 |
| Stockholm, Sweden (courtesy of the site) |
This post was originally published on May 13, 2020. This is an update, January 6, 2021. Since May, worldometer death rates for the US have been calculated at 362,000 deaths this morning. After I wrote this post, Trump appointed Scott Atlas (a physician-scientist who agreed with Trump and did his bidding) as the 'herd immunity' czar to the WH Coronavirus Task Force in August 2020. Atlas was fired/resigned in December. He pushed the theory of herd immunity which led to a decrease in areas of the country handling COVID-19 with stepped up tracing, testing, quarantining. The following is my original May post with updates.
Seeking "herd immunity" without sheltering in, like that which Sweden implements, is one response to COVID-19. Splendid, thinks the GOP. This policy the GOP loves is that the virus, if allowed to spread without sheltering in, will eradicate COVID-19 because everyone gets it and develops antibodies which provide immunity. To what length of time the immunity lasts is not known and at what strength immunity comes is not known. However, the GOP makes its own distinction. In the GOP UNIVERSE, with their irrevocable and illimitable immunity, you won't get it ever again. (UPDATE-this is not known)
Without consideration, the GOP-style immunity sounds reasonable, right? People get sick and recover since the numbers show (at this point this is a projection and guestimated science-it might be higher or lower) 80% of the population will recover. We have around 330,000,000 in the US. If 20% of the population gets it and dies, that's only 66,000,000. The GOP have done the numbers. Better death than sheltering in; the GOP has been "STOCKHOLMED!"
Caveats. With COVID-19 no one knows if the 80%/20% figures are accurate, nor what immunity specifically means. ( UPDATE) For example long haulers are over the virus but not major symptoms. Is that immunity or a continuation of the virus attenuating the "host?"
Is it true this virus morphs, changes and evolves based upon one's immune system? Perhaps. Expert scientists in the field have discovered rare syndromes developing in children: "toxic shock-like syndrome" resembling Kawasaki's disease. And they have seen that the initial symptoms of COVID-19 have broadened in the anecdotal reporting of those who have tested positive, some recovering having never made it to the hospital. Many have died at home of strokes and heart attacks. The disease which began in China is perhaps a different strain than the one which traveled to NYC along the coast from Europe. The facts of the disease have changed as more becomes known. For example it has been found in waste water and in semen. In AIDS blood became a toxic substance. Does the same apply for COVID-19 in a positive, actively alive COVID ASYMPTOMATIC?
So, the roulette wheel of COVID-19 is expanding as I write this. Exactly how and why the disease is changing is unclear; perhaps it is wise to state that it impacts individuals in a wide range of effects before and after one gets it, based upon their genetics and their overall health. And it appears that it leaves lingering effects. Unless one receives an anti-viral like Remdesivir (UPDATE: this information has changed since the fall-update January 6, 2021. Other medications are being used like steriods and monoclonal antibodies) it takes a long time to recover. But there is too much unknown about this virus to be determinative. One must approximate and embrace the uncertainty principle: we must question what we "know" about this novel virus. One thing for sure. It is 10X more lethal than the flu and is incredibly contagious. Its transmission may be by "any means necessary," even to the rendering of some individuals asymptomatic to achieve, with stealth, a greater transmission and replication in humans.
With the current GOP support system of wealthy donors, corporate investors and owners, and Wall Street, a non-working populace is NOT TO BE BROOKED. Are they going to pay unemployment insurance forever? ARE YOU INSANE? THEY WANT HERD IMMUNITY TO FUNCTION IN THEIR WORKERS AND THE CULTURE. Let's do it in the US just like in SWEDEN. In private circles the GOP has been pushing this from the beginning but Fauci and other scientists are not willing to allow leaders to "RIDE THIS BITCH TO THE BOTTOM."
But the wealthy have STOCKHOLM SYNDROME to protect their Wall Street myths? Fine. Let's review.
1) Do we have socialized medicine like Sweden? No.
2)Do we have a high standard of living for the whole country, i.e. $35.00 an hour so waiters/waitresses don't need tips like they don't in Sweden? No.
