As a boy, I read Sax Rohmer’s “Fu Manchu” novels. The evil doctor came out of China to try to dominate the world, using what he described as “fungi and my tiny allies, the bacilli” and leaving conventional weapons to his minions. His opponent was the doughty Englishman Sir Denis Nayland Smith, armed with a Browning pistol and occasionally a Colt. The stuff was racist as hell with a lot of “yellow peril” overtones.

Meet “Flu Manchu.” A lot of parallels there with the COVID-19 virus, ya think?  My Brownings and Colts won’t help with this stuff.  We’re seeing a bell curve of predictions. One side points out that most of us don’t (yet) know anyone who’s died from it or even been exposed to it, while at the other end of that bell curve well-credentialed people are predicting as many as half a million deaths from the Corona virus by summer.  We are in any case seeing a panic unparalleled in living memory by anyone but centenarians.

Broadway theatres have gone dark. In Seattle, at least fifty restaurants closed in a mere two-week span. Sports events of even the largest scope are being shut down.   In Chicago, one cancelled convention alone cost the hotel industry some 47,000 room-nights of occupancy.  Airplane flights are being cancelled for lack of passengers, with jetliners sidelined in mothballs.  Store shelves are bare of hand sanitizer, isopropyl alcohol, and bleach (understandable).  The toilet paper shelves are almost empty, which has caused some pundits to scoff, “What’s wrong with people? It’s killer flu, not dysentery!”  The skeptics need to look a little deeper. Shutdowns of international transportation of product are going to have a profound ripple effect on domestic product transportation.  Stocking up on TP actually makes sense. Look at how many people will be working from home in the interim, using their own toilets another eight hours a day instead of workplace restrooms. And, uh, food, and all that…

I hope the skeptics are right and it’s all a relative tempest in a teapot. After all, regular flu(s) kill up to 60,000 Americans a year, and all our society does is have drugstores post signs reminding us to get our flu shots. In 2009, it was estimated that 12,000 Americans died in the Swine Flu epidemic (and I don’t recall Republicans blaming Democrat President Obama for that, but things seem to be different in that regard now…)

But even if Flu Manchu turns out to be a paper tiger, the damage will be measurable more in dollar signs than in the sign of the caduceus.  Witness the plunge of the stock market.  My own investments have taken a brutal hit, and I’m sure yours have too.  Optimists say it will bounce back, and opportunists see the “buy low” side of “buy low, sell high” beckoning. It may indeed be a good time to buy stock in cruise lines and airlines and such…if they survive the long shutdown.  Service industry staff laid off are looking at time in the unemployment compensation lines.  Schools are shutting down all over the place. It’s hitting adult education, too, and that’s what this writer does, so a heavy hit there is a fait accompli.  A few days from now I was scheduled to be running my Panel of Experts on Deadly Force/Firearms Training for the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association. It has been postponed to August because of the pandemic. (Good news there: folks with the best input from government agencies are indicating that the nightmare should be fading by then.) The Rangemaster Tactical conference has been canceled too.

But, hey, enough of my gloom and doom. Let’s hear from you readers. What’s happening where you are, and how are you and yours and your employers and workmates coping with it?

57 COMMENTS

  1. As I noted before, this mass-delusion is one for the books. It is unique in my lifetime.

    My 401K/IRA investments have taken a big hit, as expected. However, that does not worry me too much. Stock Market crashes ARE NOT unique in my lifetime. I have went through several such cycles over the years.

    The Stock Market is driven by Fear and Greed. Right now, Fear is in the pilot’s seat and we see the results. However, the co-pilot of Greed is waiting and ready. As soon as Fear weakens (and it will weaken since Fear is not an emotion that can be sustained forever despite the most determined efforts of the Anti-American Media to do so), then Greed will grab hold of the controls and drive the Stock Market back up to a sane level.

    It is just a matter of waiting until the panic in the herd dies down and this stampede grounds to a halt.

