OT: Coronavirus Outbreak - Worried or No Big Deal? How 'Prepper' Are You?

Just call me...THE OMEGA MAN

It is an awful depressing movie.

It is also a depressing book, but also brilliant and incredibly affecting.

You should read it XM.  Think you would like it.

Your not kidding about depressing. I wanted to slit my wrists after watching that movie 

I'm a Cormac McCarthy fan and even I found the book and film to be terribly depressing. What saves the book for me is that McCarthy is an absolutely brilliant and powerful writer. But if you're looking to try him out I'd say "No Country for Old Men" is probably his most approachable, or "All the Pretty Horses."

We're all carrying the fire.

The ending is so ambiguous that I think it leaves it to the reader to interpret its meaning.  I think most readers almost force an optimistic interpretation because they need to, emotionally, after what came before it.

And yes XM, I meant it sincerely.  You are well versed and well traveled and have your firm beliefs, but I am positive that even you would come out of The Road with an enhanced perspective.  It is not a traditional “dystopian” work, in fact it is so compact in scope that “dystopia” is little more than a passive setting.  It truly is a must read.

The last paragraph of that book (a quick read overall) soars off the page because it stands-out from the story itself. The author suddenly talks directly to the reader about what appears to be a true story, one apart from the apocalyptic tale. Fiction or not (I think the ambiguity was the point), it was the most powerful statement on mankind’s relationship to the environment that I’ve ever read. It struck the deepest of chords. Just shattered me. I sat in awe. Teary-eyed. 
 

Skip the movie.

McCarthy is not for everyone.  Either you “get him” or you don’t.  Most people who like his books like all of them.  Those who don’t aren’t attracted to any of his writing.  He is certainly challenging.

My guy is so slow he can't come close to nabbing the dumb squirrels in our neighborhood, so I like my odds.

When is the last time 50 million people were quarantined over the flu? China's actions are unprecedented and say a lot more about the reality of the situation than their words and their lowball statistics say. 

The seasonal flu has a lethality rate of 0.0005%. 15M infected, 8000 dead so far this year.

This coronavirus has a reported lethality rate of 3%. If the same 15M are infected, that's 450,000 dead.

Its long incubation period means that it would be extremely hard to contain, because people could be infected and disperse for 2 weeks before showing symptoms.

If this goes pandemic in the US, it will shut down the economy, and rightfully so. We will be burning bodies or making mass Graves.

There is a reason that people are freaking out about this. It isn't all media spin.

Mortality rate is an extremely fluid number at a time like this but there is no way more people have died than recovered a month into the outbreak with 7k confirmed cases and 170 deaths. There’s also been like 5 deaths for people under the age of 50 and like 4 total cases of person to person transmission outside of China. It’s not nearly as contagious as people originally made it out to be and it’s not even confirmed it’s contagious while asymptomatic. I think it’s a good thing scientists are paying attention. As an individual in the us I’d be way more worried about the regular flu 

That is a good point about not knowing the mortality rate.  People are simply taking the official Chinese government numbers of infected and deaths to get a 3 percent number.  While ignoring that there are over a thousand in critical condition, some of which are likely to die and the cured number is less than the dead number.

Or in a mass grave?

It goes in the coconut.