that is far from certain. and anyway, it could be limited to epidemic status in each case. apart from pets (which would also be subject to the same isolation), humans don't really have that much contact with animals. livestock are somewhat sequestered, and themselves don't have all that much contact with people (a herd of cattle would likely pass it among themselves quite a bit, but might only have one or two humans they ever come into contact with).
Our Covid Response
- Thread starter gorfias
- Start date
This is pretty much the beginning and ending of it. At least in the west, COVID needs to cease being considered as a pandemic of circumstance but rather as a pandemic of, by, and for the ultra-wealthy.
It is dramatically closer to certain than the possibility of eliminating the virus through globally coordinated extended quarantine.
The possibility? Nah. Humans were the ones that spread it around the globe. There's a reason it wasn't a pandemic among non-human animals even though transmissible among them. There's a reason it originated in one of the few animals that congregates in large numbers in the dark.
The probability? Sure, as we live under the direction of ruling classes that want their money hoses kept flowing.
I cannot help but feel there is a great deal of potential fudging (pun intended) in the wording "only major economy in the world where the economy as a whole is stronger".
So, in other words, by discounting some countries that did better, and by using some potentially creative and selective interpretation of relevant criteria, the US government claims the USA is the best.
This reminds me of a movie from some years ago that I never watched, but was almost certainly bad, because in the tv commercials when they were reading snippets of critics praising it, one of their quotes was "one of the best-written American film comedies in recent memory " which amazingly manages to imply:
1) There were better written film comedies from other places in recent memory
2) There were better American written comedies in non-film genres.
3) It's not in any way competing with classic movies in quality.
4) It likely not competing with non-comedy films in recent memory.
5) And only the writing is worth the accolade, so the acting, editing, etc aren't worthy of praise.
And with all of that, it still only ranks as "one of the best." Qualifiers are fun.
Edit: I fact checked myself on the quote and made some changes above. I initially remembered it as "North American" but it was just "American", but conversely, I forgot the "one of the" in the quote, so lol.
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Indeed - you have to love the creativity of that sort of praise. It also reminds me of a movie critic, decades later, complaining about The Sound of Music winning best film Oscar, who opined that it would now be lucky to get into a critic's list of the top ten musicals set in Austria made during the 1960s.
Let's be clear, on a global comparison of high and middle income countries, economically the USA has done fairly well - certainly in the upper half if not upper quarter.
On the other hand, we can consider wider context, such as that the US government chucked a huge amount of money at covid: I think an extra ~20% GDP of national debt on top of the existing mountain. For this, it managed to mitigate a lot of pain in GDP loss, decreased household income and (more importantly) human suffering. However, this requires consideration when claiming its GDP may have done better than a country that only chucked about another 5% GDP debt onto the books. In this trade-off of short term performance against long term risks, it's not quite as easy as saying "Our GDP did better so we win".
Based on metrics that are arguably meaningless in the best of times, doubly so during a pandemic.
The absolute sneakiest back-of-the-book accolade I've ever seen was describing The Picture of Dorian Gray as "Oscar Wilde's greatest novel".
It's his only novel.
I saw an Economist article (which may have been the basis for Sec Fudge's claim) which used a series of economic indicators in a chart and ranked the USA 9th out of 23 examined. It considered IIRC GDP change, household income, national debt, stock market change, and unemployment was certainly mentioned in the article.
I think economies like the USA and UK are very dynamic - they get better growth when things go well, but take more damage when things go wrong. The USA fended this off better this time by massive government spending. Honestly, had it not been election year with Trump trailing badly, I don't think there would have been anything like as much largesse, but chucking money at people is a good vote-winner. Countries like Germany have better automatic stabilisers and social security nets, so need relatively less adjustment when a crisis arrives.
Certainly in the case of the UK, my eternal frustration is that the government boasts its growth year on year in good times, but conveniently omits comparisons during crises and recessions. This creates an illusion that the UK does really well and is very vibrant. The reality is that the UK hasn't done better than its EU peers overall during the last 30-odd years because the busts undo the booms. It has a mean-spirited, selfish, unequal economic system in return for no overall benefit at all.
Maximum Overdrive, similarly, is the best movie ever directed by Steven King. I don't think anyone is sneaking that movie accolades though, except for maybe the all ACDC soundtrack.
Croup is, to all intents and purposes, just a cough, but a cough in children when there is inflammation of the larger, upper, respiratory tracts. (It is not in adults because their tracts are more developed and larger so don't make the same distinctive sound when inflamed). It is quite common.
What generally makes croup dangerous is not so much the cough but the underlying infection that causes it. So diptheria bad, influenza much less bad. Unless we see evidence to the contrary, the most reasonable assumption is that covid croup is minimal risk, because thus far covid has posed minimal risk to children.
The Supreme Court is debating on whether or not Occupational Safety and Health Administration can mandate a "Testing or Vaccines" policy. Shockingly (/sarcasm) the Originalists and Textualists on the Supreme Court are arguing that, well, the law is old and should really but up to modern interpretation instead of...original intent and text.
I'd laugh if it was fictional
I'd laugh if it was fictional
""In the one instance, an asymptomatic staff member did work with patients who did not have COVID, but there have been no COVID positive cases reported in the area where this work took place," said spokesperson Randal Edgar."
Just a coincidence I guess!
Anti-Vax Leader to Followers: Drink Your Pee to Fight COVID
Christopher Key’s crowd doesn’t seem sold on the idea.
Is the Bear Grylls "Drink your own piss" meme too out of vogue to post again?