3)Is there a Fox news and alternative media equivalents calling COVID-19 a HOAX in Sweden or spreading misinformation that this is just the flu? No.
4)Does the Swedish populace take the danger of COVID-19 seriously? Yes
5)Does the Swedish populace believe and follow the social contract and social responsibility? Yes.
6)Does the Swedish community respect and love the elderly to not spread the infection to them? Yes.
7)Is the Swedish community generous and caring, putting others first to not spread the infection? Yes
8)Are CEOs of Swedish corporations making up to 900X more than their workers? No
9)Does the Swedish populace care for the stress on healthcare workers, not to spread the infection? Yes.
10)Might Swedish hospitals be overcome, letting people with COVID-19 die in the hallways? No
11) Are Swedish hospitals and healthcare state of the art? Yes
12) Is their excellent healthcare system due to SOCIALIZED MEDICINE? Yes
13) Does the Swedish populace gather in crowds of 10 or more in Sweden? No
14) Does the government trust the Swedish people to understand not to spread the virus? Yes
15) Do the people trust the government to keep them safe, well informed and secure? Yes
16) Is there a great economic divide in Sweden of uber rich and poor? No
17) Does the populace have enough to eat in Sweden? Yes
18)If they don't have enough to eat, can the Swedish people get help to improve their lot? Yes.
19)Does the Swedish populace get the best bang for their tax dollars to have a superior culture and high standard of living? Yes.
20) Is the high standard of living because there is relative financial equity and no great divide between rich and poor? Yes.
Say I want to strive for herd immunity as they accomplish it in Sweden, in other words be Swedishized with Socialized Medicine and financial equity.
Mitch McConnell will never allow it.
GOP and rich donors will never allow it.
For profit hospitals and insurance companies will NEVER allow Socialized Medicine.
The government has no intention of keeping the American taxpayer safe and secure economically.
The wealthy are exacerbating the economic divide between rich and poor, not decreasing it.
But why is the GOP pushing herd immunity in the US, when it has no intention of being SWEDEN?
They want to create the illusion that the idea will work to get us believe it. They wish to make us STOCKHOLMED.
So the results of trying to achieve herd immunity in the US will never be the same results as in Sweden?
No.
Is it true that pushing the GOP UNIVERSE of herd immunity, "stockholming the public," indicates the GOP doesn't care if this protocol exacerbates death?
Yes.
What if the death toll in one year (it won't be over unless the virus is eradicated) is larger than WWII (we have achieved this exploit thanks to Trump and the GOP) and the Civil War deaths (362,000 deaths as of January 6, 2021) over 4-5 year period? Will the GOP care then?
No
Will the GOP care if the death toll exceeds that of the Spanish Flu globally in 2 years?
No. Sixty-six million (20% of the population) exceeds the numbers who died from the Spanish Flu in the US. There is no way to calculate the number dead even today since people have died at home of COVID-19 unable to get a test, get to the hospital in time or chose to die at home.
So the rich who shelter in their mansions and have access to tests, drivers, limos, private planes, maids, cooks and other help and all the PPE they need will probably never get this virus?
The likelihood is very low. Tom Hanks and his wife are not in that category of rich.
So the GOP and rich bottom line is more important than Americans suffering and millions of Americans getting COVID-19?
Yes.
If Americans are asymptomatic, might they suffer the loss of loved ones infected by them if they don't take precaution at home when they return from a trip "outside"?
Of course. Massive testing must be done to gauge whether one is asymptomatic. Massive testing is not happening. It will not happen because the GOP and Trump have STOCKHOLM SYNDROME. And they want the American public to be "stockholmed."
If the GOP is "stockholming" the American people, what does that mean?
With malice aforethought, Trump, the GOP and his enablers are slowing down an effective response to COVID-19 to "speed up" the herd immunity GOP style. The result is misery, death and desolution of the US as a democracy, something which Vladimir Putin looks forward to along with Trump's reelection.
