Not to sound like a conspiracy theorist but part of me wonders whether those protesters may have been paid by right-wing groups. There is a very unseemly connection between some of these right-wing groups and the coronavirus. We've also seen articles discussing how white supremacists groups have been using the pandemic to try to recruit people. It just seems a bit suspicious.

 

Also,

At the risk of sounding like a scold, I think it's very dangerous to speculate about knowing or thinking we know what COVID-19 is all about, especially while scientists and researchers who are doing the very hard work of trying to decipher the characteristics of this virus are, have yet to fully get a grip on what this all is.  None of us here are scientists or researchers. I have scientists and researchers (and the odd one or two doctors) in my family and I don't want to diminish the real intense work surrounding this, so I'd like to hold off on playing amateur researcher/scientist.  I hope that doesn't come off as b*tchy but this is a novel virus, so what we know is very little right now. 

 

Something to keep in mind though is that this novel coronavirus seems to have more in common with MERS and SARS, two viruses that the Western world had very little knowledge about since the Western world was largely unaffected by it.

Another thing to keep in mind is that we have people who live with mysterious viruses/diseases all the time. MS, Sjogren's, RA, Hashimoto's are autoimmune diseases that people live for years, sometimes decades with. One person can go into remission, while another can become frail and still another can go into a degenerative state. Just like this virus and any other virus does not affect two people the same way, none of us here can say what will happen from one person to the next. There is no blanket set of behaviors for everyone infected with this virus.

 

Just read the recent news about patients who have been 'cured' of sickle cell after decades of researchers grappling with the disease. Many people resigned themselves to people with the disease going from one crisis to the next but thankfully researchers have not given up.   They are a very small group but they exist.  Something similar has happened with a few HIV patients.

Edited April 17, 20205 yr by DramatistDreamer

 

  

 

Edited April 18, 20205 yr by victoria foxton

The 'protests' are absolutely funded by Tea Party-style astroturfing. Not working as well this time.

8 hours ago, DramatistDreamer said:

Not to sound like a conspiracy theorist but part of me wonders whether those protesters may have been paid by right-wing groups. There is a very unseemly connection between some of these right-wing groups and the coronavirus. We've also seen articles discussing how white supremacists groups have been using the pandemic to try to recruit people. It just seems a bit suspicious.

 

3 hours ago, Vee said:

The 'protests' are absolutely funded by Tea Party-style astroturfing. Not working as well this time.

 

It's working well enough, as the media is already peddling stories about all the pressure on swing state governors and cleaning up the ugliness of these protests (lots of focus on American flags, not so much on Confederate flags, blocking ambulances, or things like this):

 

 

I just hope the governors are able to hold the line as long as they can. It's insane to me that we are still getting so little basic financial support and barely any testing in the middle of a pandemic. I knew America was broken, but this is close to a level of complete death. When something really bad hits, we are truly incapable of coping.

 

Such a sad story but it is important to remember that there are human faces behind these grim statistics.

 

 

Eva and Abraham Candelaria were harbor and haven for two sprawling Puerto Rican families that migrated to Brooklyn in the 1950s. They died within 24 hours of each other. https://t.co/gXlPdePRBw

— NYT Metro (@NYTMetro) April 17, 2020

 

In case you don't want or can't get onto the NYT site, an alternative link:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/she-visited-her-husband-every-day-then-the-visits-stopped/ar-BB12LTU0

 

19 hours ago, Khan said:

 

Agree.  Now, I'm no scientist or medical professional.  However, IMHO, I think we're witnessing the birth of a new, HIV-like, chronic condition -- meaning, once you are infected with the coronavirus, you carry it for the rest of your life.

 

Of course, if and when they do develop an effective vaccine, those who haven't had the virus will benefit from it.  However, for those who've been exposed already, the vaccine won't do any good (and in fact, I predict that many who've had the virus will die after receiving the vaccine, thereby proving my theory correct).

 

Those individuals who have had the virus will have to maintain some sort of anti-virals regimen to keep the virus dormant within their system -- again, for the rest of their lives.  In the end, though, everyone who has been exposed will succumb to complications due to the virus.

 

In the meantime, this will affect both available blood and organ supplies, as (just like with HIV) those who have been exposed to the coronavirus will be unable to donate either, for fear of passing the virus along to others.  And, as I've said before, those who carry the coronavirus will eventually be declared disabled, thus putting even more people on the Social Security Disability, welfare and other "entitlement" rolls. 

 

To put it another way: yes, the middle class has effectively been erased, leaving America with a new and larger "welfare state."

 

I always felt like this nation would have to pay one day for putting a man like Donald Trump in charge.  And now, the bill has come due.

I disagree with this assessment. HIV has basically been the only virus of that type, and it is  a retrovirus, which Covid 19 is not. It will be like SARS, and will eventually die out, it will just take a little time. It feel it's most important for all world governments to put pressure on the Chinese to eliminate the wet markets, because who knows what God awful disease will come out of there next. 

Edited April 18, 20205 yr by alphanguy74

19 hours ago, Toups said:

Sad to see all these protests popping up.

 

Sad, but not surprising.

Edited April 18, 20205 yr by Khan

4 minutes ago, Khan said:

 

Sad, but not surprising.

Its ridiculous and stupid too.

 

Florida already opened up their beaches and people are all over it.  Absurd!

 

 

 

Money over everything. That guy will be a future Senator.  I see Trump and his cronies has flipped the script, by making him as the hero of the common man because he's want to re-open the country and protect their liberties. 

Edited April 18, 20205 yr by sivad40

 

 

   

 

Edited April 18, 20205 yr by victoria foxton

 

2 hours ago, sivad40 said:

 

Money over everything. That guy will be a future Senator.  I see Trump and his cronies has flipped the script, by making him as the hero of the common man because he's want to re-open the country and protect their liberties. 

Let those idiots reopen, and then those of us (which is a majority) will just not patronize the businesses, and they will go  bankrupt anyway.