Live data from Hacker News

Tokyo Olympics “looking at a cancellation” if coronavirus not contained

axios.com

671–680 of 840 posts

Re: Tokyo Olympics “looking at a cancellation” if coronavirus not contained

#671

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In many aspects humans are more capable, but not all. Humans don't have to look at an animal for a few days to figure out if it's a mouse or a fox. But for people infected with the Coronavirus we are not more capable: the first 2-14 days a person is infected with the Coronavirus we cannot see it. Only medical tests can, and we can't test everybody around us. So the smartest might be to run away 100 times to avoid the…

Or just wash your hands ...

Tell that to the person who sat opposite of the Iranian under minister for public health while interviewing him and he was coughing all over the place. Fortunately she sat about 2 meters away from him, but still, I'd be concerned. Washing your hands and not touching your face certainly helps. But elevators, air travel, the subway, the tram, the bus, the train, places of work and events all pretty much guarantee spread of viruses all the time. This virus is no exception, it will spread. The question is how fast it will spread and how much we can do to limit that so that the health care system has time to absorb the impact. Washing hands helps.

Re: Tokyo Olympics “looking at a cancellation” if coronavirus not contained

#672
post #453

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> those same authoritarian governments are the ones who played down the threat, lied, covered up to save face, imprisoned whistle-blowers, and refused to let international experts in. I'm scared that it will become a lot worse than that. The pandemic gives them a real-life stress test and lessons to harden the surveillance state and further improve technical controls and tweak the technology to become more effective.…

What would have to take place for you to stop thinking this virus is going to push the entire world over the edge and fully in to 1984? CDC and WHO are probably not perfect but saying they "utterly failed" because you're angry over not getting a free face mask is a bit disrespectful toward the many people their working their asses off in times like these.

To add to your point, if one is worried and wants a face mask, in the US, right now, they can make effective masks in a few minutes using some gauze (cheap and plentiful in pretty much any US pharmacy), tape, a stapler and a few ribbons.

While this may not be beautiful and might be slightly less effective than a standard surgical mask, it should be good enough unless one is spending significant time inside with infected, coughing folks. In which case one should be doing more than just wearing a face mask. My 2c.

Re: Tokyo Olympics “looking at a cancellation” if coronavirus not contained

#673

Are the effect of the coronavirus on the stock market could be opportunity for investing? The SP500 went down 8% this past 4 days. I'm wondering if that will go lower those next days. I have a bit amount of money on the side, I didn't know where to invest. Would now be a good opportunity to lump sum all the money, or would you Dollar Cost Average? Anyone else with the same dilemma, and would have more arguments?

the vulture approach to investing tends to be materially profitable yet karmically ruinous

Another way to look at it is that you're optimistic that the crisis will be resolved.

Re: Tokyo Olympics “looking at a cancellation” if coronavirus not contained

#674
post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think when this all comes to an end, China will be one of the countries that dealt with the virus the best. Countries without authoritarian governments likely don't have the means to effectively quarantine major cities and shut down massive portions of their economy immediately without major problems arising. Given a couple weeks, sure, but by then it will be too late. It may well seem that way in retrospect. Whe…

> those same authoritarian governments are the ones who played down the threat, lied, covered up to save face, imprisoned whistle-blowers, and refused to let international experts in. I'm scared that it will become a lot worse than that. The pandemic gives them a real-life stress test and lessons to harden the surveillance state and further improve technical controls and tweak the technology to become more effective.…

> Chinese pigs (aka LE)

This sort of editorializing immediately makes your whole opinion moot.

If this is how you talk about people you don’t know it’s unlikely your opinion is valid or even remotely unbiased in any other regard.

Re: Tokyo Olympics “looking at a cancellation” if coronavirus not contained

#676
This might be enough to kill the Olympics. There have been such near-cancellations before (consider Moscow and LA in the middle of the cold war), but the context was different: the Olympics were seen as an important trans-national counterforce to the conflict of the two superpowers' spheres of influence at a time when there were few such opportunities. This was ostensibly the original basis for the Olympics being revived/reinvented in the 1890s. Hosting the games could "make" a city (e.g. Melbourne and Tokyo in the 1960s).

Nowadays the Olympics are simply one of a set of large international commercial activities and one of the most corrupt of them. Hosting them is typically a disaster for the hosting cities and fewer are interested in doing so. If the games are cancelled people will still seek entertainment, and these days with so many other options, the Olympic Games may not be missed enough to survive.

Re: Tokyo Olympics “looking at a cancellation” if coronavirus not contained

#677

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I understand the masks are utterly useless against this anyway.

The common surgical face masks you'll often see people from Asia wear in public are only useful if YOU have the virus by reducing the chance of people catching the virus from you. There are, however, N95 respirator masks that are useful for protecting the uninfected from catching the virus. Source: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/respirator-use...

Also, you and I random are not wearing it correct, that’s basically given. It requires regular trainings and tests.

Re: Tokyo Olympics “looking at a cancellation” if coronavirus not contained

#678
post #676

This might be enough to kill the Olympics. There have been such near-cancellations before (consider Moscow and LA in the middle of the cold war), but the context was different: the Olympics were seen as an important trans-national counterforce to the conflict of the two superpowers' spheres of influence at a time when there were few such opportunities. This was ostensibly the original basis for the Olympics being rev…

Cities will have to smarter with reusing existing and purpose built stadiums and buildings. One cancellation will not kill the brand.

Re: Tokyo Olympics “looking at a cancellation” if coronavirus not contained

#679
post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m in Tokyo and having a very different experience than you, nearly everyone on the trains are wearing masks and all customer facing staff I see now. Someone hit the emergency button on the train a few days ago because someone was coughing without one (there was a PSA asking people not to do that). It’s mostly foreigners I see walking around without masks now, but I agree it’s still ramping up. I honestly don’t see…

In the US we have an additional problem that 2 weeks of hospitalization means certain bankruptcy for many people (myself included). So it might be rather difficult to get people to voluntarily show up for tests and such.

2 weeks is a mild case. Severe cases last up to 6 weeks.

Re: Tokyo Olympics “looking at a cancellation” if coronavirus not contained

#680

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if it's just my imagination, but your comment, and especially the “real French” part makes me uneasy. You aren't implying anything racist are you? BTW I way less worried about thugs than about antivax mums and other fakemeds enthusiasts believing about conspiracy theory involving “big pharma”.

What's he supposed to do? He went out of his way to put it in the polite way for you. Unless you want to go into complete incomprehensibility, it's a "rock and a hard place" situation.

He's supposed to think the same way as them, of course.
Post reply on HN