5 ms·
Hilariously (darkly), during the pandemic, the very same reason is why the very same administrators were hell-bent on forcing Bluetooth-always-on contact tracin
by adityaathalye 3mo ago
Hilariously (darkly), during the pandemic, the very same reason is why the very same administrators were hell-bent on forcing Bluetooth-always-on contact tracing on the whole country's smartphone-carrying population.
(edit: viz. that forcible peer-to-peer bluetooth networking works. One man's unrestricted mass-surveillance is another person's "terrorist activity". Oh how the turntables turn and turn.)
- KitN 3mo agoBut that did save lives; I was able to know my family had Covid before the symptoms showed up. Happened with a lot of other people too.
- t0bia_s 3mo ago[flagged]
- npunt 3mo agoFwiw what you are describing is literally survivorship bias.
- stinkbeetle 3mo agoYes, similarly the other side of people who survived authoritarian governments.
- zakki 3mo agoI don't think it is a survivorship bias if most people survive from COVID19.
- giantg2 3mo agoWe'd have to see the data to say wether it was true or bias. Perhaps comparing similar nations where one had Bluetooth contact tracing and the other didn't. I'm skeptical that it made much difference either way compared to the other factors.
- t0bia_s 3mo agoYes and I did not start with it.
- aeternum 3mo agoIndeed, and it would have saved far more lives if leveraged the app to have hazmat crews come in a forcibly carry the infected to quarantine zones.
- markdown 3mo agoSadly that wasn't possible in the US political climate and maybe a million people lost their lives as a result.
- tecoholic 3mo ago[flagged]
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- dwedge 3mo agoAs much as he says a lot of stupid stuff this bleach one always annoyed me because the full clip clearly showed that he wasn't talking about bleach he was talking about looking to find something as effective as bleach, and he was repeating something from an advisor who then pretended to not hear him when he asked. It always seemed like a media setup and I always dislike those no matter how bad the target is
- bacheaul 3mo agoI think they're being facetious, this is basically a distopian movie plot point.
- cutterl6 3mo agoI doubt it, unless their hazmat suits are bullet-proof.
- aeternum 3mo agoAgreed, and I'm happy to live in a country where this is likely true. The only thing more deadly than pandemics are governments that gained sufficient power to round up their citizens systematically in the name of the public good.
- opem 3mo agoIf they had administered properly people wouldn't have been to the streets and spread the virus in the first place!
- mannanj 3mo agoWas your short term safety at the expense of long term safety? (assuming rights erosion and government failures ultimately harms safety long-term).
- dredmorbius 3mo agoMedicine is literally the source of the concept of side effects, the idea that some helpful interventions have simultaneous harmful impacts. For large-scale infectious disease --- epidemiology and public health --- quarantine and infection/contact tracing are very tried and true containment methods. Yes, these impose costs, particularly on individual liberties. What's key is having a well-governed, principled, high-integrity, trustworthy government which makes clearly-justified decisions as to when to impose such restrictions, and when to lift them. Sadly, this has become more difficult in recent years.
- mannanj 3mo agoAgreed. The theory is there, and even then sounds like it would work like you said if the government was "well-governed, principled, high-integrity, trustworthy". Theory rarely works according to the plan in practice, so as we see today, even if those qualities had been a priority of the government (which I don't think they really are - I think the government in USA acts more like a rich-man's proxy tricking you a lot) we need the plan that accounts for some rough spots or edge cases.
- felooboolooomba 3mo agoWas that 30 second bluetooth beacon ever switched off again?
- GeekyBear 3mo agoThe most consequential public health failure during COVID was the denial that COVID was airborne, based on no scientific evidence. The infection spread based on being in the same enclosed space as an infected person, and was not based on being only a few feet apart.