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It's not the death rate that makes COVID-19 a problem, it's the rate of proliferation, and the threat to overwhelm our existing systems. That's why all the measures being taken are to "flatten the curve" so the impact can be spread out over as much time as possible where resources can handle demand. Your own quoted stats here are over a full year, this has the potential to pack its peak into weeks, like it is in other countries at the moment.

The world is an awfully small place You might have thought we would have learned that on September 11th. In America, we’ve largely been conditioned to be pandemic voyeurs - maybe noticing as somewhere else suffers. That’s about to change. Look out for yourselves - but check in on that elderly neighbor. Maybe the older couple down the street whose kids have moved away. The single parent who’s just trying to make ends meet. We’re in this together - that has always been - and always will be America’s greatest strength.

Took delivery of my first Henry rifle today. Had this on my bucket list for awhile. Model H010, cal. 45/70, 19.3" bbl. Be glad when this crazy weather clears, so & can go shooting. Comes with open sights; brass bead front, semi-buckhorn rear, adjustable for windage & elevation.

Trump has nothing to do with the virus and couldn't have stopped it. Entire governments are failing to stop it. What Trump has failed at is keeping his mouth shut, especially on Twitter, for the last four years. I've enjoyed what he did for our economy, but this current epidemic is probably going to unravel a lot of that. Or all of it. And why that's his fault is because it's one thing to put your country first and negotiate deals heavily in their favor, but it's another thing entirely to do that and then rub the losers' noses in it repeatedly to satisfy your own ego. Now that our economy is vulnerable and because we will be trailing behind the rest of the world in recovering from COVID-19, the rest of the world is going to have a head-start on rebooting their economies and will use it to work toward establishing an upper hand. Because their business leaders and government leaders hate the guy and hate having been subjected to the taunts of a Poor Winner. So, they're going to break it off in our economy's ass to teach Trump a lesson and try to keep him out of office for another term. That's my prediction at least. And I'm not anti-Trump. I'm just Pro "STFU Dude".

One point of frustration for me is the attitude I'm seeing locally that "keep calm and wash your hands" equates to "we can stop this by washing our hands". In other words, people are thinking that as long as susan over in so-and-so county doesn't screw this up, it won't even reach my hometown and will peter out. That's not how this works. Once it spreads beyond a certain point, the best case scenario isn't "it likely won't even reach me", it's instead "this is going to get significantly worse before it gets better, and the majority of the population is likely to be exposed at some point or another, and the knob we can control is getting the fatalities down near the bottom of the estimated rates if we all do our part" which is a very different takeaway when they say keep calm and wash your hands. The cavalier attitude and bemused mood on social media is a bit disconcerting, considering an authoritarian regime with little to no individual rights to worry about was unable to prevent the pandemic despite clamping down relatively decisively (after the usual denial stage) with near draconian measures. Maybe they should have just washed their hands? Pay close attention to what's happening in Italy. New York is going to be a canary, and will set the pace for what's to come. Now of course we know that in almost every age bracket (except apparently the very young) there is a small percentage that someone will be killed by this, as with most viruses (including the Flu, to a lesser degree of lethality), particularly if they have comorbid conditions or other risk factors like high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, diabetes and so on. The problem is exacerbated, however, when the healthcare infrastructure is inundated with many new cases simultaneously, along with the staff becoming diminished as they get sick as well -- the end result being a certain percentage of people who ordinarily have no business dying from this under ordinary circumstances where they would receive more focused care may end up succumbing because we simply don't have the resources to help them all. That's partially in our control (through the aforementioned best practices) but realistically there's only so much we can do to ameliorate this and stem the tide of new patients when combined with lack of testing resources and the apparent ability for this virus to spread prior to showing signs and symptoms. The point being, by the time one case is actually detected in the AO (assuming we're not talking about a controlled point of entry), there are almost certainly orders of magnitude more who have been exposed over the past several days. You're late to the party if you wait till then to start wearing your respiratory protection, practice self quarantine and run to the store for last minute supplies. People certainly shouldn't panic, but it's almost always a better approach to take it seriously and err towards the side of it being a little bit worse than the Government would have you believe.

