Coitus interruptus

The Manchurian President just can't get his dick satisfied. It is a problem, for sure. He, and his handlers (Miller and Kushner, mostly it appears), look at the annual death toll of regular flu and respond to Covid-19 with, "what's the fucking big deal here!!!" Upwards of 20,000 this season, and about that for many years. Now, if you were smart enough to get the flu shot (I did, for the first time!), data show it's about 45% effective. Of course, there is no shot for Covid-19.

The difference is clear: if you die from the flu, you have, to some degree, your own stupidity to blame. Flu shot is free, more or less.

Given the annual rate (season is about October to May) of flu infections and deaths, The Manchurian President and his handlers started out with, "what? me worry?" since the death toll wasn't near regular flu. What they ignored, and still do, is that a) Covid-19 'season' is just starting, b) there is no vaccine, c) it's not clear that this is truly 'flu' which abates with season; it is, after all, pandemic in the southern hemisphere summer, and d) flu infections are running at 60 million; a whale more than Covid-19 so far. Being a novel pathogen in a naive population, the epidemiologists know from the history of such pathogens that infection and death are highly non-linear functions. Despite The Manchurian President and his handlers wishes, the science has been proven right over his 'gut' every step of his drunken, stumbling walk.

Now with the scramble to find effective anti-virals for Covid-19, one might reasonably ask why so little has been done for seasonal flu? 20,000 isn't chicken feed. Unless you're Mao (see previous essay).

As I type, the infection count is 48,000 and the deaths 600. If Covid-19 hits the infection count of this season's flu? 750,000 bodies on The Manchurian President's head.