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The Coronavirus Thread

Discussion in 'Serious' started by d_stilgar, 13 Mar 2020.

  1. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    You make it sound like you've completely misunderstood my point. My actual point is that addressing any single cause of death, whether it's malnutrition in the developing world or COVID-19, brings down the total number of deaths. Then when you've solved Cause A, move on to Cause B.

    Notice how people don't die of smallpox any more? Yeah, like that.

    (I mean, naturally the world isn't entirely focused on one thing: we might be fighting COVID-19 at the moment, but NGOs are still trying to feed the starving and cancer researchers are still... well, researching cancer. But you (hopefully) get the point.)
     
  2. mrlongbeard

    mrlongbeard Multimodder

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    If it was a fair and complete system I have no problem with that, that I don't trust anyone in power to come up with such a system which wouldn't protect them is another matter.
     
  3. Anfield

    Anfield Multimodder

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    #Thanosdidnothingwrong
     
  4. adidan

    adidan Guesswork is still work

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    I think it would be better to just not breed as much, especially in the West where each individual uses a vastly disproportionate amount of the earth's resources.
     
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  5. nimbu

    nimbu Multimodder

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    It would be interesting to know how much the actual cost of the vaccine development was.

    It is my understanding that money wasnt a problem and pharma made it their number one priority, and it took what a year roughly?

    What if next year we tackled AIDS, the the following year malaria and then polio etc etc. Concentrated effort one virus / disease at a time. Might see more results and overall cash saving than doing it piecemeal.
     
  6. enbydee

    enbydee Minimodder

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    Vaccine development costs were outlined here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55170756

    The Malthusians in this thread would hate curing those things.
     
  7. Anfield

    Anfield Multimodder

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    From what I gather Israel is pretty much alone in seemingly getting the vaccine rollout right.

    Australia, New Zealand and Japan are all being very slow on the approval process.
    China has been giving one to a limited number of healthcare workers before it was approved for general use (it has been approved since, but rollout has been extremely slow so far, can't find any reason / excuse for it).
    Switzerland seems to be drowning the vaccine in administrative chaos for appointments.
    Norway also seems very slow on the rollout, they do seem to be banking mostly on speed picking up once they get sufficient deliveries of the Moderna one.
    Murica is holding mass events where it is administered on a first come first served basis (which seems rather silly given the extremely high risk that asymptomatic carriers will be waiting in line for it alongside the most vulnerable and a significant portion gets sent home at the end of the day without a shot).
     
  8. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    Right, so, the bit I don't get is this:
    Thanos is against overpopulation; Thanos wants to kill half the universe; Thanos does that; Thanos then destroys the thing that let him do that and retires... but won't the population just return to its previous highs, and more, in the future? Hardly planning ahead, is he?

    In more related news, Toby Young and the Telegraph have been told off for telling people that having a cold would protect them from SARS-CoV-2 (spoiler: it won't) and that London was nearing herd immunity in July (spoiler: it was not, and still isn't.). I mean, not that anything will happen to either of 'em, sadly, but still. Telegraph readers can look forward to a Corrections entry in flyspeck 4 on page 46.
     
  9. ModSquid

    ModSquid Multimodder

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    This seems the biggest problem to me. There was a family on TV the other day bemoaning how they couldn't afford enough devices to home school their SIX children.

    I learnt a new word today!
     
  10. adidan

    adidan Guesswork is still work

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    I mean if there wasn't a big a population there'd probably be less chance of us encroaching into habitats that harbour nasty viruses that want to jump species too.
     
  11. yodasarmpit

    yodasarmpit Modder

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    image.png

    But, the reality is Covid is not just a mere boo boo.

    Have a look at April 2020 where deaths were more than double the norm for time of year (based on delta to the previous 5 year average).
    Now imagine we do nothing, that peak is no longer a peak - it becomes the new norm. So rather than 1/2M annual deaths it's over 1M. Most of those would need hospitalisation, therefore breaking the NHS pushing the death rate up even further.

    You think Cancer is bad (I do) but this, if left alone, becomes an even worse scenario.

    Stats are for only England and Wales https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula...nalfiguresondeathsregisteredinenglandandwales
     
    Last edited: 14 Jan 2021
  12. wolfticket

    wolfticket Downwind from the bloodhounds

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    Sound's like the sort of thing someone would say who thinks that a fair and complete system by their own standards is impossible.
     
  13. mrlongbeard

    mrlongbeard Multimodder

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    Well, duh.
    I'm quite happy to play fast n loose with my own life, but I'd not force my believes on anyone else. Mayhaps I wished I wasn't so jaded n cynical so a life lottery could be run.
     
  14. spolsh

    spolsh Multimodder

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    D1cks gonna D1ck
     
  15. walle

    walle Minimodder

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    As a society we make cost benefit analysis all the time, such as the amount of people we tolerate getting killed each year as a result of exercising their freedoms driving cars and riding motorcycles at high rate of speed etc. Sure, we could lower the speed and save lives. Heck, we could just...walk. In fact, we could arrest life itself and lock ourselves into our homes and merely exist. But existing is not living.

    Life VS life there is always a tradeoff and the way I see it we either become
    obsessed with saving lives as a result of the C-virus, to the point we destroy our societies and go full blown authoritarian, or we return to normal again and start living life getting the economy going with the sober understanding that more people will end up dying from the C-virus as a result of that.

    Cost–benefit analysis again.

    Because IF the economy crashes far more people would end up dead then currently are dying from the C-virus.

    Fear is a mind-killer, no pun.
     
  16. mrlongbeard

    mrlongbeard Multimodder

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    I know, it's indirectly part of my job.
     
  17. enbydee

    enbydee Minimodder

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    If the economy crashes and people die that's another choice of the government, not an inevitability.
     
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  18. Anfield

    Anfield Multimodder

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    The world will be open for business again in a couple months anyway due to the vaccine(s), so talk of economic crashes is misplaced as bailouts can easily bridge that little gap.
     
  19. adidan

    adidan Guesswork is still work

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    Covid patients being moved from London to Newcastle. Meanwhile some hospitals in the North East are shuffling covid patients to other hospitals as all critical care beds are taken in some areas.

    Not really room at the inn.

    Are the nightingale hospitals open? Mind you didn't they need to be staffed by workers from hospitals which would mean those workers won't be in the hospital...?
     
  20. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    No, because...
    Yeah, that. Turns out turning a bunch of warehouse spaces into 'hospitals' for a quick photo-op is easy, but actually staffing 'em is a lot harder. Especially after slashed funding and Brexit led to 43,000 fewer nurses than required - and that was in October 2019, before we were trying to contain a pandemic.
     

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