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The Next Pandemic: SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19


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10 minutes ago, leh-nerd skin-erd said:

Hey Sect--I appreciate your posts but at times I can't wrap my head around your view of the world. This thing about medicare for all...remove the commercial element from this (and virtually every other element of the medical system), entrust it all to the government and we end up with a clusterf*ck of major proportions.   

 

 

And the boogeymen...what's with all the boogeymen everywhere?  The players referenced are generally multi-millionaires, and while I applaud what they do, the reality is that before a player ever dipped his hand into his pocket...the owner paid the people impacted to begin wth.  In addition, as so often happens, when a wealthy person gives regularly, it's not huge news and it's not generally accompanied by a tweet.  Like many individuals, some companies won't have the cash flow to sustain employees regardless of what you think might be the right thing to do.  Honestly, even Cuomo's directive to require 75% work from home causes a small business like mine major hardship.  It's just not as simple as "Send them home, and pay them".  For what it's worth, I have paid my employees when out disability for extended an extended time (full pay, no deductions) for illness and injury, allowed folks personal time when going through difficult times at home--but it's typically done quietly and behind the scenes.  I just don't understand demonizing people, and likely, hurting the employees of the companies you choose to blacklist when you can't be 100% sure they weren't doing something noble, decent, but not celebrated on twitter.

 

 

I'm breaking it up into 2 parts to respond to

 

1.  We already have a cluster***** of major proportions on our hands when it comes to healthcare imo.  A lot of people are going to lose their jobs which means they will be losing their health insurance.  Under M4A that wouldn't be a concern.

 

The system works in many other countries and studies have shown it will work here too.

 

https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/healthcare/484301-22-studies-agree-medicare-for-all-saves-money

 

It is something that will benefit all Americans.  The current system causes a lot of hardships for my family personally in many different ways.  My family that lives out of the country comes each year to visit for a month in the summer.  If anything were to happen to them while here they are screwed.  Even though they are still an American citizen and still pay taxes, if she were to fall ill or get injured she is screwed.  My wife is a type 1 diabetic and gets price gouged each month for insulin.  I know my opinion is not the majority and I am okay with that.  I will do what I can do and that is participate in the democratic process and hope a candidate that supports M4A gets elected.  I won't pretend I am absolutely right and this is definitely the answer.  However in my mind the current system is broken and we need an alternative.  Seeing the success other countries are having leads me to believe America can enact it and have success as well.

 

2.  No boogeymen just people whom I disagree with.  Doesn't make me right or them wrong.  I have said regularly through this that this is going to be revealing of people's true character and I still believe that.  I don't expect small businesses to meet or match the same things billion dollar companies do.  The capabilities simply aren't the same.  The economic impact of having people stay home will be felt for a long time.  Many businesses will close because of this and it is a terrible thing. 

 

However, anyone that is in a position to help should be imo.  I know it is easy to say since I am not a billionaire but even being a thousandaire I am looking for ways to help out in any way I can.  I work for a medium sized company and work directly with the owners every day planning and preparing for whatever may come next.  It has been great to see their priority being the people that work for us and not the bottom line.  It has reinforced why I work where I work.  That said I know we have a business to run and can't put ourselves out of work.  It is a fine line and again I get that. 

 

There are people who are in a position to help in this country and it would be nice to see them step up that's all.  I don't use twitter (or any social media), if I see something in the news, I research it further.  Then I do the only thing I can do in this situation and that is vote with my dollars.  I'm not blackballing companies that I don't see did anything but I won't be supporting companies that are releasing policies I don't agree with.  Whole foods got some grief for asking employees to share PTO which is a bad look.  While I typed this post Jeff Bezos made another million dollars.  Due to the bad publicity both Amazon and Whole foods responded by increasing wages temporarily while putting in other protections.  Looking further into the players donating to arena workers many owners have responded by matching donations.  All great to see.  In a capitalist society the only way I can show approval/disapproval is with my shopping habits so that is what I will do going forward.

 

This is an unprecedented event in my lifetime and I am an eternal optimist (susy ***** sunshine as my wife like to call me :lol:).  I'm hoping this situation brings out the greatness in humanity and we all work together to make sure people's lives aren't destroyed because of this.  

 

As an aside I hate communicating through text because something is lost imo which is why I both lurk way more than I post and am so wordy when I do chose to post.  This conversation has so many intricacies that it is hard to convey my exact thoughts and feelings.

 

tl;dr If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.... So let us begin anew — remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof... And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.

