Italy is extending its coronavirus quarantine measures to the entire country • Hacker News Board

Re: Italy is extending its coronavirus quarantine measures to the entire country

#601

Post by seqastian » Tue, Mar 10, 2020, 9:21 AM UTC

zrobotics wrote: post #508

baddox wrote: post #449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you saying we should stop blaming the other side because you think the other side isn’t to blame? What if there’s reasonable ways to explain how the other side is to blame? Or are you making an epistemological claim that the other side is never to blame? Or are you claiming that, even if the other side is to blame, we shouldn’t focus on that until we solve the problem?

>>even if the other side is to blame, we shouldn’t focus on that until we solve the problem? Exactly! That is what is meant by not letting polarized politics drive the issue. We shouldn't care what 'side' is doing what, we should be focused on preventing an epidemic. Personally, IDGAF about assigning blame to any side, I'd rather that the petty bickering is dropped and effective measures are taken. I realize the clim…

How do you start taking measures if one side does't think there is a problem?

Re: Italy is extending its coronavirus quarantine measures to the entire country

#602

Post by buboard » Tue, Mar 10, 2020, 9:23 AM UTC

greggyb wrote: post #14

idiocratic wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lockdown in Italy is a concept that is difficult to enforce. And it's probably very different to what it means in China or even just South Korea or any other more organised and centrally governed country in Europe like France. But in essence: Schools are closed until next month. People can still move around freely for work reasons, and in general people still work in offices. Bars and restaurants close after 18pm. Sh…

Completely random and off-topic. I'm in the US and used to 12-hour time. I personally prefer 24-hour time, and am comfortable with 18:00 or similar for a time indicator. I don't know that I've ever seen a 24-hour time with am/pm attached to it. Is this common?

it's a gesture for the americans probably. you start typing 18:00 and realize that US people will want to know if it's pm.

Re: Italy is extending its coronavirus quarantine measures to the entire country

#603

Post by hef19898 » Tue, Mar 10, 2020, 9:24 AM UTC

akie wrote: post #599

hef19898 wrote: post #542

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you also fix the uncoroborated nature of the news? You know, the "well respected friend" part of it by reaching out to said person? If not, this whole thing just shows again how dangerous Twitter can be in that regard.

Why are you denying the spread and severe impact of this virus? Do you think they quarantined the whole fucking country for fun?

I am not denying that. I am simply worried when I see alarmist posts, uncorborated, that have the tendency to spread panic.

That's why call out every twitter thread like that when I come accross them. In this case it was a guy you referenced a friend of his. So uncorborated. Bad reporting, plain and simple.

Re: Italy is extending its coronavirus quarantine measures to the entire country

#604

Post by littlestymaar » Tue, Mar 10, 2020, 9:27 AM UTC

TeMPOraL wrote: post #486

FartyMcFarter wrote: post #429

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people don't think of 2% annual growth as exponential.

Also, growth narrative is always about adding/subtracting percent points - which makes most people think this is a linear phenomenon, because they don't make the connection that the quantity discussed is a multiplier, and charts they see are on log scale.

As long as you stay with low percentages, the linear approximation works pretty well: two times 1% lead to a 2.01% increase. But it starts breaking down as soon as you reach 10%.

Little trick to know (with some good approximation) the doubling time of some low-percentage growing system: count it linearly up to 10% and then multiply by 7 (which is roughly the doubling time for 10% growth). Example: 2% => 5*7=35 years to double.

Re: Italy is extending its coronavirus quarantine measures to the entire country

#605

Post by grey-area » Tue, Mar 10, 2020, 9:28 AM UTC

baddox wrote: post #447

fragsworth wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We should be quarantining every city in the U.S. right now. You're 100% correct, and it's going to be just as bad here.

Now long would you maintain that quarantine? Is there some amount of time after which the virus will go away? Any call for drastic measures, even when drastic measures seem like common sense to some people , need to explain why the measures should be implemented and under what circumstances they should be lifted.

They are undertaken so that the health service is not overwhelmed with cases. When that happens (as in Italy), you need to triage infected and let some number of people die, who otherwise would not have died. So it is best avoided.

