Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Secret gyms and the economics of prohibition

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

441–450 of 1001 posts

Re: Secret gyms and the economics of prohibition

#441

Post by ghufran_syed »

briffle wrote: post #394
jdhn wrote: post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm tired of hearing about "the new normal". This is NOT normal, and the weak attempts to make it normal is just disgusting. Like you said, this isn't as deadly as people first thought it was, but it seems that those in charge don't want to admit that they're wrong, and as a result everybody is suffering from this even if they really wouldn't suffer from COVID.

When the virus hit China, it had around a 4% death rate. Now, in the US, we have 5.6M confirmed cases, and 175k deaths. That is 3% death rate. (although, deaths lag behind diagnosis) You're right, its less than they first feared, but not much. And still 30 times the death rate of the flu. There have been some groups that keep looking at the number of deaths, and compare it to the population as a whole, to make the nu…

and how many unconfirmed cases? I personally know 10 people who have had symptoms that are likely covid, but not serious enough to go get tested. The fact that the least symptomatic patients are also least likely to get tested means that the calculation you presented gives us, at best, an upper bound. A better way to get the true measure would be based on population-based antibody testing.

More info available at the WHO website: https://www.who.int/news-room/commentaries/detail/estimating...

Re: Secret gyms and the economics of prohibition

#442

Post by just-juan-post »

cowpig wrote: post #420
bazzert wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> We're approaching the total death toll of World War II[3]. assuming you mean the US death toll also bear in mind the median age of WW II casualties was something like 26; while the median age for covid victims is 75+. Not to diminish the latter but they are very different.

Does your figure include people who couldn't get medical attention because the health system is completely overwhelmed? Is it possible there are other issues you're not aware of, and that the people who spend their lives studying and preparing for these situations are?

> Does your figure include people who couldn't get medical attention because the health system is completely overwhelmed?

Do you have any articles about people being turned away from hospitals due to lack of capacity?

Re: Secret gyms and the economics of prohibition

#443

Post by bazzert »

cowpig wrote: post #420
bazzert wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> We're approaching the total death toll of World War II[3]. assuming you mean the US death toll also bear in mind the median age of WW II casualties was something like 26; while the median age for covid victims is 75+. Not to diminish the latter but they are very different.

Does your figure include people who couldn't get medical attention because the health system is completely overwhelmed? Is it possible there are other issues you're not aware of, and that the people who spend their lives studying and preparing for these situations are?

the health system was never "overwhelmed" except for brief periods and in specific locales. My spouse is in healthcare, they have still not recovered their normal census. If anything there will be a huge spike in cancer deaths due to late diagnosis etc as people have stayed away.

Re: Secret gyms and the economics of prohibition

#444

Post by reaperducer »

adolph wrote: post #143
reaperducer wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since each person's conception of "essential" is different There was someone on WGN-TV a few weeks ago lamenting that it was insulting for all of the hairdressers and manicurists and yoga instructors to be called "non-essential." I thought it was more insulting for that person to value the work of hairdressers and manicurists and yoga instructors on an equal basis with firefighters, doctors, paramedics, and actual re…

An irony of the "lockdown" is that all the activities that aren't "essential" are the reasons people have to live. "Essential" covers most of the basics in Maslow's hierarchy of needs. In the absence of Maxlow's top line items, why bother with the "essentials?" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs

If doing yoga or going to the gym are the only reasons someone has to live, they need mental health counseling.

Re: Secret gyms and the economics of prohibition

#445

Post by missedthecue »

reaperducer wrote: post #230
nitrogen wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's been a while since I've seen mention of actuarial analyses of the pandemic vs lockdowns. Could millions of people with muscle atrophy cause more economic harm?

Could millions of people with muscle atrophy cause more economic harm? Who cares? Why is "economic" harm so important? I'm really tired of people saying "But what about the economy?" I really don't care. I care about my health and the health of my family members. If some artisan dog biscuit company goes out of business, so be it.