    The biggest disappointment for me was the cancellation of the NRA Annual Meeting in Nashville. I was looking forward to attending. The last time that it was held in Nashville, in 2015, I was not able to attend. I had some bad luck and managed to break my left leg.

    Looks like my bad luck is holding. The meeting comes back, in 2020, and what happens? A Kung Flu pandemic that shuts half the nation (including this meeting) down.

    Mas, do you think that there is any chance that the NRA might re-schedule this meeting (in Nashville) for sometime later in the year?

    • Unknown, brother. I haven’t heard anything about rescheduling. It’s a massive event. The last time they had to cancel, 1999, they waited until the next year.

  2. Having been in a large organization for nearly 3 decades and having become cynical about hidden motives, I’ve got a couple thoughts on the gloom and doom predictions:

    1. As investment advisers have long noted, those who predict falling markets/depression/recession will, at some future time, be correct.

    2. In the event that happens, those predictors are in a position to say “We told you so!” Perhaps more importantly, they won’t be crucified for minimizing the risk. Long ago I read a truism: The person who can smile in the face of adversity has already thought of who they can blame it on.

    3. Said doomsayers are trying to leverage a larger budget.

    Being retired and over 65, I’m pretty much hunkering in place with limited excursions as necessary to feed selves and critters and fix stuff I’ve neglected. Survived the polio threat before Salk vacines, the possibility of nuclear war and several other flu/disease threats.

    You’re becoming quite the punster.

    • Made a brief foray to the bank, post office and supermarket. Supermarket looked like a store in the Soviet Union. No paper towels, toilet paper, rice, eggs, disinfectant wipes and other stuff. Some aisles I just looked down and saw bare shelves, didn’t look to see what was supposed to be there. Bread was down to some potato bread goods and upscale stuff.

  3. The IDPA Tri-State Border Disorder is still on for March 28 in Tallahassee, and there are some openings, FYI.

  4. Tough times. I’m lucky to be working at CoolFire Trainer, a product that is ideally suited for developing and maintaining pistol proficiency with a pistol, so we’re actually expecting business to continue. Take care, and I look forward to seeing you and the team on the range or in a classroom before too long!

  5. Most people appear to be staying home here in Portland, Oregon, and scads of businesses (and all schools and libraries) are shut down with people out of work. Not surprisingly, plenty of hoarding at the supermarkets and gun stores. Because the libraries are closed, our flea-bitten tramps will barf, pee and poop more on the sidewalks and add to the pandemic. Expect a deep recession, if not depression, soon.

    But there are some unintended positive consequences: the air is cleaner because of fewer vehicles on the road; more fat and out-of-shape people are walking (or doing yard work) to deal with cabin fever, and perhaps losing weight; and we’re getting a mild taste of when (not if) the “big one” (the Cascadia Subduction Zone) rips loose with an earthquake of 9-plus on the Richter Scale. Quite a few people are also learning how to entertain themselves at home and dabble more in hobbies, home repairs, reading and cooking.

  6. Oregon reader here. My guns were already cleaned (I check regularly), and I’m blessed to have a job that allows me to work from home if need arises. I know plenty of people who are effectively out of work for the interim. “There but for the grace of God,” and all that.

    But as to some under-reported (if reported at all) reasons for hope, check these two links (and click through his links, too):

    https://borepatch.blogspot.com/2020/03/at-last-some-actual-coronavirus-data.html

    https://borepatch.blogspot.com/2020/03/reasons-for-optimism-about-coronavirus.html

    As noted, it’s a cautious optimism, but with the MSM pushing for full panic, any fact- or logic-based reason for optimism is welcome.

  7. Tell the Evil Princess to design a remote MAG 40 class. The range part would be something to behold.

    “No shooting inside the house! I am trying to binge on The Bachelor!”

    • Miggy, The Evil Princess does NOT watch The Bachelor.
      EP

      P.S. oops I didn’t know I was logged in under Mas.

