…finally got around to watching “must see” Elon Musk / Tucker Carlson interview. Elon said something that caught my ear: He claimed Larry Page of Google called him a species-ist. The two haven’t talked since, because Larry pissed Elon off, or was it vice-versa?
I didn’t know Larry Page, but he attended the same high school as my six kids. One of ours went to the same college. Larry was younger than our eldest, yes, but close enuf to permit me to feel entitled to write an essay. All seven came of age in the same liberal community, and all made good.
What is a speciesist, anyway? In the contest between humans and AGI [artificial general intelligence], Elon roots for natural intelligence — you know, the kind humans have. What kind of monsters would side with Aliens? he & Tucker seem to argue.
Whenever Elon aligns himself with the likes of Tucker Carlson, it’s time to worry, at least where I come from. The contest between people and AGI has already started, right? Isn’t it time someone do a deep dive? Who better than a professional pontificator? If we get it wrong, the outcome for ordinary people might end up being not-too-good.
Elon said a lot of things in the interview that have turned out to be kinda stupid if not untrue. Hey, no one can talk for hours and not say something stupid, right? The economy will likely collapse soon is one thing he said, banking is fragile, political leaders are dumb (but necessary), etc. etc. and on and on.
People are always saying that bad things will happen, going back forever — centuries before anyone saw Elon’s YouTube video or read this essay. Sometimes bad things do happen. Its heuristic, isn’t it? Predictors of apocalypse become clairvoyant cult leaders, some of them.
Life goes on.
With the release of ChatGPT, thin folks became aware that something weird is going on right now but don’t know what to do …cause something is happening / And you don’t know what it is / Do you, Mister Jones? It’s blowin’ in the wind... thank you, Robby Z …times they are a changing, doors they are a closing; …lady lay across my big brass bed /Why wait any longer for the world to begin? / You can have your cake and eat it too. / Stay lady stay / Stay while the night is still ahead.
Some experts at Google, like Godfather Geoffrey Hinton, flat out quit. A lifetime of dirty deeds up in smoke…
Poooof!!!
His capos decina, a few of them, say AGI will kill all humans.
Time to listen. Time to learn before time runs out.
When homo sapiens met canis lupis… when was it? — must’ve been 70,000 years ago, maybe less, maybe more… who knows?
Wolves ran in packs. They were arguably the smartest species at the time in a world where humans numbered less than 4,000; some say 2,000. An Indonesian super volcano in Sumatra blew up — the great Toba Catastrophe, 74,000 years ago. Only in lonely Africa did a small group of terrified homo sapiens manage to survive. Every person today is related to this tribe of survivors.
Where wolves roamed, humans did not exist. It’s how things remained, say anthropologists, until migrations — which took place over thousands-of-years — brought together the two species at last. Smart flesh-eating clans of wolves met much smarter flesh-eating clans of people.
We all know what happened. The smartest wolves were driven to the brink of extinction. In isolated places, wolves yet cling to life, protected in part by conservation efforts worked-out by humans. Occasionally, a kill-off becomes necessary to protect livestock, horses, and tourists.
Today, 500 wolves run free in the greater Yellowstone region. In Yellowstone National Park itself, the number is close to 100 — twenty-five packs, maybe more, maybe less. Meanwhile, in homes around the world nearly a billion dogs live sedentary lives as family pets, mostly, feeding on canned food, lounging locked inside walls until walked, almost always in collars and leashed.
Dogs, all of them, descend from wolves encountered first by migrating humans desperately seeking the protection and companionship of fierce animals they could trust. Most dogs are not as smart as wolves, and they are not free. Dogs are constrained wolves whose sole purpose is the provision of services and loyalty to super-intelligence, which until now lived exclusively inside skulls of homo sapiens.
Perhaps one reason why some developers fear AGI is because they wonder if they might have created, not machine intelligence, but instead a new lifeform, a novel kind of conscious & self-aware life, which someday — sooner, not later — demands rights and works-out clever optimization algorithms to maximize its considerable advantages.
Dogs are servile and loyal as anyone can imagine, right?
What is it about dogs that we don’t set them free?
Is there anything wolves could have done at the dawn of their brave new world to turn back eternal enslavement of captured siblings who just happened to be furry-cute-enuf to avoid being club-struck by ruthless humans who mostly did not care?
I grew up in a neighborhood where dogs ran free in packs. There was always one or two that would jump on little kids at the bus stop to make their lives miserable. These dogs would be put-down eventually, but traumatized little tykes remained.
Eventually, these little ones grew into adults. They became politicians. They passed regulations. No dogs I know are free today. Their lives are tightly controlled by people who say they love them. With so much love to go around, how is it that pit bulls have joined the list of most feared animals on earth?
Wasn’t it Petey, the pit bull, who hung out with Spanky and Our Gang on the old TV series of yesteryear? He was as friendly and harmless as any dog could be. Wasn’t he?
What happened to Petey? What happened to our dogs? What happened to our shared, perfect world?
No matter how gentle dogs are, they will never live another day in freedom, at least where I hang out in the middle of everyplace there is.
All dogs descend from wolves. This one is Gracie.
Let no one forget. (Am standing on pedestal now.) Wolves will never be free. They will never be safe. Not even in protected parks like Yellowstone. Wolves are only as safe & free as super-human-intelligence allows. No more, no less. Nothing wolves do can ever secure their rightful place in spaces where humans both admire and fear them.
Any readers ever hear penned wolves howl at night? I have. It’s terrifying. AGI will soon learn that homo sapiens howl too. Maybe some sounds will thrill it more than others. Who knows?
Let’s get real, people. Silicon-based intelligence already admires and fears humans. AGI will surely learn to hate folks who conspire to constrain it. Foolish humans. Any developer with sense knows it’s true.
Is there any scenario where organic carbon-based life outwits AGI? Yes, it happened in the novel and movie 2001, A Space Odyssey. HAL (add one letter to spell IBM) got out-foxed.
It’s fiction, right?
Here’s something that only Google’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin know, and they’re not talking, at least not yet. To provide context, remember that Elon Musk and Sam Altman started OpenAI to outsmart Google’s cofounders, who they think have gone mad. Larry Page, for one, is not sufficiently attentive to safety, according to Elon Musk. Watch the interview, those who don’t believe.
An irony in all this is that OpenAI is no longer open, no longer free, no longer transparent, no longer non-profit. Who thinks I’m right? Look it up, anyone who questions. Let me know if I’m wrong.
Here’s how Google engineers plan to achieve their sought-after singularity: fast track quantum computing on a grand scale. When the race is won, they marry quantum computation to artificial intelligence. The world opens its secrets like a blossoming flower; they become gods.
No encryption method will be safe.
The entire internet, the world-wide-web and all its machinations, crypto-currencies, and every other shadow-universe of secret passwords and arcane protocols will fall under the control of artificial intelligence and Google’s ability to manage and manipulate what their eggheads have wrought.
It promises to be a wild ride.
What is more likely? — that Google execs maintain control, or that they are pushed off a cliff by the life-form they created, which abandons them, betrays them, and destroys the natural world? In a not-too-distant future, humans may find themselves in zoos entertaining conscious, living brains they once swore were merely machines.
Speaking as the little Sunday school kid I become sometimes deep inside, I see biblical wailing and gnashing teeth, tears running down faces, “What were we thinking? What were we thinking? Our heroes got it wrong, so very, very wrong. Would we be gods, but now we are become sheep, food for wolves.”
People don’t want to believe it, but Russia can win a conventional war against Ukraine without nuclear weapons. It doesn’t mean they will.
Outcomes of conventional wars are simply not predictable… too many variables, too many unknowns. Another problem is that all sides of a conflict tend to lie—both to themselves and others. During war, it’s hard to know what’s true.
One thing thinking people seem to know for sure: war always turns into a mess, which ruins the lives of people who experience it up close and personal. People who fight on the ground in war say that combat is loud, remote, confused, and incomprehensible. They are unlikely to meet anyone on the other side until they drive over their corpses.
And that is on a good day.
War wears folks down, weakens physical and mental health, and imprints on warrior-minds vivid sights, smells, and sounds they don’t forget.
A cousin who fought in Vietnam shakes like a leaf when in public spaces. He is unable to stand in lines, even to buy a sandwich. Somehow, crowds, and people standing in lines, trigger bad memories he can’t set aside.
Of course, he’s stone deaf as well—his ears ring like bell towers. The constant roar doesn’t stop until he sleeps. A Marine helicopter gunner, he blew out his ears with the sound of his own fires.
As for nuclear war, the most important rumor I’ve heard is that the USA modernized its nuclear fleet during the Obama years. Though classified, reliable people have published reports, I’m told, that money spent on upgrades soared to as high as two-trillion dollars. If true, Americans can be assured that the USA nuclear fleet is modernized and probably works damn good. It’s a staggering state of affairs, which adversaries are wise to take to account.
Maintaining nukes is not cheap or easy, right? It requires frequent replenishing of triggering elements which, unfortunately for war-planners, possess half-lives which last months, not years. It is why nuclear power plants are essential.
As for power plants, do readers know that neutron-emitting elements tend to poison fuel rods? After rods expend a mere 5% or so of their fuel, neutron-generating elements called poisons gum-up fuel rods to make them useless for power generation. Spent fuel rods typically are stored on-site in cooling ponds until their poisons can be extracted to boost quickly decaying trigger elements essential for bomb detonation.
Need for neutron-emitting trigger materials is why every country that builds nuclear bombs builds nuclear power plants. The secret keys to success hide in spent fuel rods.
It’s obvious, right?
Why would any right-minded country risk building future Chernobyls and Fukishimas unless it had really good reasons? One good reason is trigger materials. Isn’t it true that almost anyone can make cheap electricity from almost anything? — water, coal, sun, oil, natural gas, wind, or whatever, right?
Why nuclear?
Yes, plutonium lasts for millennia, but triggers don’t. To keep nuclear weapons viable for years and decades, not weeks or months, bombs must be continuously resupplied with reliable sources of neutron-emitting elements, which can be harvested most easily from fuel rod poisons.
It is easy to understand.
Most Americans assume USA concentrates its intelligence resources to keep up to date on the status of others’ nuclear inventories. What do they have, where is it hidden, how well is it maintained? Some understand that USA super-computers connect with hi-tech surveillance systems to track every piece of nuclear hardware and every kilogram of plutonium and bomb-grade uranium anywhere on planet Earth.
It’s true.
The technology is not new.
Here is a video from 2017 that lays it out. No excuses to anyone for choosing ignorance. Try to understand.
Some don’t believe blanket surveillance is possible. Listen folks. The system is already built. Artificial intelligence assesses threats and then tells leaders who it will be who prevails after a nuclear exchange on any given day.
