COVID-19 Panic-demic of 2020 Diary

[Ninurta]

COVID-19 Panic-demic Diary:

Day 1 of COVID-19 Panic-demic: The castle walls are now completed. The drawbridge is up, and alligators for the moat are being shipped in from Florida via next day air.

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Day 2 of COVID-19 Panic-demic: I'm down to only 3 1/2 rolls of toilet paper, and the nearest store is seven miles away, a grueling journey through hostile territory. I'm now loading magazines for the trip, and in an hour or two when I'm through with that I shall wrap all of my remaining toilet paper around my head to prevent breathing in the virus while I am in transit. Cover me, I'm going in...

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Day 4 of COVID-19 Panic-demic: After my successful return from the Great TP Raid of 3/20, I parked the semi-trailer load of TP I acquired under tree cover, and further covered it with a camouflage tarp to avoid detection from the air. Who knew that a tractor-trailer could plow through zombie hordes like that?

The alligators arrived, and have been installed in the moat. I had intended to flood the moat with hand sanitizer due to it's flammability and napalm-like consistency, but decided against it. I only have a few thousand gallons left, and cannot spare any for the moat if this thing continues for the 8 weeks predicted. Pity - not only would I have had a highly flammable moat, I would also have had the cleanest alligators in a five state radius.

I can't raid the neighbors' supplies of hand sanitizer without exposing myself to the COVID-19, so that is out. Additionally, most of them have stolen my idea to stock their own moats with alligators, doubling the danger. I expect that soon Florida, in addition to the TP and hand sanitizer shortages being experienced nation-wide, will be experiencing an alligator shortage if the panic-demic continues.

If the panic-demic extends beyond the projected 8 weeks, with some estimates going as far as two years into the future, I will have to dust off grandpa's old moonshine still and start replenishing my supply with home-made hand sanitizer.

The entire state of West Virginia is still experiencing a critical shortage of the COVID-19 virus, with no reported infections, much less deaths, state-wide. In order to rectify that concern, I understand there have been high level negotiations to directly air-drop the virus into that remote area with shipments straight from Wuhan, China, in order to bring them up to speed with the rest of the panicky nation.

Another problem for WV is the fact that most of their communications infrastructure is being provided by Frontier Communications, a sub-standard fly-by-night communications corporation. As a result, they are not getting the needed doses of pseudo-news required to instill the same degree of panic that the rest of the nation is experiencing.

Those folks are way too calm, and that has to be fixed...

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More to come as the urgent Zombie Apocalypse Crisis unfolds.....


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[Ninurta]

Day 5 of COVID-19 Panic-demic: Poring over maps of the virus spread, and realizing that the most logical means of displaying the spread would be one dot per case, yellow for infection and red for death, It slowly dawned upon me that the entire planet - with the singular exceptions of a section of the Xingu River in the Amazon, a small section of the Congo, and the entire state of West Virginia - is painted in red. This can mean nothing other than that we are all dead, world wide, except those areas. Many folks in this location have not, however, apparently been informed they are dead yet, and so continue to stubbornly walk around as if they were still alive.

Russia and Singapore have been hit more lightly than the rest of the planet, thanks to their wise policy of instituting strict border controls early on in the panic-demic. No doubt, the zombies will eat them last...

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Day 6 of COVID-19 panic-demic: GAAACK! AACCK! HURRrrr...

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Day 7 of COVID-19 Panic-demic: False alarm. I thought the COVID-19 got me, but it was just a bad burrito eaten after midnight. Thank God for toilet paper! Now if I can just find something for that burning sensation... pro-tip: hand sanitizer is NOT the thing for it!

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More to come as the urgent Zombie Apocalypse crisis unfolds...


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[Ninurta]

INTERLUDE

The below post on Social Media is what prompted me to start keeping a panic-demic diary for the COVID-19 Zombie Apocalypse Panic-demic of 2020:

Aiight y'all - I'm starting to get spooked by this COVID-19 situation. Not the virus itself of course. I come from a generation where we drank water out of garden hoses, rode in the bed of pickup trucks without even tethering in, rode bicycles without helmets, rode to the store without seat belts, and rubbed dirt into open wounds to clog them so they would stop bleeding. Clearly, therefore, I am among the superhumans who are immune to everything up to, and possibly including, the Black Plague. A bitty little sub-flu bug ain't gonna make me pee - not even a little bit. I ain't skeert to eat a big ol' bowl of corona virus with milks and sugar for breakfast.


