8 ms·

Counting cases and advertising them every time the news shows start is useless, it just fuels the paranoia. This virus won't just go away in a few months, we'l

Counting cases and advertising them every time the news shows start is useless, it just fuels the paranoia. This virus won't just go away in a few months, we'll have to live with it, just like Humans have done with every other virus since forever.

eru 5y ago
Not quite every other virus. We eliminated a few handful of diseases. (And of course, lots and lots of viruses were eliminated naturally. Just by natural selection and competition. There are even some hints that coronaviruses are replacing influenca.)
johnchristopher 5y ago
> This virus won't just go away in a few months, we'll have to live with it, just like Humans have done with every other virus since forever. This statement mean different things to different people. Do we live with AIDS with or without condoms ? Do we live with Covid with or without masks and vaccines and other prophylactic measures ?
- throwaway599281 5y ago
  - johnchristopher 5y ago
    I am not making myself clear enough: some use the statement "we have to live with covid" to mean "let covid cull the weak and the old, people die all the time anyway, vaccines and masks are only needed for the weak and the old so we shouldn't make them mandatory" and others to mean "covid is here to stay so are vaccines, masking and ventilation, etc.". > Have we ever imposed measures that limit the freedom of movement of the entire population, or subsects of it that have a higher infection rates per capita, such as drug users, prostitutes or homosexuals, as many countries have done? That's not the point. The point is that AIDS has changed some things that we haven't come back to yet. One of the most prominent one is condom usage. This change doesn't need to be proved/sanctified by laws to happen and yet it exists (but I'll add that some people have been sentenced to years in prison for not revealing their HIV/AIDS status when having sex with their partner). So: what does it mean to "live with covid" ?
    - b112 5y ago
      Masking does not prevent the spread of covid, for the result is not perfect. It does slow the spread, which is helpful to allow vaccine development, and reduce hospitals strain. Current vaccines do not stop the spread of covid. Thus, eventually, everyone will have had covid, and all its variants. We're pretty much there, I'd think. So that said, eventually masks and social distancing will lose relevance, as case numbers will drop, and the real goal of masks and social distancing, reducing hospital overloads, will go away.
      - zibzab 5y ago
        > Current vaccines do not stop the spread of covid No, not to the extent we first hoped. But it does help you survive covid, which was our goal all along.
      - johnchristopher 5y ago
        > So that said, eventually masks and social distancing will lose relevance, as case numbers will drop, and the real goal of masks and social distancing, reducing hospital overloads, will go away. I think it'd be interesting to wait and see if keeping those measures in place , even if covid threats magically disappeared overnight, would reduce other infections (common cold, flu, etc.).
        BoxOfRain 5y ago
