3 ms·

So you're saying that he should have squelched the idea of 6 ft separation and masking, the latter of which was just made up in the former of which the governme

So you're saying that he should have squelched the idea of 6 ft separation and masking, the latter of which was just made up in the former of which the government had both sides on? Or squelched the official US government position that it couldn't be a lab leak?

ben_w 2y ago
> Or squelched the official US government position that it couldn't be a lab leak? That anyone cared if it was or wasn't, continues to surprise me. Either way, the lab is in China and you can't do anything about it. Either way, the virus came from China and you can't do anything about it. Either way, China tried to suppress news initially and this allowed it to spread faster and sooner than it might otherwise have done. Either way, wet markets were and remain a known breeding ground for novel zoonotic diseases that we'd like to not be like that, but we can't do anything about them because they're in China and we have no say in the matter. Either way, the response to it has to be the same — it was out of control and killing people just the same, regardless of origin.
- freestyle24147 2y ago
  You don't care that your government conspired to hide information that, by your own opinion, didn't have much utility one way or the other?
  - ben_w 2y ago
    a) not my government, see profile b) there's two ways of censoring info: 1) to ban the truth and 2) to bury it under a pile of distractions; IMO during in a medical emergency such as this, allowing people to distract from "this is a deadly pandemic" with "it really matters which of two things we have no control over caused this" is just as deadly as China banning reporting of the fact that people were getting ill. "You can sort out which thing you frenemies did wrong later, right now you need to buck up and resist the disease itself", kinda thing.
    - rexer 2y ago
      There's a difference between saying "there are more important things (to you) to put your energy towards" and "the lab leak theory is wrong, stop talking about it" The former is reasonable, the latter is not (assuming the theory is unproven either way at the time).
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]

ben_w 2y ago

> Or squelched the official US government position that it couldn't be a lab leak? That anyone cared if it was or wasn't, continues to surprise me. Either way, the lab is in China and you can't do anything about it. Either way, the virus came from China and you can't do anything about it. Either way, China tried to suppress news initially and this allowed it to spread faster and sooner than it might otherwise have done. Either way, wet markets were and remain a known breeding ground for novel zoonotic diseases that we'd like to not be like that, but we can't do anything about them because they're in China and we have no say in the matter. Either way, the response to it has to be the same — it was out of control and killing people just the same, regardless of origin.

freestyle24147 2y ago
You don't care that your government conspired to hide information that, by your own opinion, didn't have much utility one way or the other?
- ben_w 2y ago
  a) not my government, see profile b) there's two ways of censoring info: 1) to ban the truth and 2) to bury it under a pile of distractions; IMO during in a medical emergency such as this, allowing people to distract from "this is a deadly pandemic" with "it really matters which of two things we have no control over caused this" is just as deadly as China banning reporting of the fact that people were getting ill. "You can sort out which thing you frenemies did wrong later, right now you need to buck up and resist the disease itself", kinda thing.
  - rexer 2y ago
    There's a difference between saying "there are more important things (to you) to put your energy towards" and "the lab leak theory is wrong, stop talking about it" The former is reasonable, the latter is not (assuming the theory is unproven either way at the time).
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]