Science and Stupidity:When Opinon replaces facts

[filghy2]

Imagine how I feel having thought that that I lived in the place all my life. Perhaps my conscious existence has just been a computer program, like in The Matrix.

On a more serious note, the usual suspects have been going into overdrive to rationalise away the inconvenient fact of the unprecedented bushfires here this summer. In order to divert attention from climate change the denialists are pointing the finger at a supposed upsurge in arson and greenies blocking hazard-reduction burning, even though these claims have been debunked by the authorities.
https://www.theguardian.com/australi...lian-bushfires
https://www.theguardian.com/australi...-rfs-boss-says

[Stavros]

Donald Trump declared live on television on Wednesday night that he did not believe the World Health Organization’s assessment of the global death rate from coronavirus of 3.4%.
“I think the 3.4% is really a false number,” he told Sean Hannity, one of his favorite conservative Fox News hosts, in a phone interview broadcast live.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...e-false-number

I think this is the moment Michael Pence intervenes, to say: 'Let us Pray'...maybe nothing now can stop this ignorant fool except prayer. Lindsay Graham can't do it, and he is a disciple. The science is, after all, irrelevant, because this is the USA, 2020.

[Stavros]

Larry Brilliant, a leading member of the Smallpox eradication teams, has illustrated a problem with regard to Covid19 in the USA- South Korea has been testing 3,500 people out of 1 miilion, the US five.
The USA, a country of doctors led by deacons, where reason is replaced by faith, and practice by prayer.
Welcome back to Salem, the trials will begin soon (no, not the vaccine! Duh!).

[Stavros]

It has occurred to me, watching the briefings from the White House, that the lectern from which the speakers deliver answers to questions, is raised so that it is not too low for a man over six foot tall -the President, for example- but that this means when DrAnthony Fauci stands there, he looks vertically challenged, but most important in terms of is iconography, he looks small. I wonder if this is deliberate, because the President has openly ridiculed short people as if in his mind intelligence is measurd in feet and inches as well as the results of an IQ test. It appears the President is not interested in the science of Covid 19, and is in fact bored by the whole thing and wants it to go away. Dr Fauci thus becomes a tedious pedant who can be ignored -if he is even on the platform next to the President, and as such, the threat that Covid 19 will have a devastating impact on the US grows every day.

I am not an admirer of Boris Johnson, but it has been important to see him concede policy making to experts who know what they are talking about, even as a debate emerges that asks if 'we' can sacrifice so many jobs and a stable economy for an illness that appears to kill so few people relative to other illnesses. Johnson has also adopted a serious tone of voice, and unlike the President, does not make a point, in public, of humiliating people, in the manner the President has done by calling Governer Insee a 'snake' and making utterly shameful and sarcastic remarks about the health of Senator Mitt Romney.

At a time when 'national unity' is required, one man stands out with his demonstrations of ignorance and childish stupidity, his pathetic need to humiliate Americans, his patronising indifference to facts, his disturbing jealousy of anyone who knows more than he does about Covid 19. He is letting the side down, he has become an enemy of the the people.

[AlexisDVyne]

Science: The death rate is only 0.5-1.0% in a worst case scenario..

Stupidity: Sacrificing these lives to see a dead cat bounce..

[filghy2]

I'm not sure 0.5-1.0 per cent is the worst case scenario. Death rates have been higher than average in some places (Wuhan, Italy), so it must depend on things like how well the health system can cope.

A scary question is whether Trump could have a complete meltdown if reality continues to disobey his wishes. He seems to have a pathological inability to accept any reality that is inconvenient to him. Will Republicans be prepared to invoke the 25th amendment if it becomes clear that he is leading them and the country to disaster?

[Stavros]

Science: The death rate is only 0.5-1.0% in a worst case scenario..
Stupidity: Sacrificing these lives to see a dead cat bounce..

Yours stats are wrong and misleading. Even as we learn more about Covid 19 we do know it infects more people more quickly than the 'flu, and that the mortality rate is high depending on age and pre-existing medical problems. Here are some examples that suggest this viral infection needs to be taken seriously, bearing in mind more have now died in Spain than in China-

"...the death rate for COVID-19 appears to vary by location and an individual's age, among other factors. For instance, in Hubei Province, the epicenter of the outbreak, the death rate reached 2.9%; in other provinces of China, that rate was just 0.4%, according to the China CDC Weekly study. In addition, older adults have been hit the hardest. The death rate soars to 14.8% in those 80 and older; among those ages 70 to 79, the COVID-19 death rate in China seems to be about 8%; it’s 3.6% for those ages 60 to 69; 1.3% for 50 to 59; 0.4% for the age group 40 to 49; and just 0.2% for people ages 10 to 39. No deaths in children under 9 have been reported.
https://www.livescience.com/new-coro...-with-flu.html

If these figures relate to the US, the worst case scenario is a significant number of deaths among the elderly, so you must make the moral decision- should the over 80s be left to die? Does it matter? Can we assume all those so-called Christians insisting life begins the moment a cell is formed through pregnancy and is 'sacred', will move heaven and earth to protect the lives of 85-year olds with cancer who have contracted Covid 19?

As for stupidty, he may not look like a dead cat boucing, but there is something seriously wrong with Bolsonaro. But you know what they say about men indifferent to other people's suffering....

[AlexisDVyne]

Science: The death rate is only 0.5-1.0% in a worst case scenario..

Stupidity: Sacrificing these lives to see a dead cat bounce..

This is from the overall population.. The majority of people have either mild or no symptoms..

The mortality rate for those that develop symptoms seems to be 3.4%

Exact numbers will remain unknown until this is over.. even then it's likely to be skewed by governments..

So 0.5-1.0% of the USA population equals 1,800,000 to 3,750,000 people sacrificed for Wall Street..

The dead cat bouncing is the DOW as it looks for the bottom..

[Beaver1]

So true, my love. Wall Street is nothing but a vampire.

[Stavros]

This is from the overall population.. The majority of people have either mild or no symptoms..
The mortality rate for those that develop symptoms seems to be 3.4%
Exact numbers will remain unknown until this is over.. even then it's likely to be skewed by governments..
So 0.5-1.0% of the USA population equals 1,800,000 to 3,750,000 people sacrificed for Wall Street..
The dead cat bouncing is the DOW as it looks for the bottom..

I note that you dropped 'only' from a repeat of your bland quote. And of that 0.5-1.0%, 1,800,00 to 3,750,000 people, real people, how many have or had medical insurance and are now without it? How many have or may lose their jobs? What proportion of them now live from day to day not knowing where the next dollar will come from, depressed, maybe even suicidal?

And why? Because your President is Ignorant, Incompetent, and Indifferent. This review (in the link below) should make you scared because the man and the men around him are still there, making a mess of your country, whose economy was on the skids anyway. Did you really think the $20+ trillion household debt and the trillions of National Debt are just a mirage that like Covid 19 will just go away? No.

Pay day is coming, and guess who is going to pay?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...ealth-disaster