My current thoughts on COVID-19 and mass quarantines

I’ve been continuing to do a lot of research, talking with friends and coworkers in the medical field, discussing papers and articles with my ER physicians, and taking care of patients myself over the last few months of the big COVID pandemic. We’ve all learned and unlearned, and relearned, many different things about what’s going on and how serious it is. Obviously we all (I mean you all too) have observed governments around the world doing what governments do best (actually, they’re not that great at this either), and that is exerting their power to restrict freedom of movement of healthy, law abiding people.

I wanted to share some thoughts and ideas with you all in the midst of all of this.

Some studies have come about suggesting that only about 6% of the total number of COVID cases have been successfully detected worldwide. Some others have suggested that less than 2% of total cases in the US have been detected. At face value, this seems quite alarming, but discussing with some of the physicians here, we agree that this could possibly mean two things:

  1. COVID might be more contagious than we previously thought.
  2. COVID might be less dangerous than we previously thought.

If this is the case, then these heavy-handed house arrest orders might be doing more harm than good, because we would be delaying herd immunity. Obviously, the old and frail need to stay clear of getting the virus until we can figure out how to treat it (perhaps we have, with Chloroquine and Zithromax), but the rest of us may be hurting ourselves as a whole by isolating inside our houses.

Side note on that: I saw a true statement on Gab. Restricting the movement of sick people is called a quarantine, but restricting the movement of healthy people is called house arrest.

Not everyone is locked down right now. There are pockets of dissent and resistance, and many of us are not even living in a state where the orders are being enforced. In my area, most businesses are still open in some capacity and road traffic seems only minimally reduced. We haven’t been hit hard with the virus but our ICU went from four cases last week to eleven cases as of this moment. Ten of them are on a ventilator.

I was at a meat market, a gun store (looking for some of these) and a hardware store yesterday and all of them seemed to have close to their average foot traffic. Life must go on. Based my most recent research and discussions with my docs here, I am starting to believe that these house arrest orders have little justification. When logic is applied to my own situation, the orders do not hold up.

I’ll pose the question to you: The government has botched almost everything they’ve touched. This is not an indictment of Trump, it’s an indictment of a bloated government machine. They’ve been caught lying to us at every turn, changing their orders and recommendations based on a litany of reasons, which include convenience and political expediency, rather than medical science. They’ve shown a propensity for using emergencies and disasters (as determined by their own “experts”, naturally) to consolidate their powers and authority and choke off liberties. Officials at all levels demonstrate a gross disdain for my kind, that being traditional, white, Christians, and have attacked us in various ways. They have proven that they do not have our best interests in mind.

Specifically keeping that last paragraph in mind, using logic, can anyone tell me why I should ever trust these people and do as they tell me to do in any situation?

As far as my current situation, our pantry is well stocked for now and our rain barrels are holding. The garden is growing and the freezer is packed out. I have steady work in our ER so the bills will remain paid and the savings will keeping building slowly. We are blessed to be in this situation while only a couple states away, some other Americans are living in a totally different reality. It is amazing to know that my lifestyle has changed minimally, while in New York, mass graves are being dug. I thank God to be where we are and pray daily for others. We’ve been keeping track of our possible exposures and I’ve been extra careful with preventing myself from getting sick at work. I’m confident that my family would all test negative at this time.

With all of the above said, I’m not specifically advising you to break laws or go out and try to get yourself some COVID-19. I’m just trying to stir some thought, and give my ideas that these quarantines and house arrest orders (that is what they are) might not be advisable, might not be necessary, might not be moral, might not even be legal. Don’t forget that crashing the economy can kill even more people than any virus if it goes on long enough. Think on that decide for yourself what to do about it. Just remember that their are some authorities and officials out there who will never let a good crisis go to waste…

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10 Comments

  1. PR April 15, 2020 at 10:13

    Never never let a good emergency go to waste.

  2. Coyyote April 15, 2020 at 10:19

    Gray Man, Like you I am fortunate to live in a very rural setting, and our lifestyle is not that impacted. But when you read a story like the one I found on Western Rifle Shooter it scares the hell out of you. As a resident in a University trauma center decades ago we had disasters in the ER – but nothing like this…..
    https://dnyuz.com/2020/04/14/im-an-e-r-doctor-in-new-york-none-of-us-will-ever-be-the-same/

  3. Cold Warrior April 15, 2020 at 10:31

    Thanks, good article.
    I was just evaluating the holes in my preps yesterday morning (and there are many), and feeling awful thankful and blessed to still be employed and teleworking. Minimal impact on my family, except I had a hard time getting my 89 year old Dad (that lives with us) to take it seriously and stop going out & driving all over hell and half of Georgia.

