Ferri Tales

Trump denied that coronavirus could be a problem. Then it became a problem and he was forced to act. His incompetence shines through with his every action. Yet he still denies his denials. Watch him lie. John L. Ferri jlferri@epix.net

This page is no longer being updated. The current doubling graph is now at this page . The graph below compares the doubling times of coronavirus cases for the World, United States, U.K., Brazil, India, Italy, & Russia. Lower doubling times are worse. For a table of doubling times for selected countries, go here . Stay home if you can. Wash your hands. Wear a mask when necessary. And never vote for a Republican again -- ever. John L. Ferri jlferri@epix.net

I defy Trump's supporters to watch this video and find anything that is fake or incorrect. Trump didn't cause coronavirus, but his incompetence has caused it to spread in the United States. Trump and his enablers are to blame. In our country, it is the Trump Pandemic. John L. Ferri jlferri@epix.net 

This was posted on Facebook for Dr. Joshua Lerner , a 10-year attending ER doctor at the Leominster campus of UMass Memorial HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital. He is one of the many doctors who have been donning protective gear to treat a growing number of such patients. In one of the most vivid scenes in the HBO miniseries "Chernobyl" (among many vivid scenes), soldiers dressed in leather smocks ran out into radioactive areas to literally shovel radioactive material out of harm's way. Horrifically under-protected, they suited up anyway. In another scene, soldiers fashioned genital protection from scrap metal out of desperation while being sent to other hazardous areas. Please don't tell me that in the richest country in the world in the 21st century, I'm supposed to work in a fictionalized Soviet-era disaster zone and fashion my own face mask out of cloth because other Americans hoard supplies for personal use and so-called leaders sit around in meetings h

Updated on February 4, 2021 (No longer being updated.) The table below shows the actual number of coronavirus cases as reported at  Worldometers  in various countries along with the predicted number of future cases based on the daily growth factor for that country averaged over the previous 7 days. The daily growth factor is the number of reported cases on any given day divided by the number of cases on the previous day.  Note that the method used is not intended to model the virus, but to show short term trends based on recent behavior.   Actual number of cases will be in bold. Note that had Trump not disbanded the U.S. Pandemic Response Team during his 1st year in office, this pandemic may have never left China. ( 1 ) ( 2 ) The table below shows the 7 day moving average for "Days-to-Double," the number of days it takes to double the number of virus cases. A smaller number is worse: The graph below compares the doubling times of coronavirus cases for the World, United S

Here is a  series of tweets  from  Jeremy C. Young ,  Assistant Professor of History at Dixie State University, St. George, Utah; director of the Institute of Politics and Public Affairs; author of The Age of Charisma. We can now read the  Imperial College report on COVID-19  that led to the extreme measures we've seen in the US this week. Read it; it's terrifying. I'll offer a summary in this thread; please correct me if I've gotten it wrong. The Imperial College team plugged infection and death rates from China/Korea/Italy into epidemic modeling software and ran a simulation: what happens if the US does absolutely nothing -- if we treat COVID-19 like the flu, go about our business, and let the virus take its course? Here's what would happen: 80% of Americans would get the disease. 0.9% of them would die. Between 4 and 8 percent of all Americans over the age of 70 would die. 2.2 million Americans would die from the virus itself. It gets worse. Pe

On March 10, Donald Trump said, “ It [the coronavirus] will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away .” On this date, the cases of coronavirus in the U.S. were doubling every 2 days. In Italy, it was spreading slower with a 4 day doubling. China's doubling was measured in years. On March 11, Trump spoke from the Oval Office about the rapidly expanding coronavirus pandemic. He gave no direction to our nation's medical services, and attempted to calm the stock markets from a rapidly slowing economy. The next day, the DOW dropped 1700 points. On March 13, Trump staged a public relations conference at 3 P.M. before the markets closed to again calm them. As he spoke, the DOW recovered the points it lost on the 12th. During questioning, Trump stated that he accepted no responsibility for the pandemic. On Monday, March 16, after the virus continued to spread and the U.S. was still last in the world at testing for it regardless of Trump's claims otherwise, the DOW dropped 3000

