<div dir="ltr"><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif">This has been submitted for publication in Pocatello's Idaho State Journal. Here are some highlights below. Also my response to Dale Courtney's error-filled column on Sweden for those who might have missed it.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif">Just in: </span><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif;font-size:11pt">Germany, with quick action and intensive testing, has
“flattened” curve of new infections.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Northern Italy has some of the best hospitals and medical staff in Europe, but even the best can be overwhelmed in such a health crisis.</font><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif;font-size:11pt"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif"><br></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif">Obama Acted Properly
on Swine Flu</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif"><br></span></b></p>
<span style="font-size:11pt;line-height:107%;font-family:Georgia,serif">There
is misinformation in the right-wing media about Obama’s response to the H1N1
virus, commonly known as the “swine flu.” Here is the Politifact correction on
the matter: “The Obama administration declared H1N1 a public health emergency
six weeks before (WHO) declared it a pandemic. No H1N1 deaths had yet been
recorded in the United States. Six months after that initial declaration, when
more than 1,000 deaths had occurred, Obama himself declared H1N1 a national
emergency.” <span style="font-size:11pt;text-indent:0.5in">After two months, the
number of coronavirus deaths are already over 1,300, so this will be far worse than
H1N1.</span><br clear="all">
</span></div>
<span style="font-size:11pt;line-height:107%;font-family:Georgia,serif"><br clear="all">
</span><div><br></div><div> <b style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:11pt;text-indent:0.5in"><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif">Coronavirus Much Worse than the Flu</span></b><br></div><div><b style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:11pt;text-indent:0.5in"><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif"><br></span></b></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:115%;margin:0in 0in 8pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif">Even though his own health officials have
explained the differences to him, Trump still keeps implying that the seasonal
flu is worse than COVID-19. Nicholas Kristoff has laid it out succinctly: “Covid-19
is at least 50 percent more infectious, requires hospitalization at least 5
times as often and results in death 10 times more often. A single person with
the flu will lead to 386 people with the flu over two months, and a handful
will require hospitalization. But a single person with Covid-19 will result in
99,000 Covid-19 infections in the same period, and up to 20,000 will require
hospitalization.”</span></p><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div> <div style="height:auto;width:auto"> <div> <div>Be safe by social distancing,</div></div><div>nfg</div></div></div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><font size="2"><span style="font-size:10pt"><div><span style="font-size:13.3333330154419px">A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in. </span><br style="font-size:13.3333330154419px"><br style="font-size:13.3333330154419px"><span style="font-size:13.3333330154419px">-Greek proverb</span></div><div><br>
“Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity.
Immaturity is the inability to use one’s understanding without guidance
from another. This immaturity is self- imposed when its cause lies not
in lack of understanding, but in lack of resolve and courage to use it
without guidance from another. Sapere Aude! ‘Have courage to use your
own understand-ing!—that is the motto of enlightenment.<br>
<br>
--Immanuel Kant<br>
<br><br></div></span></font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>