  8. I keep needing to point out that toilet paper is a domestic product, at worst Canada or Mexico produced. As long as commercial traffic exists, we will have enough.

    What throws me are the people buying bottled water. We are lucky enough to live in a country with abundant, cheap, potable water flowing into our homes. This isn’t a crisis which will shut down domestic water service so buying bottled tap water is asinine. Hell, we have enough water that we don’t need toilet paper at all, just extra hand washing.

  9. I work at a large sporting goods retail chain in the PNW, sales of guns & ammo are off the chart. Its business as usual in the other departments.

    In the semi rural cities and countryside we just take more precautions to stay hygienic and carry on as normal.

    Problem >>> 2 openly lesbian , radial, leftist, anti Christian, anti 2nd Amendment socialist run the state of Oregon, Kate Brown – governor and Tina Kotec – speaker of the statehouse and the want to shut down ALL business outside of take out restaurants and grocery stores they are “using” this as a way to seize power.

    • Little Miss Kate just mighit pushher luck a tad too far. The city dwellers will likely, in the main, be obedient little minions, and just grin and bear it. But the more rural folk won’t take i for too long. The city folk are not likely to break curfews/quarantines/shelter in place edicts (she has orderd even church meetings cancelled….. no issue for HER, but……..) and just hunker down like good little robots. If her edicts get too burdensome for the more rural folk, I can imagine a tractor/pikkuptruk caravan to Salem for a show of “unacceptable”. of maybe about four hundred independently owned/operated log trucks…. loaded or empty. If enough noise and commotion ensued, she just might begin to feel some pressure. The protests over te Malheur and Finicum debacles did not frighten her, but those were rather limited. THIS could be a horse of a nuther colour

  10. At the local big chain sporting goods store Monday night at 15 minutes before closing, there were still 10-20 people in line to buy guns. Some of these people were very new to guns. Questions like “is 12 gauge #7 shot better for home defense than #8 shot?” could be heard. And my favorite “I read that during Marshall Law, I have to issue one verbal warning before shooting someone on my property”.

    Hoping these folks get some training. Makes me appreciate the class that I took with you quite a while back.

    Be safe!

    • The upside of those newbie gun owners is that some of them were anti-2nd before this. Living through this kind of situation drives home the importance of being able to protect you and yours.

      • There are still ways that new gun-owners can learn. For example:

        1) Buy and read books on proper firearm handling and usage. There are a good number available including several written by Mas. These are available from many bookstores including web-stores such as Amazon.

        2) Take an online training course. The NRA offers one. See this link:

        https://onlinetraining.nra.org/

        One can read a book and/or take an online course without exposing oneself to the Coronavirus.

        I admit that self-training from a book or an online course is not as good as taking a real class and getting “hands-on” instruction. Still, it is better than just blindly buying a firearm and hoping (as Mas says) that it will function as a “Magic Talisman” and keep the new gun-owner from harm.

        To my way of thinking, hope is not a plan. 🙂

  11. Racist? According to the Left, it’s racist to say this flu came from China. If Trump accused Xi Jinping of being Chinese, they would call him racist.

  12. I’ve already paid for the MAG-40 course near Sacramento. Any chance it will be cancelled? I hope not!

      • The Covid-19 virus is not very robust outside a host. The sun’s rays knock it out promptly. Just remember to disinfect the soles of your shoes at appropriate intervals. N95 masks that fit snugly do a good job of preventing infection. N95s will become more available and affordable shortly. Procedural masks reliably prevent transmission of the virus. Boosting one’s immune system is the best insurance against the Grim Reaper.

  13. I don’t know call me cynical just seem so very convenient as they keep approaching and getting closer and closer to the deep state I just can’t believe the craziness of people between toilet paper water and some of them by cheaper than dirt the prices of ammo have skyrocketed once again

  14. I live in upstate NY- just east of Rochester. The supplies Mas listed above are in short supply here, too. I have not observed anyone panicking and most folks seem to be carrying on with their lives the best they can. I am glad that I just received a large ammo shipment before supplies started running low. Hopefully the local scotch and bourbon supply is not yet depleted!

