For all the naysayers and nothingburgers

This is my first thread so go easy.

This is the reality.

The hospitals here can no longer cope and have to choose who lives or dies. For some of you this might be a dark form of entertainment until it arrives on your doorstep. Then tell me it's a hoax.

I'm an Irish man living in lockdown in Spain for 13 days now, I was thinking that it was'nt gonna impact us the way it had in China or in Italy as most people think it wont impact them now.

This is hard to watch but it's what is coming.

Take this seriously.



Below is a report from Bergamo in Italy from a few days ago.

It covers the impossible situation that doctors are facing with insufficient resources.



I've followed ATS for many years, kills me that this is my first thread.

Well, I didn't watch it, but I'm sure I get the gist.

This is the largest thing that many around the world have had to deal with in their generation.

I'm sure it sucks, hard, and it's all a bit surreal. But, it is what it is.

Everyone should do their best, provide what they can and hope that everyone does their part. In the end the chips fall where they may.

Sorry, OP, I'm tired of seeing all this. It's reality, it's the harsh cruelty of nature and the folly of mankind. If's and but's are aplenty, but what happens happens.

No shade thrown on your first OP, thanks for sharing.

But humans are just one of hundreds(thousands) of species on this earth. Reality is harsh and cruel, we can't control everything. We can do the best we can and hope for and strive for the best. But we are not immune to such things on a global or universal scale.

a reply to: ZapBrannigan3030

LIFE GOES ON! My love for life is STRONGER than my fear of death!

a reply to: ZapBrannigan3030

Why reply then?

Im with you, who would have thought that I could save the world by sitting on my arse?

a reply to: Tim2win

My family in Spain is living it and all they do is send video after video of stuff like this coming out from Madrid and Barcelona. My cousin is volunteering at a nursing home since there is no staff. A handful of volunteers and an administrator. Thats it. Its barely stocked and their region isnt one of the worse hit. The country is shaken to the core. One person from each family can go out for errands with heavy restrictions.

Madrid is horror. Not since the Spanish civil war has Madrid seen death on this scale. Bodies in the halls of hospitals just lying on blankets. Maybe dead or dying. Cadavers in nursing homes with residents living alongside them for days.

Nursing homes abandoned and residents left to fend for themselves. Desolate streets and panic. Even in areas not hit the worse. All have seen the effects close enough and in enough measure to understand the severity.

A young healthy 20 year old family member needed a ventilator because he couldn't breathe anymore. He was drowning. My aunt thought she got it from him and was preparing for a certain death. It was nuts. (She didnt thank God) yet?

I swear Im not making it up and neither is the OP or anyone else. Anyone can check. Videos like the one in the OP are pouring out of Italy and Spain.

My friend has a buddy that was stuck at a train station in Italy for days. She was hiding because she had symptoms and didnt want to be put with other sick people. She wanted to just hide until her symptoms passed since she couldn't make it back home to Germany.

Its Effing real. A neighbor HERE in the Bronx, across the street and two buildings over from me left in an ambulance because she tested positive and could not breathe. She died today. She was 40-50 years old. Not an old person. There are varying strains with varying severity.

Spain and Italy are seeing middle age and even younger people get severe enough cases that require a ventilator.

We need to start mass production of ventilators, all major medications and build emergency hospitals in advance.

I also suspect there will be a second wave of infection like was seen with the Spanish flu. China has a melting pot of this thing and its probably mutating more now that they are lifting restrictions and stopped testing for new cases. Not that there arent any. Just that they dont care. Business is business.

Be safe out there. Pray for Europe.

originally posted by: Tim2win
a reply to: ZapBrannigan3030

Im with you, who would have thought that I could save the worrld by sitting on my arse?

I didn't reply to negate your post, just saying that the excessive obsession with this specific situation is not all it seems with regard to the scale of humanity.

It's drummed up, which isn't to say it's real, but it's being used to fuel people, for whatever purpose. I don't know the exact reason, but it's pretty obvious. In that regard all we, as humanity can do, is do what we've done for thousands of years and do what we can. Outside of the plethora of nonstop media and fear that "social media" brings us in these modern times.

Saturating the situation with fear from every end of the globe from every town in the world won't change it.

Horrible... has anyone asked why Italy and Iran ?

EMAIL take it for what it is worth:

Why Italy and Iran?

Italy and Iran have been two of the countries hardest hit by the Wuhan coronavirus, outside of China. Why ? Helen Raleigh explains at The Federalist:

The reason these two countries are suffering the most outside China is mainly due to their close ties with Beijing, primarily through the “One Belt and One Road” (OBOR) initiative.

OBOR is Beijing’s foreign policy play disguised as infrastructure investment. Here’s how it works: China and country X agree to do an infrastructure project in country X. Country X has to borrow from a Chinese bank to finance the project. A contract is always awarded to Chinese companies, which then bring supplies and Chinese employees to country X to build the project.

As a result of One Belt and One Road, there are more than 300,000 Chinese living in Italy.

Almost exactly a year ago in March 2019, against warnings from the EU and the United States, Italy became the first and only G7 country to sign onto OBOR. As part of the deal, Italy opened an array of sectors to Chinese investment, from infrastructure to transportation, including letting Chinese state-owned companies hold a stake in four major Italian ports. …

Lombardy and Tuscany are the two regions that saw the most Chinese investment. Nearly a year later, the first Wuhan coronavirus infection case in Italy was reported in the Lombardy region on Feb. 21. Today, Italy is experiencing the worst coronavirus outbreak outside China, and Lombardy is the hardest-hit region in the country.



The Iran case is interesting as well:

2019 was the year Iran officially signed up to OBOR. China sees Iran as a crucial player to this initiative because Iran is not only rich in oil but also lies in a direct path of an ambitious 2,000-mile railroad China wants to build, which will run from western China through Tehran and Turkey into Europe.

Today, Iranian health officials trace the country’s coronavirus outbreak to Qom, a city of a million people. According to the Wall Street Journal, “China Railway Engineering Corp. is building a $2.7 billion high-speed rail line through Qom. Chinese technicians have been helping refurbish a nuclear-power plant nearby.” Iranian medical professionals suspect either Chinese workers in Qom or an Iranian businessman who travelled to China from Qom caused the spread of the coronavirus in Qom.

News reports indicate that a number of high Iranian officials have contracted coronavirus, and I believe at least one or two have died.



Raleigh explains:

Although on Feb. 1 the Iranian government banned its airlines from flying to China, it made an exception for Mahan Air, an unofficial airline for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The WSJ reported that Mahan Air “had carried out eight flights between Tehran and China between Feb. 1 and Feb. 9 to transfer Chinese and Iranian passengers to their respective home countries.” This explains why so many high-level Iranian officials are infected by the coronavirus, including First Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri and more than 20 lawmakers.



Relying on China for economic development was never a good idea, but it turned out to be more dangerous than we knew.

a reply to: HelloboysImbackguy

Sometimes I feel like I'm banging my head off a brick wall trying to explain the severity of whats happening now. People only see what they want I guess.

a reply to: 727Sky

Would you like to give your view on that?

a reply to: HelloboysImbackguy

The horror stories coming out of the nursing homes are too much for me.

originally posted by: Tim2win
a reply to: 727Sky

Would you like to give your view on that?

From everything I have read about the "One Belt and one Road" project by China and how they are making nations indebted while using primarily a imported Chinese work force I do not doubt the email or I would not have posted it. Anyone else can make up their own mind.

a reply to: 727Sky

I will give it a look.

a reply to: ZapBrannigan3030

Tell that to the families who are not allowed to bury their kin.

a reply to: Tim2win

I hear you broski. Just keep doing it ok. There is a lot at stake for everyone. Every voice advocating preparation and honesty of what is being faced now is vital.

We have Chinas global business interests pushing for a lifting of quarantine here in the US before we are hit in full. (Um, are they attacking us? Seriously)

We have local comfortable people who are scared of losing retirement funds or liquidity and so are also trying to downplay it. And the list just goes on.

I dont know where you hang your hat, but every diabetic I see here is at risk and we have many. Very many. Thats just one at risk population. Its going to be an interesting day in the neighborhood around here once bodies arent picked up from people's houses, or kids with medical issues start to get sick.

Oh, and We have medical tourism here in NY. Its going to really get nuts. I cant even fathom it completely.

Dude, good luck.

Im afraid this is the way the US will look within the next couple weeks. My theory for Italy and Spain are the fact that they are like our immune systems are not equipped to fight off anything anymore because we are quick to take meds. Our culture uses tons of disinfectants and chemicals on our foods to keep things sterile. In comparison, Third world countries can't afford to sterilize everything, eat what's available and cannot take medicine for every cough and ache and pain.

The US is in for much worse with our obesity and preprocessed foods and drug for everything culture.

a reply to: ZapBrannigan3030

You can say that while admitting to not have watched the video. It's not drummed up, this is not the media.

Damn...

I don't know the exact reason, but it's pretty obvious.

a reply to: ZapBrannigan3030

Well, that explains alot about your thoughts.

Carry on then.

Gentlemen before it even starts, like every #in thread. Slinging # gets us nowhere. We are better than that.

a reply to: HelloboysImbackguy

Thanks buddy,

I feel like this will be swallowed up in all the corona threads or fall on deaf ears but it's nice to know there are side holes in peoples heads that are still good for more than face decorations

originally posted by: Tim2win
Gentlemen before it even starts, like every #in thread. Slinging # gets us nowhere. We are better than that.

Were going to see a lot of # slinging as people try and process what's going on, some can't and won't believe this is actually happening and need to attack the messenger to get that endorphin hit and reassure themselves they are right.

It's sad to see what's going on in Europe, France is getting pretty bad, and the U.S in the next week or so is going to look quite different.