Official live update of spread of COVID19

[Fake Messiah]

Conservatives have decided they’re on the side of the virus

[Rev. Rye]

Conservatives have decided they’re on the side of the virus

You think they didn’t decide that when Trump made abundantly clear that he’d rather have millions of people catch it and potentially die so he could keep the economy going than trying to stop the virus?

[Fireball]

I wonder if Tucker Carlson ties his own shoes.

[Rhizomorph13]

A virus with a lower mortality rate is actually great for the virus, because it allows it more time to spread. If COVID had a 99% fatality rate like Captain Trips, do you really think the pandemic would have lasted this fucking long? Almost Everybody’d be dead by this point.

Yeah?

And?

You don't think that would be worse?

It wasn't worse. That is what happened with the first Coronavirus that we called SARS. It was highly contagious and very lethal, people who got it would have symptoms within hours of contracting it and most people would die shortly thereafter. So what was happening is people felt icky, they would go to a hospital, EVERYONE that contacted them would become ill within a short period and then most of those people would die. So THAT is how we stopped SARS. It was manifestly lethal so people did whatever they could to avoid getting it and the people who did get it died. Have you watched Osmosis Jones or played Plague Inc.? Those talk about why it is better for an illness to not kill the host. Anyway, it would have been better for people if the illness was a great deal more fatal, because then everyone would have taken it much more seriously.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Heard on CNN this morning. "Yesterday NINETEEN 737 Max airplane crashed with no survivors." One way to put it perspective.

[tackattack]

Heard on CNN this morning. "Yesterday NINETEEN 737 Max airplane crashed with no survivors." One way to put it perspective.

Wtf are you taking about?

[Rev. Rye]

Heard on CNN this morning. "Yesterday NINETEEN 737 Max airplane crashed with no survivors." One way to put it perspective.

Wtf are you taking about?

I think he's talking about equivalent deaths.

[Rev. Rye]

Wtf are you taking about?

I think he's talking about equivalent deaths.

Of course, given that it’s the 737 MAX we’re talking about, it should be no surprise that a lot of them Crashed with no survivors.

[tackattack]

Ah, like “equivocally, @1/3 of the members that have ever registered at this form died of Covid yesterday in the US.”

I just think it’s a shitty way to raise awareness. @4k isn’t that he’d of a number to imagine.

[Rev. Rye]

All this talk about how the right seems to have become more and more openly pro-virus, plus the mention of the Boeing 737 MAX (I wrote a paper in Business Ethics about the initial MCAS system fiasco that touches on many of the same themes of this oncoming spiel), I'm seriously reminded of this Big Joel video:





As a Breadtuber, he's kinda hit and miss, and sometimes, he hits the mark and misses in the same video. In this case, he hits it by pointing out that disputing the reasons Trump gave may be counterproductive, but he misses by failing to notice the crucial problem in Trump's stated reasoning: even if that was the reason he did what he did and that was actually what was in his heart when he lied to the American people, that there was no possible way it could have worked in the long term. The virus has no drives save that of perpetuating itself at the expense of the host. That's why it's a virus, and nothing short of an epidemeological Miracle of the House of Brandenburg would have kept it from reaching US soil and wreaking havoc. He knew this, he knew millions of Americans would be effected, and he chose to do nothing because he thought that would stave off panic, when, in reality, staving off a panic would involve acknowledging the problem, doing everything in his power to neutralise the threat, and making sure the public knows you've got them covered. That's what a leader who was actually strong and not merely a craven narcissist would do. Hell, that’s what Obama did when Ebola broke out in 2014. And when the time came, because Trump’s hatred for Obama extends even to the things he did that even Republicans should be able to appreciate, he did nothing but double down on his rhetoric and undermine any and all attempts at containing the disease. And because the American right has triangulated towards him, they're still doing what they can to downplay the seriousness of the pandemic. And a quarter million Americans are dead because of it, and no doubt many of them would still be alive if Trump had the foresight to actually try and do the right thing.