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  1. "Trump Told Governors to Get Their Own Goddamned Ventilators!

Now that the media can no longer attack Trump over the coronavirus testing (as you’ll see below), we’ve moved to ventilators. “Ventilators” is the new Katrina, the new metric with which to beat Trump senseless… So naturally, the media are going to lie shamelessly, which is exactly what they are doing, even as I write these words:

At least eight New York Times authors shared a deceptively edited quote Monday from President Donald Trump’s recent call with state governors, creating the false impression that the president is denying federal support for ventilators that are needed in hospitals treating coronavirus patients.

In his message, the president recommended that states procure respirators and ventilators because it would be faster — but added that the federal government “will be backing you.”

The Times journalists omitted the bulk of the president’s statement as they shared the story on social media. The misleading, partial quote was also boosted by a CNN correspondent and became the lead headline at the left-wing Huffington Post.

Despite growing online backlash to this misinformation, the journalists have yet to delete or retract their comments.

Here’s the president’s full quote:

Respirators, ventilators, all of the equipment — try getting it yourselves. We will be backing you, but try getting it yourselves. Point of sales, much better, much more direct if you can get it yourself.

He’s telling the governors, Do what you can while we do what we can do. This is excellent advice the liars at the far-left New York Times are deliberately twisting to cause panic, to tell the public the president doesn’t care.

 

  1. Trump Seeks Monopoly on Coronavirus Vaccine

What better way to increase the world’s hatred of America, everyone’s hatred of Trump, and cause even more illegal aliens to crash into our country (seeking a vaccine) than to spread the fake news the American president is looking to monopolize any potential coronavirus vaccine?

But that is exactly what Reuters, The Guardian, Business Insider, and staffers at the New York Times and MSNBC did.

This lie doesn’t even make sense.

What good would it do America to corner the market on a vaccine? It costs us nothing to share the information so other countries can create their own vaccine. What good does it do the U.S. to sit around and watch everyone else die?

 

  1. Nationwide Curfew!

Good ol’ Jim Sciutto, one of the most infamous liars in the country, a former Obama official hired by the serial liars at CNN to serial lie.

“New: There are active discussions within the Trump administration to encourage a possible ‘curfew’ across the nation in which non-essential businesses would have to close by a certain time each night,” Sciutto wrote on social media, citing “CNN reporting.”

It’s not true.

And unless you’re looking to sow panic, it also makes no sense.

What good would a curfew do, most especially a nationwide curfew?

Does the virus only strike at night?

There are reports Patient Zero ate a bat.

Maybe it was a vampire bat!

 

  1. Trump Lied About the Google Website

“Google says it’s not publishing a national-scale coronavirus site,” CNN anti-Trump activist Jake Tapper tweeted to his 2.3 million Twitter followers last week.

He linked to a CNN story with the headline, “Google says it’s not publishing a national-scale coronavirus site anytime soon.” This was a story that smeared Trump as a liar for announcing Google will be building a national-scale coronavirus website.

The original and very fake CNN story can be found here.

Here’s the opener:

Google will not be publishing a national-scale website for coronavirus testing anytime soon, contrary to claims made by President Donald Trump during a Friday news conference.

Instead, a health-focused subsidiary owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet, intends to launch a small-scale website next week to begin to triage California-based patients. The website will aim to serve a broader population only “over time” — not “very quickly,” as Trump said.

“What we’re building is a triage tool that will live on ProjectBaseline.com, and we plan to pilot it in California next week,” said Carolyn Wang, a spokesperson for the Alphabet subsidiary, Verily.

Here’s the Google Search screencap which captured CNN’s lie:

download-2.jpg

But now, if you click on that Google link, the CNN story says the exact opposite of what the original story said. Here’s the new headline and opener:

Google will partner with US government to develop a nationwide coronavirus website, company says

Google now says it is working with the government on the creation of a national website containing information about coronavirus symptoms and testing information.

“Google is partnering with the US Government in developing a national website that includes information about COVID-19 symptoms, risk and testing information,” the company said in a series of tweets Saturday evening.

The company did not give a time frame of when such a website would be up and running.

On Friday after the President said Google was helping to develop a website and it would be available soon, the company declined to say it would be publishing a national-scale website for coronavirus testing anytime soon.

Naturally, there is no editor’s note informing readers the original story was a lie or has been retracted or updated, which is highly unethical.

CNN spread a bald-faced lie to undermine the president, got caught, and did everything in its malevolent power to cover that lie up.