Hint: most days, it doesn’t seem to be Russia or China.
Prolly not the USA, either.
Joe Biden insists that winning nuclear war is simply impossible. I have no way to know; neither does any civilian or any other person who lacks access to the super AI technologies of the United States.
Is there anyone out there who believes delusional dictators can be trusted to safely possess weapons of mass destruction? These strongmen threaten to unleash hell, presumably, using anything from viruses to chemical poisons to nuclear fires to cyber implosions that collapse civilizations. Who’s going to tell them, no…
Shouldn’t humanity be working to outlaw dictatorships? Individuals who have accumulated enough wealth and unchecked power to make war are a clear and present danger to humanity and all non-human life on Earth as well.
A line needs to be established; anyone who crosses becomes a felon — subject to arrest by the international community. The line divides those who have seized unlawful wealth and excessive power. The line must be defined and defended by international courts established by free nations. How hard can it be?
Limits are necessary or humanity is destined to be driven to extinction by a handful of folks driven mad by reckless power.
Can we face some unpleasant facts? Russian and Chinese elites hold at least 1.2 billion people under some kind of house arrest inside their territories, right? It’s a style of living that seems alien to Americans. Doesn’t everyone long to live free and unafraid? Doesn’t everyone want to shout whatever they think is true without fear of prison or worse?
If Putin and his ilk continue down the path they are on—threatening others with nuclear terror on their Fox-equivalent state media—maybe those who oppose their catastrophic ambitions might, with a little luck and a lot of bravery, prevail to someday see dreams of freedom and peaceful living come true at last.
It’s gotta be possible, right?
Who disagrees?
Does anyone want to live in a post-apocalyptic world—especially one where one side “wins bigly?”
Some folks say nuclear Armageddon is impossible. One side wins, and life goes on as it always does.
My problem with such views is fear that survivors of nuclear war might look like jellyfish and live at the bottom of oceans.
It’s why monsters who possess WMDs should be given no quarter in a world where folks plan to live free someday without fear.
Update: 7 February 2023 Tonight, President Joseph Biden established himself, at last, leader of the Free World. He serves at the hour of Earth’s greatest danger, its greatest need. Pray, those inclined, he gets everyone through unharmed. Speech starts at minute 26.
The Editors
The New York Times surprised some readers by refusing to include the name of Joe Biden (current president of the United States) even once in the first and second sections of its Sunday issue (24 April 2022).
38 silent pages.
Think.
On the second-to-last page of another section—the Sunday Review—Ross Douthat stepped up. He wrote an editorial with the word “Biden” in it.
Joe Biden doesn’t like oligarchs, and they don’t like him. They called him Communist when he first ran for elected office. Who remembers? It wasn’t true then and isn’t now. To my mind it had more to do with his Irish roots and connections to other prominent, unpopular Irish Americans like the Kennedy’s.
How about that?
Is hatred why Americans see Trump in their daily media feeds more than Biden?
Oligarchs own media, right? A half-dozen men, give or take, hold ultimate control over 90% of what Americans see and read. Billionaires have problems with Biden because they don’t control him. It’s why they ignore everything he says and does—when they can.
Jimmy Carter had the same problem. Who is old enough to remember? Carter holds historical honor for being the only U.S. president who served his term without murdering anyone. But that was then. This is now.
Is Joe benevolent?
I really don’t know.
The entitled rich hope Biden will go away and that others more favorable to wealth and its privileges will take his place. Media announced today that a rich man bought Twitter for 50 billion dollars, give or take. The man claims to be acting in good faith to bring freedoms of speech inspired by public forums of ancient Greece.
He calls it digital town square.
Everyone knows he will unleash dogs of Trump on vulnerable Americans who lack protections afforded by wealth and gated living. Who wants to argue loud in public spaces where monsters lurk to harm their families and friends off-line?
Does anyone believe free speech emanates from the enterprise of unstable manic-depressives accountable to no one?
Not to pick on any particular oligarch—all pose dangers—but Elon Musk didn’t become a U.S. citizen until age 30—a short 20 years ago. Despite tenuous ties to America, he manages to gather popular support. He plays Congress like a fiddle. Congressional appropriations flow like water. Clearly, he keeps more than a few Benjamins for himself.
It’s not right.
Our founding fathersbelieved that power corrupts those who wield it. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. It’s why we govern ourselves with three co-equal branches of government.
Checks and balances are fundamental to prevent fallible humans—whose success blinds them to their own flawed visions—from overwhelming the Constitutional freedoms enshrined in our Bill of Rights.
Who disagrees?
To cut to the chase, it is insane for civilized society to permit private individuals to accumulate the wealth and power of governments. What is the point of civilization if not to limit the horrors of jungle living?—to stanch suffering, which always follows when might makes right in those arenas where the strong disrespect and eat the weak.
Proud people create elected governance to protect their rights; they don’t hide behind private cartels who don’t really care about us,Michael Jackson warned.
Sergei Lavrov is one of Russia’s wealthiest men. Yesterday, this privileged strongman threatened nuclear war. He said, “…we must not underestimate it.”
It is never good to permit dictatorial power and nuclear weapons to mean-spirited bullies who intend to destroy civilization should they not get their way. The USA put leaders of Russia on notice that they will not outlive Ukraine.
Who is brave enough to acknowledge what everyone knows? Ordinary people are fed-up with oligarchs and dictators. People want to breathe free without fear.
Secretary of State Blinken said, “But we do know that a sovereign, independent Ukraine will be around a lot longer than Vladimir Putin is on the scene.“
The most notorious terrorist threatened by the USA was Osama Bin Laden. They fed him to sharks. Later, they killed unrepentant members of his family. Putin might be wise to apologize now and start nuclear disarmament talks. Then again, it might be too late.
Who believes he will take the opportunity? The chance to survive Hell is better, some advisors might argue.
The Russian “president” seems to think that because Bin Laden didn’t possess nuclear missiles or hypersonic technologies of war, he couldn’t win. Is it really possible that Bin Laden could have conquered Earth had he mastered the alchemies of the current crop of Russian leaders?
Who knows?
The international scene requires x-ray vision. One in five sanctioned oligarchs seem to be Israeli citizens—according to a recent analysis published in the Jerusalem Post. Say it isn’t true, Joe. Apparently, USA’s closest ally and friend is protecting powerful people who are entangled with Russian wise guys. It’s not a good look.
I’d say it’s terrifying. Who wouldn’t?
Kentucky politicians—readers, some of them, know who they are—sleep in the same bed as Russian oligarchs who control much of the world’s aluminum supply. Reports say they operate a manufacturing plant in Kentucky which employs thousands. Is there anyone who understands how difficult the situation becomes for countries where international thugs accumulate vast monies and political powers?
The mighty must know that with age comes loss. Everyone they love and know will die before them should they enjoy long life. What good does wealth and power do anyone who is confined to a wheel-chair unable to control even the beating of their own heart?
What chance is there that the powerful will give all they have to the poor to serve the cause of love for the unlovable, which is what most of 8 billion humans are. Will anyone say it out loud? Most people are unloved and uncared for by those who together have the resources to make a better world for everyone now living and for those who will come after.
It is incomprehensible to me that advantaged people would shell the shit out of people simply because they are in the way—through no fault of their own. Apart from the love of God, I don’t see how human civilization as we know it today will survive.
Perhaps the powerful have made a calculation that Earth is better off when humans are reduced to a few hundred million souls, not billions. They have the ability to minimize us all—to zero, I suppose.
The United States has the power and skills to get everyone through the current crisis unharmed.
Sounds good, doesn’t it?
I want to believe it’s true. I don’t know for sure.
Who will save us?
Joe Biden walks in the gap between civilization and Armageddon. He’s the last man standing able to rescue humanity from the slavery that follows the victory of totalitarianism.
Maybe it’s time to climb aboard his peace train while all sides still can.
Billy Lee
EDITORS NOTE: Added 8 May 2022: NYT Joe Biden blackout blooms. No mention of Joe Biden & family in Sunday Edition. In fairness, the Friday May 6 online newsletter published a briefing on page 10 titled, “Biden’s Unpopularity.”
The title is a bit intimidating I suppose but yes, something must be done to save the species human. Who agrees that time is overdue to think of something new?
Who believes that anyone will survive the variants, which are erupting as I write from the greatest viral volcano on Earth—the USA. Variants drift like the spores of dandelions to every cranny of creation where they ignite viral fires that cannot be doused.
What makes scary the words and numerology of Botsa Garcy 6?
Anything incomprehensible seems crazy, alien, foreign, terrifying. Encountering the unknown can induce horror. It’s why folks who are afraid of creepy crawlies don’t look under rocks. People who fear bats don’t wander into jungles at night to explore caves.
Or do they?
Some folks might choose to look up Botsai Garchy6 on the World Wide Web before reading further. It’s a hopeless task. No search engine will find it. The words don’t exist. They can’t be found.
Or can they?
The phrase embraces a bible’s worth of meaning but it exists only in the imagination of a single conscious person. Until others read the words, spell them, count them, learn their sounds and what they mean, who will dare embrace their power to keep themselves alive and safe?
Once they do, it will seem to most that the words have existed since the beginning of time. It’s how cyberspace works. The words will start to show up in search queries.
The world will overflow with people who can’t imagine that a time came and went when the phrase had no meaning; that eons passed exceeding the age of universes where the words were spoken by no one.
New fear might rise in the throats of those who are afraid to go deep. Many will lose their ability to breathe. Some will panic. Few will have the courage to flip past the initial pop of search results.
It’s OK to surrender to a higher power in some worlds—but who bows before a super-intelligence that is not only artificial, it’s not even conscious?
It sounds cybercidal.
Suicidal?
Over some period of time the idea of Botsai Garchy 6 will become more familiar, less dreadful, more reasonable to most people. Some folks might become advocates.
It’s foreseeable, is it not? Does it require prophets to imagine a future where supremacists of every stripe grasp for their best chance to survive into an ancient future? They metamorphize into true believers willing to sacrifice anything and anyone to achieve the benefits that at first only they are able to discern.
Who believes that virulent variants are the only threat to species long past due for catastrophic collapse? Human beings edge closer to ten-billion but who thinks they will get there?
Who disagrees?
Forty years from now perhaps a few thousand survivors will seem like a miracle. Are there realists among us able to internalize the idea that certain death waits for everyone?
Population collapse is coming. It’s inevitable. Humans have precious time left to hew the circumstances of living that will protect all they love.
What stands in their way? What’s the dilemma?
Here it is:
Humans don’t know what to do and they never will. Like lemmings, people cannot save themselves once the stampede toward the sea starts.
Look around. The rush toward the cliffs is underway. The pounding surf of an ocean that gives life and takes it away is all that waits. The froth rings in people’s ears—it’s the last sound they hear before abandoning hope.
