Mike Lester for March 28, 2020

¿¿What??

But the mutt can eat your lungs out, and the cure is months late, thanks to Bonespurs.

So much wishful thinking. The idiots who think this way are going to kill the rest of us.

Yeah, maybe Trump can bully CV-19 into submission. Jeez, Lester is an idiot.

Someone should read the numbers, especially in the new EPICENTRE – GOOD OL’ USA

So ridiculous I thought it was done in cooperation with Stiglich.

you f*kin’ idiot. It’s not a chihuahua… it’s more like Cerberus.

Seems like the labels need to be switched.

Oh Lester. Living in the world of wishful thinking. There you go, spreading ignorance and deceit. I pray no one gets sick or dies because they’re stupid enough to listen to you.

Why you all make’n such a big deal over that thar little yappy dawg – it never hurt no-one no how – its jest a little noisy.

Conservatives hate science. NEWSMAX is still pushing climate change as a hoax, yet, They have started admitting the virus is deadly because they can no longer claim IT is a hoax.

I have a colleague that tested positive. What’s your address Mike and I’ll ask him to drop by.

Thanks to tbemont for clarifying what may be Lester’s intent. But as tbemont points out, it is incorrect to think the “cure” is worse.

First of all, quarantine actions are not a cure. They are a measure to limit spread of disease. So Lester’s attempt fails on that point. Even with quarantine, the virus is not going to go away. This one is good at not killing every carrier, or even making everyone sick, so it can spread unnoticed especially without testing.

The evidence it is not a cure comes from Italy and Spain with their high death rates. Without the measures taken by the governments, those death rates would be even higher, with an attending loss of medical personnel. You can worry about a shortage of ventilators, which can be made up… but you should worry about a shortage of people to run them.

The whole point of flattening the curve through quarantine is to not overwhelm medical services.

There is unlikely to be a vaccine (unless we get very lucky) soon, so for many, survival depends on being able to get medical treatment. How many times must our medical profession make that point?

Apparently, with the Trumps and Lesters of this country, even repetition does not get through.

The idea that brute force will solve this crisis is false. Unless one is willing to nuke the various virus epicenters, this pandemic will be temporarily halted in its severity by scientific research toward a vaccine and social cooperation and stringent hygienic practices. Sorry, it won’t be done by means of something quick and glamorous, or on the order of super-hero feats. And definitely NOT one by person.

Time for a Trump Rally, if you are a true believer!

In 2017, the White House’s National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense survived the transition intact. Its mission was the same as when the Obama administration established it after the Ebola epidemic of 2014: to do everything possible within the vast powers and resources of the U.S. government to prepare for the next disease outbreak and prevent it from becoming an epidemic or pandemic.One year later, the White House dissolved the office, leaving the country less prepared for pandemics like covid-19.The U.S. government’s slow and inadequate response to the new coronavirus underscores the need for organized, accountable leadership to prepare for and respond to pandemic threats.In a health security crisis, speed is essential. When this new coronavirus emerged, there was no clear White House-led structure to oversee our response, and we lost valuable time. Health systems are struggling to test patients and keep pace with growing caseloads. The specter of rapid community transmission and exponential growth is real and daunting. The job of a White House pandemics office would have been to get ahead: to accelerate the response, empower experts, anticipate failures, and act quickly and transparently to solve problems. It’s impossible to assess the full impact of the 2018 decision to disband the White House office responsible for this work, but it is clear that eliminating the office has contributed to the federal government’s sluggish domestic response. What’s especially concerning about the absence of this office today is that it was originally set up because a previous epidemic made the need for it quite clear.When asked about the slow roll-out of coronavirus tests in the U.S. on March 13, President Trump responded, “I don’t take responsibility at all.” Trump is not just responsible for it. He owns it The Trump Plague is not just his responsibility. It’s his fault.

Looks like Henry Payne is getting some competition.

Let’s hope American inventiveness produces at least a potent treatment soon… and eventually a vaccine.

Very good cartoon!

In my darker moments, I get visions of a future where this worldwide catastrophe that is the Trump regime ends when, after 100s of thousands or even millions of deaths, and the US on the verge of societal and economic collapse, a group of generals walk into the Oval Office and one of them puts a bullet in his syphilitic brain.

Thus completing the Chosen One’s transformation of the US into another banana republic.

Uh-oh, looks like we’re getting a little too close to revealing just how badly the rich need the poor!

Risk assessment is tricky. People are generally not very good at assessing risks. For instance, people are more impressed by rare but catastrophic risks than by small but constant risks, even if the second case leads to more fatalities in the long run. Life is full of risks. It’s reasonable to consider the balance of risks against benefits. Every large construction project, for instance, comes with an assessment of how many people will die during construction. Insurance companies deal with these questions all the time. In the current situation some answers seem pretty clear, though others we don’t know yet. We know that if the infections are not capped—through social distancing and similar actions—then infections will spread very quickly and quickly overwhelm the health care system. That’s already happening. If we close things down, the economy will take a hit, and some people will suffer and even die. But if we don’t close things down, the economy will take a much greater hit and many more people will die. At this point, Covid-19 is not a little yapping dog, it’s an avalanche. Just look at the numbers. And do some doubling calculations: two, four, eight, sixteen, thirty-two, sixty-four, and keep going for say 25 or 30 iterations. The numbers get huge very quickly.

I opine a few of the commenters have been hitting the bottle or weed too much.

It’s perfectly OK with Lester and the other Trump Disciples if your grandmother dies.

He’s also fine with giving money to companies whose ships sail under foreign flags.

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I guess Mexico will pay for it.

^ : Remember Paul Ryan? The Republicans have been trying to realize their dream of killing off the elderly by getting rid of Social Security and Medicare for quite some time. There’s your real death panel.

Which would be a real blow to the cruise line industry, since most of those who have the time and money for those are retired. Same for a lot of travel and vacation industry.

Apparently, like #45, any attention paid to Lester inflates his ego.

^Yup! Concerning attention DrDon1, note who liked flpmlp up a few comments. Kinda sad…

Early onset dementia?

" I warned you, but did you listen to me? Oh, no, you knew it all, didn’t you? Oh, it’s just a harmless little bunny, isn’t it? Well, it’s always the same. I always tell them—" Monty Python and the Holy Grail

World wide cases 610,000 and deaths 28,000 and climbing exponentially

Good grief, Mike!