 

  1. Trump Shut Down the CDC’s Pandemic Department!

Do I even need to point out how virulent and widespread this talking point has been?

Sigh:

No, the White House didn’t ‘dissolve’ its pandemic response office. I was there.

It has been alleged by multiple officials of the Obama administration, including in The Post, that the president and his then-national security adviser, John Bolton, “dissolved the office” at the White House in charge of pandemic preparedness. Because I led the very directorate assigned that mission, the counterproliferation and biodefense office, for a year and then handed it off to another official who still holds the post, I know the charge is specious.

It is true that the Trump administration has seen fit to shrink the NSC staff. But the bloat that occurred under the previous administration clearly needed a correction. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, congressional oversight committees and members of the Obama administration itself all agreed the NSC was too large and too operationally focused (a departure from its traditional role coordinating executive branch activity). As The Post reported in 2015, from the Clinton administration to the Obama administration’s second term, the NSC’s staff “had quadrupled in size, to nearly 400 people.” That is why Trump began streamlining the NSC staff in 2017.

The reduction of force in the NSC has continued since I departed the White House. But it has left the biodefense staff unaffected[.]

It is this reorganization that critics have misconstrued or intentionally misrepresented. If anything, the combined directorate was stronger because related expertise could be commingled.

In other words, it wasn’t dissolved, it was streamlined.

 

  1. Trump Declared the Coronavirus a Hoax!

This desperate lie, launched by the far-left Politico, was quickly debunked by fact-checkers, including  the far-left Washington Post. That’s how big of a lie it is — the Washington Post conceded it was a lie.

Nevertheless, CNN continues to spread this lie.

 

  1. Calling the Wuhan Virus the ‘Wuhan Virus’ Is Racist

As has already been exhaustively pointed out, the naming of a virus or disease after a location — including a lily-white location like Lyme, Connecticut — is just how it’s done and has been done forever.

But now it’s racist, even though the very same media declaring it racist is the very same media that first called it the “Chinese Virus” or the “Wuhan Virus,” or some variation thereof.

Here’s a pretty comprehensive list that’s been floating around. There are probably more examples, but this more than makes the point:

  • “Japan and Thailand Confirm New Cases of Chinese Coronavirus,” The New York Times, 1/15/20
  • “The CDC and Homeland Security begin screening for Chinese Coronavirus at three major US airports as outbreak spreads in Asia,” CNBC, 1/17/20
  • “Vaccine for new Chinese coronavirus in the works,” CNN, 1/20/20
  • “First U.S. case of potentially deadly Chinese coronavirus confirmed in Washington state,” Washington Post, 1/21/20
  • “Chinese coronavirus outbreak has reached U.S. shores, CDC says,” Los Angeles Times, 1/21/20
  • “The First Case Of The Chinese Coronavirus Has Hit The US, CDC Reports,” Buzzfeed, 1/21/20
  • “First case of Chinese coronavirus confirmed in Washington state,” NBC’s Today Show, 1/24/20
  • “Chinese coronavirus infections, death toll soar as fifth case is confirmed in U.S.,” Washington Post, 1/26/20
  • “Japan confirms case of new Chinese virus, spread is ‘concerning,'” Reuters, 1/15/20
  • “How the Chinese virus outbreak impacts Lunar New Year travel,” National Geographic, 1/24/20
  • “China coronavirus ‘spreads before symptoms show,'” BBC, 1/26/20
  • “Over a thousand ‘likely’ infected by Wuhan virus in China: Study,” Al Jazeera, 1/18/20
  • “Stop the Wuhan virus,” Nature Magazine editorial, 1/21/20)
  • “China confirms Wuhan virus can be spread by humans,” CNN, 1/22/20
  • “First U.S. Case Reported of Deadly Wuhan Virus,” Wall Street Journal, 1/22/20
  • “Here are the symptoms of the deadly Wuhan coronavirus and when you should be worried,” Business Insider, 1/22/20
  • “Something Far Deadlier Than The Wuhan Virus Lurks Near You,” Kaiser Health News, 1/24/20
  • “With Wuhan virus genetic code in hand, scientists begin work on a vaccine,” Reuters, 1/24/20
  • “The Wuhan Virus: How to Stay Safe,” Foreign Policy, 1/25/20
  • “Something Far Deadlier Than The Wuhan Virus Lurks Near You,” USA Today, 1/29/20
  • “10-Year-Old Boy Raises Fears Wuhan Virus Could Spread Undetected,” Bloomberg, 1/29/20
  • “Your Questions About Wuhan Coronavirus, Answered, National Public Radio, 1/30/20
  • “Will the Wuhan virus become a pandemic?” The Economist, 1/30/20
    • NOTE: The photo in this article was on their COVER for this issue.

