4 ms·

It's getting very hard to believe the UK story. I mean, i get exceptionalism, but this is going too far.

toyg 7y ago
The UK has some of the best epidemiology schools and experience, thanks to a tradition harking back to the British Empire expanding in very dangerous lands. HOWEVER Imho, precisely this wealth of experience is driving a lot of people to overthinking it, looking too much at the long-term big picture and not weighting the immediate costs correctly. Some people have ended up in Strangelove territory and we risk paying a big price for it. Saving more people right now is worth, say, a longer impact on the economy or longer quarantine measures, if anything because those are social constructs that can adapt - whereas our bodies work only one way.
- buboard 7y ago
  > The UK has some of the best epidemiology schools and experience, thanks to a tradition harking back to the British Empire expanding in very dangerous lands. This is not an argument in 2020. This is the kind of exceptionalism i m talking about
  - toyg 7y ago
    I’m not the one saying that, Italian experts are saying it, because it increases the level of bafflement they experience when looking at the (non-)approach the UK is taking at the moment. I am extremely critical of this (non-)approach, I’m just trying to figure out where it comes from and this might well be a factor, sadly. After 2016, I’ve learnt never to underestimate the often-misplaced sense of superiority that the English upper classes have drilled into the wider population for the last 200 years, and the degree of detachment of their elites.
- mrob 7y ago
  If they really know something the rest of Europe doesn't, don't they have a moral duty to release their data and models? This might save millions of lives when all the other countries realize they're doing it wrong. Without such transparency, it's easy to assume they've calculated they'll lose more votes to a recession that they would to predominantly Tory-voting elderly people dying. It's not saying this is their actual motivation, but secrecy breeds suspicion.

toyg 7y ago

The UK has some of the best epidemiology schools and experience, thanks to a tradition harking back to the British Empire expanding in very dangerous lands. HOWEVER Imho, precisely this wealth of experience is driving a lot of people to overthinking it, looking too much at the long-term big picture and not weighting the immediate costs correctly. Some people have ended up in Strangelove territory and we risk paying a big price for it. Saving more people right now is worth, say, a longer impact on the economy or longer quarantine measures, if anything because those are social constructs that can adapt - whereas our bodies work only one way.

buboard 7y ago
> The UK has some of the best epidemiology schools and experience, thanks to a tradition harking back to the British Empire expanding in very dangerous lands. This is not an argument in 2020. This is the kind of exceptionalism i m talking about
- toyg 7y ago
  I’m not the one saying that, Italian experts are saying it, because it increases the level of bafflement they experience when looking at the (non-)approach the UK is taking at the moment. I am extremely critical of this (non-)approach, I’m just trying to figure out where it comes from and this might well be a factor, sadly. After 2016, I’ve learnt never to underestimate the often-misplaced sense of superiority that the English upper classes have drilled into the wider population for the last 200 years, and the degree of detachment of their elites.
mrob 7y ago
If they really know something the rest of Europe doesn't, don't they have a moral duty to release their data and models? This might save millions of lives when all the other countries realize they're doing it wrong. Without such transparency, it's easy to assume they've calculated they'll lose more votes to a recession that they would to predominantly Tory-voting elderly people dying. It's not saying this is their actual motivation, but secrecy breeds suspicion.