Hypothesis: people who are stuck at home have more time and inclination to check their temperatures, even when they don't feel sick.
Social distancing slowing not only Covid-19, but other diseases too
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Re: Social distancing slowing not only Covid-19, but other diseases too
#92I was hoping for this, lets do social distancing a tradition for every winter
I’m just trying to get my head around this...
I wonder if people are just ignorant of the widespread devastation caused by the lockdown, if they feel like people devastated by the lockdown did not “do enough to prepare” and so somehow deserve it, if they somehow believe people will be made whole by trillion dollar handouts, or what?
I personally know two family businesses which have laid off all their employees and may never start up again, and another which if it doesn’t see bailout funds before next month who won’t be able to make payroll.
To say nothing of the kids missing their friends, their educations, their graduations, the weddings canceled, even funerals, etc.
Yeah let’s totally do this every year. This is so out of touch with reality it’s bizarre.
Re: Social distancing slowing not only Covid-19, but other diseases too
#93Apparently, the new term is "physical distancing," because it's not like people are mass unfriending people or calling them Mr./Mrs. SoAndSo.
Re: Social distancing slowing not only Covid-19, but other diseases too
#94Randall Munroe did a small section on eradicating the common cold in his What-if book, the basic idea is if that all of humanity stayed away from each other for a week or two then the common cold would die out as it can't survive outside of the human body for more than a week and normally survives by continuously hopping from host to host.
Re: Social distancing slowing not only Covid-19, but other diseases too
#95The lockdown of non-essential businesses has essentially reduced traffic accidents here to zero when usually there'd be a over a hundred deaths and few thousand injuries per week. By comparison there's only been 20 deaths from covid-19 over the space of 3 months, nearly all of them elderly people with pre-existing conditions. Yet people are emotional creatures and not all deaths are equal.
13 people died just yesterday in one hospital in NYC. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/25/nyregion/nyc-coronavirus-... You want a lockdown before your city turns into a medical disaster zone. Celebrate the fact that it's being done early.
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Re: Social distancing slowing not only Covid-19, but other diseases too
#96I am betting also driving and particularly drunk driving related accidents and deaths will also drop during this quarantine.
..And suicides will likely go way up.
Probably a lot of other issues as well that may be more difficult to track. Mental health crisis, domestic violence, etc.
Re: Social distancing slowing not only Covid-19, but other diseases too
#97I image new cases of the clap are going to tumble precipitously.
Re: Social distancing slowing not only Covid-19, but other diseases too
#98The lockdown of non-essential businesses has essentially reduced traffic accidents here to zero when usually there'd be a over a hundred deaths and few thousand injuries per week. By comparison there's only been 20 deaths from covid-19 over the space of 3 months, nearly all of them elderly people with pre-existing conditions. Yet people are emotional creatures and not all deaths are equal.
The "car accidents" fallacy. 1. "New thing X puts us at risk of losing Y lives every day." 2. "We lose Y lives to car accidents every day". 3. "Ergo, X is harmless!" Except you now have 2Y lives lost every day. Furthermore, car accidents kill an insane amount of people, and cars suck. This is not the bar.
the fallacy is couching it that way. no one says “it’s harmless!”, but rather, they ask “is this more or less dangerous, and is it more or less costly?” so it’s absolutely a credible gauge of risk, or more colloquially, a bar. that’s how we figure out an appropriate response, by looking at what we’ve done in similar situations.
and yes, it absolutely sucks that we accept a million deaths a year worldwide due to cars. same for the flu. we should absolutely try to raise that bar.
Re: Social distancing slowing not only Covid-19, but other diseases too
#99Social distancing is pretty great.
My company temporarily banned meetings with more than 6 people; this should be permanent.
Re: Social distancing slowing not only Covid-19, but other diseases too
#100I wonder if viruses will adapt to this hostile social distancing climate.