Althouse: "Democrats are about twice as likely as Republicans to say the coronavirus poses an imminent threat to the United States, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted this week."

March 7, 2020

"Democrats are about twice as likely as Republicans to say the coronavirus poses an imminent threat to the United States, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted this week."

"And more Democrats than Republicans say they are taking steps to be prepared, including washing their hands more often or limiting their travel plans. Poll respondents who described themselves as Republicans and did not see the coronavirus as a threat said it still felt remote because cases had not been detected close to home and their friends and neighbors did not seem to be worried, either."

Reuters reports.

428 comments:

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Marc in Eugene said...: Had a conversation with a CNA the other day who said that she had had a conversation with one of her CNA colleagues who remarked, 'getting used to this 20 seconds of hand-washing [specifically contra the current plague] is hard'. My acquaintance was fairly disgusted because according to her said 20 seconds of handwashing has been SOP forever. I asked her if she had made that point to her co-worker and she just rolled her eyes.; 3/7/20, 11:17 PM
Meade said...: " An order of magnitude more people are dying of flu EVERY DAY in this same country."

And even more than the number of people dying of flu every day in the U.S. is the number of people dying of:

Alzheimer’s disease
Stroke and cerebrovascular diseases
Chronic lower respiratory disease
Unintentional injuries
Cancer
Heart disease

But where is the "panic?" I'm not seeing anyone in a panic over any of these things, including a panic over coronavirus. What I see is people applying common sense, facts, and science to trying to avoid here what seems to have happened in China.; 3/7/20, 11:21 PM
Inga said...: “You have never mentioned any books you've read, Inga”

Wrong. You apparently haven’t read the comments in which I’ve mentioned what I was reading and what my preferences were in literature. You just guess in your ugly fashion. In a recent Cafe thread, I mentioned that I was a huge Jane Austen fan and named the books I’ve read and mentioned how I wanted to find more of her works online for free. BUT I don’t feel the need to prove anything to ugly people such as yourself. I cite all sorts of publications, not only from the left perspective.; 3/7/20, 11:27 PM
Original Mike said...: Oh, Inga must be salivating…

(I cleaned it up. This is a family blog.); 3/7/20, 11:28 PM
Inga said...: “Oh, Inga must be salivating…”

What am I salivating over OM?; 3/7/20, 11:31 PM
Meade said...: "(I cleaned it up. This is a family blog.)"

What a pussy.; 3/7/20, 11:32 PM
Original Mike said...: "What a pussy."

Oh, it's after the children's bedtime back there, isn't it.; 3/7/20, 11:33 PM
exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...: You clearly don't understand what happened in Central Europe in the 20th century, Inga. Jane Austen is admirable but she won't help you with that.; 3/7/20, 11:43 PM
exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...: Try reading "Gulag." Or "Bloodlands" if you have the stomach for it. An ocean of blood poured over Eastern Europe in the 20th century because of statists like you, Inga. There is no mystery as to why the Eastern Europeans like Trump and reject the policies you worship. It's because, unlike you, they have learned from history.; 3/7/20, 11:48 PM
Inga said...: “You clearly don't understand what happened in Central Europe in the 20th century, Inga.”

Clearly you don’t know what you’re talking about. You can read history all you want dearie, but my family LIVED it and my parents and grandparents and extended family spoke about it to us. We knew what they went through. I know all too well what happened in Central Europe in the 20th century. So shut up with your arrogant and ugly generalizations about people you don’t know on the internet.; 3/7/20, 11:48 PM
Mark said...: We're all gonna die!!

Literally. We will all die. No escaping it.

In fact, over the years, BILLIONS of people have died. And everyone on this earth today is going to die.

Better get used to the idea because it's going to happen.; 3/7/20, 11:49 PM
Birkel said...: Experts appear to be preparing for bad possibilities, as they should. Normals appear to be preparing for bad possibilities, as they should. Most of us are mitigating our personal risks, as we should. I trust most Americans to act well enough to reduce herd risk. We still have higher trust communities than most of the ROW. We will help each other by reducing personal risk. The answer comes from individuals and not from on high. That's a theme in life.

Many Leftist Collectivists are acting as if this is a political moment. The Blame America crowd morphed into the Blame Trump crowd. That's a perverse response. It's grotesque. Most people are repulsed by the very few who want to make a disease a political issue. Therefore, that set of responses is a poor political move, in itself.

Meanwhile, there is little evidence that Chinese manufacturing disruptions are causing significant US supply problems. The exception is likely to be in pharmaceutical production. I expect Domestic production will ramp up within three months. I would also suggest rare earth metals will be mined in this country within the year. Chinese dominance in either sector will be undermined.; 3/7/20, 11:56 PM
Achilles said...: Birkel said...

Meanwhile, there is little evidence that Chinese manufacturing disruptions are causing significant US supply problems. The exception is likely to be in pharmaceutical production. I expect Domestic production will ramp up within three months. I would also suggest rare earth metals will be mined in this country within the year. Chinese dominance in either sector will be undermined.

And there will be lots of jobs for Americans and they will get higher wages.

The coastal areas will have to pay a bit more for the goods produced.

It will be better for everyone in America.

But the coastal elites and leftist voters are very selfish people.; 3/8/20, 12:05 AM
exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...: "Clearly you don’t know what you’re talking about. You can read history all you want dearie, but my family LIVED it and my parents and grandparents and extended family spoke about it to us."

As did mine.

And yet you're a leftist with a love for statism.