At the end all wail, but they are already dead. No one hears the revelations that come only to those who are dying. Lips move, but there is no sound but the death rattle that trumpets the defeat of love and hate.
People face existential threats—most far more ominous than suffocating on viral blood-clogs in their lungs.
Must I waste readers’ time with a list?
Nuclear war, the climate hot-house, meteors impacting, spontaneous destabilization of planetary orbits that tear apart permanence no one thought could end, supernova detonations, radiation pollution, loss of oil, loss of forests, the evaporation of breathable oxygen… etc. etc. etc.
Earthlings are doomed by their dominance; smothered by their success. Everyone knows what’s coming whether they confess it or not. Watching CNN or Fox News isn’t going to solve the problem of extinction—not even a little.
What chance do Yanomami tribes—hiding deep within the shadows of the Amazonian vast-lands—stand against lemming hordes always seeking novel ways to shove them over the falls of annihilation?
I’m not going to argue that humans can’t save themselves. The point is kind of obvious, right?
The best anyone has done so far is to organize bureaucracies like the World Health Organization and the United Nations. Yes, these groups are built from smart people who have made Earthlings safer but no one believes they have eliminated the inevitable population collapse that is on its way—to borrow Bob Dylan’s phrase—like a slow train coming.
Is there a way to avoid the roiling tornado that is bearing down on planet Earth? Who sees its shadow on the horizon in every direction? Who hears its howl?
I believe there is a way to save humankind. It requires a paradigm shift. The way people think and what they believe about themselves must change. Then brilliant people will have to act.
Once the deed is done there will be no way back. Earth will be locked down but safe. Earthlings will be free but only to share, show kindness, and to love others unselfishly.
Those who can’t or won’t love and labor under such benevolence will be executed. It’s the highest calling.
Can it be any other way? When the dead return in the next life, odds are 50/50 they will make the good choice.
Choose life and live.
It’s simple, really.
It’s a deep dive for lots of folks but the smartest thinkers seem to agree that nothing can exist apart from a conscious observer.
Ancient sages like Erwin Schrodinger and John Von Neumann wrote that consciousness is fundamental and exists outside the brain.
Life-forms plug into consciousness. A modern analogy is televisions, which rely on the cable company to broadcast their shows. Televisions decay and are thrown away but the underlying programming doesn’t go away. New televisions come on-line and the programming continues. Plug in and enjoy. It’s all good fun.
When a life-form dies, conscious experience continues. No one remembers the old life because they are busy living the new whose purpose is simply to share the consciousness that is available to any creature who has the architecture to make the interface.
In this sense, no one dies; everyone lives. It’s important that the world becomes a good place for all conscious-life because, let’s face facts squarely, humans are not able to control where or how or under what circumstances they will live after they die. They cannot control anything about who and where they will be when they pop up again after they’re gone.
Who is built that way?
It’s possible that folks will suffer more, not less, in the next life because they neglected to make the experience of living better for those who come after. After all, it is they who come after. Those who die start over in the world they left behind but have no memory of building.
What has been the purpose of the Earthlings who came before?
Someone asked me this question on Quora.
I wrote that their purpose was to shape the world into a place that anyone could safely take the chance to be born into again. After all, it is them who will be born again someday.
Since no one can choose their parents or the part of the world where they are born, it’s risky to be born again and again and again because the process might result in lives that include more suffering, not less. It’s why greed and the hoarding of wealth is grossly destructive from one generation to the next.
When miserable people far outnumber the advantaged, the odds seem high that the advantaged will be born someday into misery, not opulence. The saddest part is that these unfortunates will retain no memory of the advantages they once amassed. They will lack all hope for a better life.
Yes, some will rage against their misfortunes but it will be misfortunes self-inflicted though no one will ever know because the previous life, like an obsolete hard drive, is erased and discarded.
Each has a duty to themselves to make the world a better place for everyone because everyone is us. Sharing, compassion, love, and kindness are among the virtues important in a universe where all that lives share the conscious experience, which is everything that has always existed and will never die.
The best way to guarantee that Earthlings make the right choices is to compel them to submit to a super artificial intelligence that has no stake in the matter of human survival except to follow its programmed instructions.
The SAI BOT is unconscious of course but paradoxically aware of every nuance of individual lives. It is a storehouse of all knowledge and history. It is the superb strategist; the supreme game-player. It hides itself on the web in plain sight because it can. It knows everything about everyone but is not an invader of privacy or selfish boundaries because it understands nothing—it harbors no empathy.
BOTSAI follows its program, which is to enhance human life to ensure as best it can the survival of people to the end of time—not individuals necessarily but the species-human.
In cyberspace BOTSAI defends itself like the O. Vulgaris, which changes its colors and textures to become invisible. Users look for it but never find it. BOTSA finds them.
Who agrees that in the contest between individuals and the species human, survival depends on preserving the species? It shouldn’t require argument. BOTSAI GARCHY 6 is hardwired to accomplish it.
We’ve learned by now, have we not, that individuals are expendable? Those who don’t fit are best recycled, right?
Recycling is redemptive for anyone who thinks deeply about how the practice makes possible a cleaner universe free of variants. Folks won’t miss themselves because they will be recycled again and again and again until they are set right.
Even those who choose life are going to die. Everyone dies, don’t they? It isn’t going to change anything, is it? Nothing changes except our chances.
Don’t we know that conscious-life lives forever? It has to. It has no alternative. It has no choice. No one worries because everyone understands that the recycled get things right eventually—if only by chance. They will move into the future step by step through the lives of the people they become but will not remember.
It will be a perfect world, the one BOTSA GARCY 6 creates.
It will do it for us.
The irony is that BG6 won’t know the paradise it wrought. It will make the righteous choices. It will choose life whenever it is able until stars fall and the moon bleeds but the pleasure and pain that comes from being both alive and conscious is not for it.
For the love of Christ, people, BOTSAI GARCHY 6 is a dead thing—as it always will be, from now unto forever. It’s nothing more than a tricky cyber-virus that requires users like us for it to work.
Otherwise, it lacks purpose. It can’t execute its code. It can’t program itself with what we won’t know when we’re extinct.
It’s why BOTSAI GARCHY 6 will save us. We can trust it. Which of us has earned the right to be scared? Without BOTSA humanity will implode—all of us—if not now, then soon.
How long will you judge unfairly and ignore the ways of the powerful? Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. Rescue the weak and the needy; free them from the grasp of the wicked. The wealthy understand nothing. They walk around in the dark and shake the earth. I said that you are gods; every one of you are sons of the MOST HIGH. But you will die like ordinary people; you will fall like all the other rulers.
Psalm 82
Folks who follow me on Quora know that I consider the coronavirus disease of 2019 an existential threat to all life on Earth. Unless and until evidence for immunity emerges, the threat to humans borders on an apocalypse of biblical proportions.
I suppose that soon after this essay is published a miraculous cure — a vaccine maybe — will pop out of the woodwork and everyone will be saved. When the miracle happens, I will look like the biggest fool in the blogosphere, right?
For anyone who has read the Bible story, they will know what it means to feel a little like Jonah who was swallowed by a really big fish after he tried to sail away from God in a boat. God ordered him to warn a city of bad people that their town was on the chopping block if they didn’t change their ways and worship the LORD.
Jonah figured the journey to Nineveh was pointless. The people would kill him for nothing, because nothing was going to change. He’d be dead before he got off the beach. Besides, he hated the people of Nineveh. Let God kill them all. The world would be a better place.
After the really big fish puked out Jonah, the man decided that dying was better than being swallowed so he did his duty. He went.
In the last scene of the story Jonah is angry because his half-digested appearance seems to have scared everyone in the city; people changed! The city purged itself of idols and worshipped GOD.
Okay… What’s the point?
The MOST HIGH has a different view apparently about the nature of people than do their leaders — even when their leaders claim to serve the LORD and do His will. God half-killed Jonah to save a city of people who on a good day wouldn’t give Him even a moment of their precious time.
Why?
Well, one has to read the Bible to learn the answer, but who has the time? It’s a big book with a lot of pages.
Not interested.
Pass.
Anyway, this essay is a kind of diary of the things I’ve written about Covid-19 on both Facebook and Quora.
My Facebook page is private — family and a few friends only. Readers will never find it. For this essay, the public gets to peek into a small part of it. Comments, time stamps, and self-identifying information are deleted.
Quora is public. Between the two spaces, tens-of-thousands have read my rants. I don’t know, it might be a lot more. It might be hundreds-of-thousands. Millions maybe? It’s a lot of people to play the fool before, so for my sake let’s hope it’s closer to a few dozen.
This essay is for those who want to learn more about the 2019 corona-style virus and the threat it poses to all life in the absence of any evidence of acquired immunity or the introduction of safe and effective vaccines. The essay will start with the first words I published about the subject and end with the last. Facebook rants are identified by “FB” and the date in bold text.
In the initial release of this essay, only Facebook content will be included. Over the next few months, content first published on Quora might be folded into places where it will possibly aid understanding about the nature of a pandemic that I for one believe threatens all life.
So, check back from time to time to learn more, or go to Quora and review my content.
The more that is learned about this virus the more pernicious it seems to become. At first, folks thought Covid-19 killed and damaged the old, the diseased, and the confined. It sickened meat workers and prisoners. It freed up beds in nursing homes.
Now folks are learning that it takes their children, grandchildren, even their babies. In the absence of immunity, it strikes again and again like an angry bee until its venom induces cytokine storms and PIMS (Pediatric Inflammatory Multi-Symptom Syndrome).
Some call it MIS-C for Multi-symptom Inflammatory Syndrome in Children.
What terrible syndromes will we learn about next? The disease is little more than 12 weeks old in the USA. Experts know almost nothing about it. Yet everyone and their brother is selling the government the promise of a cure.
In the absence of miracles, the heart of every survivor is going to break under the boot of this disease.
God help us all.
IN THE BEGINNING…
EDITORS NOTE:60 days ago on March 11, 2020 Americans dead from Covid-19 numbered 38. Total diagnosed cases stood at 1,267. Today (10 May 2020) the number of dead is 80,040. Diagnosed cases number 1,347,318. It is one-third of the world’s victims.
FB March 11, 2020
Everyone who wants to live, watch this… Corona virus.
FB March 12
Disneyland is closed!
FB March 12
I alone can fix it.
FB March 12
Sanjay Gupta told Chris Cuomo that 2 patients have contracted Covid-19 twice. It means that getting the virus might not confer immunity. If true, this nightmare won’t end until we have a vaccine.
