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Coronavirus infection from China

I don't know how many of you all are aware of this, but I think it might be prudent to keep an eye on developments. Could get quite serious.

Yep. I'm trying to figure out if it is worse than what I am reading and the truth is just being suppressed to avoid a panic, or it is a nothingburger that is just being hyped.

We've got extra supplies stocked away, just in case. Figure we could start early with the emergency hurricane supplies anyway.

Still, I'm not going to be going anywhere crowded with people for a while. I think there is a gunshow at the fairgrounds this weekend, but I'll pass on it.

Thinking of all that comes from China (everything) and knowing that Chinese people are handling it all.....:ack2:

Yeah, I read last night that some people suspect that this virus can survive outside a host in some conditions for as long as 28 days. :ack2:

Be careful driving around the country, Jeff.

I'm going to start thinking hard about how long Connie and I could stay holed up here with the gate locked if we need to wait this firestorm out.

There is evidence that this pathogen is especially virulent with people of Asian descent. China is really bad off if everything I am reading is true. Seems to be some evidence that this was a weaponized pathogen, but I doubt we will ever really know the truth if China is the sole holder of the truth.

Someone had this posted on Facebook today, allegedly linking the article to this virus. Interesting that the lab in China is the same place that the virus is running rampant. Hmmm....

https://whdh.com/news/harvard-univer...-government-2/

MRE's Rich. They last well over 5 years!

https://www.thereadystore.com/mre

And we just quit our job yesterday! We've been hired by another company (out of Canada) to haul pharmaceuticals here in the states. Ultra light loads, lots more money per mile, better benefits and more time off! We fly to Toronto on the 23rd!

Well now, this is darn interesting reading.

Quote:

Logistical and technical analysis of the origins of the Wuhan Coronavirus (2019-nCoV)

Posted on January 31, 2020 by harvard2thebighouse

This report is the product of a collaboration between a retired professional scientist with 30 years of experience in genomic sequencing and analysis who helped design several ubiquitous bioinformatic software tools, and a former NSA counterterrorism analyst. It considers whether the Wuhan Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) is the result of naturally emergent mutations against the possibility that it may be a bio-engineered strain meant for defensive immunotherapy protocols that was released into the public, most likely by accident since China’s rate of occupational accidents is about ten-times higher than America’s, and some twenty-times more than Europe’s – the only other regions with high-level virology labs.

This mistake was likely precipitated by the need to quickly finish research that was being rushed for John Hopkin’s Event 201 this past October, as well as possibly being hurried due to meet deadlines before the impending Chinese New Year – the timing of these events point to increased human error, not a globalist conspiracy. Beijing has had four known accidental leaks of the SARS virus in recent years, at present there is absolutely no reason to assume that this strain of the Wuhan Coronavirus didn’t accidentally leak out as well.

Given that the Chinese horseshoe bat’s habitat covers an enormous swath of the region containing scores of cities and hundreds of millions people, the fact that this Wuhan Coronavirus strain emerged in close proximity to the only BSL-4 virology lab in China, now notoriously located in Wuhan, which in turn was staffed with at least two Chinese scientists – Zhengli Shi and Xing-Yi Ge – both virologists who had previously worked at an American lab which already bio-engineered an incredibly virulent strain of bat coronavirus – the accidental release of a bio-engineered virus meant for defensive immunotherapy research from Wuhan’s virology lab cannot be automatically discounted, especially when the Wuhan Strain’s unnatural genomic signal is considered.

– In 2002, Stony Brook first assembled a virus from scratch, building a polio-virus, and providing proof-of-concept for the creation, alteration, and manipulation of viral genomes.

