WUHAN FLU [CORONAVIRUS] UPDATE for March 31, 2020.

I've had to change scales again. In the Cases Reported chart, the right-side (U.S.) scale has been changed to match the left-side (global) scale. After a short pause, the reporting rate is increasing again. Whether that's because of increased testing is yet to be known, but my thought is that for U.S. cases the increase is due to more reports of what I take to be widespread test capability.

Death rates in the U.S. seem to be rising; why isn't clear unless it's a result of tests only being performed in the so-called 'hot spots'.

That said, 99.72% of the U.S. population is still virus-free.

A MODEST REQUEST: I've been seeing a lot of 'Granny Boxwine' posts/comments on the
interwebs lately. If you're the one commenting/posting, please be sure to identify which
'Granny Boxwine' -- Pelosi or Clinton.

WUHAN FLU [CORONAVIRUS] UPDATE for March 30, 2010.

No significant (that I can tell) changes. There seems a very slight uptick in the global death rate, a slight downtick in the U.S. death rate, but both are well within any margin for error. We shall see.

Reminder: today 99.76% of the U.S. is still virus free.

SPRING FORWARD 2ND WEEK: Here are the second week's pictures. The starting point, as usual, is the view from the deck. No change from last week, except it was cloudy when I took the picture this week. The scrub brush, which I am assidously attacking with the brush cutter, is beginning to poke through the leaves, but the trees have yet to show signs of budding out.

This is the Road from Nowhere (our house) with the driveway bottom right. During the summer it's typically a tunnel. Right now it looks like a freeway.

The third picture is the house taken from out beyond the fire pit. Our 'yard', in which I've assiduously attacked with the brush cutter, is clear for now. Hopefully it'll remain clear as summer returns, but I have my doubts.

And the final picture is the pond again, showing the walking path that goes around the perimeter. I've avoided cutting the brush along the pond side in past years, but this year I think I'll get the heavy boots, a safety rope, and attack it. It's a good 3-4 feet to the water, and very steep, but needs a good cleaning.

Till next week, then. Last week's pictures are here.

WUHAN FLU [CORONAVIRUS] UPDATE: Here's today's data, updated around 6 pm.

Note I've changed the scale again on the Cases Reported graph. Reported cases are still growing, a little more steeply for U.S. cases. I was probably a little overoptimistic yesterday is describing the data plotted on a log scale. Globally, the cases are still growing exponentially, though the rate does appear to be slowing over the past three days or so. For the U.S. data, cases are still growing marginally exponentially, though the rate has been slowing consistently faster than the global data and for a longer period of time.

Death rates are still trending higher, more so in the U.S. Still, both are below (far below for the U.S.) the 1% rate of a normal annual flu season. The apparent increase in death rate for the U.S. is a bit puzzling, in that I would expect increased testing would find a larger percentage of people who are ill, but not in serious danger of death. Unless all -- or the majority of -- the testing is performed on people who have been or are going to be hospitalized. This one is worth watching....

Reminder: today 99.79% of the U.S. population are (still) virus-free. That number has been dropping slightly for over a week now, which suggests that the increased testing is having the effect of generating real, useful data.

I FUCKED UP. So I'm going to sue you for responding to my fuckup. NY Gov. Cuomo threatens to sue Rhode Island for crackdown on New York visitors.

IF ONLY IT WEREN'T ACCIDENTAL: Government accidentally shuts itself down with ban on non-essential businesses.

Yes, it's the Babylon Bee. I wish it weren't.

THIS IS WHAT WE GOT for $2.2T (that's trillion dollars, folks) worth of coronavirus 'rescue'.

Make-work for bureaucratic wannabes.

POWERLINE'S Week in Pictures has two favorites this week. Here's the first:

And I was always of the opinion that duct tape was the solution to every problem. I was wrong.

Now go see the rest. They're worth the trip.

WUHAN FLU [CORONAVIRUS] UPDATE: There was no update yesterday; believe it or not, in rural Georgia, we're still allowed to travel to visit friends and family (and bring toilet paper).

Here's today's data, updated around 6 pm.

Note I've changed the scale again on the Cases Reported graph and I'll probably have to do it again on Monday or so. Reported cases are still growing, a little more steeply for U.S. cases. Given the increased testing, I'm somewhat surprised they're not growing more rapidly. The good news, though, is that if the vertical scale were logarithmic you could see that the (feared) exponential growth has almost stopped. Plot the data logarithmically and the curves are flat, beginning to bend downward, which means that the growth rate is linear, not exponential.

Death rates are still trending higher, more so in the U.S. Still, both are below (far below for the U.S.) the 1% rate of a normal annual flu season.

Reminder: today 99.82% of the U.S. population are (still) virus-free.

DEFINITION OF EXPERT: from the root words 'ex', meaning has-been, and 'spurt', a drip under pressure.

Applies most frequently to government (and media) experts....

CORRECT: "One of the problems with our ruling class is that it’s not just frequently wrong, it’s that it’s always self-assuredly arrogant in its wrongness."

WUHAN FLU [CORONAVIRUS] UPDATE:

Here's today's update. I'm so PO's at our government mandarins that I'm nearly incoherent with rage, so no 'analysis' tonight.

Reminder: 99.876% of America is coronavirus free. It's 2x4 time. Upside the head. Harshly.

THE GARBAGE LEFT tries to rewrite history:

So the media and the resistance were occupied with impeaching the president when the CHINA VIRUS was killing people in China. When Trump shut down travel into the U.S. from China, they attacked him as racist and said it would not help the effort to curtail the disease spread. Psuedo-credentialed entities like the World Health Organization were lying/telling the world the CHINA VIRUS could not be transmitted human-to-human in mid-January. So how to nail Trump on this despite the fact that Trump shut down the travel and got a team together early on while they dropped the ball? Re-write history!

