Hey, it's Antonia. In the six plus years Joel and I have been recording this

podcast. We have rarely talked about current events. A decision we made early on

was to keep our content evergreen if possible and hopefully it would become

timeless.

But while we face global epidemics before,

it's been a while since humans have seen one this easily communicable.

I am of course referring to the global pandemic of the coronavirus or COVID-19 and so I'm going to

capitalize on whatever credibility I may have gained from you. If you've ever

thought I was even a tiny bit smart and thoughtful about stuff,

I'm going to do what I can to persuade you to intentionally quarantine yourself.

And if you're not in a position to do that, then take every precaution to socially distance yourself.

Why you may say, I'm young and healthy, I can get the virus and survive, but you

getting the virus now may be killing someone else later. I'll use the United States, the country

I live in, as an example of why this is so important. I'm about to get a little TI data

heavy here, so please stick with me. The majority of cases of COVID-19 or

coronavirus are relatively mild. There are flu-like symptoms and most people can

stay home. But that means 20% are severe and require hospitalization.

Of those 20% around 5% are critical.

And half of those critical cases require ventilators or what's called an extracorporeal membrane

oxygenation machine or an ECMO. As of a couple years ago, there were only around 250 ECMO machines in the entire United States.

In fact, the machines and the programs they rely upon are so costly that there was a debate

on whether or not they were worth the expense.

...