I’d be thrilled to have anyone tell me I was wrong 2 weeks from now. Just do me a favor and make sure you’ve got a little bit of extra food in your pantry for when you’re right.

Daylight broke this morning to reveal about 30 turkey hens and one old tom strutting in my front yard. My wife opened the blinds and "Walla" "old tom" was just outside her window with his tail feathers in full bloom. Guess another turkey season is not far off. All I can say is, "Come On Spring." Weather man said 70 here next week, so it will be camping next week for us. Number one grandson is looking forward to our trip to Pigeon Forge on the 20th. Cody has Downs and he spends a lot of time with us because both his parents work. He is a great travel partner. Gatlinburg, Great Smokey Mountains Nat Park, here we come, L/w. Got to get the truck fueled, and the "Wildcat"(5th Wheel RV) cleaned, stocked, fluffed, and ready to roll. Cody did not get to see the new Pirates show, last fall when we were up there, so he informed his Mimi he is looking forward to viewing that when we go next week.

I hope my father and stepmother in Pennsylvania have someone that can see if they need help. Phone calls and text messages only go so far as ways to keep up with their needs as things could get tight quick.

Where was the panic when this took place ? It was called the Swine flu. Why wasn't the sitting President criticized and blamed for it ? This panic is purely political. https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/2009-h1n1-pandemic.html From April 12, 2009 to April 10, 2010, CDC estimated there were 60.8 million cases (range: 43.3-89.3 million), 274,304 hospitalizations (range: 195,086-402,719), and 12,469 deaths (range: 8868-18,306) in the United States due to the (H1N1)pdm09 virus.

I do not suggest being cavalier about it but do not go crazy either. Neither extrememe will help.

unless you are wearing a full face respirator, don’t bother as a means of keeping yourself from getting exposed you are much more likely to pick up the virus by touching an infected surface and then rubbing your eye, touching your mouth, or picking your nose with the virus on you hands (hence the rational of washing handed a lot) the a mask does not cover your eyes. Even if you are wearing a mask, if someone coughs in your face, your eyes are an easy entry point. Wear a mask if you are or think you are sick to protect others from YOUR coughs and sneezes. Self Quarantine is appropriate is you think you are infected, or think you have been exposed. Although as many have said, not all can work from home. Stock up on essentials, but don’t go crazy.

One thing is certain. If the country does go on some sort of house arrest/lock down, there will be a ton of babies born in 9 months.

MacGyver - Thank you for re-centering what is important. I appreciate you.

Dave has agreed to build a one off Custom Knife that I will be giving to one of the customers who get one of these knives if I sell enough of these it will be a very special knife and so will these!

Sweet

Very nice. Congrats!

Pressure washer?

I had planned to go to Kroger after work and heard about TP shortages, so I went during the day because we were OUT of TP. Sure enough, Kroger was out. The store was packed and it looked like everybody was buying canned goods, chips, and beer. Maybe they were expecting to get furloughed. I picked up a few things and stopped at Dollar General. They had TP. Mission accomplished. This is getting stupid.

Knox County’s first confirmed case was announced today. I stopped by Kroger on the way home and yeah, way more packed than usual. Bottled water is being limited as it was at Costco last weekend. People are hitting the canned food aisle hard. Didn’t check on T.P. I still don’t understand why people have lost their damn minds over that.

I just did the same. Had boxes show up from all over today

I know that I certainly didn't vote for his personality.

I think that is where we all are. I haven’t seen too many that think he’s someone they would like to go have a beer with. Being a great President is different.

Dr. Fauci says they don’t know for sure how long the airborne virus can last, but he suspects hours. If someone else thinks it can be days; so be it. You have the information to make educated choices. I watched a special report on it and Dr. Fauci thinks having a vaccine in 12-18 months would be very aggressive and that’s what he told the President. Of course I’m guessing a cure or vaccine could be stumbled on quickly. But it still will take time to deploy. The loss of life and the damage to our economy could be staggering.

