COVID-19 Questions

- What country has executed the most effective strategy in combating this pandemic? And what was it?

- How many celebrity grandstanders have claimed to have been infected with coronavirus, when they weren’t ... just to grab some headlines?

- How come epidemiologists are producing such a wide range of pandemic predictions with their “models?” One would think that this process should be settled science after we have been through a number of pandemics?

- Why did we ... and the rest of the world ... not shut down our economies during the much more severe Spanish flu in 1918-19?

- Is coronavirus a STD?

- What are the real Chinese infection and death numbers? 10-fold higher ...or even greater than that? What punishment might be levied on China for the worldwide consequences of this duplicity?

- Why are all the American job losses only in the private sector ... while government workers seemingly are immune to layoffs? And will these same government workers also be receiving the $1,200 @ coronavirus stimulus checks for (not) being unemployed? We might also add to this bonanza class retired people (like myself) who have had no interruptions to our income? And private sector employees who have not been let go from their jobs?

- What percentage of our population needs to be infected/recovered with or vaccinated against coronavirus to provide us herd immunity? Does this differ with different diseases (a function of transmissibility)?

Obvious Truth

Fame is like a STD ... it sort of limits your circle of friends. — Anon.

STD

Blogging (or tweeting) is like a sexually transmitted disease, it tends to make more enemies than friends ...

Not Not No

Of late I have been plagued by a gnawing feeling of angst … and trying to decipher what is at its source. To allay this feeling, I wanted to find what is in disarray in our public space.  Clearly there are excesses everywhere one looks -- huge sovereign debt, not just in the United States but worldwide; rampant drug use; a socially-transmitted disease pandemic (see: Were Number One); a galloping moral permissiveness (mostly centered in the media, Hollywood and Washington); governmental dysfunction at almost every level; parcels of pissant people impinging upon our freedoms; the accelerating crumbling of our time-honored social structures … enough … I’m sure you can easily extend this list.

After some sleeplessness I think I may have a clue as to what is the wellspring of my anxiety … we are rapidly losing our ability to say “no.”  Saying “no” has become a big no-no.  The Republicans are being tarred in the media with the pejorative “The Party of No.”  We are told that everything new should be unthinkingly embraced. Permissiveness is how to be hip.  Saying “yes” (to anything) is what is expected ... and makes one instantly brilliant and popular.

How should we respond if someone, who can’t afford it, applies for a home mortgage?  What do we say to our tween girls who want a personal cache of “morning after” pills?  Should Jon Corzine get away Scott free after his firm “loses” billions of his clients’ money?  Can we allow our government unfettered access to our personal records?  Should we look away when politicians abuse their positions of power … or waste billions of taxpayer dollars?  Mr. Paul Krugman, is it OK to run trillion dollar federal government deficits year after year?  Was Hillary Clinton right, in her Benghazi testimony, when she shouted, "What difference does it make?"  Mr. Ben Bernanke, is it permitted for the Federal Reserve to have printed more than four trillion dollars of new money?

Recognizing this contemporary societal flaw has set me free.  I can now view the world through puce-colored glasses … without being self-conscious.  I can now shake my head from side to side with unfettered abandon.  So the next time I am accused of being a sour-puss and a nay-sayer, I intend to secretly smile to myself.