Federal Coronavirus Response

I don't know who the hell these people are. Birx, Fauci - who are they? Who are the major players in the fight against the Wuhan Virus (aka COVID-19, coronavirus, Chinese Virus, Xi Cold)?

Vice Pres. Mike Pence

Chair of White House Coronavirus Task Force

Dr. Deborah Birx

White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator 

Dr. Anthony Fauci

Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

If The Name Fits: Coronavirus Edition

COVID-19 is STILL in search of a good name.

The World Health Organization (WHO) relatively quickly let Wuhan off the hook. The virus started in the metropolis of Wuhan in the populous province of Hubei. But COVID-19 sounds like a WWII prisoner-war prison camp for Allied aviators, so everyone is still running around calling illness "coronavirus." That's all well and good, but coronavirus is a class of viruses that include the generally-just-annoying common cold.

Well, we have a pandemic virus that has been  world renown for almost two months. Pandemics could get their names from place of origin or as suspected place of origin, for example "Wuhan Virus," "Wet Market Virus," or "Spanish Flu." Pandemics could get their names from the source animal, such as the "Bird Flu," "Swine Flu," or "Bat Virus." Pandemics could get their names from the people who discover or help publicize them or were courageous in fighting them, for example "Alzheimer's disease," "salmonella," or "Li Virus" (in honor of the doctor who was muzzled by the government in China and later died from COVID-19).

So, what about the villains? "Hallervorden-Spatz disease" is named after two doctors, one of which was a Nazi doctor who was directly responsible for the murder of 60 children. What if COVID-19 was names after those responsible for,it going pandemic? It would be easy to name the coronavirus after General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Xi Jinping and called it "Xi Virus," but who can pronounce his name? Talking heads say it on the news from time to time, so it is possible for the name to catch on. How do you say it? "Zzee?" "She's? "She?" "See?" "Hsi?" What is he called?

But is Xi singularly responsible for the spread of the disease? How 'bout "Politburo Pandemic?" "Authoritarian Virus?" "PRC Virus?" "Central Virus 2?" What are the colloquial and official names of the central power in China? Its the Communist Party led by the - 

Oh, who the he'll cares!?! It's the "Xi Cold!" Say it however the hell you want.

ATI Nomad: Ordered

A while back, I started looking for a "camper" gun - something cheap, simple, stowable to have in our popup camper, when our family of five is out in the woods. I forgot about that.

More recently, I wanted to get a shotgun again. I had sold my Remington 870 several years ago, and I am sitting on a pile of shells. My birthday was looming, I was asked what I wanted, I said it was a cheap shotgun, that didn't work out, but I received a gift card to one of our local gun stores/ranges. The gift card has sat in my bedside table since October, but in the meantime I ran across the ATI Nomad shotgun series.

I had looked at the Midland Backpacker single-shot shotguns, but I was waiting for Midland to also come out with their promises promised rifle barrels for the gun. I even considered the Wal-Mart special - The Hatfield single shot.

On a whim, I pulled up the ATI Nomad 18.5" 12 gauge on Gallery of Guns. The price was amazing $83 plus tax and fees brought it to $99 out the door (the listing claims no transfer fee, but I'm suspicious). And low and behold, the first retailer offering the gun is the one I have the gift card for.

So the gun is coming my way.

NEXT: Nomad Unboxing

Pandemic IN China

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Hypothesis: Covid-19 (aka coronavirus, Wuhan virus) spread had become a pandemic BEFORE it left the borders of China.

Pandemic (n.): 

(1) (of a disease) prevalent over a whole country or the world. (Google)

(2) an outbreak of a disease that occurs over a wide geographic area and affects an exceptionally high proportion of the population : a pandemic outbreak of a disease. (Merriam Webster)

(3) A pandemic (from Greek πᾶν pan "all" and δῆμος demos "people") is an epidemic of disease that has spread across a large region; for instance multiple continents, or worldwide. (Wikipedia)

So on the balance a widespread disease that has ONLY occurred in "mainland" China could be considered a "pandemic."

Also, the sheer numbers of people and internal border controls in China make a spread within its population equivalent to a spread over multiple  international borders. For example:

Hubei Province has 58 million citizens, which equivalent to the populations of England or Burma. Hubei is the center of the outbreak with Wuhan being epicenter and multiple other populations centers effected. Thousands of people have been infected in multiple provinces.

Given that a pandemic really had already occurred WITHIN the borders of China with epidemics in multiple locations, the World Health Organization is irresponsible for pussy footing around the definition of a pandemic and failing to declare a pandemic. 

Also, when the virus actually did present itself as pandemic across traditional international boundaries, the WHO was grossly negligent  by using politically-correct, non-triggering language. Actually, China and the WHO were negligent, when COVID-19 was only confirmed within the borders of Hubei. 

In the past, pandemics spread relatively slowly. The plague took years. The Spanish Flu took many months. Now with international trade and leisure travel available to the masses, and since the masses are so much more massive, the response to biological threats needs to more rapid and sophisticated. 

COVID-19 took one month to become a epidemic, another month to become an intranational pandemic, and another month to become an international pandemic.

Yes, the response to this threat is better than even SARS, but  systems we have in place are still dependent on the fears and ambitions of the individuals implementing them.

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