Probably an evil reseller that uses such events to profit

I saw a guy yesterday while I was getting groceries at Kroger (normal shopping not panic) that literally had to have had 100 rolls of toilet paper. He looked at me and said "that's the only thing I need". I told him if you need that much, you have something majorly wrong. If I had thought of it I would have said, if there is any Karma you will need to use every single sheet of that this week. As he was buying the cheapest crap they make, he wouldn't have been able to sit down anyway if he had to use all of it. I don't do well with idiots.

I just read a report on a study about how long the corona virus can "live" outside the body. Ignoring the debate of whether a virus is a living organism or not, it can live up to 3-days on stainless steel or plastic. It can live up to a day on cardboard, and 4-hours on copper. I then had a delivery at my house, and it made me wonder just where that cardboard box with the plastic tape has been. I'm not a germophobe but I certainly washed my hands really well after handling the box.

every Hospital is typically pretty full, in comes an more people. Hospital won’t do you much good. I am pretty healthy and not concerned. The Guberment is already working on their vaccine... oh joy. That makes 7 shots per visit to your new baby. have to say.... pretty coincidental they got a vaccine in trials in a couple months.

I'm in for one.

NBA just suspended its season after Rudy Gomert tested positive. Trump announced travel ban from Europe for 30 days. The average American may begin to take this more seriously. I’d avoid checking your 401k, but I expect we’re going to see circuit breakers tripped in the markets tomorrow.

Let's just say that I know a guy who works for an international medical company with an incredibly large workforce. They don't scare easily when healthcare topics come up, and they certainly don't spend capital budget frivolously. Because of their relationships with various tech giants, they manged to purchase and receive equipment within the last 10-days that normally takes 30+ days to obtain. It wasn't cheap and it's being used to expand their remote work capabilities far beyond what they previously were, and they were previously very adequate. Logical people might draw logical conclusions about our assessment of things. I mean their.

I work in transportation. My customer is a manufacturer that makes toilet paper, hand sanitizer, baby wipes etc. We're already seeing major disruptions and they are running low on inventory. My industry alone has the power to bring this country to its knees. If even 1/5 of truck drivers get scared enough to stop coming into work it's gonna hurt. I know for a fact that J.B Hunt, Swift, Werner and few others are already working on contingency plans for sending employees home. My friend at Hub Group said they are making sure employees have VPN access. I've largely tried to downplay this virus but I'm now thinking that things are about to get interesting. I went out today and filled up gas cans and bought essentials.

As of now, they are relatively fine. No serious symptoms. But since some of the data is possibly indicating that the 50-60 age group is more susceptible, it is a watch and wait situation.

KA4LB6c by Johnny Rotten, on Flickr

It kills me that I can't talk about my job here. When I say y'all should take this more seriously than some of you are....

Good and they will be showing low to no earnings in the near future because the other crap they have is way over priced for the quality!

I want to like these. But I just can’t get into the whole “pistol round in a rifle” mindset. If I have something as big as a rifle for a “vehicle” gun; I want it to be in a rifle caliber. I already have .22 rifles for plinking. But as long as you guys enjoy shooting them; that’s all that counts.

I guess I am a bad person as I just don't care about this at all. Seems to me all of the impact is caused by proliferation of the apparent societal desire that only the worst possible outcomes will happen regardless of reality. Is it contagious, sure. Is it deadly to a few, yes. Is it going to stop the world as we know it, of course not. It's simply a self fulfilling prophecy which is being exacerbated by the media looking for the most sensational story possible. If this was 30 years ago we probably wouldn't have heard about it and probably would have been better off.

