Believe it or not, there are just some things a travel blogger cannot say about coronavirus and the current lockdown around the world.
If you are considering booking travel or signing up for a new credit card please click here. Both support LiveAndLetsFly.com.
If you haven’t followed us on Facebook or Instagram, add us today.
Caveat: I don’t agree with all of the opinions I am displaying in a holistic form. There are gaps, but this post is about the things travel bloggers, such as myself, cannot say about coronavirus and I felt these opinions should get a voice too.
That Airplane Is Less Crowded Than The Grocery Store
I took plenty of criticism for flying on a mileage run when this issue seemed far less serious. I am not flying anymore and admitted that it was foolish and regrettable. One of my former colleagues at UPGRD.com, Rocky Horan, took advantage of the flight deals right now and jetted off to Kona for the weekend.
Having just flown as recent as Tuesday, I can say without doubt, humor or hubris, that my airplane was less crowded than the grocery store I visited upon landing to stock up for the week at home. And it makes logical sense. Every day that I run to the store since I have been back, the aisles are still emptied of bread, flour, sanitizer and toilet paper. If they weren’t going to the stores, how do they empty every day?
People took more precautions at the airport than at the grocery store, there was no social distancing in aisles or at registers, no one was sanitizing anything – completely different from the airplane where people were wearing masks, gloves and wiping everything down. A friend reported that Costco has a rigid and well-executed process.
Those shaming flyers this week had better be completely enclosed inside their homes because I haven’t achieved that level of distancing since stepping out of the terminal. I was safer at the airport than at the grocery store.
Miles, Points, and Status Don’t Matter to Me Much Right Now
Coming from a guy that just finished a mileage/status run and has thought about miles, points, and status every single day for the last decade, I am as shocked as you may be that I just don’t care about my accounts right now. It seems like a distant memory and it’s just been weeks since this was at the forefront of my mind.
Despite committed bailouts of the airlines and likely others in the travel space, I just don’t have confidence in some companies to stick around through this. How many airlines will go under? If the government can bail out just three airlines, they will have to pick the most likely to survive. That could mean that American or United could merge, that maybe Allegiant or Spirit disappear.
But it really comes down to the fact that I just don’t know when I will be able to fly again and where I will want to go. What will the world look like anyway?
Spring Breakers and the Businesses that Hosted Them Should Be Exempt From Any Governmental Financial Support
It makes me a little sick to my stomach to think that Spring Breakers like those in Florida and Texas last week, who didn’t want to waste a good week of partying despite the world literally shutting down, should not then get a free check off the backs of those who did the right thing.
It would be impossible to hold the revelers accountable, how would one identify them? The businesses, however, that enabled them and continued with a cash grab despite warnings from the CDC, and the federal government should not then also receive support.
Quarantine the Vulnerable 1%, Not the 99%
I understand that the virus is affecting all of us, but the statistics tell a very cohesive story. The average age of death in China was 70 years old, the last report I saw from Italy had deaths at an average age of 78.5. Italy found that 99% of fatal victims had some other medical condition; cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and respiratory problems seem to be the most problematic.
If the vulnerable were quarantined, that would leave somewhere around 97-99% of the economy to continue. In most of the examples I have seen, once one receives the virus they become immune and do not pick it up again (though one person of the 300,000+ contracted it again.)
If those who fit into the age category, have prior medical issues that could make them vulnerable (such as cancer survivors, those with the aforementioned conditions, otherwise weakened immune systems, etc.) stay in isolation, treatments and vaccines could be developed.
While some out in the world risking it would certainly contract it despite their good health and it could be detrimental or even fatal, the same could be true of other diseases that pass through our society with less scrutiny.
Sweden has put such a plan into action.
This Event Will Destroy The Travel Industry, Jobs, and the Economy
Travel has been and will continue to be hit the hardest by these restrictions set in place to protect the world from the spread of COVID-19. Should this pass in a few weeks, many flight attendants believe it will be six months before things are back to normal.
I think those estimates are far, far too optimistic. Countries are encountering and meeting this challenge at different periods in time with varied approaches. Spain and Germany are quickly climbing the ranks (as is the US) of the most confirmed cases.
But if the curve was flattened in the US tomorrow, as a result of these extraordinary measures, flights to China would not likely resume though China appears to be mostly “out of the woods.” Just this weekend, Copa Airlines in Panama shut down for the foreseeable future. Panama will not likely be back open for travel for several months even if the US was open tomorrow.
Some hotels, airlines, and cruise companies will not survive the coronavirus even if the governments of their respective countries offer bailouts to save them. Tourism will be down for a very long time as careful travelers postpone trips that they are either nervous to take or can no longer afford.
I called the end to the longest bull run in history six days early. The US (and I’d argue, the world) is in a recession and depending on the duration of virtual economic shutdown, we may enter an economic depression. US carriers have an estimated 500,000 employees. It’s unlikely that in either a recession or a depression that those employees would come back to their posts because they simply wouldn’t be needed for a significant amount of time.
While looking into some outcomes I considered adding periphery deaths that will occur from the quarantine, not from infection but from homelessness, hunger, potential famine and I would have argued that entering a depression would shorten overall life expectancy for everyone. That argument, however, would have been contrary to evidence regarding life expectancy from economic depression periods where life expectancy actually increases (when excluding suicide.)
“The finding is strong and counterintuitive,” said Tapia Granados, the lead author of the study and a researcher at the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR). “Most people assume that periods of high unemployment are harmful to health.”
If It’s Not Over in Three Weeks, It Will Go For At Least Three Months
We are currently seeing some great unity on both sides of the political aisle. Both sides came together to put packages in place to rescue American workers and businesses. New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo, has had nice things to say about President Trump and the inverse is true – which should be a shocker to both conservatives and liberals.
Everyone is working together… for now.
However, John Hopkins COVID-19 tracker has shown that US efforts to flatten the curve have been largely ineffective. Some of this is due to the lack of tests available; there is no way for more tests to be made available and yet reduce the daily reported cases.
The folks that think this is a two-week quarantine/self-isolation event are kidding themselves. At the current rate, more than 100,000 confirmed cases will be reported in the US surpassing China and every other nation in the world – by next Sunday. Until the cases become so scarce that just a few are reported daily, it is unlikely that governors and the federal government will lift their Shelter-In-Place orders. If the rate was cut from doubling every 2.5 days to every 7 days, a dramatic increase in effectiveness, two weeks from now there would be only a quarter of a million Americans infected.
