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When will the coronavirus arrive in the US? (Disease: COVID-19; Virus: SARS-CoV-2) Login/Join 
goodheart
Picture of sjtill
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quote:
The Senator Who Saw the Coronavirus Coming
John McCormackMarch 31, 2020 12:30 PM

Sen. Tom Cotton speaks with reporters in Washington, D.C. (Aaron P. Bernstein/Reuters)
Tom Cotton was both the first and the loudest voice in Congress to sound the alarm about the looming pandemic.
While others slept, Tom Cotton was warning anyone who would listen that the coronavirus was coming for America.

On January 22, one day before the Chinese government began a quarantine of Wuhan to contain the spread of the virus, the Arkansas senator sent a letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar encouraging the Trump administration to consider banning travel between China and the United States and warning that the Communist regime could be covering up how dangerous the disease really was. That same day, he amplified his warnings on Twitter and in an appearance on the radio program of Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade.

At the time, the Senate impeachment trial was dominating the news cycle. The trial, which lasted from January 16 to February 5, had even blotted out coverage of the Democratic presidential primary in the days leading up to the Iowa caucuses. When the first classified briefing on the virus was held in the Senate on January 24, only 14 senators reportedly showed up.

Cotton’s public and private warnings became more urgent that last week of January. In a January 28 letter to the secretaries of state, health and human services, and homeland security, he noted that “no amount of screening [at airports] will identify a contagious-but-asymptomatic person afflicted with the coronavirus” and called for an immediate evacuation of Americans in China and a ban on all commercial flights between China and the United States.

Cotton first spoke to President Trump about the virus the next day. The Arkansas Gazette reported that he missed nearly three hours of the impeachment trial while he was discussing the matter with Trump-administration officials. The outbreak was “the biggest and the most important story in the world,” he said in a Senate hearing that week.

What tipped the senator off to the true nature of the threat? Why was he the first and the loudest voice in Congress to sound the alarm about the looming pandemic?

In an interview with National Review, Cotton is quick to point out that he doesn’t have a background in science or public health, but he does have two eyes. As a long-time China hawk, he found his interest piqued early on by reports “primarily from East Asian news sources.”

“Two things struck me about China’s response,” he says. “First their deceit and their dishonesty going back to early December. And second, the extreme draconian measures they had taken. By the third week of January, they had more than 75 million people on lockdown. They were confined to their homes and apartments, otherwise they were arrested. In some cases, the front doors of those buildings were welded shut. All schools had shut down. Hong Kong had banned flights from the mainland. [These are] the kind of extreme, draconian measures that you would only take in a position of power in China if you were greatly worried about the spread of this virus.”

On January 31, the president announced a ban on entry to foreign travelers who had been in China in the previous two weeks, while allowing Americans and permanent residents to continue to travel back and forth between the two countries. The measure was not as stringent as Cotton’s call for a ban on all commercial flights, but Cotton points out that the president “did not have many advisers encouraging him to shut down travel.” Advisers who were supportive tended to be national-security aides, he adds, while “most of his economic and public-health advisers were ambivalent at best about the travel ban.”

“I commend the president greatly for ultimately making the right decision contrary to what the so-called experts were telling him,” he says.

Of course, while the travel restriction may have bought the United States time, that time was largely squandered by the catastrophic failure of the CDC and FDA to ramp up testing for the coronavirus in the United States.

In phone calls and meetings in early February, Cotton says, he encouraged the administration “to be very aggressive and very flexible when it came to testing and diagnostic protocols. One consistent thing I had seen in the literature from past outbreaks is that the FDA and especially the CDC is unfortunately somewhat slow to act in these circumstances.”

“I did discuss that with the president,” Cotton adds. “I discussed it with Jared Kushner. I discussed it a lot with Robert O’Brien, the national-security adviser,” and O’Brien’s deputy, Matthew Pottinger.

