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posted by Fnord666 on Monday March 23 2020, @01:19AM   Printer-friendly
from the What-goes-around-comes-around. dept.

"Kentucky Republican Rand Paul is the first US senator to test positive for coronavirus, throwing an even greater sense of urgency into Senate negotiations over a massive stimulus package that had yet to come together Sunday afternoon.

A statement from Paul's office posted to his Twitter account Sunday said he was "feeling fine" and was "tested out of an abundance of caution." But some senators and aides are angry at Paul for not doing more to self-quarantine earlier and for potentially exposing senators to the coronavirus.

[...] Senate Republicans, emerging from their closed-door lunch where they received the news, were extremely unsettled.

GOP senators told CNN Paul was in the gym with colleagues Sunday morning, and several pointed out how close Paul had sat to others during Senate lunches in recent days. Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas said he saw Paul in the Senate swimming pool Sunday, according to a source in the GOP lunch.
"This is a different ballgame now," one Republican senator told CNN."

If one ignores the guidelines for social distancing like the above Senator, as well as the President in his daily briefing such as 6 foot separation and avoiding gatherings of more than 10 people, one may well expect to become infected. One's status and position will not provide protection.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/22/politics/rand-paul-coronavirus/index.html


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by ikanreed on Monday March 23 2020, @02:05AM (13 children)

    by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Monday March 23 2020, @02:05AM (#974284) Journal

    It might become a seasonal virus, but coronaviruses don't have the flu's unique, easily mutated topology that makes it so resistant to inoculation, whether natural or vaccines.

    Temporarily endemic, but it might be possible to entirely eradicate in human populations once vaccines are available, the way we do polio.

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  • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 23 2020, @02:10AM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 23 2020, @02:10AM (#974285)

    Or we could eradicate it the old fashioned way... infect everyone, lose 4% of the population (mostly old white men so no great loss to the economy), develop herd immunity, and then get on with life.

    • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 23 2020, @03:11AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 23 2020, @03:11AM (#974295)

      What a deal that the fatality rate will likely be a lot less than even 4%. We could all be working and getting on with our life, but that would deprive the government from conducting a grand social experiment.

    • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday March 23 2020, @03:34AM (2 children)

      by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Monday March 23 2020, @03:34AM (#974299) Journal

      There are indications that could be read as "Having gotten over it once doesn't leave you immune.". There are also other ways to read them, of course, if you're feeling optimistic.

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      • (Score: 2) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Monday March 23 2020, @03:54AM (1 child)

        by Beryllium Sphere (r) (5062) on Monday March 23 2020, @03:54AM (#974308)

        For example, there was the Japanese lady who was apparently re-infected.

        It doesn't seem to be common.

        A priori SARS COV 2 could be expected to behave like other coronaviruses, which do cause immunity. The question of how long the immunity lasts is critical and AFAIK open.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 23 2020, @04:23AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 23 2020, @04:23AM (#974318)

          Eh? The original SARS does not result in immunity upon infection. That was the main reason developing a vaccine failed.

    • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday March 23 2020, @03:40AM (1 child)

      by Grishnakh (2831) on Monday March 23 2020, @03:40AM (#974301)

      No, the problem is that a lot of younger and healthier people also require hospitalization and ventilator support. I think I read somewhere that 20% of those hospitalized were under 40. So if we infect everyone, we'll completely overwhelm the hospitals in most countries (esp. America, where we really don't have very many beds for the size of the population), and then tons of people will be dying from all kinds of other ailments because there's just no capacity to treat them all.

      But you might be onto something: if things get that bad, they'll enact severe triage measures, which means that older people (esp. men) will be lowest-priority, so we'll lose a large chunk of the population older than 50 or 60 years old. This will probably result in a massive change in the electorate, the GOP being killed off very quickly (because they won't have that many voters left), and Bernie-loving voters taking over and finally getting single-payer healthcare in this country for the 200 million people who survive.

      • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 23 2020, @03:46AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 23 2020, @03:46AM (#974304)

        Cause, like South Korea lost half its population, you know.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 23 2020, @05:57PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 23 2020, @05:57PM (#974500)

    i know you're a suckass propagandist for big pharma and big gov, but polio was largely eradicated b/c people got indoor plumbing and were able to wash their hands after shitting.

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by ikanreed on Monday March 23 2020, @06:10PM

      by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Monday March 23 2020, @06:10PM (#974508) Journal

      "I know you're a shill for things that work, but other things that work also happened"

    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Monday March 23 2020, @08:33PM

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday March 23 2020, @08:33PM (#974585) Journal

      i know you're a suckass propagandist for big pharma and big gov, but

      ...my car still drives.

  • (Score: 2) by darkfeline on Monday March 23 2020, @06:11PM (2 children)

    by darkfeline (1030) on Monday March 23 2020, @06:11PM (#974509) Homepage

    Have you heard of the anti-vaccine movement?

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    • (Score: 4, Funny) by ikanreed on Monday March 23 2020, @06:54PM (1 child)

      by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Monday March 23 2020, @06:54PM (#974531) Journal

      Get out now! The antivax is coming from inside the thread!

      • (Score: 4, Informative) by PartTimeZombie on Monday March 23 2020, @10:02PM

        by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Monday March 23 2020, @10:02PM (#974616)

        I suppose it had to happen eventually, but Soylent News has attracted it's very own anti-vaxx flat earther.

        Yes, it is weird.