Simpsons on the Zika virus
I tend to think that all this fuss about the Corona Virus is just so much bullshit. Zillions of people die every year from the flu, and the numbers they are talking about with this Corona Virus are nowhere near that, so where is all this panic coming from, and more importantly, is it justified? I suspect all the noise is coming from a well coordinated media campaign. As to whether it's justified, well, we won't know that until we get farther down the road.
Kind of cool that someone figured out that it was a new disease and were able to identify the culprit. That must have taken some considerable sleuthing. I'm pretty sure viruses can only be imaged with an electron microscope, so they must have developed some kind of chemical test that enables them to identify the culprit. I wonder how much effort went into developing that test. Was it something a master whipped up in an afternoon because he knew just what to do, or did an army of chemists run a battery of a zillion tests to find one that worked?
Even if the panic does not prove to be justified in this case, it is still good for us to go through this exercise. Diseases are funny things. A new, deadly disease could crop up at any time and if that happens we will be very glad that we know what to do.
I think you're underestimating the seriousness of this virus. It's showing a fatality rate comparable to the yearly flu virus, but this is after most countries have taken extraordinary measures to slow it. They don't do that for the flu dijour, and I think this would have been much worse if they hadn't. Even people who have recovered experience up to 30% loss in lung capacity.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a doctor, never played one on TV, nor stayed at a Holiday Inn Express, but I believe the doctors over the politicians.
"well coordinated media campaign", yes, coordinated by the profit motive.
ReplyDeleteBTW I do not think you are "underestimating the seriousness of this virus".
I think the Simpsons nailed it, thank you for this refreshing bit of truth.
Now I have to have a salt water gargle and apply hand sanitizer......and get rid of the cat.