“The CDC should not have acted like know-it-all bureaucrats who had the only medical and scientific expertise to develop tests. We have lots and lots of very capable labs all around the country,” Cotton says. “The FDA should not put all of its eggs in the CDC basket. . . . They were slow to use their emergency-use authorization.” In a January 26 appearance on Face the Nation, Cotton called on the FDA to expedite approval for testing to state and local governments.

“The bureaucracy just didn’t move as fast as it could have,” he says. “Dr. Fauci said it’s not the president’s fault. It would have happened to any other president. But it was a lost opportunity, given the time the president bought everyone with the travel [restriction].”

Does the president ultimately bear responsibility for the failures at the CDC and FDA? “He is the president, and it’s always the president’s job to push the bureaucracy when they’re moving too slowly,” Cotton says. “But sometimes you have to push very, very hard.”

Where are we now and where do we go from here in the fight against the coronavirus? “You can’t have a virus rampaging through society and expect the economy to open up, but you can’t have economic collapse and expect our health-care system to continue to work,” Cotton says. “You have to get the virus under control before you gradually start reopening things like white-collar work and manufacturing capacity and low-density retail and ultimately high-density retail.”

The things the country must focus on over the next few weeks, he says, are building up production capacity for “rapid testing, respirator masks, [and] thermometer guns,” getting “personnel trained on contact tracing,” and developing “procedures and even laws at the local level for individual mandatory quarantines” for those infected with the virus.

Cotton notes that there is still a lot that’s unclear about the virus: It could be far more infectious with a lower fatality rate than has been reported for instance. But then again, “They don’t turn the Javits Center into a field hospital for the flu. They don’t bring in ice trucks to back up the morgue for the flu.”

“Using your own two eyes to see what’s happening in our hospitals,” Cotton says, is “the real acid-test for how serious this virus is.”

This article has been emended since its initial publication.


Link


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Posts: 18622 | Location: One hop from Paradise | Registered: July 27, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Nullus Anxietas
Picture of ensigmatic
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by TXJIM:
Ensigmatic, in response to your last post where you said:

...

So when you say, "people exhibiting a bit of good judgement and consideration for other." Which people are you talking about specifically? What portion of the population, in your estimation, would need to get onboard to have any impact?

I'm not an epidemiologist, so I couldn't say what proportion would be necessary to have an impact.

Again, at the risk of looking like a broken record: In the last few excursions my wife and I, or I alone took, prior to this thing really starting to ramp up, I saw not a single individual taking any protective or decontamination measures at all. That was during three "major" shopping trips (Meijer twice, Costco once), a fueling stop, a UPS Store drop off, and a quick trip into a Walmart. Never mind the people at my gym, even after having been told to do so, not wiping-down equipment after use.

See also Prefontaine's follow-up, a few posts back, and the ETA on mine.

So, how many, what proportion of the population, would it take? Dunno. How 'bout we start out with "some" and try to work up to "many?" Maybe even strive for "most?"



"America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system,,,, but too early to shoot the bastards." -- Claire Wolfe
"If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living." -- Seneca the Younger, Roman Stoic philosopher
 
Posts: 26031 | Location: S.E. Michigan | Registered: January 06, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Green grass and
high tides
Picture of old rugged cross
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I have expressed my disdain for buying crap for the chicom machine for years on this very forum. The vast majority here have popood my sentiment on that very topic and boosted how satisfied they were with their Chinese trinket's. I surely hope all of this will wake those of you up. One can only hope.

And yes I too have products from the communist shithole. But try very hard to spend my $ elsewhere when possible.



"Practice like you want to play in the game"
 
Posts: 19954 | Registered: September 21, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Get my pies
outta the oven!

Picture of PASig
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Ronin1069:
Dear China,

Well done. This is definitely "flattening the curve"!



Are you for real?

The only thing the Chicoms do well is lie their asses off.

They stopped counting, plain and simple.


