Wuhan Killer Sneeze (thanks Tea)

[comelately]

There may be exceptions to that rule:

(She was probably tested under previous protocol)

 

[IdleRich]

Yeah I saw that. Also it's possible that she has privileged access to tests through private health or simply by virtue of being in the government (and even health dept in fact).

 

[IdleRich]

In short it's one rule for them and another for us... I'm pretty sure if any of the Johnson clan has a whiff of a suspicion that they might have been near it they'll be tested lickety-split.

 

[IdleRich]

US declares national emergency... like when there was an urgent need to build a wall last year. Hope this one works out better than that.

 

[Mr. Tea]

Interesting argument here as to why the UK government's approach may not be totally wrong:

 

[comelately]

The gaping hole is in the subthreads:

And I basically had to explain this to my Mother (67, not really a picture of health) today. She basically needs to isolate, & eat a little better.

I think what they are going for is the sanitised verson of:

 

[chava]

Interesting argument here as to why the UK government's approach may not be totally wrong:

It is quite a gamble when you don't know the immunity response yet. Also side effect from recovered patients are also an issue.

Btw Robin Hanson infamous futurist/ economist made a similar, but more radical proposal a month ago, and got slaughtered for it.

 

[comelately]

Interest in accelerationism has.....accelerated.

 

[Mr. Tea]

It is quite a gamble when you don't know the immunity response yet. Also side effect from recovered patients are also an issue.

Sure, hence the "may".

 

[chava]

Sure, hence the "may".

Of course this approach was devised by the Nudge Unit:

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/herd-immunity-uk-coronavirus-robert-peston

 

[comelately]

They've u-turned on the mass gatherings already, according to the Torygraph. But given what they've said, it's then going to be hard to keep the pubs/clubs open. So it feels like the grand scheme is unravelling on contact with reality.

 

[baboon2004]

Exactly, they're talking about hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people dying as an inevitable part of the process, thus defeating the entire object of this method, which is not killing vulnerable people.

The gaping hole is in the subthreads:

Good news on the mass gathering thing - as you say, dominoes *should* start to fall after this, and soon we'll be in a state of partial lockdown at least

 

[droid]

But I thought they had the best possible scientific advice?

 

[baboon2004]

They had the best possible scientific advice from a dangerous lunatic from GlaxoSmithKline

 

[droid]

 

[baboon2004]

I would happily support an undemocratic takeover where this guy becomes our Supreme Ruler

I think the penny is now dropping just how backward Europe and America are in many ways. It is fucking scary how organised China has been about this, and how we have almost none of it.

 

[IdleRich]

It seems that - contrary to my prediction earlier - the government has been bounced into changing its policy by people and companies and other bodies voluntarily doing the stuff that the government lacked the will to enforce.

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

here in the States: this has become real to - or its scope has dawned on - most people in, essentially, the last 3 days

personally I'd been mentally prepared since about the middle of February for it to be bad

tho I definitely had to revise my estimate of how bad upward

my moment of clarity was Tuesday night, a combination of near 200 dead in a 24-hour span in Italy and, stupid as it sounds, the NBA suspending its season

the latter being hugely symbolic "oh shit" moment

I've been telling friends/family/coworkers for 2 weeks to be ready for the U.S. to be in an Italy-style situation by the end of March, only worse

but I didn't fully comprehend how bad "Italy-style situation" is, or I guess I was thinking mostly about social disruption of draconian lockdown etc

as opposed to people dying in hallways in hospitals because doctors are forced to triage due to lack of beds, ICU space, ventilators, etc

if you look at pretty much any metric we're probably going to do worse than Italy

less hospital beds per capita, virtually zero testing/tracing, response took far too long and was until basically today was haphazard and piecemeal

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

I have never seen panic like this. tbf, most people here haven't unless they've spent time in a warzone/other catastrophic area.

empty grocery shelves (specifically: toilet paper and paper towels, pasta, peanut butter, dry goods, etc)

not quite people fighting over the last roll/jar/whatever bad, but next level down from that

what's wild is how that's happened basically overnight

a huge amount of blame has to fall on the govt, specifically Trump ofc as well as the fuckboi Secretary of Health + Human Services, Alex Azar

who's been running interference for all of Trump's bullshit for the last month plus

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

surreal watching Trump @ press conference today talking up how well we're doing cos of the low # of cases we have

while in basically the same breath acknowledging that testing has been almost entirely unavailable

also surreal: watching the Dow jump up 1000+ points in ~15 minutes in response to said press conference

like: we're closing the barn door a month after the horse left and the barn is on fire

but I a (relatively, certainly compared to what preceded it) coherent response from the Federal govt is just so welcome at this point

Trump truly the all-time master of establishing and then clearing lowest of possible bars