– By 2015, conducting research that was challenged with an enormous amount of concern, scientists at UNC had successfully created a “chimeric, SARS-like virus” by altering the viral genome of a Chinese bat coronavirus’s spike-protein genes – sequences that code for the spikes that poke out from surface of viruses and allow them to unlock entry into hosts, in this case making the bio-engineered virus incredibly contagious. A virologist with the Louis Pasteur Institute of Paris warned: “If the [new] virus escaped, nobody could predict the trajectory,”

– Scientists have expressed concern about China’s ability to safely monitor this BSL-4 lab in Wuhan since it opened in 2017: “an open culture is important to keeping BSL-4 labs safe, and he questions how easy this will be in China, where society emphasizes hierarchy. ‘Diversity of viewpoint, flat structures where everyone feels free to speak up and openness of information are important.'” This lab is at most 20 miles from the wet market where the virus had been assumed to have jumped from animal to human. However the idea that a Chinese lab could have a viral sample escape is well-documented – as mentioned, one lab in Beijing has had four separate incidents of the SARS virus leaking out accidentally.

– Notably, the first three known cases from early December had no contact with that market, and roughly one-third of the initial exposed cohort had no direct ties to Wusan’s wild meat market, the presumptive source of the virus.

– Since its discovery, scientists have been unable to fully determine the zoological source of 2019-nCoV, it was initially thought to have passed through snakes, but now all that’s agreed upon is that it’s mostly bat in origin. This inability to derive a zoological origin is exactly what would be expected if the virus had been artificially engineered to target humans as UNC already has, this doesn’t prove an artificial nature – but it is consistent with one.

– Early research found that this coronavirus targets the ACE2 receptor, which is found in Asians at roughly five-times the rate of other global populations, indicating that 2019-nCoV was likely in development as part of a defensive project likely linked to immunotherapy – never meant to leave the lab, but meant to serve as a Red Team to fight back against, not as an offensive weapon since the virus is likely wired to be much more virulent among Asian populations. Further support for this is the fact that the Wuhan BSL-4 virology lab was already actively looking into the risks posed from bat coronaviruses, and actively researching coronavirus treatments – by definition both of these projects would require live virulent strains of coronavirus.

– The Wuhan Strain of coronavirus, 2019-nCoV, appears to be transmissible even before its host shows any symptoms at all, making temperature-scanning at airports ineffective since hosts appear to be contagious for about a week before any symptoms emerge. This is in stark contrast with SARS, whose hosts weren’t contagious until they were symptomatic, allowing for its relatively quick containment. A recent pre-print now gives 2019-nCoV a rating of R4, meaning each host passes the virus on to four new victims, a rate significantly higher than any past global viral outbreak.

– Following the aforementioned bat coronavirus bio-engineering research that was critiqued for being too risky in 2015, in the paper from UNC eventually published the next year that describing their successful bio-engineering of a highly-virulent coronavirus derived from bats, researcher #8 is listed as one “Zheng-li Shi” attached to the “Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China.”

– Zhengli Shi seems to have returned to Wuhan at some point since 2016, since she then appears in this September 2019 paper on the human behaviors most likely to lead to bat-borne coronavirus exposure in southern China, and in this pending preprint on the current outbreak of 2019-nCoV – just a sample of the dozens of coronavirus-related papers she’s published over a three decade career. And not only does she provide a direct chain of expertise tying the already successful bio-engineering of a virulent bat-based coronavirus at UNC directly to the BSL-4 virology lab in Wuhan, but back in January 2014 she’d received a $665,000 grant from NIH for a study titled The Ecology of Bat Coronaviruses and the Risk of Future Coronavirus Emergence (NIAID R01 AI1 10964) as well as $559,500 more from USAID for a study titled Emerging Pandemic Threats PREDICT_2China (Project No. AID-OAA-A-14-00102). Beyond this American funding specifically into viral diseases zoonotically transferring from animals to humans, over the years she’s also received around $3 million in grants to study these zoonotic viruses from China and other countries, and has served on the editorial board of several virological research magazines. More of her research into the intersection of coronaviruses like the Wuhan Strain and their epidemic potential was funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Threat Reduction Agency, and U.S. Biological Defense Research Directorate of the Naval Medical Research Center.