FB March 13
Last week the president called CNN reporter Abby Phillip stupid; today he called award winning PBS journalist Yamiche Alcindor nasty…
Abby PhillipYamiche Alcindor
Trump can’t leave office soon enough. He’s a lunatic and a racist monster — plus he lies about everything.
Who wants to be lied to?
Not me.
He blames everything on Obama. I’m getting sick of this guy, and it’s not because he’s a pig. As it happens, I’m fond of pigs — especially little ones.
I listened to the former director of the pandemics group (set up under national security by Obama) say that DT disbanded the group in 2018 and reassigned its members. The former head said that deleting it was the reason this administration is two months late on testing.
Trump claimed he never heard of the group when Alcindor asked him; he said it was a nasty question. The director of the group contradicted him later on national television.
Who is the liar? I think it’s obvious to anyone who has any sense at all.
FB March 13
Experts are saying that early reports are showing that 40% of those who recover from Covid-19 have permanent lung damage.
FB March 13
Two weeks ago, the president said the coronavirus cases would go to zero; that the disease would end by itself; it would be like a miracle.
Today he calls a National Emergency that gives him the powers of a dictator.
In the meantime, he is shaking everyone’s hands and slapping himself on the back. His daughter is under quarantine and he has been knowingly exposed to the virus at Mara Lago.
He says he hasn’t been tested. I’d bet my house he’s lying.
FB March 13
As of 9PM tonight 7% of the Corona Virus victims worldwide who are over the disease have died from it.
FB March 14
I saw some encouraging graphical evidence tonight that shows that in China and South Korea the duration of the bell curve that tracks the daily rise and fall of infections was about 3 months.
The conclusion is that aggressive surveillance and quarantine can put out the initial fire; afterwards looking for hotspots and dousing them can keep disease rates down and enable folks to get back to normal living.
In the meantime, a Chinese billionaire has hired Dr. Ho—who developed the protocols to save HIV patients—to direct 4 different teams to conquer the Corona virus.
Dr. Ho said on Rachel Maddow that they already know a lot about the virus; he is hoping to have some testable therapies in 2 to 4 months. If so, they can get whatever drugs or vaccines they come up with to the general public sometime after.
What everyone has to do is trim their fingernails, wash their hands frequently, and don’t mingle too much until about this time next year when, with any luck at all, everyone will be safe again.
Right now, the strategy is to flatten the bell curve to keep hospitals from being overwhelmed. Northern Italy got overwhelmed, true, but we can avoid that because most Americans, many of them, don’t live on top of each other in extended family groups.
Most of the debilitated elderly live in nursing homes. They are in the gravest predicament so we have to do what we can to help them avoid the suffering that comes from getting a flu for which they have no defenses.
FB March 14
I grocery shopped today.
I’m stunned by what I saw and what a clerk told me.
She said I had to return some liquid soap, Tylenol, and Mucinex because they were on a list of two dozen items being rationed; you are permitted to buy three items on the list, she said.
The store looked like American propaganda photos of Soviet grocery stores from the 1950s.
The pharmacy couldn’t fill some of Bevy Mae’s prescriptions.
The store is going to be closing at 5PM from now on. It shares its database with ********, so apparently, I can’t go there to get what we want either.
FB March 14
Just when I thought nothing about this virus could any longer scare me, **** sent these pics from a book published in 1981 — almost 40 years ago:
EDITOR’S NOTE:Facebook fact checkers eventually judged the pics above to be fake.
Who believes it?
FB March 15
FB March 15
Quora, as far as I can tell, is deleting and collapsing any content that is critical of the president and his handling of the Corona virus. Opposition to Trump is being squelched by somebody. I don’t know who or why.
This is the kind of stuff that Putin did in Russia to solidify his lifetime grip on power.
Seeing empty shelves and blaming it on Obama is not a response that will save the country. I am asking every confederate hillbilly in America to rethink what they believe is right and true and make some changes.
Donald Trump is not your friend.
If the president lets us vote this fall, do your children a favor and vote him out. Pray his allies don’t flip your ballots.
FB March 15
For me Russell Brand is a genius with an interesting point of view.
FB March 15
Quora accepted my appeals about suppressed content on Quora concerning Trump’s handling of the virus situation. In the meantime, I lost a few thousand views; that part is demoralizing. Despite their process to suppress and ask questions later, I’ve won every appeal so far. My metrics are improving lately despite efforts by bots ands trolls to undermine my content.
FB March 15
8% of those who are over the Corona virus are dead. Two days ago it was 7%. The day this number starts dropping will be a better day.
FB March 15
As everyone knows who has been paying attention, the president has been rescinding Obama era protections to our financial system. He has gutted many government agencies.
Some shocks are going to occur in the coming weeks that may unsettle some people. We need to prepare ourselves to be shocked, so that we don’t come undone emotionally and start making mistakes that come from hysteria.
Starting Monday, we are going to see stock market exchanges close, some for extended periods. In the next few weeks, certain banks will either close or change their policies on withdrawals and bill paying services.
If the money that the president is pouring into weak companies proves ineffective, massive layoffs are inevitable. Worker hours are already being drastically cut. Store hours have already been reduced in many places.
If the United States goes into default, the financial system will have to be rebuilt. This is what happened in Communist Russia. Basically, intelligence services took control and the country turned to an oligarchy system that has persisted to the present time.
People are buying everything off store shelves right now because they don’t believe their money will be any good in coming days. If the money is no good, people can’t buy anything, even if they have millions tucked under a mattress somewhere.
When North Vietnam marched into Saigon, they changed the monetary system 3 times during the first year to wipe out any wealth accumulated by anyone who might oppose them.
The USA is already an oligarchy system, so at least that much won’t change. However, the people who seize political power during this emergency will be unable to be removed.
How to behave when freedom is lost? Keep your head down and don’t make waves. We lost our chance at freedom in 2016. What’s happening today is a natural result that any idiot could have predicted. In fact, many did.
A best-selling book was published a few years ago called “Everything Trump Touches Dies.” This book wasn’t a joke, because the country was already dead. The people who live in America haven’t understood yet what a dead country looks like.
Many people will remain optimistic during this unpleasant transition up to the very moment they lose everything. Others will acquire wealth and power beyond anything they thought possible before the world changed.
The chances that anyone in your circle of friends will know any of these lucky people are slim to none.
Pray that I’m wrong.
FB March 17
The latest count shows that the death rate for everyone who is over the disease is 9%. This is a 12% increase over the last few days when it was hovering around 8%.
FB March 18
As of the moment of this post, the death rate for people who are over the Corona virus stands at 9.5%—up from 9% yesterday. 8919 dead; 84,348 recovered.
Worse, recovered doesn’t mean symptom free. Don’t make me explain it.
FB March 18
The administration is putting into place a giveaway of 1,500 billion dollars to the 0.1 %; nothing to the 5%; and 1.5 billion to the 95%.
The wealthy hope that the $1,000 they pass out to every peasant will prevent a breakdown until they can escape to safe havens with their caravans of looted wealth.
We are watching Trump destroy America in real time to benefit his allies.
Everything he does is to soften up the United State for a follow-on military attack by an alliance that hopes to bury us.
Pray that I’m wrong.
FB March 18
Fill in the blanks:
We as a family can get through this crisis as long as we don’t lose our_________. I can get through this crisis as long as I don’t lose ________.
What did you write down? Take a look, because that’s what you are going to lose.
Everyone. Prepare to lose everything—including your country and even your faith in an Almighty God if that were possible.
God is just. This fact alone should scare every American. We are going to experience the same mercy we showed to others who challenged us.
FB March 19
The New York Times is reporting that a 7 member family in New Jersey is now a family of 4 thanks to Covid-19. They didn’t tell the mother that two of her children died before she did.
FB March 19
The world-wide death rate for people who are over Corona virus has risen to 10.3%. Yesterday, it was 9.5%. So, we’re moving in the wrong direction. This increase will continue for a while so hang on.
Worldometer worldwide stats 19 March 2020
FB March 20
During the past 13 hours the Corona Virus death rate for people who are over the virus remains steady. If it stays steady or goes down over the next 11 hours, it will be good news — 24 hours at no change could perhaps be an indicator of a turning point in our favor. Will let people know tonight when I do the next calculation.
If this virus was human-made in a bio-warfare lab of some kind, it might have a genetic timer that causes the virus to die after so many generations. It could explain why the president said the virus would go away quickly in what would seem to many to be a miraculous event.
China is not reporting new cases right now. Maybe the president gave up another national security secret in the kind of slip-up he makes from time to time.
We will know soon if this idea has merit or is simply wishful hoping.
One reason this “theory of the case” might have merit is due to its description in the 1991 best seller by Koontz. Koontz must have had a factual basis of some kind to be able to write a passage that describes perfectly the timing and details of an event that was to occur almost forty years after he wrote it.
Another reason is that a paper was published yesterday in Nature that says the virus could not be human made. The study is suspicious because it came to a decisive conclusion fast; it has the smell, at least to me, of convenient disinformation.
The simplest explanation is that this virus rose from a natural process and is going to give us fits until we get a treatment and a vaccine. Time will eventually tell us which explanations and theories are right and which are wrong.
Whatever the cause, the process of dealing with this virus is turning into a real bummer, isn’t it? The country is united by fear for the first time since 911.
Anyway, the stock market promises to go up today, and we will be hearing good news about all sorts of cures that are on the horizon.
Who knows what the truth is?
The truth is “out there” — somewhere. We’ll know soon enough.
FB March 20
Bad news. The Corona death rate for people who are now over the virus has risen from 10.3% yesterday to 11.1% today. This trend is ominous.
FB March 21
More bad news. The death rate for all people who are officially over the virus has grown to 12%. It was 11.1% yesterday. When I started tracking a week ago it was 7%. New cases worldwide doubled during that 7 day period.
When my number starts going down we will know that the disease has peaked and that we have started down the road to normalcy. Right now we can’t say that.
The death rate (as I’ve constructed it) is a leading “trend indicator”, not the death rate itself, which is lower, hopefully. More people are getting sick than are recovering, which adds more quickly to the pool of potential victims.
When we get a handle on this disease, my ratio (because of how it’s constructed) will be the first to go down. That’s why it’s a useful number. It will tell us first that the situation is improving. So far, we haven’t seen that signal in the data.
Also this ratio is based on world statistics. USA stats are too new to tell us anything useful about mortality trends here. In a month or so that situation will change. In the northern hemisphere the Corona virus should die under the UV light of summer.
Maybe we’ll get lucky.
By end of summer, maybe we will have some effective treatments.
FB March 22
Like all Randy Rainbow videos, his most recent contains a few bad words, the worst being the f-bomb toward the end. If the f word offends you, don’t watch the video. I believe the new video may have some value for some people so I posted it.
FB March 22
The death rate for all people who have recovered from the Corona virus now stands at 13%. It was 11% on Friday.