 
Posts: 35153 | Location: Pennsylvania | Registered: November 12, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by StarTraveler:
quote:
Originally posted by lastmanstanding:
quote:
If they really intend take us down more than a few pegs, an EMP attack might be the modern Pearl Harbor.

Then Bejing and Hong Kong quickly become the next Hiroshima and Nagasaki would be my guess. Don't think Trump is in the mood to exchange military barbs with China right now.


We wouldn't nuke cities unless there's an all out attack on us. If they do a limited targeted attack on one or more of our ships, our response will probably be to destroy every man-made island in the South China Sea since they are military zones. We've objected to them repeatedly and have continued to sail our ships through the area to negate their expanded territorial claim.


Attack our ships? What Chinese Navy or Long Range Air Force are we referring to here?
 
Posts: 4979 | Registered: April 20, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Run Silent
Run Deep

Picture of Patriot
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by PASig:
quote:
Originally posted by Ronin1069:
Dear China,

Well done. This is definitely "flattening the curve"!



Are you for real?

The only thing the Chicoms do well is lie their asses off.

They stopped counting, plain and simple.




_____________________________
Pledge allegiance or pack your bag!
The problem with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money. - Margaret Thatcher
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Posts: 7102 | Location: South East, Pa | Registered: July 04, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Semper Fi - 1775
Picture of Ronin1069
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by PASig:
quote:
Originally posted by Ronin1069:
Dear China,

Well done. This is definitely "flattening the curve"!


Are you for real?

The only thing the Chicoms do well is lie their asses off.

They stopped counting, plain and simple.


I expected members here would get the sarcasm when looking at the graphic. I’ll try to make that more clear in the post.


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Posts: 12445 | Location: Belly of the Beast | Registered: January 02, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by parabellum:
Can we please cool it with the war talk? One thing at a time, gents.


Exactly

Has anyone considered what life will be like w/o
The Price is Right ?




Everyone that can't or shouldn't go out needs it





Safety, Situational Awareness and proficiency.



Neck Ties, Hats and ammo brass, Never ,ever touch'em w/o asking first
 
Posts: 55320 | Location: Henry County , Il | Registered: February 10, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of holdem
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Brett B:
I don’t think that it could be proven either way at this point. But the economic impact of “doing nothing” and just letting CV19 run its course is certainly not zero. According to this paper from 2007, the total annual economic impact of the flu in the US is $87 billion. If simply adjusted for inflation that is $108 billion in 2020.



Sure it could be proven. Nailng down an exact number would be hard, but I 100% agree there would be an economic impact to doing nothing. And it would be significant.

My issue stems from the fact that it does not seem that anyone is doing a cost benefit analysis. Our leaders should be listening to the doctors, then they should be listening to economists, and then they should be setting policy. Right now it seems as if the doctors set the policy. The problem is that in this age of 24 hour news media, Twitter and mob mentality, the majority of people would absolutely lose their minds if this was suggested.

I think this is what Trump tried to do when he suggested everything was re-opened by Easter. But people went haywire.
 
Posts: 2377 | Location: Orlando | Registered: April 22, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by RHINOWSO:
China isn't going to start a shooting or EMP war, regardless of what the tinfoil hat wearers think.

But even if they did, we won't nuke them (unless they start it with nukes first).

What would we do? We'd sink every Chinese flagged ship on the high sea. We'd sink their submarines, we'd stop their economy dead in it's tracks. Without shipping, all of their production capacity means jack shit. Sure they can fly things out, but that wouldn't matter.

How would we do this? Just look at what was our main weapon in WW2? The submarine and there is a reason most of ours are in the Pacific.


This.
 
Posts: 4979 | Registered: April 20, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by old rugged cross:
I have expressed my disdain for buying crap for the chicom machine for years on this very forum. The vast majority here have popood my sentiment on that very topic and boosted how satisfied they were with their Chinese trinket's. I surely hope all of this will wake those of you up. One can only hope.

And yes I too have products from the communist shithole. But try very hard to spend my $ elsewhere when possible.