    I personally believe the response to this crisis is inappropriate when considering the damage to the engine of our economy.

    I respectfully submit a minor correction: “Restricting the movement of sick people is called a quarantine, but restricting the movement of healthy people is called tyranny.

  4. NY Oathkeeper April 15, 2020 at 12:48

    Thank you, Grayman,
    I am in Upstate NY and still working and not much has changed in my life conditions so far.It seems that as usual these Gov people (Kings) act as a one size fits all problem instead of letting the counties take care per their situation.So much info and dis info being put out there(On purpose i believe) so as to keep everyone confused on no true answers.
    Eyes open and Stay safe all.

  5. Green Mountain Shooter April 15, 2020 at 12:59

    If you look for the common denominator, from point of origin, bad directives from the WHO, those in congress that disrupt the most, and states with the most restrictive lockdowns, countries with the most deaths….what is it? Socialism. It’s hard to believe that this whole issue, that is close to causing irreparable damage to our free market economy, just happened to happen.

  6. SemperFido April 15, 2020 at 16:51

    GM your ICU is currently at where ours was about three weeks ago. Although I am convinced that we have had these pts with us since at least February looking back now, we had our explosion right around the start of March. We are currently averaging 16-25 C-19 related pts daily right now. Rule outs are filling our ICU and the new Covid unit and as they get weeded out are quickly replaced. Most of the rule outs are negative. Of the positives we have three types of these pts. Some who are very sick but come around within a week (The smallest percentage), some who are intubated and eventually make it to being extubated or die after a couple of weeks of being dangerously ill (Around half) and then the frightening ones who walk in feeling tired and wind up dead within 24-48 hours. After coding 2-3 times and never being able to be stabilized (A disturbingly significant percentage). Half of our hospital is empty. Only emergency surgeries are being performed. Everyone in the building wears masks 24/7. Many staff are terrified but we keep coming to work because, well it is what we do. This is in middle Florida. It is worse in Miami. Although Miami pales compared to New York. However, we have a lot of New Yorkers who come to Florida during the winter so that probably accounts for what is happening here. I have been in healthcare since 81 when AIDS first came out and as frightening as those days were this is far worse. I want to retire but old fart ICU floor nurses like me are rare birds anymore and my skills are needed. So I keep going in.
    I feel that the quarantines have helped to slow the spread. I am convinced that this is a bio weapon. I have never seen anything like this. The wife is an RT and we quarantine at home when off duty. We have done what we can to be ready if this drags out for months. Stores have severely restricted the amount of people who can enter at one time. Some of them have set up one hour in the evening for health care workers only to shop. You have to show your badge to get in. We do our grocery run then. Shelves have noticeable gaps in them especially in canned foods. Rice, toilet paper, beans, vitamin C and pasta are wiped out. So far there are dairy products especially cheese in good quantity. Fresh meat supplies are ok. Bread is available with limited choices.
    There is a heavy exhaustion that clings to you after your shift. When I look into my coworkers eyes sometimes it reminds me of the Vietnam years. Many of us have increased our alcohol intake. Myself included. You keep track of your shifts by how exposed you probably were during that code. We talk about what protective gear we were wearing when we went in to try and save that patient. Doing compressions while wearing an N95 and a plastic gown are exhausting. You come out of the room drenched in sweat. All of us men have shaved our beards. Anything to make the masks fit better. You wear yellow masks over your N95 to keep it clean because you only get one for the entire shift. They have a PPE “czar” every shift who doles out plastic gowns as needed. You have to bring a sticker with a patient’s name to get them.
    This became a lot longer than I was intending. Guess I needed to get it out. Be careful out there. This virus is bad news.

    • johnyMac April 16, 2020 at 09:02

      Great SITREP Semperfido!

      Thank you for taking the time to write and then share it.

      73 & God Bless to you and your wife.

  7. Anonymous April 15, 2020 at 19:48

    5

  8. Gray Man April 15, 2020 at 21:05

    5

  9. James April 17, 2020 at 09:58

    Semper,thanks for your story.I was wondering,folks who get very ill/die is there a common denominator like age or other preconditions?

    Stay healthy and safe.

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