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Editorial by Steve D`Agostino
In my opinion, this is a terrible overreaction to fear, and blatant fear mongering by our media (who just want to boost their ratings, just like they do whenever there is a storm or other natural disaster - they want to keep the viewers glued to the TV so they exaggerate the risk way out of proportion, and in turn they can then make more money on advertising, so as to sell more junk products that nobody really needs).
I have recently spoken to a TRCC member and friend of mine who wants to barricade himself inside his room because of this, and he intends to live like a hermit indefinitely. This virus will not be eradicated anytime soon, and in fact, will likely never go away (e.g. look at the HIV virus, its been 40 years since it was first detected in the US, and still no cure or vaccine).
I saw some moron doctor on CNN saying that people should "stock up on 3 months worth of food", and "be prepared to hunker down for a long time". Yet in his next breath, this same imbecile then said that "containment of this disease is not possible now", which I agree with and have said all along. So if containment is not possible, then what is the purpose of quarantine? That means that all of us will be exposed to this sooner or later.
However, this moron (and thousands of others like him) are causing wide-spread panic, having people stripping the stores of all essential products, leaving nothing behind for people like myself.
And according to my research, the mortality rate of this disease is only 2%, while the mortality rate of SARS (for those of you who are old enough to remember it) was 10%, and the mortality rate for some types of MRSA infections can be as high as 30%! Yet, "the world did not come to an end" for either of these risks. And there are so many much more deadly diseases out there - for example ebola has mortality rates from 60 - 90% !!!!! Swine flu had a 20% mortality rate, and according to the CDC`s Weekly U.S. Influenza Surveillance Report: "The percentage of deaths attributed to pneumonia and influenza is 6.9%..."
Neither the Centers for Disease Control nor the World Health Organization can contain this - it is already too wide spread and way past the stage where it can be contained (i.e. stopped) by quarantining the infected individuals. And what about those individuals who already were exposed, assumed it was just a cold, then got better. They may have the virus inside them, and still be contagious, yet never even know it.
Thus, the cold hard truth is that sooner or later, we all will be exposed to this virus. But fortunately most of us will be able to fight it off just like the common cold or flu. However, those who try to hide in a cave will not have built up any immunity to it, which will probably mutate and grow stronger over time (i.e. just like HIV). But unlike HIV, which can only be spread by direct contact of bodily fluids, this virus is primarily spread airborne, so there`s no way to avoid it being exposed to it. Thus, washing hands and using hand sanitizer really only helps with the secondary source of infection (i.e. hand contact).
It seems to me that our best bet is to just accept the inevitable exposure to the virus each of us will have, and instead we should focus our efforts on dramatically reducing the mortality rate from the current 2% down to the 0.1% mortality rate of the common cold/flu.
But like always, I am sure my logical views will be drowned out by those of the moronic and the millennial dotards. And this growing paranoia is to the point where we will soon be closing all libraries, all schools, and perhaps even all businesses! If this happens, and I think it is likely, then we soon won`t have any food to eat, nor any gasoline for our cars, nor will any of us even be able to keep the electricity running in our homes!!!
These incorrect choices of actions are outright horrible, horrible, horrible!!!!!!
Anyway, if anyone wants to deviate from the moronic masses and play some live in person chess before "the world comes to an end", then send me an email and we`ll schedule a BBQ at my house where we can eat, drink and play chess. (And keep in mind that the more we get drunk, all the better - alcohol kills viruses … ok, just kidding about that last part.) But I will buy us some Corona beers though.
UPDATE April 25, 2020
Most of my predictions I made back on Mar 12, 2020 have come true. The only thing that hasn`t happened (yet), is the loss of electricity and other utilities in our homes. A barrel of oil is now less than worthless. It is only a matter of time before everything completely unravels and crumbles, unless we fully reopen the economy very soon.I feel so strongly about how our society is over-reacting to the threat of COVID-19, I put together a subdomain on my main account, with a webpage stating my opinions and a database for people to voice their opinions and sign my petition. And I also made a cartoon animation parody (i.e. using Flash, converted to HTML5 video) of what I always find on the mainstream TV news media. Please take a look at morona.stevedagostino.biz