        > I think it'd be interesting to wait and see if keeping those measures in place , even if covid threats magically disappeared overnight, would reduce other infections (common cold, flu, etc.). That’s a hard no from me, we can’t keep moving the goalposts for giving things like mask mandates and social distancing the boot. Three million plastic masks get thrown away every minute, each of which takes centuries to degrade and potentially introduces micro-plastic pollution into the food chain. I’m not going to contribute to this environmental catastrophe a second more than the law requires me to. Keep masks and distancing on a personal basis for those who want them, but the mandates must end the instant it’s possible for them to. COVID culture does enormous collateral damage to the environment and to many industries, we can’t keep it enforced by law on the basis of ‘perhaps’, ‘maybe’, or ‘the common cold’.
- tasogare 5y ago
  - mike00632 5y ago
    The opposite is true. Way more people die from COVID than AIDS, not to mention the large number of people who become permanently disabled from COVID.
- bagacrap 5y ago
  are you suggesting we keep wearing masks in public forever? Surely someone takes this stance but it sounds ludicrous to me. (Although I wouldn't mind normalizing it for people who are feeling under the weather but still must travel, say.)
  - johnchristopher 5y ago
    Maybe there should be mandatory when numbers are too high or maybe we should try to educate people to wear a mask when sick. Like it seems they do it in Asia. I am glad we have FFP2/n95 options.
jollybean 5y ago
Wow, definitely, the caseload matters a lot. 'Flatten the curve' has always been a very real policy, if you watch the reports from State/Provincial agencies you can very clearly seem them watch the number of available beds, and particularly how much COVID caseload affects other hospital operations i.e. delayed surgeries etc.. This definitely informs policy. It also helps motivate people to get vaccinated, with a 3rd shoot booster seemingly providing decent protection against Omicron, it's something we probably want to get people to. Humans survive for millennia because we react rationality to situations, not because we just lay down and die.
- throwaway599281 5y ago
  >and particularly how much COVID caseload affects other hospital operations i.e. delayed surgeries etc.. And what is more important, the people with deadlier diseases who didn't get surgeries or treatments that were postponed, the screanings that weren't done that could allow an early treatment of someone who is sick too, to prevent other persons that could potentially become sick? >Humans survive for millennia because we react rationality to situations, not because we just lay down and die. Read again, you totally missed my point.
  - dumpsterdiver 5y ago
    > And what is more important, the people with deadlier diseases who didn't get surgeries or treatments that were postponed, the screanings that weren't done that could allow an early treatment of someone who is sick too, to prevent other persons that could potentially become sick? > Read again, you totally missed my point. I read this comment a few times, but the sentence structure made it difficult to understand what you're trying to say. I'm entirely unsure which of the aforementioned situations you think is more desirable. If you're trying to make a point, instead of asking people to read again, you may want to consider rewriting your points to be more clear.
- bagacrap 5y ago
  humans are definitely not rational. Our reaction has been driven by fear and anxiety out of all proportion to the actual threat here. Obesity is still a bigger killer than covid but we have not spent the same resources tackling it.
bdcravens 5y ago
With some of those viruses, living with it means getting vaccinated every year being a normal, prudent thing.
- tata71 5y ago
  Which other ones?
  - tdeck 5y ago
    We don't have a vaccine for some viruses (e.g. West Nile).
rytcio 5y ago
Well in the age of social media where people love to get their daily doom/rage porn dopamine hit, it's a big money maker for media companies

