America is giving up on the pandemic? • Hacker News Board

Re: America is giving up on the pandemic?

#221

Post by realtalk_sp » Sun, Jun 07, 2020, 9:19 PM UTC

garrickvanburen wrote: post #212

No, not giving up. Just reprioritized. All I think we’ve proven is that a large percentage of the population is more comfortable risking a infection and far less comfortable with the police violence. There’s nothing in here about disregarding recommendations from epidemiologists. It’s about saying enough is enough on a persistent threat, not an acute one.

> All I think we’ve proven is that a large percentage of the population is more comfortable risking a infection and far less comfortable with the police violence.

The problem is a large percentage of the population has very little to fear from this virus. The reason quarantining and other tactics had to be top-down mandated is that individuals acting selfishly threaten other people. That has not changed.

In short, a large number of immunocompromised and elderly persons are going to die as an almost direct consequence of the protesting. Apparently, we're okay with that.

Re: America is giving up on the pandemic?

#222

Post by covidSurvivor19 » Sun, Jun 07, 2020, 9:20 PM UTC

ianai wrote: post #8

war1025 wrote: post #3

A thing I've noticed is that they stopped mentioning the daily numbers on the radio (NPR, more specifically Iowa Public Radio). It's sort of like the media has extracted all the juice they can from the pandemic and now we're just left with the pulpy mess that no one really wants to deal with.

I fear it might be more pernicious than that. There’s reason to believe states are misreporting their numbers to hide what’s going on with it. But I think the media senses the protests and racism issues have to take up all the available oxygen, “or else”.

Like in Italy, where people are now protesting against their goverments overreaction of COVID; mishandling of its elderly, actually at risk, population; and the inflation of death numbers attributed to COVID.

Re: America is giving up on the pandemic?

#223

Post by kortilla » Sun, Jun 07, 2020, 9:20 PM UTC

fzeroracer wrote: post #147

axguscbklp wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2018 FBI homicide statistics: https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2018/crime-in-the-u.s.-... 514 black-on-white homicides, 234 white-on-black homicides.

This really only works if you consider said statistics to be reported in good faith. Black Americans tend to be disproportionately targeted by law enforcement and disproportionately punished. For example, black Americans are around four times as likely to be charged for Marijuana offenses compared to white people despite using marijuana at equal rates. White-on-black crimes I would argue are far less likely to be rep…

We’re talking about murders here. It’s pretty hard to hide that a person no longer exists.

Re: America is giving up on the pandemic?

#224

Post by caconym_ » Sun, Jun 07, 2020, 9:21 PM UTC

metrokoi wrote: post #90

Quoted from a letter from 1,000 health professionals on the virus and protests [0] >However, as public health advocates, we do not condemn these gatherings as risky for COVID-19 transmission. We support them as vital to the national public health and to the threatened health specifically of Black people in the United States. We can show that support by facilitating safest protesting practices without detracting from…

Where'd they "tell us there is no risk from these protests"? The letter you linked explicitly advises us to "prepare for an increased number of infections in the days following a protest [and] provide increased access to testing and care for people in the affected communities, especially when they or their family members put themselves at risk by attending protests."

They just seem to think protesting America's rampant institutionalized police brutality is more worthy than protesting the lockdowns themselves, and I can't say I disagree, but even if I did I wouldn't be able to say they're being inconsistent, because they aren't. They just haven't stuck their heads in the sand of relativism.

Re: America is giving up on the pandemic?

#225

Post by Supermancho » Sun, Jun 07, 2020, 9:21 PM UTC

Animats wrote: post #14

San Mateo County health officer: "The third modification of the shelter in place order is being made on 6/1/20. These modifications are being made in attempt to strike a balance. They are an attempt to find a way to increase the immunity of the population (in public health terms, this is called “herd immunity”) slowly and methodically, while minimizing premature death, with equity in mind, while not overloading the h…

> This is a "bury the dead and go on" situation.

