Corona virus

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aggromagnet wrote:

My younger brother works in the pharmacy at a Walgreens in the Seattle area. I don't envy him even the slightest bit. I feel far more safe and comfortable being over here in Taiwan, right next door to where this whole thing started, than I would if I were in his shoes right now.

Partly because of the current health risks due to his job and location, but mostly because so many of my fellow Americans are fucking maniacs. And heavily armed maniacs at that.

If this shit drags on long enough and people start getting desperate enough, things could get really dark really fast in some areas.

I'm seeing mostly the opposite currently, people "comming together" once they realize the situation they are in.

A lot will be possible in the comming month when creativity and the market does its magic.

I'm sort of laughing with society suddenly becoming aware of normal people just doing their jobs and realizing they keep most of the low-grade structures up and running.
I always tell people they have no clue how amazing it is your dirt gets collected at fixed points in time or a buss arrives on a scedule or that your lights work when you push a switch in your house.

Everybody suddenly seems to collectively experience this "aha" moment.

Already wondering how long that will last though, i imagine hollywood stars are already losing their marbles right about now because of attention deprivation.

Peace,

-Boem-

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xMustard wrote:

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The_Impeacher wrote:

If this holds up and the US starts a hard lockdown a week ago, the concurrent cases would peak at about 300,000 with 27,000 deaths. But the trouble is there will be no lockdown.

(There will be more deaths in the coming weeks regardless due to the ongoing cases.)

I think my math is way off on the low side.

got any evidence to support these projections, or are they just darts in the dark like every single other scientific projection over the past 20 fucking years.

these projections are as based in reality as the climate projections, which have not only not come true in the slightest, but usually have been 180 degrees couldn't be farther from reality.

Don't compare the modeling of a chaos theory based system with a virus model.

The data points in a weather analysis are extremely complex so criticism and scepticism is to be expected on most data sets(and this is the case even in the scientific field, which is why a lot of people complained about making judgements on the models that calculate the worst possible scenario's)

The data points in a virus model aren't.

And they are based on

1) current live developments in infected regions(being updated constantly)
2) based on previous outbreak models like sars/swine-flu/influenza/HIV etc and controlled for with the new virus parameters.

Comparing these as if one being not reliable or functional yet automatically imply's the later has the same flaws isn't "critical thinking" at all.

A defined problem is a lot easier then a currently non-specified and defined problem(weather).

Peace,

-Boem-

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The_Impeacher wrote:

For what it's worth, I personally DO NOT want our government to step in. I want the reality deniers to start doing the right thing for all of us, but they won't.

Your exaggerated emotional responses filled with dichotomy based thinking isn't helping anybody.

Ever convinced somebody when you started out with branding them as an "other"?

All in all a solid "well played good game no re" seems in order when considering your strategy of communication.

If you don't have the patience to change people's mind then don't.

Peace,

-Boem-

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The_Impeacher wrote:

The essential workers are real life heroes.

I'm considered an essential worker (my workplace provides gas to the Police and Fire Department), so now that I've stopped sneezing all over the place, I'm back at work and will continue to work through the lockdown.

I don't really think of myself as heroic though. I consider myself to be one of the lucky ones. So many people are losing jobs and income because of the lockdown, but I'll continue to be working full-time and be paid for it. It's actually very lucky for me, as I'd just had to take five weeks off for health reasons, and was getting very low on funds.

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The_Impeacher wrote:

Canada will have to do it to save us from the reality deniers among us.

Calling them reality deniers is kinda off. For the most part, they aren't denying reality (not the ones in this thread at least). They do tend to downplay the seriousness of the situation, but ultimately that doesn't matter as it isn't the cause or basis of their objections.

The real basis of their objections seems to be that they're just your garden variety fundamentalist libertarians. Their reaction would likely be comparable even if this was a major natural disaster or even military operation. It doesn't matter what the threat is, they simply prioritize liberty and FREEEEDDDDOOOOMMM! above all else. They hate govt. and wouldn't approve of ceding any amount of power to it for any amount of time under virtually any circumstances. If several thousand (or many more) people die, so be it. What matter most is the principle - protect liberty at all costs, no compromise and no exceptions.

In a sense, it's similar to dealing with a religious fundamentalist, in that they too are driven by an overarching and unbending principle. Arguing with them from a utilitarian perspective is useless - utilitarianism is about balancing between different approaches to achieve maximum human flourishing, but you can't balance between ideas that're seen as inviolable and inflexible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX5n0DYXnUQ

That's a pretty good run down of first/second and third order chain of events.

I would recommend to watch it if your in the "why do we need a quarantine for this" camp, specifically discusses the US situation.

Peace,

-Boem-

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Altnaharra wrote:

Every cashier is a god damn legend right now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwJaELXadKo

Werd! You couldnt pay me $200 an hour to work retail right now. With the idiots stocking toilet paper when a gallon of bleach some water and a wash cloth works even better, for months.. I'd literally punch them in the face...not to mention the interactions w/o N95 masks. I'm not a total idiot about risks and retail clerks succumb to the worst besides health care professionals.

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Altnaharra wrote:

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Aim_Deep wrote:

Werd! You couldnt pay me $200 an hour to work retail right now. With the idiots stocking toilet paper when a gallon of bleach some water and a wash cloth works even better, for months.. I'd literally punch them in the face...not to mention the interactions w/o N95 masks. I'm not a total idiot about risks and retail clerks succumb to the worst besides health care professionals.

Yeah man and sadly... most companies probably won't even offer their staff a bonus coin for standing up.

"Well you came in, and that's what we pay you for, so, thanks for not quitting."

Maybe 'life after carona' will see employees treated differently.
Maybe even a minimum wage increase for all those champions who barely scrape by being able to pay rent/bills/food and just flounder around never being able to get their head above water.

But that's a dream, and one that should be shared together.

The cost of everything will go up due to supply/demand.
Just wait until you see the price of fuel btw. The people of the gutters will just feel the boot of the gov press down harder without even meaning to.

Power concedes nothing. Employees must demand it. It's too bad employees sell themselves out on average. I mean underwater welders make $200 an hour cuz it's hella dangerous.... regular welder make $35-50. It's time retail comes to recognizing the danger IMO.

^It's stupid to think employers decide payments of employees, that's not how the market operates.

The error in thinking occurs when people in general value somebody based on their income level.
The market demanding a cashier to be payed a relative low amount to a high skill profession is not a problem.

People passing intrinsic value judgements based on the pricing system is however, stupid.

The only thing your monthly wage conveys to you is the amount of people that can replace you tomorrow, the lower it is the more people are capable of doing so.

None of this means that they don't deserve respect as people.

Peace,

-Boem-

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/03/23/coronavirus-isnt-alive-thats-why-its-so-hard-kill/

This is not behind a paywall, so you all can read it. And you should. It's oddly entertaining and candid. I feel like I'm reading a human's guide to how to win Plague, Inc. Viruses are fascinating and merciless but also banal and mindless.

I get that you might feel WaPo is left leaning and against your ideology, but that doesn't mean their every article has an agenda. Look past that and read about what makes Covid-19 so different to its forebears and relatives, in both good and bad ways.