Tuesday, April 7, 2020

Tracking the Wuhan Virus, 4.7.20





The focus today remains on my immediate area. Time to change things, though. The same old thing can become stale, don't you know.

In Llano county, the number of cases remained steady @ 3. It doesn't look to be spreading very fast into the hinterlands. Why is that? A perusal of the infection rates based upon population yields a higher case load in the cities, but also a higher rate of infection overall. The explanation for this could be that they have had the virus in their communities for a longer time. However, I'd like to posit the notion that there is some reason why the cities are getting hit a bit harder. In short, there are a lot more opportunities for it to spread in the cities. It starts there because the cities have airport hubs, and in some cases, ships which could carry passengers with the virus. New York City is an important shipping destination as is Houston. Houston seems to be getting the worst of it now. Dallas-Fort Worth has an important airport hub. It grew faster than the Houston area at first, but now Houston is surpassing DFW.

The virus travels with the people, and spreads in the places where there are the most people. Therefore, the cities get hit the hardest.

But none of this is really new. A question then is why are the cases continuing to grow? There may be a lock-down, but couldn't be all that stringent if people are still getting the virus.

Spare me the freedom talk. Freedom is a higher-level function. It requires the use of one's own brains as opposed to letting someone else do your thinking for you. I'm not suggesting a dictatorship, but for people to realize that freedom means nothing when people start to get afraid. Look at the empty store shelves to see that. The loss of higher level functions happens in survival situations, or even in situations that aren't survival situations, but are perceived as such. There was never any reason for empty store shelves. Please smarten up people. The infection rate is way too low for people to be acting like this. But then again, if they didn't take precautions at all, things could get a lot worse.

Freedom means that you act before the government decides it has to act. When the government gets involved then it is too late to talk about freedom. People need to govern themselves or be governed. If you want to be free, then act in advance of these problems. If they catch up to the population at large, then forget-about-it. The herd mentality takes over. Try reasoning with a mob, eh? The mob only understands force. If you want to be a herd animal, then act like a dumb beast.

Rather than wait for the government to tell us what to do, now is the time to do what it takes to knock this thing out for good. Now. If it means wearing a mask and gloves, then I am prepared to start doing that. But I would prefer to pre-empt the government. Anyway, there are people around here who are already doing that. I haven't. It pains me to consider this move, but it would be better to start doing something right now. There's still time for people to act rationally, even if it isn't all the time.

That survival book I mentioned here or on the other blog mentioned a "party attitude". So let the party begin. Time to kick butt.



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