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• TeMPOraL 7y ago
  Have you read that blog post? He published a hash as a point of reference (which is a great thing in itself, because "nobody could see it coming" bullshit comments are plenty), but on top of that, he started and led a working group and spoke out behind the scenes to relevant parties, in order to save lives. You'd have him die on his sword and achieve nothing just for the sake of appearances.
  • ipsum2 7y ago
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    • TeMPOraL 7y ago
      Public sentiment alone isn't sufficient to push a country into closing down. The work done by Patrick may or may not have contributed to the authorities deciding to go ahead with the lockdown.
• hbosch 7y ago
  Exactly what kind of clout do you think he has? What kind of audience? He's a local celeb here on HN, and more broadly a somewhat prominent figure in tech circles, but he's not Bill Gates. Certainly he isn't the kind of guy to get a slot on CNN and further, if he did, he wouldn't be taken seriously. While I get your point (why hide a prediction that could have saved lives?), I think you're overly idealistic about what impact this same prediction would have had if released publicly at the time.
  • ipsum2 7y ago
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• tvanantwerp 7y ago
  As someone who works in policy, his response was about as good as I could hope for from someone not involved in policy normally. Talking privately to credible people, working with experts, and getting the message to media channels, are all what you're supposed to do. Him shouting on Twitter wouldn't have accomplished anything. (I'm still a bit mystified by the purpose of the whole hash dropping thing. I don't really know what it achieves, aside from the potential to say "I knew it!" at some point in the future.)