From a first responder standpoint, there are a lot of lessons to be learned here from the emergency management / planning side of things. It's actually surprising to see these issues pop up now, given that this isn't our first rodeo with pandemics. Things like not relying on "just in time" logistics model for mission critical items (such as masks), considering it's obvious even to the layperson that this sort of approach doesn't hold up if there is a sudden surge in demand, a sudden collapse in the supply chain, or in this case, both. It was never meant to. It's in the interest of national security not only to maintain a sufficient stockpile of these items, but also maintain the capability to rapidly ramp up production domestically so that if our main supply route from China is no longer available, we are fully equipped to deal with a pandemic with organic assets, including surges even more significant than what we're seeing with COVID-19. Where we do have domestic production, we find ourselves sorely lacking in the manpower and facilities to meet anything beyond predicted levels of demand. Single points of failure are not uncommon -- 85% of all the worlds IV bags are manufactured in a single facility in Puerto Rico, and severe shortages occurred after Hurricane Maria. There are also additional downstream effects -- prescription drugs that we developed that may have nothing to do with this (ie, blood pressure medication, medication for those with end stage renal disease, etc) are often made in China and India to save money, and we're seeing a shortage in those active ingredients. Healthcare providers will often not simply write you an extra months prescription so you can "shelter in place" / "self quarantine" because they're more worried about you selling your drugs on the street than hardening our ability to deal with unexpected situations (including natural disasters and pandemics). With the flu season being as bad as it has been, a lot of people have already used up their sick days and there is no "national crisis" exception protecting workers from punishment in case of a pandemic on top of that. Companies are telling people they can no longer call out sick, and considering most Americans live paycheck to paycheck they can't afford to anyway. Simultaneously they are not permitted to wear a mask themselves because of dress codes and the companies desire to maintain a professional face to the customer. Coronavirus may not be that deadly to the general population, but experience in Italy has shown that the vulnerable demographics can and will still overwhelm our ability to respond to them, with the result being hospital staffing shortages, delay of routine care that would ordinarily happen in the absence of the pandemic (surgeries, cancer treatments, etc) to repurpose those assets towards expanding ICU capability and staffing. In the end, this means mortality rates that would normally be pretty low because we're able to provide focused care to those who are especially vulnerable are instead significantly higher than they ostensibly should be because we're simply don't have the assets to give everyone that same level of care we're used to when the resources aren't saturated. Some of the anecdotes coming out of there are, conservatively put, unpleasant for both the populace and provider (ie, people arresting in ICU with no interventions made) Social Media is, of course, polarizing as it is with all things. "It's the end of the world", or "it's nothing at all to be concerned with"... and like most things the truth is somewhere in the middle, and depends on your perspective. Losing a loved one can certainly feel like the end of the world, and it's cold comfort to console them with the statistics that it wasn't very likely. The economic repercussions to the global economy stemming from a single person eating a single bat on the other side of the world turns out to be immeasurable and yet to even be fully realized. Our response to this butterfly effect, a tragedy of the commons. Perhaps ameliorated if we were all on the same page, but when have we ever been? The mainstream media is no help, they've long since dropped any veneer of being unbiased and left journalistic integrity by the wayside, sacrificed at the alter of clicks, views and ad revenue so they of course continue to sensationalize everything. I'm not as upset by that I suppose because that's what I've come to expect from them, and I'd prefer too much noise to too little signal, with the recognition that we as citizens should be equipped with the judgement and experience to be able to pick the useful bits out of the din where we can. So in a broader sense, it's not Coronavirus itself, it's what it represents and the illumination it's provided on some serious cracks in our ability to effectively to respond to natural disasters, including pandemics. Upon discovering these issues I can't help but get a sense of incredulousness. Are you kidding me? Many of them are entirely preventable and were simply policy choices. To find out with trillions spent this sort of thing has been going on decades, spanning administrations.... It's common sense to even the layperson, even if just in principle, that this is not the correct approach, and it was only a matter of time until these problems were revealed, if not through corona virus than something else. There are far too many people earning a comfortable GS10 and above salary throughout Government, the CDC, FEMA, DHS for this to be a thing. Yet here we are. We've all heard "when seconds count, police are only minutes away", and I often tell people that despite our best efforts, first responders cannot be everywhere at once and so as a sovereign individual you share at least some of the responsibility for your own well being until help can arrive. Even for those who espouse the state over the individual this is the case to at least some degree, yet the very thought is met with by gawking by those who has come to be utterly dependent on the state. This experience has only reinforced my understanding that the Government, even if well intentioned, is not a monolith acting as a single entity... it's instead a big ship to steer, and getting anything done through the bureaucracy can be a real challenge, with these delays measured in lives. Penny wise and pound foolish, hundreds of millions to tens of billions in expanding and hardening domestic infrastructure for surety sake is significantly cheaper than the hundreds of billions in economic impacts that failing to do so can bring, especially considering deadly pandemics have always been a matter of when, not if. Here's a recent thread from events in Italy: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1237142891077697538.html