You learned exactly nothing from history, you dullard.; 3/8/20, 12:05 AM
wbfjrr2 said...: Meade, you could throw in car accidents, shootings in Chicago, and other irrelevant comparisons. At least on my part I’ve been referring to viruses of this type.

I’m not saying anyone is panicking, I don’t know anyone specifically who is.

But it is certain that there are many in the media, Hollywood, and in our political class who would like to instill panic and attempt to do so daily.

For the record I’m in total agreement about the common sense approach to this.

China’s approach was nothing like the US has been doing since the news came out. My friends in China and Hong Kong are very unhappy about their government’s actions, including the repression of those trying to get the word out to their fellow citizens and to the rest of the world.; 3/8/20, 12:08 AM
exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...: It's too bad your family didn't head back to Germany and settle there after the war, Inga.

They also reverted to their love of big government and authority. They imagine that welcoming in millions of Jew-hating Muslims somehow compensates for their murder of millions of Jews.

You'd fit in very well there. You really don't understand what America is about.; 3/8/20, 12:09 AM
wbfjrr2 said...: Birkel I think your assessment of the supply chain issues is correct.

By the way, I’m amazed that so much API (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients) are being produced in China. When I was based there, 2008-2011, they were only doing the inert (incipient) ingredients. Chinese quality dedication (lack thereof) prohibited doing the APIs there. Melamine in baby formula, cement in dog food, syringe needles that broke off in the skin, lead paint in Mattel toys, Walmart replacing the entire native Chinese quality apparatus (nearly 3,000 people, when a global new supply chain head took over) were all going on while I was based there.

American cosmetics companies would not produce product in China. Starbucks didn’t roast coffee beans in China, even for local consumption.

We are about to see a dramatic shift in the global manufacturing/trade system, to the detriment of China. Begun by Trump’s tariffs and warnings, and exacerbated/accelerated by this disease and China’s mendacity.

One not noted consequence in the immediate term is that China’s ability to fulfill its recent import agreements re American products will be delayed, with possible political consequences here in the US.

If anyone is wondering, by the way, I think the ordinary Chinese people are wonderful. They are incredibly industrious and innately more capitalist than we Americans are in many ways. No matter how little they make, they save. They’ve endured unimaginable brutality at the hands of foreigners, especially the British among Western powers, and their own governments, yet they survive somehow. One of the small things I noticed as we walked around was tiny little doors built into the walls of the inner city dwellings. Turns out the government in Shanghai gives people over 80 years old a bottle if milk each day, placed in the appropriate little cabinet for that aged resident. What amazed me was how any of them reached 80+ years, through Mao’s madness and all the various diseases and environmental challenges. Tough, resilient people to be much admired.

The police and Party, not so much.; 3/8/20, 12:43 AM
wbfjrr2 said...: NewNeo has a very interesting post up comparing the breathless day by day body count treatment this disease is getting vs how the media treated swine flu.

She has bright commenters worth reading there as well.; 3/8/20, 1:06 AM
tim in vermont said...: "We knew what they went through. I know all too well what happened in Central Europe in the 20th century. So shut up ...”

Ha ha ha! You should read The Unbearable Lightness of Being. It was all about how the communists used the dream of a utopian future to crush the freedoms and joys of the people living at the time. You still hold onto the kitsch of communism, and that’s the weapon they use to maintain power.

You have no fucking concept of how well you and everybody else has it here in a country where that communist “dream” does not hold sway, and you want to recreate the same conditions that made life so miserable there. You family are victims of their indoctrination. It’s like a cancer. That’s why you voted for the communist Jill Stein.; 3/8/20, 8:08 AM
tim in vermont said...: " I mentioned that I was a huge Jane Austen fan and named the books I’ve read and mentioned how I wanted to find more of her works online for free.”

Free romance novels! How did Elizabeth Warren miss that trick!; 3/8/20, 8:10 AM
Robert Cook said...: "I mentioned that I was a huge Jane Austen fan and named the books I’ve read and mentioned how I wanted to find more of her works online for free.”

Check Project Gutenberg at: https://www.gutenberg.org/

Looks like they have all her books available.; 3/8/20, 8:33 AM
Drago said...: The Extremely Forgetful Inga: "So shut up with your arrogant and ugly generalizations about people you don’t know on the internet."

LOLOLOLOL

Yep. Inga wrote that.

Just now.

After 4+ straight years of violating her very own admonition every single day.; 3/8/20, 8:46 AM
Inga said...: “You family are victims of their indoctrination. It’s like a cancer.”

You fucking idiot. My parents never lived under a communist regime. They left Yugoslavia in 1944 and were refugees in Austria until 1955 and then left to come to the states. Such idiocy from people to strangers online.; 3/8/20, 8:57 AM
tim in vermont said...: So they never lived under it, they saw it destroy their homeland, but they wanted it here. OK, that’s better.

If you want to find a. serious anti communist, just find someone who lived under the crushing thumb of a socialist utopia.

China is socialist. They created the fucking problem, just like the Russians did Chernobyl.; 3/8/20, 9:04 AM
tim in vermont said...: Excuse me, the Soviets did.; 3/8/20, 9:05 AM
Matt Sablan said...: I mean, I already washed my hands at all the times one was supposed to, so... I don't know how I could wash my hands MORE. So, if someone asked me if I was washing my hands more, I'd have to honestly say no.; 3/8/20, 9:07 AM
grackle said...: Always look on the bright side. This virus could cure the deficit of our social security fund. On the other hand the nursing home industry will probably be negatively impacted.; 3/8/20, 9:15 AM
Birkel said...: grackle,
If prices for LTC drop, that might not be awful either.; 3/8/20, 5:43 PM