Human Nature is as dangerous as any virus

I know a thing or two about human nature

or

You know what could turn into a problem? Panic.

When asked recently if I've changed my mind about the threat this virus poses...asked in a way as though the questioner thought I should have. I could only blink. Blink and then realize that this person has been deluged with big scary clickbait headlines and has not bothered to look at any actual numbers of deaths and actual cases that require hospitalization.

Remember, please, when you see headline about how many people have it....that how many people have it does not matter. What matters is how many people get it and need a hospital bed. I laid out all the reasons the death rate here would be dramatically less than China...the numbers are making me look like an oracle at this point. Compared to the stage China was after two months, you'd have been jumping for joy if someone told you this is where we'd be after over 60 days.

I see people pointing to countries that live in poverty, have a completely different infrastructure, and a scores of other differences with the U.S. and saying "look look...look what's coming!". Uhm...no...we got this in the middle of January...about the same time the rest of Europe did. That's not something that is "coming", That is something that didn't happen here, for about 4 dozen different reasons.

Of course the problem here (one of them) is that the entire U.S. has been shut down. and nearly every coping mechanism for stress anyone used, is no longer available. Stress affects the body and the immune system, so there's that. But that's just the actual medical aspect of this. You might ask a psychologist if telling a population of 330 million people to stay at home until further notice is a good idea. Or ask a sociologist. But stand back, because they might throw up at the possible scenarios.

330 million people, at home, indulging in scary clickbait news. You think that's a good idea? You think that ends well? You wanna talk numbers? Let's talk numbers, over 4 million people have mental illness in this country. You think this ends well for them? How many of them, or you, are going to convince yourselves you have this virus and demand treatment and testing? People being admitted to the emergency room for domestic abuse is already way up...I could have told you that was coming.

Along with rises in alcoholism, suicide, or just dumb accidents. You wanna talk more math? There are 20 million hospital visits each year due to home accidents. That's 1.6 million a months...now multiply the number of home accidents by 35% ( roughly the extra amount of time that will be spent at home). That's not a joke.

Personally, I'd say you can multiply that number by more because the likely hood of people doing something stupid is higher while under stress and anxiety. But...that's not quantifiable.

The hospitals being overtaxed is a concern, but not one bothered to consider how many people will end up in the emergency room out of cabin fever induced hypochondria? You think I'm being glib? Just wait...wait for the staggering number of negative test results. They are going to blow your mind, and then realize how many test kits were flat out wasted, and time was flat out wasted.

and giant bulk of that will be because of telling an entire country to stay at home with f*ck all to do but worry. Alfred Hitchcock couldn't do this one better.

If you listen to one thing I ever say...listen to this. YOUR role right now in fighting this is to NOT SPREAD PANIC. That includes clickbait headlines, crackpot theories, half assed numbers you didn't bother to verify from some rando on your newsfeed...like say ...this dumbass. Don't be this guy.

Either he doesn't understand that there are six zeros before the one in one million or his calculator is broken, because NO ONE could come up with that number based on anything actually going on here. and NO ONE IS. Not even the clickbaitest clickbait. The experts and WHO considered the absolute worst case for this country was 3 million over 18 months. And the numbers are already showing that to be obscenely overblown.

Oh wait...I'm wrong SROTI University has that number. You know, Some Rando On The Internet University. Or is that the University of Some Rando On The Internet, which one has the muskrat as a mascot? I lost my ass when they got beat in the Rose Bowl last year.

I am loathe to beat up on this guy too much, or the other several thousand crackpot conspiracy theories on my newsfeeds, because when you lock people up with nothing to do and the internet is filled with clickbait...this is what happens...at first...what happens next is way worse.

This is flabbergasting, this idea. Human beings are social animals...continuing this for any extended period of time is going to cause abject human misery in many...and in many cause anger, and frustration. This decree in untenable...

We are just over a week right now. They are concerned the peak of this disease will be in late March early April. Human beings....when made to dramatically alter their behavior in some way...will begin to resist the most on the third week. Quitting smoking, quitting drinking...the third week, that's bitch of the bunch. You got a calendar? You see where week three of this shutdown falls?

Yup...right about where they think the peak of this spread will be.

Holy fcking sht is this a bad idea. From every conceivable aspect we are looking at the law of unintended consequences ripping through like an angry pit-bull going to work on a 1st grade dodgeball team.

Even perfectly well adjusted adults are start losing their sh*t in week three. Hypochondria, violence, accidents...maybe worse.

Because, even now people are wondering what the endgame is, how they will feed themselves, what will be left of the economy, and so forth. And they'll have plenty of time to continue to dwell on that. You think they are going to sit on their couch watching netflix and typing out #stayathome on social media posts of their dinner for weeks and months? They are not. You think once they start dwelling on bills, and their financial ruin, that guilt trips about - protect my grandpa- and going to keep the gate closed. It will not.

They are going to weigh feeding their kids vs your grandma...and then nail her door shut and start trying to go about their normal day.

And the blame for all of this will rest with the Federal, State, and local "leaders" ( I threw up in mouth when I typed "leaders") who handled this about as badly as you can imagine.

Let me explain something to you, if you think they didn't have enough time to roll this out any better...I have stayed awake for multiple days in a row on many occasions just to meet a deadline for a stinking comic book. IF they really truly think these measures are justified these a-holes had plenty of time to put these measures into place properly...legally. An emergency session all night long...or three nights ( If can do it to make Fcking comic book, they can stay awake until they write and agree on a bill in black and white explaining exactly what the rules are, that their constituents can read), a nice long speech detailing what the fck the plan actually is, what the f*cking goal is, what the actual numbers need to be, and a nice long press conference..a long one...until every reporter there has exhausted the questions about why they are stripping their citizens of their 2nd amendment rights, and preventing people from earning a living, and what the endgame is.

They could have done that.

That might have gone a long way towards stopping what's coming.

But there is a lot they didn't think through here. Little things...that any 2nd grader currently stuck at home could figure out...like, having a curfew means everyone has to be out and about at the same time, which as I understand things is counterproductive...instead no curfew and of some people going out in the day and others at night.

A second grader, who is currently at home because schools are close would take about two minutes to figure out that if you limit the time and number of places people can go...all the people will try to go to those places and be out during those times. Like say...the grocery store, is going to be constantly full IF THERE IS NO WHERE ELSE TO GO.

There are the deaths the virus would be responsible for not matter what...and the deaths would only occur because bumbasses who, despite living in this country their entire life, somehow picked up no understanding of their fellow man.

THIS INCLUDES PEOPLE POSTING PANIC AND CLICKBAIT

We have two things going for us. Neither of which are our leaders.

One- the actual numbers of what is happening here, is far below predictions. Two- we still have the 1st amendment, and I suspect/hope there is going to be enough yelling to change course, before anything more than yelling happens.