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Likewise with Japan right? I've said this from the beginning of the pandemic - elite technocrats have led from the start with hubris and moral surefootedness.

Likewise with Japan right? I've said this from the beginning of the pandemic - elite technocrats have led from the start with hubris and moral surefootedness. Any opposition is dismissed as lunacy. And yet every solution is complete immiseration with little recognition of the tradeoffs and costs of the "solution". Which so far - hasn't solved much otherwise they wouldn't be treating it still as a disaster. How easily they destroy the livelihoods of everyone in hopes they're solving things. Well guess what - if there's any chance lockdowns and job deprivation doesn't help - you'll not only have deaths, but also economic (and spiritual) depression.

yostrovs 6y ago
Don't you worry. When the virus goes away, the technocrats will be patting themselves on the back for having succeeded in finally getting rid of it. And they will move on to save those left alive from economic deprivation. They will again succeed as they generate grim consequences they will again ignore.
jasonlaramburu 6y ago
What is your suggestion, pursue herd immunity and allow health systems to collapse and millions to die? It makes sense from first principles that staying in your home will reduce the chance of infection and transmission. The problem is no country, excepting maybe China, has actually enforced a stay at home order long enough to eliminate the virus.
- gnusty_gnurc 6y ago
  My belief is that government cannot deprive people from living their lives especially without evidence of the effectiveness of lockdown. We’ve been fed this line that if we don’t do everything they say the sky will fall, yet so far that hasn’t happen and there’s no clear indication any of the mitigation efforts have worked. And when pressed it’s always “well we didn’t do enough last time.” Enough! Let people exercise caution. Eradication of a respiratory virus is like getting the army to tape leaves back on all the trees in the country. It’s the Don Quijote School of Public Health. Rich technocrats that don’t have their livelihoods, mental health, and families’ well-being on the line. And now in the US we’re being told that mortality doesn’t matter and now is the perfect time to practice race equity by distributing vaccines to black people first. Bullshit!
  - jasonlaramburu 6y ago
    China, the most populous country on Earth, reported 12 cases yesterday. They achieved this through a ruthless and unyielding lockdown that lasted many months. You may not believe their stats but they are having concerts unmasked in Wuhan. If you want to stop the virus from rebounding you have to eradicate it completely.
    - lsllc 6y ago
      This is an interesting read (I submitted it today but it didn't go anywhere! [0]) -- it tells the story of Justin Jin who travels back to China to visit his father who needed some life-saving surgery. Basically, it covers the very comprehensive way China is working to prevent Covid-19 from entering the country via air: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/12/shorter-quarantines-could-help-prevent-coronavirus-outbreaks/ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/12/shorter-q... Meanwhile in Massachusetts, despite the travel order and requirement to fill out travel form when entering the state; and with over 1M passengers landing at Logan since the order, not to mention probably tens of thousands of daily car and train entries to MA, only 347,801 people bothered to fill out the form since August: https://whdh.com/7-investigates/7-investigates-massachusetts-travel-order-enforcement/ https://whdh.com/7-investigates/7-investigates-massachusetts... And of course MA is currently seeing a massive surge in cases, despite having one of the better responses in the US (incl. universal masking since May). [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25468076 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25468076
      - jasonlaramburu 6y ago
        Yes I think one of the biggest failures in the US was leaving the pandemic response up to the individual states. What good is a lockdown in New Mexico if you can drive across the border to Texas and do whatever you want?
        lsllc 6y ago
        Well, the constitution is pretty clear -- the police powers belong to the states, there's not much the federal government can do (short of amending the constitution): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_power_(United_States_constitutional_law) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_power_(United_States_co...

yostrovs 6y ago

Don't you worry. When the virus goes away, the technocrats will be patting themselves on the back for having succeeded in finally getting rid of it. And they will move on to save those left alive from economic deprivation. They will again succeed as they generate grim consequences they will again ignore.

jasonlaramburu 6y ago

What is your suggestion, pursue herd immunity and allow health systems to collapse and millions to die? It makes sense from first principles that staying in your home will reduce the chance of infection and transmission. The problem is no country, excepting maybe China, has actually enforced a stay at home order long enough to eliminate the virus.

gnusty_gnurc 6y ago
My belief is that government cannot deprive people from living their lives especially without evidence of the effectiveness of lockdown. We’ve been fed this line that if we don’t do everything they say the sky will fall, yet so far that hasn’t happen and there’s no clear indication any of the mitigation efforts have worked. And when pressed it’s always “well we didn’t do enough last time.” Enough! Let people exercise caution. Eradication of a respiratory virus is like getting the army to tape leaves back on all the trees in the country. It’s the Don Quijote School of Public Health. Rich technocrats that don’t have their livelihoods, mental health, and families’ well-being on the line. And now in the US we’re being told that mortality doesn’t matter and now is the perfect time to practice race equity by distributing vaccines to black people first. Bullshit!
- jasonlaramburu 6y ago
  China, the most populous country on Earth, reported 12 cases yesterday. They achieved this through a ruthless and unyielding lockdown that lasted many months. You may not believe their stats but they are having concerts unmasked in Wuhan. If you want to stop the virus from rebounding you have to eradicate it completely.
  - lsllc 6y ago
    This is an interesting read (I submitted it today but it didn't go anywhere! [0]) -- it tells the story of Justin Jin who travels back to China to visit his father who needed some life-saving surgery. Basically, it covers the very comprehensive way China is working to prevent Covid-19 from entering the country via air: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/12/shorter-quarantines-could-help-prevent-coronavirus-outbreaks/ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/12/shorter-q... Meanwhile in Massachusetts, despite the travel order and requirement to fill out travel form when entering the state; and with over 1M passengers landing at Logan since the order, not to mention probably tens of thousands of daily car and train entries to MA, only 347,801 people bothered to fill out the form since August: https://whdh.com/7-investigates/7-investigates-massachusetts-travel-order-enforcement/ https://whdh.com/7-investigates/7-investigates-massachusetts... And of course MA is currently seeing a massive surge in cases, despite having one of the better responses in the US (incl. universal masking since May). [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25468076 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25468076
    - jasonlaramburu 6y ago
      Yes I think one of the biggest failures in the US was leaving the pandemic response up to the individual states. What good is a lockdown in New Mexico if you can drive across the border to Texas and do whatever you want?
      - lsllc 6y ago
        Well, the constitution is pretty clear -- the police powers belong to the states, there's not much the federal government can do (short of amending the constitution): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_power_(United_States_constitutional_law) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_power_(United_States_co...