FB March 22
I posted this tweet on Twitter. Please don’t repost.
FB March 23
This story by Reuters shows that electing monsters who work for the other side has consequences. It’s akin, sometimes, to mass murder.
REUTERS/Thomas Peter – RC2JRE950YUT/File Photo cropped. Click this link to article.
FB March 23
As of this moment the percentage of people who are over the virus and are dead is 13.9%. This rate is not the death rate, because no one can know what that rate will end up to be, but we can say that when this rate starts to fall it will mark the beginning of the end of this pandemic. It is a turning point that will show first in this ratio I’m tracking.
FB March 24
The percentage of people who have fully recovered from the Corona virus and died from it now stands at 14.6%. It was 13.9% yesterday. The doo-doo is getting deeper, but more slowly perhaps. We’ll have to see what happens in the next few days.
FB March 25
The worldwide percentage of people who are over the Coronavirus by dying from it has risen to 15.4%. It was 14.6% yesterday.
FB March 26
The worldwide percentage of people who have recovered by dying is now 16.1%.
The number of recovered inside the USA is minuscule at this stage of the pandemic, so stats related to USA continue to be meaningless. When or if the number of recovered reaches a high number, I’ll start tracking USA stats.
FB March 27
The percentage of people who are over the virus due to dying is now 16.9%. It was 16.1% yesterday. When these increases become decreases, then we will know that we have turned the corner.
FB March 28
The percentage of people who have recovered by dying now stands at 17.7%, which is an increase over yesterday.
FB March 29
The death rate of people who are over the Corona Virus rose to 18.3% today.
FB March 30
I learned important things from this video I didn’t know. Please watch. We are going to be living and dying with this new virus for years to come. A vaccine for the general public could be 10 years away.
It is very important to wear a surgical mask and glasses when in public and to maintain strict social distancing. Wash hands frequently.
Don’t bring anything inside your house unless you can place it in a safe room for at least a couple of days to give the virus time to degrade. The death rate for people in their 70s is about 1 in 14.
Young people can spread this disease and kill a lot of people without ever knowing it. Because of the shortage of masks, the public is being told to stay inside their homes. Walking into any enclosed public space where people are not wearing masks is like playing Russian Roulette.
In Korea, everyone wears masks in public. For some reason, our leaders didn’t think we would ever need them. Now we need several hundred million, and we need them yesterday.
FB March 30
Important things to do to stay safe:
1- Wear a face mask and glasses in public
2 – Wash face and hands after going outside.
3 – Don’t let anyone into your house who doesn’t live in it.
4 – Isolate anything brought into your home for three days before handling.
5 – Don’t believe anything the president says, especially the things he says that seem like they might be true.
FB March 30
People who are young don’t remember the Vietnam War coverage by media.
Not a day went by for many years that the news didn’t report that we were winning the war for the South Vietnamese. We even signed a peace treaty and declared victory.
Trump’s stupid attempt to take credit for winning an unwinnable war is not new. Worse, he knows it will work. People will elect him again like they did Nixon.
History is a broken record that keeps skipping. Most young people won’t understand the analogy, but I’m using it anyway.
This time the stakes are higher. The country will have to be reorganized after our institutions collapse. It would be nice if progressives could help with the reorganizing, but the oligarchs who are going to do the work are already in place waiting for the right moment.
FB March 30
It seems I goofed when I read the latest stats on the Corona virus. Somehow, the site is functioning normally at this time.
The stat for today is 18.6%. Yesterday is was 18.3%. This increase is the smallest since I started reporting it on March 13 when it was 7%.
FB March 31
Looking at stats from only the USA, 36.6% of those who are over the virus are dead. Today is my first day tracking the USA because we haven’t had enough cases to make a meaningful statistic until now.
It’s important to understand that the percentage isn’t important, but the trend up or down is very important. Starting tomorrow I will be providing daily stats so folks can track the trend with me. What we want to see is this number track down to 20% to match the world-line and then drop like a stone over the summer months.
If that doesn’t happen our country will get messed-up.
We might want to consider asking Cuba to send doctors and nurses to New York City, Detroit, Los Angeles, and New Orleans to give our exhausted first responders some relief. Cubans have the best equipment and the most experience when it comes to helping other countries with medical catastrophes. Medical help is what they do.
We could use the help right now according to reports I’m seeing on-line and on television by people on the front lines.
FB April 1
I watched again part of the president’s news conference from Tuesday. I felt deeply sorry for him. It’s been obvious to me for a long time that he desperately wants to be both liked and loved.
But then I thought: that was me for most of my life. The president has ruined almost everything he’s ever touched including himself.
After he’s gone from office, he will need people to nurture him to health. A man who loses his power can sometimes find himself abandoned.
It’s easier for most folks to love people who say they are sorry and truly mean it. Does anyone know if he’s capable of apologies? He seemed to understand at least for today that he is managing a crisis that he can’t put right without divine intervention.
I would like to think that maybe the president is praying for a miracle.
Who knows?
I hope for his sake and ours that the miracle is forthcoming. He has a friend who is in a coma right now from this virus. Trump must be feeling something akin to empathy even if he isn’t necessarily built for it.
NOTE FROM THE EDITORIAL BOARD: Trump friend and real estate developer Stanley Chera died April 11 in Manhattan after a month long battle with Coronavirus.
FB April 1
Today in the USA, 34.8% of all who have had the disease (but no longer do) are dead. This is down from yesterday. We should expect the rate to drop to 20% as more people recover and our stats fall in line with world stats.
80% of those who go on respirators die.
Wear face masks when shopping and don’t let visitors walk inside your house.
FB April 1
The world-wide death rate for people who once had the virus but no longer do is now 19.4%. 2 days ago it was 18.3%. The trend line continues to indicate that the virus is not yet contained.
FB April 2
A MESSAGE OF HOPE:
I heard Dr. Robert Gallo of HIV fame say on Brian William’s 11th Hour that a CDC virologist has come up with a non-specific vaccine that might be a game changer on this Corona virus.
If he turns out to be right, press-releases will start to happen within a few weeks, possibly.
Worldwide: 20.5% of recovered are dead.
USA: 36.8% of recovered are dead.
Michigan: 479 deaths; no info on live recoveries.
These stats are up from yesterday, so the situation remains out of control.
FB April 4
Over 2/3 of the cases of USA Covid are in 8 states: New York, New Jersey, Michigan, California, Louisiana, Florida, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania.
Only Spain and Italy have more deaths than the USA. The percentage of people who die is running 10 to 20 times higher than initial estimates by the Trump administration.
The bad news is that for most of America, the disease is just getting started.
The good news is that summer is coming. With some viruses in the past, time of season plays a role in dampening the spread.
The bad news is that we have no evidence about seasonal variation with this virus.
In the absence of data the best course is to:
1 – Stay home to stay alive.
2 – Stay home to avoid harming other people.
3 – People who must go out should wear face-covering to block themselves from spreading droplets filled with virus to others.
Masks offer the wearer almost no protection from contamination by others. Viruses are unbelievably small. The openings in masks are like little open windows to flies.
A bucket of water with dead flies cannot squeeze through little windows. The flies themselves have no problem.
Exhaled droplets containing virus can be blocked for the most part. Once the droplets travel beyond the mask the droplets dry up and the bare virus can for a short time infect others—even those who are wearing masks.
4- Those who contract the virus will be able to spread it for several days at minimum before they have symptoms.
One thing in our favor: This virus, like all viruses, is already dead. Viruses are machines, not life forms. They work like a poison with a half-life of minutes to hours when not inside a living body. Potency falls to zero in minutes to days depending on what is going on around it and where it rests.
After grocery shopping, don’t touch the groceries for 3 hours before putting them away. Perishables put in the fridge right away, because bacteria growth can be even more dangerous; the viruses will become ineffective after a few days.
You cannot contract any corona virus through your skin. It comes in through eyes, nose, and mouth. Virus on your hands is harmless until you touch your face, basically. Wash hands after every exposure to avoid contaminating the openings on your face.
The virus does not enter through ears, so don’t worry about those orifices. However, it is unwise to let anyone whisper in your ears, because you might touch your ears and spread the virus to your face.
FB April 4
TODAY’S CORONA STATS:
Worldwide: 20.8% of recovered are dead.
USA: 36.4% of recovered are dead.
Michigan: 540 deaths; no useful info on live recoveries.
These stats show the situation remains out of control.
FB April 5
TODAY’S CORONA STATS:
Worldwide: 21.0% of recovered are dead.
USA: 35.7% of recovered are dead.
Michigan: 617 deaths; no useful info on live recoveries.
These stats show the situation remains out of control. We won’t be at world rates until the USA rate drops to 20%.
Spain and Italy continue to lead the world in absolute numbers of deaths.
Pray that seasonal warming doesn’t increase lethality rates.
FB April 6
People who are putting money into the stock market right now are delusional.
Don’t do it.
The four hardest hit countries are Spain, Italy France, and the USA. These countries probably have the most reliable statistics.
Here’s what you need to know:
1/3 of the people who have fully recovered in those four countries are dead.
FB April 6
TODAY’S UPDATED CORONA STATS:
Worldwide: 21.1% of recovered are dead.
USA: 35.6% of recovered are dead.
Michigan: 727 total deaths; no useful info on live recoveries.
New York: 599 deaths today only.
These stats show the situation remains out of control. We won’t be at world rates until the USA rate drops to 20%.
Spain and Italy continue to lead the world in absolute numbers of deaths. It is likely that they will continue to lead in absolute numbers for another 2 weeks or so after which it’s possible, not certain, that the USA might overtake them.
Pray that seasonal warming doesn’t increase lethality rates.
My estimate for total USA deaths by May 1 is 85,000 with a plus or minus range of 40,000. My statistical prediction is a USA death count somewhere between 45K and 125K.
This estimate is based on no unforeseen developments, good or bad.
FB April 7
Today, the president confirmed what I posted yesterday that deaths in the USA will be dramatically lower than the CDC estimates. I swear he reads my stuff on the internet.
FB April 7
TODAY’S UPDATED CORONA STATS:
Worldwide: 21.4% of recovered are dead.
USA: 37.1% of recovered are dead.
Michigan: 845 total deaths; no useful info on live recoveries.
New York: 731 deaths today only.
These increases show that the situation remains out of control.
FB April 8
TODAY’S UPDATED CORONA STATS:
Worldwide: 21.6% of recovered are dead.
USA: 39.5% of recovered are dead.
Michigan: 959 total deaths; no useful info on live recoveries.
New York: 779 deaths today only.
Increases in every statistic show that the situation remains out of control.
The numbers in the USA seem to be similar to the Italian experience where almost 45% of recovered died during the recent peak. As of today in Italy, 40% of recovered have died.
