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Al Jazeera is always a good source for news ignored by the rest of the world. Here's social distancing in a prison in El Salvador -- not sure those masks will

Al Jazeera is always a good source for news ignored by the rest of the world. Here's social distancing in a prison in El Salvador -- not sure those masks will help much. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/el-salvador-inmates-crammed-prison-lockdown-200427204528364.html https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/el-salvador-inmates-c... In India in particular, the lockdown has so far caused more misery than the virus itself: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/india-covid-19-lockdown-means-food-work-rural-poor-200402052048439.html https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/india-covid-19-lockdo... ...although it's an impossible equation, because letting it turn rampant would also cause death and destruction.

ceejayoz 6y ago
> In India in particular, the lockdown has so far caused more misery than the virus itself... I mean, that's the point, right? Heart surgery hurts more than chest pain, but it's intended to prevent the heart attack.
- 9nGQluzmnq3M 6y ago
  Sure, but the implementation was still absurdly bad. For example, by imposing a harsh lockdown on cities with no plan for migrant workers, the only thing they could do was head home to their villages, ensuring the virus would be distributed widely across the country.
  - redisman 6y ago
    Can't say I'm surprised though. When and where do governments ever treat migrant workers as humans?
  - pinkfoot 6y ago
    Where do the migrant workers normally sleep? Answer: In the cities they chose to leave.
    - 9nGQluzmnq3M 6y ago
      "Chose"? Most of them live a hand to mouth existence: if they can't work, they don't eat.
- ashtonkem 6y ago
  That’s the rational calculus, yes. But humans have a really hard time balancing suffering today against hypothetical suffering tomorrow, especially when successful intervention makes it appear like the problem was never there in the first place.
  - nostrebored 6y ago
    That's an interesting presupposition, entirely unconfirmed by data.
    - doliveira 6y ago
      I don't know enough about psychology to Google the exact term, but let's not be so pedantic as to pretend it is not at least a plausible assumption.
      - nostrebored 6y ago
        No, this is a stance that's completely unsubstantiated, with the obvious tie in to COVID-19 that's also unsubstantiated.
        doliveira 6y ago
        Can you point to a study about this? In Bayesian terms most people would put the prior probability in favor of his common sense hypothesis. And you just have to Google for "psychology of risk perception" to get a few more studies in favor of it.
    - TeMPOraL 6y ago
      It's true almost by definition. Actions sufficient to mitigate a low-probability, high-impact event will seem like complete overreaction for people who can't do this calculation - which is most of them. After all, lots of effort and sacrifice happened, and there was no damage!
  - thu2111 6y ago
    Well yes, of course it's rational. Tautologically, hypothetical suffering tomorrow might not happen whereas suffering today actually is happening - in this case we have only the words of essentially discredited 'experts' (epidemiologists), many of whom are constantly bickering in public and pronouncing each others models useless or broken. And the idea that mass lockdowns can stop the spread of virus is itself a radical, new idea that's never been tried, and which has its own cadre of experts saying it hasn't been working or is making little difference. Given what we know now, extending a shelter-in-place order through all of May is catastrophic. It will likely trigger mass civil unrest. The virus just isn't that dangerous. https://swprs.org/a-swiss-doctor-on-covid-19/ https://swprs.org/a-swiss-doctor-on-covid-19/
- user5994461 6y ago
  If that's your comparison, the lockdown has been an outstanding failure because the virus is still spreading widely and pending to go exponential any day the lockdown is slightly relaxed. Heart surgery that can't prevent the heart attack.
  - ceejayoz 6y ago
    If we're going to abuse the analogy into irrelevance: The heart surgeon is booked out for a few months. Avoid strenuous exercise until they're available to fix you.
0xy 6y ago
Al Jazeera is simply Qatari government propaganda. If they're reporting it and it was 'ignored by the rest of the world', it's certainly only reported for the benefit of the Qatari government.

ceejayoz 6y ago

> In India in particular, the lockdown has so far caused more misery than the virus itself... I mean, that's the point, right? Heart surgery hurts more than chest pain, but it's intended to prevent the heart attack.

9nGQluzmnq3M 6y ago
Sure, but the implementation was still absurdly bad. For example, by imposing a harsh lockdown on cities with no plan for migrant workers, the only thing they could do was head home to their villages, ensuring the virus would be distributed widely across the country.
- redisman 6y ago
  Can't say I'm surprised though. When and where do governments ever treat migrant workers as humans?
- pinkfoot 6y ago
  Where do the migrant workers normally sleep? Answer: In the cities they chose to leave.
  - 9nGQluzmnq3M 6y ago
    "Chose"? Most of them live a hand to mouth existence: if they can't work, they don't eat.
ashtonkem 6y ago
That’s the rational calculus, yes. But humans have a really hard time balancing suffering today against hypothetical suffering tomorrow, especially when successful intervention makes it appear like the problem was never there in the first place.
- nostrebored 6y ago
  That's an interesting presupposition, entirely unconfirmed by data.
  - doliveira 6y ago
    I don't know enough about psychology to Google the exact term, but let's not be so pedantic as to pretend it is not at least a plausible assumption.
    - nostrebored 6y ago
      No, this is a stance that's completely unsubstantiated, with the obvious tie in to COVID-19 that's also unsubstantiated.
      - doliveira 6y ago
        Can you point to a study about this? In Bayesian terms most people would put the prior probability in favor of his common sense hypothesis. And you just have to Google for "psychology of risk perception" to get a few more studies in favor of it.
  - TeMPOraL 6y ago
    It's true almost by definition. Actions sufficient to mitigate a low-probability, high-impact event will seem like complete overreaction for people who can't do this calculation - which is most of them. After all, lots of effort and sacrifice happened, and there was no damage!
- thu2111 6y ago
  Well yes, of course it's rational. Tautologically, hypothetical suffering tomorrow might not happen whereas suffering today actually is happening - in this case we have only the words of essentially discredited 'experts' (epidemiologists), many of whom are constantly bickering in public and pronouncing each others models useless or broken. And the idea that mass lockdowns can stop the spread of virus is itself a radical, new idea that's never been tried, and which has its own cadre of experts saying it hasn't been working or is making little difference. Given what we know now, extending a shelter-in-place order through all of May is catastrophic. It will likely trigger mass civil unrest. The virus just isn't that dangerous. https://swprs.org/a-swiss-doctor-on-covid-19/ https://swprs.org/a-swiss-doctor-on-covid-19/
user5994461 6y ago
If that's your comparison, the lockdown has been an outstanding failure because the virus is still spreading widely and pending to go exponential any day the lockdown is slightly relaxed. Heart surgery that can't prevent the heart attack.
- ceejayoz 6y ago
  If we're going to abuse the analogy into irrelevance: The heart surgeon is booked out for a few months. Avoid strenuous exercise until they're available to fix you.

0xy 6y ago

Al Jazeera is simply Qatari government propaganda. If they're reporting it and it was 'ignored by the rest of the world', it's certainly only reported for the benefit of the Qatari government.