On Friday, the WaPo and its anonymous sources wrote, “U.S. intelligence agencies were issuing ominous, classified warnings in January and February about the global danger posed by the coronavirus while President Trump and lawmakers played down the threat and failed to take action that might have slowed the spread of the pathogen, according to U.S. officials familiar with spy agency reporting.” SPY AGENCY. That’s all you need to know.

The WaPo continues, “But despite that constant flow of reporting, Trump continued publicly and privately to play down the threat the virus posed to Americans.” Right. They wanted Trump to start a massive panic in the middle of his impeachment trial so they could say he was overblowing the threat to distract. Also remember, the House Democrats knew Trump would never get convicted in the Senate and yet they pursued it as this “threat” ravaged China.

There will be plenty more of re-historying. And it will fail.

I'M SURE IT WOULD HAVE BEEN IN NANCY PELOSI'S STIMULUS BILL IF SHE HAD THOUGHT OF IT: Democrats demand stimulus bill include reparations for transgender Native Americans affected by climate change.

Yes, it's America's News of Record.

AND NOW WE KNOW IT WAS CHINA: President Xi forgets to remove 'Made In China' tags from coronavirus.

GOOD MORNING: 99.895% of Americans are still coronavirus free.

IF ONLY: Nation to use coronavirus as convenient excuse to quarantine California.

Build that wall!

WUHAN FLU [CORONAVIRUS] UPDATE:

Still pretty much same old, same old. Confirmed cases are still increasing along the trend lines, both globally and within the U.S. The same is true with death rate globally, and the U.S. rate has increased since yesterday. New York cases showing up due to increased testing?

Reminder: 99.91% of the U.S. population is still unaffected by the coronavirus. Remind your local, city, county, state, and federal government critters -- with a 2x4 as needed.

UPDATE: PowerLine has more.

RANDOM THOUGHT: Watching television (which is becoming rarer and rarer as the days pass) I notice that the 'cover your ass' pandemic is spreading rapidly among the talking heads.

RANDOM THOUGHT: I'd love to practice social distancing, but there are so many idiots....

GOOD MORNING: 99.917% of Americans have not yet been infected by the Wuhan flu.

UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH begins burning bigoted biology textbooks.

Yes, it's the Babylon Bee, but every satirical post is hitting closer and closer to reality.

Here's another from our news of record:

TRUMP: I ... want ... Americans ... to die.

We know this one to be satire because it claims the NYT apologized.

SEN. TOM COTTON [R-AR] excoriates Nancy Pelosi's coronavirus 'economic stimulus' package. Watch:



Linked from PowerLine, who has not been kind. Thankfully, President Trump hasn't either.

WUHAN FLU [CORONAVIRUS] UPDATE:

Pretty much same old, same old. Confirmed cases are still increasing along the trend lines, both globally and within the U.S. The same is true with death rates, although the U.S. rate does seem to be increasing very slightly.

I would point out that I did see online today (from the World Health Organization, as I recall) that they estimate up to 86% of cases go unreported. I use the CDC estimate of 80% to estimate the total cases; if I were to use 86%, the death rates in the bottom chart would dowm to 0.62% (global) and 0.18% (U.S.). The point being that while the rates are uncertain (frankly, all the numbers are), the trends remain.

Reminder: 99.92% of the U.S. population is still unaffected by the coronavirus. Remind your local, city, county, state, and federal government critters -- with a 2x4 as needed.

SHOE KNOWS where to look for a honest politician.

WUHAN FLU [CORONAVIRUS] UPDATE: 99.930% of Americans still have not been infected.

POLITICIAN. Both shades. But especially blue: What’s the word for how to kill a country?

THE MARIANA TRENCH ISN'T DEEP ENOUGH: How low can the Democrats sink? Here are the details.

Republican Senators Mike Lee [UT], Mitt Romney [UT], Rick Scott [FL], and Cory Gardner [CO] should immediately return from self-quarantine to the Senate, and if that isn't sufficient to give the few remaining sensible Democrats some spine, then Rand Paul [R-KY], the sole Senator who actually tested positive, should return.

Then quarantine the whole damned Congress, send them home without phones or internet connections, and get back to living.

[THANKFULLY FORMER] PRESIDENT OBAMA CELEBRATES HIS GREATEST FAILURE; demands Democrats finish failing. Republicans should offer to help.

ISSUES & INSIGHTS: Should you be an airplane vigilante?

Absolutely. And not just on airplanes; anywhere and everywhere.

DOOMED:

They're doing their damnedest to fail spectacularly. I wish them every success.

WHY DON'T WE JUST TRY THROWING THE BUMS OUT? It's time to afflict the comfortable in higher education.

OUR RULING CLASS IS SO INFATUATED WITH THEIR 'EXPERTISE' THAT IT TAKES A HEAD SHOT WITH A 2X4 TO INJECT SOME COMMON SENSE: Virus response threatens our ability to 'stay together as a society'.

Ya think?

WUHAN FLU [CORONAVIRUS] UPDATE: 99.935% of Americans still have not been infected.

More sickness; more deaths; trends remaining stable. Government at all levels still in a panic.

'Get over it' still appears to be weeks away.

IF TRUMP DOESN'T ACT, people will die. Why? Where has Mayor (Whiny) DeBlasio been for the last two months?

HOW'S THAT WORKING OUT FOR YOU? My ill-fated foray into homeschooling.

The bright side is that homeschooling does make it a little more difficult for the progressives to indoctrinate your kids....

COVID-19, the elephant and the house cat.

Here’s something special: a headline in The Economist that speaks the truth: “In Europe, and around the world, governments are getting tougher.” You betcha. Last week, I wrote with contempt about San Francisco’s mayor who had just announced she would “legally prohibit residents from leaving their homes except to meet basic needs.” “Well,” I thought, “It’s California, what do you expect?”

But now several other states, including New York, Connecticut, and Illinois, have issued “shelter-in-place” orders. They closed all “nonessential” businesses (nonessential to whom? To the people who work there?) and are throwing their weight around in other ways.

