4 ms·

The kind of mass testing and case tracking that's most effective is a considerable (hopefully temporary) sacrifice to privacy rights, compared to the sacrifice

The kind of mass testing and case tracking that's most effective is a considerable (hopefully temporary) sacrifice to privacy rights, compared to the sacrifice of movement rights necessary for social distancing. The modeling is fairly clear that the tracking is a more effective public health measure than the distancing, and the general public don't get as riled up about erosions to privacy rights as other "realer" ones. It'll be interesting to see what happens. In the mean time we'll continue to have ineffective measures because I think a lot of meat space businesses will have a kind of prisoner's dilemma going on. If every company voluntarily isolates, the pandemic damage is minimized, but the larger the percent of a given industry that isolates, the larger market share is left for any company/individual that operates business as usual.

microcolonel 7y ago
> The kind of mass testing and case tracking that's most effective is a considerable (hopefully temporary) sacrifice to privacy rights I mean, it doesn't really have to be. It's really no secret when you have complications from this disease. Cautious quarantine is probably the reasonable procedure for those who refuse to be tested or share their results. It isn't a broad invasion of privacy, but a specific request for information. > If every company voluntarily isolates, the pandemic damage is minimized, but the larger the percent of a given industry that isolates, the larger market share is left for any company/individual that operates business as usual. I don't think it's that simple. The damage of the disease may be minimized by that approach, for as long as you can sustain it (you can't forever), but the overall damage, or even the mortality, isn't necessarily limited most effectively by non-essential businesses remaining closed until we have a vaccine or a very effective treatment.

microcolonel 7y ago

> The kind of mass testing and case tracking that's most effective is a considerable (hopefully temporary) sacrifice to privacy rights I mean, it doesn't really have to be. It's really no secret when you have complications from this disease. Cautious quarantine is probably the reasonable procedure for those who refuse to be tested or share their results. It isn't a broad invasion of privacy, but a specific request for information. > If every company voluntarily isolates, the pandemic damage is minimized, but the larger the percent of a given industry that isolates, the larger market share is left for any company/individual that operates business as usual. I don't think it's that simple. The damage of the disease may be minimized by that approach, for as long as you can sustain it (you can't forever), but the overall damage, or even the mortality, isn't necessarily limited most effectively by non-essential businesses remaining closed until we have a vaccine or a very effective treatment.