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Sadness, Predictions, and More on the Coronavirus

By Gary F. Zeolla

      I listened to President Trump’s press conference on Monday, March 16, 2020, at 3:30 pm EDT. In it, he strongly recommended people avoid gatherings of more than ten people across the country, even in private homes. Add that to the “non-essential” business shutdowns ordered by governors and mayors across the country, and the country is basically in shutdown.

      Sadness, that is how I felt as I listened to that press conference. In this article, I will discuss why I am so sad and what I predict we will see in the days and weeks ahead, along with providing much important information on the ongoing Coronavirus crisis.

      Notes: This article is a follow-up to my previous writings about the Coronavirus, posted at Coronavirus Comments March 2020 and Gathering Bans and My Powerlifting Contest. I will not be repeating here what I say on those pages, and I will assume knowledge of those pages, so it is recommended the reader read those pages first if you have not already done so.

      I am writing this article on March 17-18, 2020. All facts and figures are based on what was known at that time. I added a few updates on March 20, before publishing this article in my FitTips newsletter and cross-posting in on my fitness website. These updates are indicated by a dark blue sub-subtitle.

    This article is a bit on the long side, but this is the only time I plan on writing a full-length article about this crisis, at least for a while, so I wanted to express everything I have to say about it at this time. But I think this information is important, so I hope the reader takes the time to read through the entire article.

Sadness

      As I listened to the March 16 press conference, I was setting up for my workout, and I knew that was the end of my planned upcoming powerlifting contest in early April. As a result, I had a hard time getting psyched up for the workout. Afterwards, I listened to a local talk show host (Wendy Bell on KDKA radio), and she said the sense she got from people is they are sad.

      That was it. Exactly how I felt. Sadness, not just for me and the fact that I wasted the last six months training for the contest but for the country. I knew millions of American would learn what it is like living an isolated life like I have been doing for many years due to my health situation (Multiple Chemical Sensitivities). I knew millions of Americans would now suffer financially. Jobs will be permanently lost, small business will close for good, people will go into debt, and the country will sink into a deep recession.

Predictions

      I assume the President is getting his ideas from NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, . As a doctor, Fauci only thinks in terms of the disease. Of course, if you keep everyone in their homes, it will slow the spread of the Coronavirus (CV). But he is not taking the economic impact into account.

      To be clear, yes, the CV is a big deal. I have never denied that. In the end, probably tens of millions of Americans will be infected by it, and tens of thousands will die. Whether it ends up impacting more people than the seasonal flu remains to be seen. But more people will be adversely affected long term by the economic impact of the draconian approaches being instituted than ever would be by the virus.

      The point, is, Fauci is an epidemiologist. He is only looking at it from that viewpoint. He is not looking at it from the viewpoint of an economist. But what we needed was a balance between the two outlooks. But what we got was one-sided. Interestingly, Trump’s sole focus throughout his presidency has been the economy, but now he has lost sight of that due to the hysteria over this virus. He knows if he doesn’t take this draconian approach, he will be blamed for every death. But later, he will be blamed for every lost job and closed business.

      To make a few predictions, yes, a two-week shutdown of the country will slow the spread of CV. But the two weeks will probably become four weeks, then six weeks, then eight weeks. At that point, Americans won’t be able to handle the isolation anymore, and the bans will have to be lifted. As everyone rubs their eyes and emerges from their bunkers, the spread of the CV will once again flare up, as none of us will have developed an immunity. And it will start all over again.

      Unless, that is, the CV is like the seasonal flu and dissipates in the summer. In that case, we will have a few months respite, then it will start all over again in the late autumn (November-December), just in time for the holidays. Just wait for the sadness when Americans are told they cannot have gatherings of more than ten people just before Thanksgiving Day. Then the economic impact of the depressed Christmas shopping season will be devastating.

      I understand the idea of “flattening the curve” to keep our healthcare system from being overwhelmed. But this one-sided approach will also flatten the economy. What we needed was a more reasoned approach that took both the disease and the economy into account, but the media-driven hysteria only allows the CV to be taken into account.

What If People Don’t Comply?

      Someone posted a comment on a Trib Live article (the website for my local newspaper) that her daughter’s place of employment, a tobacco shop, was refusing to close, and she had to go to work, despite our governor her in PA (Tom Wolf) ordering all non-essential businesses to close. I told her to tell her daughter to go ahead to work, lest she lose her job. But before she does, make an anonymous call to the police’s tip line and tell them about the situation. Let the police come and shut it down. Then she can go home and hunker down like the rest of us.