Restaurants: closed, except for take-out and delivery. Gymnasiums: closed. Museums: closed. Concert halls: closed. Public fraternization: essentially prohibited.

Why? Because of the biggest threat to mankind that the world has ever seen: the COVID-19 virus, also know as the Chinese flu, which to date has killed—are you ready—276 people in the United States, almost all of them over 80, almost all with serious co-morbidities.

Two-hundred-and-seventy-six people! And yes, that frightening number will rise. It will be 400, 500 before you know it. Maybe when all is said and done, we’ll see 1,000-1,200 identified who have died from complications that can be traced to this respiratory illness.

Meanwhile, somewhere between 22,000 and more than 50,000 people have died from the seasonal flu in the United States this year. Why is there no panic about that?

The Wuhan virus is a bad bug. But far more lethal than the “pandemic”—it sounds so much scarier to say “pandemic” than “epidemic,” even if the term is not justified—far more lethal, I say, are two other “P” words: panic and passivity.

With that introduction, go and read it all.

FACTS? WE DON'T NEED NO STINKIN' FACTS: Los Angeles County health officials telling doctors to give up on testing patients in the hope of containing the outbreak and instructing them to test patients only if a positive result could change how they would be treated.

Call me cynical, but I suspect testing wasn't showing enough cases to warrant shutting down all business activity in LA county.

IF YOU HAVE TO ASK THE QUESTION, you don't want to know the answer.

Especially if the government has anything to do with it.

NOT ME.

Not now. Not ever.

ON BUSINESS: Restocking in the age of coronavirus:

[T]he supply chain is built for some disruption, and there's cushioning for it. Our food system can deal with the current demand; it just has to relearn how to distribute the supply.

As long as farmers can keep farming, truckers can keep driving, packaging can be made and supplied and grocery stores can stay open, the empty shelves should be just a temporary inconvenience.

But only as long as our 'ruling elites' can be held off from fucking things up more than they already have....

KURT SCHLICHTER: "Never have so many with so much unwarranted self-regard spread so much bullSchiff so shamelessly."

If anything, he's understating....

WUHAN FLU UPDATE: As of 9 am EDT this morning, 99.989% of Americans have not been infected by the coronavirus.

LET ME LEAVE YOU WITH THIS from PowerLine's Week in Pictures:

Given the Great Toilet Paper Crisis and the sheer idiocy of the week, it seemed appropriate.

Now go see the rest. There are some very good ones.

WUHAN FLU [CORONAVIRUS] UPDATE:

As of 6 pm EDT, the U.S. population was 329,424,761; approximately 329,263,031 (99.951%) were not infected with the COVID19 virus.

The world population was 7,638,282,250; of them 7,636,557,070 (99.977%) were also uninfected.

Get over it, doomsayers.

Here are today's charts:

Compared to yesterday I think it's safe to say that more people got sick and more people died, but the trends remain the same: confirmed cases still increasing, higher in the U.S., probably as a result of increased testing, but that is yet to be proven; and a relatively stable -- and low -- death rate.

The nightmare is yet to come -- the economic nightmare, that is -- unless Americans revolt and start reopening businesses in spite of government interference. I think that's going to start happening -- sooner rather than later.

EXCELLENT QUESTION: Why is Dr. Fauci not at home?

BABYLON BEE, yet not the Babylon Bee: Congress assures Nation they're working tirelessly to figure out how to take advantage of this crisis.

This time they were overtaken by reality....

WUHAN FLU UPDATE FROM POWERLINE: "[T]he COVID-19 hype quotient is astronomical."

It is, and I place the blame squarely on the Deep State and their mainstream media camp followers (both varieties, Red and Blue). When this is finally over, these arrogant, ignorant, insufferable elitist bureaucrats and their media camp followers should be made to suffer by the people - at the ballot box, in the courts, and in the unemployment line.

But other than that, I'm perfectly happy....

BREAKING NEWS: Due to the toilet paper shortage, Gov. Gavin Newsom [D(umb)-CA] just issued new regulations limiting California residents to one bowel movement per day. Residents are also required to use both sides of the toilet paper.

No, that's not the Babylon Bee; it's just me.

Given the shortages, though, it's time to resurrect a few outhouse jokes. Here's one:

Why are outhouses always equipped with two yellow corncobs and one white one?

The white one is used to see if the second yellow one is needed.

And by the way I was at the grocery store yesterday. There was no toilet paper, but plenty of fresh corn on the cob....

SPRING FORWARD in 2020 as the world begins to green up. This begins my 2020 weekly picture series as summer rolls around in the north Georgia mountains.

This is my usual 'wiew from the deck' picture. The 'butterfly bush' (so-called because it attracts all the butterflies) is already past full bloom. I took a picture last week to start the series, but lost both the picture and my enthusiam to the coronavirus Wuhan flu panic.

This is looking down the driveway, which the weeds are already trying to take over since it's the only place on our property that gets a lot of sun. That will end (thankfully!)when the trees begin to fill out and the driveway/road becomes a tunnel.

Here's the fire pit area. It's still pretty clear from my taking the brush down a couple of years back, but I can tell it going to need another weed control effort again this year. The trees are still pretty much bare; no buds evident yet.

Now down to the pond. It's pretty this time of year, with the growth along the water's edge pretty killed off by the cold. But be not discouraged, it's beginning to come back. There's more brush cutter work today, and lots of work behind the dam where the pond overflowed in recent heavy rains (I just yesterday recovered two 50-foot sections of 4" drain pipe which had washed a couple of hundred yards down the creek in the 'flood'.

Our new addition this year is the fountain that was installed by our neighbor a couple of months ago. In the late afternoon there's always a rainbow showing in the mist. I hope that'll last (we need a few rainbows these days) but my guess is that it will go when the trees fully leaf out.