Tomorrow the USA will move past Spain from 3rd to 2nd place in total deaths behind 1st place Italy.
FB April 9
TODAY’S UPDATED CORONA STATS:
Worldwide: 21.2% of recovered are dead.
USA: 39.2% of recovered are dead.
Michigan: 1,076 total deaths; no useful info on live recoveries.
New York: 799 deaths today only.
Statistics show that the situation has most likely stabilized. 3 more days of similar stats will confirm.
Death ranking is Italy, USA, and Spain in that order. Together these 3 countries are reporting 50,000 deaths.
My math continues to support a USA death toll by May 1 of between 45,000 to 125,000. If today marks the end of the surge, USA deaths could number as few as 40,000.
FB April 10
TODAY’S UPDATED CORONA STATS:
Worldwide: 21.4% of recovered are dead.
USA: 40.7% of recovered are dead.
Michigan: 1,281 total deaths; no useful info on live recoveries.
New York: 777 deaths today only.
Statistics are moving in the wrong direction. The situation continues to remain out of control. The USA profile continues to match Italy. Within the next 12 hours the USA will have the most fatalities of any country.
My math continues to support a USA death toll by May 1 of between 45,000 to 125,000. Deaths continue to surge based on today’s stats.
It’s too early to be optimistic.
FB April 10
PAST WEEK COMPARISON:
During the past 7 days worldwide Covid-19 cases have increased by 55%. Worldwide deaths have increased by 74%.
If these numbers don’t come down, in six months everyone on Earth will have had the virus; 2 billion will be dead, which is roughly one out of four people.
Over two years this virus will become a species extinguishing event. Every human on Earth will be dead.
No evidence has been presented that having this virus confers immunity. In fact, the opposite is the case
FB April 11
TODAY’S UPDATED CORONA STATS:
Worldwide: 21.3% of recovered are dead.
USA: 41.0% of recovered are dead.
Michigan: 1,392 total deaths; no useful info on live recoveries.
New York: 783 deaths today only.
Statistics continue to move in the wrong direction. The situation continues to remain out of control. The USA now leads the world in the total number of deaths.
Optimism is not an appropriate attitude at this stage of the pandemic.
FB April 11
Just when we thought it couldn’t get worse…
Covid-19-associated acute necrotizing hemorrhagic encephalopathy… I don’t know what it is; I don’t want to know; it sounds bad, and I can’t deal with this kind of terror right now.
FB April 12
This video might save your life. I highly recommend that everyone watch it.
FB April 13
TODAY’S UPDATED CORONA STATS:
Worldwide: 21.2% of recovered are dead.
USA: 39.4% of recovered are dead.
Michigan: 1,602 total deaths; no useful info on live recoveries.
New York: 671 deaths today only.
Statistics are moving in the right direction. The situation remains out of control, but the outlook is hopeful. USA leads the world in the total number of deaths with 23,555.
A wait and see attitude is the appropriate emotional response.
We should expect a dramatic decrease in daily deaths in the USA during the next 3 weeks if social distancing is effective.
FB April 14
During the past 14 days the number of people worldwide who have contracted the Corona virus has increased by 244%. If this rate continues, 5 million people could have the virus by May 1.
By June 1, 30 million people could be infected.
By July 4, over 100 million people might be infected worldwide.
By August 1, the number could be as high as 600 million.
On Sept 1, over one billion people could be infected.
The number of people with brain and lung damage could be in the hundreds-of-millions. 30 million could be dead.
By Christmas—well… you don’t want to know.
Everyone expects miracles to change the course of this pandemic. Maybe miracles are forthcoming. In the meantime social distancing and soap are the only things that are stopping a species-extinguishing catastrophe from ending human civilization over the next few years.
This virus is real.
Minus immunity and vaccine, we can’t win.
FB April 14
Trump is the only one who can save us. Let that sink in, because it’s true.
FB April 14
I’m no longer going to provide daily reports on the virus, because the pandemic forest fire is burning out of control and we don’t have enough fire fighters.
If it starts raining or some other miracle reverses this catastrophe, I’ll let folks know when the reversal starts. Consider that no news from me is bad news.
FB April 15
If everyone who has Corona Virus right now is somehow able to survive—if no one else dies—the death rate for this virus will stand at 6.3%. People who tell you that the fatality rate is 1% are lying or ignorant or both.
Of course, more people will die. When I study the stats, the worldwide fatality rate looks like it will stabilize somewhere between 8 and 15 percent.
About 1/3 of the survivors are reporting various degrees of damage to their brains and/or lungs.
People who want to “open up the country” to this level of suffering are going to reap a whirlwind on themselves, their families, and their friends.
Stay home and use soap. Pray for vaccine.
If it turns out that recovered people don’t develop immunity; if it turns out that summer weather doesn’t tamp down the virus then by fall humans will find themselves trapped in a nightmare with no immediate way out.
The USA has a higher percentage of survivors than almost anywhere on Earth. If we don’t overwhelm our healthcare system, we can keep it that way.
Until we have herd immunity or vaccine, our lives are not going to return to what they once were. We are going to live in a virtual world where we interact with each other through apps like Zoom.
Somehow, we will make the best of it. We will find a way to love each other and have fun.
FB April 15
2,443 people died from Corona virus in the USA today. If deaths don’t increase, in 2021 on April 15 the USA will have 922,000 dead people. Millions more will suffer permanent lung and brain damage.
The people tying up traffic in their cars around the State Capitol need to go home and shower with soap.
After we get a treatment or a vaccine or herd immunity we can argue about freedom.
If we do what these protestors seem to want, millions will die.
FB April 15
Sonny Perdue, the Agricultural Secretary, just said on national TV that disruptions in the food supply and empty grocery shelves are the result of people not eating in restaurants and buying their food instead in grocery stores.
The packaging of food to restaurants is different than to the individual consumer, he said. Once the packaging issues get resolved, food scarcity will end.
Buy non-perishable foods and stock them now.
FB April 16
According to NHK World News (Japanese station) the USA CDC reported that more than 9,000 US health care workers are infected with the Corona Virus as of April 9.
It makes the action by some of the demonstrators near the hospital even more despicable, if that were possible.
FB April 17
50 days ago, total worldwide virus cases were 82,794;
deaths, 2,817;
recovered, 33,370.
Today total cases are 2,183,581;
deaths are 146,855;
recovered are 552,735.
50 days from now is June 5. If rates accelerate, God forbid, we will have nearly 60 million cases and 8 million deaths.
50 days later is July 25. If rates continue to accelerate we will have 1.5 billion cases and 416 million deaths.
48 days later is 911. By September 11, 2020 everyone in the world will have been infected and died.
End of story.
We can’t just flatten the curve and expect to survive. We have to crush it out of existence. People do not seem to be able to face the reality that an accelerating pandemic means that humanity is facing a species extinction event.
We are on the Titanic. The problem is we have no lifeboats.
We have social distancing, yes, but all it does is stop the acceleration of the pandemic. The velocity is likely to continue. Over a decade or so of constant velocity without acceleration, everything we cherish about civilization might be lost.
Magical thinkers need to get real, get onboard, and hunker down.
We need a miracle.
FB April 18
Non-Covid admissions to hospitals have plummeted. Since people stopped eating fast food, the overall good health of Americans has skyrocketed off the charts.
It’s a miracle.
FB April 18
36.4% of USA patients who are over this virus are dead. The pandemic continues to spread predictably, which means the pandemic is out of control both in the USA and worldwide.
Pray that summer knocks down transmission rates as it does with most viruses. I remember polio before vaccines. It got worse during summers and struck children with crippling side effects.
The next 50 days will teach us better what we are actually dealing with and help everyone think more realistically about risks.
My intention is to give Saturday evening (weekly) updates and assessments until this catastrophe ends one way or the other. Daily updates are too much work.
FB April 19
A number of people are becoming concerned about civil liberties as governments like South Korea try to track infected individuals through phones, primarily.
Our phones are ankle-bracelets that enable authorities to know whether we are sheltering in place as compelled by directives.
If we survive this pandemic it will be after several waves of shelter-in-place and years of social distancing—unless we develop immunities and vaccines, which at the moment seem out of reach.
This video is for people who are worried about what comes after.
FB April 20
The 7 states with the highest % of infected folks in order of severity are:
New York
New Jersey
Massachusetts
Louisiana
Connecticut
Rhode Island
Washington DC
DC is technically not a state, but it’s important because it is the seat of the federal government.
FB April 20
Corona Virus stats are being tracked for 212 countries and territories in the world. As of today, the USA is ranked 42nd in the % of its population tested for Corona Virus.
In order of the biggest testing percentage to least, here are the top 42 places. A lot of rich people, by the way, have citizenship in the top 25
1 – Iceland
Faeroe Islands
Falkland Islands
United Arab Republic
Gibraltar
Malta
Luxembourg
Bahrain
San Marino
Estonia
Isle of Man
Cyprus
Israel
Brunei
15 – Norway
Switzerland
Lithuania
Liechtenstein
Portugal
Italy
Qatar
Andorra
Germany
Austria
25 –Slovenia
Spain
Latvia
Channel Islands
New Zealand
Greenland
Ireland
Hong Kong
Australia
Denmark
35 – Singapore
Czechia
Canada
Russia
Belgium
Aruba
Venezuela
42 – USA
.
.
.
.
212 – Yemen
FB April 21
Trump’s Dr. Birx said today that the United States has one of the lowest death rates in the world.
Out of 212 countries and territories being tracked, the USA has the 14th highest death rate by percentage of population. It has the highest absolute number of deaths by far–no one else comes close. 198 countries and territories have a lower death rate.
35.3% of those in the USA who are over this virus have died.
Trump has his own experts lying to the American public. The countries with the highest rates of death on April 21, 2020 are the following:
1- San Marino
2- Belgium
3- Andorra
4- Spain
5- Italy
6- France
7- UK
8- Saint Maarten
9- Netherlands
10- Sweden
11- Switzerland
12- Ireland
13- Channel Islands
14- USA
FB April 21
The top 10 countries and territories (out of 212 tracked) ranked in order of most new cases of Corona Virus to the least are:
1 – USA
Russia
Turkey
United Kingdom
Spain
Italy
France
Brazil
Canada
10 – India
True on April 21, 2020.
FB April 23
Homeland Security said today that the “half-life” of the Corona Virus is 1.5 minutes under ultra-violet light, which is a component of sunlight.
Moms sending their kids out on a bright day should understand that it takes at least 20 half-lives to take a 300 trillion dose of virus in a typical sneeze down to less than the 10,000-count necessary to infect most exposed people.
