The intricacies of the corona virus laid bare by Clarice

March 1, 2020

Coronavirus: When All Else Fails, Try Reason

By Clarice Feldman

I’m phlegmatic by nature. It gives me an edge up when mass hysteria seems to take up so much space in the news and the pronouncements of Democratic leaders. Looking at the best information available to me, I find it beyond question that the President has taken the right steps to deal with this variant flu; that few people in this country will perish from it; that while there may be some economic consequences of the supply disruption from China, the fact that we’ve been decoupling ourselves from China under this administration means they are likely to be smaller and more short-lived than the market manipulators would have us believe.

1.  What is the Coronavirus (COVID-19) and How Does it Compare to the Flu?

The most informative reports I can find on this are from Johns Hopkins Medicine, the New England Journal of Medicine, and the Director of the CDC.

One of the difficulties of diagnosing those stricken with this novel virus is the symptoms are very similar to those of the other more common infectious respiratory illnesses we call flu. We have a vaccine to prevent some of the most dangerous types of flu or to reduce its severity. Right now, there is no vaccine to treat the new virus. (But Israeli researchers believe they will have one in weeks. Of course, it will be longer than weeks to bring it to market, but if it proves effective this virus, which is likely to be around the world for a long time will prove even less lethal than it presently is.)

Does the Johns Hopkins report seem to belie the scare reports from the CDC earlier? Yes, it does, and even the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) has walked back the original message.

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