7 ms·

This exemplifies the worst part of this pandemic - the mind virus. A lot of people in the society are LARPing (pretending) that the virus is serious - staying

by tomp 5y ago

This exemplifies the worst part of this pandemic - the mind virus. A lot of people in the society are LARPing (pretending) that the virus is serious - staying home, testing constantly, "close contact notifications", "running away from a positive student" - yet at the same time, acting as if it's obviously not a dangerous virus - if it were, they'd all be staying away from each other. Basically new "security theatre" like after 9/11.

cabalamat 5y ago
Heathcare theatre.
op00to 5y ago
This makes no sense. How is “staying home” not staying away “from each other”?
- lozenge 5y ago
  I think they're saying that people have abandoned the number one effective policy (besides vaccines) - avoiding social visits and working from home - and trying to make up the difference with contact tracing, "being careful", masks, ventilation, lateral flow tests etc. The difficulty is, nobody wants to Zoom with me any more, so I have to meet them in person or not at all. When it was illegal to meet, people were happy to Zoom 90% of the time, but now they are not.
armchairhacker 5y ago
It’s not even that the virus is not necessarily serious: all of these precautions are basically useless. Many people are spreading covid but are completely asymptomatic, and tests are limited so they aren’t getting tested. Omicron is also extremely contagious, spreading despite masks and other sanitation protocols. It’s too late and too contagious: if you’re not 100% isolating in your home you will get Omicron. Masking / testing / precautions like these only give false security, and maybe slow the spread a bit. But the virus is still spreading ridiculously fast. Look at Quebec - lockdown and cases are still increasing. Idk, I don’t see the point in these guidelines. Maybe it will reduce viral load? A key point governments can do is hire more nurses and substantially increase nurse pay, that would reduce the strain on hospitals and ultimately increase capacity and treatment outcomes. But governments don’t seem to be doing this. It seems like people are doing things without really understanding the justification, or doing them just for publicity.
- daenz 5y ago
  I love going into a restaurant, wearing my mask while the host walks me to my seat, surrounded by unmasked people talking loudly, then sitting down and removing my mask. And if I don't do this, I'm not allowed to enter the establishment. It's all big joke.
- blondin 5y ago
  well, umm, did the lockdown in Quebec happened before or after the cases started increasing?
  - armchairhacker 5y ago
    After. And i do think it will slow the spread. But cases will increase as long as people go to essential jobs and use essential services. Omicron is one of the most contagious viruses known to man. It managed to spread everywhere despite countries initially closing their borders to SA, to the point where most people know relatives who are positive ~1 month in, whereas the original strain took much longer even in regions with few precautions. It has spread to a base in Antarctic despite extremely strict containment protocols. The only country I know of which has still managed to quarantine the virus is China, and even they are having some issues in the Xi’An province.
II2II 5y ago
The virus is dangerous, albeit not in the way that most people think. Our institutions, like health care and education, have been running so close to the edge for so long that the added pressure is pushing them over the edge. Before the pandemic, teachers would show up to work sick since they knew there may not be a substitute to take their place (and certainly not a substitute who would ensure continuity in teaching). Before the pandemic, nurses would work marathon shifts since there was a staffing shortage even before taking sick days into consideration. Now we are in a situation where we have to slow the spread of the virus to protect our institutions. I cannot speak to whether the measures are genuinely effective or a manifestation of security theatre, since that is not my domain. What I can say is it is putting more pressure on the limited amount of staff available. This is more than missing work because of a close contact. It is because of people missing work because they are genuinely sick or people being unable to keep up with the added responsibilities (such as teaching when they are supposed to be prepping). Unfortunately, we cannot solve the resource shortage overnight. Even if we could magically train the people to fill the role overnight, we don't have the infrastructure to support them. So now we are paying the price.
- chiefalchemist 5y ago
  Fair analysis. But why is this (truth) so far from the narrative? At some point there needs to be accountablity. I understand that might not be right now. But the list of names and institutions should start sooner rather than later.
  - roenxi 5y ago
    And a supplementary question: Is this what the people making the decisions actually think, or is this being projected on them by II2II?
  - II2II 5y ago
    The narrative has been changing continually during the pandemic, which is to be expected since we've gone from not understanding what it is and realizing that we were completely unprepared, to lulls where we thought we were getting over it, to spikes where we were largely willing to use what we learned earlier on, to the current spike where people are figuring out that this may be with us for the long run. As for holding people accountable, where would we even begin? I saw politicians closing beds and physically demolishing hospitals 30 years ago. Politicians of varying stripes did little to rebuild the system after that. While there was a push to hire more people at the start of the pandemic (both in health care and education), the interest seems to have dwindled off since no one wants to deal with the long term costs. Even if they were willing to live with the costs, few sensible people are willing to take on those roles because the involve continual sacrifice. There is also no guarantee that months or years of training will be rewarded with a career since the demand is likely to be short-term. There are so many people who can be blamed, so many people who should be blamed, but it won't address the problem since the decisions were either made in the distant past or are a consequence of inaction rather than of action.
thinkcontext 5y ago
It's not a mind virus which is causing some places to have peak hospitalizations of the pandemic.
ericb 5y ago
The simpler explanation--they know the virus is most likely not dangerous to themselves. But they care about others, have empathy, and don't want to have anyone else's death on their conscience, and think we should all work together on this. To those without empathy or conscience, these people seem to be doing something silly and theatrical and it mystifies them.