Nope, what is spooking me is the hysterical response to the virus. Hysteria and mob rule are very dangerous things. I watch the stock market plunging and bucking over it, and realize that our entire financial substructure is being controlled by wussy cowards. I see politicians panicking and shutting down school systems and the like over entire states where 1.6 X 10^-6 of their population have even CAUGHT this bug, and not a one died from it - in one case, a state has shut down their entire school system and NO ONE ANYWHERE IN THE STATE has the bug!

I see people clearing out stores for no good reason, and wonder what in the hell they do for supplies when there AIN'T a bug about. People are getting in brawls in grocery stores and whacking one another with wine bottles, with the losers being carted out on stretchers. There are "testing stations" popping up like daisies in springtime all across the nation in parking lots where folks in HAZMAT suits are testing folks in long lines of cars for the bug. The news is increasingly looking like the opening scenes of a zombie apocalypse movie.

I see politicians with no goddamned idea whatsoever how many cases of the virus are even in circulation. they are picking numbers out of their asses all out of whack and unmoored from the reality of what actual health providers are reporting. The governor of Ohio says there are 100,000 cases in Ohio. The governor of Texas, not to be outdone, said there are 300,000 cases in Texas - has to be, because Texas is 3 times bigger than Ohio! Meanwhile, back at the ranch, talking heads on the American Zombie Apocalypse Show that the news has become are throwing around figures like "16,000 cases nationwide" and "11,000 cases nationwide" - far, FAR fewer than the clueless politicians are saying, but far, FAR higher than the health care professionals are saying. The last reliable figure I heard this morning was 2200 to 2500 cases, and 50 deaths - over 30 of those deaths come from ONE state, Washington, and the bulk of THOSE 30 deaths were at ONE assisted living facility.

Yet the reports of the Zombie Apocalypse march onward, unimpeded by pesky things like fact or logic... and the populace appears to be eating that crap up.

I'm getting so spooked that I'm about to make a run for the border. I saw a map this morning of Corona Virus cases nationwide, and now West Virginia is the ONLY bastion of virus-free air left in America... and that border is only 16 miles or so from me. I think I can make it to safety. Matter of fact, it appears that WV and a small area in the Amazon rain forest and another in the Congo are the only places on the entire Earth safe from the Coronavirus Zombie Apocalypse. The Amazon has those giant-assed spiders and snakes, and the Congo has those Houthi Rebels that run around and cut folks' hands off when they get bored, so those don't seem to be the safest of alternatives... and WV IS only a few miles from me, so WV it will be when I make my break to safety. I know folks are rough and mean there - they're SO rough and mean that even the COVID-19 is scared to cross the border into WV - but them's my peeps, so I'm willing to take my chances!

All of this fantasy is being spun-up and fed by a constant 27/7 news cycle that is now reporting on no news at all beyond the virus. it's as if everything in the world has stopped happening that is not being propelled by a bitty little sub-flu viral bug.

The news has planted seeds of madness, and the people... and even the politicians... are lapping it up like it was going out of style, spiraling farther and farther into lunacy over nothing.

I'm not scared of the virus at all, but all you zombies better keep yer damned distance. According to all the professionals, I WON'T catch the virus... and I don't want to catch the crazy, either.

The scariest part is I wonder WHY this is being spun-up. WHY has news stopped happening other than the virus. WHY are politicians losing their minds and closing down entire states. WHY are people in HAZMAT suits hanging out in grocery store parking lots? There has to be more to it than a mere overblown flu, and I worry about what is going to BE, what reality is going to look like, when the smoke clears and reality raises it's head again. WHY are they trying to scare the shit out of the entire world over nothing at all? What IS their game plan here, and why are they trying to make folks crazy enough that we don't notice it until it's too late?

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming...


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[Ninurta]

Day 8 of COVID-19 Panic-demic: It's St Patrick's Day. I find myself entrenched, cut off from the outside world, and unable to attend any of the festivities, as there are far too many zombies between here and there, and I don't want to take the semi out from under cover for another run to civilization in a zombie-proof vehicle. I also found that I am utterly without any green food coloring to color my beer for a private celebration. I am utterly unprepared, a disgrace to Preppers everywhere! I hang my head in shame...

More to come as the urgent Panic-demic unfolds...

[Ninurta]

Day 9 of COVID-19 Panic-demic: Woke up this morning and checked the weather. it said "Partly-cloudy, 50% chance of apocalypse", which kinda sets the tone for the day, if you ask me.

