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This is a great resource, but I hope that the author sees this comment. If you want to maximize credibility, remove the line about supporting artists, and anyt
by wtvanhest 7y ago
This is a great resource, but I hope that the author sees this comment.
If you want to maximize credibility, remove the line about supporting artists, and anything that can be perceived as political like the line about healthcare.
Artists are a small percentage of people impacted, restaurant workers, nail salons, retail, hotels, airline employees, contractors, massage professionals etc. The list is almost limitless. If you are in another group, you are going to read that line, and think, what about me?
Healthcare is a politically charged issue, right or wrong, listing that here discredits the message for half the readers.
The overall message is important, and I encourage the author to make a few tweaks to get it in front of more people and save lives.
- sigstoat 7y ago> Healthcare is a politically charged issue, right or wrong, listing that here discredits the message for half the readers. and regardless of what one thinks about the issue, there is no way the US is passing sweeping legislation overhauling the whole system, and getting it implemented, in time to do any good at all in the current situation.
- maxerickson 7y agoYou don't need sweeping reform to bolster confidence in the healthcare system, a targeted emergency appropriation can go a long way. Congress saying they are going to pass a bill to pay for testing and then doing it would not be difficult, and it would reduce qualms about getting tests.
- HarryHirsch 7y agoWho is going to pay the bill for the massive run on hospitals that is going to take place in early May, if Italy is any guide? Unless the major health insurers have adequate reinsurance in place, they are going to go belly-up. Same with hospital providers, they are going to have to provide surge capacity, yet in the last 30 years they have been run by economists who have been trained in the just-in-time mindset. There will have to be a bailout, and the aftermath should mean nationalization. Public health has been neglected for far too long.
- guerrilla 7y ago> Who is going to pay the bill The people that have the money to do so.
- Der_Einzige 7y agoMaybe those readers who can't filter out the "politically charged information" wouldn't be especially helped by lists like this anyway.
- bentona 7y agoI agree. When I read something like this, I have a hard time trusting that the rest of an article isn't aimed at pushing a political agenda rather than spreading information directly related to containment. I'd rather not have to be suspicious and just focus on consuming & evaluating the scientific information.
- yodsanklai 7y agoI have the same feeling about WHO after seeing their treatment of Taiwan at the beginning of the epidemic.
- elicash 7y agoPartisanship I'd argue is bad. Politics, however, is not. The idea that we should ignore the state of our healthcare system because we find politics icky is counter-productive to building an effective system for dealing with public health systems. We can't avoid facts because they're uncomfortable and the public needs to be engaged with political leadership for problems to be solved. That's politics. You don't "save lives" by saying discussion of the healthcare system is off-limits. The two things are quite related to one another!
- swsieber 7y agoActually, you do save lives because more people will listen. Pushing to change the healthcare in the U.S. is a very partisan thing.
- elicash 7y agoIf one of our two political parties was calling for everybody to lick doorknobs in areas where there have been coronavirus outbreaks, does arguing against that suddenly become partisan? How about experts talk about what's in their experience and then it's the job of open-minded citizens to evaluate it, hopefully with good political leadership from elected officials? Now, it's fair to weigh different public health experts advice, and it's fair to also weigh what experts on economics have to say, so that we can evaluate pros and cons. But this idea that experts shouldn't talk about healthcare systems that need to be changed in order to better meet the moment because talking about it is "politics"... Sorry, but I don't think it makes sense. You don't solve problems by running away from them. Experts can do more than say that we should wash our hands. In fact, we need them to!
- throw7337 7y agoHonestly there are people who just do not care. Article has interesting content. But political stuff is just like ads, you ignore it, or go away if it becomes too annoying. I am not even from US, we have universal healthcare, but it is even more broken than yours.
- 7y ago
- gnicholas 7y agoWhere is the line about artists? When I searched via ctrl-F, I couldn't find it. Is it embedded in one of the images? Or has it already been removed?
- tnorthcutt 7y agoLive performers are going to be hard hit economically. Consider supporting their work on Patreon, directly via PayPal, or attend only the smaller shows. Promote them on social media. Buy their work directly.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- BOBOTWINSTON 7y agoI think he is referencing this line in particular. "Live performers are going to be hard hit economically. Consider supporting their work on Patreon, directly via PayPal, or attend only the smaller shows. Promote them on social media. Buy their work directly." I do not really agree with removing this line, as it is good advice. I wouldn't be against expanding the content to include other professions, although the single-payer advocacy kind of does that for some of them.
- xenocyon 7y agoRather than criticize public health messaging for being at odds with popular political positions, shouldn't we put the onus on popular politicians and parties to embrace whatever health policy is best suited to public health needs?
- downandout 7y agoI wholeheartedly agree...”Never has there been a clearer case for single-payer health care as a public good. The voting public in the US need to care as much about “keeping their doctor” as they do about keeping their doctor alive.” Regardless of your political point of view, when you see political statements like this, it should raise serious doubts about the veracity of everything else in the article, regardless of how factual it may be. Even if every fact in it is true, the clearly political motives of the author indicate that they likely cherry picked facts to support their viewpoint. One only need tune into CNN or Fox News to see how political propaganda masquerading as “news” is toxic for society and how “facts” can be warped to support any point of view.
- wyldfire 7y agoA similarly pithy but purely scientific resource is the paper referenced here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22531962 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22531962 US Coronavirus team referenced this (very short, very clear) paper with short, concrete guides for school, work and home. It's completely apolitical.
- Jaruzel 7y agoI think the author would get more credibility if they didn't just link to several other twitter posts - and actually linked to proper data from the WHO etc.
- slowhand09 7y agoTotally agree. Wife has a small business. She's lost $20k in contracts in 2ks. Gonna affect her 45 employees. She gets no sympathy, yet she has to pay the business expenses regardless, taxes, unemployment... Politics will turn people away.
- elicash 7y agoLoans and tax breaks for small businesses are exactly one of the POLITICAL recommendations being considered right now. If one party is against them, should experts (in this case economic) not weigh in?
- wtvanhest 7y agoThe political discussion should happen separately from a brilliant piece of writing that has the ability to encourage many people to act in a way that will save lives. Muddying that message with political and partisan discussion is not helpful. Your comments are not constructive to this discussion and the messaging around healthcare and artists is not constructive to the messaging in the document. The fact that you cannot see that only highlights my point.
- elicash 7y agoI'm against partisanship, as stated above. But this idea of yours that by disagreeing with you, it means you're right, is absurd. If we agreed, would that mean you were wrong?
- grey-area 7y agoThe assertions in the article are factually true.
- pmlnr 7y agoNo. The support artists is part of the theme of support eachother that is omnipresent in the writing. Apart from this in the age of streaming the only spurce of income for eg bands are live gigs, so the advice is good, and not just now; do support your favourite bands, painters, musicians, etc., and do it directly. If the gig is out, buy merch.
- grecy 7y ago> Healthcare is a politically charged issue Which is kind of amazing in itself given it's a basic human right in so many countries and taken for granted.
- TaylorGood 7y agoThis is what I posted last night on my Instagram: “Opinions aside, this is affecting everything indefinitely” Unless you have real property, reserves or a salary to ride, the only option is to try and adapt.
- lgleason 7y agoAgreed, I saw that political/moralizing comments and stopped reading. Most of this is common sense, but when I see the political talk I'm much more suspicious of the actual message.
- jpambrun 7y agoNot discussing the healthcare system because it's "politically charged" is only good for those who advocate for status quo. In addition, artist are indeed a small fraction of the population, but this offending sentence is also a very small fraction of the writeup..