And lastly, our house, taken from the dock. It's late afternoon, so the slope is mostly in shadow. The leaf growth hasn't started yet, but as the summer goes on the house will slowly disappear. The tree you can see leaning is dead. It'll probably come down this year, but at most it'll displace a squirrel or two and take out part of the stair rail if I don't have it attended to first.

Until next week, then - unless as seniors we're confined inside the house by the coronavirus Wuhan flu police.

PROFOUND STUPIDITY: shut down all 'non-essential' businesses.

ESSENTIAL QUESTION: If all 'nonessential' activities must be shut down, why are state and federal governments still operating?

ALL WHINING, NO ACTION, OBVIOUSLY A DEMOCRAT: NYC Mayor demands military fix his failings.

WUHAN FLU [CORONAVIRUS] UPDATE: Here's today's chart.

There have been no significant changes that I can see since yesterday. The totals are growing, as expected, but the trend lines haven't significantly changed. Note that I've changed the scale on the upper chart (and will continue to do so as the totals change). The part to hammer home is that even though the confirmed number of cases is growing, the death rate is remaining steady or declining. Globally, 99.2% if those infected survive; in the U.S. it's about a 99.8% survival rate.

One final thing I should have noted is past posts is that 'serious' cases (which I take to be hospitalizations) and 'recoveries' are seriously lacking in the U.S. data (go to the Coronavirus Dashboard website to see). If there are so few 'serious' cases -- 60 nationwide -- then why all the hype about shortages of ventilators and hospital beds? There's a certain ripeness for conspiracy theorists, but I'm always mindful of Occam's Razor -- simple incompetence is the most likely answer (17,650 of the 25,239 confirmed cases are from the 6 states that have been Democrat strongholds for nearly forever).

That said, the comment isn't relevant to the data in the charts above.

MASS TRANSIT: the pandemic petri dish the Left loves.

For all you progressive urbanites,how does it feel to be home alone?

IN MEMORIAM: After a long illness, Shadow finally departed for greener pastures on Monday.

That's him on the left with his sister Daisy shortly after we brought them home from the shelter in January of 2006.

Perhaps our other cats don't yet realize he's left -- his spot for catnaps on the bed remains empty.

Farewell, my friend. May the cat gods treat you well.

THE DIPLOMAD is coming around to my point of view. Or I, his? No matter.

WUHAN FLU [CORONAVIRUS] UPDATE: Here's today's chart.

Pretty much as I expected; the number of cases is rising as testing increases, death rate remaining relatively flat. I did expect (hope) the insanity would begin to taper off, but no, even deep northwest rural Georgia ran out of toilet paper today. (I blame the Floridians fleeing here to 'safety'.)

Yesterday's chart is here.

NO SURPRISE HERE: Bureaucracy kills.

STOP THE INSANE OVERREACTION! Here is a prediction:

[T]he deaths of Americans caused by the Wuhan flu bug will be dwarfed by the suicides committed by people whose life’s savings have been wiped out, whose businesses have been bankrupted, whose jobs have been lost, and whose prospects have been blighted by the insane overreaction we now see from our governments. That overreaction must stop. Right now. Before it is too late, if it is not too late already.

Sanity is finally catching up.

SIMPLE MATH GUY (identified in this Instapundit post) may have passed exponientials in math with flying colors, but he obviously failed common sense in kindergarten.

In 'simple math' terms, an infection rate doubling every three days, as Simple Math Guy claims, would spread to 7 billion people (roughly Earth's entire population) in a mere 98.1 days. Since the first identification of the COVID-19 virus in Wuhan, China, was apparently on Nov. 17, 2019, by a little after midday on February 4, 2020, the entire world was infected.

Since we're all now infected, let's quit the hair-on-fire stuff and just get on with life. Have a good day.

P.S. For a commonsense approach to Wuhan Flu analysis, I recommend my two posts: here and here.

AMMO GRRRLL writes on panic-stricken Arizona.

I ventured into my local Bashas grocery store which resembled either Venezuela or a 7-11 Store in Florida when a hurricane is already at Cat 5. The shoppers looked like they were on a festive field trip from an insane asylum – many wearing colorful long-sleeved rubber gloves, dousing themselves in sanitizer after putting each item in their baskets. Mind you, in the entire state of Arizona – not one of your smaller states geographically — as of this writing, there were 20 people with COVID-19, 5 in one family, and no deaths. That’s no, none, nada, bupkis. We were probably all in much graver danger from the plague of wrong-way drivers in AZ than from the COVID-19 plague.

Gives new meaning to the word 'festive'....

WUHAN FLU THOUGHTS. As time goes on and on, our governing class gets stupider and stupider, and I get madder and madder. At the first stupid (March 14th) I decided to look around the interwebs to see what I could find in terms of coherent data that I could compare with the MSM talking screaming heads.

That search for modestly reliable tracking data found four sites (you can find them here).

Ars Technica is a reasonably common sense Q&A site but is woefully lacking tracking information.

The Coronavirus Dashboard is a highly recommended tracking site created (with a little help) by a high-school kid. (No pompous 'experts' here). The data is perhaps a bit iffy and incomplete, since Schiffmann has to pull data from a variety of bureaucratic (read that as Deep State) sources, not all of which are tracked by every source. But it is entirely consistent and constantly updated.

Before going on to data analysis, let me suggest avoiding the CDC website unless you enjoy self-congratulatory pious posturing to show the peons how erudite the 'experts' are. Get rid of the goo and drivel and there's nothing left on the screen to read.

Now back to data analysis....

The Coronavirus Dashboard tracks 4 numbers: confirmed cases, deaths, serious cases (which I infer to be hospitalizations), and recoveries. I add 3 numbers, estimated mild cases (confirmed cases less deaths, serious cases, and recoveries), estimated total cases, and death rate. To get the estimated total cases, I use the rule-of-thumb that 80% of the total cases are unreported (see my prior link). I've seen numbers around the interweb ranging from 50% to 50 bazillion percent, but the 80% number seems to track pretty well with the CDC's own midrange estimate of seasonal flu over the past 10 years. Death rate is simply deaths divided by total estimated cases.

