4701

Where “good” is measured in lives saved, and less people getting sick, and “harm” is measured by inconvenience and slight economic hardship I think the answer is rather obvious.

4702

There is clearly more than slight economic hardship for many. But policymakers can fix that too! Or at least alleviate.

And I’m not talking about the damn airlines, of which American really deserves to go under. Stock buybacks indeed…

4703

West Virginia has fallen

4704

One of the most liberal people I know is quoting right-wing racists on Facebook.

Because it’s all a conspiracy or something. Vote for Bernie.

Fuck if I know anymore. I even pointed out his source is a known right-wing racist conspiracy nut and he ignored it.

He posted something today about how it’s all a media scam right when this was being released:

https://governor.iowa.gov/press-release/gov-reynolds-issues-a-state-of-public-health-disaster-emergency?fbclid=IwAR3OrM9iPLbTZLF0YPp_SGsc-WFK_Em6lwZ7siirKuu0B4xQcO5oV4uTOIM

DES MOINES - Gov. Reynolds issued a State of Public Health Disaster Emergency activating the public health response and recovery aspects of the State Disaster Emergency Plan effective at noon today.

4705

Hear, hear!

4706

Tribalism isn’t exclusive to the right. As Bernie Bro’s so aptly demonstrate.

4707

Trust me, I know, but the overlap between a super progressive guy and alt-right people still seems off to me.

It would be one thing if he was saying this because Bernie said it or something. Instead he’s off on his own blazing a trail to the far right. Meanwhile the other dozen Bernie supporters I know are like “wash your hands, stay strong, hit me up if you need anything”.

Edit: I guess the upside is that he’s thinking for himself. The downside is that apparently he’s fucking stupid.

4708

I didn’t really get that from his article. It’s more that he’s arguing that we’re flying blind into flattening without good data on what the effects might be in either the short- or long-term…not that it’s necessarily an over-reaction, but we might end up doing more harm than good.

He might have a point.

4709
4710

I think that is actually a fact, and we don’t have a choice about that. It’s just a matter of wich side to you want to error on? I’m a fan of caution.

4711

Strange how professional athletes seem able to get tested on demand, huh?

4712

If you do it right, people say you overreacted.
If you do it wrong, you can’t go back and do it right.

It’s always been like this for possible pandemics. Always. Because you can’t wait for data. Once the demon is loose, it’s loose and you can’t chain it anymore. And we’re doing a hell of a lot less than just about every SE Asian nation anyway.

4713
4714
4715

Yes, say, for example, Spain tops out at 5k deaths (10x current number - I honk it’s going to be more, but it’s a good number). That’s a little less of a typical flu season. I guarantee a lot of stupid people will come out and say how we overreacted and shouldn’t have damaged our economy so much for an illness that turned out not to be too bad. They just won’t see what would have happened without measures.

4716

And I think it’s worth noting, the economic hardship is short term. When this blows over, things will come ROARING back. It’s not like some great depression scenario where all the topsoil got blown away in the wind.

4717

4718

Some people saying, “See, I told you so. It wasn’t that bad.” are absolutely inevitable. On an individual level, we can discourage that a bit by spreading the word that all these drastic measures are designed to deliver exactly that outcome. Tell folks you know that the happy ending here will feel like we over-reacted.

4719

Dead people can be revived! You can’t bring an economy back to life!

Wait, strike that. Reverse it.

4720

We don’t know that, it could be worse. If there is no vaccine within a year, no drug to decrease the number of pneumonia complications or, worse, if contracting the virus and recovering does not subsequently grant immunity, it will definitely be worse. This is sci-fi territory, Children of Men except instead of children we will have no elderly and adults that keep getting sick.