Without consideration, the GOP-style immunity sounds reasonable, right? People get sick and recover since the numbers show (at this point this is a projection and guestimated science-it might be higher or lower) 80% of the population will recover. We have around 330,000,000 in the US. If 20% of the population gets it and dies, that's only 66,000,000. The GOP have done the numbers. Better death than sheltering in; the GOP has been "STOCKHOLMED!"
Caveats. With COVID-19 no one knows if the 80%/20% figures are accurate, nor what immunity specifically means. ( UPDATE) For example long haulers are over the virus but not major symptoms. Is that immunity or a continuation of the virus attenuating the "host?"
Is it true this virus morphs, changes and evolves based upon one's immune system? Perhaps. Expert scientists in the field have discovered rare syndromes developing in children: "toxic shock-like syndrome" resembling Kawasaki's disease. And they have seen that the initial symptoms of COVID-19 have broadened in the anecdotal reporting of those who have tested positive, some recovering having never made it to the hospital. Many have died at home of strokes and heart attacks. The disease which began in China is perhaps a different strain than the one which traveled to NYC along the coast from Europe. The facts of the disease have changed as more becomes known. For example it has been found in waste water and in semen. In AIDS blood became a toxic substance. Does the same apply for COVID-19 in a positive, actively alive COVID ASYMPTOMATIC?
 |
| Stockholm, Sweden (courtesy of the site) |
But the wealthy have STOCKHOLM SYNDROME to protect their Wall Street myths? Fine. Let's review.
 |
| Stockholm, Sweden (courtesy of the site) |
2)Do we have a high standard of living for the whole country, i.e. $35.00 an hour so waiters/waitresses don't need tips like they don't in Sweden? No.
3)Is there a Fox news and alternative media equivalents calling COVID-19 a HOAX in Sweden or spreading misinformation that this is just the flu? No.
4)Does the Swedish populace take the danger of COVID-19 seriously? Yes
5)Does the Swedish populace believe and follow the social contract and social responsibility? Yes.
6)Does the Swedish community respect and love the elderly to not spread the infection to them? Yes.
7)Is the Swedish community generous and caring, putting others first to not spread the infection? Yes
8)Are CEOs of Swedish corporations making up to 900X more than their workers? No
9)Does the Swedish populace care for the stress on healthcare workers, not to spread the infection? Yes.
10)Might Swedish hospitals be overcome, letting people with COVID-19 die in the hallways? No
11) Are Swedish hospitals and healthcare state of the art? Yes
12) Is their excellent healthcare system due to SOCIALIZED MEDICINE? Yes
13) Does the Swedish populace gather in crowds of 10 or more in Sweden? No
14) Does the government trust the Swedish people to understand not to spread the virus? Yes
15) Do the people trust the government to keep them safe, well informed and secure? Yes
16) Is there a great economic divide in Sweden of uber rich and poor? No
17) Does the populace have enough to eat in Sweden? Yes
18)If they don't have enough to eat, can the Swedish people get help to improve their lot? Yes.
19)Does the Swedish populace get the best bang for their tax dollars to have a superior culture and high standard of living? Yes.
20) Is the high standard of living because there is relative financial equity and no great divide between rich and poor? Yes.
 |
| Stockholm, Sweden (courtesy of the site) |
Mitch McConnell will never allow it.
GOP and rich donors will never allow it.
For profit hospitals and insurance companies will NEVER allow Socialized Medicine.
The government has no intention of keeping the American taxpayer safe and secure economically.
The wealthy are exacerbating the economic divide between rich and poor, not decreasing it.
But why is the GOP pushing herd immunity in the US, when it has no intention of being SWEDEN?
They want to create the illusion that the idea will work to get us believe it. They wish to make us STOCKHOLMED.
So the results of trying to achieve herd immunity in the US will never be the same results as in Sweden?
No.
Is it true that pushing the GOP UNIVERSE of herd immunity, "stockholming the public," indicates the GOP doesn't care if this protocol exacerbates death?
Yes.
What if the death toll in one year (it won't be over unless the virus is eradicated) is larger than WWII (we have achieved this exploit thanks to Trump and the GOP) and the Civil War deaths (362,000 deaths as of January 6, 2021) over 4-5 year period? Will the GOP care then?