    I work at a local university which is basically closed down – we cannot provide in-person instruction and are required deliver courses through alternative methods. For most of us we will provide on-line instruction- new to me- but I guess it was time to enter the 21st century. In addition to narrated PowerPoints it seems that Zoom and Bluejeans are easy to implement video conferencing tools that allow for a live audience- not sure how well that might work for firearms trainers, at least for imparting content knowledge.

    Good luck getting a doctor’s appointment around here. I appear to have some bursitis in my elbow but the doc will not see me in person. It’s OK with me as I really do not want to go into a doctor’s office or a hospital. In addition to being “gun fee zones” or “hunting preserves for psychopaths” (to quote a famous person) they are essentially large petri dishes with numerous cell cultures lurking about. So- it’s Advil and ice. And maybe a shot of bourbon (hopefully).

    On the political side of things, I wish more people would turn off the national news like CNN, MSNBC, and Fox as they are simply all too focused on fear-mongering. The selective reporting and bias continues unabated by the elite politician-media class. This is the power-obsessed class that was exposed by President Trump that accounts for most, if not all, of the swamp-dwellers in DC and major metropolitan areas across the country. What are the media good for anymore but entertainment at best, and political propaganda and fear-induction at worst (to those who are susceptible).

    It is appalling that the left-wing media and many Democrats blame President Trump for a poor response. That said, has anyone heard criticism of China’s president Xi Jinping from the American media? I believe I just saw that all journalists are now banned from China and Hong Kong. If that’s true will there be outrage from the American media? Not bloody likely!

    Hope everyone out there stays healthy. This too shall pass.

  15. We don’t need to panic, the Govt did it for us already.

    But let us not been sheep and panic with the herd. Be safe, keep an eye out for neighbors who may need help, and execute appropriate personal safety precautions…

    See you on the other side. This too shall pass.

  16. In Iowa its been a little crazy, I had gone to FL before the Excrement Hit The Fan ( maybe that’s what the TP is for?) and while there the massive cancellations began.
    My flight got me home but I have to admit I was beginning to wonder…
    The Mrs had let me know that items were flying off the shelves and advised that I stop and get some hamburger, pork, chicken…if I could find such items.
    I made a couple of stops on the way home and it was midday Tuesday. The stores had a few more people in them than I’d anticipated, but not bad. The supply of everything was good with the exception of the cleaning items that you and others have mentioned. The stockman that I spoke to said they’d been able to get resupplied decently but that the warehouses did say they were getting low on a few things.
    We had delivery drivers around here who’ve refused to go out so that could be a problem…the more the panic the worse things get.
    Praying that this gets handled swiftly and successfully.

  17. I’m in the title business in the Florida Panhandle and I can tell you people are still buying and selling houses! No can do work from home when we have to have F2F contact with buyers and sellers to close deals. Thankfully I’m a bit of a pack rat so we already had plenty of disinfectants on hand. One little bonus for our customers… once they sign they keep the pen. Take it home or throw it away but they are a single use item here.

  18. Ignoring the ‘the sky is falling’ folks, the disease is – at this time – not under control, and well documented as targeting the elderly and/or those with compromised immune systems (both of which include my wife). Therefore I’m taking the appropriate precautions and hoping others do too.
    Be smart and stay safe.

  19. Here’s what worries me.

    At this point in time, things aren’t so bad. Most everyone is warm, fed, has a job, and is paying the bills. In spite of these realities, they’re still panicking, and cleaning out grocery stores, gun shops, and other retailers.

    What happens when things really get nasty? If gas or fuel oil runs out? If grocery store shelves go bare, and they don’t get restocked? If hospitals and doctors turn sick people away? If people have no heat?

    This past week, a small business friend of mine was attacked by a drug addict in his store. While the fight was going on, a customer called the city police, reported the attack in progress, and asked for help. The dispatcher heard the physical violence on the phone.

