I've made some light hearted comments about the corona virus problem but as the death toll increases it's not funny and I don't find it so. The transmission rate is increasing and it seems likely that it's going to begin to affect us all directly, if it hasn't already. I hope you're all OK and remain that way. I'll leave you with this storyof CNBC's Rick Santelli who thinks it would be good if we all gave ourselves covid-19 https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/cnbcs-rick-santelli-suggests-giving-everyone-coronavirus-to-spare-the-economy/ar-BB10OhgN?ocid=spartanntp
You have? Well, I must say that I am shocked. Absolutely shocked. And offended. How could you do that sort of thing? We know you can occasionally be sarcastic, but to be that totally heartless? How, um, shocking. Hmmmmmm . . . But I do. I haven't enjoyed a disaster story so much since the Boston Marathon bombing. You're right. My local Chinese restaurant closed early tonight. I was distraught. Me, too. But if you do get it and die, it was nice knowing you.
I'm not worried about the corona virus. I'm worried about the Dos Equis virus. Catch it and you wake up with a hangover in a Mexican jail. Let's hope the government gets a handle on this and the number of lives affected can be small.
The person who serves you in a restaurant doesn't have healthcare. The guy who drives your kid's school bus doesn't have healthcare. The person who hands you your change for your snacks at Circle K doesn't have healthcare. Almost 10 percent of Americans do not have healthcare. But because most of them are in low-paying service jobs, you're much more likely to encounter them in your daily lives. That means about every 2 of 10 people you meet lack healthcare. Universal healthcare, however it is brought about, benefits everyone, not just those who receive it.
The assumption that anyone who doesn't have health insurance through their employer "doesn't have healthcare" is simply untrue.
How so? Assume you're not referencing people who are either independently wealthy enough to self-insure or simply purchase private plans.
There are people who buy their own, privately. There are people who get insurance through professional organizations (like the American Welding Society). There are medical insurance cooperatives. And of course the biggest example is the whole Medicaid/Medicare network. I get mine from my employer but I guess that someday I'll be on Medicare (if the system exists that long)
Apologies, should have been more specific, was referencing the comment in response, or at least my perception of the response, towards the low wage service sector jobs that Rich mentioned. Which of course, we should point out that there very well are dish washers, restaurant servers, and school bus drivers earning living wages and with health care.
It was a general statement meant to illustrate a point. At no place in it did I say it was universally so, and inferring such is just a convenient dodge of the real issue.
For example, none of my four kids have their own insurance, they're on mine despite three of them being over 18. No, it was a deliberate conflating of two different things to make a problem seem worse than it really is.
I don't know where you get off telling me what I was thinking, especially after I clarified it, but you could not possibly know that. Thus, this is just argumentative drivel which I'll subsequently ignore.
To be honest? Because I've known you long enough to know that you're very, very smart, and it doesn't seem like the sort of thing someone with your formidable intellect wouldn't be able to tell was a false equivalence.
As Latin has it - noli beluam pascere. Don't feed the you-know-what. Actually, "beluam" isn't quite troll. It's just a generic monster. I thought of using "golem" but I read that word, applied to a living person, indicates someone large and of slow intellect - and I know Dr. Levicoff is very, very smart - and is not slow to tell people so, himself. He just appears a bit cranky these days. Maybe he's missing his rig since his retirement.
Earlier this morning, the Italian medical college, similar to our AMA released a heart breaking report of their plan of action in Italy and a sobering warning to other countries. The Atlantic is working on an updated story regarding it, we’re going to see other countries following through with total shutdowns. This is not going to be easy.
This is a lady from Seattle who recovered from Covid-19 and has been sharing her story all over the media. Her advice: don't panic. So, she has a Ph.D. and was featured on "Free the Ph.D." Their tagline is "Find the Job. Get the Job. Love your life outside the lab." https://www.freethephd.com/2020/01/31/bioengineering-phd-to-marketing-program-manager-part-2-elizabeth-schneider-ph-d/
Upwards of a quarter of survivors are coming out with 20-30% lung capacity damage. No need to panic, but this is not trivial, that is life altering for the survivors.