We have 9 cases in Aspen in a town of 7k people--that puts us per capita at a level similar to New Rochelle is under National Guard lockdown. There is a couple quarantined in the little nell---OMG are they on the hook for their room for the next 14 days---wonder what Congress will say about paying for a suite at the little nell? And who is going to clean it? And a recent story I read indicated it might actually be able to transfer via air for 2-3 hours---so yea the HVAC at little nell might be getting the rest of the guests and employee's sick. Doubtful but possible.
Sadly aspen is a bit like a cruise ship as far as coronavirus goes. There is a lot of eating at buffet style restaurants (pretty much every mountain restaurant) there is a lot of eating out and many workers interact with tourist all day long as part of their job. Where we differ is unless they bring in the national guard it's easy to get out of Aspen (for now) and I fear not only will Covid 19 spread all over town, we will also be pretty good at spreading it all around the world.
Fun examples of the human condition in action (the human condition in this case is the want to feel like we are in control, and also manic (OMG its the end of the world) or way too blase (I washed my hands and I am young what is all the fuss about)
1. proper protection
or
2. unwillingness to admit mistakes and learn from them----as of today the US has tested about 11k people for Covid 19, S Korea is testing 10k people a day---US population is about 6x larger than S Korea----and yet we have a Presidential administration who spends most of its time talking about how great President Trump's actions have been. How do you rate our response 10 weeks after first case S Korea is testing 10k people a day and we have tested 11k people?
Ditto disingenuous use of big numbers namely to impress--Trump et al have been banging on that we should have 4m test kits out by the end of the week. Initially that sounds impressive but who knows if they will have the regents in each kit or lab so that you can actually get the results. It's like selling 4 million printers but no ink. Kinda useless. On the ground in CO our state can currently only get results for 161 tests per day, and it takes 2-3 days right now to get results. In Australia turnaround time is ........4 hours once the lab receives the test.
3. Trying to project confidence, actually projecting clueless. Again its kinda like what should you believe someone's words (wash your hands) or their actions (full bio weapons gear). Listening to Trump downplay the dangers of the virus for weeks has been depressing. Today he continued to say that it should go away in a couple of months. Yea well maybe, but maybe not. Coronavirus is not like the flu, which Trump doesn't seem to get. It seems possible that getting coronavirus does not confer immunity--if that is the case it seems to this non-infectious disease specialist that a vaccine might be very hard to impossible to create. No one wants to admit that and honestly I don't think our President could wrap his mind around that. The most honest person regarding the virus is Angela Merkel who feared that 70% of Germans could get Covid-19. Scary but if you aren't honest with people there will come a point where no one will believe anything you say and that might be costly. I fear our president with his incessant lies and unwillingness to admit any mistakes ever (Sharpie gate and Alabama) can't effectively lead our country, and has not only destroyed his credibility but damaged the credibility of all those surrounding him (CDC I am looking at you).
Stay in shape, wash your hands and avoid cruise ships (like Aspen, colleges, boarding schools, etc), not all cruise ships come with Julie McCoy and the lido deck.
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