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If only optimism could kill viruses.

spookthesunset 7y ago
Humans are wired for doomsday scenarios. Our brains love to imagine the worst case scenarios.... probably how we survived as a species for so long. Our brains have not evolved to deal with 24/7 media coupled with social media, HN, Reddit, YouTube and every other information source feeding us a nonstop stream of raw unfiltered data. Dunno where I’m going with this but our brains latch onto stuff like this and run wild. Multiply by billions of brains doing the same thing and there is a massive social and political pressure to “do something”. Who the fuck knows what is really happening. We have plenty of “facts” and “information” floating around but no way to make any sense of it. All we can do is imagine the worst and replay “prepare for the worst, hope for the best” or “better safe than sorry”. Except unchecked that attitude can make things worse. And, in short, that is why I’m not in the office today and pretending to work at home just like everybody else here.
- yiyus 7y ago
  The people in the saturated hospitals know what's going on. HN or Reddit had nothing to do with that.
  - spookthesunset 7y ago
    > saturated hospitals citation needed. PS: you should easily be able to cite that statement in favor or in disfavor of your statement. Both citations will be equally valid and invalid.
    - joshuahedlund 7y ago
      > An anesthesiologist at a hospital in Bergamo, one of the cities with the most cases of Covid-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus, told the paper that the intensive care unit was already at capacity, and doctors were being forced to start making difficult triage decisions, admitting people who desperately need mechanical ventilation based on age, life expectancy, and other factors. Just like in wartime. > The hospital in Bergamo was not the only hospital in the area dealing with a lack of capacity and rationing of care. The same day, I heard from a manager in the Lombardy health care system, among the most advanced and well-funded in Europe, that he saw anesthesiologists weeping in the hospital hallways because of the choices they are going to have to make. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/03/13/opinion/coronavirus-cautionary-tale-italy-dont-do-what-we-did/ https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/03/13/opinion/coronavirus-c...
      - spookthesunset 7y ago
        That article is five days old. Find something from today suggesting the same. And make it relevant to the entire world. Italy is not a model for how this is going down in other countries. Every region is different (and more important has different data collection methods, making it hard to compare two areas) Again, nobody knows what the fuck is going on. Chill out, stop spreading panic and think critically about things. It’s okay to question stuff.
        riffraff 7y ago
        I am sad to say, official sources say that the Bergamo hospital ran out of intensive care units yesterday. This is one of the articles in Italian, there are plenty if you look for the last 24h news. https://it.notizie.yahoo.com/coronavirus-bergamo-terapia-intensiva-sono-173600254.html https://it.notizie.yahoo.com/coronavirus-bergamo-terapia-int... You are right that every country and region is different, but collection methods have nothing to do with the hospitals being flooded with sick people, that would be true if there were 1 or 1 million tests being administered.
    - yiyus 7y ago
      > citation needed It would be ridiculous to copy here the URL of all newspapers and TV channels in Europe. You can also easily find doctors and other personal in hospitals saying they are over capacity. You can also see how in China they had to build new hospitals. If you need me to give you a citation to understand that this is a huge shitstorm for our health systems you are just stupid.
- gourabmi 7y ago
  Perhaps this is a side effect of subscribing to unhealthy number of true crime podcasts and listening to police radio.
kazinator 7y ago
Not to mention if pessimism could kill viruses!

Humans are wired for doomsday scenarios. Our brains love to imagine the worst case scenarios.... probably how we survived as a species for so long. Our brains have not evolved to deal with 24/7 media coupled with social media, HN, Reddit, YouTube and every other information source feeding us a nonstop stream of raw unfiltered data. Dunno where I’m going with this but our brains latch onto stuff like this and run wild. Multiply by billions of brains doing the same thing and there is a massive social and political pressure to “do something”. Who the fuck knows what is really happening. We have plenty of “facts” and “information” floating around but no way to make any sense of it. All we can do is imagine the worst and replay “prepare for the worst, hope for the best” or “better safe than sorry”. Except unchecked that attitude can make things worse. And, in short, that is why I’m not in the office today and pretending to work at home just like everybody else here.

yiyus 7y ago
The people in the saturated hospitals know what's going on. HN or Reddit had nothing to do with that.
- spookthesunset 7y ago
  > saturated hospitals citation needed. PS: you should easily be able to cite that statement in favor or in disfavor of your statement. Both citations will be equally valid and invalid.
  - joshuahedlund 7y ago
    > An anesthesiologist at a hospital in Bergamo, one of the cities with the most cases of Covid-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus, told the paper that the intensive care unit was already at capacity, and doctors were being forced to start making difficult triage decisions, admitting people who desperately need mechanical ventilation based on age, life expectancy, and other factors. Just like in wartime. > The hospital in Bergamo was not the only hospital in the area dealing with a lack of capacity and rationing of care. The same day, I heard from a manager in the Lombardy health care system, among the most advanced and well-funded in Europe, that he saw anesthesiologists weeping in the hospital hallways because of the choices they are going to have to make. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/03/13/opinion/coronavirus-cautionary-tale-italy-dont-do-what-we-did/ https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/03/13/opinion/coronavirus-c...
    - spookthesunset 7y ago
      That article is five days old. Find something from today suggesting the same. And make it relevant to the entire world. Italy is not a model for how this is going down in other countries. Every region is different (and more important has different data collection methods, making it hard to compare two areas) Again, nobody knows what the fuck is going on. Chill out, stop spreading panic and think critically about things. It’s okay to question stuff.
      - riffraff 7y ago
        I am sad to say, official sources say that the Bergamo hospital ran out of intensive care units yesterday. This is one of the articles in Italian, there are plenty if you look for the last 24h news. https://it.notizie.yahoo.com/coronavirus-bergamo-terapia-intensiva-sono-173600254.html https://it.notizie.yahoo.com/coronavirus-bergamo-terapia-int... You are right that every country and region is different, but collection methods have nothing to do with the hospitals being flooded with sick people, that would be true if there were 1 or 1 million tests being administered.
  - yiyus 7y ago
    > citation needed It would be ridiculous to copy here the URL of all newspapers and TV channels in Europe. You can also easily find doctors and other personal in hospitals saying they are over capacity. You can also see how in China they had to build new hospitals. If you need me to give you a citation to understand that this is a huge shitstorm for our health systems you are just stupid.
gourabmi 7y ago
Perhaps this is a side effect of subscribing to unhealthy number of true crime podcasts and listening to police radio.

kazinator 7y ago

Not to mention if pessimism could kill viruses!