      But that does make me wonder how draconian things will get in regard to people who do not comply with the government mandates. In such a situation, will the police drag her and her employer out of the shop then bar the shop shut? If eleven people are in one place, will one be arrested?

      I truly fear we could be heading towards a police state. Don’t get me wrong, I think people should follow whatever mandates come from the government, not just at times like this, but as a general rule (Romans 13:1-5; Titus 3:1; 1Peter 2:13-15). But when the government becomes oppressive, that can change, as it did with our Foundering Fathers (Daniel 6:7-10; Acts 5:29). My fear is, once the government gets emergency powers, it will not relinquish them when the crisis passes.

Update: Here in PA, Governor Tom Wolf order all “non-life-sustaining” businesses to close on March 20, 2020.  Businesses that fail to comply are subject to fines and loss of licensure. That is the kind of government overreach that I have been fearing.

Hoarding

      I place the blame on the media and the hysteria it has created for the panic buying and hoarding we have been witnessing. If they had treated the CV like it does the seasonal flu, people wouldn’t be in such a panic, buying up shopping carts full of canned goods and toilet paper, thinking that is somehow necessary.

      But it is despicable when people buy way more than they need of items that would actually help control the spread of not just the CV but all viruses, namely soap and other disinfectants. Leave some for the next person.

      In some cases, people are hoarding items not for themselves but in order to resale them at greatly inflated prices. For instance, I saw a package of 200 napkins on sale on Amazon for $88. That is price gouging. Most states have laws against such, and Amazon and other online retailers are doing there best to block those engaging in it.

    There are those who think it shouldn’t be stopped. They say that being able to sell items at greatly increased prices increased supply. But that is not really true. Again, most of the time, such exorbitant prices are being charged by those who bought the items elsewhere and then are reselling them. All that did was to reduce the supply where it was purchased. Meanwhile, a modest price increase would be sufficient incentive for companies to ramp up production. That is generally allowed, along the lines of a 10-15% increase. Thus, please do not encourage the unscrupulous and purchase something at a ridiculous price. Just wait a few days, and it should be back in stock at a reasonable price at your local store or an online retailer.

Attacks on the President

      Even more despicable than the media-driven hysteria, is how the media, Dems, and other Never-Trumpers are using this crisis to unjustifiably attack the President.

      For example, during the March 16 press conference, the President was asked, “Is the US heading for a recession?” His response was, “It may be. But we’re not thinking in terms of a recession. We’re thinking in terms of the virus.” He then went on to talk about the underlying strength of the economy and said once this crisis is over, we will see a “tremendous surge” in the economy.

      When MSNBC replied his answer the next day, they left out the first sentence, “It may be.” They then went into a long tirade about how out of touch the President is in denying even the possibility of a recession. It was a despicable display of deliberate deception into order to make an unjustified attack on the President.

      Let’s be clear, the President has taken every possible step to alleviate this crisis, as informed by his health experts. If a Dem were President right now, he or she would probably have taken similar steps. There is only so much a President can do to deal with such a situation.

      When Trump instituted the travel ban from China on January 31, the detractors said it was “racist” and “xenophobic” to institute such a ban. They said it was “too soon.” But that very act bought us time to prepare for the crisis. It must also be remembered what was happening at that time. The Senate impeachment trial was in progress. But despite that great distraction, Trump was already meeting with his health experts, and on their advice, instituted that ban. He should be greatly commended for such focus despite that great distraction.

      When Trump put together his CV tasks force, the detractors said it was “too white” and “showed a lack of diversity.” They gave little attention to the qualifications of those members. All that mattered was their skin color. But when Trump added a “person of color” (Seema Verma), not a word was said about it in the media.

      Trump was then criticized for insufficient testing being available. But it was not his fault that a technical issue rendered the first batch of tests unusable. Then he had to deal with CDC regulations that prevented the very private/ public partnership that was needed to produce the tests large scale. But he dealt with that issue as quickly as possible, and millions of tests are now being produced.

