I agree with you. And it's mostly C -- the moron said it was a hoax for weeks, and made mobilization and information dissemination nearly impossible. And it doesn't help that all the damn owners of the means of production care more about the stock market than peoples' lives. That's another matter altogether, anyway...

At this point, it's just a waiting game. We do need more testing but yeah, realistically, what else are we gonna do?

Really it's the states that aren't issuing stay at home orders or have particularly lax ones that worry me. While I think more countries could have prepared like Signapore in early January or responded to the outbreak like South Korea did, Hindsight 2020, you can't enact action in the past but like... these examples mean places like South Dakota don't really have an excuse, just because things haven't gotten bad *yet* there. And that's almost entirely the fault of the governor if things start to get bad there. Other than that other states are awake and doing their part.

(April 15, 2020, 2:20 pm)alexgraves Really it's the states that aren't issuing stay at home orders or have particularly lax ones that worry me. While I think more countries could have prepared like Signapore in early January or responded to the outbreak like South Korea did, Hindsight 2020, you can't enact action in the past but like... these examples mean places like South Dakota don't really have an excuse, just because things haven't gotten bad *yet* there. And that's almost entirely the fault of the governor if things start to get bad there. Other than that other states are awake and doing their part.

Just gonna give my two cents. The reason why South Korea responded so well is that they let the private-sector carry out testing and development of treatment and supplying necessities like masks instead of the CDC blocking the private-sector from the very beginning. Also some shady stuff happened, the South Korea pretty much doxed their citizens by tracking their cellphone data and described those that were known to be ill. What if they make a mistake? How does that person feel? Not everyone goes to the hospital when they get symptoms. The variation in this virus amongst so many is alarming. I just can’t get behind my government sending me text-alerts that there are infectious people in the vicinity. It’s like legalized discrimination. Granted, the South Korean culture is quite different than America’s. I’d recommend a Korean Film, Train to Busan, to see the kind of response generic citizens have to an infectious disease. It’s fiction, but it offers an amazing sociological perspective.

In any case wherever you are, stay safe!

(April 15, 2020, 2:58 pm)Avarics

(April 15, 2020, 2:20 pm)alexgraves Really it's the states that aren't issuing stay at home orders or have particularly lax ones that worry me. While I think more countries could have prepared like Signapore in early January or responded to the outbreak like South Korea did, Hindsight 2020, you can't enact action in the past but like... these examples mean places like South Dakota don't really have an excuse, just because things haven't gotten bad *yet* there. And that's almost entirely the fault of the governor if things start to get bad there. Other than that other states are awake and doing their part.

Just gonna give my two cents. The reason why South Korea responded so well is that they let the private-sector carry out testing and development of treatment and supplying necessities like masks instead of the CDC blocking the private-sector from the very beginning. Also some shady stuff happened, the South Korea pretty much doxed their citizens by tracking their cellphone data and described those that were known to be ill. What if they make a mistake? How does that person feel? Not everyone goes to the hospital when they get symptoms. The variation in this virus amongst so many is alarming. I just can’t get behind my government sending me text-alerts that there are infectious people in the vicinity. It’s like legalized discrimination. Granted, the South Korean culture is quite different than America’s. I’d recommend a Korean Film, Train to Busan, to see the kind of response generic citizens have to an infectious disease. It’s fiction, but it offers an amazing sociological perspective.

In any case wherever you are, stay safe!

Train to Busan is a fantastic film. I'm not sure how I feel about the increased use of government surveillance post pandemic either (Singapore is doing something similar with surveillance). It's definitely something I'd worry about people in power abusing afterwards. In my city, they haven't gone beyond just guidelines + I think you can get prosecuted if you deliberately try to spread the disease, which I've heard about some crazy people doing.

I can't say I agree the private sector would have prevented all this without prompting but provided the supplies come from *somewhere* it would have helped had the gov' not held off on pushing industry to support supply lines.

(April 15, 2020, 8:34 pm)alexgraves Train to Busan is a fantastic film. I'm not sure how I feel about the increased use of government surveillance post pandemic either (Singapore is doing something similar with surveillance). It's definitely something I'd worry about people in power abusing afterwards. In my city, they haven't gone beyond just guidelines + I think you can get prosecuted if you deliberately try to spread the disease, which I've heard about some crazy people doing.I can't say I agree the private sector would have prevented all this without prompting but provided the supplies come from *somewhere* it would have helped had the gov' not held off on pushing industry to support supply lines.