I don't know who wrote the item below about the vital importance of social distancing during the rapid spread of the coronavirus. If you know the original source, please let me know and I will give the proper credit. It has been shared over social media without crediting the original author. Several sources attribute it to a nurse in KC. The advice seems to be accurate: I am not a confrontational person at all. And I’m struggling to express in words everything I want to say to really stress the importance of this. But after seeing some of the discussion recently regarding social distancing (or how you are going to blatantly ignore it) really has me straight up terrified. TERRIFIED. Let me tell you why. I am an ER nurse. I will be on the front lines, in the trenches battling this thing when it really hits KC. And the general attitude regarding social distancing and how “it won’t stop me from living my life” is making me absolutely terrified at the battle we healthcare provi

During his  press conference and TV commercial  on March 13, Trump said, "I just had a phone call with very impressive people -- the biggest in the world, in the world of stores and groceries and all." This he mentioned this list: Dave Clark, Whole Foods; Mark Clouse, CEO of Campbell Soup Company; Brian Cornell, CEO of Target; Randy Edeker, Chairman and CEO, President of Hy-Vee; Jeff Harmening, CEO of General Mills; Kevin Hourican, President and CEO of Sysco; Craig Jelinek, CEO of Costco; Todd Jones, CEO of Publix Super Markets; Donnie King, Tyson Foods; David MacLennan, Chairman and CEO of Cargill; Rodney McMullan, CEO, Chairman of Kroger; Doug McMillon, CEO of Walmart. Trump's intent was to imply that he convinced these people -- whose business is to sell food to people -- to stay open to sell food to people. Of course they're going to stay open as long as they can. It's their business. Trump didn't convince them of anything. But he did give them some

Below is an email from  Dr. Juliana Grant  originally to her family with recommendations about what to do during the coronavirus situation. According to her website, Dr. Grant is an "medical epidemiologist with 17 years of experience in public health and epidemiology, including program management, monitoring and evaluation, and surveillance. She has worked on a variety of infectious and non-infectious conditions at local and state health departments, as well as with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and in international settings." She has given permission for this to be shared. ----------------------------------------------------- Notes: I originally wrote this to share with my family and close friends. It’s now getting passed around so I’m posting it publicly. I have revised the language slightly a few times.  This  is the most current version. Hi folks, A number of you have asked me what I think is going to happen with coronavirus (COVID

Raised Equator Problem This is a minor variation of a well known math problem involving the circumference and radius of a circle, and the Earth. The equator is an imaginary belt surrounding the Earth. Imagine that we wanted to raise it uniformly so that it is 1 meter above the ground. How much length should be added to the belt? Assume Earth's radius is 6,378 km (kilometers) or 6,378,000 m (meters). Method 1 : the hard way. where C is the circumference, and r is the radius of a circle. Current circumference C1: Required circumference C2 adds 1m to r: Length to add to C1 is: where C2-C1 is the length to be added to the belt. Method 2 : easier. where C1 and C2 are the same as above, r1 is the current radius, r2 is the desired radius, r2 - r1 is the change in radius, or 1 meter. Equation [6] shows that the change in circumference because of a change in radius is independent of the size of the circle. Method 3 : even easier but requires some differential calculus. whe

Described as "magisterial in its breadth of perspective and depth of research," The Great Influenza : the Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History, by John M. Barry provides a detailed account of the 1918 pandemic caused by the Spanish flu, even though it most likely started in Haskel County, Kansas and was spread world-wide by troop movements of WWI. It proceeded in multiple waves, the second -- occurring months after the first -- being the deadliest. It killed 50 million people world-wide including 675,000 in the U.S. according to the CDC. The above image is Camp Funston, at Fort Riley, Kansas, during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. Barry's conclusion from his book is, "...those in authority must retain the public's trust. The way to do that is to distort nothing, to put the best face on nothing, to try to manipulate no one." The pandemic was made worse by the Woodrow Wilson administration doing exactly the opposite -- suppressing critical news