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Conservatives need for the lab leak theory to be correct as they were wrong about basically all other points on covid. They refused to believe in masks, lockdow

Conservatives need for the lab leak theory to be correct as they were wrong about basically all other points on covid. They refused to believe in masks, lockdowns, and social distancing and paid the ultimate price at a much higher rate. [0] [0] https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2022/03/03/the-changing-political-geography-of-covid-19-over-the-last-two-years/ https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2022/03/03/the-changing...

hsjqllzlfkf 3y ago
> Conservatives need for the lab leak theory to be correct as they were wrong about basically all other points on covid This is the most persuasive point I've read on HN the entire week, thank you.
- nomel 3y ago
  It would be interesting to see this with better detail, like age, weight, etc.
0xy 3y ago
Lockdowns were a failure, hence why millions of children were irreparably damaged by them socially and academically. The legacy of lockdown proponents is plummeting test scores and massive IQ drops, because children were merely collateral damage to their hypochondria. [1] [2] [1] https://www.npr.org/2023/06/21/1183445544/u-s-reading-and-math-scores-drop-to-lowest-level-in-decades https://www.npr.org/2023/06/21/1183445544/u-s-reading-and-ma... [2] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/12/children-born-during-pandemic-have-lower-iqs-us-study-finds https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/12/children-born-...
kyrra 3y ago
I don't think your link proves your point like you think it does. It's a correlation, not causation. The question is, what other variables may impact conservatives. One of the main factors in if you die from getting covid is age. And conservatives tend to be older. I would love to see an age normalized version of that data. I'd bet it would be about a wash.
- rootusrootus 3y ago
  The only people in my circle of friends and family who died from COVID were middle age or older obese men who were ideologically opposed to taking a vaccine. I do have a number of conservative friends & family who did vaccinate, none of them got more than the sniffles.
  - jhugo 3y ago
    Anecdotally, there are plenty of people with obesity or other risk factors who died despite being fully vaccinated. Meanwhile, I had a confirmed COVID infection early on, before vaccines were available, and had nothing more than the sniffles. I then had two more confirmed infections after having three vaccine doses, and had the same sniffles. These anecdotes, like yours, are not very useful since they only confirm what we already know: no vaccine is 100% effective, and no risk factor is a death sentence.
    - rootusrootus 3y ago
      Agreed, anecdotes don't have too much meaning. But we do have pretty good statistics to back up the effectiveness of the vaccines.
  - brnaftr361 3y ago
    Huh, the vaccine uptake where I live was aberrantly low. Highly conservative. I know lots of older people, including many retired, of retirement age. I don't know anyone who has suffered a fatality from the disease - and many of those I do know who contracted would have contracted the alpha variant prior to vaccine deployment.
    - rootusrootus 3y ago
      The largest group of fatalities in my friend/family group were late in the delta wave, right before it faded out and got replaced by omicron.
pasquinelli 3y ago
i had no idea the lab leak theory was conservative. i suppose it was silly of me not to realize every opinion that a person can have has already been claimed by liberals or conservatives, such that holding that opinion means you're more liberal/less conservative, or more conservative/less liberal.
- rootusrootus 3y ago
