Just watch this video:

To Our Good Health

We are likely to get COVID-19 (I've heard estimates of 70 to 80% of us). Fortunately, most people have mild to no symptoms. The severity of the disease is primarily dependent on the strength of our immune system and the initial viral load at infection. About 70% of the severe cases are in people with some level of obesity. We can influence these factors folks. Wearing a mask, even a homemade one, will reduce the initial infection load. Obesity is a result of poor (misinformed) dietary choices and is really pretty easy to correct. The truth is that we blame people for being overweight and sick, but it’s not their fault. Our taste buds, hormones, and brain chemistry have been hijacked by the food industry. Stress is also a complicating factor, as is poor sleep and lack of rest. The concurrent economic collapse coupled with worry about family and friends add to our susceptibility. Perhaps some of us will manage to avoid infection until there is a vaccine. That appears to be a year to 18 months away. That's a long time to be isolated using good antiseptic measures. So this week I thought we should focus on maximizing our own healthy immune system and reviewing protective techniques to minimize infection. Let's try to do more than just survive, but to thrive... and come out of this seismic event better, more thoughtful, and kinder people.

And what a beginning. An OpEd at the NYTimes (not blocked) by Tweed Roosevelt, the great-grandson of Theodore Roosevelt who has personal knowledge of a precedent to Captain Crozier. There are undoubtedly many more precedents and hopefully we'll soon hear about many of them.

In particular, social changes that may have a long term drag on our economy.
Greetings all, I was seeing on an economics blog several points about how there will be long term economic ramifications from this Covid crisis. Lower GDP, productivity loss, bankruptcy, etc. But what I want to focus on here is this:

Fear Fuels Foolishness

Americans are easy to scare. In just the last couple of decades think about how TPTB used situations to take advantage of citizens. First 9/11 creates the opportunity to eliminate privacy with the Patriot Act and begin a Forever War OF Terror. Then the crash of '08, the US bailed out banks and foreclosed on homeowners, and used the emergency to provide cover for the murder by drone program as well as many more coups and regime change wars (thanks Obomber). And now COVID provides for the completion of corporate capture. We are buying corporate debt AND stocks of the very businesses which bought so much of their own stock that they are underwater. To top it off the US gets no say in the management of the very companies we are buying. We are being had, and most folks are happy they will receive a pittance of $1200 because most of them don't even have an extra $500 to handle emergencies. But...but...COVID is going to kill us! So we provide for the wholesale purchase of corporate America by the government? What a con.