    It took 45 minutes for the police to show up.

    The liberal, college grads with whom I hang out don’t have a clue what could happen, and they intend to take no preparation for any breakdowns in society.

  20. I must say I’m more then a little disappointed in how easily the people in the land of the free just up and gave their freedoms up. Allowing the socialists in government to arbitrarily close restaurants and other venues with high profit potential. Even those with the highest faith have all but given up their faith and surrendered to the governments mandates.

    Will we ever get all of our freedoms back? One can only hope. And when it happens again, if you look back some virus seams to come around every five or so years (swine flu, bird flu, H1N1), how far will the free people slow the government to go next time? Just like gas prices after Katrina we’re supposed to come back down after the oil companies finished rebuilding, will our freedoms be restored?

  21. First for a bit of history. In the year 1347, “The Black Death” reached Europe and began to kill perhaps one third of that population during the next five years. Guess where “The Black Death” originated? Yup, it was China.

    Also, remember “Ming the Merciless”? I’m just trying to be funny.

    I’m really not afraid of this virus, but I am afraid of what may happen to our economy. I do not believe our economy was strong before, because it is based on debt. The American dollar is “fiat currency” as is every currency system in today’s world. Fiat currency all has one thing in common. Eventually it reaches its intrinsic value, which is zero. I would feel more secure if we were on the gold standard. We would still experience booms and busts, but there would be almost zero inflation. Also, gold can never be worth zero.

    If you want to hear some doom and gloom about our economy, go to “YouTube.com” and type in “Peter Schiff” and then after listening to him, “Gregory Mannarino.” I believe in what they teach. However, America’s economy is so important to the whole world, that everyone will be working together as hard as they can to fix it, so maybe we will avoid a depression. I should point out that Schiff and Mannarino have been predicting doom & gloom since 2008, when we simply put a band-aid over our economic problems.

    I am a Doomsday Prepper, so I try to be ready for every contingency my budget will allow. In the long run, we are all going to die from something anyway. Just think of all those men who survived WWI. They are all dead now.

    It’s a good time to be a prepper, and to be surrounded by good, helpful people. Wishing you all the best! We in America still have food, gasoline and electricity. People won’t go crazy until they run out of food, I hope. That’s when we will need our guns.

  22. There were 40,414 flu deaths in the U.S. during the third week of 2018, the most recent data available, and 4,064 were from pneumonia or influenza, according to the CDC data. The number for that week is expected to rise as more reports are sent to the agency. The Flu is Killing Up to 4,000 Americans a Week
    SOURCE: Fortune fortune.com/2018/02/10/american-flu-deaths/

    Wow! Imagine that. In the THIRD WEEK alone. Why was there no Wall Street panic, or nation wide closing of business and schools, airline shutdowns or demands to self-quarantine, etc. etc., ad nauseum???

    I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but something about this COVID-19 “panic” seems manufactured, particularly as the numbers of cases/deaths are so low in the U.S.

    As Saul Alinsky (and Rahm Emmanuel) famously said: “Never let a good crisis go to waste. It allows you to do things you couldn’t do before.

    QUIEN SABE?

  23. Rhode Island ..Downtown empty,Walmart lots of empty shelves other food stores not many people, screening at every medical facility, no one but the patient allowed in doctors office and hospital. Credit union lobby’s shut down. But i am going to Michigan unless i am dead.
    Gun shops selling out Waiting for them to cancel my knee surgery.

    Be safe

    mike

  24. Nine months from now, there will be a sudden increase in the number of newborn babies around the world, most of them unfortunately liberal. When people don’t have a lot of places to go and things to do, they do what comes naturally. Hey, diseased and starving people in third world countries who are barely alive still manage to pump out millions of children every year, knowing those poor kids will die prematurely or suffer a bleak future if they survive. Here in the U.S.A. we will have more future Democrat voters to eventually transform our once great republic into a Socialist police state, if we cannot re-educate our liberal hordes into sane, America Loving citizens which seems unlikely.