No
 |
| Stockholm, Sweden (courtesy of the site) |
No. Sixty-six million (20% of the population) exceeds the numbers who died from the Spanish Flu in the US. There is no way to calculate the number dead even today since people have died at home of COVID-19 unable to get a test, get to the hospital in time or chose to die at home.
So the rich who shelter in their mansions and have access to tests, drivers, limos, private planes, maids, cooks and other help and all the PPE they need will probably never get this virus?
The likelihood is very low. Tom Hanks and his wife are not in that category of rich.
So the GOP and rich bottom line is more important than Americans suffering and millions of Americans getting COVID-19?
Yes.
If Americans are asymptomatic, might they suffer the loss of loved ones infected by them if they don't take precaution at home when they return from a trip "outside"?
Of course. Massive testing must be done to gauge whether one is asymptomatic. Massive testing is not happening. It will not happen because the GOP and Trump have STOCKHOLM SYNDROME. And they want the American public to be "stockholmed."
 |
| Stockholm, Sweden (courtesy of the site) |
With malice aforethought, Trump, the GOP and his enablers are slowing down an effective response to COVID-19 to "speed up" the herd immunity GOP style. The result is misery, death and desolution of the US as a democracy, something which Vladimir Putin looks forward to along with Trump's reelection.
(On the eve of the Georgia run-off Mitch McConnell may still retain power if GOP senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue win. Trump will never concede. Instead, he provokes others to do his dirty work, like the 11 Republican senators and many House members who will reject the pro forma acceptance of Biden's win by rejecting Biden electors in swing states...where Biden won. Update January 6, 2021)
Could COVID-19 be fought successfully avoiding stockholming?
Scaling up the DPA to provide PPE and 10 times the tests required for each person in every state in the US, or at least enough tests to adequately provide for everyone to be tested is necessary. Parallel to that, contact tracing if one gets it and quarantining all in that individual's sphere are necessary as the economy returns and people go "outside." At the least millions of tests and lab results should be executed and the results delivered daily. This is a war and a wartime economy against this virus should be engaged creating new jobs to people labs, factories making reagents, tests, masks, medical equipment and the infrastructure to support it in the future as more pandemics will arise.
Could COVID-19 be fought successfully avoiding stockholming?
Scaling up the DPA to provide PPE and 10 times the tests required for each person in every state in the US, or at least enough tests to adequately provide for everyone to be tested is necessary. Parallel to that, contact tracing if one gets it and quarantining all in that individual's sphere are necessary as the economy returns and people go "outside." At the least millions of tests and lab results should be executed and the results delivered daily. This is a war and a wartime economy against this virus should be engaged creating new jobs to people labs, factories making reagents, tests, masks, medical equipment and the infrastructure to support it in the future as more pandemics will arise.
(update January 6, 2021...vaccines have been greenlighted and distributed. But getting them into American arms is a disorganized, chaotic mess for many reasons. Thanks to Trump and Mitch who passed a paltry sum in a bi-partisan effort to help the vaccine effort and other needs. States have their own priorities with vaccine distribution. Florida's is disastrous.There is no unified national plan: Trump is only concerned about overthrowing Biden's win, disenfranchising all who voted for Biden: black, white, brown, all races, creeds, genders. On January 5th, 2021 he said the numbers regarding COVID are exaggerated, to massage his Trumpers that all in the health professions, the hospital networks, and recorders are liars and only he is telling the truth about COVID. Thus, the lies continue as Trump has continued to delegitimize COVID'S effects causing destruction and death for those who believe him. Governor Andrew Cuomo in NYS and like-minded governors have been effectively rolling out the two vaccines made available by Pfizer and Moderna)
Is there a tie-in with stockholming and the GOP and Democratic presidential election 2020?