      Then Trump was criticized for his European travel ban. But Europe is now the epicenter of the virus, so such a ban is more than warranted. Now it is true that after that announcement, there was a major problem when thousands of returning Americans flooded our airports, leading to people being crowded together in just the fashion we are being warned against. And that was a miscalculation by the administration.

      However, Trump had made it clear in his Oval Office address that the European travel ban did not apply to Americans returning to the States. As such, he did not expect them to all return at once. He did not realize the panic people are in and that there would be such a rush to return. But that situation has now been dealt with, and the long waits and crowding in the airports has been alleviated.

      Meanwhile, the Trump administration has been at the forefront of ensuring medical personal across the country have all they need to deal with this crisis. But he is mostly doing so by having the states seek local sources for protective gear, ventilators, and the like, as it is quicker to attain such locally then for the federal government to try to distribute such throughout the country. But the New York Times used that approach to unjustifiably attack the President. They worded it as the President saying, “Get it yourself,” making it sound like he had little concern if health personal had the needed supplies or not. But in fact, attaining needed supplies locally is much better than the federal government trying to administer everything.

      The same goes for the forced closures of restaurants, bars, and other non-essential businesses. Those are mostly being done on a state, county, or local level. But the detractors are saying Trump should have instituted a nationwide shutdown. But that would have been an overreaching of federal powers.

      But most of all, Trump has been criticized for “downplaying” the seriousness of the crisis. But I have not seen that at all, and I have watched just about every press conference and address Trump has made about the CV. What Trump has been doing is trying to calm down fears and prevent the media-driven hysteria we have been seeing, resulting in the afore-discussed hoarding and panic buying and the crashing of the stock market. Sadly, that attempt on the part of the President has been to little avail.

      Trump has also been trying to be as upbeat as possible, hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst. The latter he has clearly been doing, working in conjunction with his medical team. In fact, his every decision I am sure has been at the behest of the medical experts who have been advising him.

      The latter is most clearly seen in the March 16 announcement about a ten-person limit on gatherings. I would guess that grated on Trump, as he knew it would tank the economy. And sure enough, the Dow plunged almost 3,000 points that day. But I am sure such an announcement is what his medical experts told him was needed, so he made it.

      Now, I disagreed with that decision. But that does not mean I think Trump is incompetent. Yet every time Trump does something a Dem or the media disagrees with, they say it is due to some character flaw in Trump, not just a mere disagreement.

      Take for instance the many times I have heard a Never-Trumper say “Trump doesn’t care about the American people. He only cares about himself.” To that, I have just one response, “Are you God?” If not, then how do you know what is in Trump’s heart? Only God can read people’s hearts. Rather than trying to play God, they should be prepared to meet God and to answer for the sin of bearing false witness against Trump (Exodus 20:16). But then these are the same people who claim Trump is a racist, a sexist, a homophobe, or whatever negative label they put on him. These are all lies, as I demonstrate in my books Tearing the USA Apart and God’s Sex Plan.

      Even today, as I write, this, MSNBC and the New York Times are still pushing the lie that Trump called the CV “a hoax.” He never said that. What he said was it was a hoax that his administration did not have a plan to deal with the CV.

      All of this is important, as Americans should be able to look to the President as a source of strength and comfort in a crisis. But the media has so degraded his character, that lack a lack of faith in the President is fueling the hysteria. But Dems and the media do not care about such. All they care about is denigrating Trump in the midst of this crisis so that they can defeat him in November election. It’s the same motive as was behind the impeachment fiasco, as I demonstrate in my three-volume set Dems Cannot Beat Trump, So They Impeach Trump. My message to Trump-haters is you have got to stop trying to use this crisis to engage in unjustified attacks against the President and join the rest of us in trying to solve it.

Important Numbers

      The latest numbers on the CV worldwide are as follows:

    7,865 deaths

195,892 infected

  80,840 recovered

      These numbers come from FNC as of 4:00 pm on March 17, 2020. Doing the math (deaths/ infected), this is a 4.01% death rate. However, this is where my mention elsewhere about not knowing the denominator becomes important. As more people are tested, the number of infected will rise much faster than the number of deaths, resulting in a lowering of the death rate.

      I mentioned that the best estimate was the death rate would end up being about 1%. That number came from Dr. Fauci from a few days ago. Deborah L. Birx in the March 17 press conference said she thinks it will end up being about 0.7%.  Compare that to the seasonal flu, with an average of 0.1-0.2%, and yes, the CV is more deadly, but not by a significant factor.