I'm with you ORC - I go out of my way to buy more expensive American products when I can and voice my displeasure at companies that sell us out for Chinese manufacturing. Unfortunately sometimes it is unavoidable, but I am hoping after this people start to wake up and that will change.

They're not our friends. They'll never be our friends. I will do everything possible to avoid supporting them.
 
Posts: 2690 | Location: Baltimore | Registered: October 22, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Lawyers, Guns
and Money
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posted Hide Post
The US intelligence community has reportedly concluded that China intentionally misrepresented its coronavirus numbers

The US intelligence community has determined that the Chinese government concealed the extent of its coronavirus outbreak and gave false statistics to other countries, Bloomberg News reported, citing three US officials.

Officials transmitted a classified report of their findings to the White House last week.
Bloomberg described its sources as saying that the report's main conclusion was that China's public reporting of coronavirus cases was "intentionally incomplete" and that its numbers were fake.

China was the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak until last week, when the US's number of cases surpassed China's.

US and other Western officials have repeatedly expressed skepticism about China's numbers. Residents of Wuhan, where the outbreak originated, have also publicly doubted the government's reporting.

https://www.businessinsider.co...-stats-report-2020-4



"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible."
-- Justice Janice Rogers Brown

"The United States government is the largest criminal enterprise on earth."
-rduckwor
 
Posts: 24868 | Location: St. Louis, MO | Registered: April 03, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
posted on the Menard's web site:
No one under the age of 16 y.o. allowed in the store, with or with out an adult,

may be asked to show a valid I.D.





Safety, Situational Awareness and proficiency.



Neck Ties, Hats and ammo brass, Never ,ever touch'em w/o asking first
 
Posts: 55320 | Location: Henry County , Il | Registered: February 10, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
semi-reformed sailor
Picture of MikeinNC
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by bendable:
posted on the Menard's web site:
No one under the age of 16 y.o. allowed in the store, with or with out an adult,

may be asked to show a valid I.D.


What’s the reasoning?



"Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor.” Robert A. Heinlein

“You may beat me, but you will never win.” sigmonkey-2020

“A single round of buckshot to the torso almost always results in an immediate change of behavior.” Chris Baker
 
Posts: 11569 | Location: Temple, Texas! | Registered: October 07, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Lawyers, Guns
and Money
Picture of chellim1
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by MikeinNC:
What’s the reasoning?

1. They don't buy anything.
2. They touch everything.



"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible."
-- Justice Janice Rogers Brown

"The United States government is the largest criminal enterprise on earth."
-rduckwor
 
Posts: 24868 | Location: St. Louis, MO | Registered: April 03, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Coin Sniper
Picture of Rightwire
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by MikeinNC:
quote:
Originally posted by bendable:
posted on the Menard's web site:
No one under the age of 16 y.o. allowed in the store, with or with out an adult,

may be asked to show a valid I.D.


What’s the reasoning?


It prevents parents from dragging their entire clan out for something to do. A few grocery stores around here have a 1 person, 1 cart rule. Same reason.




Pronoun: His Royal Highness and benevolent Majesty of all he surveys

343 - Never Forget

Its better to be Pavlov's dog than Schrodinger's cat

There are three types of mistakes; Those you learn from, those you suffer from, and those you don't survive.
 
Posts: 38473 | Location: Above the snow line in Michigan | Registered: May 21, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Tinker Sailor Soldier Pie
Picture of Balzé Halzé
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Rightwire:
quote:
Originally posted by MikeinNC:
quote:
Originally posted by bendable:
posted on the Menard's web site:
No one under the age of 16 y.o. allowed in the store, with or with out an adult,

may be asked to show a valid I.D.


What’s the reasoning?


It prevents parents from dragging their entire clan out for something to do. A few grocery stores around here have a 1 person, 1 cart rule. Same reason.


And if you're a single mom? Or the husband is away from home for over a month because he's working on say...a ship?