I'm experimenting with internals sanitizer, since hand sanitizer is already covered, and the virus has to get inside some way before it can zombiefy you. If you kill it there, problem solved, right? The CDC insists that a product must be 60% alcohol to sanitize, so I'm experimenting with 151 proof rum, because it's 75.5% alcohol. I tried adding Tapatio hot sauce to the mix, as I'm certain no virus can live throught that. My eyebrows should grow back in 6 weeks or so.

More to come as the urgent Panic-demic unfolds...

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[guohua]

Day 9 of COVID-19 Panic-demic: Woke up this morning and checked the weather. it said "Partly-cloudy, 50% chance of apocalypse", which kinda sets the tone for the day, if you ask me.

I'm experimenting with internals sanitizer, since hand sanitizer is already covered, and the virus has to get inside some way before it can zombiefy you. If you kill it there, problem solved, right? The CDC insists that a product must be 60% alcohol to sanitize, so I'm experimenting with 151 proof rum, because it's 75.5% alcohol. I tried adding Tapatio hot sauce to the mix, as I'm certain no virus can live throught that. My eyebrows should grow back in 6 weeks or so.

More to come as the urgent Panic-demic unfolds...

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Our Sanitizer has been Whiskey.  
Or a mixture of our Favorite mixture of Whiskeys,,,,,,which makes me Happy. 
GREAT,,,, Sanitizer, inside and out!

[Wallfire]

Well we now know who to thank for it. Its time ti fight back

 showing how open borders and political correctness came before public health
Politicians, journalists and health officials demonstrate why political correctness and open borders were
often more important than public health

March 27, 2020
editor:REMIX NEWS
author:REMIX NEWS
The coronavirus crisis, which has killed over 22,000 and virtually destroyed the global economy, has seen
government leaders, journalists and health officials try their hardest to promote open borders despite the
threat to the global public.

The question is now why Europe and the rest of the world waited so long to close their borders, especially
to hard-hit countries like China. The answer to that might have a lot to do with the next 20 quotes.

Emmanuel Macron: closing borders to Italy is a bad decision
French President Emmanuel Macron claimed on March 10 that Slovenia and Austria made "bad decisions"
by severely restricting travel with Italy, which also neighbors France. 

"I sincerely believe that these are bad decisions," Macron remarked after he partook in crisis talks about
the coronavirus with other EU leaders during a video conference.
Just a week later, France closed its border to every nation in Europe.

EC president Ursula von der Leyen: General travel bans are ineffective
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen also said on March 13 that "general travel bans are
not seen as being the most effective by the World Health Organization" after voicing her opposition to
countries unilaterally closing their borders.

She made the remarks in response to the Czech Republic implementing an entry ban on foreigners and an
exit ban on all Czechs on March 9 at the same time other EU nations, including Hungary, Austria, and
Slovenia, all reintroduced border checks.
The countries dropped passport-free travel in Europe's Schengen zone and focused their checks on
travellers from hard-hit Italy.

The EU issued a general travel ban at its external borders less than a week after von der Leyen chastised
the Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria, and Slovenia for taking that action to close their borders.

Macron said EU should avoid 'nationalist retreat'
French President Emmanuel Macron warned against hastily closing borders, which would amount to a
"nationalist retreat". Warning of the danger of “nationalist isolation,” he said: “This virus has no passport.
We must unify our forces, coordinate our responses and cooperate. European coordination is essential,
and I will ensure it goes forward.”

WHO chief urges countries not to close borders to foreigners from China
The World Health Organization (WHO) pursued its dedication to open borders right until the end, with its
head calling for countries to keep their borders open to China, where the coronavirus stemmed from.

"There is no reason for measures that unnecessarily interfere with international travel and trade. We call on
all countries to implement decisions that are evidence-based and consistent. WHO stands ready to provide
advice to any country that is considering which measures to take,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in early February.

[img=751x0]https://rmx.news//media/dce/dce3a7ca054ffe2ffad289c5a59b30cf6bad24fa.jpeg[/img]
Tedros Adhanom, director general of the World Health Organization, left, attends a meeting with Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister
Wang Yi at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2020.

Naohiko Hatta/Pool Photo via AP

Tedros expressed his disapproval of countries like Singapore, the United States, and Australia for closing
their borders to China.

The Council on Foreign Relations think tank has said that Tedros owes China after the communist
government backed him during his election to become director-general in 2017.

Tedros denies that he follows orders from Beijing but the WHO has been accused of dragging its feet in
declaring a global health emergency. Tedros even praised China for demonstrating "transparency" during
the crisis despite evidence the country covering up the outbreak and persecuted medical whistleblowers.