The longer people go without income, with job insecurity, forced to stay at home with restricted movement, the more restless they will become. The chief of the Army National Guard has stated that tens of thousands will likely be called up to domestic duty. They may be building hospitals and protecting businesses from ne’er-do-wells but a restless populace armed to the teeth may misinterpret Army fatigues and humvees on the streets months down the road. At the state level, the National Guard can enforce civilian laws and run patrols. Supply shortages and an endless epidemic with a 1% mortality rate focused on elderly patients that are already sick, will test the patience of out of work parents wondering where their next meal will come from.
In Every Single Model, Letting It Run Its Course Is Shorter, Less Impactful on Life, Economy – For Those Who Survive
There was a great piece from the Washington Post that demonstrated why extreme social distancing is the best way to lower the load factor in hospitals and keep the most people healthy. But in every single example, including those demonstrating the importance of flattening the curve, the time spent dealing with the disease and the disruption created has always been the shortest when simply letting it run its course.
Due to the low mortality rate of the disease, the more that are infected, the faster immune systems adjust and the duration is cut. Sweden’s model makes the best of these two concepts by protecting the vulnerable without shutting down the entire economy. They will also likely have a shorter run rate with the disease as a result.
Not a single model that I’ve seen shows the correlation between the maximum effect of the disease on both people and the economy.
More Die From The Flu Every Single Year Without Shutting The World Down
The WHO states that every year Influenza takes the lives of 290-650,000 victims. Every year. Global deaths from the virus today are 14,000 and while that will certainly increase, today it’s just 2-4% of the flu. Consider as well that Influenza has a vaccine issued every year, the flu shot, and while it does not treat all variants, it is usually focused on the most prevalent. These numbers and strain on healthcare systems are without a vaccine in place.
We should all wash our hands all the time anyway. We should all be careful when we are ill around those most vulnerable in our society. But should we shut the entire world down for what amounts to a rounding error on the annual flu fatalities?
Conclusion
Americans have often found a way to succeed when facing extraordinary challenges. I have confidence that this, too, shall pass and the entire world can get back on their collective feet again, perhaps in a more connected effort than ever before. Not all of the commentary listed above is popular, but that doesn’t make them entirely invalid statements.
What do you think? Are there any of the above statements you agree with? Do you have thoughtful arguments against them?
“Miles, Points, and Status Don’t Matter to Me Much Right Now” but lemme guess.. people clicking on your blog to generate traffic and clicks on those sweet sweet affiliate links do. You’re a hack. Please do everyone a favor and leave BoardingArea.
Find an affiliate link anywhere on this post and I will pay you 200% of the commission.
Kyle,
Rather hard to tell when you use so many bit.ly obfuscated links. How about more link transparency so readers know they aren’t being routed through an affiliate rabbit hole?
Not saying you get a click-per on bit.ly, but to use them that much, it sure walks, quacks and looks like an affiliate link duck from this reader’s perspective.
I can appreciate that, we include a disclaimer for any affiliate links. Bit.ly makes it easy to both shorten, track results, and gauge what our readers are really interested in over a long period of time.
@ Kyle — I think you are being overly-pessimistic. China stopped COVID-19 in its tracks (in China, anyway). The rest of the world can’t be THAT different. I agree with much of what you are saying, like this will last many months not weeks, but things WILL bounce back eventually, hopefully under the leadership of a new President.
“However, John Hopkins COVID-19 tracker has shown that US efforts to flatten the curve have been largely ineffective. ”
No, they haven’t. We have no idea yet because we had no data on the baseline. We just weren’t testing, now we are (though still not close to enough), we knew there’d be rapid increase in confirmed cases but not because of an actual rapid increase in cases.
“If It’s Not Over in Three Weeks, It Will Go For At Least Three Months”
There is no scenario in which this is over in three weeks.
“The WHO states that every year Influenza takes the lives of 290-650,000 victims. Every year. ”
In a bad year in the U.S. fly takes 65k lives. COVD-19 is estimated to take 250k – 1.5mm lives. Even if it is “only” 250,000 lives that’s still 4x a bad flu season IN ADDITION TO the deaths from a bad flue season.
And losing 1.5mm lives would be a big and long-term hit to GDP also by the way.
To the US flattening the curve, I also included this link (https://bit.ly/2J3vOkn) which demonstrates pretty clearly that South Korea and China have done just that, the US has not. I also agree and state that the US cases will continue to climb with the further availability of tests.
We agree that there is no scenario where this is over in three weeks, but people (I’ve spoken with some) and almost all government shelter-in-place orders are scheduled to last just two weeks. That’s not helpful for businesses and consumers to plan their lives and doesn’t set realistic expectations.
I’m struggling to come to grips with both your assertion that we don’t have enough data to make any conclusions and also that COVID-19 will take 250k-1.5MM lives. That’s an infection rate of 1,000x where it is today on the low side or 6,000x. That would be a growth rate that suggests that nothing we have done or will do has any positive effect whatsoever. Or it could mean that 1 in 5 Americans are already infected and 1% will still die which is also something I struggle to support with data. Either the data is there or it’s not. Your conflicting comments draw from both camps.
Absolutely ignorant and irresponsible piece of garbage by someone who has no scientific knowledge to interpret data. “Let it run its course”? Are you out of your ignorant mind? Stay the [redacted by admin] home.
i agree. someone with zero medical knowledge saying something like this is just the most mind boggling stupid thing i’ve ever read.
“low mortality rate of the disease” – 3.6% is NOT LOW. [redacted by admin]. The death rate from the flu is LESS THAN 1%.
Gary Leff said it the best in rebuttal to all these garbage BS talking points.
This notion that only a scientist can comment on scientific matters is ignorant and dismissive. It allows people to ignore any relevant documentation (this article has something like a dozen citations) because the last vestige is that the writer can be dismissed purely on the basis that they are not in the field.
If that’s correct then throw away your newspapers because none of those writers are scientists, none of the political correspondents and few of the talking heads on CNN, FOX, and MSNBC have ever run for office. Those writers cite relevant sources to support their point (as I have done) but are not themselves scientists so they couldn’t possibly know what they are talking about. ESPN too; some of those broadcasters never went pro, some didn’t even play in college. Does that mean they can’t tell whether or not Kobe’s shot (RIP) was off for the night or that he was favoring his left ankle?
It’s an absurd premise. I welcome you to disagree with the concepts on their merit but I will continue to write about travel matters (as much of this is) without ever having been an FA, run an airline, or endured clinicals.
[redacted by admin]. I cannot believe this.
