this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2023
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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

If we took this approach to those other germs and viruses that you mention, quality of life and life expectancy would plummet as fast as infant mortality shot up. There's nothing special about Covid in that regard except that it needs more respect than many other issues.

Edit: I edited my comment because I was a bit rude. I apologise for that.

[–] thecam 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The world will always have a hint of danger, and germs and viruses are included in this mix. Life expectancy did not increase due to public compliants to health measures, it increased due to things like soap, showering/bathing every day or two instead of every few months and the standard for hygeine in factories like meat plants. And medicine has come a long way to cure old nasty diseases.

Edit: I edited my comment because I was a bit rude. I apologise for that.

Don't know what you said but I do appreciate the apology.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I know what you're saying. But basic hygeine, etc, work against some illnesses while other health scares require different strategies (as well as good hygeine). I think we may be talking at cross purposes, working with very different models of the world and of what's possible.

[–] thecam 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

If COVID was as bad as it was advertised. We would of seen the results in the world, and therefore people would voluntarily take the appropate percautions. No need for state intervention. If the pandemic was bad and the state did nothing about it, except maybe advise some caution which is how Japan mostly handled the pandemic, people will do what is nesissary.

Why does politics have to get involved? Because the government got so involved in the pandemic, that why it became politicial. Sometimes ignoring a problem like a virus you cannot really control is the best course of action and it will take care of itself in a grassroots sort of a way.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

One of the smartest ways to win in the game Plague Inc is to make your virus have mild acute symptoms that are easy to dismiss or confuse as other things, and then really fucked up chronic symptoms later on. Symptom severity is not the same as underlying disease severity. The immune system doesn't always enter the panic mode entailed by a fever, in some cases because the virus has outsmarted it. HIV is a virus that starts as a cold, and then does all its damage silently. Judging a virus by its acute symptoms is one way to fuck around and find out

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

That's a good read, thanks. It's scary (a) how scary Covid is and (b) how bad public science/mathematics/health education is to lead so many people to confidently misunderstand the very basics of infection, disease, and statistics.

[–] thecam 1 points 1 year ago

For one Plaugue Inc is a game. And most of the models that were made to project the outcome of COVID were way off.

Again, why does the state had to get involved? The government did not ban sex, needles or go on a hardcore ban on drugs back when HIV was the scare. HIV does still exist but has not wiped out the human race. COVID or any virus is no different. If we have like HIV 2.0, do what you want for any precautions as a personal threat model. There is no need to enforce it on others.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah, we're definitely working with different models.