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You’re Invited: COVID-19 News for the Rest of Us
Ricochet is launching an online symposium to chronicle the effects of the coronavirus and its associated lockdowns on average Americans. We need your help to make it work. (Not a member? Join today!)
The coverage surrounding COVID-19 is mostly pundits, politicians, and policy wonks yelling at each other. If you want to end the lockdown, they say you want old people to die. If you want to extend the lockdown, they say you want to destroy the economy.
This leaves out the rest of us: that vast majority of everyday people who want to protect our physical health along with our economic health. Teachers, nurses, small business owners, and parents from coast to coast are being ignored. And we want to give all of you a voice.
We are accepting submissions on our member portal or to our email. Any member can submit their story (between 500-1,000 words, ideally) for the member feed, and we will choose a select few to go on our website every day. Your entry may be edited for length or clarity.
In addition, we will be hosting a weekly video symposium via Zoom where participants in our written symposium can share their stories. Live participation will be limited to Ricochet members, but video will be available on our website the following day.
The first episode will take place live on Zoom on Sunday, May 17. All Ricochet members can join the call, ask questions, and provide answers. We plan on this being a weekly show as the world learns how to deal with this pandemic.
We want to feature a couple of outsiders each week, including Ricochet members. How are Coronavirus and the restrictions affecting your job, your industry, your kids, and your physical and mental health? Let us know in the comments what message you want to share that is being ignored.
Published in General
Hey! Where is today’s podcast?
What makes the politics of COVID especially tiresome is that there is a creeping feeling of deja vu. COVID, the issue, is a more costly manifestation of the psychological drama of climate change—economy-crushing steps (making fossil fuels more costly, subsidizing inefficient/inadequate energy alternatives versus shutting down the world economy for months to ineffectually ‘flatten the curve’) , demonizing anyone who questions worst-case scenarios or raises issues of trade off costs, quasi-religious adherence to demonstrably flawed models, novel power grab proposals and almost exactly the same political lines drawn by the same people with the same interests.
And, of course, the people with the least understanding of the state of knowledge and no interest much less understanding of comparative costs of the actual choices presented will proclaim themselves the voice of both Science and Morality. The original drama was tiresome and annoying. This sequel is even worse. Somebody please fire the writers and change the narrative. The country needs it.
Yes, exactly.
Except that there is no discernible anthropogenic climate-induced problem, even at a lesser scale than claimed.
In the case of this pandemic, there is a genuine problem but it isn’t as severe as commonly claimed.
In the first scenario, reasonable people needn’t do anything other than speak truth. The disease, on the other hand, genuinely threatens millions of Americans (the elderly, the obese, people with high blood pressure, diabetes, or vitamin D deficiency, etc — a large portion of society) and can be spread from the healthy to the vulnerable.
To address the original post more directly, “climate change” threatens no one I know today, but COVID-19 has a greater than 10% chance of killing several of my older loved ones in the coming months (their specific demographic rates being higher than the general mortality rate) . My young nephew with breathing issues might also be at risk.
#4 Aaron Miller
Yes, exactly.
https://thefederalist.com/2020/05/08/icu-doctor-what-i-wish-people-knew-about-coronavirus/
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/what-does-isolate-the-vulnerable-even-mean
https://www.ft.com/content/be7e66c0-1243-45dd-829f-8b192c18acff?shareType=nongift
I started seeing the similarities myself. As yes, it is also worth noting that Bill Gates is behind a great deal of the COVID situation, and he has also “donated” lots of his monies to leverage his being positioned inside the Global Climate Change Hoax.
Mike Bloomberg has invested 100 million dollars into the idea of contact tracing.
And the Clinton Foundation is also excited about contact tracing:
http://thejewishvoice.com/2020/04/clinton-foundation-discusses-creating-army-of-contact-tracers-to-monitor-citizens-who-had-covid-19/
Clinton Foundation Discusses creating Army Of “Contact Tracers” to Monitor Citizens who had COVID-19
Former President Clinton, Governor Cuomo, Chelsea Clinton, Governor Newsom, discuss hiring an army of unemployed people or college students to contact people who have been tested positive for COVID-19 in order to learn about where they have been, who they have engaged with, visited etc.
