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I'll gladly take trigger-happy health authorities! That's literally their primary function: to sound the alarm. Edit: I'm looking at you, Santa Clara County

I'll gladly take trigger-happy health authorities! That's literally their primary function: to sound the alarm. Edit: I'm looking at you, Santa Clara County Health department, for NOT doing enough.

catalogia 7y ago
> That's literally their primary function: to sound the alarm. Yes, but if they sound the alarm too frequently they'll get a reputation as "the boy who cries wolf." When there really is a wolf, their alarm needs to be believed for it to have any value. What they have here is an unenviable balancing act. Sound the alarm too frequently, and the alarm is worthless. Sound the alarm too infrequently, and the alarm is worthless. Edit: Blackwater rebrands itself to make itself more obscure, which runs precisely counter to the goal of spreading public awareness / sounding alarms.
- munk-a 7y ago
  I actually don't know if that's really a huge concern - if the WHO burned their public trust they could always be publicly dismantled and replaced with a new committee[1] - these outbreaks happen rarely enough that public memory isn't going to sustain that well across multiple failures. Good behavior induced by fear is a real asset in pandemics so we need to not be hesitant to use it. 1. A.k.a. "The Blackwater Approach"
- JamesBarney 7y ago
  The whole reason you have the alarm though is for a situation specifically like this. This is a once in a century pandemic, and they missed it.
  - dragonwriter 7y ago
    They did not. They have been saying it is likely to become a pandemic from very early on. They didn't suddenly radically redefine “pandemic” to mean “likely near future pandemic”, but they didn't miss it. They were ignored by lots of governments, but that's the involved governments’ failure.
MiroF 7y ago
I would absolutely not. My university was just cancelled and I would not like that to happen lightly.

I'll gladly take trigger-happy health authorities! That's literally their primary function: to sound the alarm. Edit: I'm looking at you, Santa Clara County Health department, for NOT doing enough.

catalogia 7y ago

> That's literally their primary function: to sound the alarm. Yes, but if they sound the alarm too frequently they'll get a reputation as "the boy who cries wolf." When there really is a wolf, their alarm needs to be believed for it to have any value. What they have here is an unenviable balancing act. Sound the alarm too frequently, and the alarm is worthless. Sound the alarm too infrequently, and the alarm is worthless. Edit: Blackwater rebrands itself to make itself more obscure, which runs precisely counter to the goal of spreading public awareness / sounding alarms.

munk-a 7y ago
I actually don't know if that's really a huge concern - if the WHO burned their public trust they could always be publicly dismantled and replaced with a new committee[1] - these outbreaks happen rarely enough that public memory isn't going to sustain that well across multiple failures. Good behavior induced by fear is a real asset in pandemics so we need to not be hesitant to use it. 1. A.k.a. "The Blackwater Approach"
JamesBarney 7y ago
The whole reason you have the alarm though is for a situation specifically like this. This is a once in a century pandemic, and they missed it.
- dragonwriter 7y ago
  They did not. They have been saying it is likely to become a pandemic from very early on. They didn't suddenly radically redefine “pandemic” to mean “likely near future pandemic”, but they didn't miss it. They were ignored by lots of governments, but that's the involved governments’ failure.

MiroF 7y ago

I would absolutely not. My university was just cancelled and I would not like that to happen lightly.