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Yes, people keep mixing up cause and effect when talking about this. It’s true that bad government responses can exacerbate things (as the US seems intent on p

Yes, people keep mixing up cause and effect when talking about this. It’s true that bad government responses can exacerbate things (as the US seems intent on proving), but the pandemic was going to inflict serious economic damage anywhere it reached the uncontrolled state like now exists in the US. The only way to have prevented that was to act early and competently, which many countries have successfully done. But once you’ve crossed that threshold, demanding people risk serious illness and death for the sake of the economy isn’t going to get you very far in correcting things.

chiefalchemist 6y ago
The point is, how much suffering and how many deaths are "collateral damage" from "the war"? Why are we assuming? What if the path we're on is worse? Do we really expect the elected officials to admit the error? Will the media ask? It's wrong to assume. If nothing else it devalues the lives lost and damaged from the side effects. Either we're all in this together or we're not.
- claudeganon 6y ago
  I’m not sure what the appeal is here? We know what kind of responses are effective and limit economic damage and death (Taiwan, South Korea, and Vietnam) and those that do not (the US, Sweden, and Brazil). Again, the economic impact and failure to confront the disease are inextricably linked. If you’re argument is that “if we’re already doing poorly, why do anything?” then the answer is the depth of how poorly we’ll do depends on what steps we take to mitigate the damage, even assuming we’re already on a bad path. It’s the difference between causing hundreds of thousands of deaths because of our screw up vs millions. All of this bad response spectrum will also have varying degrees of terrible knock-on effects, but those also exist because of the failure to intervene early and effectively, and put the US on a good path.
  - chiefalchemist 6y ago
    I don't have an argument. I have a simply question: With regards to the collateral damage from the war on Covid 19, what are the estimates of suffering and death - both short and long term? That's it.
    - claudeganon 6y ago
      That’s highly variable depending on if we can contain it, as other countries have done. Taiwan, South Korea, and Vietnam are pretty much back to normal. New Zealand did a real, strictly-adhered to quarantine and now is fine. The US is probably in for a lot of pain because it refuses to acknowledge that throwing more bodies at the economy, irregardless of safety or sanity, isn’t going to fix things.

chiefalchemist 6y ago

The point is, how much suffering and how many deaths are "collateral damage" from "the war"? Why are we assuming? What if the path we're on is worse? Do we really expect the elected officials to admit the error? Will the media ask? It's wrong to assume. If nothing else it devalues the lives lost and damaged from the side effects. Either we're all in this together or we're not.

claudeganon 6y ago
I’m not sure what the appeal is here? We know what kind of responses are effective and limit economic damage and death (Taiwan, South Korea, and Vietnam) and those that do not (the US, Sweden, and Brazil). Again, the economic impact and failure to confront the disease are inextricably linked. If you’re argument is that “if we’re already doing poorly, why do anything?” then the answer is the depth of how poorly we’ll do depends on what steps we take to mitigate the damage, even assuming we’re already on a bad path. It’s the difference between causing hundreds of thousands of deaths because of our screw up vs millions. All of this bad response spectrum will also have varying degrees of terrible knock-on effects, but those also exist because of the failure to intervene early and effectively, and put the US on a good path.
- chiefalchemist 6y ago
  I don't have an argument. I have a simply question: With regards to the collateral damage from the war on Covid 19, what are the estimates of suffering and death - both short and long term? That's it.
  - claudeganon 6y ago
    That’s highly variable depending on if we can contain it, as other countries have done. Taiwan, South Korea, and Vietnam are pretty much back to normal. New Zealand did a real, strictly-adhered to quarantine and now is fine. The US is probably in for a lot of pain because it refuses to acknowledge that throwing more bodies at the economy, irregardless of safety or sanity, isn’t going to fix things.