Luckily in most areas, curbside pickup is an option, but I wouldn't count on that everywhere.


~Alan

Acta Non Verba
NRA Life Member (Patron)
God, Family, Guns, Country

Men will fight and die to protect women... because women protect everything else. ~Andrew Klavan

 
Posts: 31166 | Location: Elv. 7,000 feet, Utah | Registered: October 29, 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Funny Man
Picture of TXJIM
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by ensigmatic:
quote:
Originally posted by TXJIM:
Ensigmatic, in response to your last post where you said:

...

So when you say, "people exhibiting a bit of good judgement and consideration for other." Which people are you talking about specifically? What portion of the population, in your estimation, would need to get onboard to have any impact?

I'm not an epidemiologist, so I couldn't say what proportion would be necessary to have an impact.

Again, at the risk of looking like a broken record: In the last few excursions my wife and I, or I alone took, prior to this thing really starting to ramp up, I saw not a single individual taking any protective or decontamination measures at all. That was during three "major" shopping trips (Meijer twice, Costco once), a fueling stop, a UPS Store drop off, and a quick trip into a Walmart. Never mind the people at my gym, even after having been told to do so, not wiping-down equipment after use.

See also Prefontaine's follow-up, a few posts back, and the ETA on mine.

So, how many, what proportion of the population, would it take? Dunno. How 'bout we start out with "some" and try to work up to "many?" Maybe even strive for "most?"


Your post makes my point. Despite your observations that no one is taking such steps, you suggest that "some portion" of the population will somehow start doing so voluntarily. Do you not see the folly in your proposal? Even now with worldwide awareness, forced lockdown and daily briefings there are a lot of people completely ignoring these suggested changes in behavior. How exactly does this voluntary sea change in behavior take hold?


______________________________
“I'd like to know why well-educated idiots keep apologizing for lazy and complaining people who think the world owes them a living.”
― John Wayne
 
Posts: 7093 | Location: Austin, TX | Registered: June 29, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Get my pies
outta the oven!

Picture of PASig
posted Hide Post
Stopped at Target yesterday about 1 pm and noted the following, some of which was kind of surprising:

1. Was pretty quiet, thank God
2. They had one guy whose only job was to wipe down shopping carts and direct you to the cleaned ones.
3. They had one guy whose only job was to wipe down the CC terminals after each use at the self checkout lanes
4. They had a lot of TP! I guess supply is finally catching up to demand
5. There were happy-sounding-yet-dystopian PA announcements about minding your “Social Distancing” at all times
6. Food shelves were not stripped bare like in other supermarkets in the past few weeks around here. There are odd shortages in things like Vitamin C, pasta sauce, disinfectant wipes


 
Posts: 35153 | Location: Pennsylvania | Registered: November 12, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Lawyers, Guns
and Money
Picture of chellim1
posted Hide Post
I guess it's good to be King...

King of Thailand Maha Vajiralongkorn is currently self-isolating from the Chinese coronavirus in a luxury hotel in Germany with an entourage of 20 concubines and female servants, local reports claimed this week.

While the majority of hotels in Germany are closed as a result of the nationwide quarantine, the 67-year-old is believed to have booked out the entire Grand Hotel Sonnenbichl in the Alpine resort town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen after local officials gave him “special permission” to do so, according to the German tabloid Bild.

Rather than isolate alone or with close family members, Vajiralongkorn moved in a team of 20 concubines and female servants. His planned entourage of over one hundred people was reportedly scaled down after 119 members were sent back to Thailand amid suspicions they had contracted the virus.

It is unclear if any of the king’s four wives are in the hotel with him.

https://www.breitbart.com/nati...-20-female-servants/



"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible."
-- Justice Janice Rogers Brown

"The United States government is the largest criminal enterprise on earth."
-rduckwor
 
Posts: 24868 | Location: St. Louis, MO | Registered: April 03, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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