The Koof, aka COVID-19, aka The Coronavirus. What I think.

Long post warning: This one is about three pages. Click 'read more' at your own peril.

Just going to put my thoughts here. May be accurate, may not be. Just thinking where the general public can see it. Risky I know. Bad habit I know. I've had friends turn hostile because of it. I'd urge you to talk it out with me rather than just holding a grudge for years. Y'all know who you are.

This stupid disease. If you come into contact with it, from all I've read, you have a stupidly large chance of catching it. And after just a few days you'll be running a slight fever and otherwise no idea you're even sick meanwhile spreading it to potentially everyone you get close to. You won't know you're spreading it for at least a week. Maybe you can tell me exactly every person you've come into contact with in the last week... maybe. Most can't.

If you ever figure out you had it because many people - especially teenagers - won't hardly get more than something that feels like a seasonal allergy... If you ever figure out you've got something wrong, you go take the stick-up-the-nose-test, and three days later get notified you've been counted as a victim statistic. Bear in mind real doctors have conjectured there are likely a bunch of people who get it and get over it without ever feeling sick at all. As of right now, about 4.28% of those who got it in the USA died. That's a little better than 1 in 20. Those who don't die run a wide gamut from nothing to permanent and severe damage including - believe it or not - limb amputations and the need for organ transplants. It doesn't just hit the lungs, that's just the most likely symptom that will quickly kill you.

So... everybody's going to get it, eventually. The BEST we can do is slow down its transmission until we figure out a vaccine that works. That way we can vaccinate everyone, effectively giving them disease without killing them and tricking "the system" into thinking they've already had the disease. That's the only way to eradicate it.

So. What do I think about all this craziness we're getting up to? Well, sending kids back to physical school is a bad idea. We should be investing time and effort into creating effective remote schooling curricula rather than discounting them with a hand wave and a "That didn't work, see?" based on a half-semester's panic response to a pandemic we did not sufficiently anticipate.

What about business closures? I'm not going to get into the philosophical what-ifs much here about liberty and closing businesses etc. We should set up a simple set of protocols that allow people to continue doing business if they can meet a specific list of cleanliness and environmental distancing procedures, make exceptions where we must, and move on. If a movie theater, gym, or hair stylist can meet those requirements, then fine stay open. Otherwise, shut it down please.

It's going to suck for a lot of people. It's going to suck and I'm sure some of them will wish whatever torment they have to endure on people like me who maybe don't have it so bad... and also don't have a better idea. Thus is life. I'm giving it all I've got. If I had more to give, I'd be doing it already. I'm confident they'll figure something out. They always do.

Masks? It's hard to believe this is a serious question. I think it's demonstrative that there are a lot of people that don't understand the first three paragraphs: You can be sick and spreading the disease without knowing you've got it FOR WEEKS. That's a lot of spread, and 1 out of every 20 people who get it from you will probably die. Putting a mask over your face keeps you from giving it to anybody (97ish % effective anyway). "But I'm not sick!" I hear. That's the thing: You won't know it till it's too late, if you know it at all! Sure I get it some people have conditions that prevent masks, (physical handicap, mental issue/extreme phobia, etc) but that should be a tiny minority of people. Just think of it this way: Wearing a mask is a gesture of mutual respect. It won't keep you from getting the Koof, instead it keeps you from giving it to anyone (almost). They don't know whether you've got it, you don't know whether you've got it, but you're going that extra couple of feet to cover your mouth and nose making sure you hopefully won't give it to anybody. It's just the respectful thing to do. Simultaneously if someone is not wearing a mask, just assume you need to avoid them - the whole point is to reduce risk factors. They have their reasons, just stay away from them, you don't need to know.

Anyway thanks for hearing me out. That's my view on it.