      But it must be mentioned, as the millions of tests the Trump administration has now made available get distributed, the infection rate will spike dramatically, as more people get tested. The media will use that spike to scare people even more. But what it will probably fail to report is that the spike in cases will mean the death rate will drop significantly. But people need to know that, as that nuance would be comforting to people.

      But the media isn’t even waiting for the test results. They are now “predicting” the number of cases that will be seen. Thus, here in my county, my local newspaper reported, “40% to 60% of Allegheny County adults likely to get infected with covid-19.” But there is zero evidence to support such a number. China, the original epicenter of the virus, has not seen anywhere near that percentage of its citizens get infected.

      However, it does appear like the CV is more easily transmitted than the seasonal flu. That is why the numbers are growing more rapidly than we normally see with the flu. But what we have now is still dwarfed by the numbers for the flu.

      For just the USA, the numbers for the 2019-20 flu season to date are: “22,000 – 55,000 flu deaths” and “36,000,000 – 51,000,000 flu illnesses” (CDC). Using the lower numbers, the death rate is: 0.06%. Thus, yes, the flu is less deadly. But note the total number of cases. As many as 51 million for just the USA vs. less than 200,000 for the entire world for the CV. That is why deaths from the flu still dwarfs those from the CV, even though the CV has a higher mortality rate.

      This is why I have been railing that the CV is being overblown. Yes, it is deadly, and yes, it is a concern. But the fact remains is you are more likely to catch the flu than the CV. That is my point in saying that if the media hyped the seasonal flu like has been the CV, people would be so scared, they would never leave their homes.

      The receding points were verified by Dr. Birx in the March 18 press conference. She went on to say that out of the people who have been tested so far in the USA, only 7% tested positive for CV. The rest had the flu or some other respiratory illness.

      Overwise on these numbers, note the recovery rate from the CV. Again, doing the math (recovered/ infected), that is a 41% recovery rate. That number will rise quickly as far more people recover from the CV than die from it.

      The wildcard in all of this is there are probably lots of people who have or have had the CV but did not know it. They didn’t as they had little to no symptoms. As a result, they never sought medical attention. But they are now fully recovered or will be soon. If all of those cases were known, again, the death rate would plummet, and the recovery rate would skyrocket.

      Another CV related number I just heard is the virus can live on hard surfaces from several hours to several days, depending on the type of surface. That is important, as it is why surfaces need to be regularly disinfected, especially in public places.

      Meanwhile the other numbers to be concerned about are in regard to the stock market. The Dow was at a high of over 29,000 just a few short weeks ago. On March 16, it plummeted to just above 20,000 after a 2,999-point drop. On March 17, it rose over 1,000 points. That volatility itself is mind-bending. But even more so is that since its high to its low on March 16, the market as a whole has lost $11.7 trillion. That number is devastating to our economy. And that is being reflected in a dropped consumer confidence, which is sure to go even lower. That all will contribute to the seriousness of the coming recession.

      All of this is why I am more concerned about the economic impact of the CV than the CV itself. In saying that, I am not in any way downplaying the severity of the CV. I just think the media hype and the government overreacting is doing more harm than good. However, the President is confident that as soon as we get over this crisis, the economy will come roaring back. Though I applaud his confidence, I cannot share it. That leads to the next point.

Update: As of 9:00 am, March 20, the numbers in the USA are: 14,250 infected and 205 dead. These numbers are sure to rise rapidly in the days ahead. But do not panic when you see that happening. It is not because the virus is spreading more rapidly. It is because of more widespread testing.

Government Relief Packages

      As I write this, Congress is set to pass three different relief bills, including a $850 billion financial relief bill, though Trump wants as much as $1.2 trillion. I know the congressmen and women think they need to do something. But I predict this relief bill will have as much positive effect as Obama’s $777 billion “stimulus” package did back in 2009, which is to say very little. But what it will do is what Obama’s relief bill did, explode the national debt even more than it already is.

      Some of the aspects of the relief bill sound good. But not everyone will be covered by it. To take myself for example, I am a self-employed writer. Sales of my books are sure to suffer as fewer people have disposable income to spend on books. But I see nothing in the relief plan that would help me. The same would go for those who depend on tips for a living. From what I have seen, it will only be specific sectors of the economy that will benefit, and if you’re not in one of those sectors, you’re out of luck.

