Is this what the 21st century is going to be like?

[helios]

Panicking and acting like retards every 5-10 years because a slightly stronger flu has mutated? It kind of makes me want to opt-out, frankly.
I can only hope that when the dust settles this time, the field of epidemiology loses all credibility. More people will die because of the advice myopic epidemiologists gave to world leaders than would have died from the virus.

[lastchance]

Well, it's a longer timeframe than updates to the C++ standard ... and that gives me the eebie-jeebies!

Funny, a hundred years ago the dust was just settling after the slaughter of the trenches (followed by a worse flu pandemic). It didn't stop the world repeating the exercise 20 years later.

So, maybe it's time for a reset to a simpler life.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/extra/g7fg26ab8b/drawings-from-lockdown

[Ganado]

Don't opt-out, join my raiding gang instead as we scour the earth in search of toilet paper.

I don't see it getting any better, really. If I had to say one optimistic thing, it would be maybe more manufacturing will come back to counties that don't have it (you know, if we recover from the impending depression).

[helios]

So, maybe it's time for a reset to a simpler life.

I could get behind that, but how simpler are you thinking?

Don't opt-out, join my raiding gang instead as we scour the earth in search of toilet paper.

Protip: get a bidet. The only downside is that you feel dirty when you have to do your business out of your house.

If I had to say one optimistic thing, it would be maybe more manufacturing will come back to counties that don't have it (you know, if we recover from the impending depression).

I'm personally less optimistic about my local situation. Simply put, until a particular political party disappears we're going to remain a stagnant economy like we've been since almost 100 years ago. A comedian in the (70s? 80s?) once joked that in the future South America would develop a giant gulf where Argentina used to be before it entirely sunk into the ocean, and fifty years later that joke is still rings true. Our economy never seems to recover, it's just that at times it's not sinking quite so rapidly as other times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6stYaC92IM&t=1m28s

EDIT: On the "bright" side, I guesstimate that one way or another the isolation won't last past mid-May. It's already known that a lot of companies will simply be unable to pay their employees and that the government can't afford to pay those people. There will probably be mass protests, and who knows, they may even oust the president.

[againtry]

helios has been drinking her hand sanitizer again.

[againtry]

So, helios has stopped drinking her hand sanitizer and started taking a sip from her bidet now. I hope she doesn't forget to wash her hands for 20 seconds.

[jonnin]

the pendulum will swing back. We are at the extreme edge of being functional as a society with all the stupidity of panic. I hope now the whole world got a lesson in what to expect from government when things go wrong: very little of practical value. Now we have a generation with some practical experience in what went poorly... what would be a good idea to have on-hand if it happens again, why I encourage people to keep 3+ months income saved back, and so on. Hopefully people now know they need to do for themselves or do without.

[againtry]

Saving for a rainy day? Nah, much better to mouth off about epidemiologists.

[helios]

why I encourage people to keep 3+ months income saved back

Not everyone can do that, though. And honestly, there's a limit to how outlandish a scenario you can reasonably be expected to prepare for. Has it ever happened before that an economy was put on hold for weeks on end, let alone the economies of multiple countries simultaneously? Not that I know of.

And what are we even hoping for, here? If when the isolation is lifted there's a single infected left, or one comes in from a neighboring community, you're back at square one and have to do the whole thing again. The virus really hit the jackpot with a social species such as us. I'm sorry, but everyone is going to get infected eventually, and everyone who is likely to die from it will die. I don't see a way around that. At best you're buying time for a vaccine that may or may not ever arrive.

That's just the practical side. I'm not even getting into whether it's right to treat adults like children who can't care for their own health (it's not).

[deleted account xyzzy]

Too many politicians want to return to Medieval Monarchical times, when the citizenry were serfs or slaves to the ruling classes and those in charge had dictatorial "by divine right from the Deity" powers of life and death

[dutch]

treat adults like children

But they are children.
The average person believes in magic.
Americans voted Trump in.

Imagine a real "democracy" where these retards voted directly on policy.
It would be insane.

[againtry]

Vote for helios, she’s insane already.

[againtry]

treat adults like children who can't care for their own health (it's not).

Oops! Or does that mean helios has funded and developed her own vaccine?

Once again helios is digging her hole deeper and deeper.

[zapshe]

I'm sorry, but everyone is going to get infected eventually, and everyone who is likely to die from it will die.

The issue was the intense strain it would put on hospitals and healthcare system.

At best you're buying time for a vaccine that may or may not ever arrive.

It's highly improbable that a vaccine won't be made. The thing with the flu is that lots of people are at risk of dying from it, but they don't have to go to the hospital every year because they just take the vaccine.

It's not that what's happening now is what should happen (who knows?), but there was no real plan for a situation like this.

Once there's a vaccine, you don't have to worry as much about what can happen should this virus mutate again in a deadlier way now that it's found a nice new population to infect. With a vaccine, it won't be as likely to be deadly.


So the real threat of a pathogen is whether you can get a vaccine.. No vaccine while it can transmit easily means it's not under control. My friend's coworker was in his early 20s and was confirmed to have died from it, he was apparently healthy with no underlying health conditions.

The flooding of hospitals is, again, the main issue, because even young people who won't die can find themselves needing to be on a respirator. This virus targets the lungs and makes it physically harder to breathe.

[againtry]

Another step along the way is to convince mr ping of china to stop eating wild animals. There are safer ways of getting longer lasting erections than eating bat soup, civet pies and pangolin pudding.

[againtry]

One among many articles where you can test helios and her 'theories' on isolation.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/datablog/ng-interactive/2020/apr/22/see-how-coronavirus-can-spread-through-a-population-and-how-countries-flatten-the-curve

It's bye bye Argentina if her theory is correct :(

What's next from the know-all, an anti-vaxxer outburst?

[zapshe]

You're not much better againtry. Can you not tell the difference between x and y chromosomes?

[againtry]

I am actually better for many reasons, most of which you don't have the experience and knowledge to understand.

As far as the x, y situation I have every reason to determin without any doubt that the configuration of helios' chromosomes is such that in all respects she is appropriately referred to as señora when dancing the night away with her castanets and favorite señor on the Pampas. Surely you aren't suggesting a much frowned upon non-macho partnership!

[zapshe]

I am actually better for many reasons

When did mental retardation suddenly give a person super powers?

[againtry]

When did mental retardation suddenly give a person super powers?

Excellent response :)