Third Edition
Well-Known Member
Here's my 2c on it.
Assumption: Lowering the curve only spreads the number of Covid-19 deaths out over time. It does not reduce Covid-19 deaths.
If the assumption is correct, we should therefore open the economy, get people out of their homes and back to work. The exceptions are those vulnerable people in the population, and areas like NYC where the situation is more dire than most everywhere else.
Irrespective of when we start getting back to normal in society and the economy, going forward, we need to recognize the vulnerabilities Covid-19 has exposed and respond in ways to protect us going forward.
To that end:
1. We need to make the pharmaceutical industry an industry crucial to national security. That means no production outside the US, and strict controls over involvement from non-US citizens.
2. Same goes for the telecommunication and internet infrastructure in the US.
3. We need to financially support US businesses if they want to bring their production out of China back to the US or to some other country. Japan seems to be doing this.
4. We need to create a robust national storage system, like the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, for key disaster response materiel. This includes ventilators, facemasks, other protective gear, and 3-D printing designs for some of these materials.
The ingenuity displayed in 3-D printing designs for some of these materials should be captured and disseminated to every state.
Now onto connecting the dots. After 9/11 the discussions often focused on how the dots weren’t connected, primarily because no one could think of doing such a thing, so didn’t think others could think or do such a thing.
So I’m going to connect dots that you may or may not agree with. However, it’s important to consider the possibility that people think very differently from us and could purposely inflict Covid-19 on humanity. It is unwise to not entertain that it’s possible and have contingency plans in place.
One of the knocks on the military/national defense types is that they’re always fighting the last war and aren’t prepared for how the next one materializes. This is largely because, perhaps, we don’t think like people who would initiate war. We like to think we only respond to those who so initiate.
So here goes:
5. China’s long-term planning is well-known. Their plans look forward decades, unlike ours.
6. We need to at least consider that the Covid-19 situation was in some way a planned event. If not by China, then some other actor.
Remember that China has in the past killed millions of its own citizens to achieve its goals. It could be the Covid-19 release was intentional, a limited scope release to see how the world would respond. Their leadership may not care about the short term impact on the people or industry if it got them closer to their long term goals.
Next time it could be a much larger release of a virus for which they have a vaccine. Perhaps the release would be after they’d vaccinated the Chinese population -- those they wish to save, that is.
7. Even if it was not a planned release, it’s nearly a given that it will happen again. Covid-19 is not the only coronavirus instance. We have had SARS and Bird flu, just to name two. We need to start preparing when Covid-19 winds down.
8. If the Chinese don’t in the future launch biowarfare on us, someone is likely to. We need to be more prepared.
9. We cannot rely on the WHO. We need our own boots on the ground in whatever country is having an outbreak. We have to assume the WHO is providing cover to countries and hiding their containment deficiencies, or other deficiencies that jeopardize us all.
10. We need to be less trusting. I think other countries, none of which have our interests foremost in their minds, expect the US to always give in because our leadership has shown the predilection to prefer the “kumbaya” moment (even if imaginary) over appearing racist/xenophobic/nationalist, etc. Our leadership wants to be liked. Face it, nobody likes us unless they have something they want from us. They are all jealous of us.
Assumption: Lowering the curve only spreads the number of Covid-19 deaths out over time. It does not reduce Covid-19 deaths.
If the assumption is correct, we should therefore open the economy, get people out of their homes and back to work. The exceptions are those vulnerable people in the population, and areas like NYC where the situation is more dire than most everywhere else.
Irrespective of when we start getting back to normal in society and the economy, going forward, we need to recognize the vulnerabilities Covid-19 has exposed and respond in ways to protect us going forward.
To that end:
1. We need to make the pharmaceutical industry an industry crucial to national security. That means no production outside the US, and strict controls over involvement from non-US citizens.
2. Same goes for the telecommunication and internet infrastructure in the US.
3. We need to financially support US businesses if they want to bring their production out of China back to the US or to some other country. Japan seems to be doing this.
4. We need to create a robust national storage system, like the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, for key disaster response materiel. This includes ventilators, facemasks, other protective gear, and 3-D printing designs for some of these materials.
The ingenuity displayed in 3-D printing designs for some of these materials should be captured and disseminated to every state.
Now onto connecting the dots. After 9/11 the discussions often focused on how the dots weren’t connected, primarily because no one could think of doing such a thing, so didn’t think others could think or do such a thing.
So I’m going to connect dots that you may or may not agree with. However, it’s important to consider the possibility that people think very differently from us and could purposely inflict Covid-19 on humanity. It is unwise to not entertain that it’s possible and have contingency plans in place.
One of the knocks on the military/national defense types is that they’re always fighting the last war and aren’t prepared for how the next one materializes. This is largely because, perhaps, we don’t think like people who would initiate war. We like to think we only respond to those who so initiate.
So here goes:
5. China’s long-term planning is well-known. Their plans look forward decades, unlike ours.
6. We need to at least consider that the Covid-19 situation was in some way a planned event. If not by China, then some other actor.
Remember that China has in the past killed millions of its own citizens to achieve its goals. It could be the Covid-19 release was intentional, a limited scope release to see how the world would respond. Their leadership may not care about the short term impact on the people or industry if it got them closer to their long term goals.
Next time it could be a much larger release of a virus for which they have a vaccine. Perhaps the release would be after they’d vaccinated the Chinese population -- those they wish to save, that is.
7. Even if it was not a planned release, it’s nearly a given that it will happen again. Covid-19 is not the only coronavirus instance. We have had SARS and Bird flu, just to name two. We need to start preparing when Covid-19 winds down.
8. If the Chinese don’t in the future launch biowarfare on us, someone is likely to. We need to be more prepared.
9. We cannot rely on the WHO. We need our own boots on the ground in whatever country is having an outbreak. We have to assume the WHO is providing cover to countries and hiding their containment deficiencies, or other deficiencies that jeopardize us all.
10. We need to be less trusting. I think other countries, none of which have our interests foremost in their minds, expect the US to always give in because our leadership has shown the predilection to prefer the “kumbaya” moment (even if imaginary) over appearing racist/xenophobic/nationalist, etc. Our leadership wants to be liked. Face it, nobody likes us unless they have something they want from us. They are all jealous of us.
