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Is It Okay to Go to the Beach?

theatlantic.com

21–30 of 35 posts

Re: Is It Okay to Go to the Beach?

#21
post #16
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you talking about? Everyone wears a mask in Germany in closed spaces and public transport. I haven't seen a single person not do it and it's already part of daily life. I don't understand the point here?

Meck Pomm country wants to get rid of wearing masks.

The economics Minister of MeckPomm wants to. His boss doesn't. The federal health Minister also disagrees, as do most other states: https://www.rnd.de/politik/maskenpflicht-in-den-bundeslander...

Re: Is It Okay to Go to the Beach?

#22
post #20
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Germany is about to get rid of wearing masks in stores. That's like turning off the firewall because the attack is over. It's preventive, so you need to wear a mask before sth happens. There were 140 new cases in Germany yesterday in a country of 83 million. In my city of 3,5 million there were 17 new cases. At what point would you say it's safe to not wear a mask in stores?

When it's been ZERO for a while. Obviously? I don't understand this question at all. As long a there's >=1 case and little immunity the virus WILL spread.

Wasn't it the goal all along to flatten the curve and gradually introduce herd immunity while softening the impact on hospitals?

No one estimates a vaccine any time remotely soon and even with one it would take years at best to achieve zero cases globally.

Re: Is It Okay to Go to the Beach?

#23
post #16
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you talking about? Everyone wears a mask in Germany in closed spaces and public transport. I haven't seen a single person not do it and it's already part of daily life. I don't understand the point here?

Meck Pomm country wants to get rid of wearing masks.

I don't think this will happen, I also HOPE it won't happen too soon, in Bayern we still have restrictions on number of people that are allowed to meet. Austria got rid of masks almost everywhere, but you still need to wear them in public transport and pharmacies, so I'm pretty sure they will be with us for a while.

Re: Is It Okay to Go to the Beach?

#24
post #22
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When it's been ZERO for a while. Obviously? I don't understand this question at all. As long a there's >=1 case and little immunity the virus WILL spread.

Wasn't it the goal all along to flatten the curve and gradually introduce herd immunity while softening the impact on hospitals? No one estimates a vaccine any time remotely soon and even with one it would take years at best to achieve zero cases globally.

> Wasn't it the goal all along to flatten the curve and gradually introduce herd immunity while softening the impact on hospitals?

No, suppression was the goal. At least, the study that turned the tide on policy concluded that targeting suppression was essential.

Re: Is It Okay to Go to the Beach?

#25
post #22
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When it's been ZERO for a while. Obviously? I don't understand this question at all. As long a there's >=1 case and little immunity the virus WILL spread.

Wasn't it the goal all along to flatten the curve and gradually introduce herd immunity while softening the impact on hospitals? No one estimates a vaccine any time remotely soon and even with one it would take years at best to achieve zero cases globally.

Flattening the curve was the most immediate and important goal, because overloaded hospitals kill a _lot_ of people.

Herd immunity by everyone getting infected should _not_ be a goal. That's still going to kill many, many people.

The estimate for the US by that route was around 2.5million dead. You could probably scale that by population size and maybe reduce a bit as we get better at treatment for this disease, but that's still a big number.

I don't think we have much option other than to prevent the spread as much as we can while waiting for something like a vaccine and/or far better treatments than we currently have.

Zero cases globally will indeed be a while, if it ever happens.

Re: Is It Okay to Go to the Beach?

#26
post #22
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When it's been ZERO for a while. Obviously? I don't understand this question at all. As long a there's >=1 case and little immunity the virus WILL spread.

Wasn't it the goal all along to flatten the curve and gradually introduce herd immunity while softening the impact on hospitals? No one estimates a vaccine any time remotely soon and even with one it would take years at best to achieve zero cases globally.

The issue with herd immunity are the unknown long term risks. Just imagine this stuff wrecks your immune system a couple of months after infection. Or, that immunity goes away after some months.

There's no guarantee that herd immunity helps. On the other hand, we could be working all hands on deck to arrange our lifestyle AND protect from infection.

Re: Is It Okay to Go to the Beach?

#27
post #25
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wasn't it the goal all along to flatten the curve and gradually introduce herd immunity while softening the impact on hospitals? No one estimates a vaccine any time remotely soon and even with one it would take years at best to achieve zero cases globally.

Flattening the curve was the most immediate and important goal, because overloaded hospitals kill a _lot_ of people. Herd immunity by everyone getting infected should _not_ be a goal. That's still going to kill many, many people. The estimate for the US by that route was around 2.5million dead. You could probably scale that by population size and maybe reduce a bit as we get better at treatment for this disease, but…

> Herd immunity by everyone getting infected should _not_ be a goal.

Hope is not a strategy. You have presented no way to do testing and tracing in the US.

Re: Is It Okay to Go to the Beach?

#28
post #6

The problem is all those people ALSO go somewhere else AFTER the beach. Do they need to go to the bathroom? Do they all need gasoline for their cars? Snacks to go home? Are they all overloading the stores on the way out? Do they need to hit an ATM? THAT'S where all the spread will occur. Especially amongst a bunch of entitled dipshits who also don't believe in wearing masks or washing hands.

You ask a lot of questions for which the answer may very well be “no”.

Re: Is It Okay to Go to the Beach?

#29
post #20
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Germany is about to get rid of wearing masks in stores. That's like turning off the firewall because the attack is over. It's preventive, so you need to wear a mask before sth happens. There were 140 new cases in Germany yesterday in a country of 83 million. In my city of 3,5 million there were 17 new cases. At what point would you say it's safe to not wear a mask in stores?

When it's been ZERO for a while. Obviously? I don't understand this question at all. As long a there's >=1 case and little immunity the virus WILL spread.

this is literally impossible and completely ridiculous

Re: Is It Okay to Go to the Beach?

#30
post #28
post #6

The problem is all those people ALSO go somewhere else AFTER the beach. Do they need to go to the bathroom? Do they all need gasoline for their cars? Snacks to go home? Are they all overloading the stores on the way out? Do they need to hit an ATM? THAT'S where all the spread will occur. Especially amongst a bunch of entitled dipshits who also don't believe in wearing masks or washing hands.

You ask a lot of questions for which the answer may very well be “no”.

Only if people plan ahead and make some attempt to help contain the disease (wearing masks, limiting non-essential indoor stops, social distancing), which it's now been proven we can't rely on (at least in the US).

Unfortunately the people who feel most comfortable leaving the house are the people who are least likely to take precautions, which seems like a recipe for lots of super spreaders to me.

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