4 ms·

If you think there's a lot of blind (and wild!) speculation happening here, you should see what's happening in hospitals by physicians and infectious disease ex

If you think there's a lot of blind (and wild!) speculation happening here, you should see what's happening in hospitals by physicians and infectious disease experts! We're just seeing how the sausage is made in a medical crisis. And it is never pretty.

cowpig 7y ago
Sure, but those people know a bunch of things we don't, and are not speculating on an internet message board for thousands of random people to read.
- trentnix 7y ago
  We? My experience has been that Hacker News is filled with world-class experts on all manner of subjects. I've no doubt infectious diseases is one of those subjects, as well.
  - cowpig 7y ago
    Supposing for a second that you're right, you still need the average upvoter/downvoter to be able to tell the difference between the opinions of world-class experts and convincing but baseless speculation for the whole system not to become a misinformation machine. And even if you have that, there's always a risk that someone out there reads the most dangerously stupid comments and interpret them as gospel no matter how downvoted.
    - Nuzzerino 7y ago
      Since when did the goal of the Internet become to protect people from harmful information? This has been used as a justification for mass censorship and it needs to stop.
- lbeltrame 7y ago
  > and are not speculating on an internet message board for thousands of random people to read. I don't know about the USA, but on TV here (Italy), yes they do. EDIT to avoid sounding too snarky: there are plenty of experts many times on TV, however the public is not aware of the unknowns and the constant challenging of ideas that usually occurs in scientific settings (and so the press). The result is that there are often contradictory statements which confuse the general population (also the press is not helping at all), which considers "science" as "truth".

cowpig 7y ago

Sure, but those people know a bunch of things we don't, and are not speculating on an internet message board for thousands of random people to read.

trentnix 7y ago
We? My experience has been that Hacker News is filled with world-class experts on all manner of subjects. I've no doubt infectious diseases is one of those subjects, as well.
- cowpig 7y ago
  Supposing for a second that you're right, you still need the average upvoter/downvoter to be able to tell the difference between the opinions of world-class experts and convincing but baseless speculation for the whole system not to become a misinformation machine. And even if you have that, there's always a risk that someone out there reads the most dangerously stupid comments and interpret them as gospel no matter how downvoted.
  - Nuzzerino 7y ago
    Since when did the goal of the Internet become to protect people from harmful information? This has been used as a justification for mass censorship and it needs to stop.
lbeltrame 7y ago
> and are not speculating on an internet message board for thousands of random people to read. I don't know about the USA, but on TV here (Italy), yes they do. EDIT to avoid sounding too snarky: there are plenty of experts many times on TV, however the public is not aware of the unknowns and the constant challenging of ideas that usually occurs in scientific settings (and so the press). The result is that there are often contradictory statements which confuse the general population (also the press is not helping at all), which considers "science" as "truth".