– And so a scientist who’s been prolifically involved with studying the molecular interaction of coronaviruses and humanity, spending decades and millions of dollars, and having even helped build a hyper-virulent coronavirus from scratch at UNC – just so happens to be working at the only BSL-4 virology lab in China that also just so happens to be at the epicenter of this outbreak.

– Another Chinese virologist, Xing-Yi Ge, appears as an author on the 2016 UNC paper and is also attached to the lab in Wuhan. Previously in 2013, he’d successfully isolated a SARS-like coronavirus from bats which targets the ACE2 receptor, just like our present virus, the Wuhan Coronavirus 2019-nCoV.

– Numerous videos purportedly from inside hospitals in Wuhan depict a crisis that is far greater than the numbers released by China to date. Example 1. Example 2. Example 3. Example 4. Chinese language social media also reflects a sense of panic and desperation that is highly discordant with the numbers being released by the Chinese government. Who, notably, are refusing any assistance from the American CDC.

– Although it has not yet passed peer-review, a full-genome evolutionary analysis of 2019-nCoV rejects the hypothesis of emergence as a result of a recent recombination event, since it seems that this novel coronavirusis not a mosaic of previously known coronaviruses, but instead draws from distant, discrete parts of the coronavirus family tree – not what usually happens. And notably, a genetic analysis of the spike-protein genes – the exact coronavirus gene that was bio-engineered by the UNC lab in 2015, where Zhengli Shi and Xing-Yi Ge previously isolated a batty coronavirus that targets the ACE2 receptor just like 2019-nCoV – indicates the very likely artificial and unnatural origins of 2019-nCoV’s spike-protein genes when they are compared to the genomes of wild relatives. Instead of appearing similar to its wild relatives, the 2019-nCoV’s spike-protein genes look most similar to bio-engineered commercially available gene sequences that are designed to help with immunotherapy research.

– Additionally, another pre-print noted several very short genomic sequences in 2019-nCoV’s spike-protein gene that look far more similar to sequences found in HIV than to other coronaviruses – further bolstering support for the idea that the Wuhan Strain of this coronavirus was originally meant as part of a defensive immunotherapy research. However, this report does leave questions because it doesn’t disclose exactly which of HIV’s highly-variable regions the Wuhan Strain was compared against. And reporting from Thailand indicates that adding a cocktail of two different anti-HIV drugs to the typical treatment regime is the best defense against the Wuhan Strain, further indicating a close genetic homology with HIV.

– Giving further credence to the idea that the Wuhan Strain was bio-engineered is the existence of a patent application that looks to modulate a coronavirus’ spike-protein genes – the precise region altered by Zhengli Shi at UNC to make a hyper-virulent strain of coronavirus, and whose alteration and adaptation towards HIV would explain the Wuhan Strain’s unusually behavior as discussed above.

Given the above facts, either:

– A coronavirus spontaneously mutated and jumped to humans at a wet market or deep in some random bat cave which just so happened to be 20 miles from China’s only BSL-4 virology lab, a virus with an unusually slippery never-before-seen genome that’s evading zoological classification, and whose spike-protein region which allows it to enter host cells appears most like a bio-engineered commercial product, that somehow managed to infect its first three and roughly one-third of its initial victims despite them not being connected to this market, and then be so fined-tuned to humans that it’s gone on to create the single greatest public health crisis in Chinese history with approaching 100 million citizens locked-down or quarantined – also causing Mongolia to close its border with its largest trading partner for the first time in modern history.

– Or, Chinese scientists failed to follow correct sanitation protocols possibly while in a rush during their boisterous holiday season, something that had been anticipated since the opening of the BSL-4 lab and has happened at least four times previously, and accidentally released this bio-engineered Wuhan Strain – likely created by scientists researching immunotherapy regimes against bat coronaviruses, who’ve already demonstrated the ability to perform every step necessary to bio-engineer 2019-nCov – into their population, and now the world. As would be expected, this virus appears to have been bio-engineered at the spike-protein genes which was already done at UNC to make an extraordinarily virulent coronavirus. Chinese hesitancy to disclose the full story about what’s going on are because they want the scales to be even since they’re now facing a severe pandemic. No facts point against this conclusion.