Saying this out loud is going to get me roasted, but you raise a good point with the length of the quarantines. Anyone who says this is “a few weeks” kind of thing is wishcasting at best. As you say, no governor or county executive is going to lift restrictions as long as the number of cases is going up, even if the peripheral statistics (mortality rates, number of successful recoveries, etc.) suggests a move in the right direction. Andrew Cuomo let the cat out of the bag Friday and basically admitted NY should expect a 2-4 month lockdown. That’s what we’re realistically looking at. Meanwhile you have petty little tyrants like the one who runs Dallas County sending sheriff’s deputies out to the jogging trails to fine anyone not maintaining at least 6 feet distance from the person in front. You tell me if the American public will tolerate tactics like that for 2-4 months. Just wait until a month from now where a video goes viral of a cop or guardsman pointing a gun at a group of teenagers in the park ordering them to go home.
This isn’t going to be popular, but at some point soon, probably in the next 2-3 weeks, we’re going to have to make some tough choices, barring some unexpected breakthrough. Either extend the lockdowns indefinitely, and accept the trade-off of 20-25 million Americans on long-term unemployment and the social and mental ills that come with the widespread poverty that results. Or switch to the Sweden model and take the risk it doesn’t work over a much larger population and area. Neither one is an appetizing choice.
No, roasting here; I think that what you’re saying is correct. I think it’s great that so many people are pulling together right now to try to enact these social distancing measures. But I also think that the tenor of the conversation will change as this all drags on. People are only starting to feel the pain of this (some much more than others). Once that pain becomes more widespread people will begin weighing the consequences of various approaches differently, I think. Just because I’m in a position to carry on like this for a couple of months does not mean that I think most people will have as easy a time with this.
My father is immunocompromised. You could have COVID-19 and be asymptomatic, and can be jeopardizing the health and lives of so many like my father. Just stop, please.
The point of quarantining the immunocompromised is to save the lives of people like your father. Why is that wrong?
He still has appointments at clinics and hospitals that are continuing to become more and more populated with those contracting COVID-19.
These patients may have contracted COVID-19 from asymptomatic carriers of the virus, and can be infecting those who are extremely susceptible. Just because you feel fine and healthy does not mean you are a hazard without definitive COVID-19 testing.
This is why we as a society need to stop all non-essential travels! It’s shameful and honestly selfish to continue otherwise.
*does not mean you are *not* a hazard
That’s fair, but wouldn’t it make more sense for those doctors to make house calls to the few than to shut down entirely?
The problem is that there’s no unified law or even policy. I live in Tennessee and the governor is choosing to do the absolute minimum at every step, kind of the ostrich approach of using hope as a policy. The obvious flaw is that this method is purely reactionary rather than anticipating problems beforehand. We need a nationwide lockdown for a month outside of critical needs. Instead we get dithering from most states and the White House. Politics aside, the current hodgepodge won’t take care of the problem on any level.
If we were really talking about 30 days, that’s one thing. The reality is hospital groups and public health officials, at least here in Dallas, are demanding 3 months. The fact that many governors are privately saying not to expect schools to reopen this academic year tells you that’s exactly where this is headed. And I don’t think anyone comprehends the fallout that will bring.
That’s really my point. Time for the decision makers to come clean and let’s have an honest reckoning about what to do.
From what I hear from friends in Texas, they think the state is immune because it hasn’t hit yet in force and it’s warm there. I think that’s foolish and it’s on a delay. Maybe Texas could avoid being the next New York if they adhere to the same policies as elsewhere, but it seems we will have this longer than any other country because we can’t get everyone on the same page at the same time. That will extend the economic pain and the life of the virus in the US for longer than necessary.
Annnd Kyle is back to being a selfish idiot.
He took a break from that? When?
In my prior post, of course: https://bitly.com/39hoLQ5
@ Matthew — Have you considered removing your face from your blog’s graphic? I always have to read half an article by Kyle before realizing that you are not the author. I often think you have lost your mind, then I realize that Kyle has just taken it over. Or maybe you have multiple-personality disorder and Kyle isn’t a real person? 🙂
+1
CCP stopped their bioweapon from spreading within China any further? They’d never lie about their infection numbers?
And I have a bridge to sell you..
Stop having paid CCP supporters from infiltrating this site by spreading their propaganda
Please, enough with the flu comparisons already…CV19 is ~2x as infectious as the flu (R0 value between 2-3, vs. 1.3 for the flu), and the death rate among those who get it is 10x at a minimum, and 20x-30x in some places (Italy of course a lot higher).
Ok, we could agree this is probably once in a hundred-year illness. But is it severe enough that we take down every economy in the world for the next decade? Ebola, MERS both had death rates above 30% across the board, if those were worldwide you’d lose 2bn+ people. This is 1%ish.
Those were regionally contained…this is global. Higher R0 value. More deaths than both of those already and it’s only going to get worse. “Taking down every economy for the next decade” is a bit extreme too.
Most forecasters are predicting somewhere between 1 million and 2.5 million new jobless claims just last WEEK. You do the math if we end up with a 90-day shutdown of non-essential businesses nationwide, which is what the public health officials in Dallas are demanding. And no, not all of those jobs, many of which are held in small businesses which will simply disappear after being forced to shut down for 3 months, will just magically come back after the virus abates, especially if we have to continue with this aggressive social distancing on-and-off for the next 18 months as suggested by that UK study everyone keeps pointing to.
The point is, there is going to be an enormous cost in terms of both mental and public health from that level of long-term unemployment and poverty that nobody gives a s*** about but is going to cause real pain to a lot of people for a long time. If it’s necessary, it is what it is, but it’s time to be honest about the consequences if that’s the road you want to go down.
The piper has to be paid.
This is 1% – BUT only if we have enough ICU units to save people with severe complications. And in case it spreads, our health system will be very soon overloaded and unable to save even people who would survive under other circumstances.
In general, 15% of known Covid patients need to be hospitalized and 5% have severe complications. If we completely overload the health care system, most of these 5% will die. 4% death rate is a realistic guess – suddenly, it doesnt look as good, does it?
For those of you on FlightAware or the like, type in two airports KVCV (Victorville) and KROW (Roswell) and look at the list of airliners of all sizes, types and airlines heading to storage or ultimately scrap today. It is a sobering list and really brings this home.
Balanced and thought provoking. No symptoms of TDS. Far better writing than I have read elsewhere. Well done.
Kyle, i have said it before. These Republican idiots care about freedom of expression only if you parrot their talking points.
I didn’t read the article but if you are pissing people off you are doing something right. The snowflakes of the right that can’t stand being PC, hate people voicing their opinions. They get more pissed off by an anynmous post than crap coming from trump’s twitter.
So keep doing what you are doing. The more people are pissed the more influence you have.
For young people not taking this very seriously, just pointing out that the Bloomberg article stating “99% of fatal victims had some other medical condition” only looked at 18% of fatalities.
