if 2020 only were cancelled.... COVID-19

To Sir M.:

the testimonials from the surviors (or those who have since died) are horrific, make dying from COVID-19 appear much worse than dying from a flu-induced pneumonia. Here are a few, worth listening to

NYTimes.com/2020/03/30/podcasts/the-daily/coronavirus-new-jersey.html

I do not mind dying, but this is exceptionally miserable, protracted way to die, provided there is oxygen (8 cylinders, each of the size you know from physics labs, per patient per day) and a ventialtor. Without, death is quicker.

In addition, when you live in a 3rd world country without a universal health system, and without a functioning government, this happens:

NYTimes.com/2020/03/29/podcasts/the-daily/the-sunday-read-what-i-learned-when-my-husband-got-coronavirus.html

After a few weeks of sending sick back to their families to be cared for, Chinese government understood that they will never stop this until they isolate the sick in government run field hospitals. US is letting the pandemic come in waves, starting physical separation in different states only when the next wave had already taken of with the same exponential doubling rate (today Detroit, Chicago, ...) to make it all more protracted. We still -today!- have states in the Murdoch la-la land with no shelter-in-place order, and this very Sunday megachurches are still packed, exempt, by GOP governors, from physical separation rules.



(Carlos Amato, SA)

One could argue that death rates as a percentage of the population are lower now. Still, that we are letting COVID-19 give Spanish flu run for money is mind-boggling a century later, for an entirely preventable pandemic, with public health measures not only known, but already proven to work for this very same virus in South Korea, Singapore, China, etc.