Coronavirus. Over reaction or not?

[Richard Hakluyt]

I think we will get to see which approach works best as time goes by; each country is adopting different measures after all. There is going to be so much hindsight in 2021 

[Richard Hakluyt]

Agree with everyone else. Individuals who hoard toilet paper and plan for a Charlton Heston Omega Man type outcome are being a bit melodramatic. Because its a horrible virus and new and it kills old people fairly reliably, the right thing for national governments to do is to over react, economy be damned, and contain it and push it back. It seems like the Chinese have had the most success.

Although I still have a slight conspiracy about China.

I am suspicious that it basically got very out of hand in Wuhan with local officials covering it up/dealing with it locally, before they decided to inform their bosses/national government before Chinese New Year when it couldn't be kept local any longer. By which point it was probably too late.

It is an interesting display of the strengths and weaknesses of the Chinese system. Local third-rate officials fail to send the bad news up to the top because they are frightened of their leaders; but once it was all known incredible discipline and rapid deployment of countermeasures. I'm not sure we (the UK for example) are going to be able to replicate that discipline.

[Legbiter]

... or climate change.

I've never had any problem with switching up the entire planet's energy mix purely out of precaution. I just don't need the endless hysterics from doomsday Thunbergian mental cases. I need engineers and 100 years. And as you can see climate change is not the only thing we need to pay attention to.

[Valmy]

I just don't need the endless hysterics from doomsday Thunbergian mental cases. I need engineers and 100 years. And as you can see climate change is not the only thing we need to pay attention to.

Ok but without the doomsayers are you going to get your engineers and resources? Somebody has to generate the political pressure.

[Legbiter]

I just don't need the endless hysterics from doomsday Thunbergian mental cases. I need engineers and 100 years. And as you can see climate change is not the only thing we need to pay attention to.

Ok but without the doomsayers are you going to get your engineers and resources? Somebody has to generate the political pressure.

Except they are counter-productive. You can only predict imminent doomsday so many times before people tune you out. What's Greta gonna do after 5 years and we're not all dead? She can go nag the Chinese, a billion plus Mono's. They'll just laugh at her and wonder if she'd make good soup stock to go with their bats.

[Valmy]

I just don't need the endless hysterics from doomsday Thunbergian mental cases. I need engineers and 100 years. And as you can see climate change is not the only thing we need to pay attention to.

Ok but without the doomsayers are you going to get your engineers and resources? Somebody has to generate the political pressure.

Except they are counter-productive. You can only predict imminent doomsday so many times before people tune you out. What's Greta gonna do after 5 years and we're not all dead? She can go nag the Chinese, a billion plus Mono's. They'll just laugh at her and wonder if she'd make good soup stock to go with their bats.

I mean people have been doomsaying for 30 years but somehow you still know people like Greta exists which kind of proves your point wrong, if you were right everybody would have stopped doing anything about global warming 25 years ago. Everybody being complacent and silent about it isn't going to work. You need people talking about this to get your engineers and resources.

Frankly I don't know much about Greta besides the fact that some media love her and the right wing nutcases DESPISE her all despite her saying nothing new that hasn't been said thousands of times. But I guess she had to say it for some people to pay attention. But if you want to make the case that right wing nutters now won't go along with global warming precautions just because they hate some random person, well they have been pushing back against it forever.

[fromtia]

Although I still have a slight conspiracy about China.

I am suspicious that it basically got very out of hand in Wuhan with local officials covering it up/dealing with it locally, before they decided to inform their bosses/national government before Chinese New Year when it couldn't be kept local any longer. By which point it was probably too late.

I dont think this is conspiracy, although Im not terribly well informed, I think this is what went down. The municipal and regional government pooped in the bed, the National government stepped in and fired lazers out of their eyes.

[crazy canuck]

I think we will get to see which approach works best as time goes by; each country is adopting different measures after all. There is going to be so much hindsight in 2021 

Well the US is certainly an outlier - but it seems that those of us with variations of single payor systems seem to be reacting roughly the same way.

[Iormlund]

Individuals are mostly over-reacting*.

Most people I know are definitely under-reacting. I can't even convince my mom to stay put.

[viper37]

So every week, it seems as though it's getting worse. Israel is basically gonna shut down it's airport. Northern Italy, the cool part with the hot women, is under lockdown. Public events are being cancelled. Dublin cancels St. Paddy's day.
Are we, that is the government and organizations, over reacting? Thousands of people die of flu every year, and most people aren't even aware of it.

Not a universal response.  Some maybe over panicking, like Israel, but I'll admit I haven't followed the situation over there, so maybe they were justified if there were many travels from infected area.

Some countries are not reacting fast enough (USA...), some are doing fine because the provinces managed to get their head out of their arse, not because some idiot suddenly realized provinces are concerned and ask them to be ready :roll: (yeah, I'm talking about the clown in disguise from Ottawa).

Death isn't the only danger.  Stock markets react because the fear a shortage of labour due to too many sick people and a lockdown, as it happenned in Wuhan and northern Italy, not because they fear everyone will die.  Is the panick overblown?  Well that's the thing with stock markets, every big event is usually overblown.

[saskganesh]

It's not like we have whole cities being locked down at gunpoint. In this country.

Still more likely to be killed by a car.

[PDH]

You can only predict imminent doomsday so many times before people tune you out.

It has worked as a strategy for Christianity since the start...

[Eddie Teach]

You can only predict imminent doomsday so many times before people tune you out.

It has worked as a strategy for Christianity since the start...

And people have tuned it out.

[Barrister]

It's not like we have whole cities being locked down at gunpoint. In this country.

Still more likely to be killed by a car.

You're much more likely to be killed by a car.

If you're over 70 though, I'm not so sure about that.  There are over 6.5 million Canadians 65 or older...

[Iormlund]

I actually did the math yesterday. Even a healthy Spaniard between 30 and 34 will be far more likely to die from Coronavirus if it reaches enough population.