The Jay Doherty Podcast · Episode 127 · March 20, 2020
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TODAY ON THE JAY DOHERTY PODCAST:
Coronavirus has changed American life. With tens of thousands of restaurants and bars closed for dining, millions of American residents being ordered to shelter in their home, and worrying projections from international health organizations, COVID-19 is growing rapidly as a pandemic. What should the strategy be going forward, what is the federal government actually doing to halt the spread of the virus, and how does Congress play into the equation?
Also, Apple has announced major upgrades to two of their most popular product lines. On Wednesday, the major tech company released a new iPad Pro with better specs, a new trackpad to work with iPadOS, and a swanky new LiDAR Scanner. Is this refresh to the iPad product line worth the upgrade or the price?
We’ll answer all of that and more on episode 127 of The Jay Doherty Podcast.
SHOW NOTES:
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COVID-19 Coronavirus
THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS TO STAY INSIDE AND TO NOT SPREAD THE VIRUS!
A RAPID INCREASE IN NUMBERS
This thing is spreading very very quickly… and in most cases, it is faster than governmental procedure and infrastructure can act. This virus has nearly doubled in the amount of cases there are worldwide since last week’s episode and more than doubled the amount of deaths there are since last week’s episode. You may recall me saying this on episode 126 of The Jay Doherty Podcast… TJDP 1.
Yeah, well… those numbers have risen dramatically since then.
Keep in mind, those are only the confirmed cases worldwide… there could be many more…
- An article last Friday from NYT saying worst-case COVID-19 could cause up to 214 million deaths in the United States! That’s 65% of the American population. (4th para)
- CNBC also had a peice
Are these numbers likely to actually end up appearing in reality? Likely not… in fact, the NYT article says:
The assumptions fueling those scenarios are mitigated by the fact that cities, states, businesses and individuals are beginning to take steps to slow transmission, even if some are acting less aggressively than others. The C.D.C.-led effort is developing more sophisticated models showing how interventions might decrease the worst-case numbers, though their projections have not been made public.
The New York Times
In other words, these numbers would be the spread of Coronavirus if literally no one did anything about it and we were all living in a field with no hospitals, medical knowledge, civilization or governments advising us on what to do.
In terms of improvement, China, who started this and initially lied and failed to contain this virus, has sort of gotten their act together, but not in ways that one may view ethically… this is good for now but really bad for the future.
THE U.S. GOVERNMENT’S RESPONSE
Speaking of the government advising us on what to do, I think the federal government is doing a mixed job at best. The reason that their response is mixed and not “moderately good” is because of President Donald J. Trump. If the press conference held at The White House yesterday did not involve him, people would probably feel a bit safer just because they wouldn’t have to deal with his games and witness him waste time during a worldwide pandemic.
The best people during this entire situation, in terms of the federal government, are SOS Mike Pompeo, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and Dr. Deborah Birx.
In this press conference, we’ll start with the games from Trump first and then we’ll get into the serious stuff… so, Mike Pompeo, being the Secretary of State, is effectively the head of The State Department, which has acted as one of many radixes of information during this outbreak… needless to say, a respectable group of hardworking people that serve the government everyday.
Trump’s “Deep State” Quip
So, President Trump, being the doofus he is, referred to the state department as the “deep state department” while the director was standing behind him… trying to get his most valuable asset on that stage back to work at his office. Here is Trump… TRUMP 1.
After that little quip, Dr. Anthony Fauci, another member of the good guys in the federal government right now, appeared to facepalm himself… we’ll have the video at jay-doherty.com/facepalm if you feel so inclined to set your eyes upon these daily wonders…
A Fiery Exchange
But a bit more seriously, in a time where people are seriously dying and the federal government, while they do have little information overall, they have (or at least claim to have) more info than the public. With that information, the President can choose to act as a beacon of hope for the nation, and when Trump was asked about being hopeful in times like these, it did not go well.
The media is playing this clip over and over and over again which, in all fairness to Trump, does not cover the entire situation accurately. So, I am going to first play the clip that is playing on CNN, MSNBC, and other liberal stations, and then I am going to play a clip that shows what actually led up to the exchange… So here is the clip playing on the media… in fact, this one is directly from CNN… TRUMP 2.
And then, here is the entire thing which reveals that Trump and Alexander were talking about medicine to treat the virus before their little fight…it’s sort of long but I always think context is important whenever talking about anything… TRUMP 3.
So, that is that.
STATE RESPONSE
Illinois, the state I am sitting in right now, has issued a “stay at home” order to help combat the COVID-19 virus…
Similarly, New York governor Andrew Cuomo ordered all “non-essential” staff to stay home. CUOMO 1
He also said, in a more threatening way that you will be punished if you violate the terms of this new order… CUOMO 2
Trump said that these orders will not go nationally, which is good… we’ll discuss why in a second. Count how many times he says hot in this clip… TRUMP 4
These terms “stay at home orders”, “essential personnel” can sound quite menacing if you don’t understand them so we will go through them one by one.
- Article from CNN which you can read at jay-doherty.com/coviddefinition
- List from Forbes which you can read at jay-doherty.com/essential
All of these orders and some estimations say that an estimated 84 million working Americans would be forced or strongly advised to stay home which would really do a number on the economy…
THE WORLD ECONOMY
The economy continues to do really poorly as a result of this virus.
More importantly, small businesses and restaurants are doing really badly which is resulting in fears of job loss. The International Labour Organization, which is an agency of the UN, put out an assessment saying that 25 million jobs could be lost in a worst-case COVID-19 reality.
Even in the week we are leading into, it is said that 2 million jobs will be lost as a result of Coronavirus… and even if the government stimulus package that Trump and his administration are proposing is put into place, that only covers for very little damage, maybe even a month… because we have to recognize that the government can only do so much in economic crises.
Everyone is fighting but the crisis of this outbreak motivates them to actually pass something efficiently, but of course that failed. Of course, the lead Republican actor in Congress right now is Mitch McConell… the lead Democrat being Nancy Pelosi… and McConell is steering the ship when it comes to proposals… in fact the government’s goal was to get this bill to pass last night, Friday 3/20, so they could sign it into law the following Monday to, at least try to stop the disaster this disease is going to cause (fourth para).
Some potential violations…. Pretty suspicious….
On the bright side, this thing, from a medical standpoint could subside quickly…
THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS TO STAY INSIDE AND TO NOT SPREAD THE VIRUS!
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FI: CDC
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Jay Doherty
2020
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