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How Can Anyone Still Believe in Covid Policy?

14 points by steelstraw 5y ago

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
explorigin 5y ago
This article is not about Covid not being a threat, it's about people not knowing who to trust in a rapidly changing world with multiple actors with conflicting goals. "Politicians lie to achieve their goals" This is hardly newsworthy. > There is no scientific, rational justification for a continued belief that “interventions” matter. All over the world, masks and vaccine passports are failing on an unprecedented scale. How can anyone still believe they work? I feel like this is more about a lack of trustworthy authority than that science having failed. People need to understand and appreciate the limits of science...and then you have to consider the political angle.
- hindsightbias 5y ago
  It’s funny how my RW friends would text me in the past about conspiracies because Hong Kong’s rates were so low (without any awareness of their Zero Covid policies), my LW friends would talk about how it showed the success of interventions, and now because it may not be working as well with omicron, my RW friends text me about HK FAIL! and my LW friends seem more resigned to the limits of science. What is clear is the not many people follow PG’s advice to keep their identity small.
garciasn 5y ago
I was under the impression that, originally, COVID policy was intended to allow for our collective healthcare infrastructure to spin up an adequate response to the surges prevalent with the infections and their potential outcomes. Public Health Policy that limited spread did do that while the healthcare industry found best practices, equipment, and medicines which were intended to help those who were potentially infected and required medical attention to get better. Based on the results of this policy, it appears that that the world has solved for SOME of those key pieces but has failed in many others, as evidenced by the inability for some regions to handle the surge in cases, particularly in areas where we are just beginning to again exceed where we were a year ago in case load. Does this mean that COVID policy has failed? Depending on what we're talking about here: no, not in my opinion. What has failed is the ability for the healthcare industry to scale to meet the current caseloads, particularly when they knew what to expect when we might hit levels we are currently seeing and have seen before.
- rsynnott 5y ago
  Hospitals can only scale up so far in reasonable time; in the rich world, the limiting factor is generally staff, not equipment, and you can't just make new nurses by the tens of thousands in a year or so. In some countries, a policy of restrictions did allow sufficient time to get everyone vaccinated and many people boosted, and that is allowing health services in highly vaccinated areas to hold the line, at least for now. In Ireland, for instance, the hospital system is under some strain, but holding together; 95% of adults are vaccinated and over half of ICU occupancy are unvaccinated. With a lower rate of vaccination, the hospitals would already be overwhelmed. Not even that much lower. The trouble, of course, is that in some wealthy countries, there are significant numbers of people who don't want the vaccine (I suspect more than anticipated by the planners). Some places have under half the adult population vaccinated; at that point, no reasonable expansion of hospital capacity is going to cope with the omicron wave.
- alisonkisk 5y ago
alisonkisk 5y ago
a0-prw 5y ago
Doublethink

14 points by steelstraw 5y ago

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

This article is not about Covid not being a threat, it's about people not knowing who to trust in a rapidly changing world with multiple actors with conflicting goals. "Politicians lie to achieve their goals" This is hardly newsworthy. > There is no scientific, rational justification for a continued belief that “interventions” matter. All over the world, masks and vaccine passports are failing on an unprecedented scale. How can anyone still believe they work? I feel like this is more about a lack of trustworthy authority than that science having failed. People need to understand and appreciate the limits of science...and then you have to consider the political angle.

hindsightbias 5y ago
It’s funny how my RW friends would text me in the past about conspiracies because Hong Kong’s rates were so low (without any awareness of their Zero Covid policies), my LW friends would talk about how it showed the success of interventions, and now because it may not be working as well with omicron, my RW friends text me about HK FAIL! and my LW friends seem more resigned to the limits of science. What is clear is the not many people follow PG’s advice to keep their identity small.

garciasn 5y ago

I was under the impression that, originally, COVID policy was intended to allow for our collective healthcare infrastructure to spin up an adequate response to the surges prevalent with the infections and their potential outcomes. Public Health Policy that limited spread did do that while the healthcare industry found best practices, equipment, and medicines which were intended to help those who were potentially infected and required medical attention to get better. Based on the results of this policy, it appears that that the world has solved for SOME of those key pieces but has failed in many others, as evidenced by the inability for some regions to handle the surge in cases, particularly in areas where we are just beginning to again exceed where we were a year ago in case load. Does this mean that COVID policy has failed? Depending on what we're talking about here: no, not in my opinion. What has failed is the ability for the healthcare industry to scale to meet the current caseloads, particularly when they knew what to expect when we might hit levels we are currently seeing and have seen before.

rsynnott 5y ago
Hospitals can only scale up so far in reasonable time; in the rich world, the limiting factor is generally staff, not equipment, and you can't just make new nurses by the tens of thousands in a year or so. In some countries, a policy of restrictions did allow sufficient time to get everyone vaccinated and many people boosted, and that is allowing health services in highly vaccinated areas to hold the line, at least for now. In Ireland, for instance, the hospital system is under some strain, but holding together; 95% of adults are vaccinated and over half of ICU occupancy are unvaccinated. With a lower rate of vaccination, the hospitals would already be overwhelmed. Not even that much lower. The trouble, of course, is that in some wealthy countries, there are significant numbers of people who don't want the vaccine (I suspect more than anticipated by the planners). Some places have under half the adult population vaccinated; at that point, no reasonable expansion of hospital capacity is going to cope with the omicron wave.
alisonkisk 5y ago

alisonkisk 5y ago

a0-prw 5y ago

Doublethink