Here's the data, from March 14th through today. Each data point was taken from the Coronavirus Dashboard at about 6 pm. The trend lines are 2nd degree polynomial fits to the data points.

The top chart is total confirmed cases, global in red (left axis), U.S. in blue (right axis). Note the dramatic increase in U.S. confirmed cases on March 18, which appears to track with the increase in testing called for by President Trump. I expect it to continue to increase as testing continues to improve.

The bottom chart is death rate; globally about 8 tenths of one percent (well below the alarmist numbers tossed hysterically around the media) and relatively stable over the entire week. The U.S. rate is about half the global rate -- and dropping rapidly toward the traditional seasonal flu rate of about 1 tenth of one percent. (I leave it as an exercise for the reader to explain to him/her self the sudden drop in death rate starting on March 18th. Also note the horizontal axes on the two charts are not the same. My bad.)

My summary: Wuhan flu is just another seasonal flu. It will spread wildly, infect millions, kill the usual one-tenth of one percent of those infected and go away to come again next year. The hysteria, which is peaking as I write this, will destroy trillions of dollars in economic value, impoverish millions of people, and probably kill thousands more in unintended consequences.

All to prevent President Trump's reelection and keep the Deep State alive.

I THINK THAT'S A FAIR STATEMENT: Will the real victim of the Wuhan flu ‘crisis’ be your rights?

This 'pandemic' is -- and always has been -- about the global 'deep state' keeping and maintaining control of the sheeple. Don't let them.

IF THEY'RE GENDER-NEUTRAL, why do you need two?

Just asking the obvious question....

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: America in a new upside-down world.

[T]he key is not to damn the panic over the virus, but to understand and accept it—while reassuring Americans that all that can be done is being done, and what downturns they now experience will soon be overshadowed by even more jobs and greater economic expansion and wealth creation to come.

We sometimes forget, in legitimate fears of the coronavirus, that every action prompts a reaction and the massive curtailments of the U.S. economy can have as many health consequences as the virus itself—if millions lose income and jobs, become depressed in self-isolation, increase smoking, and drug and alcohol use, and postpone out of fear necessary buying and visits to doctors and hospitals for chronic and serious medical conditions unrelated to the virus.

In addition, it is not wrong to remind the public that current but once caricatured policies of secure borders, targeted travel bans, demands for transparency and symmetry from major U.S. trading partners, recalibration with China, and a return of manufacturing and assembly of key U.S. industries, from high-technology to pharmaceuticals, was long overdue—and must continue to ensure U.S. security and the long-term health of its people.

As usual with anything written by Hanson, read it all.

TOWNHALL: Democrats propose to destroy America to 'protect' us from the Wuhan virus.

They'd release prisoners, ignore crime, ban private ownership of guns, seize control of private industries and take over the medical industry.

But other than that....

AMERICAN SPECTATOR: The panic among the pigeons pigeon-headed. Read it all for some much-needed common sense.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: The CDC testing delay for Wuhan virus is 'certainly not the President’s fault'.

He's right; it's the fault of the bureaucratic Deep State and he might try looking in the mirror for his own part.

TOTAL BULLSHIT: President Trump told governors they're 'on their own'.

The New York Slimes Times lies again.

BERNIE SANDERS LASHES OUT: 'I'm dealing with a f---ing global crisis.'

If I may be so bold, "What is he talking about? Since when has blather been associated with 'doing something'?"

THE NEW YORK TIMES 'KEPT CONSERVATIVE' DAVID BROOKS EXPLAINS: Americans who voted for a 'sociopath are responsible for the Wuhan virus.

The farce is strong in that dingbat.

THOSE PESKY UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES AGAIN:

'Social distancing' could have a devastating effect on people.

Stop it with the coronavirus curfews already.

The remedy may be worse than the disease.

All of this is obvious unless you're a clueless liberal.

OUT OF WHOSE POCKET? Maxine Waters says during coronavirus outbreak adults should get $2G per month, children $1G per month.

She wins the Maroon of the Month award.

YES, MOM, the CDC is part of the Deep State too.

THEY'LL PROBABLY ALL GET SMARTER NOW: More than 6.1 million California students might not be going back to school before summer.

Not likely, but I'd rather have them dumb than indoctrinated. Dumb, they're teachable....

CDC RECOMMENDS limiting gatherings to 50 people for the next 2 months.

Question: If I go to any mass gathering (political rally, athletic game, etc.), how many people am I likely to encounter within that 'social distance' exclusion zone (excluding passers-by)? More than 50? Unlikely, based on past experience.

Bozos....

MORE NEWS FROM THE MORON STATE: San Francisco area cannabis stores exempt from Wuhan flu lockdown.

If you ever want to know what not to do, just look to California for advice.

AND THE NEXT TIME? More of this nonsense?

It's a fat chance, but maybe next time (if there is a next time) you'll listen to us old geezers who've been there and done that.

FIRST THEY CAME FOR SENIORS: Gunnison County [CO] bans restaurants & bars from serving people 60 and older to slow coronavirus spread.

Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase 'killing them with kindness', doesn't it?

RANDOM THOUGHT: Have you noticed that 'woke' America seems to be the most affected by the Moron Wuhan flu?

CORONAVIRUS WAS MISNAMED. Because that's who we're governed by (click through; you'll get it).

JUST SAY NO to more government power in this pandemic.

Let’s not give the government more power to dictate our lives, even during a pandemic. Common sense isn’t a government-forced lockdown of life. It is reducing regulations so companies can get a vaccine out quicker to the general populace and not telling private labs to stop testing if they have found a way to detect the virus.

What works is not more government; it is less government. Especially less regulation.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THE GREAT HUNKERING DOWN: Part I, Part II, and Part III.