Additionally, the video below is nothing less than a devastating compilation of just how dishonest and unserious the media are:

 

Liberal media pundits want you to think referring to the coronavirus as the "Wuhan" or "Chinese" virus is racist.

Here's just a few of the times the liberal media did just that.

 
Embedded video
 
 
 
 

 

To sum this up, the fake news media floods these words and terms into the American lexicon, and then sanctimoniously turns around and attacks those who repeat them as racist.

 

  1. Trump Rejected WHO Coronavirus Test Kits

Everyone from Grandpa Joe Biden to CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta to Esquire to NBC News to, to, to… This is such a lie, the far-left PolitiFact debunked it.

 

  1. Trump Blocked Testing Because Lower Numbers are Good for His Reelection

This lie arrives courtesy of the welfare queens at NPR and a Newsweek staffer’s hysterical amplification that has been retweeted almost a quarter-million times.

And once again, I ask, how does this makes any sense?

In the face of the facts, Trump is doing back-flips to start testing. What’s more, how does not testing benefit his re-election chances? It’s not as if people who test positive won’t eventually become symptomatic.

This is not just a lie (no other media outlet has confirmed it, which means even CNN couldn’t find a lying source that has lied to them so many times before to lie about this one), it’s by far the stupidest lie on this list.

 

  1. It’s Trump Fault Coronavirus Testing Was Delayed

Nope:

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Tuesday that the blame for the slow pace of testing for coronavirus in the U.S. does not lie with either President Trump or the CDC.

Fauci told Hugh Hewitt on “The Hugh Hewitt” show that a “technical glitch” resulted in the delay in production of usable tests in the U.S., something Fauci prescribed to random error.

“This has nothing to do with anybody’s fault, certainly not the president’s fault.”

 

11. Trump Silenced Dr. Fauci

This lie spread like wildfire before Fauci himself was given a chance to tell the truth.

12. [added] Trump Told Sick People to Got to Work

Here’s CBS News flat-out lying with the flat-out lie that Trump told sick people to go to work. And that’s just one example. This lie spread like its own virus for days throughout the fake media.

Here’s Trump’s full quote:  “So if, you know, we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better, just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work, some of them go to work, but they get better.”

He’s not talking about what people should do, but that healthy people are going on about their business with the coronavirus not knowing they have it, which is undoubtedly true for the young and healthy.

We are plagued with a dishonest, unreliable, unserious, dangerous media, driven only by political calculation and naked greed.

The media are so evil and indecent, even a pandemic can’t cure them."

 

https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2020/03/17/nolte-all-the-establishment-medias-dangerous-coronavirus-lies/

Ripped off completely from Breitbart. The link was also posted upthread, but actually quoting the article will reach more people... especially those dishonest false rumor spreaders The Bad News Beagle Boys.

 220px-The_Beagle_Boys.jpg

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1 hour ago, 3rdnlng said:

"Some NBA players are stepping up to pay arena workers wage while their billionaire owners do nothing to help."  Sounds like a one sided statement to me. First rule of PPP: don't try to put one over on people. Someone will be sure to notice. 

 

Some of the owners are paying arena workers during the stoppage.

 

Bloomberg and his billions, however, still nowhere to be found.

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3 minutes ago, LeviF91 said:

 

Some of the owners are paying arena workers during the stoppage.

 

Bloomberg and his billions, however, still nowhere to be found.

Yes, I know. I was responding to Section8 and that was a quote from him that I was refuting. 

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1 hour ago, 3rdnlng said:

"Some NBA players are stepping up to pay arena workers wage while their billionaire owners do nothing to help."  Sounds like a one sided statement to me. First rule of PPP: don't try to put one over on people. Someone will be sure to notice. 

 

their
1.
belonging to or associated with the people or things previously mentioned or easily identified.
 

image.jpeg.3537a22b843596c33ef96869e75ccaec.jpeg

 

I'll try one last time for you:  It was not my intention to group all billionaires together. 

