Written by: Greg Ellifritz
Since I don’t have TV in my house, I spend a lot more time reading than the average American. I have more than 400 websites programmed into my RSS reader. On the average day I scan about 1200 articles in my feed. I deeply read more than 100. You can guess that my feed in recent weeks has been almost completely full of Covid-19 articles. I’ve been reading an insane quantity of material with regards to the virus and its likely future consequences.
There are lots of good coronavirus articles out there on the internet. With that said, I don’t want to share the articles that everyone else is sharing, doom and gloom porn, or wild speculations. Instead, I will share the truly unique and valuable pieces I find while scanning the internet.
Check out the links below to learn something new. These are the most informative pandemic resources I have seen in the past few days.
Forced Quarantines Are Not the American Way
An opinion about “forced quarantine” and why it wouldn’t likely be effective here.
TSA is preparing to test passengers’ temperatures at a dozen US airports as soon as next week in bid to combat spread of coronavirus
Pandemic government over-reach is steadily increasing even as deaths and new cases are dropping in most parts of the country.
I’m sure this won’t add any time at all to the airline security procedures.
I never thought that in the next edition of my travel safety book I would have to instruct air travelers to take aspirin or acetaminophen before their flight to ensure that they will be allowed to fly.
A Doctor’s Diary From a COVID ICU
What it’s like to be a doctor on the front lines.
The Best Defense Survival – Roundtable #9
An island of sanity in a sea of chaos and uncertainty.
Covid-19 special: After the Lockdown
Some potentially good news…
“For this post, I wish to discuss my thoughts on the likely endgame of this virus. My forecast, and it may surprise some of you, is that this virus has already peaked in the majority of countries and is now fading away.
Indeed, my specific forecast is that by June this year there will be very few confirmed new cases in the majority of the world. The pandemic will disappear as fast as it appeared on our planet.
The virus, so far at least, is tracking the models originally developed by Dr William Farr. G&R, an investment research firm, have been tracking the Covid-19 cases on Farr’s Law curve and have found that so far it fits perfectly (see above quote).
As you can see from the above graphs, it is looks likely that by the end of May the virus should have largely disappeared from the world.”
What if we’ve all been primed?
“I’m only asking the question, “What if?”
What if the phrases we’ve constantly heard have shaped the way we think about our actions, the way we judge others’ actions, and the way we might accept life in the future, if it becomes different from what we’ve experienced in the past?
What if there are motivations behind all of this that aren’t pure? The only way to find out is to ask questions. The weird part in it all is that once people begin asking questions, they’re often met with an onslaught of hate and anger, which makes you wonder even more if there isn’t something behind it all.
What if, by you simply asking, “What if?” you start to feel less concerned about COVID-19, and more about where we’re headed as a country?
Of course, I could be way off base with my questions. If I am, I don’t mind. I’m simply asking questions worth considering. Wisdom comes from asking questions, not from simply following along with whatever we’re told.
We all need to ask more questions rather than accept all answers.”
Dear Physicians: Don’t be Surprised When you Lose Your job.
“Otherwise intelligent physicians, desperate to keep the citizenry safely ensconced at home, eating chips and watching Netflix while waiting on a vaccine, seem to struggle to make the connection between the patients they no longer see and the income they no longer have.
It’s not rocket surgery people. It’s cash flow. Patients get sick and see us and give us money. When we don’t see them or they decide they are safer at home, then we don’t get their money. “But the corporations.” Sure, sometimes they give us a hard time. But even they have to make money in order to, you know, pay us.
So to my medical people, I get it. COVID-19 (Gollum, Gollum) is a nasty bit of business. I understand the imperative to corral it. But while we’re busily demeaning those who want, who need to get back to work; while we’re calling them stupid and unscientific, while we’re asking “is the economy is worth the loss of life?” then let’s just accept the fact that the lock-down promises to impoverish us as well.”
COVID-19 Age Demogaphics and Countries
An incredibly thorough analysis of who gets this disease and who dies from it.
Let People Drink Outside
Turning part of the parking lot into an open air restaurant/bar and allowing people to drink alcohol outside would do far more to slow the spread of the virus than having asymptomatic people all wearing masks.
Survival Of The Richest: Why Some Support Indefinite Lockdowns
Some people are thriving and profiting from this pandemic lockdown. Those folks want to keep people at home as long as possible.
A couple of additional comments before you go…
More than a month ago I started noticing some strange statistics with regards to this site’s page views and advertising revenues. Page views have gone up dramatically (30%) during the pandemic. Despite the big surge in visits, my ad revenue has taken a massive hit. Almost 50% less ad revenue per day despite many more visits.
The trend is continuing. While this week’s number look better than last week’s, my ad revenues are still significantly below what they were a year ago, despite having more visitors. The trend has been generally downward with no signs of recovery since the pandemic was declared.
What’s going on? I started digging a little deeper. I found out that advertisers don’t want their products to be associated with the coronavirus or COVID-19. Many won’t place ads on pages that discuss anything at all about the pandemic. This article explains some of the advertisers’ thought processes.
My content for the last couple months has been heavily weighted to providing you all with the best information I can find on the virus. That strategy is killing my ad revenues.
I’m not writing this to complain about the ad money that I am losing. Instead, I want you to understand the consequences of this worldwide issue.
We will see less information coming out about the virus from independent sources in the future. The big news sites aren’t nearly as affected, but many independent bloggers will stop posting content that harms their financial bottom line. I worry that we will lose a prime source of objective information and analysis during a time when we all need that information the most.
I will keep providing good information despite the revenue drop. Please remember to support the people who provide you with the high quality content that you prefer to consume.