That's fine. The problem people have is when the government bans the dog biscuit company from operating for arbitrary reasons and they go under

Re: Secret gyms and the economics of prohibition

#446

Post by jdhn »

alistairSH wrote: post #418
jdhn wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't believe this for a second. The total number of people that managed to contract it in New Zealand within the last week was under 10, and they locked down an entire city because of it.

So you're saying the lockdown worked?

No, I'm saying that the response in regards to the number of people who have contracted it is utterly ridiculous.

Re: Secret gyms and the economics of prohibition

#447

Post by alexrson »

zelly wrote: post #409

Virtually all the people who died of covid were fat[1]. If the military forced everyone to exercise (and diet, but that's harder to mandate than exercising) it would have been much more effective than forcing everyone to wear masks. (Masks are still good though.) Most of us are going to get covid even if we stay inside all day (I got it twice) so this should be a wake-up call to be prepared to survive it. Or don't, s…

In the cited article, the only statistic I see on weight specifically is that 74% of critically ill UK patients were overweight or obese, which makes it a risk factor but not the be all and end all, given what fraction of the whole pop fits that category (~65%).

It also says that 99% of deaths in Italy were from patients with pre-existing conditions, which would included weight related and non-weight related ones.

Regardless of COVID, maintaining a healthy weight is probably one of more important lifestyle changes one can make to reduce risk of overall mortality.

Re: Secret gyms and the economics of prohibition

#448

Post by footnotemotion »

andrelayer wrote: post #332

I think a lot of people in this discussion are pitting the argument at people prioritizing their individual choices over the collective health of the community. I think that is a very singular framing from one side. A lot of people I know just believe that the virus itself is not as deadly as the reaction warrants. The infectious mortality rate of Covid is at best twice that of the normal flu, which isn't nothing and…

It's ignorant to simply look at the mortality rate of the disease. You have to also consider how transmissible the disease is. If you infected the entire US population with the flu over the course of a few months it would be complete devastation even though it's just "the normal flu" in terms of how an individual's immune system deals with it.

By this logic COVID19 is nothing compared to SARS or EBOLA because those have higher mortality rates, but obviously COVID spreads much faster and farther so it has had a huge international impact.

Re: Secret gyms and the economics of prohibition

#449

Post by nightski »

jacobwilliamroy wrote: post #354
andrelayer wrote: post #332

I think a lot of people in this discussion are pitting the argument at people prioritizing their individual choices over the collective health of the community. I think that is a very singular framing from one side. A lot of people I know just believe that the virus itself is not as deadly as the reaction warrants. The infectious mortality rate of Covid is at best twice that of the normal flu, which isn't nothing and…

Not "possible depression". Depression. The economy crashed. It's over. The government's been buying the stock market to prop everything up. All the numbers you see are fabricated. The market never recovered from the initial crash. Last I checked a 3rd of Americans aren't paying rent now? It's going to explode dude.

The stock market recovery is not due to the government "buying the stock market" because they never did that.

If you look at winners and losers in the stock market, followed the Q2 earnings season and saw what companies were facing, it seems clear to me that our economy faced a transition rather than a crash. There are huge winners in this market. Home Depot, Target, and other major retailers all announced record breaking income this past quarter. People are still shopping. Tech has lead the charge due to WFH and the shift to online. There are many more factors in this economic shift than could be explained by the Fed's money printing.

Re: Secret gyms and the economics of prohibition

#450

Post by maaand »

abduhl wrote: post #412
polote wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not the issue. Best case in term of covid related death is to keep everyone at home, no freedom and get food delivery directly at the door Worst case, is to do as nothing happened There are a spectrum of possible responses. But we have to accept that some people are going to die if we want other to live. Each group can put the cursor where it wants, but you can't have, no death and complete freedom. Some peop…

This post highlights my favorite part of the keep everyone home argument: "get food delivery directly at the door." Who delivers the food if we keep everyone home? There is a subtle classist underpinning to the entire "Stay The Fuck Home" message which really shows how little people value others, especially lower-class (food delivery) or blue collar (food supply) workers. Everyone needs to stay home, except for the d…

This should be the highest rated comment!
Post reply on HN