# SXSW cancelled due to what Austin mayor calls a "disaster."



## CarolfromTX (Mar 6, 2020)

Oh, for crying in a bucket! Austin has cancelled it's biggest event, South by Southwest, because of the threat of the Corona virus. And UT has cancelled Explore UT, an event that my daughter and grandkids have attended every year. (It's a thinly disguised attempt on my daughter's part to get the kids to go to UT. LOL!) Just flush it all down the sewer.  All that money from SXSW. All those potential students, fuggedaboutit. I'm telling you, it's an over-reaction. On the other hand, Dave pointed out that with all the extra hand washing and cancellations going on, maybe we'll have fewer cases of the regular flu. 

And as for those who think this must be a real threat because why else would China have built that hospital so fast and all that? Well, we haven't heard much about any protests in Hong Kong lately, have we?  Not looking for black helicopters, just sayin'. I'd like to see what that hospital looks like in 6 months. Just sayin' that too.


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## AnnieA (Mar 6, 2020)

Doing the math, had we been testing correctly from the first, we would know the US probably has at least 5,000 cases.  That's based on totaling up EU numbers which has an overall population a little less than than the US and are running in excess of 7,000 identified cases total.  Given than the US has 5,000,000+ people who are Chinese nationals or of Chinese descent and the timing of the outbreak in China occurred when a lot of people travel back and forth for their New Year, we could conceivably have more than the EU nations--esp on the West Coast and the Northeast coast.   Covid-19 is much more highly contagious than the flu so numbers will rise quickly.

It sounds like the Austin area is trying to protect the citizens of the area by not bringing in potentially infected people. UT has a great medical school and I'd imagine they had input in some way; they know they're going to be swamped with cases they can't accommodate (barring an immediate cure), and want that to be later rather than sooner.

Italy's numbers as of today show the communicability.   There's zero chance mathematically that we have less cases than Italy.


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## chic (Mar 6, 2020)

I agree @AnnieA. This is a protective measure. It will save lives. What good is money if you're dead. This hasn't been handled right. Every person in America should be tested because this is going to get a lot worse before it dies out.


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## CarolfromTX (Mar 6, 2020)

Not enough eyeroll emojis for this. Test every person? Really? Think about it. Test me today, I'm negative. What about next week? And the week after that? Get a grip. That's totally unrealistic. There have been fewer than 200 cases in the US to date. In the WHOLE of the USA. Hell, there were more gunshot wounds in Chicago this weekend than that. But lets just cancel everything for the rest of the year. You know, just in case.  This is an unnecessary panic caused by the media for a reason I will not mention. And you have bought it hook, line, and sinker.


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## DaveA (Mar 6, 2020)

That's interesting. Only 200 cases so far.  Not really that bad at this point.  Let's take another look in a few months and we'll have a better idea of  which media and/or government outlets are feeding us the BS.


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## Becky1951 (Mar 6, 2020)

Its over 300 now, 100 new cases were added in a 24 hour period.


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## terry123 (Mar 6, 2020)

HP where my nephew works is having everybody work from home, thank goodness! He and his team travel everywhere testing new products for HP. He just returned from Spain which is a concern since there are cases of it there also.


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## treeguy64 (Mar 6, 2020)

As a longtime Austin resident, I definitely agree with the SXSW cancellation.  Unless you have lived through a few of these events, you can't understand how this already overcrowded city gets packed to the breaking point when nearly a half-million more folks get here for a week, or so. I've had the bad fortune to need to be downtown during a SXSW. You can't move on the sidewalks in front of venues unless you're moving with the snail's pace of queued up event goers. 

If you had even a single visitor with CV, Austin would have become a major epicenter for the spread of this virus, given the crowds. Throw in our hundreds of resident bums, and, yeah, a major disaster could have easily taken place. 

Sorry, my fellow Texan, but I firmly believe you got it wrong, on this one. I wrote the mayor, governor and health department, demanding SXSW be cancelled, starting a few days ago. Tonight,  I sent thank-you emails to all three. They did the right thing.


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## terry123 (Mar 7, 2020)

Agree with you treeguy!  Here in Houston we are having the annual rodeo, trail rider event. People have come from every where to participate in the events, cooking contests, etc.  Its going to be hard to sanitize any of these events!  Glad I am a home although I would have loved to have seen Willie Nelson's gig. He pulled in 70,000 for his show!  Besides just getting there with all the freeway issues,you have the thousands of people trying to get there also along with this threat of the virus I will stay home.


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## Ken N Tx (Mar 7, 2020)




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## squatting dog (Mar 7, 2020)

I sometimes get the idea the media would love the panic. More an more click bait stories showing up.


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## DaveA (Mar 7, 2020)

Ken N Tx said:


> View attachment 94382


Over the years, we've used those a few times, Ken.  Thankfully, up to this point, only on the dogs.


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## AnnieA (Mar 7, 2020)

DaveA said:


> That's interesting. Only 200 cases so far.  Not really that bad at this point.  Let's take another look in a few months and we'll have a better idea of  which media and/or government outlets are feeding us the BS.



DaveA.   Our official numbers are wrong.   The CDC dropped the ball on testing criteria, then by distributing flawed tests.   Doing the math based on Europe, our real number yesterday 5,000+ at the minimum.  And if you'll look at the daily exponential growth in Italy posted above, you'll see that we're most likely several thousands above that today.   As we distribute more test kits next week, you will see numbers closer to the truth.


