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LeoTinnitus | 5 years ago

I'm in the camp of Dolph Lundgren honestly. You cannot tell me this virus has a higher mortality rate than any other major outbrekas like cholera, polio, tuberculosis, leprosy, etc. If we're worried about old people dying, tell them to stay inside. I don't get why we gotta halt the economy for less than 10% of the population. I personally feel it was a major overreaction by governments.

People get weird when they come to grips with their mortality. Yes ideally we don't want people to die en masse but have we gotten so cozy that we forget it's still a fact of life? People die, tragically and often.

This shutdown is going to have larger long term ramifications to our system than if we just let it spread like normal. Those numbers reported, do we know if they're even accurate? What if a doctor was like "welp it sounds like Corona, so I'm just gonna say it is."

discuss

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glandium|5 years ago

It's not only about people who die. We don't fully understand the implications of the virus on people who do not die. It's possible a large portion of recovered people will have other problems down the line because of the damage to their lungs. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22943406

eozoon|5 years ago

> You cannot tell me this virus has a higher mortality rate than any other major outbrekas like cholera, polio, tuberculosis, leprosy, etc.

Cholera and polio are transmitted by unhygienic food and water supply, you don't catch it by breathing in someone's cough or spit, we try to (and largely successful in developed well) by improving access to clean water and cooking food thoroughly. While they can be deadly, they are not highly transmissible between people.

Transmission method of leprosy was not well understood (even now, and especially when its effect was devastating), and nowadays it can be treated and even cured, plus it's effects are slow and rarely result in death.

TB is the closest in your examples - but it has some key difference, for one, it is not transmissible while it's still latent, so you are not going to think you are in perfect health while actually transmitting it. We also have vaccine for it, that is in wide use in areas where TB is commonplace, we also have treatment for it. It rarely results in death in places with adequate medical facilities.

In short, this virus is different from "any other major outbreaks", at least in recent centuries. And we currently do not have vaccine nor treatment for it.

I'm no economist, so I cannot tell you if "less than 10% of the population" dies or become severely ill would result in bigger economical impact, but I find it highly responsible to basically say "sorry, but these dozen companies' survive is more important than your grandpa's life" to the society at large.

LeoTinnitus|5 years ago

It's not some libertarian ideal saying companies should survive over people, it's if a large portion of the economy gets halted, other people will become impoverished too possibly leading to other devolving societal effects.

Remember that the black death cause such population decline among the peasants that the equivalent of wages increased dramatically. Artisans as well as they were skilled. Leftists always claim they want higher wages, well a dramatic death toll and innumerable job openings will put a massive premium on labor. Even bad labor.