No, see this is either pure ignorance or just sheeple thinking.  More and more "rational" people and the data are indicating that we overreacted. It's not better to be safe than sorry when your definition of "safe" hurt way more people than the virus has.  It's way, way, WAY too early to make statements like better safe than sorry.  Let's table that talk until a year from now and we've gone through any potential additional cycles because we don't know and based on the fudging of the numbers we may never know.

There's a LOT that can change and there are all sorts of guesses not yet supported by fact like the virus is going to come back worse in September and things along those line.  NOBODY knows that...not the so-called experts, not the media, not the president, and certainly not you.

Here's what we know: death numbers are significantly below what was projected.  Cities are much more prone to being hotspots than rural areas.  Hospitals have been so under-utilized that many (especially in rural areas) are laying off staff - now I know you're going to give all the credit for that to social distancing while not even considering the possibility that we overreacted.  I don't have the numbers, but it certainly seems like in the US that almost all of the deaths have been the elderly (nursing homes hit hard - that's where your bodies are piling up) and those with health issues that are not controlled.  Yes, there have been a few (very few) that don't fit that category, but since they are just assuming everyone these days died from this so the numbers come out to justify their decision making, you have to take those with a grain of salt.

People shit on China (rightfully so) for their reporting and we're basically doing the same thing but in the other direction...we want it to be a bigger deal than it is because we have to justify the reaction.  The blame game is going on from both sides; every state is trying to outdo the reaction from other states...it's complete insanity.  Something that shouldn't be political at all has been completely fucked up by politicians.

Good news (I think):

______________________________________________________________________________

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ … ly-thought

Antibody study suggests coronavirus is far more widespread than previously thought
Non-peer reviewed study from Stanford found rate of virus may be 50 to 85 times higher than official figures

A new study in California has found the number of people infected with coronavirus may be tens of times higher than previously thought.

The study from Stanford University, which was released Friday and has yet to be peer reviewed, tested samples from 3,330 people in Santa Clara county and found the virus was 50 to 85 times more common than official figures indicated.

To ease the sprawling lockdowns currently in place to stop the spread of Covid-19, health officials must first determine how many people have been infected. Large studies of the prevalence of the virus within a region could play a key role, researchers say.

“This has implications for learning how far we are in the course of the epidemic,” said Eran Bendavid, the associate professor of medicine at Stanford University who led the study. “It has implications for epidemic models that are being used to design policies and estimate what it means for our healthcare system.”

The study marks the first large-scale study of its kind, researchers said. The study was conducted by identifying antibodies in healthy individuals through a finger prick test, which indicated whether they had already contracted and recovered from the virus.

At the time of the study, Santa Clara county had 1,094 confirmed cases of Covid-19, resulting in 50 deaths. But based on the rate of people who have antibodies, it is likely that between 48,000 and 81,000 people had been infected in Santa Clara county by early April – a number approximately 50 to 80 times higher.

That also means coronavirus is potentially much less deadly to the overall population than initially thought. As of Tuesday, the US’s coronavirus death rate was 4.1% and Stanford researchers said their findings show a death rate of just 0.12% to 0.2%.

The study has been interpreted by some to mean we are closer to herd immunity – the concept that if enough people in a population have developed antibodies to a disease that population becomes immune – than expected. This would allow some to more quickly get back to work, a strategy currently being deployed in Sweden. But researchers behind the study said not to jump to conclusions or make policy choices until more research has been done.

The study confirms the widely-held belief that far more people than originally thought have been infected with the coronavirus, said Arthur Reingold, an epidemiology professor at UC Berkeley who was not involved in the study, but it doesn’t mean the shelter-in-place order will be lifted any time soon.

“The idea this would be a passport to going safely back to work and getting us up and running has two constraints: we do not know if antibodies protect you and for how long, and a very small percentage of the population even has antibodies,” he said.

Even with the adjusted rate of infection as found by the study, only 3% of the population has coronavirus – that means 97% does not. To reach herd immunity 50% or more of the population would have to be infected and recovered from coronavirus.

It is also unclear if the study, conducted exclusively on residents of Santa Clara county, is representative of the rest of the United States, researchers said.

“It is absolutely critical that similar studies be done all around the country,” said Jayanta Bhattacharya, a professor at Stanford and author on the study. “It’s very clear that the virus is more prevalent in some areas than in others, and understanding the prevalence of viruses in each region is is a critical step forward to making some policy.”

Other large-scale sample studies are currently underway. The National Institute of Health is testing 10,000 people. UC Berkeley is going to test 5,000 healthy volunteers to see if they have, or have ever had, the coronavirus.

We're (mostly) a pretty open-minded group on social issues...there are men that would be well represented by that avatar.

Glad you're feeling better.

Back on topic and I don't think too controversial other than it shows how much things are changing rapidly:

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articl … UqpC_yUxvc

New study questions the effectiveness of masks against SARS-CoV-2

(snippet from article)
According to a study recently published in Nature and covered by Medical News Today, surgical masks may go some way toward preventing a person with a viral respiratory infection from spreading infectious particles.

However, while the study did look at coronaviruses, it did not account for SARS-CoV-2, as the initial research had taken place before the start of the current pandemic.

Now, new findings, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, suggest that neither surgical nor cloth masks are at all effective in stopping the spread of SARS-CoV-2.

The research, conducted by investigators from the University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Chung-Ang University Hospital, and Sejong University — all in Seoul, South Korea — involved a group of four participants receiving medical care for COVID-19.

To find out whether — and which — masks could stop the viral particles from spreading, the researchers asked the participants to cough over petri dishes without a mask, while wearing a disposable surgical mask, and while wearing a reusable mask made of cotton cloth.

In each of these three circumstances, the participants had to cough five times. Each time, they did so over a different petri dish.

Finally, the team swabbed the outer and inner surfaces of each mask — cotton or surgical.

They expected to find droplets containing SARS-CoV-2 on the inner surfaces. The question was whether any viral particles had been able to pass through the masks to their outer surfaces.

After analyzing the swabs, the researchers found particles of SARS-CoV-2 on the outsides of both types of mask, suggesting that neither type can contain the virus.

On a plus note, my student loans are paused.  We made the payment anyway and will continue to do so unless our situation changes, but it's good that that happened for people instead of them needing to take action to make it happen.

Off to bed - possible tornadoes overnight and I have a cat that is on death's doorstep, so need to get some rest while I can.