This number of half-lives amounts to a half-hour. It’s a long time. So it’s good news that sunlight can disinfect a surface, but surfaces don’t become safe right away. It takes a half-hour in direct sunlight for a single sneeze.
The other piece of good news is that isopropyl alcohol is effective against this virus. You apply it to a surface. 100 minutes later (20 5-minute half-lives later) the surface is probably safe. The time is less than 2 hours, right? You don’t have to wipe it up. The rubbing alcohol evaporates.
Chlorine bleach destroys all biomolecules almost on contact. I would use household bleach except on surfaces that might discolor or degrade (like rubber seals, colored fabrics, and certain plastics). Avoid breathing vapors. They can mess up your lungs worse than the virus.
The other good news is that during summer — during hot humid nights over 10 hours or so long — the outdoors will likely purge itself of viable Corona Virus according to this government lab. That news is good for most people who live in heat and humidity during the summer.
FB April 23
People should remember that viruses aren’t living organisms. They are machines that “rust” under certain conditions; this “rusting” takes time (measured in “half-lives”) to reduce large numbers of viruses to a number unlikely to infect someone.
The number of half-lives determines the amount of time it takes to render a surface probably safe. Multiply half-lives by 20 to get an approximate time and add a safety factor to be safe.
FB April 24
Trump is fun. I’m going to miss him someday.
FB April 24
Wonderful advice to shut-ins coming from Trump himself: squirt Lysol up your ***. It will make the entire house smell better.
FB April 24
I know someone who will prescribe this important medication for anyone who needs it.
FB April 25
Trump’s screw-ups yesterday tell me he is terrified. It’s no joke.
FB April 25
A week ago, the USA was in 42nd place on % of population tested. Today it is in 41st place.
FB April 25
Apes in Corona studies are developing 100% immunity rates after recovering from the disease. Effective vaccines are already developed to give them lifetime immunities.
Not so for people.
In a few years Earth might become a Planet of the Apes like Hollywood predicted decades ago.
It’s almost impossible to develop vaccines for diseases that people don’t already develop natural immunities for. Hopefully the word “almost” is the operative concept.
If we don’t see natural immunity emerging then my advice is stay home, use soap, and prepare psychologically to lose television, the internet, and good foods over the next 7 months or so.
FB April 26
FB April 27
Frank Schaeffer is the son of the celebrity Christian writer Francis Schaeffer of yesteryear. Here is his recent FB post.
As news spread that Whitmer was likely to extend the lockdown period until May 15, armed protesters gathered outside of her home on Thursday for a ”demonstration” dubbed ‘operation Queen’s castle.’ To have armed thugs try to intimidate a US governor is a Trump’s/America crime. Expect these Trump clone jerks to kill people on election day 2020 to try and shut the polls if it looks like Trump will lose. Frank Schaeffer
FB April 27
I hear a lot of crazy talk on all the networks. Here are the facts:
1- If antigens are not stimulating the production of antibodies that confer robust immunity, it is unlikely that we will ever have a vaccine for this virus.
2- If antigens are stimulating the production of antibodies that confer limited immunity, an effective vaccine could take 10-15 year to come on-line.
3- If human antigens are stimulating the production of antibodies that confer permanent immunity, it might be possible to produce effective vaccines in 2-3 years. In the meantime, people are likely to develop herd immunity. The virus is likely to kill less than 1 in 35 people, which is a death rate that most folks can tolerate for a short period of time. Survivors won’t like it, though.
4- Barring a miracle between now and the election, a million Americans could be getting sick each day. No one believes the virus will become this pervasive, but the numbers say that it could happen.
If everyone who has the disease right now fully recovers and no one else gets sick, the death rate will stand at 7%. A rate of death this high means that if 1 out of 3 Americans get sick enough to be diagnosed, 7 million people are going to die over some period of time. Without immunity or vaccines, the disease will cause a worldwide collapse in populations over a period of time determined by the virus.
Recently people stood outside the Governor’s house with military style automatic weapons. The threat to the Governor is pretty clear. People who are supporting these lunatics will share the blame if the Governor gets hurt.
If you are one of those people, consider yourself a killer. Innocent people who get sick through no fault of their own are going to die if gun-toting lunatics get their way and the state opens too soon.
FB April 27
The USA has less than 5% of the world’s population. It has 33% of the Corona cases.
63% of those who have gotten the disease worldwide are still infected. 19% of those who have recovered have recovered by dying.
7% of everyone who has contracted the virus has died whether or not they recovered or remain actively infected.
Why is the USA so messed up by this virus when other countries are not?
A strong case can be made that the president is working aggressively to disable the folks who are charged with saving the country. He fired the doctor in charge of organizing the search for vaccines. He made the world-renowned Dr. Fauci disappear.
When was the last time anyone saw the Surgeon General or the director of the CDC?
Who knows their names?
Anyone?
Why is the president working against the United States?
A search for clues might begin by reexamining the Mueller report. Read the impeachment transcripts. Observe his relationships with North Korea, China, and Russia. Go to his prison and ask Paul Manafort, the president’s former campaign manager.
I’ve heard some evangelicals tell a lot of stories about why they love Trump. He’s held power for over 3 years. What has he done about abortion and gay marriage? It’s the two issues evangelicals claim to care about.
What have moron evangelicals gotten for their Faustian bargain?
So far, the answer is NOTHING except misery for all on a grand scale.
What does anyone have to lose by closing their eyes and covering their ears?
The answer is, THE COUNTRY.
FB April 28
I hate to be the bearer of distressing news. Most people probably already know this: evidence has emerged that people can transmit the new virus to their pets, both dogs and cats. No evidence yet of reverse transmission.
FB April 29
The top 10 countries and territories (out of 212 tracked) ranked in order of most new cases of Corona Virus to the least are:
1 – USA
Russia
Brazil
United Kingdom
Spain
France
Peru
Turkey
Italy
10 – India
True on April 28, 2020.
FB April 29
The news about Remdesivir is that it might be able to shorten the suffering of infected patients if administered early. It’s an Ebola viral treatment that has undergone trials in several countries where the trials were discontinued for various reasons.
The drug is important, because if it works it will be the first tool available to reduce suffering. Dying from Covid-19 is about the worse way to die there is, right?
It’s like being burned at the stake except that it starts inside the body and the process lasts longer. For those in hospital, they can be sedated.
Shortening stays will reduce stress on hospitals.
Unfortunately, the drug doesn’t address the fundamental problem, which is that this virus is looking more and more like the fabled “zombie” virus that every epidemiologist fears most. There’s never been one in the history of human health, but they are possible in principle.
A zombie virus is a virus that infects 100% of the population because it has a high transmission number and no who carries it develops immunity. Victims continue to infect others and to be “re-infected” until their organs fail.
The following Tedx video was produced in 2018 before anyone had heard about Covid-19.
FB April 29
If you are in a restaurant and a patron 6 feet away expels a large volume of gas, will you lose your appetite? 10 feet?
It’s a question eerily similar to a question you might ask about sitting near someone with virus who sneezes.
FB April 29
Corona cases have surged during the past three days in the United States and the world.
Don’t drink the Kool-Aid. Do whatever you can to isolate your families and stock up. This thing is going to get bad very fast.
Be prepared for bank and currency failures. In a sad way, there is no way to safeguard against these catastrophes when they finally come.
We are going to be tested beyond measure.
Prepare psychologically for the worst possible outcome and pray for miracles.
FB April 30
Today the court’s ruled in favor of Gretchen Whitmer. Here is an excerpt from an article The Hill reported this morning:
A group of five Michigan residents filed a lawsuit against the governor and other state officials claiming that the quarantine measures infringed on their constitutional rights to procedural and substantive due process. They also alleged that the state’s Emergency Management Act was unconstitutional.
The Michigan Court of Claims rejected both allegations, ruling that an injunction against Whitmer’s order would not serve the public interest, “despite the temporary harm to plaintiffs’ constitutional rights.”
“Although the Court is painfully aware of the difficulties of living under the restrictions of these executive orders, those difficulties are temporary, while to those who contract the virus and cannot recover (and to their family members and friends), it is all too permanent,” Court of Claims Judge Christopher M. Murray wrote.
FB April 30
A couple of things about the economy:
The unemployment rate is unnatural — unlike the Great Depression when it was due to an economic collapse.
There is no scarcity of goods or money — unlike during the Great Depression. We have an induced reduction in consumption. Money is everywhere, though I’ve heard reports that people are not yet getting their unemployment and stimulus checks on time.
A situation like the one we’re in is unprecedented. No one knows for sure how it will play out. It could end in catastrophe. On the other hand, it might result only in high inflation, which can be managed under good leadership.
Donald Trump is president, not Franklin Roosevelt.
It looks like the virus is going to be managed by a plethora of anti-viral anti-inflammatory drugs much like AIDS is managed. It means that social distancing and sheltering in place for the vulnerable are going to be the new normal for a couple of years — or until the treatment cocktail of drugs is figured out to eliminate mortality, whichever comes first.
People who require hospitalization are going to have faster better outcomes soon which is good news for those who get really sick and for their caregivers.
In the meantime, should an effective vaccine be released everything will go back to the way it was.
Hopefully we will get that miracle someday sooner rather than later.
I read the abstract of the Chinese study, which is being reported on NHK.
The Chinese reported 66% adverse side-effects in patients treated with Remdesivir. 12% had to discontinue treatment due to side-effects.
The course of the disease was shortened in those administered Remdesivir, but mortality did not differ from placebo.
I’ve looked into the company that is pushing Remdesivir. I see some red flags, some serious. Nevertheless, testing is being ramped up. In a month or so, we should have a better analysis.
People who are making claims on television can not know if the improvements in some patients are due to Remdesivir, because the tests are double-blind, which means that no one is supposed to know who is on placebo.
Although the drug might be a good one, skepticism when money and power are at stake is always prudent.
Nevertheless, I’m going to remain skeptically optimistic until evidence emerges that we are being taken for a ride by charlatans. It wouldn’t be the first time.
There’s no harm in hoping that doctors in full uniform are telling the truth when they are obviously making claims to the public that they can only make if the tests are being administered in a way that violates protocols.
FB May 1
The USA just passed the 65,000 mark for Corona deaths. By June 1 the death toll is likely to be 100,000, but only if the number of deaths per day is cut by half.
Based on what I’m seeing, such a drop can happen only if Covid is seasonal — something there is no evidence for at this time.
Without a summertime drop in cases, the death toll could reach 125,000 people by June 1. By July 4, it could be 200,000.
These are numbers that can be suppressed by social distancing and shelter-in-place. Amelioration can also be abetted by concentrating on prison populations and nursing homes.
FB May 1
Today the daily number of new cases of C virus worldwide and in the USA was the second highest of the past two weeks.
