CNN (5/1/20) fails to note that its expert is predicting a seven-figure death toll for the United States.
In a story predicting two more years for the coronavirus pandemic, CNN (5/1/20) quotes Michael Osterholm, who directs the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota: “This thing’s not going to stop until it infects 60 to 70% of people,” he said. “The idea that this is going to be done soon defies microbiology.”
CNN should note that accepting a 60–70% infection rate means accepting a million deaths or more, assuming a fatality rate of 0.5%—which may be a conservative estimate.
The network should also note that it’s not a law of microbiology that requires that we allow the coronavirus to infect hundreds of millions of people, but a choice made by governments—as the varied results obtained by different countries demonstrate. Here’s a chart highlighting active cases per capita in China:
There’s a usually unspoken assumption that the US just can’t do what China did—which was to pursue a strategy based not just on discouraging but on halting transmission of the coronavirus. It can’t be that quarantines are seen as incompatible with democracy; we have quarantines, after all. The idea seems to be that effective quarantines are incompatible with democracy—but that’s not true either, as nations with elected governments like New Zealand and Taiwan have also managed to bring new cases down to near zero.
It may be unlikely that the United States will summon the political will to implement a realistic plan for not just delaying, but stopping Covid-19. But it’s crucial for media reporting on options in the fight against the outbreak to distinguish between can’t and won’t—especially when the other option is letting a million people die.
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The amoral arrogance of “acceptable losses”
I don’t understand why so many should be infected. What about vaccination?
I am not sure about this. My understanding was that the virus is well and truly out of the box as with flu and is never going back in again. Even in NZ now they are wondering what it will take to remain at zero, which means effectively closing off from the rest of the world. My understanding was that the accepted strategy was to slow the spread so that a) anyone who caught the virus could be treated in a hospital with capacity to treat them (rather than an overwhelmed system) and b) it would give more time to understand the effect of the virus on the body and develop treatment strategies, and eventually a vaccine.
My understanding is that eradication has not been on the cards for a long time, controlling the rate of contagion has.
China seems to be the best place to have a pandemic, as the government understands that actions speak louder than words. Sadly Trump’s best action, appears to be——BLAME everyone else.
It is so, this (GAME) was Prepared, the US, known to be WAR LOVERS, no other Nation in the World can Compete with that, it if a FACT ! China had No Interest for this CREATED Crisis, nor Russia and NOR any Country in the WORLD ! Only US in is Collapse could bring this up, to try to be Again an Empire ! Empty WARS, and how MANY WAR CRIMES have been done ? Regime Change and Genocides, among All Nations world Wide, ONLY US has this Reputation ! With the Zionist SUPPORT, Leaders in all EVIL DEEDS, the US Has to be (destroyed) to give The World PEACE that they NEED !
The important issue has always been to eliminate community transmission of the virus to save lives. Hospital capacity has been the public excuse for emergency measures until an effective solution can be implemented.
An effective cycle of Monitor, Quarantine, Test, and Contact trace is required. Until this cycle is begun or until hospital admissions have dropped to 0 for at least 2 weeks, stay-at-home is the only way to avoid exponential (skyrocketing) infection spread and millions of deaths.
The US is the only industrialized nation to not implement Monitor, Quarantine, Test, and Contact Trace. It is estimated (by The Washington Post) that there have been almost 100,000 deaths due to COVID-19 in the US already.