eru 5y ago

Not quite every other virus. We eliminated a few handful of diseases. (And of course, lots and lots of viruses were eliminated naturally. Just by natural selection and competition. There are even some hints that coronaviruses are replacing influenca.)

johnchristopher 5y ago

> This virus won't just go away in a few months, we'll have to live with it, just like Humans have done with every other virus since forever. This statement mean different things to different people. Do we live with AIDS with or without condoms ? Do we live with Covid with or without masks and vaccines and other prophylactic measures ?

throwaway599281 5y ago
- johnchristopher 5y ago
  I am not making myself clear enough: some use the statement "we have to live with covid" to mean "let covid cull the weak and the old, people die all the time anyway, vaccines and masks are only needed for the weak and the old so we shouldn't make them mandatory" and others to mean "covid is here to stay so are vaccines, masking and ventilation, etc.". > Have we ever imposed measures that limit the freedom of movement of the entire population, or subsects of it that have a higher infection rates per capita, such as drug users, prostitutes or homosexuals, as many countries have done? That's not the point. The point is that AIDS has changed some things that we haven't come back to yet. One of the most prominent one is condom usage. This change doesn't need to be proved/sanctified by laws to happen and yet it exists (but I'll add that some people have been sentenced to years in prison for not revealing their HIV/AIDS status when having sex with their partner). So: what does it mean to "live with covid" ?
  - b112 5y ago
    Masking does not prevent the spread of covid, for the result is not perfect. It does slow the spread, which is helpful to allow vaccine development, and reduce hospitals strain. Current vaccines do not stop the spread of covid. Thus, eventually, everyone will have had covid, and all its variants. We're pretty much there, I'd think. So that said, eventually masks and social distancing will lose relevance, as case numbers will drop, and the real goal of masks and social distancing, reducing hospital overloads, will go away.
    - zibzab 5y ago
      > Current vaccines do not stop the spread of covid No, not to the extent we first hoped. But it does help you survive covid, which was our goal all along.
    - johnchristopher 5y ago
      > So that said, eventually masks and social distancing will lose relevance, as case numbers will drop, and the real goal of masks and social distancing, reducing hospital overloads, will go away. I think it'd be interesting to wait and see if keeping those measures in place , even if covid threats magically disappeared overnight, would reduce other infections (common cold, flu, etc.).
      - BoxOfRain 5y ago
        > I think it'd be interesting to wait and see if keeping those measures in place , even if covid threats magically disappeared overnight, would reduce other infections (common cold, flu, etc.). That’s a hard no from me, we can’t keep moving the goalposts for giving things like mask mandates and social distancing the boot. Three million plastic masks get thrown away every minute, each of which takes centuries to degrade and potentially introduces micro-plastic pollution into the food chain. I’m not going to contribute to this environmental catastrophe a second more than the law requires me to. Keep masks and distancing on a personal basis for those who want them, but the mandates must end the instant it’s possible for them to. COVID culture does enormous collateral damage to the environment and to many industries, we can’t keep it enforced by law on the basis of ‘perhaps’, ‘maybe’, or ‘the common cold’.
tasogare 5y ago
- mike00632 5y ago
  The opposite is true. Way more people die from COVID than AIDS, not to mention the large number of people who become permanently disabled from COVID.
bagacrap 5y ago
are you suggesting we keep wearing masks in public forever? Surely someone takes this stance but it sounds ludicrous to me. (Although I wouldn't mind normalizing it for people who are feeling under the weather but still must travel, say.)
- johnchristopher 5y ago
  Maybe there should be mandatory when numbers are too high or maybe we should try to educate people to wear a mask when sick. Like it seems they do it in Asia. I am glad we have FFP2/n95 options.

jollybean 5y ago

Wow, definitely, the caseload matters a lot. 'Flatten the curve' has always been a very real policy, if you watch the reports from State/Provincial agencies you can very clearly seem them watch the number of available beds, and particularly how much COVID caseload affects other hospital operations i.e. delayed surgeries etc.. This definitely informs policy. It also helps motivate people to get vaccinated, with a 3rd shoot booster seemingly providing decent protection against Omicron, it's something we probably want to get people to. Humans survive for millennia because we react rationality to situations, not because we just lay down and die.

throwaway599281 5y ago
>and particularly how much COVID caseload affects other hospital operations i.e. delayed surgeries etc.. And what is more important, the people with deadlier diseases who didn't get surgeries or treatments that were postponed, the screanings that weren't done that could allow an early treatment of someone who is sick too, to prevent other persons that could potentially become sick? >Humans survive for millennia because we react rationality to situations, not because we just lay down and die. Read again, you totally missed my point.
- dumpsterdiver 5y ago
  > And what is more important, the people with deadlier diseases who didn't get surgeries or treatments that were postponed, the screanings that weren't done that could allow an early treatment of someone who is sick too, to prevent other persons that could potentially become sick? > Read again, you totally missed my point. I read this comment a few times, but the sentence structure made it difficult to understand what you're trying to say. I'm entirely unsure which of the aforementioned situations you think is more desirable. If you're trying to make a point, instead of asking people to read again, you may want to consider rewriting your points to be more clear.
bagacrap 5y ago
humans are definitely not rational. Our reaction has been driven by fear and anxiety out of all proportion to the actual threat here. Obesity is still a bigger killer than covid but we have not spent the same resources tackling it.

bdcravens 5y ago

With some of those viruses, living with it means getting vaccinated every year being a normal, prudent thing.

tata71 5y ago
Which other ones?
- tdeck 5y ago
  We don't have a vaccine for some viruses (e.g. West Nile).

rytcio 5y ago

Well in the age of social media where people love to get their daily doom/rage porn dopamine hit, it's a big money maker for media companies