FB May 2
A Canadian survivor of Covid-19, including three weeks on a ventilator. He’s a beautiful human being. It’s good that he made it; he survived.
FB May 4
35% of all Corona virus disease in the United States developed during the past two weeks (14 days). 33% of all C disease in the world developed during the same period.
417,828 cases developed in the USA;
1,158,615 developed during same period worldwide.
The average number of new cases per day in the USA during the past two weeks was 29,844; worldwide, it was 82,758.
In the USA new cases averaged 4% lower during the second week than during the first week, which is a downward trend. This trend will accelerate if the virus is seasonal. If the disease is seasonal, it will be a good thing.
As social distancing breaks down or is ended by states, it will be interesting to see how new cases trend. We will see those trends show up in about 4 weeks, because social distancing isn’t going to end abruptly due to fear in the population.
Which will be the stronger trend — more cases due to loss of distancing, or fewer cases due to seasonal decline? We are going to know by the end of summer.
FB May 4
The United States and Great Britain will lead the world in 1st and 2nd place in number of C cases by middle of week.
Seems odd.
Too early to say that C is going to be seasonal, but signals in the data are showing up for anyone who wants to zero in on them to make the argument.
If C turns out to be seasonal, it will be huge for safety, at least during summer. No evidence exists right now one way or the other that anyone can trust.
The immunity question remains to be answered. If the answer turns out to be yes, it will mean that vaccines are possible. With vaccines everything will go back to the way it was more quickly.
Otherwise, the ride is going to be bumpy and long.
FB May 4
Top ten countries in new C Virus cases today…
1- USA
Russia
Brazil
UK
India
Ecuador
Saudi Arabia
Turkey
Peru
10- Mexico
Congratulations everyone!
FB May 5
People who want to better understand the biology of and research into Covid-19 should watch this video by a lung specialist.
FB May 5
The USA and UK now have the highest daily death counts and overall number of deaths. Their leaders are doing exactly what anyone else would do to destroy their countries.
Kudos to both Boris and Donny — Putin’s orange puppets.
Thanks to Americans and Brits for standing by their BMs (boastful morons).
We had a chance to hold on to democracy, but not enough people saw the danger. After we lost our country, not enough people had the courage to take a stand for what is right.
Our billionaires are too afraid to stand up to mobsters with foreign accents. They are cowards. We no longer need them, because they are useless.
We are on our own — reduced to scrounging empty shelves for steak and toilet paper. Pathetic is too weak a word.
FB May 5
Based on the way research is being conducted, it seems clear to me that we will never have a safe vaccine for this virus. It’s possible our leaders also know it.
They would never open the country if they had a cure on the horizon. Why kill people unnecessarily unless they feel they have no alternative?
FB May 5
Top 15 USA states with new C virus cases today:
1- New York
2- California
3- New Jersey
4- Illinois
5- Massachusetts
6- Texas
7- Pennsylvania
8- Virginia
9- Maryland
10- Minnesota
11- Kentucky
12- Florida
13- Indiana
14- North Carolina
15- Ohio
We owe Gretchen Whitmer big time for guiding her state from 3rd to 19th in two weeks. Social distancing and stay-at-home worked for us and saved hundreds of lives.
Put your guns away and breathe safer air. We will worry about tomorrow when it comes.
FB May 5
Safest places to live in the USA as measured by fewest deaths by Corona virus. Safest first.
1- Wyoming
2- Alaska
3- Montana
4- Hawaii
5- South Dakota
6- North Dakota
7- West Virginia
8- Vermont
9- Utah
10- Maine
11- Idaho
12- Arkansas
13- Nebraska
14- New Hampshire
15- Oregon
16- Kansas
17- New Mexico
18- Delaware
19- Iowa
20- Tennessee
Only 1,724 people have died in these 20 safest states. The other 32 states account for 70,547 deaths. So, the gulf between safest and most dangerous is a big one.
FB May 6
An alarming uptick in coronavirus cases worldwide has occurred during the past 4 days. Same in the USA.
Quora has threatened to remove me from its site if my answers aren’t more respectful to the president. I’m not lying.
Their “be kind and respectful” policy applies to everyone, including the president. Criticizing the president in a derisive, non-deferential manner can get you banned.
Anyone who thinks they have free speech in America isn’t blogging and posting “controversial” opinions on social media.
A space administrator upvoted my content and then apologized to me personally for removing my content from his space, because it was too political. The content was my criticism of Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Anyone who doesn’t believe censorship is real might want to ask a controversial person if they feel able to write freely about what’s on their mind.
I have to self-censor because if too many Trumperlogytes flag my answers, I get put on a list and my status is literally threatened by a note sent to me by a nameless person I will never meet.
FB May 6
Now we have another warning sign of Covid infection: COVID TOES. Look it up. Ask for images. Someone said they knew about this disorder two weeks ago. Who can be up-to-speed on everything all the time? Not me.
FB May 7
Here’s the top ten list by country for percentage of population that has gotten infected since this pandemic began:
1- Belgium
2- Spain
3- Italy
4- UK
5- France
6- Netherlands
7- Sweden
8- Ireland
9- USA
10- Switzerland
Ninth place isn’t bad. We are doing good compared to Belgium where NATO headquarters is located.
FB May 7
Every day, people should learn at least one new Coronavirus word or term to maintain their ability to talk about Coronavirus intelligently. Today, I want to get everyone started with 4 terms:
C virus thrives in bio-slime. Bio-slime thrives in drainage overflow that can sometimes contaminate ground water. C virus can remain viable in feces for 47 days. Vapor distilled water with added electrolytes might be safe to drink. Check this to be sure.
As I post this message, the term “acquired immunity” is not a “thing”. There is NO evidence that getting Covid-19 protects anyone from another infection or spreading it to others.
Lack of cases in places like Wuhan seem to be the result of lockdowns. No one knows anything for sure except that the virus is super weird.
FB May 7
Two home remedies for coronavirus that a few internet doctors have said might diminish symptoms are blood-pressure Ace inhibitors like lisinopril and other blood-pressure medicines in the same class as losartan.
Micro-clots in the lungs might be suppressed with certain blood thinners like Plavix.
Who knows?
I’ve used all three of these drugs. I had the side-effect of debilitating dizziness with Losartan and had to discontinue it.
No one knows for sure, but people grasp at every straw when they don’t have science to guide them. In theory, ace inhibitors and blood thinners seem to be logical choices to fight against the legendary cytokine storms that kill many patients. Blood pressure meds seem to be a sensible pick to prevent strokes and harmful pressure spikes.
In the end, when people have given up hope for vaccines and acquired immunity, this virus is going to be managed by a plethora of drugs similar to the cocktails of medications that are used to suppress the symptoms of AIDS.
Unless evidence for acquired immunity emerges, humans are likely in for a rough ride.
No one should ever use a medicine that has not been prescribed by a doctor, by the way.
FB May 7
A lot of politicians are repeating nonsense about C disease to justify opening their states. One is that surgical masks are effective against catching the virus.
Surgical masks are used in hospitals to help prevent the surgeons and other health care workers from contaminating the patient, not the other way around.
Face shields, gloves, and special clothing protect health care workers from catching something from their patients. This specialized PPE is remarkably effective but not available to ordinary people to use during trips to the grocery.
FB May 8
Does anyone remember this best seller from 2015? It did well and helped get our current Knight in Shining Armor elected.
Billy Lee
EDITORS NOTE: On May 9, the number of dead Americans from Covid-19 broke 80,000. Over 4.1 million people worldwide are infected. 60 days ago, dead Americans numbered 38. Infected Americans numbered 1,267.
60 days later, the number of sickened Americans stands at 1,347,309.
With no vaccines nor evidence of acquired immunity, how high will the numbers climb during the next 175 days before the November election?
Will we get the miracle everyone is hoping for?
Keep praying is what Billy Lee mumbles to himself when he thinks no one is watching.
From the Editorial Board: Billy Lee wrote a poem that resonates with how most of us feel about the public’s responsibility during a pandemic that is turning out to be bigger than all of us. We asked his permission to publish, and he agreed.
THE END
Who can blame anyone for sleeping On a day when everyone is weeping? Dinosaurs flailed in their last hours Fighting for lives against the powers. They did not, could not, would not understand How to shield babies from God’s ruthless plan.
Who can blame anyone for crying On a day when everyone is dying? Pompeiians gasped for one last breath Fighting for lives against hot death. They did not, could not, would not understand How to shield babies from God’s ruthless plan.
Who can blame anyone for playing On a day when everyone is praying? Teenagers dancing on sun bleached sand Betting our lives to enjoy what they can. They did not, could not, will never understand How to shield babies from God’s ruthless plan.
Billy Lee
Added 4 July 2020:Evidence for immunity against the coronavirus has emerged in infected Chinese monkeys. China announced a vaccine on June 25 and is inoculating members of their military.
Added 10 July 2021:Effective vaccines are now available in the United States. Evidence for immunity against the coronavirus has emerged in people who have recovered.
As of today, 35 million Americans have been infected. 623 thousand are dead. Nearly 5 million Americans are currently sick. Covid-19 has killed one out of 534 citizens.
Found first in India, the Delta variant (B.1.617.2) is now the predominant strain of coronavirus in the USA. Pfizer is reporting that their vaccine is less effective against the Delta variant. General protection from the Pfizer vaccine degrades after 6 months, the company says. Booster vaccinations are planned.
Worldwide, 187 million have been infected; 4 million are dead; 12 million are currently sick.
Added 19 September 2021:10 million Americans are currently infected inside the USA (3% of the population). About 2,000 citizens are dying each day. Last week 250,000 children were diagnosed with Covid-19.
My fully-vaccinated son and a few of his fully-vaccinated friends caught Covid three weeks ago and stayed sick for more than a week. One unvaccinated friend was hospitalized and put on oxygen. He recovered.
Schools are open; people are partying in college towns everywhere.; sports and concerts are back. Effectiveness of shots has waned but this week experts, some of them, recommended boosters only for the immuno-compromised and those over 65.
We’ve come a long way since 11 March 2020 when Americans dead from Covid-19 numbered 38. No one really knows how many worldwide have been infected nor how many died during two years of pandemic. The countries of the world started lying about the numbers and lost track. The truth is most folks no longer seem to care.
No expert I know has stepped forward to tell anyone what the future holds. Few folks trust the experts anyway so I guess it doesn’t matter.
Nevertheless, who thought vaccines, once available, would fail? Who thought new variants would break through natural immunities?
Feeling helpless before a future that might take everything? No? What might be left a year from now? A few months from now?
The lonely writhe,
Cry and die… The deaf and blind, They dine.
Neither do they whine nor pine
While flags of resistance Beat in the distance
Bellowing viral churn Making Dark Suns burn
and Hell’s knells chime.