As a physician who has worked in medical and cardiac ICUs, one thing younger people having going for them is reserve. What that means is mortality (death) data can take longer to be reported as these patients can be on ventilators for weeks to months before they die; older patients or those with comorbidities (other pre-existing illnesses) may die faster or perhaps family members may choose to stop treatment earlier . From the literature and case reports out of China, Italy, and Washington, doctors are also seeing clinical symptoms of sudden failure of the heart (myocarditis, cardiogenic shock) which they suspect is a result of virus infecting the heart muscle, not so much a problem with the lungs. There is no treatment for this except support [which I might mention is extremely resource intensive requiring 2:1 nursing and hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment (google VA ECMO, impella) per patient; not to mention that most hospitals don’t have this capability nor the resources].
Interestingly, the next bloomberg article on that page was titled “Yes, Young People Are Falling Seriously Ill From Covid-19: In the U.S., 705 of first 2,500 cases range in age from 20 to 44.” bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-19/coronavirus-in-young-people-is-it-dangerous-data-show-it-can-be
Just providing perspective where I can
So tell me what you can not say? Everything you posted is all public knowledge. Can you answer that ?
God I hate all this rehashing for the sake of a “post” and clicks.
Anyone flying these days is stupid and plain irresponsible, similar to the kids on spring break. This is serious and we all as citizens of this planet need to pay attention, not expanding self serving blogs.
Just my opinion and not met to offend anyone as we all have the right to voice our opinions without being stifled
Spring breakers were wholeheartedly condemned in my estimation for their foolish actions and the businesses should be penalized as well. I am not sure where we differ on this point?
[redacted by admin] has officially hit the fan.
Rand paul tests positive. He was one person that was calling this a media hoax. The other was of course trump.
As a practicing christian one must ask did god punish rand paul?
It might take Rand Paul dying to make people realize how serious this is. Early on when this started, I was one of those that said this was just like the flu and people were over reacting. But when you actually read the science and see the fear from scientists that know what they are talking about you know this is the real deal. Also, the virus can mutate so even though it might not seem serious to some, it could get worse.
The truth is we don’t have any idea how bad this can get and how many people will die. The worst thing is the fear of the unknown and unprecedented that this is happening to the entire world at the same time.
Absolutely I don’t downplay the economic devastation and probably depression that this will cause. It’s going to be ugly.
You indicate bloggers shouldn’t say certain things, and then say them. The veneer of respectability and a presumed journalistic responsibility to share potentially dangerous opinions is an insufficient justification for singularly irresponsible post. In particular, giving voice to the “Quarantine the Vulnerable 1%, Not the 99%” section of the post and the widely discounted analogy to the flu is reprehensible, In the Emergency Departments of this country and others, we are either preparing for or dealing with a pandemic of significant and deadly proportions. For some of us, this is not an abstract conceptual exercise and a source of blog fodder click bait. People are dying, Sir. Retract the post. Stay in your lane. Make amends.
Sweden has rolled out the model I linked to suggest that at least one government gives credence to the philosophy. If I am a suspected epileptic should all the clubs close and all strobe lights be eliminated, or is it my duty to avoid those places? It’s an unpopular position, but in three months’ time, so will the mass forced quarantine of billions of people. And the comparison to the flu is to demonstrate that as a global society we are totally comfortable with 290-650k people dying every year who are most susceptible and that’s with known treatment and a vaccine in place. If we lost 650,000 people to this (tragically) who were also susceptible it would, of course, be devastating but suggesting that it would be an extraordinary event is not historically accurate.
To your first point, and I hope you can appreciate this, I find value in viewing all perspectives. My colleagues haven’t expressed these viewpoints but in my opening caveat, some may have credence. If you disagree, that’s fair enough and I am happy to engage in the discourse but to ignore alternative ideas will sink us all.
I agree that ignoring what you call “alternative ideas”, Kyle, is problematic. I accept that most of the people responding to this post is bunk. (And, honestly, I question most of it myself.) However, I think that those of us inclined to denounce it and its author would be better served to realize that these ideas – however wrong or right they may be – are out there … and they’re not going away unless the conversation is had and comes full circle.
If you consider me one of your colleagues, Kyle, then I beg to differ, as I have expressed similar viewpoints in a number of articles which I have written — this being one of them…
https://thegate.boardingarea.com/have-we-become-a-society-of-wimps-addicted-to-drama/
…because I, too, find value in viewing all perspectives and not just adhering to blindly following the crowd.
I missed this piece! Great work!
I’ve made an effort to remain civil in expressing my opinion about your post, and will consider that the flow of information you’ve accessed, and base your opinions on, is different than mine. I would, however, suggest that authoritative resources on the matter, from the CDC and WHO, are accessible to a lay person, and may provide context for my observations. You post about your family, so I think it’s appropriate to consider this investment in time an investment in their continued health and safety.
I appreciate your civility and return it in kind. Both the CDC and WHO are cited in the piece as is John Hopkins, a tracker I check hourly at this point. Just trying to present some things that may make sense out there that differ from the rest of our news feeds.
You moron. People don’t say these things because they’re absolutely wrong and irresponsible. Not because they make you “unpopular”.
Sure, let the disease run its course through society. Then let’s see who’s crying when you’re traveling and get in a bad accident, or need emergency medical care, and it’s not available to you.
What about just having the vulnerable Shelter-In-Place instead of the entire country? Wouldn’t that solve both problems?
My christian friends i think the rapture is upon us. Only those of pure heart and no sin will rise to the heaven to party with the father. But before that humanity will be beset with pestilence and disease rising from the east and those sinful will be struck from the face of the earth to fall to hell.
I am sinful because I had dirty thoughts about your wives. There is no hope for me but you can save yourself. Give away everything you have to charity, everything. Then only with white robes go out in the forest and live there, only coming out to beg for food from your neighbors. And on a day of his choosing god’s messenger will come down to take you to heaven.
Go on my christian friends. Save yourself before it’s too late. Remember give everything away. You can take some camping gear with you. Bible allows that.
Praise the lord. Amen!
I agree with “Paul” now we should all be overly cautious in making public statements including the “press” sadly gone are the days of real fact checking and just plain common sense. Do I say muzzle the press or even heavens forbid bloggers? No, what I am saying that some decorum in what some you bloggers are putting out there. We are not talking about Sweden nor another country right now we are talking about American and what is best to beat this damn virus. I own a construction company working in four states now and a lot of employees NO ONE has been allowed to travel for several weeks now and faced with some difficult decisions Monday.
