

[MineralMan]

4. Yes. You are correct.

A very effective treatment would help a lot, as well. That's more likely to appear before the vaccine. Meanwhile, many "essential" people will die, due to the stupidity and greed of our ruling class.

That is simply the truth.

[Initech]

5. Well there is a slight glimmer of hope for that.

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/covid-19-vaccine-may-be-ready-by-fall-and-other-reasons-for-hope#A-vaccine-by-the-fall?

I hope when this is available that they will be able to get it into mass production and distribution in a hurry. This is where the War Production act could go into effect.

[GopherGal]

9. "ready by fall"?? I'm skeptical

Sounds extremely optimistic, depending on what your definition of "ready" is. (Not to get too Clintonian...)
The quote in the article is "Prof. Gilbert believes that the vaccine will be available for general use by the fall, which could prevent a potential second wave of the new coronavirus."
A couple paragraphs down:
"It is worth noting that other experts have expressed concern over Prof. Gilbert’s estimates."

So now I want to know what "general use" is. She goes on to talk about a 500-patient phase 1 safety study, which does not fit *my* definition of "general use" and certainly doesn't sound like anything that would prevent a second wave.

[Caliman73]

6. No they do not understand it. They don't or "try" not to think about it.

This is something that needs to be taught, once school gets back into session. Health and Public Health needs to be added to the curriculum of K-12 and beyond.

We all deal with the Rhinovirus (colds), Influenza (flu), and Coronaviruses that are known to us. We get sick, we recover, and we go out and do it all again. We live with it, even when 10,000 to 50,000 people die every year from illnesses associated with these viruses. Most people do not know how or why they spread and how they can or cannot be treated. The idiot in the White House didn't even know or couldn't distinguish between how a virus works and a bacteria. There are no medications to my understanding, the kill viruses inside the human body. All antivirals do is interrupt the replication cycle so the the body's own immune system can catch up and kill off the virus. Vaccines help the body to recognize the virus quicker and mount a better defense the NEXT time it is introduced.

They way we talk about things, the language we use really shapes how we think of the situation. You had Trump and his idiots out there saying, "It's a flu" or "It's only a flu" but then when this thing started killing, A LOT of people in a short time, they said, "Well the flu kills 60,000 people a year" which is false, It CAN but in the last several years of tracking, it kills an average of about half that, which is still a HUGE number if you are talking about "just a flu". We need to challenge that shit ALL the time.

[Ohiogal]

7. Well said, Caliman.

Imagine having a president who tells this truth and facts to the American people instead of the lies and bullshit we hear now.

[Ace Rothstein]

8. We also can't stay locked down as we are now until there is a vaccine.

A vaccine may never even come or may be half a decade off.