I suppose by now everyone realizes that if this plague...

[TreasonousBastard]

burns itself out or is on the road to defeat by the election, Trump will demand full credit for the good news and blame everyone else for how it's taken so long.

[EarthFirst]

1. ...and he'll bundle it with the economy and unemployment...

As beyond his control; “It wasn’t me...”

[Lochloosa]

2. It won't. Get ready for the long haul.

[Yavin4]

4. Especially in the way that Trump's handling it.

Day by day, he's actually making everything worse. Much, much worse.

[TreasonousBastard]

5. We don't know that--1918 burned itself out in less than a year. why wouldn't...

this one do the same?

This one is related to SARS, and they know a lot about SARS. Some researchers think it's already peaking.

They could be wrong. But they could be right-- we'll find out.

And then Hobson gets us-- either we watch Trump steal credit or we're stuck with it for a while longer.

[Lochloosa]

6. 1918 lasted 2 years with the 2nd wave the worst.

That's a common mistake.

https://www.history.com/news/spanish-flu-second-wave-resurgence

[TreasonousBastard]

9. Well, the first two waves were April or so, to December...

then the third wave showed up comparatively weakly. I'll admit I missed that third wave.

Medical knowledge was nothing like it is now, without even a basic understanding of viruses

My point, however, was that even something as horrific as that flu can be self-defeating after a point. And we're doing a hell of a lot to move that point this time. Our knowledge of cause and cure is incalculably greater than it was a century ago.

[NickB79]

10. It burned out because it infected most of the planet and killed 50 million

COVID won't behave quite the same due to social distancing and quarantines.

And it has one key feature SARS never had. It can spread before symptoms appear, and there are numerous asymptomatic spreaders who never realize they're sick.

After the first peak passes, we'll lift restrictions. A couple months later, since it's now endemic, clusters will start appearing again and new restrictions will come back.

It's already happening in China: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/01/chinese-county-coronavirus-lockdown-second-wave-159615

This won't end until we have a vaccine, or we all get infected.

[TreasonousBastard]

11. Maybe, but it could change to a less virulent strain. My point is simply that...

we poor mortals can't predict the future when those who spend their lives studying and dealing with it don't know or dare predict.

Personally, I prefer to hope it burns itself to a benign threat so we can go back to dealing with all those other problems we've preferred to ignore.

[brewens]

3. Gov. Inslee of WA announced sending 400 ventilators to NY. I'm over here in Idaho, right

on their eastern border waiting for some dumbshit to say, "look, if they think they can spare those, it must not be so bad. This shutdown is bullshit!" Of course you can't prove something like how many lives we're saving staying home. We could have twice as many cases easy if our governor hadn't shut down when he did, even though it was a little late.

[TreasonousBastard]

12. AAaarrggghhh! I can't get picture out of my mind of rump and the little shit...

who married his daughter actually saying it's none of the federal gummint's business helping to allocate assets.

[madinmaryland]

7. 20% unemployment won't help his "cause". The Koolaid drinkers will be drinking his

bullshit, but no one else will be.

[stillcool]

8. He lies 24/7..anyone who believes..

anything he says is certifiably gullible. It would be a major news story if he told the truth.