by tomp 5y ago

cabalamat 5y ago

Heathcare theatre.

op00to 5y ago

This makes no sense. How is “staying home” not staying away “from each other”?

lozenge 5y ago
I think they're saying that people have abandoned the number one effective policy (besides vaccines) - avoiding social visits and working from home - and trying to make up the difference with contact tracing, "being careful", masks, ventilation, lateral flow tests etc. The difficulty is, nobody wants to Zoom with me any more, so I have to meet them in person or not at all. When it was illegal to meet, people were happy to Zoom 90% of the time, but now they are not.

armchairhacker 5y ago

It’s not even that the virus is not necessarily serious: all of these precautions are basically useless. Many people are spreading covid but are completely asymptomatic, and tests are limited so they aren’t getting tested. Omicron is also extremely contagious, spreading despite masks and other sanitation protocols. It’s too late and too contagious: if you’re not 100% isolating in your home you will get Omicron. Masking / testing / precautions like these only give false security, and maybe slow the spread a bit. But the virus is still spreading ridiculously fast. Look at Quebec - lockdown and cases are still increasing. Idk, I don’t see the point in these guidelines. Maybe it will reduce viral load? A key point governments can do is hire more nurses and substantially increase nurse pay, that would reduce the strain on hospitals and ultimately increase capacity and treatment outcomes. But governments don’t seem to be doing this. It seems like people are doing things without really understanding the justification, or doing them just for publicity.

daenz 5y ago
I love going into a restaurant, wearing my mask while the host walks me to my seat, surrounded by unmasked people talking loudly, then sitting down and removing my mask. And if I don't do this, I'm not allowed to enter the establishment. It's all big joke.
blondin 5y ago
well, umm, did the lockdown in Quebec happened before or after the cases started increasing?
- armchairhacker 5y ago
  After. And i do think it will slow the spread. But cases will increase as long as people go to essential jobs and use essential services. Omicron is one of the most contagious viruses known to man. It managed to spread everywhere despite countries initially closing their borders to SA, to the point where most people know relatives who are positive ~1 month in, whereas the original strain took much longer even in regions with few precautions. It has spread to a base in Antarctic despite extremely strict containment protocols. The only country I know of which has still managed to quarantine the virus is China, and even they are having some issues in the Xi’An province.

II2II 5y ago

The virus is dangerous, albeit not in the way that most people think. Our institutions, like health care and education, have been running so close to the edge for so long that the added pressure is pushing them over the edge. Before the pandemic, teachers would show up to work sick since they knew there may not be a substitute to take their place (and certainly not a substitute who would ensure continuity in teaching). Before the pandemic, nurses would work marathon shifts since there was a staffing shortage even before taking sick days into consideration. Now we are in a situation where we have to slow the spread of the virus to protect our institutions. I cannot speak to whether the measures are genuinely effective or a manifestation of security theatre, since that is not my domain. What I can say is it is putting more pressure on the limited amount of staff available. This is more than missing work because of a close contact. It is because of people missing work because they are genuinely sick or people being unable to keep up with the added responsibilities (such as teaching when they are supposed to be prepping). Unfortunately, we cannot solve the resource shortage overnight. Even if we could magically train the people to fill the role overnight, we don't have the infrastructure to support them. So now we are paying the price.

chiefalchemist 5y ago
Fair analysis. But why is this (truth) so far from the narrative? At some point there needs to be accountablity. I understand that might not be right now. But the list of names and institutions should start sooner rather than later.
- roenxi 5y ago
  And a supplementary question: Is this what the people making the decisions actually think, or is this being projected on them by II2II?
- II2II 5y ago
  The narrative has been changing continually during the pandemic, which is to be expected since we've gone from not understanding what it is and realizing that we were completely unprepared, to lulls where we thought we were getting over it, to spikes where we were largely willing to use what we learned earlier on, to the current spike where people are figuring out that this may be with us for the long run. As for holding people accountable, where would we even begin? I saw politicians closing beds and physically demolishing hospitals 30 years ago. Politicians of varying stripes did little to rebuild the system after that. While there was a push to hire more people at the start of the pandemic (both in health care and education), the interest seems to have dwindled off since no one wants to deal with the long term costs. Even if they were willing to live with the costs, few sensible people are willing to take on those roles because the involve continual sacrifice. There is also no guarantee that months or years of training will be rewarded with a career since the demand is likely to be short-term. There are so many people who can be blamed, so many people who should be blamed, but it won't address the problem since the decisions were either made in the distant past or are a consequence of inaction rather than of action.

thinkcontext 5y ago

It's not a mind virus which is causing some places to have peak hospitalizations of the pandemic.

ericb 5y ago

The simpler explanation--they know the virus is most likely not dangerous to themselves. But they care about others, have empathy, and don't want to have anyone else's death on their conscience, and think we should all work together on this. To those without empathy or conscience, these people seem to be doing something silly and theatrical and it mystifies them.