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Amazon refuses to sell book on Covid-19 and lockdowns

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Re: Amazon refuses to sell book on Covid-19 and lockdowns

#191

Post by DanBC »

mopsi wrote: post #137
mcguire wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article from U. of Minnesota: " We do not recommend requiring the general public who do not have symptoms of COVID-19-like illness to routinely wear cloth or surgical masks because: " There is no scientific evidence they are effective in reducing the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission " Their use may result in those wearing the masks to relax other distancing efforts because they have a sense of protection " We need…

Among other things, this is obvious BS: > "There is no scientific evidence they are effective in reducing the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission Given that the coronavirus appeared only a few months ago, "no scientific evidence" doesn't mean much because very little research exists on the subject. Also, there is no harm in caution. Interestingly, they keep suggesting social distancing, which doesn't have much scientific…

But SARS-CoV-2 is transmitted pretty much like SARS and MERS, and we have a bunch of information about masks for those.

We also have a lot of information about other respiratory viruses.

Re: Amazon refuses to sell book on Covid-19 and lockdowns

#192

Post by larrywright »

belltaco wrote: post #82
misiti3780 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does he think bill gates is behind COVID? That's a new one I have not seen yet.

It's very popular right wing conspiracy.

Not sure why you’re being downvoted, this is exactly right.

Re: Amazon refuses to sell book on Covid-19 and lockdowns

#193

Post by tzs »

rjkennedy98 wrote: post #70
pen2l wrote: post #2

After a half hour long conversation with my neighbor last week of him trying to convince me that Bill Gates is behind coronavirus, please, for the love of our future, continue banning information that is blatantly put up on a bad faith basis. It's exhausting to see my mom and dad succumb to a new conspiracy every other day. I don't see how else we can curb this other than for the tech companies to start aggressively…

Wow...just wow. The only way to deal with people having bad ideas is censorship? Seriously? What about improving education, building functional (and trusted) institutions, and having more independent (non-profit driven) media? It really bothers me that there is a group of people begging for corporate overloads to control and think for the population. Its literally the opposite of everything this country stands for.

> What about improving education, building functional (and trusted) institutions, and having more independent (non-profit driven) media?

They do not work, because the time and cost to create and widely disseminate falsehoods is much less than the time and cost to refute those falsehoods.

See "Firehose of falsehood" [1], which is an apt name for what happens now thanks to the internet and social media greatly lowering the barriers to getting information widely distributed.

As RAND researchers put it, "Don't expect to counter the firehose of falsehood with the squirt gun of truth."

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firehose_of_falsehood

Re: Amazon refuses to sell book on Covid-19 and lockdowns

#194

Post by dmix »

I've noticed the group that has the significant dislike and distrust of authority figures, and tech companies in general, are the same people who more than happy at giving them carte blanche, gleefully encouraging these sorts of censorship systems.

The basic idea puts an incredible amount of trust in authority figures with systems that have almost no appeals process or transparency - unless of course you happen to be popular enough or stir up enough noise on the internet to get internet gatekeepers attention.

Merely debating whether it's good or bad to be censoring misinformation, while simultaneously glossing over the means, processes, and people being employed to enforce these broad post at megacorps is a giant disingenuous waste of time and riddled with contradictions.

Re: Amazon refuses to sell book on Covid-19 and lockdowns

#195

Post by JackFr »

djsumdog wrote: post #97
GloriousKoji wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't censorship. Are we going to get mad at a children's book store refusing to carry explicit adult literature? Amazon has put in place publicly know and clearly defined policies for a specific and unique situation. This is not a slippery slope. The second they step out of that boundary there will be severe backlash.

This is a journalist with credentials with a fully sourced and referenced book. It is censorship because of Amazon's absolutely dominance over the market. Their marketshare means they literally control the medium for the majority of people in this world who read e-books. You can say the same thing about Google/Youtube: it's their platform, but when 90% of people in the world go there first for videos, any removal doe…

Anyone can sell the book themselves. Routinely you will see people on HN self publishing technical titles on Leanpub etc. No one is shouting them down or deplatforming them.

Amazon is a private company and they can sell what they want. That seems to bother you, because of a de facto monopoly they hold, but that is beside the point. Why do you think it is an author’s right to have any third party sell their book?

Re: Amazon refuses to sell book on Covid-19 and lockdowns

#196

Post by [deleted] »

darawk wrote: post #98
wwweston wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Remember what the official word was for all too long: masks don't work, but save them for health workers. Who said masks don't work? What I recall people saying is: * most masks provide marginal protection to the wearer * the masks that provide effective protection should be saved for those in situations where they need them (and can be knowledgeably used) * most people probably don't need those masks There's a wor…

The CDC and WHO both at various times recommended against the general public wearing masks. https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/4/13/21214114/media-coronavi... This advice was wrong. It is not just sick people that benefit from wearing masks. It is not true that people are flattening that into "masks don't work". Masks don't work was repeated many, many times by these organizations. Here's an example: https://www.cidrap.…

[deleted]

Re: Amazon refuses to sell book on Covid-19 and lockdowns

#197

Post by basic612 »

ncr wrote: post #175

The book is back on amazon as of now https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B089P216NP/

I wonder if this will be noted on the easy blog or on hacker news. It seems that people are too caught up being outraged to notice. Comments made here three hours ago about the book now being available on Amazon are buried under piles of diatribes. Let’s not let the truth get in the way of a good sanctimonious rant.

Re: Amazon refuses to sell book on Covid-19 and lockdowns

#198

Post by jaredklewis »

Will_Parker wrote: post #146
dougmany wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least two of those links had nuanced reasons that matched the parent's remarks. One even literately had a three point explanation: * There is no scientific evidence they are effective in reducing the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission * Their use may result in those wearing the masks to relax other distancing efforts because they have a sense of protection * We need to preserve the supply of surgical masks for at-ris…

> There is no scientific evidence they are effective in reducing the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission It's a disease spread by exhaled droplets. How the heck could masks _not_ work? Why has common sense, as an acceptable way to obtain knowledge, died in the general public?

Because common sense has been used to justify all manner of things which are thoroughly debunked. Blood letting, bed rest, alcohol for pregnant mothers. Common sense doesn’t have a great track record.

Re: Amazon refuses to sell book on Covid-19 and lockdowns

#199

Post by dionidium »

DanBC wrote: post #185
dionidium wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also a remarkably vacuous thing to say. Of course there's not always scientific evidence for how to respond to new threats in real time. It's perfectly reasonable to make the best decisions you can with the information available. To say what they said is to try to weaponize the totally sensible dictum to "listen to the science" in a context in which they damn well knew that it made no sense (and without any indi…

We have a lot of information about a variety of respiratory viruses and masks, and almost all of it says that masks don't do much. We're getting more information about specifically covid-19, and again that says that masks don't do much.

I’m going to be as charitable as I can be here: the experts have done a very poor job of communicating the science of mask-wearing to the general public.

Re: Amazon refuses to sell book on Covid-19 and lockdowns

#200

Post by basic612 »

basic612 wrote: post #197
ncr wrote: post #175

The book is back on amazon as of now https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B089P216NP/

I wonder if this will be noted on the easy blog or on hacker news. It seems that people are too caught up being outraged to notice. Comments made here three hours ago about the book now being available on Amazon are buried under piles of diatribes. Let’s not let the truth get in the way of a good sanctimonious rant.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23431502
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