 

I had typed a longer response which I have now deleted.  I don't wish to continue this back and forth any longer and will leave it at this:

 

I apologize to any billionaires who feel that I have characterized them wrongly and appreciate 3rdnlng for valiantly stepping up to their defense.  I hope that I have further clarified my point and that the good name of PPP is not sullied due to my "trying to get one over on people" :rolleyes:

 

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44 minutes ago, LeviF91 said:

 

Some of the owners are paying arena workers during the stoppage.

 

Bloomberg and his billions, however, still nowhere to be found.

He lost $500M betting on the Candidate lotto. He's licking his wounds, and fingers.

25 minutes ago, meazza said:

As a billionaire I’m offended by your post. 
 

I'm down about $800k so far but I'm staying in.

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44 minutes ago, section122 said:

 

their
1.
belonging to or associated with the people or things previously mentioned or easily identified.
 

image.jpeg.3537a22b843596c33ef96869e75ccaec.jpeg

 

I'll try one last time for you:  It was not my intention to group all billionaires together. But you did.

 

I had typed a longer response which I have now deleted.  I don't wish to continue this back and forth any longer and will leave it at this: I wanna run away from my comments.

 

I apologize to any billionaires who feel that I have characterized them wrongly and appreciate 3rdnlng for valiantly stepping up to their defense.  I hope that I have further clarified my point and that the good name of PPP is not sullied due to my "trying to get one over on people" :rolleyes: Watch me deflect.

 

Are you a politician? You sure do know how to talk around an issue. 

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40 minutes ago, section122 said:

 

I'm breaking it up into 2 parts to respond to

 

1.  We already have a cluster***** of major proportions on our hands when it comes to healthcare imo.  A lot of people are going to lose their jobs which means they will be losing their health insurance.  Under M4A that wouldn't be a concern.

 

The system works in many other countries and studies have shown it will work here too.

 

https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/healthcare/484301-22-studies-agree-medicare-for-all-saves-money

 

It is something that will benefit all Americans.  The current system causes a lot of hardships for my family personally in many different ways.  My family that lives out of the country comes each year to visit for a month in the summer.  If anything were to happen to them while here they are screwed.  Even though they are still an American citizen and still pay taxes, if she were to fall ill or get injured she is screwed.  My wife is a type 1 diabetic and gets price gouged each month for insulin.  I know my opinion is not the majority and I am okay with that.  I will do what I can do and that is participate in the democratic process and hope a candidate that supports M4A gets elected.  I won't pretend I am absolutely right and this is definitely the answer.  However in my mind the current system is broken and we need an alternative.  Seeing the success other countries are having leads me to believe America can enact it and have success as well.

 

2.  No boogeymen just people whom I disagree with.  Doesn't make me right or them wrong.  I have said regularly through this that this is going to be revealing of people's true character and I still believe that.  I don't expect small businesses to meet or match the same things billion dollar companies do.  The capabilities simply aren't the same.  The economic impact of having people stay home will be felt for a long time.  Many businesses will close because of this and it is a terrible thing. 

 

However, anyone that is in a position to help should be imo.  I know it is easy to say since I am not a billionaire but even being a thousandaire I am looking for ways to help out in any way I can.  I work for a medium sized company and work directly with the owners every day planning and preparing for whatever may come next.  It has been great to see their priority being the people that work for us and not the bottom line.  It has reinforced why I work where I work.  That said I know we have a business to run and can't put ourselves out of work.  It is a fine line and again I get that. 

 

There are people who are in a position to help in this country and it would be nice to see them step up that's all.  I don't use twitter (or any social media), if I see something in the news, I research it further.  Then I do the only thing I can do in this situation and that is vote with my dollars.  I'm not blackballing companies that I don't see did anything but I won't be supporting companies that are releasing policies I don't agree with.  Whole foods got some grief for asking employees to share PTO which is a bad look.  While I typed this post Jeff Bezos made another million dollars.  Due to the bad publicity both Amazon and Whole foods responded by increasing wages temporarily while putting in other protections.  Looking further into the players donating to arena workers many owners have responded by matching donations.  All great to see.  In a capitalist society the only way I can show approval/disapproval is with my shopping habits so that is what I will do going forward.

 

This is an unprecedented event in my lifetime and I am an eternal optimist (susy ***** sunshine as my wife like to call me :lol:).  I'm hoping this situation brings out the greatness in humanity and we all work together to make sure people's lives aren't destroyed because of this.  

 

As an aside I hate communicating through text because something is lost imo which is why I both lurk way more than I post and am so wordy when I do chose to post.  This conversation has so many intricacies that it is hard to convey my exact thoughts and feelings.