SOURCE: https://harvardtothebighouse.com/202...rus-2019-ncov/

Quote:

Originally Posted by 85vette (Post 210169)

MRE's Rich. They last well over 5 years!

https://www.thereadystore.com/mre

Heck, Connie and I are such picky eaters, that we would likely wind up throwing that stuff away after the expiration date. As it is, we buy supplies that have a pretty good shelf life, and when that shelf life is getting close, we eat it then replace it with some newer product. That way it's not being wasted.

Honestly, if some EOLAWKI hits that wipes out enough structure to our civilization for 5 years, I'm not sure I'm all that keen to be one of the survivors. I'll be 70 in July. That's too old to be fighting (literally) for a living (literally).

Well, isn't this just special...... So I could have suspected cases with potential victims in quarantine for testing nearby, and wouldn't be told about it? Nothing like, "Anyone having had contact with ___________ in the past 48 hours please call this number immediately: ______________". Sheesh. Do these people even know what steps to take in order to try to contain a potential epidemic?

Quote:

Coronavirus: Florida says it can’t reveal information, but experts disagree

By Cindy Krischer Goodman
South Florida Sun Sentinel |
Feb 06, 2020 | 10:19 PM

Florida health officials say state law prevents them from telling the public about suspected cases of coronavirus, yet the state regularly revealed that information during the Zika crisis three years ago.

The state put out daily updates about the Zika virus, informing the public of suspected as well as confirmed cases. The law was the same then.

U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, who was Florida’s governor at the time, said Florida should be as transparent now with coronavirus as it was with Zika. Scott is urging the same transparency for federal officials.

Daniel Dawes, a lawyer and professor of complex health systems at Nova Southeastern University, said he too would like to see more openness with the coronavirus, which originated in China and now has spread to 28 countries.

“I understand [Florida health officials] not wanting to get folks too concerned or scared, but as a citizen, I want to know if there are pending cases out there,” Dawes said. “If there are more pending cases in one part of the state than the other, I want to know that. If a test doesn’t lead to positive, I want to know that, too. I think Florida owes it to its citizens to be open with information so they can protect themselves.”

States are divided on how much information to share with the public about the rapidly spreading coronavirus, now with 28,000 confirmed cases in China and 12 in the U.S.

While authorities in California, Illinois and New York regularly disclose information on suspected as well as confirmed cases, officials in other large states — including Florida — have opted to withhold information on suspected cases until they are confirmed.

“We are unable to comment on potential coronavirus cases because of a state statute that prohibits us from doing so,” said Alberto Moscoso, communications director for the Florida Department of Health.

But three health lawyers, asked by the South Florida Sun Sentinel to review the law, said the state can release that information — if it chooses to. The statute says information from disease reports is exempt from public records laws and should be made public only when necessary to protect public health “due to the highly infectious nature of the disease.”
RELATED: South Florida doctors trying to stop anxiety over coronavirus »

“It’s a judgment call whether or not it’s necessary to the public health to release that information,” said Timothy Monaghan, a health care attorney with Shutts & Bowen in West Palm Beach. “Public officials may argue we are trying to avoid panic, but I think most people would say we need to know if it’s here in Florida so we can take precautions.”

Joey Zumpano, founder and managing shareholder of Zumpano Patricios, a law firm that represents large health systems, agrees that holding back information from the public is a choice the state is making.

“Clearly what the statutory framework is intending to achieve is a balance between patient privacy and public health,” Zumpano said. “The statute leaves the judgment to the state. But the status of a highly contagious public health threat may be fundamental to any public health efforts centered on prevention."

Tests are pending on 72 possible cases of coronavirus nationwide. The Sun Sentinel reported a patient who arrived in the emergency room of Memorial Hospital on Friday had been tested, though officials would not discuss the case and have emphasized that no cases of coronovirus in Florida have been confirmed.