I too call for you to take down this post and let’s all hope and pray for all Americans
I won’t remove the post but I feel especially for the small business owners that will have to make hard decisions and may go down as a result. According to the SBA, small businesses in the US employ nearly half the working public (47%) but comprise almost the whole (99.9%). Those businesses are the most at risk and those business owners who may not be able to keep the doors open jeopardize half the population along with their own financial peril. https://bitly.com/2UcWfuh
But to stifle the press (and dissenting opinions) that’s the work of Hitler, Mussolini and according to this source, Trump: https://bitly.com/3bmKjw4
Disagree with me all day long on merit, but that’s exactly why these things need to be said, not why they should be removed.
You bring shame to the name Kyle. You pathetic, self-centered, self-righteous and uniformed nincompoop.
You’re just as bad as spring breakers. Except you have a platform, so maybe that makes you worse.
But we have the same name!
Irresponsible article by Kyle.
#1. You are exactly who is at higher risk than you think. We are finding out that relatively healthy men between 30 and 60 actually get ARDS and don’t make it with this illness not that rarely. It’s not the just old and the frail. While not common, it happens. Read about it. For some reason, this rarely happens in women or kids.
#2. That 1% of old and frail have to go to doctors’ offices and shop for food. It’s important that they don’t get infected during their trips out by those who are younger.
#3. It is not the flu. It is not the flu. It is not the flu. 10 times deadlier, twice as contagious makes for an outbreak more than 20 times worse than the flu with no Tamiflu available for post-exposure prophylaxis.
#4. In that 99% are nurses, nurses’ husbands, nurses’ kids’ nannies. COVID them and there is a high chance you will COVID the nurse, who can infect a lot of the frail and vulnerable.
Look at what’s happening in NYC or Milan. Do you think this is a joke? Do you think it’s hypothetical and can’t happen on American shores?
Do you wanna be complicit in overwhelming the system? Inchoate musings are not gonna help the situation.
Hey Arbi Kho –
1) Maybe so, but the evidence still doesn’t support this. I am not saying I am risk-free, to the contrary I think many will find they were more susceptible than they thought, but even to today, 99% of Italian fatalities have occurred in people with an average of three existing pre-existing conditions and the average age has not moved.
2) I totally agree. That’s why instead of immobilizing the rest of the public, they should be provided for with groceries, and doctor house calls. Certainly, that would have to be cheaper than $2 trillion, safer (because they could infect others too) and removes the drag on the hospitals.
3) Fair. As I said, I don’t agree with all of the ideas I published. However, the flu still kills more than this worldwide every year and that’s WITH a vaccine and we are all just fine with that and go about our lives. Those two approaches seem incongruous.
4) Fair as well and properly reasoned. Thank you, this adds to the conversation and, hopefully, to the thought process for others.
No, I do not want it to happen here, it is not hypothetical and no one is laughing. However, there is another side that didn’t make your response. If this goes on for three months, there’s no amount of checks you can send to individuals that will save us from an economic depression. People die in those too. For every small business (99.9% of all businesses in America) there is at least one, if not several employees (47% of the working public.) Most small businesses do not have enough savings (7% is the best average margin for a small US business from 1999-2012) to carry three months of costs with or without paying employees if they have no revenue.
So let’s look at what that looks like as well, here’s a game of dominoes:
1) A bakery owner can’t pay workers and keep the lights on through the shutdown, closes their business.
2) Employees fail to pay their car loans, rent, and mortgages. (Just 41% of Americans could access $1,000 in an emergency.) Luckily for them, the eviction process and car reposition timelines are long.
3) The strip mall that housed the bakery suffers rampant vacancy and the owner of the strip mall can’t make their mortgage payment; the bank forecloses.
4) Foreclosures and bankruptcies put some banks under, along with their employees and whoever insures their business as well. Also, the maintenance personnel, landscapers and snow plowers also no longer have work.
5) Former employees can’t find jobs because there are too many job seekers and not enough opportunities (which also drives down wages.)
6) That creates fewer customers as well which makes the climb back out hard if not impossible.
There is a radical solution I support that fixes some of this, but this is the other side of the coronavirus issue. Businesses have to make decisions all the time between the lesser of two evils, so do governments. You don’t recall all Teslas because a couple had defective batteries even if drivers die. There is a line of acceptable failure, a line of acceptable risk. We don’t have that line established right now. We do for the flu, it’s 290-650k in most years, this year, probably closer to 750k. But for COVID-19, every single death is a catastrophe but the economic calamity that will follow could be just as fatal if not worse but not just for the infected, for everyone.
This is a great article, I’m glad you wrote it. We need more people standing up to this.
We’re in the middle of a decade of group think – keyboard warriors now tell the world what to do.
It takes brave people to stand up to the crazy people out there.
I’m still traveling full time, flying back to the USA on Wednesday, and hoping on more planes on the weekend.
Not only do I have zero fear, I think everyone who demands ‘shelter in place’ should be locked up – for good 🙂
Get those idiots out of our society, and leave people with cognitive skills and the ability to think for themselves to operate the world. The last thing we need in a crisis are dumb people trying to enforce their will on others.
THANK YOU FOR STANDING UP TO THE GROUP THINK!!
You are not alone in your thoughts. Too bad society doesn’t like discourse anymore – the only thing accepted is to ‘go with the herd’….. sad times.
Keep traveling, and keep thinking independently. The world needs more of this, and less hysteria from those scared of their own shadow.
Reminds me of Ron Paul just in the past week – “coronavirus is a Hoax” (implied that it’s a Democratic hoax of course, haven’t seen that many people left of center proclaiming this).
Oh, his son Rand just got it? Whoops. Karma baby.
There are several big problems. A) You can’t just quarantine the at-risk group because, this disease, people can be asymptomatic and still pass it on. B) We have no vaccine. NO, it’s NOT like the flu. This is RNA based, not DNA based. It comes from animals-we won’t develop antibodies. It will take 12-18 months to develop a vaccine. C) What’s the point of an economy if everyone is dead anyway? If all people were practicing social distancing, we could have this under control. But they aren’t. So your viewpoint isn’t a viewpoint, it comes from biological ignorance. It’s the reasoning why people are not social distancing-I am not in a risk group, I won’t die, so it doesn’t matter. Sure it soes, you are drawing on valuable medical resources. What if you were charged with a felony, maybe not a really bad one, but one enough to keep you in jail before your case was resolved. But there were only a certain number of lawyers, and they are all busy with way more serious cases like murder and rape. So you might sit in jail a long time, and maybe you get attacked and stabbed to death in the jail. All because we had limited resources! That’s what quaranting the few would do.
Stephanie, I respect our differing perspectives, but in your point C, you’re suggesting that it has a 100% mortality rate and that’s not supported in fact.
