5 ms·

Even less popular opinion: fear is irrelevant. What we actually have is a cultural gap in how risk is assessed. Some only consider individual risk of death. Oth

by pohl 5y ago

Even less popular opinion: fear is irrelevant. What we actually have is a cultural gap in how risk is assessed. Some only consider individual risk of death. Others also consider risk to beyond death, and beyond themselves. Casting the latter as afraid is unhelpful.

luckylion 5y ago
Casting those who have a higher risk threshold than you as "only considering individual risk", while the other, better people also consider others ... yeah, that's helpful.
- spideymans 5y ago
  “I’m young, so I have nothing to worry about”, is a sentiment I’ve seen expressed all to commonly.
  - luckylion 5y ago
    I'm not young, I'm overweight, my risk is elevated. I'm also vaccinated, but chose to get it way later than I could have based on priority, because I calculated my personal risk to be minimal, and others' to be significantly higher despite lower priority. And "I'm so wise and noble and everyone who doesn't share my opinion is a selfish ass" is still a dumb way to frame it.
h3cate 5y ago
If you are a healthy person then you are low risk. If you are unhealthy (smoke, overweight, health condition) then you are at risk. I think a lot of people demanding the mandating of vaccines and mask wearing are in the smokers / overweight category and yet those people are never told to become healthy in themselves. People with health conditions have thought about illnesses long before covid. Thoughts?
- t-writescode 5y ago
  I think a look at Texas shows the real danger of Covid. Near 0% ER (edit: availability). If you’re in a car accident, you may not get the life saving attention you need, because so many someones refused to vaccinate. That’s the cascading effects we need to deal with, here. I’m not worried about getting covid, myself. I wasn’t too worried before I was vaccinated and I’m not worried at all, now. I’m terrified of needing normal, emergency medical care, or so-called elective surgeries (which is almost all surgeries, even the vital ones), and being unable to get it because thousands of beds are filled with people on respirators.
  - dcolkitt 5y ago
    The RAND healthcare study showed that drastic drops in medical expenditures had virtually no impact on mortality. Potentially even negative impact.[1] The reality is if you're a health adult, an overburdened ER or OR poses a very small risk. Probably much less than what could be made up by eating one extra daily serving of vegetables.[2] You have far more to fear from lockdown induced supply chain disruptions that cause fresh produce shortages at the local grocer. [1]https://www.cato-unbound.org/2007/09/10/robin-hanson/cut-medicine-half https://www.cato-unbound.org/2007/09/10/robin-hanson/cut-med... [2]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4727264/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4727264/
    - t-writescode 5y ago
      Statistics don't matter here. A person getting in a car accident is relatively low chances; but when there's a car accident, I want there to be supply for every single person that was in that car accident and not already dead to have a hospital bed.
- sk2020 5y ago
  Smokers are at lower risk of COVID 19 death. Also, why not make being a healthy weight mandatory? I mean, other than it isn’t a patented pharmaceutical product to be sold? We already have determined that indefinite, population-wide house arrest is OK. My thoughts are that if you’re afraid of SARS and have confidence in Pfizer and friends, then purchase their products. They’re 99% effective, right?

by pohl 5y ago

luckylion 5y ago

Casting those who have a higher risk threshold than you as "only considering individual risk", while the other, better people also consider others ... yeah, that's helpful.

spideymans 5y ago
“I’m young, so I have nothing to worry about”, is a sentiment I’ve seen expressed all to commonly.
- luckylion 5y ago
  I'm not young, I'm overweight, my risk is elevated. I'm also vaccinated, but chose to get it way later than I could have based on priority, because I calculated my personal risk to be minimal, and others' to be significantly higher despite lower priority. And "I'm so wise and noble and everyone who doesn't share my opinion is a selfish ass" is still a dumb way to frame it.

h3cate 5y ago

If you are a healthy person then you are low risk. If you are unhealthy (smoke, overweight, health condition) then you are at risk. I think a lot of people demanding the mandating of vaccines and mask wearing are in the smokers / overweight category and yet those people are never told to become healthy in themselves. People with health conditions have thought about illnesses long before covid. Thoughts?

t-writescode 5y ago
I think a look at Texas shows the real danger of Covid. Near 0% ER (edit: availability). If you’re in a car accident, you may not get the life saving attention you need, because so many someones refused to vaccinate. That’s the cascading effects we need to deal with, here. I’m not worried about getting covid, myself. I wasn’t too worried before I was vaccinated and I’m not worried at all, now. I’m terrified of needing normal, emergency medical care, or so-called elective surgeries (which is almost all surgeries, even the vital ones), and being unable to get it because thousands of beds are filled with people on respirators.
- dcolkitt 5y ago
  The RAND healthcare study showed that drastic drops in medical expenditures had virtually no impact on mortality. Potentially even negative impact.[1] The reality is if you're a health adult, an overburdened ER or OR poses a very small risk. Probably much less than what could be made up by eating one extra daily serving of vegetables.[2] You have far more to fear from lockdown induced supply chain disruptions that cause fresh produce shortages at the local grocer. [1]https://www.cato-unbound.org/2007/09/10/robin-hanson/cut-medicine-half https://www.cato-unbound.org/2007/09/10/robin-hanson/cut-med... [2]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4727264/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4727264/
  - t-writescode 5y ago
    Statistics don't matter here. A person getting in a car accident is relatively low chances; but when there's a car accident, I want there to be supply for every single person that was in that car accident and not already dead to have a hospital bed.
sk2020 5y ago
Smokers are at lower risk of COVID 19 death. Also, why not make being a healthy weight mandatory? I mean, other than it isn’t a patented pharmaceutical product to be sold? We already have determined that indefinite, population-wide house arrest is OK. My thoughts are that if you’re afraid of SARS and have confidence in Pfizer and friends, then purchase their products. They’re 99% effective, right?