RELATED: A patient at a South Florida hospital was tested for coronavirus. The public remains in the dark.

“There are no confirmed cases of coronavirus in Florida,” state Surgeon General Dr. Scott Rivkees said in a written statement. "However, if any were to arise, we are prepared to contain this new infection, help any individuals sickened by the virus and keep Florida safe.”

In the U.S., the 12 cases of coronavirus are in Arizona, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Washington and Wisconsin.

Moscoso said if and when there is a confirmed case in Florida, the state will “make the information available as quickly as possible.”

“The Department is coordinating closely with our local partners to investigate, confirm, contain and report any suspected cases, should they occur,” he said. “The current guidance from the CDC is for the general American public, the immediate health risk from coronavirus is considered low at this time.”

Florida’s approach to releasing information on coronavirus differs from how health officials handled the 2016-17 Zika virus outbreak. With Zika, the Florida Department of Health reported positive and negative samples and pending results by county. It also put out daily updates that included maps of confirmed cases.

Scott said Florida and the federal government should be as transparent now.

“I encourage you to use the lessons we learned from Florida’s handling of the Zika virus by distributing as much information about the virus as possible to keep Americans and local officials informed,” Scott wrote in a Feb. 5 letter to President Donald Trump.

SOURCE: Coronavirus: Florida says it can’t reveal information, but experts disagree

But I guess having the tourist season potentially negatively impacted has priority, eh?

This video about the 1918 spanish flu pandemic is well worth watching. However it is kind of terrifying, to be honest. Mistakes were made that hopefully will not be made again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDY5COg2P2c

And the fake news network chimes in

Here you have clowns like this posting scary headlines for click bait:

Tallahassee manufacturer could be closing due to coronavirus outbreak

That manufacturer will likely be closing because they are running out of Chinese made parts needed to keep their business afloat. But that is not the impression you are going to get just reading the headline, now is it?

My wife worked in China, one of her jobs was to assist doctors in getting research papers published in the US .She is still in contact with many of the doctors over the past month .

The Chinese lie about everything and according to my wife the virus was active in November and December .A good estimate that December had up to 10,000 active cases .Political prisoners and minorities get no treatment .

This virus will not be contained by boarders or isolation .Makes me excited that I'm flying to Maine Saturday .At least in Maine I can surround myself with polar bears ,wolfs and moose .

It appears that public transportation is one of the major avenues of infection being spread. It's all recycled air in those flying tin cans. Any filtration of the air is not going to stop this very small virus from passing through. There was an account, over in England, I believe, where a cab driver infected every fare he had before they pulled him off of the street. And don't even think about taking a cruise for a while.

It appears that the USA is just as bad as China concerning allowing status and news to escape to the public. Which means that things certainly could be a whole lot worse than we know about. But they aren't telling us anything about what is going on around us.

This coronavirus can live on a doorknob for up to 9 days. A person with the virus can be asymptomatic for as long as 24 days while the virus is incubating, and beginning on somewhere around day 2 or 3, be shedding those virus particles to infect others.

Most people will only have light to moderate symptoms. Others will quickly wind up in the hospital with pneumonia. Heart and kidney damage has been noted. Some will die. If you survive, you can be reinfected and have to start this all over again. And there is suspicion that even the people who have "recovered" may remain infectious intermittently afterwards. Apparently the survival percentage of that second infection is not too good.

There is a lot about this that is not known at this point. If it is a weaponized organism that escaped from that Wuhan BSL-4 lab, there is no telling what we are in store for. But I can't imagine it will be something we are going to be all that happy about.

My advice would be to avoid getting this virus if at all possible. "Bugging in" is a popular phrase I am hearing lately. Basically stocking up on food and supplies, and locking yourself away from the rest of the world as best you can till the storm passes over. But even then, there is a real good chance that this virus is going to be a permanent feature of the environment from now on. Perhaps unavoidable to become infected with it sooner or later.

