friend of friend of friend “dials it down,” all right
Jeff Bagby of Kokomo IN was dismissive of the media and the Democrats for blowing this thing out of proportion, and had this to say on the subject at the end of February (The Democrats came in for reproach in the associated comment thread):
I mention this not to gloat—I did not know the guy, to whose personal qualities friend-of-friend has paid a moving tribute—but merely to observe, in this semi-private venue rather than on social media, where it would draw swarms of flying monkeys, that the beastie is not to be handwaved away, as Mr. B did before at some point touching his face.
cordially,
There is no pandemic of the Coronavirus. I personally find it very irresponsible to report like there is one. So, let's deal with some facts. I know, Facebook isn't the place for facts, but let's give it a try anyway. The Coronavirus is actually a type of virus that cover a family of viruses that include the ones that cause the common cold. The one we are talking about is the new COVID-19 virus that originated recently in China. The data we have so far indicates that the infection rate is almost exactly the same as the Infuenza A virus. Now, where it is different is in the fatality rate. Right now, in groups outside of China the fatality rate from COVID-19 is at around 1.4%, whereas with Influenza it is around 0.05%. This means the C-19 is 28 times more fatal than the flu. How do other diseases compare? Small Pox is around 28% fatal, and some strains of Ebola at close to 40%. So, it isn't close to these, but if this new virus were to spread like Influenza then the number of fatalities would be much higher. In fact, both the infection rate and the fatality rate are similar to the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. The key for us is to understand that at this time only a few thousand people have been infected world-wide. Governments and health care organization are preparing to deal with the virus, and we should not be in any form of panic at this time. What we currently have is an outbreak, it is not any epidemic or pandemic. The media needs to dial it down some.Ten days later, Mr. Bagby was in a medically-induced coma from which he found it difficult to follow, much less comment upon, matters epidemiological, and a fortnight after that he was residing in a refrigerated drawer.
I mention this not to gloat—I did not know the guy, to whose personal qualities friend-of-friend has paid a moving tribute—but merely to observe, in this semi-private venue rather than on social media, where it would draw swarms of flying monkeys, that the beastie is not to be handwaved away, as Mr. B did before at some point touching his face.
cordially,