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Governments have other concerns besides your individual health. They need to prevent panic as much as possible, prevent economic collapse, etc. The response t
by Consultant32452 7y ago
Governments have other concerns besides your individual health. They need to prevent panic as much as possible, prevent economic collapse, etc. The response to events like this can be worse than the initial problem.
What do you think happens if the CDC says everyone needs to wear masks, you go to your local store, and there are no masks? There would be violence in the streets.
- SteveNuts 7y agoThen why don't they have millions of masks stockpiled for an event like this?
- owenmarshall 7y agoThey do. But they aren’t stockpiled for you: they are stockpiled for medical professionals. And the 30 million the US has stockpiled is short by a factor of ten: https://time.com/5785223/medical-masks-coronavirus-covid-19/ https://time.com/5785223/medical-masks-coronavirus-covid-19/
- allovernow 7y agoIn any case we need more than masks for this. Medical equipment like mechanical ventilators, intubators, and external oxygenation machines. Those will run out very quickly.
- allovernow 7y ago>They need to prevent panic as much as possible, prevent economic collapse, etc. The response to events like this can be worse than the initial problem. If this event is half as bad as all the literature out of China is suggesting, panic is the least of our worries. What a responsible government should do is initiate some sort of recommendation for gradual stockpiling of goods - perhaps a lottery just to encourage the majority of people to calmly stock up in turns. In any case the CDC has already issued warning to prepare for "severe disruption to everyday life." Now it's up to the ignorant population to wake up and realize that this isn't just another flu.
- Consultant32452 7y agoThere simply is not enough supplies for everyone to slowly stockpile goods. Supply chains are already being disrupted. In China beekeepers are not able to get their bees to crops. The bees are starving. This will negatively impact global honey and crop yields for years. In Italy panic buys are already leaving shelves empty. If the government tells everyone to slowly stock up what will really happen is panic buys and wide spread violence.
- allovernow 7y agoThe alternative is a mass panic when the virus arrives.
- Consultant32452 7y agoExactly. If you have to choose between guaranteed mass panic today and probable mass panic tomorrow, always choose tomorrow. This is what the professionals at places like the CDC understand.
- Barrin92 7y ago>If this event is half as bad as all the literature out of China is suggesting, panic is the least of our worries No. The risk of dying from this disease is negligible for most American adults. The real issue with the corona virus is economic disruption and overburdening of the healthcare system. All of which is significantly exarbarated by panic.
- allovernow 7y ago>The real issue with the corona virus is economic disruption and overburdening of the healthcare system. All of which is significantly exarbarated by panic Which is literally the point of my post. The population ideally will have started gradual, orderly preparation sooner. At this point it's better to have a short panic early rather than end up in a situation where the government kept quiet but suddenly the virus is here and people are running out of food and there's a mass panic. The longer the government waits, the worse the outcome will be.
- im3w1l 7y ago> Governments have other concerns besides your individual health. Exactly. And that's why I'm gonna look out for myself.