Weekend Open Thread: It’s a SARS World After All!

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As the Register reports, Disneyland is petitioning to reopen its park as COVID-19 deaths within the U.S. speed towards a quarter-million.

The argument quoted in the headline is that: “it’s time.”  (Which is, in fact, a mere slogan rather than an actual “argument.”)

If they win, Disneyland could soon become  THE COVIDEST PLACE ON EARTH!!

If the entities that Sidhu & Co. are shoveling money to would like to license this graphic for their tourism ads, just let us know!  All we ask is your customary egregious overpayment!

(Remember that Covid-19 is the disease, and SARS-2-CoV is the virus.  So reach back for that annoying tune while you fully empty both lungs as you sing along!)

It’s a world of slaughter, a world of tears
It’s a world of soap and a world of fears
It’s the air that we share, so it’s time we’re aware
There’ll be SARS-2 in us all!”

CHORUS:

It’s a SARS world after all!
It’s a SARS world after all!
It’s a SARS world after all!
It’s a SARS SARS SARS SARS world!

There is just one rule — it’s a golden one
Do not act to jeopardize everyone
When the fevers are high
And the mouths open wide
It’s a SARS world after all!

CHORUS

You may say their rules make it diff-er-ent
But you’ll let the camel’s nose in the tent
We have learned, by and by
People will not comply …
It’s a SARS SARS SARS SARS
SARS *SARS* *SARS* SARS
SARS-2-COVID WOOOORLD!

Meanwhile, the Mad Concierge Doctor and Charter School Fool Still-Dr.-for-now Jeffrey Barke —  who is Harley Rouda’s opponent Michelle “Dull” Steel‘s medical policy adviser, for the love on anything that’s still holy given the ascendancy of the Beast — took part in a video in which he brandished a gun and said that it would protect him from the coronavirus better than a mask would.

I have two theories about Barke, aside from the obvious one that he and his OCBOE-member wife are putting their financial interests in opening their charter school ahead of the safety of schoolchildren and those with whom they reside.  The first is that perhaps Dr. Barke has been doing some extensive research into the psychological impact of cocaine binges.  The second is that if he thinks that his gun can protect him from Covid, he must be shooting some very, very, very small caliber bullets.  Hoag Hospital — his only hospital affiliation (and that page also lists among his six practice specialties as “influenza” and “immunization,” suggesting that he really ought to know more than he seems to) — has already spanked him over these comments, Harley Rouda’s campaign is having a field day hanging him around Michelle Steel’s neck.  This is too good not to reprint:

In a video posted to social media last week, Michelle Steel’s Emergency Medical Commissioner Dr. Jeff Barke brandished a firearm in a rambling anti-mask video where he claimed a gun provides more protection against coronavirus than a mask. Steel has yet to respond.

Dr. Barke, who has been very outspoken about his dangerous anti-mask views for months, is a close personal advisor of Michelle Steel.

Congressman Harley Rouda issued the following statement reacting to the video and Steel’s silence:

“Michelle Steel, and the company she keeps, is dangerous for Orange County. Instead of listening to experts who made clear that common-sense policies like face mask orders would save lives and livelihoods, Chair Steel sought the counsel of a man who touts QAnon talking points and fringe conspiracy theories.

Chair Steel’s implementation of Jeff Barke’s COVID-19 policies has cost our community neighbors, parents, and children. Small businesses have shuttered because Michelle Steel silenced science. Working families are out of work because Michelle Steel listened to an extremist instead of experts.

Shame on Michelle Steel for legitimizing individuals amplifying QAnon, an FBI designated domestic terror threat.”

Meanwhile, the people on that page describing his practice gave him what would be a stellar 3.0 rating — if the rating scale went from -3 to +3, rather than 1 to 5.  The reviews are currently 24 five-star to 24 one-star, but five of the five stars are from the same person, whose screed reads like this:

I am encouraged by your video, hoping that other MDs will follow suit and speak out despite the abuse that I think that you will get such as the ones just published here by narrow minded people who probably just follow the media and don’t seek the knowledge or have the guts to question or challenge what is going on. I wish I had an MD like yourself. Heartfelt gratitude, Christy, Leros Greece

So: five of the positive reviews came from someone who is not only not a patient, but is not even in the U.S., and in fact lives in a country where their disregard of the sort of “advice” Dr. Barke gives out helped to control an early pandemic.

“Emergency Medical Commissioner” or “Emergency Medical Decommissioner”?  Michelle Steel isn’t likely sharp enough to tell the difference.  Between the Mad Barkeing of her experts and the geniuses in Anaheim who think that the inevitable Covid spread traced to Disneyland will be even better for that theme park than the measles outbreak late last decade, we have come to epitomize the entire country as an generally intelligent populace run by knaves and idiots.

This is your Weekend Open Thread.  Talk about that, or whatever else you’d like — as we prepare for Trump to rush and sneeze at and try to sucker-punch Biden during next Tuesday’s first Presidential Debate — with at least a minimum amount of decency, decorum, and regard for public health.