Covid-19 Discussion (moderated)

I talked about the bailout being a form of socialism yesterday, guess I should be writing for this website.  It also invalidates the statement that this thread is tripe, since we were discussing this idea before you even showed up .

The point is everyone values their lives and nobody has the right to tell anyone theirs is less valuable than the next person...and if someone does do that, people have every right to go all "rage against the dying of the light" on them .  

All human life is sacred.  But to play devils advocate here.  Is someone like Charles Manson's life just as sacred/valuable/important/etc. as someone else?   And yes i know he is dead.

I don't want to end up in some philosophical discussion that will inevitably invoke Godwin's Law ...but in terms of the outbreak or any infectious illness where you have 2 people dying in beds next to each other, I think it's unethical to determine one person's life is worth more than another's based on arbitrary criteria (and yes, I think that age, gender, education level et al are arbitrary choices in that case).  That doesn't mean the practical choice might not have to be made anyway, but it won't be ethical.  So, the ethical thing to do is to preempt that choice by making sure there's enough beds and ventilators.  Thus, shelter in place.

I don't know, but I'm sure Zborg's got the idea by now that some people don't find his input especially useful as presented, so let's give him some space to absorb and come back with something else.

Great quote, I added it to my list of favorite quotes.

My favorite quote regarding the Covid-19 response:

The problem is not that we have too many fools, it's that the lightning isn't distributed right. -Mark Twain

such a fast recovery from being in icu , is it possible that alexander de pfeffel johnson is not only carrying the virus but has also mutated a cure ?

chop him up dissect his very atoms find out the cure save lives , the cost may be his life but for the many not the few 

i hope santa gets this message as id like an early xmas present 

look i have an angle grinder whirring away ready but you realise typing whilst holding an angle grinder is not safe so enough chat get him on the slab 

This is your only thread that has drawn attention.  Neat trick.

Surely you can't give it up now, no matter how poorly it becomes you.

Concise, and to the point.  Thanks kindly. 

Your past prose are ample evidence of your failings.  Where did you learn to write?  You surely didn't learn to think.  Sorry to inform.

**And the field is yours.  Let mayhem and vivisection resume. 

im no vivisectionist though but i do like the idea of finding a good use for power tools 

You're revealing your own bitter motivations here, not mine.  I rarely if ever start threads, and when I do it's certainly not because I want 27 pages of attention from the rank and file here.  On the contrary...

Now shoo, you obviously have no intention of saying anything that isn't obnoxious.

Compare what David Brooks says against the "moral content" of this tread. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/09/opinion/covid-anxiety.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

You and your gaggle of trolls have no decency.  End of Story.

Here's a video I thought was useful. It's Dr. David Juurlink's opinions regarding the possible benefits and risks of the hydroxychloroquine / azithromycin combo in treating COVID-19. It's a bit dated (March 24, 2020), but still informational. Some parts I thought were interesting were the drug interactions and the concern for QT prolongation (long QT).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ufs5jqWEb0

I read the article.  Nothing could really be applied here except possibly the very last paragraph in a loose sense...but if your position is that it's up to this "tread" to practice aggressive friendliness, you're looking in the wrong places.  That's what people should getting from their family, friends, neighbors, and closer-knit communities they belong to,  People looking to this thread for kindness and reassurance may find some (because it is in here, in spite of your crap-colored glasses), but what this thread provides is a place for people from any country chess.com operates in (i.e. pretty much all of them) to comment and share good information, and also some personal experience that grounds the high level statistics, as long as they don't try to extend that into "advice" for others.

There's no implications of poor "moral content" engendered by simply discussing numbers and sharing policy decisions and reactions.  You just don't like that this thread is "hard-nosed" when you feel it should be spreading flowers and carebear hugs.  Fine.  Read elsewhere.

As for the notion that I am leading a group of trolls, it just doesn't play.  What I am is a cat herder at the moment.  The reason this thread exists is because when the old thread got locked I felt like there should be a place for exactly the stuff you are bemoaning...a more responsible discussion of the outbreak and the news stories surrounding it that is serious, and lacking in nonsense posts and wild opinions without any supporting evidence whatsoever.

That doesn't mean it's some perfect venue for discussion...I've considered asking a mod to close it down a number of times when a side conversation about politics took too long to come back around to the topic, but...they have come back around, and the posters that won't, I am giving a fairly long leash to, and then blocking.  Case in point:  you.  I want people to have a voice here, as long as they don't use that voice to sow discord and misinformation.

I have not closed it down because there's still a clear value in it.  From your "bow your head and show proper respect" perspective, you should be happy this thread is a handy container for a bunch of content you personally find morally questionable.  I'm sure from your perspective that "keeping score" on death totals etc. seems like some kind of depraved voyeuristic interest, but what it's doing is helping anyone reading to realize the gravity of the situation, and to remind people listening to sketchy sources that are saying it's already over and time to get back to work, or that it's impossible for anyone under 65 to end up in the ICU, of the reality of events.

If everyone did as you seem to recommend, then half of us (your half) would all be sitting somberly in our houses waiting for everything to happen, showing proper respect for the gravity of the situation while waiting for authorities to explain and sending (virtual) flowers to the bereaved...while the other half would be "every man for himself" looting and generally behaving like selfish a$$hats due to listening to a bunch of BS that nobody bothered to discuss and refute.

my govt has rightly come into a barrage of criticism over their actions about the virus it first started withour health minister saying we had a very low risk , then it became hey its not bad if only 20,000 die , this whilst still overseing a ealth service that even today has not got enough ppe , but the govt say give the nhs a round of applause as if that will protect them , our own prime miister in his idiocy repeatedly shook hands with those afflicted then went and sat close to the queen weekly and other govt ministers daily 

[Political comment removed - David, moderator]

[Political comment removed - David, moderator]

On that note...

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/03/i-m-going-keep-pushing-anthony-fauci-tries-make-white-house-listen-facts-pandemic

I don't want to argue about party politics, but it is noteworthy that some of the most prominent nationalist/populist "backlash propelled" leaders seem to be living in their own reality in a manner not inconsistent with the likes of totalitarian regimes Belarus and North Korea and their "it's not happening, I and I alone determine reality" response to the outbreak.

It's almost like they cannot fathom that they are also real people that can get/spread the virus by shaking hands, etc.

this would be more meaningful if instead it illustrated the number as a percentage of the population of that country.