The great 2020 election thread....

[Darth Wedgius]

When did he say SARS-CoV-2 was a hoax? He underestimated how bad it was going to get, absolutely. So did several other politicians and news sources. In the end, the U.S. is doing pretty much in-line with other western nations in how the per capita cases.

Um... Nope. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

Compared to the UK, which has about 1/4th of the population, the US has about 7 times as many cases.

More per capita than the UK, but less than Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, or Ireland. I'd still say that's in line with other western nations.

[Darth Wedgius]

Indeed, if we had universal health care the situation here would be no worse than the UK's.

The NHS's central problem is that it is old - 1946 to be exact. It was designed for a fraction of the population that it caters for today and it was designed for a population that died a good thirty years younger. What once worked spectacularly well now huffs and puffs as it tries to keep up.

A health system designed for TODAY - which is what a USNHS would be - would not face many of the same institutional challenges.

I'm not throwing shade at the NHS. I'm just pointing out that universal health care would not necessarily have prevented this.

No but the disease might spread a little bit slower if Covid 19 tests were not restricted to the Pro Basketball, A-List Celebrity, and Horrible Goblin Senator class.

Covid 19 tests are not restricted to the pro basketball A-list celebrity, and horrible goblin senator class, are they?

In practice, yes they are, you willfully dense being capable of enlightenment. Hard-hit cities are begging people not to get tested. People who have all the symptoms struggle to get tested, but some congressmen or prominent actor can just get tested with a snap of their fingers after showing 0 symptoms. Unless you recently were on vacation somewhere with cases or have a family member who tested positive, it's as easy to get a test as a mink coat or gold-plated toilet.

Right now, the best and most effective way for a working Joe to find out if they have Corona Virus is to cough in a rich person's face and look up that bastard's test results in the news, you frustrating fellow sapient being who consistently falls short of the moral and intellectual standards I know you are capable of.

There are literally drive-through testing centers. What planet are you on? Can you still receive radio signals from earth?

Now there are. For a long time though a person without insurance could expect to pay $300 for a Covid test. How many people do you think went ''fuck it'' and continued to go to work, spreading it to everyone?

Fair point, but that's still less than 10% of the US citizenry. That's still a far cry from "restricted to the Pro Basketball, A-List Celebrity, and Horrible Goblin Senator class."

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Indeed, if we had universal health care the situation here would be no worse than the UK's.

The NHS's central problem is that it is old - 1946 to be exact. It was designed for a fraction of the population that it caters for today and it was designed for a population that died a good thirty years younger. What once worked spectacularly well now huffs and puffs as it tries to keep up.

A health system designed for TODAY - which is what a USNHS would be - would not face many of the same institutional challenges.

I'm not throwing shade at the NHS. I'm just pointing out that universal health care would not necessarily have prevented this.

No but the disease might spread a little bit slower if Covid 19 tests were not restricted to the Pro Basketball, A-List Celebrity, and Horrible Goblin Senator class.

Covid 19 tests are not restricted to the pro basketball A-list celebrity, and horrible goblin senator class, are they?

In practice, yes they are, you willfully dense being capable of enlightenment. Hard-hit cities are begging people not to get tested. People who have all the symptoms struggle to get tested, but some congressmen or prominent actor can just get tested with a snap of their fingers after showing 0 symptoms. Unless you recently were on vacation somewhere with cases or have a family member who tested positive, it's as easy to get a test as a mink coat or gold-plated toilet.

Right now, the best and most effective way for a working Joe to find out if they have Corona Virus is to cough in a rich person's face and look up that bastard's test results in the news, you frustrating fellow sapient being who consistently falls short of the moral and intellectual standards I know you are capable of.

There are literally drive-through testing centers. What planet are you on? Can you still receive radio signals from earth?

THere are? Where?

Imma be frank with you, I honestly thought that drive-through testing centers was limited to civilized nations, like South Korea.

[clearspira]

Indeed, if we had universal health care the situation here would be no worse than the UK's.

The NHS's central problem is that it is old - 1946 to be exact. It was designed for a fraction of the population that it caters for today and it was designed for a population that died a good thirty years younger. What once worked spectacularly well now huffs and puffs as it tries to keep up.

A health system designed for TODAY - which is what a USNHS would be - would not face many of the same institutional challenges.

I'm not throwing shade at the NHS. I'm just pointing out that universal health care would not necessarily have prevented this.

No but the disease might spread a little bit slower if Covid 19 tests were not restricted to the Pro Basketball, A-List Celebrity, and Horrible Goblin Senator class.

Covid 19 tests are not restricted to the pro basketball A-list celebrity, and horrible goblin senator class, are they?

