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Thousands of coronavirus tests are going unused in US labs

nature.com

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Re: Thousands of coronavirus tests are going unused in US labs

#11

Post by EarthIsHome »

whatshisface wrote: post #9
kingkawn wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As of this moment America has a little less than 17,000 dead from this. We could’ve used more competence and seriousness about this threat for the sake of everyone, not petty indulgences of performative outrage about a concept of freedom that feels hollow as we all are forced to hide.

You know, if the condition for giving up your rights is "the government says they have a good reason," then you never really had any rights at all. We're all smart, maybe there's a way to solve this without eliminating civil liberties - a way that we'll never discover if at the first sign of danger we yell "take our rights, oh wise rulers!" to the politicians who, of course, are willing to take them.

What civil liberties are you afraid of eliminating in a crisis like this?

Re: Thousands of coronavirus tests are going unused in US labs

#12

Post by krapp »

whatshisface wrote: post #9
kingkawn wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As of this moment America has a little less than 17,000 dead from this. We could’ve used more competence and seriousness about this threat for the sake of everyone, not petty indulgences of performative outrage about a concept of freedom that feels hollow as we all are forced to hide.

You know, if the condition for giving up your rights is "the government says they have a good reason," then you never really had any rights at all. We're all smart, maybe there's a way to solve this without eliminating civil liberties - a way that we'll never discover if at the first sign of danger we yell "take our rights, oh wise rulers!" to the politicians who, of course, are willing to take them.

I know it's common for Americans to assume everything their government does is a false-flag pretext for a fascist power grab, but to assume the government never has a good reason for drastic measures even in the midst of a global pandemic seems more cynical than necessary.

That's the kind of thinking that leads people to believe in FEMA death camps.

Re: Thousands of coronavirus tests are going unused in US labs

#13

Post by notyourday »

rmetzler wrote: post #5
kingkawn wrote: post #2

I live in nyc and have a brother who lives in Vietnam. When a person in my brother’s building tested positive for the coronavirus the government quarantined the building, tested every single person who lives and works there, stationed police outside to enforce the lockdown, and delivered food for two weeks. If someone had tested positive they would be relocated to a hospital facility for treatment. When the tests for…

Quarantine and testing is the way to fight the virus and be able to return to the normal as soon as possible. Western countries fear it’s not possible to do this and regulate the people much more than they usually do. But the problem is, without quarantine the virus is going to spread and shutting down the economy like they did now will have much bigger consequences over the long run. Too many people live from payche…

> Quarantine and testing is the way to fight the virus and be able to return to the normal as soon as possible.

What you are describing is a way to handle flare ups and it only works in police states. At the current time the only way to fight viruses is with vaccines. It is extremely unfortunate that even during this pandemic our experts keep avoiding repeating this.

Re: Thousands of coronavirus tests are going unused in US labs

#14

Post by asdfasgasdgasdg »

whatshisface wrote: post #9
kingkawn wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As of this moment America has a little less than 17,000 dead from this. We could’ve used more competence and seriousness about this threat for the sake of everyone, not petty indulgences of performative outrage about a concept of freedom that feels hollow as we all are forced to hide.

You know, if the condition for giving up your rights is "the government says they have a good reason," then you never really had any rights at all. We're all smart, maybe there's a way to solve this without eliminating civil liberties - a way that we'll never discover if at the first sign of danger we yell "take our rights, oh wise rulers!" to the politicians who, of course, are willing to take them.

> maybe there's a way to solve this without eliminating civil liberties

Maybe, but I've yet to see any plausible proposals. Do you have one?

Re: Thousands of coronavirus tests are going unused in US labs

#15

Post by amiga »

EarthIsHome wrote: post #11
whatshisface wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know, if the condition for giving up your rights is "the government says they have a good reason," then you never really had any rights at all. We're all smart, maybe there's a way to solve this without eliminating civil liberties - a way that we'll never discover if at the first sign of danger we yell "take our rights, oh wise rulers!" to the politicians who, of course, are willing to take them.

What civil liberties are you afraid of eliminating in a crisis like this?

Those willing to trade liberty for security deserve neither.