I can't decide whether they're sad, or funny. Make your own decisions.

IN THE LONG RUN, HE'S PROBABLY RIGHT: The coronavirus will save America. But I still worry about the March madness.

ABBOTT & COSTELLO EXPLAIN CORONAVIRUS.

ABBOTT: So, they're saying coronavirus is now officially a pandemic.

COSTELLO: Who says?

ABBOTT: Yes.

COSTELLO: Who did?

ABBOTT: Of course, that's their job.

COSTELLO: Whose job?

ABBOTT: Exactly.

COSTELLO: And what is the name of that organization?

ABBOTT: Not what ... WHO.

COSTELLO: That's what I'm trying to find out!

From the interwebs ... and who's still on first.

THE DIPLOMAD smells something rotten in the CDC. Click through his embedded links (there are three) to read more. I also gather he is not a Fauci fan (neither am I).

YOU'RE A LIBERAL when most of what you know is wrong. To quote Ronald Reagan: “It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so.”

It also helps if they could add, subtract, multiply, and divide....

ENVIRONMENTALLY INCORRECT TIPS for dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.

Short version: listen to the instructions, then do the opposite.

THEY'RE NOT ON THE RIGHT: The Chinese coronavirus pandemic demonstrates who are the idiots.

POWERLINE: Why can't Liberals do arithmetic?

I have to agree with John Hiinderaker: "The thought of these people actually wielding executive power is frightening."

CNN: Our ratings are only tanking because Trump is killing off viewers by the millions.

Yes, it's America's News of Record. The real reason CNN's ratings are tanking is boredom.

BY BERNIE'S LOGIC, the government must buy guns for poor Americans.

Thanks to coronavirus, I'm rapidly becoming a poor American so I'll take one of these:

I'd prefer new, but surplus is okay....

POWERLINE has a mid-Week in (coronavirus) Pictures posted. Here are a few of my favorites:
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Maintain your sanity. Mock them; then wash your hands....

REMEMBER THE H1N1 [SWINE FLU] PANDEMIC? I don’t either.

DEMOCRAT IMPEACHMENT LAWYER tests positive for coronavirus (while symptomatic); blames Trump.

A good journalist (if such still exist) would be asking him how many innocent people he infected while running around to find a coronavirus test to prove his virtuousness.

RANDOM THOUGHT: We're smack in the middle of a stupidity pandemic, especially in the virtuously credentialed governing(?) elites.

HOW THE CORONAVIRUS HYPE DEVELOPED:

Politicians and the mainstream media are conspiring to turn the coronavirus into a political black swan. They're trying to take down Trump and his economy by any means necessary.

Unfortunately, I lean toward finding the argument credible.

HERE'S HOW to troll a Liberal.

QUARANTINE YOUR TELEVISION FOR A MINIMUM OF 14 DAYS? Here are the top things you can do right now to protect yourself from coronavirus.

My suggestion makes a lot more sense.

SORRY, the Government got there first.

AMERICANS REJOICE as news finally not all about Trump. Real Americans, that is....

THE DEMOCRATS' DEBATE: Tweedledumb vs. Tweedledumber.

MR. PRESIDENT, FIRE HIM IMMEDIATELY! Dr. Fauci believes a 'temporary national lockdown' may be necessary.

Fauci and the CDC are far bigger dangers to the U.S. than the Wuhan flu. Just ask yourself how many people dictatorial powers have killed over the years....

WHERE ARE THOSE LOOPHOLES WHEN LIBERALS NEED THEM? A lot of people are finding out you can't just buy a gun online. Even to protect their toilet paper....

They are useful, however, in maintaining 'social distance'.

SURPRISE, SURPRISE: There are only libertarians during a pandemic.

FIRST THEY'LL COME FOR THE SENIOR CITIZENS....

I used that phrase in an earlier post today; here's proof I was right.

GRETA THUNBERG condemns coronavirus for causing the Apocalypse 10 years early.

At publishing time, Thunberg had been tossed out into the dumpster behind the Democratic headquarters in Washington, D.C., where she found David Hogg and dozens of other kids the Dem[ocrat]s had exploited for their political agenda until they outlived their usefulness.

From America's News of Record.

INSTAPUNDIT LEARNS: I’m going to discontinue the “coronavirus update” feature.

JOE BIDEN: An ideal Deep State bobblehead figurehead.

Far from being concerned about Joe Biden’s creeping senility, the Deep State may be rallying for the former vice president precisely because he will be weak, easily manipulated, and no threat to their agenda and habitual overreach.

Remember, where Liberals are concerned, it's all about control.

HEY, YOU ALL-SEEING, ALL-KNOWING, SUPER COMPASSIONATE, SUPER COMPETENT RULING GOVERNING CLASS, I thought you were going to protect the seniors.

POWERLINE: How every bar in America should operate right now (video). Update by replacing 'bar' with 'business' and 'should operate' with 'is operating' and you'll have an accurate understanding of today in America. From the comments:

(Gary Thomson) - At some point the danger of stupid surpasses the danger of the Wuhan.

(askeptic) - We may have reached Terminal Stupid.

(skipsailing) - We passed that just moments ago.

Correct, except that I'm not convinced Stupid has any limits....

ZOMBIE EPIDEMIC timeline. It seems reasonable except for day 34 -- zombies overran the cities years ago.

GUN DEALERS: Boycott Liberals. It should be easy to do given how helpful our government regulators have been over the years....

BIG APPLE SHUTDOWN: Governors in nation’s biggest metro area announce major restrictions and closures.

Aren't you the same urban, sophisticated BOZOS who've spent years telling us Deplorables how great it is to be living in very close proximity to all those wonderful 'amenities' of the big city?

UNFORTUNATELY I ALREADY DID THEM: "While away the quarantine hours by doing your taxes!"

I will admit, though, that the most recent tax 'simplification' makes it much easier to fill up the 14-day quarantine period.