WHO chief: Closing borders increases 'fear' and 'stigma'
Ghebreyesus also later called for borders to stay open in a statement that appeared to put political
correctness before public health.

“We reiterate our call to all countries not to impose restrictions that unnecessarily interfere with
international travel and trade. Such restrictions can have the effect of increasing fear and stigma,
with little public health benefit,” Ghebreyesus said to the UN’s executive board in Geneva. 

The WHO has long argued that closing borders to a country during an outbreak increases stigma towards
that country and even whole ethnic groups.
Despite EU leaders and WHO officials being opposed to border closures, a huge survey by Reuters found
that citizens were overwhelmingly in support of such measures, with Asian countries showing the highest
support for border closures.
[img=751x0]https://rmx.news//media/29a/29ae207f6289ea212f4965d222a283d677486b2c.jpeg[/img]
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, left, director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), poses with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi for a
photo as he arrives for a meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing.

AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool

Angela Merkel says Germany against closing borders before she closed the borders
During German Chancellor Angela Merkel's first public address about the outbreak, she warned that
border closures would not be enough to prevent the spread of the virus.
She said, “We in Germany, in any case, are of the opinion that border closures are not an appropriate
response to the challenge.”

"This is a test for our solidarity, our common sense and care for each other. And I hope we pass the test,"
she said, adding that she ruled out following Austria's lead in banning visitors from Italy.
On March 18, Germany closed its borders to all EU travelers to help slow the spread of the virus in the
country and reduce the number of new outbreaks. 
[img=751x0]https://rmx.news//media/024/02480e6f2dd140d0fca8523973b62045c0d260f2.jpeg[/img]
German Chancellor Angela Merkel attends the weekly cabinet meeting at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, March 18, 2020.

Michael Kappeler/DPA via AP, Pool

The Atlantic: Trump's decision to close border to European citizens makes no sense and is based on prejudice
The Atlantic magazine had this to say about Trump's travel ban with Europe:
"President Donald Trump’s decision to ban most European citizens from traveling to the U.S., except
those from the United Kingdom and Ireland, appears to make no sense, and to inject past grievances
and prejudices into delicate scientific and political equations."

The EU would ban all entry of non-EU citizens just over a week later. The Atlantic has not accused Europe
of making its decision on past grievances or "prejudice".

WHO executive council member says closing borders in Italy 'excessive' and 'not based on scientific evidence'
WHO experts were constantly fighting countries over any type of travel ban. Italy, which has now suffered
over 8,100 deaths, finally closed its border with China on Jan. 31.

The country's first officially confirmed coronavirus cases, on Jan. 23, were Chinese tourists from Wuhan
who travelled across the country on a tourist bus with 100 other Chinese tourists before health authorities
in Rome confirmed their diagnosis.
Despite the threat, it still took a week for Italy to ban all flights from China.
WHO experts said Italy made the wrong call in banning flights from China.

Walter Ricciardi, a member of the World Health Organization’sexecutive council, said the flight ban
“excessive” and was “not based on scientific evidence”.
One of Italy's top virologists told CNN that he believes Italy waited so long to ban flights from China
out of fears of being labeled "racist".

Chinese girl in Italy: Hug me! I'm not a virus
"Hug me! I'm not a virus" was the message printed on a placard carted around by Chinese girl on the
streets of Milan in a viral video filmed during the coronavirus outbreak. The video, posted under the hashtags #ImNotVirus and #ImHuman, was not the only one.

In another, a Chinese man in Florence asks passersby to hug him while he wears a face mask.
The first videos was posted on the Youtube channel New China TV, which is run by the Xinhua News
Agency, the official state-owned press arm of China. The second was posted by the China Global Television
Network, another state-owned broadcaster.

Florence mayor: Hug a Chinese person
Some Italians took up the call from China, including Florence's mayor, Dario Nardella, who launched a
nationwide campaign to ‘hug a Chinese person’, which was featured in a video posted to China's People's
Daily, which is also run by the Chinese government. Nardella said he was running the campaign to "stem
the hatred".

Nardella actively encouraged people to hug strangers during the coronavirus outbreak, an act now
aggressively discouraged by health authorities in both Italy and beyond.

Sweden's top epidemiologist: closing borders 'completely meaningless'
In Sweden, restaurants, bars, and shops are still open. Children still go to school, and people can still gather
in groups as large up to 500 people. Much of the country's strategy for dealing with coronavirus is based on
advice from Anders Tegnell, Sweden's top epidemiologist at the Public Health Agency.

