Trump, if you’re still awake and still deciding between swallowing your gun and being hung dead upside down, look at this article before you announce your Decision.
While many epidemiologists are warning of months, or even years, of massive social disruption and millions of deaths, [Nobel Prize Winner and Stanford biophysicist Michael] Levitt says the data simply don’t support such a dire scenario — especially in areas where reasonable social distancing measures are in place.
“What we need is to control the panic,” he said. In the grand scheme, “we’re going to be fine.”
...
But he also blames the media for causing unnecessary panic by focusing on the relentless increase in the cumulative number of cases and spotlighting celebrities who contract the virus. By contrast, the flu has sickened 36 million Americans since September and killed an estimated 22,000, according to the CDC, but those deaths are largely unreported.
...
Levitt fears the public health measures that have shut down large swaths of the economy could cause their own health catastrophe, as lost jobs lead to poverty and hopelessness. Time and again, researchers have seen that suicide rates go up when the economy spirals down.
...
While the COVID-19 fatality rate appears to be significantly higher than that of the flu, Levitt says it is, quite simply put, “not the end of the world.”
“The real situation is not as nearly as terrible as they make it out to be,” he said.
Now the guy in the ex-Quasis, Ezekiel J. Emanuel, even I queried his credentials but didn’t mention them because the New York Times published him! Presumably vetted his credentials, which are: “vice provost of global initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania.” So, not an epidemiologist either, am I right? What the fuck is “global initiatives”? Do they award Nobel Prizes for “global initiatives”? And he’s not even PROVOST of that...thing, he’s VICE provost. And he’s at PENN. Penn is NOT Stanford, okay? They let Shit-for-Brains into Penn. Ex-Quasis, did you vet that motherfucker? Does he have any expertise that qualifies him to write in your Gray pages on epidemics? Not that is apparent in your description of his credentials. The VICE provost’s conclusions are based on math that seems a little funny even on first read, no? I mean, how are we going to get to 100,000 DEATHS at a mortality rate of 1.3% when we “only” have 54,000 cases and 700 deaths. Fucking Covid-19 isn’t a fucking gene you know. It’s not permanent. It burns hot and then flames out in about three-four months, isn’t that kinda sorta the Chinese experience? That seems an impossibly short shelf life to get to the number of total infections needed. I don’t see how you can reasonably get to the number of confirmed cases required for 100,000 deaths at 1.3% mortality in four months. China, where this whole fucking thing started, is topping out at about 81,000 total cases. Italy has got 70,000 or something. I ain’t no ‘rithmetic scholar my own self but 100,000 deaths at the current rate of 1.3% would require, correct my math PLEASE if this is wrong, (.013 X= 100,000; X=100,000/.013; X=7,692,307, no? Did I do that right?) 7,692,207 total confirmed Covid-19 cases in the U.S. So let me get this straight Mr VICE provost of “Global Initiatives”: Your cheery 100,000 deaths prediction is predicated on the U.S. getting NINETY FIVE TIMES the total number of Covid-19 cases as China currently has in like four months? Get the fuck out of town.
While many epidemiologists are warning of months, or even years, of massive social disruption and millions of deaths, [Nobel Prize Winner and Stanford biophysicist Michael] Levitt says the data simply don’t support such a dire scenario — especially in areas where reasonable social distancing measures are in place.
“What we need is to control the panic,” he said. In the grand scheme, “we’re going to be fine.”
...
But he also blames the media for causing unnecessary panic by focusing on the relentless increase in the cumulative number of cases and spotlighting celebrities who contract the virus. By contrast, the flu has sickened 36 million Americans since September and killed an estimated 22,000, according to the CDC, but those deaths are largely unreported.
...
Levitt fears the public health measures that have shut down large swaths of the economy could cause their own health catastrophe, as lost jobs lead to poverty and hopelessness. Time and again, researchers have seen that suicide rates go up when the economy spirals down.
...
While the COVID-19 fatality rate appears to be significantly higher than that of the flu, Levitt says it is, quite simply put, “not the end of the world.”
“The real situation is not as nearly as terrible as they make it out to be,” he said.
Isn’t this the goddamnedest thing? How are we supposed to know? One thing I noted in this article and the cheery Doomsday piece in the NYT, neither of these guys is an epidemiologist. Does that matter? I DON’T KNOW! This guy, Levitt, is a biophysicist. Now he won a goddamned Nobel in that but, I guess, he’s not an epidemiologist so...Now he did uncannily predict both the number of total cases and the number of total deaths in China. But notice the precision of Mr Nobel Nostradamus on the U.S.: “We’re going to be fine.” Thank you for your time, sir. Should we only be paying attention to epidemiologists? See above bolded.
Does anything these guys say matter? I DON’T FUCKING KNOW!