PJM'S MORNING BRIEFING: Earth will be closed until further notice.

IN THE NAME OF COMPASSION, first they'll come for the senior citizens.

MORNING GREATNESS: Geezers debate as Wuhan virus shuts down America.

Read it all - it's link rich revealing the colossal incompetence of our incredibly smart, morally superior, incredibly virtuous wannabe ruling governing class.

ANOTHER RANDOM THOUGHT: If I have to watch another one of those incredibly stupid coronavirus Wuhan virus briefings, I'll be forced to wash my brain....

RANDOM THOUGHT: Since the Democrats are so heavily invested in 'free stuff', how about free government?

No salary, no expense account, pay-your-own-way for every elected official.

TRY LEAVING US THE HELL ALONE: How to protect older people from coronavirus.

It's behind the New York Times paywall so I haven't been able to read the whole thing, but my message to them stands: Leave me the hell alone. I'm both older and smarter than you are and can take care of myself, thank you very much.

THANK YOU: Iraqi cleric says he won’t accept any coronavirus cure from “infidel” United States.

Urge your colleagues to do the same....

NOTICE THEY ATTACK TRUMP FOR THEIR OWN GUILTY SINS: Schumer attacks President Trump’s ‘autocratic tendencies’.

HEH: Bernie Bros threaten to throw the 2020 election to Trump.

THEY CARE ONLY ABOUT POWER, NOT PEOPLE: Connecticut governor revises unconstitutional coronavirus executive order after backlash.

MORE: Illinois mayor assumes emergency powers to ban the sale of firearms and alcohol. Both obviously related to coronavirus....

SHORT ANSWER, NO: Is there a dumber class of people in America than the Washington press corps?

COULDN'T HAPPEN TO A BETTER COUNTRY: Satellite images of Iran show massive burial pits for coronavirus victims.

AN UPDATED REAGAN MESSAGE to Bernie and Ocasio-Cortez.

The answer to our problems in this country … is to have a law that says there is a percentage limit of the people’s earnings that government cannot go beyond without getting the consent of the people.

I think if President Reagan were still alive he'd approve of my update.

IF YOU LIKE MANDATORY QUARANTINES, you'll love China.

Please return and stay there. Please.

IDIOCY BRIEF: COVID-19 and the stand for intersectionality.

The progressive Twitterverse self-identifies as a severe outbreak of crazy....

YESTERDAY I PUBLISHED a (thought-to-be sarcastic) random thought. Today I find that I was almost prescient (again): Nike says all stores in the U.S. to close to limit coronavirus spread.

It was meant to be sarcastic, boys and girls -- not a command.

THE DIPLOMAD: North Carolina is a zombie-free zone. With plenty of toilet paper....

OHIO OFFICIAL WHO CLAIMED 100,000 COVID-19 CASES in the state says she was 'guesstimating'.

UPDATED AND BUMPED TO THE TOP: A NUMBER OF RANDOM THOUGHTS/LINKS ABOUT THE CORONAVIRUS WUHAN FLU:

Let's get real; it's a problem, not a panic.

More perspective.

Here are some tracking sites that provide useful daily updates: USA Today; NBC News; ARS Technica; and Coronavirus Dashboard, the last by a very innovative young blogger. The latter two seem to offer the best data with the least hype.

The CDC site is nearly worthless. Mostly hype and nonsense; very little useful data.

And now for my thoughts. Fox News reports a World Health Organization official stating that roughly 80% of coronavirus cases will involve mild symptoms, which I take to mean not reported to any health authorities. Given that as a base assumption, let's look at the data (Corona Dashboard; 5 pm EDT, 14 March).

As of this post, globally there are 157,309 confirmed coronavirus cases. Of them, there are 5,836 deaths, 5,425 reported as serious (assumed to be hospitalizations), and 77,921 reported as recovered. The balance of reported cases (estimated as the number of confirmed cases less the numbers of deaths, serious, and recovered cases) is 68,217. If we assume the WHO rule (above) that 80% of cases go unreported, then the total number of coronavirus cases worldwide is 786,545 (157309/0.20), yielding a death rate of (5836/786545) ~0.74%

Using the same logic and Coronavirus Dashboard data, there are 2,866 confirmed cases, 58 deaths, no serious cases, 2,800 mild cases (estimated as above) and 8 recoveries. Using the 80% rule of thumb as above, the total number of coronavirus cases in the United States is estimated to be 14,330, which in turn leads to an estimated death rate of ~0.40%.

The CDC estimated death rate for seasonal flu (over the last 10 years) is ~0.13%.

I'm no medical expert, but I do have some intellectual curiosity, a modicum of common sense, an ability to analyze data, and these numbers tell me that the coronavirus panic we're experiencing is mostly hype promulgated by a biased (read that as 'hate Trump') media in coordination with a Deep State determined to maintain (if not increase) its control over American citizens.

THE DREADED RED SQUAMISH: Some rational -- and needed -- skepticism about mass coronavirus testing.

WHAT TO DO WITH JIM ACOSTA? CNN's ratings collapse as coronavirus fears empty American airports.

TRUE: "It’s almost like all this panic is a luxury."

Sarah Hoyt is smart.

HE'S NOT THE ONLY ONE: California Gov. Gavin Newsom to commandeer (read as 'seize') property cuz Wuhan.

And you thought the Babylon Bee is a satire website.

HE STOLE IT FROM BERNIE: Biden has a plan for American workers -- unemployment.

An example of my 'earned income/approved income' nightmare.

More here.

TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE: Trump cancels 2020 election over coronavirus concerns.

Yes, it's the Babylon Bee.

MR. PRESIDENT, don't let the Deep State back in. We don't need credentials, we need knowledge. They're not the same.

RANDOM THOUGHT soon-to-be picked up by the Babylon Bee: All Americans living in cities and towns having populations greater than (TBD) must self-quarantine through April 15, effective immediately.