” This is going to require an army of folks, the capacity of consideration from individuals to allow for their privacy to be impacted by that kind of acuity of attention based upon where they’ve been and who they talked to ” Governor Newsom
https://youtu.be/-Ug9XHT9JQQ
It is easy to see the same inner circle of people who hold the scientists hostage and who are behind the officials who are governmental agency heads in terms of Global Climate Change are now acting the same way with regards to COVID 19. Sometimes when whacked out conspiracy theorists state a mere 400 families run the world, it does seem like there is a bit of truth to the statement.
I feel a lot better about my prospects now that Chelsea Clinton has been tapped to leap into action, with her vast background in virology and immuno-science-dudering.
Who the hell are these people? Other than a wealthy Politburo? Here’s Supreme Leader with her semi-Supreme offspring.
I feel as though whichever editor Overlord wrote this post never reads the Member Feed. There’s no shortage there of people talking about the ‘rona and its effects. Yet one more reason to become a Member…
Remember when HIPPA was a thing? When the command and control types insisted I get a durable medical power of attorney to talk to my 18-year-0ld daughter’s medical team at Children’s Hospital, with whom I’ve been working for the last six and half years??? Yeah, those were the good old days. [insert unprintable C0C-name calling here]
I’m self-employed, running a computer support business in my home town here in Iowa. Since I’m a cranky introverted 50-year-old bachelor, I don’t need much to live on, but last year I decided that I needed to get a more reliable job that could let me save at least a little for retirement. I transitioned out of my primary contract (which provided about 75% of my income) and in January I started looking for a job. I didn’t get very far, and by the end of February the few leads I’d pursued had fizzled out. So I figured that I’d adjust my expectations and try again.
Then March came, and the lockdown. Now, I’ve been doing okay, mostly because of my contract with my church and the massive overtime I’ve been putting in there over the past two months. That’s settling down now, though, and I’m looking ahead to the summer with little income and a dicey employment landscape. I have a pretty dim opinion of the loudest voices on both sides of the lockdown debate. We need solutions, but mostly it sounds like posturing and paranoia.
d e l e t e d
10% of the old people have died? Or 10% of the old people who contracted COVID-19? If the latter, your older loved ones don’t have a greater than 10% chance of being killed by COVID-19.
Hillary should wear a mask (a recommendation):
That’s the other thing. Catching COVID-19 isn’t a good thing for those vulnerable groups. It’s a big concern. But it’s not a death sentence either.
My junior high daughter’s grades fell from As & Bs to Fs. First week of remote learning went really well. She turned in all of her assignments. Then she really started missing her friends & teachers. Learning through zoom and accessing all of your classwork & turning it in through online tools became very complicated and burdensome. That synergy, sharing ideas, and reading the confused look on students faces does not come through on Zoom or Meet. She stopped doing her classwork. As she heard more about corona virus death estimates & worried about her grades, she became very anxious and began showing signs of depression. She asked, “What’s the point of doing school work if we’re all going to die from corona virus?” We’ve been working with her & her wonderful teachers the last 3 weeks and she is feeling better and her grades are improving.
I teach my high school students remotely. It is very hard to conduct demonstrations when so many of my materials are still at school. My administrators have instructed us to pay attention not only to how much & the quality of work our students turn in but also their mood. Do they appear ok? Many are struggling w/ remote learning. We are modifying our lessons and focusing on the most essential parts of our content and slowing the pace. Many parents have contacted us for providing real learning while paying attention to the emotional needs of their children.
My daughter & I are both at private religious schools. Everyone is learning how to teach and how to learn remotely. There is so much trial and error. Students are mourning loss of end of year traditions, prom, and graduation. It’s easy for us as adults to put that loss into a larger context, but children generally can’t see the long view so they feel the loss more deeply. We teachers have made mistakes but are pivoting quickly to address those & change what we are doing,
Not knowing what the new academic year will look like is another source of anxiety. What we do in our schools depends on governmental guidelines. Our leaders need to stop dilly-dallying and get some clarity to schools & parents. Few parents will send their children to school with so much misinformation going around. If 6′ of distancing is required in classrooms there will have to be smaller class sizes and more teachers will be needed. Hiring good teachers can’t be rushed.
