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https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/apr/28/coronavirus-hype-biggest-political-hoax-in-history/ https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/apr/28/coronaviru

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/apr/28/coronavirus-hype-biggest-political-hoax-in-history/ https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/apr/28/coronavirus...

JacksonGariety 6y ago
This is 50% fake news.
- jakeogh 6y ago
  https://swprs.org/a-swiss-doctor-on-covid-19/ https://swprs.org/a-swiss-doctor-on-covid-19/
  - samcday 6y ago
    Honestly I don’t really understand the end game of disinformation campaigns like this. It’s one thing to spread propaganda in order to influence elections and get a crooked bureaucrat into power that can enrich some corporate buddies. But it’s another to deceive people about a global health crisis. If you’re successful, people go outside and trigger a second wave of infections - lots of people die and we’re back to square 1. Economy will still be fucked. What am I missing here?
    - orisho 6y ago
      Don't hurry to attribute to malice that which can be attributed to stupidity
    - mindslight 6y ago
      If 1-2% of people die quickly, the economy will not be fucked. That's a politicized untruth put out to counter other politicized untruths. The people protesting and doing other stupid things are actually helping those of us that are isolating. The quicker they spread it and create herd immunity, the less time we have to wait. This obviously depends on whether an individual can get reinfected, but I haven't seen anything conclusive one way or another and it feels like this has also been misleadingly politicized. Obviously a deluge of cases is absolutely terrible for the healthcare workers, as well as other essential employees that are exposed to the mob-herd (eg grocery store workers) and likely won't receive adequate healthcare. So I'm certainly not advocating, merely analyzing.
      - etrabroline 6y ago
        Why do you care more about "the economy" than the lives of 2% ~= 6 million people? The Fed could take back it's massive Wall Street bailout and give it to workers. Rich people would hoot and holler but no one would starve, and the public would be much less anxious to lift the quarantine. >herd immunity There is no natural herd immunity for the flu or common cold. It's totally possible that after a few months people who survive become reinfected, which would massively increase the death rate if you already have lung damage when you get it again.
        mindslight 6y ago
        Try reading my whole comment instead of jumping at phrases that match your political attack target.
        etrabroline 6y ago
        >The quicker they spread it and create herd immunity, the less time we have to wait. If we are going to allow most people to become infected anyway, such that we encourage people to go to large gatherings without even wearing masks, then surely there is no reason to have any quarantine at all, so we wouldn't be waiting to lift it. But you seem to think we would still be waiting, just for a shorter amount of time, so you are clearly very confused about this whole situation. >I'm certainly not advocating, merely analyzing. So am I.
        deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
    - perl4ever 6y ago
      If you think it is a Russian campaign, as people have previously asserted, you might get some perspective by looking at what seems to be happening in Russia right now. There is a Wikipedia page on covid in Russia. The Russian statistics look fishy to me, but not in the same way as the Chinese ones. They have surging numbers of new cases, but a outlier very low claimed death rate. Of course, the latter might just be lagging. And there are supposedly similar protests in Russia as in the US - what does that mean? Are they real? Is it, say, the CIA? Or some internal conflict, or genuinely grassroots?
fred_is_fred 6y ago
The Washington Times is not a reliable news source. It's a nutty right-wing paper run by a cult leader who's main job is pushing anti-science view points.
- perl4ever 6y ago
  I think it was offered as evidence for a line of propaganda/nonsense being pushed, not as promoting the claims.
mindslight 6y ago
1. Have a politicized society that is so dysfunctional that it is incapable of coherently focusing on a shared problem. 2. Downplay common sense individual actions like wearing masks, because it would demonstrate lack of preparation 3. Bail out large businesses quickly, throw individuals and small businesses some scraps as a distraction. 4. After gross shutdowns are effected, don't spend the effort to refine them - eg reopening various small businesses that could operate hygienically. 5. Reject fine-grained policy that would repudiate business-uber-alles, like forcing new safety guidelines on essential industries. 6. Get fatigued from the above, and write off everything that was attempted as unnecessary waste doomed from the start. (thread article) 7. Rationalize that nothing could be done, things just happen. The idea we could do anything about it was a hoax. (your article) 8. Repeat for next disaster. We've basically given up, end of story. I keep trying to grasp the idea that this is the societal death spiral taking hold, but I can't yet wrap my head around it.
- samcday 6y ago
  As an Aussie I grew up on a healthy diet of US exceptionalism propaganda. At some point I came to the realization that the US is an empire in decline. Now, I’m starting to think the US is already a failed state. I’m pretty frightened to be living in this timeline. It’s like the collapse of Rome, but with wifi, vape pens, memes and nuclear arsenals.
  - mixmastamyk 6y ago
    The seeds of the civil war were sown during the writing of the Declaration of Independence. The cracks were always there. I see the same left/right arguments from friends in the UK and Brazil.
  - perl4ever 6y ago
    This has been the party line since at least the 1970s if not earlier. Like a lot of similar predictions, it's sure to be true eventually. However, the propaganda makes it impossible to judge if it's happening now. There may be a resurgence in covid cases in the US shortly, but it's interesting that there are some countries not named America, Italy, or Spain, that are seeing daily growth of 5-10% and we're not talking about them.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/apr/28/coronavirus-hype-biggest-political-hoax-in-history/ https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/apr/28/coronavirus...