  > i suppose it was silly of me not to realize every opinion that a person can have has already been claimed by liberals or conservatives It's a political topic, so it naturally has positions staked out by both sides. There's not much reason to care about it one way or the other unless you have a tribal viewpoint.
- Clent 3y ago
  Unfortunately, American politics end up being very divisive. The right has been calling this the China virus since the beginning. Anything that can be used to show that's 'true' will result in the right's echo chamber amplifying it. As for the left, well I am not sure there is an official position other than waiting for more data. China is definitely sus but they are always like that from a western perspective so I don't know that I weight it much. Other than the smugness in watching the right be wrong again, I am not aware of anyone on the left that is invested in either outcome. It's a matter of waiting for the crucial data being found. How long did it take us to pin point the source of other pandemics? This stuff takes time. Internet speculation only takes seconds.
  - brnaftr361 3y ago
    In anticipation of vindication, does the "left" not themselves then hope for the release of information which runs counter to their opponents, thus by consensus, a sword to fall on? Since without it their silly little sports team would be on the losing side. And of course in the event they're wrong they can run back to their echo chambers and self-manufacture plausible deniability. As will the right if proven wrong. In both cases either side wants to be correct — just for that little hit of "I told you so." Of course this is all just silly bullshit. I have some inkling of hope that the truth will be made plain, but that's so implausible given current regimes and political paradigms that the only reasonable thing to do is ignore whatever is concluded, at least anytime in our lifetimes.
georgeplusplus 3y ago
[flagged]
brigadier132 3y ago
> They refused to believe in masks, As someone that believed in masks from the very beginning. The CDC and Fauci himself said masks were useless at the start of the pandemic. Stop being a pawn.
- unethical_ban 3y ago
  My understanding is that they said that as a path to avoid hoarding of N95 supplies which they knew were in short supply for those who most needed it at the time, medical professionals. That doesn't aren't right, precisely because it validates conspiracy minded people.
  - brigadier132 3y ago
    [flagged]
  - slowturtle 3y ago
    The point is that Fauci and the CDC lied to the public about the efficacy of masks, even if they lied with "good" intentions. They simply could've explained that supplies were low and asked people not to hoard them. Instead they lied (one of many times) and acted surprised when people started distrusting them.
  - nomel 3y ago
    > That doesn't aren't right, precisely because it validates conspiracy minded people. That’s putting it far too lightly. It proved a “conspiracy” 100% true. I had masks early in the pandemic only because a “nutty” colleague said “they’re going to try to take the masks from us” and he brought me a box.
    - unethical_ban 3y ago
      I agree it was terrible, because it undermines public trust. But now people use those statements to say "aha you people are silly for wearing masks" when that old comment is clearly, well, out of date.
  - 3y ago
asynchronous 3y ago
Wow, what a statement considering literally everything you just listed turned out to be a complete joke. I could not have made a better argument to prove a point.
MarkMarine 3y ago
conservatives want the lab leak theory to be correct? They controlled the levers of power at the time and didn’t do anything about it, didn’t get redress for the death, suffering, loss, and economic harm. I would expect they’d want the waters as muddy as possible.