    • Tom606,

      I always wanted Americans to homeschool their kids, now my wish has come true! All but the very worst parents could do a better job educating their children than the government schools. Close the schools, then property taxes can be reduced by 66%! Plus, there won’t be any more school shootings!

      • Roger Willco:

        Homeschooling is good if the parents are well educated and have the time to do it right. I think private schools would be an excellent alternative because the parents can choose the school which teach things that matches their values. The problem with public schools is that they have to teach what the government mandates and liberals run the Department of Education, brainwashing children and young adults into politically correct, anti-gun, America hating radical environmentalists who worships Marxist leaders. The diabolical liberals were very patient and spent decades slowly transforming innocent and impressionable kids into millions of Lenin’s “Useful Idiots” who vote Democrat in our elections.

  25. Pacific NorthWET here… not huge city, but far too crowded for my taste. I live in a quiet out of the way rural area between the county seat and the salt chuck.
    Friday night late, no clue this was happening, I stopped by my favourits groery store just incase, and to lay in a bit of extra grub. I always keep plenty on hand to tide over for at leaast two weeks. Generally in good shape stores wise. The large store was more packed than usual, and a large number of the carts were REALLY full Almsot every one of them had four each (the max allowed, no hoarding please) packs of TeePee, canned beans, bottled water. The rest of the cart was full mosltyh of packaged shelf stable processed garbage snack and filler foods. Some were buyung meats, mostly reserved. Dry beans, surprisi=singly enough, were GONE….. shelves contained aobut twenty precent of normal stock levels. Eight lanes, all with four to six huge cartolads of stuff to check out. Three hallmarks of the crowd that patronise this pleace…. EVERYONE was friendly and upbeat, lots of jokes and wisecracks about the nonsense. VERY cosmopolitan crowd, people from all over, each shopping for their own”type” of foods. And the whole crowd were, as always, really friendly and open. Eacy to strike up conversations there, always. For the first time in the nine years they’ve been open there, they CLOSED the store at midnight… nothing left to sell, no trucks waiting to unload (they’d already been unloaded and sent back to the Distributioin warehouse.And their recent contents were already out in the cars in the parking lot.

    I did not see the grumpy on edge, ready to snap meme expressed anywhere. The checkers were flying through the loads, stil cheery and friendly as ever.
    Haven’t been into a gun store since the stupid new Bloomburg Law settled upon us like the heavy foetid fog it is….. but I understand some will soon be forced to close because they’ve sold almost everything

    Two changes I have noticed running errands today (Nothing to do with the madness.. a broken well pipe FORCES me to lay in the supplies today to deal with it. ) First, fuel prices at the pumps in town have dropped forty to suxty sents the gallon on nearly all grades. Second, traffic has been somewhere arund half or less normal, at any time of the day. Dummies in gummit have alloed the area to grow at more than twice the rate they’ve had traffic capacity grow.

    Overall my quiet rural area has been the same.. neighbours coming and going casual conversations along the street or un yards. looking out for and helping each other as indicated. We none of us are going to suffer much, if at all. There ARE a few elderly folks, but except for one (not sure but I think Leon is in his late nineties, was still running his blueberry farm last summer, running the mower and cultivatore. ) but sitting a lot more than usual. I almost think he will outlive his fifty year old son, the way the youngun s going . But what he can’t do someone else will…. he was born in the same house he still occupies. I dunno, when =he breathes his last we just may plant him out between a couple rows of those old blueberry bushes he nursed along when he was a wee lad. And knowing him, it won’t be the Flu Man CHew puts him into his pine box.

  26. This Coronavirus outbreak has certainly been a gift to the American left in so many ways. It is useful to them on so many levels. Consider the guiding principles that the American Left (and even the Worldwide Left) follows in their quest for totalitarian power:

    1) Never let a crisis go to waste. By exploiting it, the Left can accomplish goals that would normally be beyond reach.