But if you are going to get sick from it, try not to do it when the number of serious cases reaches it's peak, and the hospitals have gone far beyond their capability of dealing with the work load. There are only so many hospital beds. Only so many doctors. Only so many nurses. Only so much medication available. Only so many pieces of equipment to help you stay alive if you are one of the ones that wind up in intensive care with lung, heart, or kidney failures imminent.

And bear in mind that China has nearly shut down production of EVERYTHING. That means spare parts for things that break that are MADE IN CHINA, might be scarce. Medications relying on raw materials from China are going to become hard to come by. Anything MADE IN CHINA, for at least the near term, won't be.

So take a look around and try to figure out what you may need to "bug in" in the near term, and what you may need for the long term if it will no longer be made, or able to get spare parts for.

I certainly do hope that the worst doesn't happen. But this is the first time any of these sorts of disasters has had me feeling pretty damn nervous about it. So I just don't think it wise to ignore it thinking, "Hell, that couldn't happen here, could it?" Well, yes, it looks like a pandemic IS coming whether we like it or not.

Florida isn't telling about suspected cases or anything else concerning the virus. Is it safe to go to Orlando? Beats me. Safe to be going to Miami? Heck if I know. Safe to go to the local Publix here in Crawfordville? :shrug01: When should we be "bugging in"? :shrug01: :shrug01:

So best I can tell, the only warning we will get is when someone we personally know comes down with pneumonia. I'm not sure that Florida is even testing anyone for the virus. Last I heard the test kits for the USA were defective, with results being inconclusive. How great is that? If the source for those test kits is China, I'm sure they need all they can produce for themselves.

Best thing I can suggest is that you wash your hands every chance you get. Religiously! And never, EVER touch your hands to your face under any circumstances. And then just hope you didn't breath in some of the virus particles when you walked through a cloud of them that someone just sneezed out in the space you just walked through a few moments later.

Uh oh! Two cases turned up near Tampa.

Florida’s first coronavirus cases found in Hillsborough and Manatee counties

You guys are stocking up on supplies in case this gets serious, aren't you?

I'm not sure if this is a third case, or it is referring to one of the two mentioned above.

Coronavirus reported at Sarasota hospital

:shrug01:

I'm back in the mountains of Maine and I doubt the virus can live in these Temps .

Yep ,the virus will get much worse .The real problem will be in counties with socialized medicine .In most cases rationing of health care is the norm .

Two deaths from COVID 19 in Florida now. One that was an active case noted a little earlier near Pensacola, and then another surprise one somewhere in Lee County.

Two active cases in Hillsborough County and one in Sarasota County.

I was watching a video where someone was saying that where you have a death from this virus, then that means the person dying was likely infected about a month or more ago.

Damn, I really hate the thought that Connie is going to have a dentist and his assistant sticking their fingers in her mouth in about 2 weeks. She was at the dentist office today (Friday) to have to old bridge removed and impressions taken for the new one to be made. Which doesn't make me feel all that warm and fuzzy neither. Yeah, they had gloves on, but that doesn't make me feel any better at all.

Oh great.....

http://www.floridahealth.gov/disease...ions/COVID-19/

Quote:

Number of Pending Testing Results: 88

Number of People Under Public Health Monitoring:
278 – currently being monitored
1010 – people monitored to date

Would be REAL nice if they would tell us where exactly those tested people are located within the state. :rolleyes:

They say warm weather kills it. So we will see soon as hot weather is coming.

I put off buying a new Vette for now.

Well, it seems to survive in the 98.6 degree human body just fine. And there are countries near the equator that have it, so I'm not so sure about that heat thing.

Yeah, I know what you mean about putting off things. I'm stalling on buying the extended warranty for my Jeep GC TrailHawk.

And I'm working on the exhaust on the vette thinking that if I get sick, I may not feel much like doing something like that. My elbow is still hurting a bit, but screw it. I can't wait forever for some things.

Seeing one site now claiming 50 confirmed infections from COVID-19.

https://coronavirus.1point3acres.com/en

Nancy said she watched the Governor address the state and she felt comfortable .She is in an isolated community with not a lot of people contact unless she wants .

