Viruses aside … who would want to touch guano???
I think the first confirmed case is still from December 1st. There was a case they thought might be from mid-November but I’m not sure that was ever proven. Of course, the case from December would have been exposed in November. So sometime in November is apparently when the outbreak started.
I think it’s more to understand the transmission dynamics and how long it spread “silently” through the country.
If you recall, when the lockdowns started, we thought that the fatality rate was 3%- much higher in places that were overwhelmed, like Spain and Italy. However, now, it appears the CFR (perhaps I should say infection fatality ratio or IFR) is less than 1%. There’s still a high death toll because no one is immune, though. But I am certain this new assessment of the CFR has helped countries loosen their shutdown policies.
There’s this NSFW video about Yellowstone where the narrator talks about wolves, bears, and geysers. His advice every single time is “Stay the @$#& away!” I think that is good advice with many parts of nature. People have this idea that nature is good and gentle. It’s not. It’s completely amoral and would just as soon kill you if that gives it an advantage.
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I watched an interview on BBC News HARDtalk with a minister from China. It was quite amusing to see him squirm and try to answer for China’s mistakes and suppression of doctors’ speech (and freedom). He claimed that the first case found in China was in late December, and that since cases have been found in other countries before that, it isn’t a foregone conclusion that the virus even originated in China. 
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HA! I agree. But people are stupid. They go in caves and wander around and touch all the cave surfaces…that are covered in guano. 
One of the stories about the bat scientist in China talks abut this. It talks about when the scientists go in these caves, they are fully suited for protection. But all kinds of people - including those looking for items to sell in the wet markets - just go in the caves with no protection and no caution.
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Have you never been around 10 year old boys? 
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I was on a mission trip in southern Ecuador and we went to the “zoo.” The little monkey’s were able to reach through the chain link fences and they would grab your fingers. Before I knew it, my hand was covered in monkey poop 
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Gross.
And Cuomo is back to talking about some regionality.
It’s like watching ping-pong.
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Ewww!
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News from Six Flags about how they will handle reopening:
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I reallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreally hope this pans out to be true.
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People are going to be suing over not getting the full value of the cheapo annual passes they bought.
A lot of the 6F are a mess, so this will be interesting. I would only really care about maybe Magic Mountain. And we won’t go there until DS can ride all the roller coasters.
But it does also mirror the idea thrown around that disney might do this with AP holders.
I’d say they’ll complain and get their money back, but wouldn’t be worth anyone’s time to sue or for the park to contest a complaint. Same for Disney. It’s going to be a mess for their call centers - glad I don’t work for one of those. I always try to be extra polite to call center employees.
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We have annual passes at our local park (Valleyfair, owned by Cedar Fair) and they announced that our 2020 passes would be good for 2020 (or whatever portion of the 2020 season they end up being open) and all of 2021.
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And for those of us going stir crazy with kids:
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I am pleased with Six Flags’ annual passes and have bought them for several years for our family of 5. The price is right for the product you’re getting. We get them b/c the SF is close to home. It’s not that great, we admit, but for something that we don’t have to put a lot of thought into getting to it’s great. I am worried that they will close that one b/c it’s one of the underperforming ones. I really love going there for an easy outing to the waterpark in summer and the Halloween fright fest. What they’re missing right now is the really slow season. We’ve gone in spring but there’s hardly anyone there. They also do an Xmas thing but it’s often too cold here for that.
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“A weakened virus that causes less severe symptoms may get a leg up if it is able to spread efficiently through populations by people who don’t know they are infected, the scientists say.”
I’m not sure how we let that happen without being open to the regular strain spreading too.
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Exactly. But this isn’t new news. Back in March we already new there was a second weakened strain of this virus.
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Well, if it was weak enough, you give it to people, like a live vaccine, only its actually a mild version of the disease.
Is there precedence for something like that?
No idea. Well, the one they found, according to the article was still pretty virelent, but if they ever found one that was not, maybe it would be considered. I’m no doctor.
By the way, the article about the weakening virus had a link to the article about the strengthening virus. I think they are just reporting everything and it’s really hard to figure out what is a real trend and what is just an anomaly or even just clickbait.
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