    2) Reward your friends and buy votes by raiding the public treasury and spending gobs of tax-payer money.

    3) Keep the People in a constant state of FEAR. Threaten them with the end of the World due to climate change. Tell them that Conservatives are filled with HATE. That they are RACISTS, SEXISTS, HOMOPHONES, etc. so that isolated groups feel that they are always under ATTACK by the RIGHT.

    4) Divide the People into racial and ethic groups. Pit female against males. Keep people isolated from one another. Stoke tribal divisions so that the People can never unite in opposition.

    5) Use the Left-Wing controlled Media outlets to push a steady-stream of lies, propaganda and distortions upon the People. Use Fake News as both a sword and shield. A sword to attack the Left’s political enemies and a shield to protect the Left’s supporters and operatives. Use the media to manipulate the economy. Use it to inflate economic performance when Leftists are in power and to depress or even crash the economy when political opponents of the Left are in power.

    6) Above all else, concentrate POWER into the hands of the Federal Government and Federal Bureaucrats. Use this power to issue massive laws and regulations so that there is always a law or regulation available that can be used to persecute the Left’s political enemies. During a crisis, use the Government’s emergency powers to push the Left-wing Agenda under the pretext of responding to the crisis.

    Consider how this Coronavirus pandemic is being used to press forward with EACH AND EVERYONE of the points above. The People of the World are paralyzed by fear, afraid to leave their homes and are isolated from each other. Just as the Left desires.

    The public treasury is being raided and vast amounts of spending is occurring, much of it for left-wing goals, just as the Left desires.

    The economy is being crashed so as to hurt President Trump’s chances for re-election, just as the American Left desires.

    A flood of Fake news and misinformation is pouring out of the media outlets, All of it designed to stoke the fear and uplift the Left. Just as the Left desires.

    Yes, indeed, the Left is not letting this crisis go to waste. They are trying to milk it to the maximum. If anyone doubts this, consider this simple fact:

    The number of people who have actually died from this virus, in the U.S., is still tiny (in the grand scheme of things). Compare this number to any of the standard killers (heart disease deaths, cancer death, automobile/traffic deaths, suicide, even falls or drowning deaths) and you will find that the Coronavirus is still a minor source compared to the old standards. Yet, this virus has been used to crash economies around the world.

    The reason is obvious. The worldwide Left is facing worldwide opposition. Brexit in the U.K. and the election of Donald Trump in the U.S.A are just two examples. The American Left, in partnership with the Worldwide Left, is determined to maintain control. That will do so even if it means creating a worldwide crisis and then exploiting it to keep power.

    Political Power is EVERYTHING to a leftist. A leftist would rather be dead and in the grave then to be out-of-power. The people of the World, and especially the American People, need to wake up and realize who is the TRUE Enemy of the People. Let me give you a clue. It is not a simple cold virus!

  27. For a life long prepper/survivalist/doomsday prophet it is business as usual for me. I walk through the stores looking at the empty shelves and say, “Yup, good on that. Good on that. good there too.”

    If you are properly prepared to survive the two most common natural disasters in your area this is nothing more than a chance to find the weaknesses in your plan.

    If you are not prepared this should be one of those life lessons learned the hard way.

    Remember, Noah had the ark built before the first rain drop fell.

  28. I’ve been planning for close to 2 years now, to participate in a 250 pistol class at Gunsite Academy. I foundin February I was being put on the jury duty list, so scratch unfinished plans again. Now, I’m free of that obligation. The last I checked Gunsite was still open but, I’m unsure of travel from Hellinois to Arizona. And not at all convinced I would be serving my family’s best interests by going now. So, I wait. Maybe I should just try to get an offsite class from them, in Indiana.