      Unless, that is, Mitt Roney’s idea of giving every American $1,000 goes through. The President is now be backing that plan. Sure, I’ll take the $1000, and it will help to pay a few bills. But in the grand scheme of things, it will change little. All such a plan entails is taking money from Paul and giving it to Peter. No new wealth is being created.

      Moreover, the plan is to send out that money within the next two weeks. But if people get their money while the country is still shutdown, most of it will be spent online. But online stores are doing just fine, great in fact in wake of the shutdown. It is service industries like restaurants that are hurting, but the money will not be spent there, as we are not allowed to go there. In addition, many people, like myself, will use the $1000 to pay pre-existing bills, not to make new purchases. In that case, it will do nothing to stimulate the economy.

      But that reasoning does not deter Bernie Sanders. He is trying to out-trump Trump by proposing the government give $2000/ month to all Americans during this crisis. Again, I’d take the $2,000. But his total relief package would cost $2 trillion. That is quite outrageous.

      But most disturbing thing is that the Dems have been trying to sneak unrelated riders into the bills. For instance, an initial House bill set aside a billion dollars not covered by the Hyde Amendment. For those who don’t know, the Hyde Amendment prevents federal dollars from being used to pay for abortions. But Dems were trying to get around that provision and push money towards Planned Parenthood. There was also a provision to require our troops to fully withdrawal from Afghanistan.

      That is par for the course for Dems, as part of their motto, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” I don’t know if these provisions ended up in the final bill passed by the House or not. But I am sure if we could inspect it closely, we would find many such “poison pills” in it. That is why some Republicans voted against the measures. You can be sure Dems will use those no votes against them come November. They will say Republicans did not care about the American people in the wake of this crisis, when in fact it was Dems playing politics with the relief bills.

Update:  

    As of Friday, March 20, phases one and two of these bills have already been passed and signed by the President. Those bills provided funding for the health crisis directly in the form of funding testing and other needed medical equipment, along targeted loans to select business. Phrase three is still being worked on, but it is expected to be passed by the end of the weekend. As it stands now, it will provide $12,000 to every adult in America making less than $75,000 plus $500 for every child. Payments for those making between $75,000-$99,000 will be proportionally less. Then nothing for those making more than that.

Herd Immunity

      I predicted in my article No Viable Evangelical Alternatives to President Trump that good old American ingenuity and our capitalism based Big Pharma would leadthe way in developing a CV vaccine. And that has proven to be the case. Actually, to be fair, it is a joint venture between the National institutes of Health (NIH) and a Massachusetts based pharma firm. They have already started human trials.

      That is all very good. But a vaccine for widespread use is still at least a year away. That is bad. Even worse is the antivaxxers are already out in full force trying to scare people away from getting the vaccine once it is available. That is very bad.

      The misinformed antivaxxer movement is behind the fact that only 50% of American get the seasonal flu shot. That is why the numbers for the flu are so high, even though we have a way to protect against it. And if the antivaxxers are successful in their misinformation campaign, we will not be able to depend on a vaccine to end this crisis.

      But this is where the idea of herd immunity comes into play, and why I am skeptical of the draconian measures being used to try to stop the spread of the CV. By following the restrictions, our population as a whole will not develop immunity to the CV, and we will remain at risk of a flare-up of an epidemic for a long time to come.

      To explain, once you have been infected by a virus and recover, you cannot get sick from that same virus again. The reason you need to get a flu vaccine every year is because a new strain of the flu virus emerges each year.

      In the case of the CV, it is just one strain. And once you get it and recover, you cannot get sick from it again. When a majority of the population is in that state, that is herd immunity. That specific virus simply cannot run rampant among that population. Individuals who are not so protected can still get it, but it will not turn into an epidemic. The purpose of vaccines is to get us to that point of herd immunity without people having to go through being sick and the risk of serious complications.

      Now, there have been some misreporting about people getting the CV, recovering, then getting sick again. It has also been reported that the CV is mutating, so that people who get one version can still get a new version of it. None of this is true, as has been stated repeatedly by health experts. The reason some seem to get it, recover, then get it again is because they never fully recovered in the first place. Just like with a cold or flu, if you try to resume normal activities too soon, you can have a relapse. And there is no scientific evidence that the CV is mutating. Any claims otherwise on these two points is fearmongering.