The U.S. Postal Service will not deliver mail during that period (except for tax returns not requesting a refund).

BERNIE SANDERS ON CORONAVIRUS:

This is outrageous!

Don't you people realize that if I were President, we could be having empty store shelves without having to have a disease epidemic to get them?

Taken from a comment following this Don Surber post.

'EARNED' INCOME VS 'APPROVED' INCOME: A license to kill jobs.

The lede for this post came from a bad dream nightmare, then along came the American Spectator article. The Spectator article isn't exactly my nightmare, which was more along the lines of Bernie Marxist doctrine: if it ain't approved, it ain't earned.

A NUMBER OF RANDOM THOUGHTS/LINKS ABOUT THE CORONAVIRUS WUHAN FLU:

Let's get real; it's a problem, not a panic.

More perspective.

Here are some tracking sites that provide useful daily updates: USA Today; NBC News; ARS Technica; and Coronavirus Dashboard, by a very innovative young blogger. The latter two seem to offer the best data with the least hype.

The CDC site is nearly worthless. Mostly hype and nonsense; very little useful data.

And now for my thoughts. Fox News reports a World Health Organization official that roughly 80% of coronavirus cases will involve mild symptoms, which I take to mean not reported to any health authorities. Given that as a base assumption, let's look at the data (Corona Dashboard; 5 pm EDT, 14 March).

Globally there were 154,663 confirmed coronavirus cases. Of them, there were 5,794 deaths, 5,721 reported as serious (assumed to be hospitalizations), and 76,401 reported as recovered. The balance of reported cases (estimated as the number of confirmed cases less the numbers of deaths, serious, and recovered cases) is 66,747. If we assume the WHO rule (above) that 80% of cases go unreported, then the total number of coronavirus cases worldwide is 773,315 (154663/0.20), yielding a death rate of (5794/773315) ~0.75%

Using the same logic and Coronavirus Dashboard data, there have been 2657 confirmed cases, 50 deaths, no serious cases, 2,599 mild cases (estimated as above) and 8 recoveries. Using the 80% rule of thumb as above, the total number of coronavirus cases in the United States is estimated to be 13,285, which in turn leads to an estimated death rate of ~0.38%.

The CDC estimated death rate for seasonal flu (over the last 10 years) is ~0.13%.

I'm no medical expert, but I do have some intellectual curiosity, a modicum of common sense, an ability to analyze data, and these numbers tell me that the coronavirus panic we're experiencing is mostly hype promulgated by a biased (read that as 'hate Trump') media in coordination with a Deep State determined to maintain (if not increase) its control over American citizens.

NEVER GIVE IN to the Social Justice 'warriorship'.

HEINLEIN'S CRAZY YEARS have hit the mainstream media especially hard this election season.

CORONAVIRUS shows why 'Medicare for all' is a bad idea.

IT DOESN'T WORK BUT IT'S DOMESTICALLY PRODUCED, SMELLS GOOD, AND CHEAP: Who’s up for some official New York State hand sanitizer?

RETURN OF THE TURTLES: Thoughts on our present discontents.

POWERLINE'S WEEK IN PICTURES, this week aptly titled One Flu Over the Cuckoo's Nest, is so good I offer a sample of favorites:
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Don't miss the rest.

THE DEMOCRAT PARTY is wounded -- and dangerous.

The Democrats and the Deep State have spent the last four years constructing the greatest wag-the-dog spectacle America's ever seen in an attempt to cover up the malfeasance and criminality of the last administration, while preventing the current one from achieving too many victories. Considering that Brennan and Comey are still free and Obama and Hillary are still smiling, they've been remarkably successful. But the Mueller obfuscation and Schiff circus are behind us, the dance music of delay is dying down, and the Democrats' and Deep State's ability to keep pushing back their day of reckoning is coming to an end. If they don't win in 2020, they cannot keep justice at bay, regardless of how stacked in their favor it has always been in the past. And standing in the gap as their last-ditch prospect to save them from President Trump's re-election and spare them from long delayed judgment is none other than Corn Pop's archenemy. The one "reasonable" Democrat in the race who has already burnished his "moderate" credentials by fully embracing Bernie's Green New Deal, Warren's Medicare for All, and Beto's door-to-door gun confiscation. Nothing says "electable centrist Democrat" like "D'oh!" Biden's full tilt toward Marxist socialism. No wonder Chuck Schumer sounds like some injured animal in the forest, lashing out at tree branches all around him. That's what small, weak, dying creatures do when they know the end is near.

I'm hopeful their time in power is over and their time in jail is about to begin.

THE DIPLOMAD excoriates the elite arrogance of 'work from home'.

Demand journallists work without cell phones and see what happens....

I'M FROM THE GOVERNMENT AND I'M HERE TO HELP -- Coronavirus Edition:

As the coronavirus problem — which is real — is transformed by the media into the coronavirus panic — which is unnecessary — before reaching its conclusion as the “$55 Gazillion Dollar Coronavirus Congressional Omnibus Spending Bill of 2020” — which is inevitable — ask yourself this question: How has any government action helped so far?

The full article is behind a Boston Herald paywall; a place I will not go.

BREAKING NEWS: President Donald J. Trump doesn't want to get coronavirus.

CNN's Jim Acosta is a 'Maroon Extraordinaire'.

CONGRATULATIONS, Ilhan Omar supporters: You just paid her dowry.

NOT TOILET PAPER? What to stock up on if you're worried about coronavirus.

INSTAPUNDIT owns the media.

CHELSEA [BRADLEY] MANNING attempts suicide in Virginia jail.

[S]he's since been released; unfortunately not to Bellvue Psychiatric....

FEMINIST FIRST WORLD DILEMMA: Should I hire a cleaner? Apparently "quit whining and DIY" is not an option.

POWERLINE reports on the Great Toilet Paper Pandemic. My favorite:

Now go check out the rest.