Up here in Maine there are no confirmed cases but three possible .I'm sure it'll get here .My only grip is that I have port a potties on my job sites and people steal the toilet paper .:banghead::crazy03:

Quote:

Originally Posted by vett boy (Post 210600)

My only grip is that I have port a potties on my job sites and people steal the toilet paper .:banghead::crazy03:

Buy that cheap sandpaper the military calls toilet paper.

Stores are being cleaned out of stuff. Went food shopping this AM and got what i needed and it was already nuts.

Hand sanitizers are nearly impossible to find in many parts of the country now. Same with face masks of just about any type.

Quite a few states have declared a state of emergency. Yesterday Trump declared a national emergency over this virus. People are now waving red flags all over the place, and people are starting to open up their eyes to see what is going on around the world. And now it is coming to their own neighborhood.

The more people who realize what is going on, the more are going to figure out that there is a very great likelihood that they might wind up being locked down, either voluntarily or involuntarily, in their homes when quarantines are put into place. Not to mention that eventually truck drivers will either be sick or afraid of becoming sick, and deliveries to grocery stores might taper off to a trickle. Got the gas tanks in your vehicles topped off? Gasoline supplies can vanish too. Not that you want to be taking pleasure cruises now, but you might have to go out for an emergency and find the gas stations all closed. Too bad for you if you only have under a quarter tank of gasoline.

If you haven't already begun to prepare, you may find that some things you just took for granted you could buy are just no longer available. Imagine fighting with someone in the parking lot over a pack of toilet paper. Imagine people breaking into your home just to steal toilet paper. Think it can't happen? People have become used to getting what they want, whenever they want it. So if you are prepared, I suggest not widely advertising that fact to your neighbors. They might be great people in normal times, but we are rapidly approaching very abnormal times, and they could become very different people then.

Hope for the best, but plan for the worst.

Personally, I believe that the USA got caught with it's pants down. I can understand the empathy behind Americans caught on a cruise ship and bringing them home, but it appears that the quarantine around them was lacking. Look at where all the eruptions of new infections is the highest in the USA. They should have all been taken to someplace remote at least until the people in charge understood what they were dealing with. And under no circumstances within the continental USA.

China completely isolated a city with 11 million residents and tanked their economy over this. They obviously KNEW something important about this. America just ignored that big red flag, and continued along, business as usual. By the time flights to and from China were blocked, many other countries already had cases, yet they were not being blocked as well. Was even any effort made to track down anyone coming from China within the past 14 days before the lockdown? Wouldn't that have been a logical move?

Even by February 29th, Americans were only "urged" to not go to Italy and South Korea. It wasn't until this week that an actual ban was imposed, LONG after the virus was putting Italy in dire straits. And long after there have been enough people carrying the contagion have already entered the USA and contagion spreading out of control. Did the USA know that asymptomatic victims can spread this disease or not? If not, why not? I knew it, and I certainly don't have the resources that they should for information of this nature.

And then there is the CDC. I couldn't have written a more bumbling idiot script for them any better than they wrote for themselves. Testing could have prevented many infections if people knew they were infected and reacted appropriately. But even long after the virus had spread outside of China, they insisted that tests would only be done to people (1) showing symptoms, and (2) either been to China or in contact from someone who had been in China in the past 14 days. Then they announced that the tests were inconclusive and defective. Then tests required several levels of hoops to jump through for anyone to be tested. And most people had no clue what those hoops were or where. Then I heard that a critical reagent needed for the tests to work was suddenly unavailable. As far as I know, tests are still limited and difficult to be obtained. And who knows what the hoops are now to qualify for testing?

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/...avirus/607999/

For the money that we pay for the CDC out of our taxes, exactly what are we getting for our money? Obviously it wasn't spent to be prepared for an event of this nature, so what have they been doing with all that money?

How will America look when this is in our rear-view mirror? Well in my opinion, I hope the CDC should all be in the unemployment lines. Or worse.