      But to do a little bit of fearmongering myself, my fear about the current approach of everyone sheltering in place and avoiding gatherings is the population as a whole is not getting exposed to the virus. Thus, when people get tired of the isolation and emerge and begin to congregate again, the CV will flare-up again, as our population as whole will not have developed herd immunity. The only way around this would be to continue in shutdown mode until a vaccine is available. But again, that is at least a year away.

      This is why the United Kingdom is considering throwing caution to wind and letting its citizens just go about their daily lives as usual. Yes, more people will get sick more rapidly, but then that will be it. The UK as a whole will have developed herd immunity and will no longer be susceptible to the CV.  The problem with this approach is there is no way of knowing just how many people will die or suffer other serious consequences as a result. It could very well wipe out the entire elderly population of the UK.

Update: I learned on Thursday, March 19 that the UK did not go through with their “do nothing” plan. They are now taking similar measures as seen here in the USA. Thus, we will never know what would have happened with a do-nothing approach.

Infection Rate Update:

      CA governor Gavin Newsom invoked an “shelter-in-place” order for all of California. That is based on his belief that “56% of the state’s population, or 25.5 million people, would be infected over an eight-week period” (WSJ. California). But I have yet to see any sound scientific evidence that such an infection rate can be predicted. But that number is being used to justify the most draconian order possible. There is no doubt the economy of CA will come to a grinding halt as a result.

      Consider the following update, “There were more than 244,000 confirmed coronavirus cases world-wide Thursday [3/19/20], according to data from Johns Hopkins. More than 10,000 people have died, while more than 86,000 have since recovered, most of whom reside in China” (WSJ. California).

      The 244,000 cases worldwide include all of those in China and Europe. Yet the total population of those just those two areas is over two billion. That is a less than a one percent infection rate. Thus, where is the idea that 40-60% of Americans will be infected coming from? Try as I might, I could not find any evidence to support this claim. The closest I came is that a month ago, The World Health Organization (WHO) denounced such an exorbitant prediction, yet authorities are still operating as if it is a reliable prediction.

My Approach

      This is all why I have advocated a middle line approach to either extreme of sheltering in place versus doing nothing. This approach include the following:

    We all should practice frequent and thorough handwashing. Those who are at high risk or who have been infected should practice self-isolation. Places of business, churches, and the like should operate at half-capacity. Stay open, but only allow at best half the normal capacity into their doors. In that way, people can keep at a distance from each other if they so choose. All people should be encouraged to avoid large crowds and especially closely packed crowds and to practice social distancing, especially with the elderly and others at elevated risk.

      Otherwise, we should all be following a healthy diet, exercising, practicing stress control, and getting adequate sleep. And those who smoke should stop, and don’t drink to excess. In other words, all the things we should already be doing to stay healthy in general. Those who follow such steps will be less likely to contract the CV, and if they do, their symptoms will be far less severe than those how do not follow such healthy habits.

      But the closing of gyms is preventing many from following the “exercising” part of this prescription. That is why I think that part of these “non-essential closings” is very unwise. Gyms should be considered to be “essential.” They should be allowed to stay open, but with sufficient restrictions on capacity that people can keep at a distance from each other. And the gyms should be conscientious about disinfecting all equipment regularly and providing the means to do so to each gym goer.

      Of course, it is possible to exercise without going to a gym. Walking or jogging would be the most obvious. That is, unless you are under a shelter-in-place order that does not allow you to leave your home. Though, some such orders sometimes have exception for just this reason, so people can exercise, and I would hope, walk their dogs. There are also various calisthenics and aerobics that can be done in the home, though they are all quite boring.

      Lots of people have exercise equipment at home. Maybe it is time to take off the clothes hanging on them and to actually use them. Maybe that Pendleton exercise bike commercial that caused all the uproar back before Christmas wasn’t so far off after all. Or how about using the time to clean out your garage or some any other such project you’ve been meaning to do? That would give you some exercises while accomplishing something in the process.

      As for stress control, stop watching, listening, or reading so much CV news. Stay informed as to what is happening. But then shut it off, and do something relaxing, like reading the Bible. That will calm your nerves rather than cause anxiety. Reading the Bible will remind you The LORD Has It Under Control, as I discuss at length in my book by that name.