JacksonGariety 6y ago

This is 50% fake news.

jakeogh 6y ago
https://swprs.org/a-swiss-doctor-on-covid-19/ https://swprs.org/a-swiss-doctor-on-covid-19/
- samcday 6y ago
  Honestly I don’t really understand the end game of disinformation campaigns like this. It’s one thing to spread propaganda in order to influence elections and get a crooked bureaucrat into power that can enrich some corporate buddies. But it’s another to deceive people about a global health crisis. If you’re successful, people go outside and trigger a second wave of infections - lots of people die and we’re back to square 1. Economy will still be fucked. What am I missing here?
  - orisho 6y ago
    Don't hurry to attribute to malice that which can be attributed to stupidity
  - mindslight 6y ago
    If 1-2% of people die quickly, the economy will not be fucked. That's a politicized untruth put out to counter other politicized untruths. The people protesting and doing other stupid things are actually helping those of us that are isolating. The quicker they spread it and create herd immunity, the less time we have to wait. This obviously depends on whether an individual can get reinfected, but I haven't seen anything conclusive one way or another and it feels like this has also been misleadingly politicized. Obviously a deluge of cases is absolutely terrible for the healthcare workers, as well as other essential employees that are exposed to the mob-herd (eg grocery store workers) and likely won't receive adequate healthcare. So I'm certainly not advocating, merely analyzing.
    - etrabroline 6y ago
      Why do you care more about "the economy" than the lives of 2% ~= 6 million people? The Fed could take back it's massive Wall Street bailout and give it to workers. Rich people would hoot and holler but no one would starve, and the public would be much less anxious to lift the quarantine. >herd immunity There is no natural herd immunity for the flu or common cold. It's totally possible that after a few months people who survive become reinfected, which would massively increase the death rate if you already have lung damage when you get it again.
      - mindslight 6y ago
        Try reading my whole comment instead of jumping at phrases that match your political attack target.
        etrabroline 6y ago
        >The quicker they spread it and create herd immunity, the less time we have to wait. If we are going to allow most people to become infected anyway, such that we encourage people to go to large gatherings without even wearing masks, then surely there is no reason to have any quarantine at all, so we wouldn't be waiting to lift it. But you seem to think we would still be waiting, just for a shorter amount of time, so you are clearly very confused about this whole situation. >I'm certainly not advocating, merely analyzing. So am I.
      - deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
  - perl4ever 6y ago
    If you think it is a Russian campaign, as people have previously asserted, you might get some perspective by looking at what seems to be happening in Russia right now. There is a Wikipedia page on covid in Russia. The Russian statistics look fishy to me, but not in the same way as the Chinese ones. They have surging numbers of new cases, but a outlier very low claimed death rate. Of course, the latter might just be lagging. And there are supposedly similar protests in Russia as in the US - what does that mean? Are they real? Is it, say, the CIA? Or some internal conflict, or genuinely grassroots?

fred_is_fred 6y ago

The Washington Times is not a reliable news source. It's a nutty right-wing paper run by a cult leader who's main job is pushing anti-science view points.

perl4ever 6y ago
I think it was offered as evidence for a line of propaganda/nonsense being pushed, not as promoting the claims.

mindslight 6y ago

1. Have a politicized society that is so dysfunctional that it is incapable of coherently focusing on a shared problem. 2. Downplay common sense individual actions like wearing masks, because it would demonstrate lack of preparation 3. Bail out large businesses quickly, throw individuals and small businesses some scraps as a distraction. 4. After gross shutdowns are effected, don't spend the effort to refine them - eg reopening various small businesses that could operate hygienically. 5. Reject fine-grained policy that would repudiate business-uber-alles, like forcing new safety guidelines on essential industries. 6. Get fatigued from the above, and write off everything that was attempted as unnecessary waste doomed from the start. (thread article) 7. Rationalize that nothing could be done, things just happen. The idea we could do anything about it was a hoax. (your article) 8. Repeat for next disaster. We've basically given up, end of story. I keep trying to grasp the idea that this is the societal death spiral taking hold, but I can't yet wrap my head around it.

samcday 6y ago
As an Aussie I grew up on a healthy diet of US exceptionalism propaganda. At some point I came to the realization that the US is an empire in decline. Now, I’m starting to think the US is already a failed state. I’m pretty frightened to be living in this timeline. It’s like the collapse of Rome, but with wifi, vape pens, memes and nuclear arsenals.
- mixmastamyk 6y ago
  The seeds of the civil war were sown during the writing of the Declaration of Independence. The cracks were always there. I see the same left/right arguments from friends in the UK and Brazil.
- perl4ever 6y ago
  This has been the party line since at least the 1970s if not earlier. Like a lot of similar predictions, it's sure to be true eventually. However, the propaganda makes it impossible to judge if it's happening now. There may be a resurgence in covid cases in the US shortly, but it's interesting that there are some countries not named America, Italy, or Spain, that are seeing daily growth of 5-10% and we're not talking about them.