And those people tasked with our protection and well being, well, they just need to get their head out of their ass. I'm just a nobody and a know-nothing, but even I could see what was coming LONG before it was impossible to do the right things to, if not stop it, at least contain it with minimal spread. Yeah, it would have been hard decisions to have to make, but sometimes those decisions MUST be made by the people put into positions to make them.

IMHO.

90's are showing up so lets see if it kills this bug for FL.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CHASZ51 (Post 210607)

90's are showing up so lets see if it kills this bug for FL.

I would doubt it will have much impact. There are plenty countries all along the equator with infections, so I don't have much hope of summertime temperatures doing much. But perhaps the higher humidity might be what has an impact.

I'm seeing 115 confirmed cases in Florida now. There is nothing I know of the prevent infections to just explode, so if you haven't already made preparations for becoming homebound for a while, it might be too late to stock up on many things.

There are going to be a lot of people out of work, and perhaps out of money. The economy is probably going to grind to a halt because people won't be going anywhere to spend money. Which will mean a lot of desperate people who will do desperate things.

I am getting a lot of emails from retail businesses trying to convince customers that it will be safe to come to their stores. So I am guessing they are already feeling the pinch. When business stops, they will have to let go employees. Most people are living paycheck to paycheck, so things are going to go real ugly for them.

I have read quite a bit about these kinds of scenarios over the years. I had hoped I wouldn't have to actually live through one myself, though. Just not my idea of a great retirement in my "golden years". :(

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rich Z (Post 210609)

Maybe a good time to buy a Vette. I will be a mess for a few months to a year i guess.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CHASZ51 (Post 210611)

Maybe a good time to buy a Vette. I will be a mess for a few months to a year i guess.

Yeah, but have them drop it off in your driveway with the keys underneath the floor mat. Let it just sit there for a month so if any virus is inside, it will die off naturally in the heat inside.

I'm thinking many people aren't willing to make long term committments like buying a car. I want to get an extended warranty on my Grand Cherokee, but I'm going to hold off a bit. Just in case it turns out it isn't needed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rich Z (Post 210613)

I held off on buying myself. Maybe use the money and play with stocks that i know nothing about. Never did stocks before, but would love to find someone that knows what to do.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CHASZ51 (Post 210614)

I held off on buying myself. Maybe use the money and play with stocks that i know nothing about. Never did stocks before, but would love to find someone that knows what to do.

Never played with stocks myself, neither. But I did work at Quotron for a while, that runs those stats you see in "ticker tapes". And I saw that it is a rich man's game. People with lots of money can directly control the market because they can buy and sell large lots, which directly influences everyone else. So they can sell a bunch of stock, which drops the prices, then buy it back again at a cheaper price to sell when the price rises again. It is all a game to them. Meanwhile the little guys get their life savings wiped out overnight if they aren't real careful.

Thanks, but no thanks. If you want to buy something that is just about guaranteed to remain valuable, no matter what, buy guns.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rich Z (Post 210616)

Sold most of my guns well before the prices went nuts.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CHASZ51 (Post 210621)

Sold most of my guns well before the prices went nuts.

Yeah, I hear that. I sold some guns that I will probably never see again anywhere.

I had and sold two of these:

https://www.rockislandauction.com/de...utomatic-rifle

216 confirmed cases in Florida as of today 03-17-2020.

This is a particularly helpful map for those of us living (or visiting) in Florida.

https://fdoh.maps.arcgis.com/apps/op...2a615dc7837c86

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rich Z (Post 210629)

216 confirmed cases in Florida as of today 03-17-2020.

This is a particularly helpful map for those of us living (or visiting) in Florida.

https://fdoh.maps.arcgis.com/apps/op...2a615dc7837c86

Looks like the party boats will be hit hard if it is a 10 person limit. No way they can make money taking 7 paying people per trip since 3 crew are included in the 10 max. Can't even pay for fuel going 10 miles out in the gulf.