What Mr Moped said..! I'm thinkin about one of these myself... I like the 40 S&W idea... leroy

I hope those of you who think this is just media hype are right. The graph that MacGyver posted isn't selling anything or trying to prop up Nielsen ratings, so you might want to consider that as well. While the media has seized this as the latest thing to connect eyeballs to advertising dollars, don't let that cloud your ability to think rationally and consider the way this virus is spreading exponentially. And even if the people who are most vulnerable are the aged and the infirm, the fear that is swirling around it is capable of crippling economies and already has done exactly that in other countries. In a few weeks, it would be great if we could look back at this and laugh about how wrong the believers were. In the meantime, I'd be making sure I had food, water, essential medicines, and other necessities required to be confined to my house for 2-3 weeks. I'd also be making sure my vehicle(s) had full tanks of gas so that if the petroleum supply chain is interrupted by a labor shortage, I still had fuel to get to wherever I might need to go in an emergency. Postscript note... I wish I could type more but I'm still on the clock from 0700HRS, making very unprecedented preparations for a company that doesn't spook easily when it comes to healthcare topics.

Training your wife. That's the funniest thing I've heard in weeks!!! wait, is this the joke thread? Seriously though... in my experience, the best person to train your wife is someone else.

Does anyone think the number of people diagnosed is remotely accurate? A large number of those who have been confirmed to have the virus have reported relatively minor symptoms. What percentage of people who get a cold that's treatable with OTC meds see a doctor at all? I don't go to my doctor unless I've been miserable for at least a week. I'd presume I'm in the majority there. That leads me to believe that it's way more widespread than is being reported. Which also means the death rate isn't nearly as high as currently stated.

I’m going to hide the above post. I was hoping this thread wouldn’t go straight to conspiracy theory - simply because it will distract from needed focus to respond and prepare adequately. It’s worth noting that the Wuhan Institute was the first to identify and upload the DNA of the virus last year for public study. And, the Financial Times has published peer reviewed epidemiology studies showing no genetic mutations - meaning the strains of this virus have evolved naturally and have not been modified/weaponized in a lab.

I have my doubts about this bill too. As others have pointed out, it falls way short. But, if this is all we can get, so be it. I will contact my Senator and Representative and push for to amend this into true Constitutional Carry. I strongly suggest you do too.

SKS. Rifles are most useful in a rifle caliber. I've never understood pistol caliber carbines.

I got a PSA gen 1 308 AR (PA-10 I think they call it). It had issues like they all did. I changed the bolt and went with the "orange buffer spring". It's run like a top ever since. Uses PMags and is compatible with 90% of the aftermarket parts. I hear that the Gen 2 have all the bugs worked out. I just checked and you can get one for $900 like the one I have. So they have gone up but they have 6.5 Creedmore too so that could be the new hotness driving up the prices. Most are temp out of stock but the basic A2 looking guns could still be cheaper if you're not a fan of the psa rails.

@1gewehr provided a solid, unbiased accounting of the different rifles in contention. I’ll be a bit less unbiased and slay some sacred cows in the process. Skip the M1A (M-14) it’s an inferior rifle when compared to all of the other options. The FAL and the G3 are both superior rifles. The US should have, and would have fielded the FAL if not for bias & chicanery on the part of the head of the Army’s procurement office.

8.8lbs the site says https://www.springfield-armory.com/products/m1a-scout-squad/ Just to add, a S&W M&P®10 .308 WIN Optic Ready is 8.1lbs..

Get a Chinese MAK 90 It's a factory built rifle. the best in my opinion.

My WASR 10 always did me right. Fun plinker and never any failures. Only thing I did to it is re-stain the wood. Not a fan of blonde wood so refinished it red chestnut.