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  1. @ Adam Dalgliesh:
    Hi, Adam

    I’m glad you don’t live in Manhattan. When my family lived in the area you describe, the Wappinger people still lived there, along with the colonists. They were largely wiped out by the British during Washington’s defense of New York. My family, which was likely part Indian, moved west around then, to Oneida County.

    Oregon is opening up in stages. The county where I live has had few COVID-19 cases, so it was among the first to formally reopen this past week. Most people are still very careful. We began sheltering in place even before being ordered to do so; and we still do; though we are starting to make appointments.

    We aren’t hoping for “herd immunity” to protect us. We are people, not animals.

  3. “Crowds at Wuhan clinics fear coronavirus testing could rekindle disease
    Wuhan health authorities sprang back into action after confirming last weekend the central Chinese city’s first cluster of new infections since it was released from virtual lockdown on April 8.
    By REUTERS MAY 16, 2020 12:38” A major problem with the Lockdown strategy is that it prevents people from acquiring herd immunity. That could result in the virus recurring over many years. If the virus is allowed to run its course, as some now extinct flu and other pathogenic viruses were, it might disappear in a year or less.

  4. Britain also has a decreasing number of new COVID-19 cases and”new”deaths associated with CV-2. The decrease began on April 15–the very same day as it began to decrease in Sweden, despite the differences in the methods used to combat the virus between the two countries. However, the decrease in cases in and deaths seems to be more rapid in Britain than in Sweden.

  5. @ Michael S: I agree that Alexander Maistrovoy’s analysis of who are Israel’s friends and enemies is masterful. However, he is wrong about one thing–Russia, despite the government’s vast powers, has not done a good job fighting the coronavirus. There are now more than 200,000 confirmed cases there–nearly as many as the U.S., in acountry with roughly the same population as the U.S. Moscow has been especially hard hit–almost as badly as New York City.

  6. @ Michael S: Michael, I actually live in a small exurban town with no high-rises and a population , according to the most recent estimates, of only about 8,000. There are even a few farms within a few miles of the town, mainly dairy farms with cows and sheep. It gives me great pleasure to watch them graze. However, despite our exurban status, about 60 miles north of Manhattan, we are subject to the same lockdown restrictions as Manhattan by our tyrannical Governor, Andrew Cuomo. This is so even though we are not really part of the NYC metro area, but a semi-rural area just north of it.

    Some areas further “upstate” (as we say in NYS) have had their restrictions relaxed as of May 15th.

    Is it really true that everything, or nearly everything, is open in Oregon? In that case, I will take a summer vacation in Oregon. Maybe even move there permanently.

    Please post a reply. If I survive a medical procedure scheduled for next week, I will pack my bags and make arrangements with my landlord for a “leave of absence” (I will have to keep paying rent for at least three months).

  7. @ Adam Dalgliesh:
    Adam.

    “The pandemic divided Europe into two: rich Eurabia which plunged into chaos and relatively poor Eastern Europe which did not.

    “By Alexander Maistrovoy, INN”

    That is the most succinctly correct summation of the situation in Europe that I have yet seen. Sweden fared about the same as Italy, UK and the other WE states, all of whom took a sloppy, belated, lackadaisical approach to the pandemic. Eastern Europe took matters seriously, closed borders quickly, and largely escaped the carnage.

    I’m sorry if you’re cooped up still on that high rise island back East. We have been quickly getting back to normal here in Oregon, which ought to have been a model for the rest of the country: We were struck early by the virus, responded quickly and correctly, then have had the sense to normalize as quickly as possible. We suffered few deaths, because of the above and because of the patriotic rallying of the citizenry. My hat goes off to our Democrat governor, Kate Brown, as well as to President Trump — and most of all to God, who heard our fervent prayers.

  8. I have been bad-mouthing the Swedes for some time, as you know, for their mismanagement of the CV-2 crisis. However, new information on the Local Sweden indicates that the number of new infections and the number of “new”deaths associated with CV-2 has been declining in Sweden. The number of patients requiring treatment in intensive care wards has declined, as has the totalnumber of people hospitalized for the illness. The declines began around April 15, when the number of illnesses and deaths reached their peak. That is just about the time when spring begins in Sweden. Because of the cold climate, it usually arrives later in Sweden than in the countries to its south. But the pattern is the same in Sweden as in the other countries hard it by the virus, such as Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Belgium and the United States. A gradually increasing number of illnesses and deaths, reaching a peak for two or three weeks when the hospitals are overwhelmed, followed by a decline in cases. This tends to support the “herd immunity” theory, which holds that the number of cases will decline when the number of people who were infected but recovered, or were asymptomatic despite their infection, increases.

    Also supporting the idea that the Swedes are close to herd immunity is a study by Swedish epidemiologists connected with one of their medical schools. It shows that at least in the Stockholm area, something like 20-30% of the population have antodies for the virus in their systems, indicating that their bodies have fought off the infection. These scientists think that percentage of the inhabitants who have acquired at least temporary immunity to the disease may put the population close to herd immunity.

    Maybe the Swedish approach was not as stupid as I and nearly everyone else thought it was.