Of course. More Trump supporters, white supremacists, klansmen, Neo Nazis will die than educated Democrats, unless Democrats can be infected by them and die. More poor will die than Americans with means, a GOP assumption. Greater numbers of GOP voters will be stockholmed and resist protecting the rest of the culture around them by NOT wearing masks or social distancing, etc. STOCKHOLMING makes NOT wearing a mask a macho act and act of resistance. (ironically, in Sweden such action is anathema) So while GOP voters will inevitably die by the 80/20 percentages, they will infect Democrats who also will die by the 80/20%. This is a COVID-19 political warfare of hatred as Trumpists weaponize their inhumanity. The GOP leaders will make sure not to be anywhere in the vicinity of protests against sheltering in. They will send their surrogates after testing them, making sure they are well paid to spread discord, hatred and COVID-19 as weapons.
Will the GOP vote for absentee ballots and mail-in voting and get their supporters to support mail-in voting?
Please read all of the above. They will force people to stand in long lines for early voting in person. They will make Democrats risk getting COVID-19 and dying to exercise their constitutional right to vote. Trumpists will gladly die for Trump and get COVID-19. They are the proud weapons of their own self-destruction. TRUMPERS have been stockholmed.
What do the Republicans stand to lose in this 2020 COVID-19 election?
They stand to lose all of what they value in this world: the balance of money and power.
What do Americans stand to lose?
COVID-19 is depriving Americans of safety and security because the GOP IS GIVING THEM NOTHING THAT WOULD MAKE THEM SAFE AND SECURE ECONOMICALLY, SOCIALLY, ETC. Trumpists do this by stopping Democrats from signing into law a bill for working families and states to fund the culture that the GOP largely is not a part of because they have created their own culture of wealth. Americans will have little unless the GOP AND DEMOCRATS sign a non-partisan bill to help working families. (UPDATE: A bill has been signed, but it is not nearly enough to pay all the states for PPE and vaccine distribution and salaries of police which the Republicans have defunded, EMS, medical workers, etc., January 6, 2021.)
If the GOP refuses to help working families, there will be a backlash. Indeed, the GOP not allowing mail-in voting will anger the independents and Democratic populace. As a result, as they did in the Wisconsin primary, voters will turn out live, with masks, and vote against the GOP. Not allowing voting by mail indicates how much Trump/GOP disrespects Americans' right to vote against them. To punish them, they would return Americans to the days of the South when blacks were lynched for voting. When individual states allowed early posting of Absentee ballots (mail-in-voting) UPDATE: Trump ordered the head of the USPS-Louis DeJoy to slow down the mails, in some instances jeopardizing military veterans and thousands who received their medications by mail. The massive hue and cry abated this somewhat, but it is not known how many people may have died as a result of skipping medications.)
The GOP does not honor elections in a Democracy. They have turned down the Voting Rights Act. They are guilty of voter suppression. It is a foregone conclusion that they welcome foreign adversaries like Russian military intel in a virtual warfare to hack any democratic election that would put in anyone but their bought candidate which happened in 2016. The evidence is overwhelming they supported Putin's hacking 50 states to put in Donald Trump. The GOP always prevent free and fair voting in presidential elections because the American people in overwhelming numbers support kindness, decency, humanity and generosity, qualities lacking in the current presidential candidate and Senate leader Mitch McConnell. So in our hearts, the American public is like Sweden. But in the hearts of our leaders with the exception of the Democratic party, they are out of the antebellum South and are the Southern Planter class, right down to their white pointy hates and white robes.
Without a viable SOUTHERN PLANTER CLASS dominating the GOP, manifested in CITIZENS UNITED when the GOP gave themselves and their donors trillions in tax breaks and CORPORATE COVID BAILOUTS, can we be like Sweden?
If we vote them out? Yes. It is in the heart of Americans to be Sweden. We only have to consider ourselves worthy of who we believe ourselves to be.
Is there a tie-in with stockholming and the GOP and Democratic presidential election 2020?