Re: Thousands of coronavirus tests are going unused in US labs

#16

Post by lbeltrame »

notyourday wrote: post #13
rmetzler wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quarantine and testing is the way to fight the virus and be able to return to the normal as soon as possible. Western countries fear it’s not possible to do this and regulate the people much more than they usually do. But the problem is, without quarantine the virus is going to spread and shutting down the economy like they did now will have much bigger consequences over the long run. Too many people live from payche…

> Quarantine and testing is the way to fight the virus and be able to return to the normal as soon as possible. What you are describing is a way to handle flare ups and it only works in police states. At the current time the only way to fight viruses is with vaccines. It is extremely unfortunate that even during this pandemic our experts keep avoiding repeating this.

Vaccines might not work. There are four at this point being studied in humans (everything else is preclinical), with three of them just in phase 1, that means testing safety, and not yet efficacy. We don't yet know whether they will work, or if the immunity will last long enough.

We need drugs before vaccines, to be able to treat the disease and/or its sympthoms and hopefully make sure patients don't end up in ICUs.

Re: Thousands of coronavirus tests are going unused in US labs

#17

Post by ceejayoz »

whb07 wrote: post #7
kingkawn wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As of this moment America has a little less than 17,000 dead from this. We could’ve used more competence and seriousness about this threat for the sake of everyone, not petty indulgences of performative outrage about a concept of freedom that feels hollow as we all are forced to hide.

And in that time span about the same people died from the "regular" flu. Speak for yourself, the "concept of freedom" that you talk about is one of the many reasons the U.S is what it is. The freedoms we have do have costs at times like these but the benefits vastly outweigh the costs.

“It only killed as many as the flu” is a weird talking point.

It killed that many with an unprecedented shutdown of the entire global economy to mitigate it.

Re: Thousands of coronavirus tests are going unused in US labs

#18

Post by usrusr »

whatshisface wrote: post #9
kingkawn wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As of this moment America has a little less than 17,000 dead from this. We could’ve used more competence and seriousness about this threat for the sake of everyone, not petty indulgences of performative outrage about a concept of freedom that feels hollow as we all are forced to hide.

You know, if the condition for giving up your rights is "the government says they have a good reason," then you never really had any rights at all. We're all smart, maybe there's a way to solve this without eliminating civil liberties - a way that we'll never discover if at the first sign of danger we yell "take our rights, oh wise rulers!" to the politicians who, of course, are willing to take them.

But it is also completely impossible to discover countermeasure methods that are highly efficient in "effect per loss of freedom" if every single change to the status quo is indiscriminately rejected as a slippery slope towards police state.

Re: Thousands of coronavirus tests are going unused in US labs

#19

Post by koolba »

EarthIsHome wrote: post #11
whatshisface wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know, if the condition for giving up your rights is "the government says they have a good reason," then you never really had any rights at all. We're all smart, maybe there's a way to solve this without eliminating civil liberties - a way that we'll never discover if at the first sign of danger we yell "take our rights, oh wise rulers!" to the politicians who, of course, are willing to take them.

What civil liberties are you afraid of eliminating in a crisis like this?

Both the right of assembly and the right to bear arms have been repeatedly infringed.

For example in CA: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-03-24/l-a-coun...

Re: Thousands of coronavirus tests are going unused in US labs

#20

Post by eecc »

notyourday wrote: post #13
rmetzler wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quarantine and testing is the way to fight the virus and be able to return to the normal as soon as possible. Western countries fear it’s not possible to do this and regulate the people much more than they usually do. But the problem is, without quarantine the virus is going to spread and shutting down the economy like they did now will have much bigger consequences over the long run. Too many people live from payche…

> Quarantine and testing is the way to fight the virus and be able to return to the normal as soon as possible. What you are describing is a way to handle flare ups and it only works in police states. At the current time the only way to fight viruses is with vaccines. It is extremely unfortunate that even during this pandemic our experts keep avoiding repeating this.

Oh come on, please stop this “it only works in police states” rhetoric. It’s not true, nor is the slippery slope argument.

Asking people to undergo testing and voluntary quarantine is perfectly within democratic bounds of civic duty and anyone with a iota of ethic is more than willing to collaborate. It’s also fair for a democratic society to compensate for any economic loss incurred.

It’s not necessary to use the iron fist except for the most egregiously anti-social deniers, but that’s the same as with the neighbors that refuse to turn down the volume of their music after 24:00

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