3 ms·

Let me put it this way: We want things to be true and universal. People vary widely in their response to this virus. We do not understand why very well. A l

Let me put it this way: We want things to be true and universal. People vary widely in their response to this virus. We do not understand why very well. A lot remains unclear. Too much. This mode we are in could be the default for a sustained time. As we go through the year, I see that as being increasingly likely. As people face reality as it is being shown to us, I expect large numbers of them to get on with living differently as we work on cures and hopefully vaccine. Until we actualize those things, caution is totally warranted and indicated. Most of the world gets that. The US doesn't yet. There are reasons why our passports aren't much good right now. Our discussion here is one of them. All you put here is suggestive and hopeful. Let's hope. In the meantime, we don't know as much as we should and caution is again, totally warranted and indicated.

tripletao 6y ago
Please don't take anything I wrote above as an argument to abandon caution and let the pandemic burn uncontrolled--as you'll see from my posts elsewhere on this page, I'm strongly in favor of mask use, social distancing, and other simple and relatively inexpensive interventions. I don't want to see people acting recklessly, but neither do I want to seem them in despair from an outlook more pessimistic than the best current science would support.
- ddingus 6y ago
  Fair enough. There is a lot of want it to just go away out there. Worries me more than pessimism does. (That is at least warranted, even if not optimal) I, frankly, don't care about expense so much either. People are high value. Cannot be replaced. Economic implications are not good. Nothing to look forward to at present. For me personally, I am just going to scale down. Done right, it does not have to mean less, just differently.
  - tripletao 6y ago
    I mean "inexpensive" both in dollars and in overall social cost. Closing the schools might actually save money short-term, but society will be paying for those children's interrupted education for a long time. In any case, I agree that the virus will be with us for many months to come. I'm optimistic that with strict mask use and loose other interventions (anything involving large crowds closed, but most other facilities open, mostly prudent individual behavior) we can control the virus, as Japan seems to have. The political progress towards that has been pretty rough, but maybe it's beginning to converge.
    - ddingus 6y ago
      Maybe. I am not so sure. And air percentage of us just do not want to play ball. It has been an ongoing problem, and bow this particular scenario seems to highlight and exacerbate many of our ongoing problems.

tripletao 6y ago

Please don't take anything I wrote above as an argument to abandon caution and let the pandemic burn uncontrolled--as you'll see from my posts elsewhere on this page, I'm strongly in favor of mask use, social distancing, and other simple and relatively inexpensive interventions. I don't want to see people acting recklessly, but neither do I want to seem them in despair from an outlook more pessimistic than the best current science would support.

ddingus 6y ago
Fair enough. There is a lot of want it to just go away out there. Worries me more than pessimism does. (That is at least warranted, even if not optimal) I, frankly, don't care about expense so much either. People are high value. Cannot be replaced. Economic implications are not good. Nothing to look forward to at present. For me personally, I am just going to scale down. Done right, it does not have to mean less, just differently.
- tripletao 6y ago
  I mean "inexpensive" both in dollars and in overall social cost. Closing the schools might actually save money short-term, but society will be paying for those children's interrupted education for a long time. In any case, I agree that the virus will be with us for many months to come. I'm optimistic that with strict mask use and loose other interventions (anything involving large crowds closed, but most other facilities open, mostly prudent individual behavior) we can control the virus, as Japan seems to have. The political progress towards that has been pretty rough, but maybe it's beginning to converge.
  - ddingus 6y ago
    Maybe. I am not so sure. And air percentage of us just do not want to play ball. It has been an ongoing problem, and bow this particular scenario seems to highlight and exacerbate many of our ongoing problems.