I’m not saying that the private-sector/independent firms are essential for prevention. I’m only saying that restricting them or refusing their help out of fears of looking like sellouts makes the process even longer for recovery. There is no reliable prevention except extremes that shouldn’t be taken. The doxing and usage of corporations was effective in South Korea because of the execution. Could’ve been mimicked here, but I’d rather keep the businesses involved. If you think in the mind of businesses, they’re losing money as society and the globe is disrupted. It’s in their best interests to try and quell a pandemic ASAP. I’d say as long as ethics in research, development, and treatment are preserved, have at it.

(April 15, 2020, 8:44 pm)Avarics

(April 15, 2020, 8:34 pm)alexgraves Train to Busan is a fantastic film. I'm not sure how I feel about the increased use of government surveillance post pandemic either (Singapore is doing something similar with surveillance). It's definitely something I'd worry about people in power abusing afterwards. In my city, they haven't gone beyond just guidelines + I think you can get prosecuted if you deliberately try to spread the disease, which I've heard about some crazy people doing.I can't say I agree the private sector would have prevented all this without prompting but provided the supplies come from *somewhere* it would have helped had the gov' not held off on pushing industry to support supply lines.

I’m not saying that the private-sector/independent firms are essential for prevention. I’m only saying that restricting them or refusing their help out of fears of looking like sellouts makes the process even longer for recovery. There is no reliable prevention except extremes that shouldn’t be taken. The doxing and usage of corporations was effective in South Korea because of the execution. Could’ve been mimicked here, but I’d rather keep the businesses involved. If you think in the mind of businesses, they’re losing money as society and the globe is disrupted. It’s in their best interests to try and quell a pandemic ASAP. I’d say as long as ethics in research, development, and treatment are preserved, have at it.

I do agree that refusing to let other entities help out out of pride is fucking dumb. But there is an awful lot of reliable prevention and further treatment that is helpful that exists outside of cellphone surveillance. I think it cuts many governments in the world a bit too much slack to say otherwise, with much earlier response times (due to less/better bureaucracy) or more public awareness, which fall short of the pretty sketchy data mining going on in far too many countries. Utilizing business and their own profit incentives is good provided you can prevent price gouging. I think it's pretty silly how the US gov't is selling medical supplies to states, which is driving up prices.

So an update: I was informed that manufacturers are revamping their entire production lines to focus more on essential products on the shelves. Which means in the coming weeks, thousands of products will end up being discontinued either for a short time or permanently since there's no way demand can keep up. So there's a good chance that the next time you go to the grocery store, you may or may not see your favorite snack or specific brand on the shelves anymore.

(Disclaimer: As of now, this only pertains to my grocery store chain, but I wouldn't be surprised if other chains follow since more of less they all share warehouses)

hxxps://www.instagram.com/p/B-96g9clwbT/

As my late mentor used to say.......I ain't dead yet!.....rumor has it those were his last words too.

(April 15, 2020, 1:16 pm)Akhenaten I agree with you. And it's mostly C -- the moron said it was a hoax for weeks, and made mobilization and information dissemination nearly impossible. And it doesn't help that all the damn owners of the means of production care more about the stock market than peoples' lives. That's another matter altogether, anyway...

At this point, it's just a waiting game. We do need more testing but yeah, realistically, what else are we gonna do?

That's why I call the Chinese Communist Party, the World Health Organization and the Trump Administration: the three stooges. To endanger their own people (China and the USA) and the world. Someone said without lockdowns, prevention measures and contact tracing that can successfully break the chain of massive viral transmission, up to 40-50% of the world could get infected by Covid-19 within a year. I read serological antibody tests to check for exposure to develop immunity finds 1 out of 8 people (that's 15%) of pregnant women in a maternity ward in the Bronx close to New Rochelle, the nation's hottest Covid-19 spot, as well studies in Santa Clara CA (5%), Los Angeles county (also 5%) and soon across CA (the first state to reported cases, but it didn't end up with 275k cases like NY state did - 2% of their 20 million people). Also they were done in Wuhan, Hubei, China; Bergamo, Lombardy, Italy; Madrid, Castille, Spain and Gangelt-Heinsberg, Germany. Imagine up to 76 million people or 1% of humanity already had vs. 1-2 million current cases (total 3.1 million) since we have more recoveries than deaths (215,000 now). Death rates vary by country (Italy, Spain and Iran had 10%; China, the USA and somewhat globally 5%; and Germany, Sweden and New Zealand at estimated 1%), but any diseases (communicable or not) with a chance of hurting and killing any people like Covid-19 have to be eradicated from the earth.