Dr. Redfield is entitled to his professional opinion, but his professional opinion is in a minority amongst professional opinions. In fact, we can almost call it it a solo minority. Viruses mutate in nature. HIV started in wildlife and jumped to humans. So did SARS-CoV2.
30 years ago in Australia a new virus began infecting horses (Hendra virus), it crossed to humans and infected 4 people who came in contact with the horses and all 4 died. In 2012, 3 men who worked in a copper mine died after being infected with a new bat virus. Stuff happens.
New viruses that jump species are not unusual. There is even a journal dedicated to it: Emerging Infectious Diseases. The entire point of the discipline is to find and isolate new viruses to prevent a global pandemic. Virologists have warned about it for decades.
And for decades we took the threat seriously. We funded scientists who traveled the world to do this work. The only odd thing is that the Trump Administration defunded that scientific investigation, and then it happened. This won't be the last virus. We need to fund science!
Further, it only takes 1 person to start a pandemic. There are almost 8 billion of us on this planet. Those are terrible odds. Combine that with public health challenges such as vaccine conspiracists and it makes us a stupid population primed for disaster. And here we are.

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More from @altNOAA

26 Mar
Roughly 60 homes were damaged by a tornado in Pelham, AL. 22 homes were severally damaged. No injuries or fatalities reported. 5 died in Calhoun County. 3 were in the same wood framed house. The other 2 were in separate mobile homes. Those 2 could have been prevented.
Never stay in a mobile home during a storm. It's best to find shelter as soon as a tornado watch is issued, or at least have a plan (cellar in yard, etc). A mobile home doesn't even need a direct hit to be destroyed. The rear flank downdraft of a supercell alone can do it.
If you own a mobile home, get a NOAA All Hazards (Weather) Radio. Program it for your county and the county(s) immediately west of your county. Program it for t-storm/tornado/flash flood watches and warnings. Make a evacuation plan and have a meeting area for family. Be vigilant!
Read 5 tweets
24 Mar
A magazine is not a firearm. A magazine is not protected under any constitutional amendment. Ban magazines that have a larger capacity than 1. That's right, 1.
Require ammunition companies to serialize their ammo. Laser etching is available. Yes, ammo costs would increase. So sad. Require purchasers to register the serialized ammo (ammo isn't a firearm either).
Sign #M4A into law and require gun owners to carry liability insurance for wrongful death lawsuits. This keeps the insurance industry employed.
Read 4 tweets
1 Sep 20
Every so-called "militia" member needs to think about this Rittenhouse case, and make better life decisions. Your militia is bullshit. Gov spends a minimum of $50K in training cost per soldier. My combined training likely over $1M.
Soldiers do more than just "have a gun".
Soldiers are put through extreme stress exercises. That training builds confidence. Rittenhouse panicked under stress any real solider wouldn't have felt. Soldiers are trained to value teamwork. I don't think the "militia" in Kenosha had even met until that day.
These "militia" can't train like soldiers. Not unless they live together 24/7, do PT every day and night and learn to depend on one another when you or they need it. They don't have the money or time to train like that. And due to that, someone is going to fuck up.
Read 7 tweets
25 Aug 20
One of things we (Americans) don't spend much time studying in American History is the role that weather played in shaping our nation. I was a combat weatherman in USAF, so I have a fascination with this. Had it not been for tropical wx, we'd have a different country.
If you have spent any time in the Florida Keys, you've probably heard about the Spanish Treasure Fleets lost in hurricanes. People still search and find gold from the lost ships today. The Spanish and French were in present day Florida, long before the Mayflower even set sail.
European settlement didn't start at Plymouth with the Pilgrims, as you likely learned. It started in Florida near Jacksonville and St. Augustine. In fact, St. Augustine is our oldest continuously lived in city by European descendants in the USA. But weather almost changed that.
Read 11 tweets
28 Oct 19
I do have a bit of concern about #M4A covering "nursing homes," but I think theee is an answer to my concerns. Not all nursing homes are created equal in terms of property value, but they should be in terms of medical care. Unfortunately, they're not.
If a nursing home is an older property, there is a strong chance the level of care won't be as "good" as a newer property, it's more of a rule than a law, but in my experience of having family members in nursing homes it's more often the case than it's not. Some nursing homes...
Such as "Sterling House" brands have speciality wards for ALZ patients and are usually expensive properties. The price a patient pays to live in such a place is reflective of the property value. Honestly, it's not fair and another form of economic inequality. M4A could fix this.
Read 11 tweets
6 Sep 19
I have cautioned (non-trained forecasters) for years to ignore #SpaghettiPlots. #SharpieGate is an example of why. To the untrained eye, all forecast models are equal and have the same "weight". This however is not true and a spaghetti plot often contains data up to 12 hours old.
Some models included in a spaghetti plot (SP) are run twice / day, at 12z and 0z. When a model is run at 0z, and included on a 12z SP, the SP began its run at 11z, which contained the last avail run of the model (0z). By the time SP shows up on a server, it has 12 hr old data.
Some SP have data that isn't even a model, such as XTRP. That is just a straight-line extrapolation of the storm's current direction. And not every model works the same way. Some are new and somewhat "experimental", while others a very solid.
Read 8 tweets

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