He believes the country should build its immunity while protecting at-risk groups, which means he is doing
little to prevent the virus from spreading. When Denmark closed its borders, Tegnell was critical, saying that
Denmark's move was “completely meaningless.”

Despite Tegnell's claims that sealing the border was 'meaningless', Sweden went ahead and banned entry
for all non-EU citizens into the country, with the exception of asylum seekers.

Tegnell: Safe for those infected in the same household to go to school or work
The next comment from Tegnell has little to do with borders but illustrates his promotion of a radically
open society during a time when many nations are doing all they can to halt the spread of the virus.

In what left many Swedes in disbelief, including the country's prime minister, Tegnell said during a TV
interview on March 18 that it was "safe" for people living in the same household as another person
infected with coronavirus to continue going to work or school.

Bernie Sanders says he wouldn't close borders over coronavirus
“But let’s not go back to the same old thing,” said Senator Bernie Sanders, who is currently running for
Democratic presidential nomination. “Isn’t it interesting that a president who has been demagoguing
and demonizing immigrants, the first thing that he could think about is closing down the border?”

WHO spokesperson claims closing borders will make those with coronavirus feel like the 'enemy'
Other WHO officials also seemed to be concerned with political correctness over taking measures to contain
the virus, including  Margaret Harris, a World Health Organization spokesperson, who said that closing
borders would suddenly make nations feel like they are 'fine'.

“You divert a lot of resources when you are focused on closing borders, rather than focusing on protecting
your health workers, preparing your health systems, and enhancing your disease surveillance,” she told The
Intercept.

“You mistakenly think, ‘Oh, we closed our borders. We’re fine.’ But giving people the sense that they are
the enemy, that they are the problem, makes people hide because they become very frightened of the
consequences. They’re not sure that identifying themselves with the authorities will be something that
has good consequences for them as we saw with Ebola.”

Despite countries across Europe closing their borders, there appears to be very little evidence that countries
assume closing the borders means the threat of coronavirus is over and that their citizens are 'fine'. Instead,
it is just one of many measures countries are taking to slow the spread of the virus and ensure that are not
additional outbreaks to contend with.

CNN warns travel ban could stigmatize 'countries and ethnicities'
In a sign that the media also associated travel bans with racism as opposed to legitimate from leaders that
the coronavirus CNN warned Trump's travel ban could “backfire” and have the effect of “stigmatizing
countries and ethnicities".

Closing border with Europe will have no impact on U.S. spread of coronavirus
Regarding Trump's travel ban on European travelers during the coronavirus outbreak, Lawrence Gostin,
a public health expert at Georgetown University, sent a tweet arguing against it.

"Most of Europe is as safe as US. This will have no impact on US ... germs don't respect borders," he wrote.
The EU appeared to disagree with him, as evidenced by the continent's own decision to implement its own
border lockdown a little over a week later to stem the coronavirus outbreak.

European health ministers: Closing frontiers would be 'disproportionate and ineffective'
As deaths began to rise in Italy, Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza his German counterpart, Jens
Spahn, and other health ministers from countries neighboring Italy met in Rome along with the EU's health
commissioner.
They issued a statement that closing frontiers would be a "disproportionate and ineffective" measure.
Both countries subsequently closed their borders.

Chancellor: Britain remains committed to open borders
After President Trump issued a travel ban restricting Europeans from traveling into the United States,
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak said that Britain does not need to copy such a ban, saying
that travel are "not going to have material effect" on spread of coronavirus.

“With regard to flight bans we are always guided by the science as we make our decisions here.
The advice we are getting is that there isn’t evidence that interventions like closing borders or travel
bans are going to have a material effect on the spread of the infections,” Sunak told the BBC.

Closing borders to Italy, China and Iran 'would not have any effect'
After the Sunday Times reported on March 22 that flights from the worst-hit countries of China, Italy,
and Iran are still continuing to land in London on a daily basis, bringing an estimated 7,500 people to
Britain a week from those three countries, an unnamed government spokesperson reiterated the
government's position.

'There is no evidence that interventions like closing borders or travel bans would have any effect on
the spread of infection," the spokesperson said.

EU 'experts': closing borders 'ineffective' for coronavirus
Citing unnamed EU "experts", EU Observer quoted them as saying they believed closing borders was
"ineffective" for battling the coronavirus. The EU appears to have disagreed with its own experts in the
end but by then it was too late.

link

[Ninurta]

Day 39 of COVID Panic-Demic: I've finally taught the cat to "heel". It was a fight, but I won. Next week, we start working on teaching her to fetch my pipe and slippers...


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