I agree that we all should be practicing social distancing. I happen to think that the damage to the economy could be staggering. Assume that small businesses are unable to carry their hard costs for a three-month period, and so are most consumers (59% couldn’t cover a $1,000 emergency.) Every coffee shop, restaurant and dry cleaner that goes under and each of them employs 5-15 consumers that can’t weather this storm, those companies can file bankruptcy (if they are protected by an LLC) and the business owners may be ok, but their employees won’t. Then the strip malls that those businesses used to occupy are now empty, and that LLC can file bankruptcy, but the maintenance professionals and the bank holding the note are now in serious trouble. The banks are also in trouble when the consumers that were renting can’t afford to pay rent and that LLC goes into bankruptcy leaving those homeless and without a job to replace the one that’s gone. Then the banks that held the note on the commercial property are again holding the bag. Those consumers won’t be paying their car loans, which adds another layer to this problem, then the insurance companies who protect those vehicles, the gas that they put in the tank is no longer necessary or sold, which also takes that person out of the gas station where they buy chips, drinks, and other small items.
Now extrapolate that across the entire economy, coast-to-coast. Weigh that against the potential mortality rate of 1% and that’s the grim choice that commenter Meanmeosh might have alluded to.
Kyle, here is the problem with your argument. You are doing the math at a mortality rate of 1%. We don’t know the mortality rate of this, just like we aren’t entirely sure about who are at risk for this right now. Numbers I saw from NYC showed half the ill people were under 65-so they wouldn’t have been quarantined in your scenario. That is a guess-right now we have higher mortality rates than that. And your figure does not include people who don’t die, but are permanently crippled by respiratory problems the rest of their lives. Or people who are in the hospital for long periods of time. Or the more than 3-4% who will die because we don’t have adequate medical resources to support them with what they need. And the total infrastructure of the country falling apart when everyone is sick at once and no one can work. And yes, you are right-I made an exaggeration-not everyone will die from this. I have no pr0blem with people making alternative arguments-and I credit your economic analysis. However, I don’t think you have sufficient medical or biological backgound to be predicting how this RNA virus will respond. And I know you want to know credentials-no, I am not a scientist, but I majored in biology (60 credits) and took 24 credits of chemistry. I worked at the Smithsonian Institute on a scientific study my senior year, and at the Savannah River Ecological Laboratory my junior summer on a different scientific study. I’ve been following this for months, and been reading scientific and medical articles. Currently I am a lawyer, and have been since 2004. So I have to keep up with forensic science as well.
Stephanie, thank you for continuing to articulate your position.
You appear to have conflated the infected populace (under the age of 65) with its mortality rate (nearly exclusively the elderly with an average of three pre-existing medical conditions.) That’s a substantial difference. I might have it. But I have a 99% chance of surviving it – though to your point, I could spread it to someone who is unlikely to make it out unscathed.
The mortality rate has changed in Italy, it’s 9.4% (as of 3/23/20.) Yet in South Korea, they have been far more successful, even China was just 4%. And while that’s high, these might have been some of the same who would have succumbed to the flu which takes 290-650k every year despite a vaccine.
The best solution, in my opinion, is providing care to those who are most at risk where they are. Deliver their meals (drivers and cooks who have taken the test and do not have the virus), prescriptions and supplies to their homes, as well as doctor housecalls. Second, a total moratorium on everything from credit card payments to mortgages and car loans for 90 days with the extension of all of those terms and resumption of normal payment rates and rules once the period is over,
We must make it so that people have no reason to feel anxious about taking a sabbatical and remove all reasons to resist it. We can’t live in both worlds and not expect to have both consequences.
You pretty much made a fool of yourself, Kyle, But to make it worse you continue to spew your ideas that, at this point, even if you had any credible things to say, have lost all credibility.
There is a reason we used to make kids stand in the corner. It helped them to think about what they did and keep quiet. You are thinking about it, clearly, but you just can’t keep quiet in the process. Go be with your family on Sunday rather than continue to anger everyone with your attempts at redemption.
Seriously, dude, just shut up and take a break.
+1 what a conclusion-worthy comment.
Did you have a particular point you took issue with? All of them? Any counterpoints to make?
OMG, trump administration will reopen Obamacare enrollment. It’s like republicans have stopped even pretending they are Republicans.
Trump must be shit scared out of his senses. Taking wager trump cuts and quits before the elections.
I thought you were chastened by the response to your foolhardy jaunt through Asia. Evidently not, as you now seem to double-down on some of this stuff.
It’s this kind of “ I’m alright, Jack” thinking that leads to the outrageous scenes in Miami and at Bondi Beach in Sydney, as seen on the news.
I always appreciate your comments Paolo, but I disagree with this. I think I condemned that bevaior going as far as to say that the business owners who operated to the spring break crowd should be exempt from any government help that might be available. We both know it will be impossible to enforce any penalty on spring breakers operating within the laws at the time, however irresponsible it may have been.
I think it’s important, no vital, to make sure the things that the rest of the community feels afraid to say are in fact said. I cited my sources, I made logical arguments even if you (and some, even I) disagree with.
It’s not that you can’t say these things. It’s that you shouldn’t, and that you should know better to think that your voice, as a travel blogger, was necessary or qualified – unless if you’re a closet epidemiologist.
The word absolutely needs many viewpoints. But now more than ever, it should be from scientists, epidemiologists, researchers, and public health professionals.
As stated above on the same ridiculous concept:
This notion that only a scientist can comment on scientific matters is ignorant and dismissive. It allows people to ignore any relevant documentation (this article has something like a dozen citations) because the last vestige is that the writer can be dismissed purely on the basis that they are not in the field.
If that’s correct then throw away your newspapers because none of those writers are scientists, none of the political correspondents and few of the talking heads on CNN, FOX, and MSNBC have ever run for office. Those writers cite relevant sources to support their point (as I have done) but are not themselves scientists so they couldn’t possibly know what they are talking about. ESPN too; some of those broadcasters never went pro, some didn’t even play in college. Does that mean they can’t tell whether or not Kobe’s shot (RIP) was off for the night or that he was favoring his left ankle?
It’s an absurd premise. I welcome you to disagree with the concepts on their merit but I will continue to write about travel matters (as much of this is) without ever having been an FA, run an airline, or endured clinicals.
There is no comparison between what you wrote and newspapers, who relay data and quotes or recommendations from relevant public health experts. Nor is there any comparison between political talking heads (who are almost universally terrible) and what you wrote. This is a life and death matter. The former is not.
Sure, you included citations. But grounding misplaced analysis in fact does not make the analysis any less misplaced.