      However, admittedly, my approach is based on people practicing self-responsibility. But sadly, that is lacking among many in our population, such as millennials. That age groups especially seems to be ignoring all of the warnings, congregating in large and packed crowds, then going home and hugging their parents and grandparents.

      This is why I struggle with freedom versus governmental restrictions, as in how much the preceding should be just recommendations and how much of it should be government enforced mandates and bans. I tend towards the side of freedom, but when you have a few jerks who don’t practice self-responsibility, that makes things difficult.

      Finally, this middle of the road approach was advocated by some health experts, but it was not the one the federal, state, and local governments have chosen to follow. As such, again, I recommend the reader abide by what the authorities are telling you to do. I just present this approach  in response to questions I have been asked as to what I think would have been a better approach than the draconian one our various levels of governments have chosen to follow.

My Plans/ Conclusion

      As for myself, even though my upcoming powerlifting contest is now gone, I will probably go ahead and do my “peaking workouts” next week as planned just for my own satisfaction. Those will let me know what I would probably have been able to do if I had been able to enter a contest now. Then I will backoff as usual after a contest, then start back up again. I think it will then be best to plan on a contest in early autumn (September-October). In that way, we should be over this crisis if the President is right and it runs through July-August, but I will avoid the late autumn CV resurge if my prediction comes through about the CV reemerging then.

      That said, as mentioned, this is the only time I plan on writing a full-length article about this crisis. I need to get back to work on a major project I have been working on, namely, the aforementioned three-volume set on the impeachment fiasco. And besides, there is nothing more to discuss. The die has been cast. All that we can do is sit back and see what happens. But I might add a short commentary once in a while to the Coronavirus Comments March 2020 page.

      That said; I will pray I am wrong, and things don’t get as near bad as I fear they will, both in regard to the CV and economically. But only time will tell. I would also suggest the reader spend some of your self-isolation time in prayer as well. Might as well put that time to some good use.

      To explain a couple of points, I have a home office and a home gym. That is how I am able to continue to work and to work out despite my personal health situation that forces me to live a mostly isolated life and during this shutdown. But my heart and prayers go out to those who are not able to work and to work out during this time. If it weren’t for my home office and home gym, I’d be going crazy not being able to work and to work out for at least the next two weeks.

      However, there are many days when I am unable to work or work out due to my health situation. Not only do I struggle with the health flare-up but with the feeling of worthlessness, not being able to be productive. That is the fundamental flaw with the federal government’s financial relief plans. Giving money to people does not meet people’s God-given need to work, to feel needed and to be productive (Genesis 1:28, 3:17; Ephesians 4:28; 1Thessalonians 3:9; 2Thessalonians 3:10).

      Finally, if you didn’t read my shorter article Gathering Bans and My Powerlifting Contest, you might want to do so for the full context of this article.

References:

      Most of the information for this article comes from health and financial experts appearances on various TV and radio news reports, talk shows, and especially during the President’s daily CV task force press conferences. But the following webpages gave me some specifics.

      Breitbart. New York Times Authors Deceptively Edit Trump’s Advice to Governors on Medical Ventilators.

      CDC. 2019-2020 U.S. Flu Season: Preliminary Burden Estimates.

      Federalist, The. Why Severe Social Distancing Might Actually Result In More Coronavirus Deaths.

      Healthline. Understanding Opposition to Vaccines.

      Trib Live. As part of $850 billion coronavirus response, Trump wants checks sent to public in 2 weeks.

      Trib Live. Health official: 40% to 60% of Allegheny County adults likely to get infected with covid-19.

      Trib Live. Influenza deaths increase in history-setting season, state reports.

      Trib Live. Gov. Wolf orders ‘non-life-sustaining’ businesses to close physical locations to halt coronavirus spread.

      Trib Live. When it comes to coronavirus, here’s what ‘social distancing’ actually means.

      US News. WHO Denounces Claim of Potential 60% Coronavirus Infection Rate.

      WSJ. California Orders Lockdown for State’s 40 Million Residents.

      WSJ. Stocks Rise Sharply in Volatile Trading.

      WSJ. U.S. Seeks to Send Checks to Americans as Part of Stimulus Package.

Sadness, Predictions, and More on the Coronavirus. Copyright © 2020 by Gary F. Zeolla (www.Zeolla.org).

The above article was posted on this website March 18, 2020.
The Updates were added March 20. 2020.