  29. Our small county in Alabama has an official population of 64,000 (you should Google yours where you live). If half the population gets the virus and 2% of those require ICU that is 640 patients. Typically 1% need ventilators, or 320 patients. No one will say how many we have but we only have 240 beds for the 640 patients so I would estimate the number of ventilators being in the teens. We have one pulmonologist, if he can remain healthy (he is high risk as am I) My office has been closed to all but emergency patients since Tuesday. It is my hope that the wave will not overwhelm us and folks will point fingers and declare that they were right all along and that the rest of us stupid doctors scared everyone for nothing!

    • @ mark – Let’s apply your math to China which is the country where this pandemic started and which has the longest record in fighting it.

      The population of China (2010 Census) is 1,370,536,875. If half the population gets the virus and 2% of those require ICU that is 13.8 million people. Typically 1% need ventilators, or 6.9 million patients.

      I strongly suspect that, by your figures, China also lacks adequate hospital beds, ventilators and medical resources. By your figures, China’s health care system must have totally collapsed by now and the death toll must be in the millions.

      But wait! I just checked the figures from the WHO. According to them, China has only had (as of today) 81,300 confirmed cases with only 3,253 deaths. Out of a population of about 1.4 billion?

      Surely there must be a math error here somewhere! Or maybe the finger-pointers are justified and this situation, while serious, is not worth disrupting the lives of everyone living in the USA and ruining our economy (just prior to a Presidential Election)?

      I noted the proximity to a Presidential Election because I think it is a strong factor in the way that the Anti-America Media is reporting this story.

      That is one thing about figures and computer models. With the right assumptions, you can get them to show you any result you want. As the computer people say, GIGO (Garbage in – Garbage out).

      • TN_MAN,

        Can we believe any reports coming out of China?

        I believe reports coming from Italy. When we hear the number of cases in Italy subsiding, we will be able to predict when the virus will begin to fade here.

        This virus will go away and I don’t even think it will kill as many people as the regular flu does. But what will our economy be like coming out of this? Trump wants to spend trillions bailing out everyone. Won’t that lead to inflated prices? Could it lead to hyper-inflation?

        I’m hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.

  30. I’ve been pointing out to people that if you don’t have a years supply of food and other
    essentials, a years supply of toilet paper may be comforting but is probably not very
    useful….

    I’m reminded of the ‘gas crunch’ in 73 / 74. It was a self fulfilling prophecy. In most
    places there probably wasn’t an actual shortage, but the surge in buying was largely
    responsible for the shortage. People keeping their tanks full instead of the ‘average’ half
    caused a huge disruption in supplies.

    People do the darndest things. I have an acquaintance who was a firefighter in 1973.
    He went on a call to an apartment building where they found a large plastic trashcan full of
    gasoline in one tenants closet!

    Be careful out there.

  31. I recommend The Great Influenza by John Barry, which, among other things details the impact of the 1917-1918 global influenza epidemic. Civil government collapsed in Philadelphia. Collapsed means collapsed.

    COVID-19 is a serious threat. It has never before been in humans in any known numbers, so NO ONE has any immunity or resistance to it.

    I have been on a hospital board of trustees for nearly 35 years. Epidemic or pandemic is something people in the hospital world have been concerned about for years, but the reality is that government and health insurance companies have been unwilling to pay hospitals to plan for and buy supplies for epidemic or pandemics. Taxpayers are reluctant to pay taxes for supplies that might not be used before their expiration date. Pointing fingers is “bleeping” useless right now.

    As much as I hate to admit it, Gov Andrew Cuomo, with whom I have very serious policy disagreements with, has been very responsible. I recommend watching his presser today, March 20, 2020, to understand what and why New York State is doing, probably to be put into effect nationally in a few days.

  32. Peter Hedglon,

    Thanks for your report. If I remember correctly, a few years ago The Patriot Nurse said the medical community believes the world has been long overdue for a pandemic. Plagues have always visited the human race every few years. Mozart was a plague victim. But obviously medicine has made huge progress in the last 150 years.

    The last really bad plague was the Spanish Flu around 1918. It killed 50 million people. The world population in 1918 was about 1.8 billion people. Today our population is 7.7 billion. What happens in nature when some species becomes too plentiful?

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