
The Coronavirus Is Never Going Away - pseudolus
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/08/coronavirus-will-never-go-away/614860/
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Johnjonjoan
This was pretty obvious when a hotspot put out a tourism campaign "Milan is
open" and the Italian government told their public about the northern lockdown
allowing a flight from the north to south before it took effect.

I don't want to bash on Italy or Italians. (seems whatever Western country
that had the first outbreak would have done the same) But those actions when
there was available evidence showing how serious this could be still leave a
sour taste in my mouth.

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dTal
The frustrating thing is that with maximum global cooperation between every
human on Earth, we could drive the virus extinct in humans in a matter of
weeks, simply by stockpiling a little food and staying away from one another.
Even with the rather mediocre social cohesion that even the best countries can
manage, the R-value can at least be driven low enough to render trace-and-
isolate strategies feasible, and the virus defeated within months for all
practical purposes. But huge swathes of the planet are not even attempting to
make even minimal gestures, and that makes victory impossible. This is a test
of our ability to cooperate, a prisoner's dilemma; and a critical mass is
defecting.

I believe this inability to act as one spells doom for humanity in the long
run, unless we can improve.

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commonturtle
It's really hard to get cooperation of that scale for pretty much anything.
You're asking billions of humans to self isolate for two weeks.

If we were dealing with Ebola it would have been easier to get people to self-
isolate. But with a disease that has a 1-2% IFR it's going to be a lot harder
to get that level of compliance. I agree that certain nations could have
isolated better though.

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mc32
So Sweden is right? If so will all these pundits and journalists come back
with an apologetic mea culpa?

If it’s never going away we have to start behaving like it and not continue
lockdowns and SIPs and so on.

Masks, hygiene, distancing, stay home when sick, etc. but get people back in a
groove. People cannot remain cooped up like livestock in a pen.

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lowdose
Even on HN there was a pressure of the herd.

Anchormen, journalists do not have skin in the game like weathermen.

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Fjolsvith
Just like the flu.

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collyw
Overblown out of all proportion.