Of course. More Trump supporters, white supremacists, klansmen, Neo Nazis will die than educated Democrats, unless Democrats can be infected by them and die. More poor will die than Americans with means, a GOP assumption. Greater numbers of GOP voters will be stockholmed and resist protecting the rest of the culture around them by NOT wearing masks or social distancing, etc. STOCKHOLMING makes NOT wearing a mask a macho act and act of resistance. (ironically, in Sweden such action is anathema) So while GOP voters will inevitably die by the 80/20 percentages, they will infect Democrats who also will die by the 80/20%. This is a COVID-19 political warfare of hatred as Trumpists weaponize their inhumanity. The GOP leaders will make sure not to be anywhere in the vicinity of protests against sheltering in. They will send their surrogates after testing them, making sure they are well paid to spread discord, hatred and COVID-19 as weapons.
Will the GOP vote for absentee ballots and mail-in voting and get their supporters to support mail-in voting?
Please read all of the above. They will force people to stand in long lines for early voting in person. They will make Democrats risk getting COVID-19 and dying to exercise their constitutional right to vote. Trumpists will gladly die for Trump and get COVID-19. They are the proud weapons of their own self-destruction. TRUMPERS have been stockholmed.
What do the Republicans stand to lose in this 2020 COVID-19 election?
They stand to lose all of what they value in this world: the balance of money and power.
What do Americans stand to lose?
COVID-19 is depriving Americans of safety and security because the GOP IS GIVING THEM NOTHING THAT WOULD MAKE THEM SAFE AND SECURE ECONOMICALLY, SOCIALLY, ETC. Trumpists do this by stopping Democrats from signing into law a bill for working families and states to fund the culture that the GOP largely is not a part of because they have created their own culture of wealth. Americans will have little unless the GOP AND DEMOCRATS sign a non-partisan bill to help working families. (UPDATE: A bill has been signed, but it is not nearly enough to pay all the states for PPE and vaccine distribution and salaries of police which the Republicans have defunded, EMS, medical workers, etc., January 6, 2021.)
If the GOP refuses to help working families, there will be a backlash. Indeed, the GOP not allowing mail-in voting will anger the independents and Democratic populace. As a result, as they did in the Wisconsin primary, voters will turn out live, with masks, and vote against the GOP. Not allowing voting by mail indicates how much Trump/GOP disrespects Americans' right to vote against them. To punish them, they would return Americans to the days of the South when blacks were lynched for voting. When individual states allowed early posting of Absentee ballots (mail-in-voting) UPDATE: Trump ordered the head of the USPS-Louis DeJoy to slow down the mails, in some instances jeopardizing military veterans and thousands who received their medications by mail. The massive hue and cry abated this somewhat, but it is not known how many people may have died as a result of skipping medications.)
 |
| NYC Women's March 2017 (Carole Di Tosti) |
Without a viable SOUTHERN PLANTER CLASS dominating the GOP, manifested in CITIZENS UNITED when the GOP gave themselves and their donors trillions in tax breaks and CORPORATE COVID BAILOUTS, can we be like Sweden?
If we vote them out? Yes. It is in the heart of Americans to be Sweden. We only have to consider ourselves worthy of who we believe ourselves to be.
(UPDATE: That would be better than Trump who has proven his criminality countless times, the latest to be extorting the Georgia Secretary of State to give him one more vote than Biden received in Georgia. See Washington Post transcript of the tape recording.)
January 6, 2021 UPDATE: THE JOE BIDEN JR. LANDSLIDE PROVES AMERICANS CARE ABOUT THE VISIONS OF WHAT AMERICA CAN BE AND SUPPORT EQUITY AND DEMOCRACY. Trump and some members of the GOP house and senate who hate democracy intend to show QAnon and white supremacists and Putin that the US constitution is void. With this action they void their own roles as senators and representatives and redefine their roles as all powerful (the conflict of what they're doing is mind boggling-this is unconstitutional and anti-patriotic and unamerican). With their protest their unmistakable intention is to overthrow US history, the constitution and democracy, thereby nullifying checks and balances, the three branches of government and their roles. They are advocating chaos and anarchy. They should be tried for treason, having violated their oaths of office, and at the least, impeached as censure. For Trump impeachment and conviction would insure he can never hold office again in the US.
No comments:
Post a Comment