
The Mind-Boggling Madness of Social Distancing - rebeccazhuo
https://www.fairobserver.com/coronavirus/alexander-coward-covid-19-coronavirus-social-distancing-economic-social-health-consequences-news-19415/
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alexandercoward
Thanks for posting Rebecca. I wrote this article. Anyone got questions or
feedback? Also, does anyone know if people are doing systems-level modeling on
this at the moment?

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c0refile
i've read a bunch of these articles. usually I roll my eyes and move on but I
did read most of yours, it's one of the better ones. there is absolutely merit
to considering the damage our response to the virus does as well, but, I have
two main criticisms:

a) you lay out a lot of (reasonable) consequences to social distancing. but we
can do the _same_ thing for coronavirus still. what if we realize any woman
that's caught it (even asymptomatic) produces sterile children 9 months from
now? what if it turns out we can't get herd immunity because the virus mutates
rapidly, and because we let this thing rip through us too quickly, we now have
12 different strains and oops you can catch multiple strains, each compounding
the death rate?

because there is so much yet we still don't know about the virus, it is in our
best interest as a populace to limit the spread of the disease until medical
experts deems it safe. i am nearly certain they think about the thealth risks
of social distancing/an economic downturn vs the health risks the virus poses
to us and figure that into their recommendations and plans as well. they are
professionals and experts in their field, after all.

b) you totally lost me in your conclusion. i don't think it's at all valid to
compare ethnic cleansing with diseases like smallpox or heart disease, which I
suspect is why most people do not think of these two different categories as
the same scale of tragedy. ethnic cleansing is entirely preventable and
morally reprehensible damage we inflected on ourselves, and that's the tragic
part.