I know many people think social emotional learning is the newest shiny object in education but, right now, this is essential. Students who are struggling emotionally can’t learn. We need to address this.
There isn’t much difference. Because it’s so contagious, most Americans will have been exposed to COVID-19 by this time next year.
And you can’t consider any vulnerability in isolation. Sure, some people are old and fit. But others are old and have high blood pressure, or diabetes, or both. Fat cells might even be involved.
Judging by the statistics in that second article, well over 100 million Americans qualify as vulnerable in some way. I’d guess that more than 50 million qualify in multiple ways (both old and fat, for example).
But honestly I can’t remember where I got that 10% figure from, regarding people with COVID-19 over age 70.
True. But tell a 70-year-old woman she has a cancer with a 10% mortality rate and the first reaction of her family and friends won’t be “The odds are in your favor.”
I like to think of this as an opportunity conservatives shouldn’t let go to waste to reform public education. It should certainly refocus our priorities on basic numeracy and literacy, both cultural and English-language. Get E.D. Hirsch and Hillsdale’s curriculum into every school.
I’m an old person and I want to reopen the economy.
Here is a link to a modeling tool I stumbled upon yesterday in The Federalist Daily Briefing newsletter. It tells the other side of the story … moves beyond projections of cases, deaths, and hospital capacities and looks at the economic and psychological impact. Not all states are included, but those that are allow for drill down by county. I live in California (which is included), and lately losing sleep given the ringing words of Newsom’s weaponized compassion that promises to bring California to the same sorry state he left San Francisco in after serving there as mayor.
https://restartnow.io/models
A favorite quote: Tyranny is the deliberate removal of nuance. Albert Maysles
Tyrants establish oppressive standards, remove the shades of gray, assume the masses are stupid and must be restricted to certain beliefs, enforce their compliant allegiance by making them dependent, and contain the dissidents. Hillary is drooling in anticipation of finally defining a channel for control under the guise of compassion for the vulnerable.
There are nuanced ways of dealing with the balance between health safety and economic sustainability, but the left is forcing a dialogue structured around either/or. Not good … definitely not good.
It’s tiresome. Where are the people who know how to make progress in action within the context of complex political circumstances? I know they’re out there.
Authorities seem to be remarkably un-curious regarding Covid 19. My wife had many of the symptoms, was in the ER twice, but was never once tested. Her neurologist admitted that she appeared to have had a viral syndrome, but he avoided speaking the name-which-cannot-be spoken.
Former President Clinton, Governor Cuomo, Chelsea Clinton, Governor Newsom, discuss hiring an army…
Nope, that’s not creepy at all. Not a bit.
Yeah…the Zoom thing sounds kind of interesting, but isn’t the rest of this, well, basically the Member Feed?
Even more, I’m an old person who hasn’t lost a minute of work. I’m still walking and talking, as Malcolm Reynolds would say. Open the economy. I’ll take my chances.
Ask, and ye shall receive.
http://ricochet.com/755993/the-grief-of-covid/
Fighting cancer takes more than 2-3 weeks. With chemotherapy it’s a long slog. So no, they won’t be talking about the odds. They’ll be thinking about the pain.
And in my own lifetime — more often than not — a cancer diagnosis was considered a death sentence. So like the virus, it’s feared more than it should be today.
Contrast that with, say, an HIV diagnosis, which also was considered a death sentence, but no longer is. Because its history isn’t as lengthy as cancer, people will try to be optimistic and talk about the odds.
Again, the virus should be treated with respect. But much of the fear is irrational.
No they can’t!
I felt like repeating John Stossel
HIPPA is still alive and well, and frustrating the panties off most of us.
I relate to what you are talking about.
Last year when my spouse was in the hospital, I called the switchboard to talk to the nurses on his floor. I couldn’t remember the number to the direct line the one nurse had given me, although I remembered her name.
But the receptionist told me that due to HIPPA restrictions, I could not be given the direct line to the nursing station, nor could they connect me to my spouse’s room. So I had to drive back to the hospital to go there and talk to the nursing staff in person. (After a 36 hour period when I had gotten only a tiny bit of sleep.)
And the wonderful thing about it is how HIPPA is just what we patients and family members need!