In practice, yes they are, you willfully dense being capable of enlightenment. Hard-hit cities are begging people not to get tested. People who have all the symptoms struggle to get tested, but some congressmen or prominent actor can just get tested with a snap of their fingers after showing 0 symptoms. Unless you recently were on vacation somewhere with cases or have a family member who tested positive, it's as easy to get a test as a mink coat or gold-plated toilet.

Right now, the best and most effective way for a working Joe to find out if they have Corona Virus is to cough in a rich person's face and look up that bastard's test results in the news, you frustrating fellow sapient being who consistently falls short of the moral and intellectual standards I know you are capable of.

There are literally drive-through testing centers. What planet are you on? Can you still receive radio signals from earth?

Now there are. For a long time though a person without insurance could expect to pay $300 for a Covid test. How many people do you think went ''fuck it'' and continued to go to work, spreading it to everyone?

Fair point, but that's still less than 10% of the US citizenry. That's still a far cry from "restricted to the Pro Basketball, A-List Celebrity, and Horrible Goblin Senator class."

Thats true too

[Mecha82]

10% is small number when considering how large is population of entire USA.

[Darth Wedgius]

Indeed, if we had universal health care the situation here would be no worse than the UK's.

The NHS's central problem is that it is old - 1946 to be exact. It was designed for a fraction of the population that it caters for today and it was designed for a population that died a good thirty years younger. What once worked spectacularly well now huffs and puffs as it tries to keep up.

A health system designed for TODAY - which is what a USNHS would be - would not face many of the same institutional challenges.

I'm not throwing shade at the NHS. I'm just pointing out that universal health care would not necessarily have prevented this.

No but the disease might spread a little bit slower if Covid 19 tests were not restricted to the Pro Basketball, A-List Celebrity, and Horrible Goblin Senator class.

Covid 19 tests are not restricted to the pro basketball A-list celebrity, and horrible goblin senator class, are they?

In practice, yes they are, you willfully dense being capable of enlightenment. Hard-hit cities are begging people not to get tested. People who have all the symptoms struggle to get tested, but some congressmen or prominent actor can just get tested with a snap of their fingers after showing 0 symptoms. Unless you recently were on vacation somewhere with cases or have a family member who tested positive, it's as easy to get a test as a mink coat or gold-plated toilet.

Right now, the best and most effective way for a working Joe to find out if they have Corona Virus is to cough in a rich person's face and look up that bastard's test results in the news, you frustrating fellow sapient being who consistently falls short of the moral and intellectual standards I know you are capable of.

There are literally drive-through testing centers. What planet are you on? Can you still receive radio signals from earth?

THere are? Where?

Imma be frank with you, I honestly thought that drive-through testing centers was limited to civilized nations, like South Korea.

Circumstances like this point out where research can come in handy.

[Madner Kami]

When did he say SARS-CoV-2 was a hoax? He underestimated how bad it was going to get, absolutely. So did several other politicians and news sources. In the end, the U.S. is doing pretty much in-line with other western nations in how the per capita cases.

Um... Nope. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

Compared to the UK, which has about 1/4th of the population, the US has about 7 times as many cases.

More per capita than the UK, but less than Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, or Ireland. I'd still say that's in line with other western nations.

Um... No. You did not account for the starting point of the infections. The US is decently behind on schedule, compared to pretty much every single country you mentioned. Those have a higher infection per capita-rate, because they are comparatively days and sometimes weeks ahead of the US' development. The US has pretty much the highest relative and absolute growth rate of new infections in the well developed western world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LW30jmpvAQo

Hi-jacking a graph from the video:



Let that sink in for a moment.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

And I'm prouuuuud to be an Merican, where at least I know I'm free.

[ChiggyvonRichthofen]

I know plenty of people would like to score rhetorical points based on the numbers, but we're just going to have to wait a while to see who exactly got it the worst, and even then the effect of various policies is always something that will be debated. There's just way too much variance in what groups are being tested, how many tests are being done, when the testing is happening, the shape of the initial outbreak, etc. etc. And that's even assuming that we're getting all the raw data that's being collected at this point. For example, even if you're inclined to believe some of the rosy updates coming out of China, those updates have ceased arriving at regular intervals. I'm not saying that means that a second outbreak is happening or that it's a big cover-up, only that you can't even do an apples-to-oranges comparison if you're not getting any data at all.

With that said, the U.S. curve isn't promising. One of the big questions is going to be if what's happened in New York can be avoided in other major metropolitan areas. New York was behind Washington state in number of cases until about ten days ago, now it has ten to twelve times as many cases.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Well my county's not doing so bad. We started shelter just before the state and we were the first state.

I remember once 7 cases were reported the shelter took order.