> The US hasn't faced one of those since WWII.

That's just incorrect. The US has faced this every year (by percentage), since it's inception. Hundreds of thousands of people die of disease every year of cancer. Not just disease. Tens of thousands by car for most of the 20th century.

The hyperbole that COVID-19 can be considered historically notable, is in the scale and type (optional, changing recommendations, etc) of social measures that have been taken.

Re: America is giving up on the pandemic?

#226

Post by covidSurvivor19 » Sun, Jun 07, 2020, 9:21 PM UTC

theklub wrote: post #204

neonate wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue is the double standard with which some protestors were condemned while others were lauded based solely on which causes (and which classes of people) the commenters happened to politically support. It's transparently unprincipled, to the point of being a sad joke.

So the people in Michigan that nurses were standing in front of vs the BLM crowds.

Just actors probably

Re: America is giving up on the pandemic?

#227

Post by ForHackernews » Sun, Jun 07, 2020, 9:22 PM UTC

ianai wrote: post #35

lostapathy wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is a lot of it, for better or worse. I feel like a lot of people are afraid to talk about anything but the protests lately, lest they be branded as not supporting the protests.

What’s crazy though is for the first time in my life I actually fear for the future existence of the US. I watched 9/11 in real time and that didn’t feel as much of a threat to our existence as this does. There’s an actual civil war movement among the extremists now. I don’t think that existed during the civil rights movement days, even. Nor even the Vietnam fallout.

Where have you been? There's been groups pepping for a second civil war (the meme-name is "boogaloo", as in "Civil War 2: Electric Boogaloo") for at least a decade now.

I'm optimistic that red and blue America will have something more like Czechoslovakia's Velvet Divorce involving minimal bloodshed, but I'd be surprised if the USA makes it to 2100 as a single polity.

Re: America is giving up on the pandemic?

#228

Post by monktastic1 » Sun, Jun 07, 2020, 9:22 PM UTC

metrokoi wrote: post #90

Quoted from a letter from 1,000 health professionals on the virus and protests [0] >However, as public health advocates, we do not condemn these gatherings as risky for COVID-19 transmission. We support them as vital to the national public health and to the threatened health specifically of Black people in the United States. We can show that support by facilitating safest protesting practices without detracting from…

It doesn't say they're not risky, just that they don't condemn them as risky (i.e., for being risky). At least, that's how I read it.

Re: America is giving up on the pandemic?

#229

Post by mlang23 » Sun, Jun 07, 2020, 9:22 PM UTC

cmdshiftf4 wrote: post #154

enraged_camel wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why did you put the word justified in quotes?

Either the vitriol people received for protesting the lockdown, wanting to reopen their businesses and resume life - they were labelled essentially as murderers and #COVIDIOTS - was justified OR the mass protests, flouting of concern about the virus, etc. is justified. You cannot have both. So either those out and about without masks, or protesting the lockdown, etc. AND the current protests are justified as COVID is…

Spot on. Exactly. And it is that sort of double-standard that will erode the remaining trust in the government and media. One day, if you leave the house you are being accused of bein ascoail and a potential murderer, and the next day you are being praised for defenging civil rights. This is nuts. And people realize that it is.

Re: America is giving up on the pandemic?

#230

Post by WalterBright » Sun, Jun 07, 2020, 9:23 PM UTC

DennisAleynikov wrote: post #104

metrokoi wrote: post #90

Quoted from a letter from 1,000 health professionals on the virus and protests [0] >However, as public health advocates, we do not condemn these gatherings as risky for COVID-19 transmission. We support them as vital to the national public health and to the threatened health specifically of Black people in the United States. We can show that support by facilitating safest protesting practices without detracting from…

fake scientific consensus that fits political consensus... huh who could have known this was a partisan issue not about health

There's been a lot of talk in the last few years about "believing in science" pushed by politicians. However, there is a long history of science being "adjusted" to fit political agendas.

Just one example:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysenkoism