I don't know what's the best way of dealing with it, but what I do know is that what's Australia's doing is a recipe of what to avoid doing. Whatever's the way forward, it can't be arresting people for being outside, tagging people's homes like they're lepers or something and building concentration camps for the forced relocation of the sick.
The Coronavirus Is Here Forever
841–850 of 1001 posts
Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever
#842I don't know what's the best way of dealing with it, but what I do know is that what's Australia's doing is a recipe of what to avoid doing. Whatever's the way forward, it can't be arresting people for being outside, tagging people's homes like they're lepers or something and building concentration camps for the forced relocation of the sick.
"tagging people's homes like they're lepers or something and building concentration camps for the forced relocation of the sick"
Are you sure you want to compare the current policy to building concentration camps?
Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever
#843I have an idea: can someone write a script to compare current covid cases among countries as a function of vaccination rates. Same for deaths/1 miliion population. I don't have skills for that, but this is HN after all, so there should be someone... (One of the parameters should be a timeline of vaccinations - vaccines tend to wane over time, we have a chance to figure out to what extent).
Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever
#844At this point we almost know too much about the spread of this disease. Never in history have we tested so much for one thing. Never in history have we really worried about asymptomatic cases of anything. This is probably the first time in history that the whole world has the same scary thing as their front-page news. It's going to be really, really hard for us to shake the mindset that thousands of covid cases === d…
Thousands of COVID cases is a small bit of danger, but there are many other things to worry about, and some pockets of the world are already "over" worrying about COVID. People mostly irrationally respond to fear and panic, I doubt whether we can accurately predict what the future mindset will be on various threats.
Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever
#845Nonpharmaceutical interventions do work. With Internet and E-commerce, full scale lockdown becomes tenable. Together with mass PCR testing, the virus can be eradicated. The virus can't teleport, and it is here to stay only because the decision-makers thought that it was the cheaper option to let it spread (it is not), then didn't want to admit being wrong. It is sad to see that with all the technologies available, th…
The virus is in animal hosts already, so it probably won't be eradicated. Even if it wasn't in animals, there are countries with principles of freedom where some 10-30% won't listen to a lockdown. It's unlikely those countries will all change their foundational cultural principles. I don't think technology is the only factor, think of looseness and tightness of cultural behavior, think of self-regard vs regard for others. These things matter, it's not all about grocery delivery and Zoom meetings. Especially for the meat-packers who make the groceries in factories, and the healthcare workers who need to go in to the physical clinic, etc.
Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever
#846Specially given that after a year and a half we still don't seem to ponder that livestock, hunting, deforestation, and all sorts of animal experimenting mean another deadly disease could slip up anytime as it just did.
Deforestation is relevant here? What are you on about
I believe the premise is that close contact with nature may lead to species-hopping viruses transmitting to us. Combine that with bats like to live on human structures, double whammy. Bats are highly social and create breeding-grounds for tons of pathogens.
Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever
#847There is lots of competition for the top of the stupidity list. NYC locking down all summer and then 'opening up' in September seemed top of the list to me. It's not that I thought they should have stayed locked down the entire time, its that they should have opened in the summer so they could lock down in the winter if they really needed it. But seriously though, locking down in the summer to only open up in flu sea…
On the curve, hospital beds are basically flat compared to a covid spike. There is no rational amount of beds that is enough, because bed estimates are always a guess: wrong and wasteful because too many and then suddenly too few. And then you need doctors and nurses. And the disease spikes in one area and then another. Do you ship beds around?
Easier to take personal responsibility than depend on the government or whoever is meant to parachute in all the beds and doctors to save us from our own misunderstanding of exponential growth curves.
Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever
#848There is lots of competition for the top of the stupidity list. NYC locking down all summer and then 'opening up' in September seemed top of the list to me. It's not that I thought they should have stayed locked down the entire time, its that they should have opened in the summer so they could lock down in the winter if they really needed it. But seriously though, locking down in the summer to only open up in flu sea…
Or how about how everyone was anti mask in the beginning, including the CDC, WHO, and my very liberal coworkers. When I said it would be advisable to wear a mask when in crowded places March, 2020 - I was heckled for not following the science.
Hindsight is always 20/20, early on the virus was not believed to be airborne, only spread through relatively large droplets from coughing/sneezing which you'd likely only encounter in close contact with an actively ill person. Plus, Fauci had the responsibility to preserve masks for those that would be exposed directly to infected people - the medical workers and first responders.
The first lockdown in the USA was mid-march, and the mask guidance had already changed by the beginning of April as we understood more about how the disease spread.
Early guidance (and news coverage) also recommended sanitizing surfaces to prevent the spread of the disease, but surface contact was later found to be a less significant mode of transmission.
As far as making the vaccines political, well they don't have to be. some research has shown that they don't do very well at stopping spread, so why all the fuss to force people to get vaccinated? just say do it for yourself if you want to, politics removed.
People with serious diseases are being turned away from hospitals or asked to reschedule appointments/visits because hospitals are overwhelmed with COVID patients (and healthcare workers are being pushed to the limit). Vaccines are a public health decision, not a personal decision.
Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever
#849who even cares? many bad things are here forever ... why is this such a shock to many people - I don't get it.
"Who even cares?" It takes empathy-blinders to not see this. Think of all the people whose livelihoods were incredibly damaged by Coronavirus: the children whose parents died alone in an ICU and no one was allowed to see them; the young fathers who couldn't be with their wife as she gives birth; the millions who lost jobs; the thousands upon thousands of businesses and cultural events ended.
This is a material worsening of society and our economy, that's why people care. Do you even care about the happiness and health of fellow humans?
Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever
#850"The transition to endemic COVID-19 is also a psychological one. When everyone has some immunity, a COVID-19 diagnosis becomes as routine as diagnosis of strep or flu—not good news, but not a reason for particular fear or worry or embarrassment either. That means unlearning a year of messaging that said COVID-19 was not just a flu. If the confusion around the CDC dropping mask recommendations for the vaccinated earli…
This informed post is optimistic about covid after it's endemic: https://cspicenter.org/blog/waronscience/why-covid-19-is-her...