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I've looked at your other posts, and you seem like a reasonable enough person. I don't have a horrible beef with you, but in general I really despise it when p
by xscott 7y ago
I've looked at your other posts, and you seem like a reasonable enough person. I don't have a horrible beef with you, but in general I really despise it when people do the chicken-little doom and gloom thing and project gazillions of deaths on every latest horrible thing. Yes, awful things happen, but it's like a disgusting yearly sport for arm chair experts to exercise their righteous indignation at all of us while preaching how we're all going to die from Africanized bees, Zika, H1N1, whatever. Usually it's mixed with some other two-faced political agenda. You didn't really do that, but maybe you'll forgive me for thinking your exercise in exponential growth fell into the same category.
These predictions are always shown to be exaggerated after the fact, and then the doomsayer gets to say something like, "Yeah, if it weren't for all of us telling you" or "You're ungrateful for disregarding all the hard work of everyone who came together to blah blah". There's no accountability for, or end to, the bullshit.
Moreover, while it's a morbid task, rational adults should be able to ask whether the costs we've paid dealing with this corona virus are worth it. At 758 deaths, and even 21 days later at 26,300 deaths, we've wrecked the lives of millions of people in the US. It's hard to find stats, but tens of millions of people are now unemployed, and many of their lives suck because of it. Doing arithmetic on suffering and death is distasteful, but there is some point where you wouldn't ruin N people's lives to save just 1 person from dying. Particularly when some of those N people are going to commit suicide in response etc... I won't be making any predictions, but other really bad things can happen when you've got a huge number of people who can't afford food or rent.
Two years ago, approximately 61,000 people died from the flu in the US and we didn't do anything more than make flu shots more available. As for over vs under counting, I hope you're not doing that pedantic "pneumonia isn't the flu" thing. The point is that 150,000 people around the world die every DAY from something, and 10,000 - 100,000 people in the US die every year from something with symptoms close to corona virus.
- DanBC 7y ago> Two years ago, approximately 61,000 If you're going to mention flu deaths please at least count covid-19 deaths using the same method. > people died from the flu in the US and we didn't do anything more than make flu shots more available. We have internationally coordinated campaigns of surveillance and data gathering. We have rapid vaccine development. We have global, regional, and local flu strategies. We have pandemic preparedness programmes. We put in place public health measures -- you may not have seen those but they're there. > Moreover, while it's a morbid task, rational adults should be able to ask whether the costs we've paid dealing with this corona virus are worth it. At 758 deaths, and even 21 days later at 26,300 deaths Do you know that you're undercounting covid-19 deaths? The number you quote is deaths in US hospitals. Many people die with covid-19 outside hospitals, mostly in care homes. This is partly because hospitals in some places are overwhelmed and they're triaging elderly frail people onto palliative pathways. And yet we still have people like you denying the reality by quoting statistics that you do not understand: covid-19 is causing massive excess mortality.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]