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## AnnieA (Mar 7, 2020)

CarolfromTX said:


> Not enough eyeroll emojis for this. Test every person? Really? Think about it. Test me today, I'm negative. What about next week? And the week after that? Get a grip. That's totally unrealistic. There have been fewer than 200 cases in the US to date. In the WHOLE of the USA. Hell, there were more gunshot wounds in Chicago this weekend than that. But lets just cancel everything for the rest of the year. You know, just in case.  This is an unnecessary panic caused by the media for a reason I will not mention. And you have bought it hook, line, and sinker.



Our official numbers are wrong.     We haven't been testing thanks to an inept CDC.   Poor testing = low numbers.  

It's not like a virus says "Oh, I better not infect this person because they don't have access to a test."


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## gennie (Mar 7, 2020)

Until we know precisely how it is transmitted human to human and considering the ease and serious implications of infection, I cannot fault public officials who must be super vigilant in protecting citizens.


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## RadishRose (Mar 7, 2020)

squatting dog said:


> I sometimes get the idea the media would love the panic. More an more click bait stories showing up.
> 
> View attachment 94393


There's that, too. But we must be vigilant.


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## fmdog44 (Mar 7, 2020)

The elderly and small children are the highest risks. Since I am a member of one of those two groups I will exercise on the side of caution. Keep in mind we will be subjected to this virus for 12-18 months so we will have to be diligent in our behavior and not let our guard down. I am anxious to see how baseball treats the crowds issue. Right now I don't see any changes in crowd control. Disney World is still open and people from all over the world come here to go there. This is only the beginning.


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## OneEyedDiva (Mar 7, 2020)

As I have mentioned before, having had a career in infectious disease prevention, I feel they are doing what needs to be done at this point. If they didn't cancel these events where thousands of people are expected to attend and thousands became infected, then people would say, well they should have cancelled. As I look at the additions of infected people daily in different areas, I find it to be of much concern.

Look at the amount of cases in the U.S. from a few days ago to now. Look at where it started out and the fact that now over half the states have cases. Look at what's happening on that cruise ship. Had the Chinese government taken the report of this "new" virus more seriously and came clean about it much sooner, perhaps there wouldn't be such a massive spread. Consider what happened with the HIV virus, how widely it spread and the mode of transmission was just via ****** contact, needle sharing or transfusions with infected blood. This is airborne, a much stronger risk for the masses to become infected. The CDC and WHO don't quite have a handle on it yet, they don't have a concrete plan in place to protect communities and as one Chinese health official stated, the virus is subject to mutate which may make it even harder to control.


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## Butterfly (Mar 7, 2020)

fmdog44 said:


> The elderly and small children are the highest risks. Since I am a member of one of those two groups I will exercise on the side of caution. Keep in mind we will be subjected to this virus for 12-18 months so we will have to be diligent in our behavior and not let our guard down. I am anxious to see how baseball treats the crowds issue. Right now I don't see any changes in crowd control. Disney World is still open and people from all over the world come here to go there. This is only the beginning.



Actually, I've read in several places that children seem to be less affected than adults.  I don't think I've seen any reports of children having this particular virus, either.  It seems to head for adults.


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## DaveA (Mar 7, 2020)

I'm just curious when I hear comments regarding "the media".  Always "the media". 

Just to clarify for me, at least in terms of TV coverage which most of us see on a daily basis.  The reference is to  FOX , MSNBC, CNN, PBS, and the three old staples, NBC, CBS, and ABC, right?

I don't always find the reporting between these outlets to be uniform, regarding many news stories.  Sometimes there's no relation at all between the facts that are presented.  Anyone else find this statement regarding "the media" somewhat puzzling?


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## treeguy64 (Mar 7, 2020)

DaveA said:


> I'm just curious when I hear comments regarding "the media".  Always "the media".
> 
> Just to clarify for me, at least in terms of TV coverage which most of us see on a daily basis.  The reference is to  FOX , MSNBC, CNN, PBS, and the three old staples, NBC, CBS, and ABC, right?
> 
> I don't always find the reporting between these outlets to be uniform, regarding many news stories.  Sometimes there's no relation at all between the facts that are presented.  Anyone else find this statement regarding "the media" somewhat puzzling?


No. "The media," in the context of alarmist news reports regarding the CV, encompasses all sources of information that impinge on us each and every time we connect to a stream supplying the same, whether it's TV, radio, the internet, etc. While we may paint, with a broad brush, "The media," running the risk of ignoring the fact that not all media outlets are exactly the same, the overriding style, of MOST media outlets, is to stir up listening audiences to induce those audiences to want to stay tuned so as to not miss any information. That, of course, runs the risk of panicking the public at large when over-reporting ups the tension of the listening audience, as has happened, of late.


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## Sunny (Dec 6, 2020)

CarolfromTX said:


> Not enough eyeroll emojis for this. Test every person? Really? Think about it. Test me today, I'm negative. What about next week? And the week after that? Get a grip. That's totally unrealistic. There have been fewer than 200 cases in the US to date. In the WHOLE of the USA. Hell, there were more gunshot wounds in Chicago this weekend than that. But lets just cancel everything for the rest of the year. You know, just in case.  This is an unnecessary panic caused by the media for a reason I will not mention. And you have bought it hook, line, and sinker.



Carol, here's what you had to say about this last March. Have you stopped rolling your eyes yet?


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