They're lifted after most of the population has already been infected and the disease has run its course (as in China).

Re: Italy is extending its coronavirus quarantine measures to the entire country

#606

Post by IAmEveryone » Tue, Mar 10, 2020, 9:30 AM UTC

C19is20 wrote: post #369

alfyboy wrote: post #2

For anybody living in quarantined areas of Italy. How much has your daily life been affected?

N.italy, all ok. Less people around, shops ok: i withdraw cash every day, rather than waiting for the gov to do it for me. Which they will, then they'll find a away [o line their pockets with it. Nb never voted, never will, but italians are already being political about this. Seen a few comments here, too. The real impact will be when the rest of eu gets hit. At least day2day italians know you can't blame any single…

If you don’t vote, you don’t get to complain.

Re: Italy is extending its coronavirus quarantine measures to the entire country

#607

Post by grey-area » Tue, Mar 10, 2020, 9:30 AM UTC

makomk wrote: post #594

dodobirdlord wrote: post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But for the love of God, can we please stop politicizing this issue? Can we please have a moratorium on blaming the other side for whatever measures should / should not be taken? Hard to do, when the correct thing for the administration to do is to stand back and hand decision making authority and control of resources to the bureaucracy. As long as the administration keeps interfering in the response, anything abou…

There's actually a really good test of your claim: the botched CDC rollout of testing kits. The CDC went about developing and producing the kits just like they would for any other disease under any other administration, free from meddling and micro-management, and they botched the rollout. The issue was immediately politicized. Mainstream publications made it a point of saying that it was the "Trump administration" t…

The Trump administration fired the U.S. pandemic response team in 2018 to cut costs.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-fire-pandemic-team/

Re: Italy is extending its coronavirus quarantine measures to the entire country

#608

Post by rorykoehler » Tue, Mar 10, 2020, 9:30 AM UTC

voqv wrote: post #592

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #525

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Denmark yesterday a couple of kids in the same class in a school were tested positive, they closed the classroom - not even the school. I would certainly like to see the example of a country able to learn from the mistakes of others.

In Germany a friend of mine refused to go to a meeting at a client's office where someone tested positive and HR threatened him because he was violating his employment contract.

Am in Germany. Everyone is acting like nothing is happening. It's infuriating.

Re: Italy is extending its coronavirus quarantine measures to the entire country

#609

Post by api » Tue, Mar 10, 2020, 9:30 AM UTC

tomrod wrote: post #344

esistgut wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please note that Lombardy has a very very good health service. The OECD put a score on this [1]: 9.9/10. This is in the top 5% across all regions. Other european regions seem to have lower average scores and their governments are not taking serious actions. [2] How the US is reacting from my perspective (italian confined near Rome) seems borderline madness. Something about this situation confuses me a lot. [1] https:…

There is an answer, and it is political (thank you for allowing me the indulgence to bring this room-elephant up). There is a slow burn civil war between mission-focused bureaucrats and administration loyalists. Consider: https://twitter.com/Imm_Judges_NAIJ/status/12371515163955363...

This outbreak may put an end to this "post-truth world" nonsense. There is no such thing and never will be, or at least not for long. Eventually Darwin puts his foot down. Recognize reality or it recognizes you.

Re: Italy is extending its coronavirus quarantine measures to the entire country

#610

Post by hef19898 » Tue, Mar 10, 2020, 9:31 AM UTC

voqv wrote: post #592

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #525

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Denmark yesterday a couple of kids in the same class in a school were tested positive, they closed the classroom - not even the school. I would certainly like to see the example of a country able to learn from the mistakes of others.

In Germany a friend of mine refused to go to a meeting at a client's office where someone tested positive and HR threatened him because he was violating his employment contract.

Well, if they did that is more or less ground for legal action. Managers have something "Fürsorgepflicht", meaning htey have to take care employees are safe. Usually things go the other way round, your employer would not allow you to travel.

depending on how long friend is employed by this company, the resulting leal case could be rather expensive for the employer. Your friend would still have to look for another job, so...