Travel bloggers can offer a lot. There is plenty that you can and should weigh in on. But thinking that the world needed the viewpoint of a travel blogger on a global pandemic that could kill 1 million or more is just ego.
You do know that some of your readers will probably lose loved ones to this disease, right?
I hope and pray that’s not the case.
And Kyle, you say Sweden is following your approach. However, the fact is that no other country is, and they are being advised by doctors, public health officials, researchers, scientists, and epidemiologists. So the math is 1 country your way, and every other country with their leaders after getting advised by the scientific community, the military, economic advisors, etc. have all decided to do social distancing. What does that say to you? If our President had treated this seriously from the get go, we would not be in this position. If people would understand how contagious this is, and not adopt this “it won’t happen to me”, we could stop this. And I have a question for you-what are your qualifications to make this call?
I predict that Sweden will reverse course in a few days.
They may do that.
nicely written
WADR, Kyle, I’ve read your post and I’ve read your responses. It’s still not clear to me the specific subject expertise you’re providing, in your mind. Medical? Consulting? Business? Macroeconomics? Statistics? You seem to have a smattering of each as though we’re chatting at a cocktail party. I’m serious. What is your “expert perspective” qualification in your post/comments?
I have four business degrees including an MBA. This is a macroeconomic issue after it’s a healthcare matter and maybe both at the same time.
But to the expertise question, I have included this response from a previous comment:
This notion that only a scientist can comment on scientific matters is ignorant and dismissive. It allows people to ignore any relevant documentation (this article has something like a dozen citations) because the last vestige is that the writer can be dismissed purely on the basis that they are not in the field.
If that’s correct then throw away your newspapers because none of those writers are scientists, none of the political correspondents and few of the talking heads on CNN, FOX, and MSNBC have ever run for office. Those writers cite relevant sources to support their point (as I have done) but are not themselves scientists so they couldn’t possibly know what they are talking about. ESPN too; some of those broadcasters never went pro, some didn’t even play in college. Does that mean they can’t tell whether or not Kobe’s shot (RIP) was off for the night or that he was favoring his left ankle?
It’s an absurd premise. I welcome you to disagree with the concepts on their merit but I will continue to write about travel matters (as much of this is) without ever having been an FA, run an airline, or endured clinicals.
Of the 646 confirmed cases of COVID in MA, 357 of them are people under the age of 50-that is over 50%.! Full story-https://bit.ly/2UrSjoG Those are real statistics for you. In MA, a 7 month old baby was diagnosed with corona, and had to go to the ICU. What if that was your child? Would you be saying thin the herd then? I am a bar advocate in MA-it’s like an independent contractor of a public defender, so I am in the forefront of COVID. I don’t get to work from home all the time like you-I have to go to court and represent people, I have to go to jails and meet with people-my clients are non-contact visits), but I meet with the jail guards, and those are not non-contact, and I can’t remain socially distant at all times (like when they search me.) The jails aren’t sanitized really well, and they make us bring our own sanitizer (if we can find some) and disinfectant wipes (again, if we can find any to purchase.) The jail does not provide those. My perspective is a little different from yours as I don’t have a choice in this matter. It’s easy to say thin the herd when you aren’t out there getting exposed-I wonder if things were different, if you would say the same things. If you were a hospital worker forced to work with no masks, would you say that? What if it was your wife working as a nurse? As someone working as a travel writer, and someone working booking awards and travel for someone, I don’t think you are in the forefront of exposure. I think that would change your perspective a great deal.
You’re conflating confirmed infections with fatalities. They are, of course, very different and thankfully, to this moment (3/23/20 – 22:55) the youngest fatality is 15 years old and is extremely rare.
You could be right that I may change my own opinion on some of these matters but I don’t necessarily agree with all of them, I just didn’t find them represented elsewhere.
This china CCP virus had caused a virtual halt in economic activity and resulting pollution. Everyday (month?) in china 40,000 people that would have otherwise died were saved because of lower pollution. The total number deaths in china due to this virus was only 2500?
The math is clear, spread the virus far and wide. This virus is actually saving lives.
This would be a far easier situation to mitigate and I outline a response in another comment reply.
This comes off more as someone whining about ‘Why can’t I keep flying in premium cabins and staying in nice hotel suites?” to keep their rich-kids-of-instagram-lite lifestyle or whatever…it seems you didn’t learn anything from your previous post about flying into coronavirus zones for shits and giggles…er, I mean, to re-qualify for status, and are trying to convince most people you were right to do so, which, judging by comments, most on here disagree with you.
Keep doubling down and hopefully you don’t get anyone killed with your selfishness.
Lol. No. I just believe in the importance of other perspectives being represented. For example, I stated that not a single government entity has suggested that a quarantine of SIP order will stay longer than two weeks – this is patently false and leads to irrational conclusions.
Other perspectives…if that’s what you want to call it, sure. Keep tripling and doubling down, as I said, hopefully your (and Brian Cohen’s) irresponsibility and selfishness doesn’t get too many people killed.
…and you believe that the path on which we are on as a society — shooting an ant with a cannon, throwing the baby out with the bath water, or burning down the house to kill the termites — is appropriate, Aaron? Do you honestly believe that there will be no casualties — including deaths — as long as we continue on what you believe is the right direction?
I humbly suggest that you are being irresponsible and selfish and that you are at least equally as “guilty” in “tripling and doubling down.” At least Kyle and I are looking at this problem from different perspectives and trying to promote thoughtful and constructive discussion — something which I have not seen you do as of yet with your comments…
…or perhaps you would simply like to quell freedom of speech as long as it is against whatever you value…?!?
Not quelling freedom of speech, but do reserve the right to call out stupidity when I see it, whether it’s form Kyle or from you. That’s also what free speech is all about.
You’re not trying to promote thoughtful and constructive discussion, you are trying to justify you’r lifestyle of wanting to be able to travel in premium classes even though common sense dictates that is probably not the best thing to do right now. Unlike you, I am neither selfish and irresponsible, and don’t plan on getting anyone killed.
I honestly believe there will less casualties if we use common sense and yes, that means some hardships on the road ahead to get things under control.
But why listen to experts and scientists when we have you and Kyle to show us the way and let us know how wrong we are?
Trying to justify my lifestyle or wanting to be able to fly in premium class, Aaron?
Tell you want. You find one single reference where I’ve mentioned either of those in this argument and I will continue this discussion with you.
Otherwise, stop making ridiculous assumptions.
