Interestingly enough, people at my workplace have started wearing dust masks to work this week.

Makes them feel better, but useless.

McCoy: Dammit, Jim! I'm a doctor, not a doct--wait--, I'm confused...

Badda bing, badda boom, instant hospital / detention center.

Attachment 69746

So many prefab pieces so quickly makes me wonder if China stockpiles these for near instant detention centers?

Attachment 69747

I wonder where that ventilation goes, hopefully a cleaning/sterilizing unit.

Attachment 69749

Prefab rooms with two beds.

Attachment 69748

I approve of the phrase Kung Flu.

I have, admittedly, a bit of an apocalyptic mindset. I maintain that it's not unhealthy, however, because I'm also very sanguine about it--I fully accept that this thing is going to be a global pandemic with millions of deaths, and there's no point in panicking because there's nothing anyone can do about it.

Anyway. A friend of mine came down sick yesterday with a mystery respiratory illness, and is now in the ER for what they are thinking is a sudden overwhelming bout of asthma (she doesn't have a history of asthma.) Meanwhile, one of our weekly appointments just canceled today because the doc is out sick. Yes, yes, confirmation bias, sure, sure. I'm seeing what I expect to see. But they've already had two cases of folks who tested negative, were released from quarantine, and later tested positive--meaning it doesn't show up as early in the incubation period as we thought it did. There's also now a suspected case of transmission through the airway system of an apartment building, between residents who live ten floors apart--meaning it spreads faster and farther than we thought it did.

I fully believe that this thing's already everywhere; we just don't know it yet. But like I said, I see no point in panicking. It'll be what it'll be.

It's kind of reassuring seeing the planet fight back...

Implies some sort of guiding intelligence to routine cause and effect.

True. Sloppy writing as a short cut for a long discussion of imbalanced natural systems.

I was wrong.

Well let's see what's supposed to happen now

A) We figure it is downright impossible to project the flow and future of a contagion since we had no idea either and move on

B) We dunk on you hard because it is so easy and satisfying to do

sorry dude the national mood says B

Yeah yeah let's jump on glatt everybody.



maybe they won't notice the shit I got wrong.

Y'all must be some of those whacko extremists I keep hearin' 'bout.

No, you weren't.


Again, John Hopkins...

Infections

COVID-19: Approximately 1,286,409 cases worldwide; 337,933 cases in the U.S. as of Apr. 6, 2020.

Flu: Estimated 1 billion cases worldwide; 9.3 million to 45 million cases in the U.S. per year.


Deaths

COVID-19: Approximately 70,356 deaths reported worldwide; 9,653 deaths in the U.S., as of Apr. 6, 2020.

Flu: 291,000 to 646,000 deaths worldwide; 12,000 to 61,000 deaths in the U.S. per year.

Mitigation

COVID-19: Everybody must stay home for 6 weeks-2 months due to its mortality and the economy is utterly flattened causing chaos

Flu: Some people get vaccinated