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The headline itself is a bit too alarmist to me. But my main beef with this article is the definition of "beat" that they seem to be using. At no point in my m

The headline itself is a bit too alarmist to me. But my main beef with this article is the definition of "beat" that they seem to be using. At no point in my mind, or I hope anyone else's mind, did "beat" mean zero infections, or zero deaths, or even zero outbreaks. It meant that we have the resources to manage infections as they occur. This means within hospitals as well as in the world at large. It means we have PPE etc and surge capacity. And it means that we reduce the infection rate enough to not overwhelm the resources. Every thing we do slightly chips away at that infection rate. Masks do a bit, distancing does a bit, isolating when sick does a lot etc. Add even a minority of the population being vaccinated, and you _do_ have enough control over things to largely go back to "normal". But, if the goalposts have moved so far that even 1 infection or 1 death is too many, then we are pretty well fucked. This is a coronavirus, it will be with us forever.

d33lio 6y ago
Agreed, even as someone who's supporting Biden this article strikes me as a poorly obfuscated Trump hit piece. It really blows me away how defining what "beating a virus" is ended up being so brazenly politicized (by either side).
- salmon30salmon 6y ago
  Agreed. I am a rare breed, I am an enthusiastic Biden supporter. And a very enthusiastic Harris supporter. But I see the Democrats ripping defeat from the jaws of victory yet again. The problem is pearl clutching. When every. single. thing. Trump. does. is an "ohh the humanity!" panic moment, the actually terrible stuff he has done is drowned out by all the not-that-terrible-but-still-bad stuff. This happened in 2016. The Trump campaign ran on 1 message. Clinton is corrupt. Emails? Corruption. Ties to Obama? Corruption. Clinton Foundation? Corruption. Every single attack line focused on that one point. Whereas Trump was a joke, then a sexual abuser, then a Russian asset, then unfit mentally, then this then that. And while all of those may have been, to some extent, true. The noise overran the signal and no clear attack ever formed. So it was "Clinton is corrupt" vs "Trump is so many things but it changes every day". All these virus hit pieces, and the military support hit pieces, and so on and so on are all _true_, but it is all noise. Whereas Trump is saying that Biden represents the fringe left, and that he will bring protests and unrest to the suburbs. Or he will take away 2nd amendment etc. All focused on him being a radical leftist. Of course he isn't a radical leftist, but it is one label and Trump is going to hammer it to victory. See you in 2024

d33lio 6y ago

Agreed, even as someone who's supporting Biden this article strikes me as a poorly obfuscated Trump hit piece. It really blows me away how defining what "beating a virus" is ended up being so brazenly politicized (by either side).

salmon30salmon 6y ago
Agreed. I am a rare breed, I am an enthusiastic Biden supporter. And a very enthusiastic Harris supporter. But I see the Democrats ripping defeat from the jaws of victory yet again. The problem is pearl clutching. When every. single. thing. Trump. does. is an "ohh the humanity!" panic moment, the actually terrible stuff he has done is drowned out by all the not-that-terrible-but-still-bad stuff. This happened in 2016. The Trump campaign ran on 1 message. Clinton is corrupt. Emails? Corruption. Ties to Obama? Corruption. Clinton Foundation? Corruption. Every single attack line focused on that one point. Whereas Trump was a joke, then a sexual abuser, then a Russian asset, then unfit mentally, then this then that. And while all of those may have been, to some extent, true. The noise overran the signal and no clear attack ever formed. So it was "Clinton is corrupt" vs "Trump is so many things but it changes every day". All these virus hit pieces, and the military support hit pieces, and so on and so on are all _true_, but it is all noise. Whereas Trump is saying that Biden represents the fringe left, and that he will bring protests and unrest to the suburbs. Or he will take away 2nd amendment etc. All focused on him being a radical leftist. Of course he isn't a radical leftist, but it is one label and Trump is going to hammer it to victory. See you in 2024