I’m not the one trying to justify the lifestyle, that’s what you and Kyle are doing. My assumptions are not ridiculous. I’m sorry if the truth hurts, but please for the love of all that is good, stop being selfish and irresponsible,
@Aaron – The sections included are as follows:
• Airplanes less crowded than grocery store
• Mile, points, and status don’t matter to me right now
• Spring breakers were reckless and the business owners that supported them shouldn’t receive government support
• Quarantine the 1% vulnerable as Sweden has proposed
• This event will destroy jobs, the economy
• If it’s not over in three weeks, it will take three months
• Running its course is shorter
• More die from the flu despite a vaccine, every single year
What is untruthful? What is justifying the first-class lifestyle in this post, what is irresponsible?
Everything is sourced, the positions have merit even if you don’t like them and you’ve not proven any of them to be false or even stated why you disagree with them. You also ignore literal statements such as this, “I am not flying anymore and admitted that it was foolish and regrettable. ” yet you claim this post justifies a premium cabin lifestyle.
You’ve got two Boarding Area bloggers ready to discuss the issue on merit, but you’ve yet to present it.
The floor is yours…
Considering how just about everyone else here has blown away most of your arguments, I could just copy and paste what they all say or just point people to read the rest of the comments. Much easier that way. But you were the one who posted about flying into a coronavirus zone for shits and giggles, got blowback for it, posted a semi-apology-wait-not-really-an-apology, as a response to that, got blowback for that too, and now this…
No need to take the floor, you’ve been creamed enough and your POV has been torn apart enough on here as it is.
As of this moment, per the CDC website… Total U.S. cases: 44,183, Total U.S. deaths: 544 = 1.2% mortality rate. That is NOT worth blowing up the whole nation’s economy and eliminating our civil liberties.
Car crashes, cigarette smoking, TB, even yes – the flu… dozens and dozens of things with much higher death rates yet we do not shut down the country for them… we barely attempt to curtail them. This virus is scary – but this nationwide response was completely overblown.
Quarantine only 1% is not helpful because those 1% depend on others.
Letting it run its course results in the most deaths compared to mitigation strategies (current strategy) and the strategy of complete quarantine of society.
Using the flu mortality numbers as a comparison is just plain stupid. This measurement is over the span of a YEAR. Without mitigation, the estimate (by people a lot smarter than either you or me) is that 160 – 214 MILLION people could be infected by covid-19 in the US over that same time period. Using your 1% mortality rate, that would mean around 1.6 – 2.1 MILLION deaths in the US. Does this change anything for you? Probably not, eh?
It’s hard to say. Take the Italy numbers for example. Today they have a 9.4% mortality rate, but in a country of 60 million people (6,000 deaths) how many are being tested or have already had it with little to no effect. Even if the number jumps to 60,000 deaths in Italy, if the entire population has it but simply hasn’t been tested because they don’t have enough tests, symptoms or aren’t in the at-risk population, then your mortality rate drops to 0.1% which is on par with the flu. We don’t know yet because we are only testing those most likely to have it.
Ridiculous piece of writing. Utterly irresponsible even.
Kyle has obviously has not bothered to look at facts, but like many people only think of how this affects him.
In the United States, the percentage of people who have a chronic disease or above age 60 constitutes 60 percent of the population. So you wish to condemn over half of Americans into forced confinement. I’m sure you think that is an exaggeration, but it is not. Many young people are unhealthy having cancer, asthma, diabetes, and a host of other medical issues. To give you an example, diabetes alone is 10 percent of the population. More than 17 percent of the US is over age 60. These are facts and yes there might be some overlap, but certainly the population negatively impacted by the virus is far higher than Kyle realizes.
He is tired of being unheard as a blogger, and I am tired of the arrogant, purposefully destructive, and selfish attitude he exhibits.
I certainly don’t want to condemn the entire population over into forced confinement, but isn’t that exactly what’s happening right now? That’s the entire “Shelter-In-Place” directive that has been mandated to most of the country. So we actually agree that those who are healthy and are not at risk, should not be confined. I actually don’t have a problem with full lockdown for the entire country for a few weeks to get this thing killed, but you’re suggesting that shouldn’t be the case which is confusing based on the rest of your comment.
Honestly, do yourself a favor and take this article down
Not going to happen. This is the whole point of the post. Some of these contrary ideas (I don’t necessarily agree with them all, and the ones I do, not entirely) just aren’t getting said because of a PC culture. Kudos to my colleague, Brian Cohen, for saying some of the same and presenting alternative notions.
Shutting down the economy for months is not an option and doing a half-assed lockdown is pointless. We are destroying our economy without gaining much of anything. What is the point of inducing mass unemployment and the concomitant human suffering to delay the inevitable by a couple weeks? If everyone except for absolutely essential workers stayed locked up at home for two weeks, the subsequent spread of the virus would likely be manageable with testing and tracking and if everyone wore masks. Too many people are ignorant and non-compliant, though. We’d be better off if the genes of the ignorant and non-compliant died out anyway. One positive outcome of all this might be that America will realize the error of its neo-liberal ways and see the strategic blunder of relying on a hegemonic competitor to sustain its supply chain.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/risa.13181
Here is the biggest problem in your scenario. You are delivering stuff to the quarantined-the 1%-as you say. I believe that number is higher because it isn’t just the elderly-you have to put in the immune compromised, the people with respiratory conditions, with cancer, etc. You need to protect those people safely. We don’t have adequate masks for the medical providers, and we don’t have adequate numbers of tests. We don’t have a vaccine to inoculate people so they would be immune so they could safely deliver stuff. Your scenario could possibly work if Trump enacted the DPA, got companies making masks, making tests, and speeding up vaccines. But he won’t do that because the big company CEOs asked him not to do that. Instead, he told the states to find their own so they are bidding against themselves. As far as restarting the economy, it won’t work now because many governors realize the risk and have closed non essential businesses. So a multi state company will have a hard time operating if it can be open in one state but not another.
What an utterly pointless and mal informed post.
I’m sorry to say but your opinion is not only wrong but dangerous.
The worst is still about to come in Europe as well as the US. It is of the most importance that we stay at home and practice social distancing. and maybe we’ll get out if this with a blue eye.
Only time will tell.
Which part in particular? All of it? Spring Breakers too? Do you agree with the sourced material or just don’t like it?
DEBIT u are still an IDIOT!!!!
Coming from a commercial real estate standpoint here, a large amount of people that I’ve spoken to, say what Kyle are saying how everything should go back to normal and people should be able continue to work and travel. And a curtain amount of people (healthy or not) do not want to step foot outside or even be around people even if they are 6 feet apart.
I understand how this is effecting everyone but I rather stay home and not have a hospital bill follow me around after I’m cured. Large industries will bounce back in a matter of time why are we more worried about them and not humans lives?