 

tl;dr If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.... So let us begin anew — remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof... And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.

It makes me sad to read things posted in support of a position that suggest the opposite of what you think.  the hill article does indeed cite articles showing how WONDERFUL nationalized heath care would be.  Having read the Sander's proposal, and the link provided to the Jayapal proposal, I can tell you they rely heavily on smoke and mirrors and the hope that you won't ask questions beyond such lofty projections as to save $300-600 billion on administrative costs, make broad and sweeping generalizations that members of the medical profession spend most of their day dealing with insurance companies and billing as opposed to practicing medicine, and of course CEO! pay by the kazillions.  No details are provided, of course, but that's par for the course when making an emotional appeal for 100% government control of your health care. 

 

That's bad enough, but to cite a link to the "Mercatus Study" as if it supports the Sanders or Jayapal "proposal" is absurd.  Did you read it?  It makes the argument every first year high school student could make spending a few hours researching the current slate of entitlement programs offered in this country:

 

1.  The revenue required to fund this scheme is roughly 50% of what would be required even using the aggressive (unrealistic) estimated savings;

2.  Paying health care providers on a 'medicare for all rate' means paying them a lot less than they currently make, and that begs the question--why become a doctor to be a glorified employee of the state?  

3.  Prescription drug costs make up a relatively small percentage of the overall cost, and besides, the anticipated savings will likely be nowhere near the lofty predictions from our governmental overlords;

4.  A significant percentage of the cost of private health insurance relates to detecting and fighting fraud, if for no other reason than fraud impacts the bottom line.  On the government side, that's not much of an issue not because it doesn't exist, but because the people working in the program are mostly apathetic because the bottom line is irrelevant;

5.  Pound for pound, government tends to overpay, and one can only assume that problem will be exacerbated should single payer come to be.

 

Now, the Mecatus study does indicate a need for 'robust study' given all the questions, but I'm here to tell you good old Diane Archer from The Hill was betting you wouldn't read the study.  I wonder what her agenda might be, and why she implies with sweeping grandeur that even 'right wing think tanks' agree?  bull####.   

 

I appreciate your thoughts on your family, the struggles you have faced and your desire to see national single payor, but humbly suggest to you that a smaller, more focused and efficient government dedicated to reasonable regulation and enhanced competition is the answer you're looking for.  And, also, consider that while your family might well benefit financially from such a system, there are always winner and losers.  The losers in your game are people who work for private companies and ancillary businesses by the hundreds of thousands...doctors and other health care professionals working for a bureauacracy that would make the good folks at Aetna look like the most exceptional customer service representatives in the history of the world. 

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just posted on GUS.

 

most likely means borders closing soon.

 

Global Level 4 Health Advisory – Do Not Travel

The Department of State advises U.S. citizens to avoid all international travel due to the global impact of COVID-19.  In countries where commercial departure options remain available, U.S. citizens who live in the United States should arrange for immediate return to the United States, unless they are prepared to remain abroad for an indefinite period.  U.S. citizens who live abroad should avoid all international travel.  Many countries are experiencing COVID-19 outbreaks and implementing travel restrictions and mandatory quarantines, closing borders, and prohibiting non-citizens from entry with little advance notice.  Airlines have cancelled many international flights and several cruise operators have suspended operations or cancelled trips.  If you choose to travel internationally, your travel plans may be severely disrupted, and you may be forced to remain outside of the United States for an indefinite timeframe.

On March 14, the Department of State authorized the departure of U.S. personnel and family members from any diplomatic or consular post in the world who have determined they are at higher risk of a poor outcome if exposed to COVID-19 or who have requested departure based on a commensurate justification.  These departures may limit the ability of U.S. Embassies and consulates to provide services to U.S. citizens.

For the latest information regarding COVID-19, please visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) website.

You are encouraged to visit travel.state.gov to view individual Travel Advisories for the most urgent threats to safety and security. Please also visit the website of the relevant U.S. embassy or consulate to see information on entry restrictions, foreign quarantine policies, and urgent health information provided by local governments.

Travelers are urged to enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) to receive Alerts and make it easier to locate you in an emergency. The Department uses these Alerts to convey information about terrorist threats, security incidents, planned demonstrations, natural disasters, etc. In an emergency, please contact the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate or call the following numbers: 1(888) 407-4747 (toll-free in the United States and Canada) or 1 (202) 501-4444 from other countries or jurisdictions.

If you decide to travel abroad or are already outside the United States:

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