hsjqllzlfkf 3y ago

> Conservatives need for the lab leak theory to be correct as they were wrong about basically all other points on covid This is the most persuasive point I've read on HN the entire week, thank you.

nomel 3y ago
It would be interesting to see this with better detail, like age, weight, etc.

0xy 3y ago

Lockdowns were a failure, hence why millions of children were irreparably damaged by them socially and academically. The legacy of lockdown proponents is plummeting test scores and massive IQ drops, because children were merely collateral damage to their hypochondria. [1] [2] [1] https://www.npr.org/2023/06/21/1183445544/u-s-reading-and-math-scores-drop-to-lowest-level-in-decades https://www.npr.org/2023/06/21/1183445544/u-s-reading-and-ma... [2] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/12/children-born-during-pandemic-have-lower-iqs-us-study-finds https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/12/children-born-...

kyrra 3y ago

I don't think your link proves your point like you think it does. It's a correlation, not causation. The question is, what other variables may impact conservatives. One of the main factors in if you die from getting covid is age. And conservatives tend to be older. I would love to see an age normalized version of that data. I'd bet it would be about a wash.

rootusrootus 3y ago
The only people in my circle of friends and family who died from COVID were middle age or older obese men who were ideologically opposed to taking a vaccine. I do have a number of conservative friends & family who did vaccinate, none of them got more than the sniffles.
- jhugo 3y ago
  Anecdotally, there are plenty of people with obesity or other risk factors who died despite being fully vaccinated. Meanwhile, I had a confirmed COVID infection early on, before vaccines were available, and had nothing more than the sniffles. I then had two more confirmed infections after having three vaccine doses, and had the same sniffles. These anecdotes, like yours, are not very useful since they only confirm what we already know: no vaccine is 100% effective, and no risk factor is a death sentence.
  - rootusrootus 3y ago
    Agreed, anecdotes don't have too much meaning. But we do have pretty good statistics to back up the effectiveness of the vaccines.
- brnaftr361 3y ago
  Huh, the vaccine uptake where I live was aberrantly low. Highly conservative. I know lots of older people, including many retired, of retirement age. I don't know anyone who has suffered a fatality from the disease - and many of those I do know who contracted would have contracted the alpha variant prior to vaccine deployment.
  - rootusrootus 3y ago
    The largest group of fatalities in my friend/family group were late in the delta wave, right before it faded out and got replaced by omicron.

pasquinelli 3y ago

i had no idea the lab leak theory was conservative. i suppose it was silly of me not to realize every opinion that a person can have has already been claimed by liberals or conservatives, such that holding that opinion means you're more liberal/less conservative, or more conservative/less liberal.

rootusrootus 3y ago
> i suppose it was silly of me not to realize every opinion that a person can have has already been claimed by liberals or conservatives It's a political topic, so it naturally has positions staked out by both sides. There's not much reason to care about it one way or the other unless you have a tribal viewpoint.
Clent 3y ago
Unfortunately, American politics end up being very divisive. The right has been calling this the China virus since the beginning. Anything that can be used to show that's 'true' will result in the right's echo chamber amplifying it. As for the left, well I am not sure there is an official position other than waiting for more data. China is definitely sus but they are always like that from a western perspective so I don't know that I weight it much. Other than the smugness in watching the right be wrong again, I am not aware of anyone on the left that is invested in either outcome. It's a matter of waiting for the crucial data being found. How long did it take us to pin point the source of other pandemics? This stuff takes time. Internet speculation only takes seconds.
- brnaftr361 3y ago
  In anticipation of vindication, does the "left" not themselves then hope for the release of information which runs counter to their opponents, thus by consensus, a sword to fall on? Since without it their silly little sports team would be on the losing side. And of course in the event they're wrong they can run back to their echo chambers and self-manufacture plausible deniability. As will the right if proven wrong. In both cases either side wants to be correct — just for that little hit of "I told you so." Of course this is all just silly bullshit. I have some inkling of hope that the truth will be made plain, but that's so implausible given current regimes and political paradigms that the only reasonable thing to do is ignore whatever is concluded, at least anytime in our lifetimes.

georgeplusplus 3y ago

[flagged]

brigadier132 3y ago

> They refused to believe in masks, As someone that believed in masks from the very beginning. The CDC and Fauci himself said masks were useless at the start of the pandemic. Stop being a pawn.

unethical_ban 3y ago
My understanding is that they said that as a path to avoid hoarding of N95 supplies which they knew were in short supply for those who most needed it at the time, medical professionals. That doesn't aren't right, precisely because it validates conspiracy minded people.
- brigadier132 3y ago
  [flagged]
- slowturtle 3y ago
  The point is that Fauci and the CDC lied to the public about the efficacy of masks, even if they lied with "good" intentions. They simply could've explained that supplies were low and asked people not to hoard them. Instead they lied (one of many times) and acted surprised when people started distrusting them.
- nomel 3y ago
  > That doesn't aren't right, precisely because it validates conspiracy minded people. That’s putting it far too lightly. It proved a “conspiracy” 100% true. I had masks early in the pandemic only because a “nutty” colleague said “they’re going to try to take the masks from us” and he brought me a box.
  - unethical_ban 3y ago
    I agree it was terrible, because it undermines public trust. But now people use those statements to say "aha you people are silly for wearing masks" when that old comment is clearly, well, out of date.
- 3y ago

asynchronous 3y ago

Wow, what a statement considering literally everything you just listed turned out to be a complete joke. I could not have made a better argument to prove a point.

MarkMarine 3y ago

conservatives want the lab leak theory to be correct? They controlled the levers of power at the time and didn’t do anything about it, didn’t get redress for the death, suffering, loss, and economic harm. I would expect they’d want the waters as muddy as possible.