Is the Coronavirus beginning the breakdown of our society?

Nurses COVID

Updated:   Published

Doesn't it feel like this might be a very rocky time for humanity? Our healthcare system already felt like it was stressed to the max, and then this virus came along to bring it to its knees.

And now the general economy is becoming unraveled. The intricate web of the global economy seems to be quickly falling to pieces.

I hope a societal breakdown isn't on the horizon.

Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.

Genetic analysis has been published which establishes that the virus originated in the wild, not in a lab.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200317175442.htm

There is no evidence that the virus originated in a lab. Only speculation and talk.

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12 minutes ago, juniper222 said:

From what I understand of the man made theory, There virus got out of containment at a lab near the origin. That lab was working on coronaviruses. It was not done on purpose. The last thing they would want is for it to break containment.

I am not inclined to believe this theory. 

I'm not either, but more importantly, I'm not aware of anyone expert in the field who does. I might be more open to the idea of it being engineered as bio warfare and got out of containment if it had originated in USSR/Russia, Iran or NK, but even then I'd wait for the expert opinions to weigh in.

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14 minutes ago, toomuchbaloney said:

And certainly not if they yank money for the WHO in the midst of the global pandemic.

I agree that pulling funding from The Who is the wrong course of action.

"Mission statement

The Bulletin seeks to publish and disseminate scientifically rigorous public health information of international significance that enables policy-makers, researchers and practitioners to be more effective; it aims to improve health, particularly among disadvantaged populations."

However, they could have done a better job.

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.
Just now, juniper222 said:

However, that could have done a better job.

Apparently it's fair to say that about the WHO but not Trump. Because the biggest reason Americans are talking about failures in the WHO is because Trump said we should, rather than to talk about his failures.

And here we are...

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I think we are starting to drift off topic which is the breakdown of society.

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1 minute ago, toomuchbaloney said:

Apparently it's fair to say that about the WHO but not Trump. Because the biggest reason Americans are talking about failures in the WHO is because Trump said we should, rather than to talk about his failures.

And here we are...

Agreed and that is an enormous concern. I've worked in med software using Agile methodology on my projects since 2012. (pretty much any org who is anyone is Agile now) . An instrumental component of Agile Scrum is doing retrospectives after a 2 week Sprint (or work segment with defined deliverables) where everyone gets together and talks about what went well and what didn't ( may initiate a root cause analysis) . For this to be successful it is imperative for the Scrum leader to foster an environment where there is no blame and everyone can freely participate. It is precisely the culture where a wide participation and best ideas and interventions can be employed. I'll get to the point now:

We can't do that here. 35 years of AM radio and televangelicals and cable television we are so bloody polarized we can't even get people to consider or note facts when it might shake up the sacrosanctimonious opinion they've put so much emotional investment in. Not even when they're burying their brothers and parents. Not even when we're staring into the abyss of a depression that may span two generations and storing corpses in freezer trucks. Nope, not even then.

How do you govern a first world country like that? You can't.

Reminds me of one of the Leonard Cohen songs .. "get ready for the Future; it is murder"

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8 minutes ago, juniper222 said:

I think we are starting to drift off topic which is the breakdown of society.

Possibly, but I at least got to interject a Leonard Cohen song in my windy essay. ?

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.
21 minutes ago, juniper222 said:

I think we are starting to drift off topic which is the breakdown of society.

How is talking about the governance and leadership of a society off topic in a discussion of the breakdown of society? Society literally thrives or fails because of political leadership and governance.

Maybe you can explain how that discussion would be helpful.

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Specializes in ER.

I really believe that now is not the time to become super partisan. Trump probably had failings, but some believe the Democratic Governors are restricting the economy too much. Time will tell, but this is uncharted territory. I do think that everybody's working hard to try to do what they think is best. This is a difficult situation.

It is important to avoid a total economic meltdown. That will cause a lot of harm to many many people, including poor countries as I mentioned, since the United States does do a lot to help throughout the world.

I do agree that that was bad timing regarding the World Health Organization. A lot of emotions are running high. It's easy to point fingers at one another. This is a very unique and unexpected situation

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Specializes in ER.
10 minutes ago, toomuchbaloney said:

How is talking about the governance and leadership of a society off topic in a discussion of the breakdown of society? Society literally thrives or fails because of political leadership and governance.

Maybe you can explain how that discussion would be helpful.

I think this has been a fruitful discussion. We've covered a lot of aspects of this. I hope it doesn't degenerate into just a political Tit for Tat, endless and fruitless debate.

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Specializes in Travel, Home Health, Med-Surg.
56 minutes ago, juniper222 said:

From what I understand of the man made theory, There virus got out of containment at a lab near the origin. That lab was working on coronaviruses. It was not done on purpose. The last thing they would want is for it to break containment.

I am not inclined to believe this theory.

I don't believe it was man made (although never say never). There have been scientists that worked in the lab who state it is probable that the virus escaped the lab.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2020/04/14/the-washington-post-goes-rogue-china-lab-in-focus-of-coronavirus-outbreak/#28551bb61ee1

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8009669/Did-coronavirus-originate-Chinese-government-laboratory.html

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Specializes in ER.

It could have been carried out of the lab accidentally by a lab worker. Then that person infected others around them and so forth. That is a possibility.

But, it's like discussing the origins of life. All we know for sure is that life originated and we are here to have this discussion. Whether life was created by God as literally outlined in the Bible, or the Big Bang Theory, doesn't have a whole lot of influence on our day-to-day lives.

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