D&D and the rising pandemic

[CleverNickName]

I'm trying really hard to avoid talking about politics, but don't put this on our schools or our teachers. They aren't the ones who failed us.

 

[Deset Gled]

I'm trying really hard to avoid talking about politics, but don't put this on our schools or our teachers. They aren't the ones who failed us.

Indeed. Many studies have started to show that older people are simply more susceptible to misinformation. The exact reasons for this remain unclear, but education and availability to information don't seem to be the biggest factors.

Combine that with a major media group (I'm just going to say it: Fox News) that actively markets misinformation to older people, and you have a recipe for trouble.

 

[Umbran]

The issue with teaching critical thinking/basic logic in school(and it should be a required high school course) is that kids then go home and ask their parents questions that their parents are t equipped to answer. Parents get mad, complain....
and there goes critical thinking.

When the kids can ask questions the parents cannot answer... that is called "progress". That is, in fact, the goal. And yes, parents have been complaining about progress for time immemorial - but that doesn't stop it.

 

[Umbran]

I'm trying really hard to avoid talking about politics, but don't put this on our schools or our teachers.

That we, as a culture, are not strong on critical thinking is empirically true. Nobody has spoken about fault.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

When the kids can ask questions the parents cannot answer... that is called "progress". That is, in fact, the goal. And yes, parents have been complaining about progress for time immemorial - but that doesn't stop it.

“Dad, where does fire come from?”

 

[Eltab]

Well, it looks like the folks that complained " we you aren't locked down enough" are going to try try again. Even though no other contagious disease has been fought by putting the entire population into impromptu isolation wards.

It's like the authorities would rather do anything than get into the field, find out who is infected, and restrict them until treated and cured.

 

[Eltab]

“Dad, where does fire come from?”

Lightning strikes, son.

 

[Umbran]

It's like the authorities would rather do anything than get into the field, find out who is infected, and restrict them until treated and cured.

Congratulations. You just invented contact tracing. It is, in fact, happening.

It is a fine technique when the numbers are still small. Back in January, or in Early Spring, or even in the lull around early July, it might have worked. But, it becomes intractable at scale, and it ceases to be effective in situations of frequent and broad community spread. On November 11th alone, the US picked up over 140K cases. The workforce required to follow up on each of those and actually be sure ALL the contacted people test and quarantine simply doesn't exist. And even if they did, when we are picking up that many new known cases each day, the reservoir of unkown cases is also large. Following up on the known cases does not reveal all the unknown cases that will cotinue spreading the disease.

When the number of unknown cases gets too large, contact tracing is simply too darn slow to stem the tide, and other measures are needed.

The "authorities" that matter here is the Federal government. States, not being able to print money, have resources too restricted to mount this on their own. And the Administration has spent its efforts in denial and deflection - so, yes, they would rather do anything than actually deal with the issues.

 

[Hussar]

Even with competent leadership idk how to fix that. Vaccine maybe.

Took Australia 3 months of lockdown to wipe out Covid in Melbourne, 7 and 5 weeks here with vastly smaller numbers.

Technically Aussie and NZ are allied with USA (ANZUS) but Biden could cast summon allies and parachute Jacinda and Ashley in with the entire Australian army to help with 4 trillion dollars and idk if that would work.

Marshall Plan after WW2 is peanuts in comparison.

Still gotta start somewhere.

There is a slightly more moderate middle here.

You are never, ever going to be able to enforce a lockdown in the States such as NZ had. It just isn't feasible. Never minding we're talking, what, ten times the population spread over an area several times larger. It's just not going to work. You have to remember, there are individual STATES that are larger than New Zealand. Combined with various other issues, such as a serious lack of social welfare net in the US, unless you're willing to let large numbers of people starve to death, the kind of lockdown that NZ practiced just isn't going to happen.

OTOH, I live in a country where things are largely back to normal. Travel is unrestricted, and nothing is really closed. Yes, we are having about 500 cases a day. In a country of 120 million? That's acceptable, no? Remember, Japan's had less than 2000 deaths, in a population that is extremely susceptible to Covid.

If people would simply accept some minor restrictions - limit gatherings for a month or so, wear the damn mask, that sort of thing - Canada and the US would have solved this already.

How the hell wearing a mask got turned into a partisan political statement is just the most baffling thing I've ever seen.

 

[Zardnaar]

When the kids can ask questions the parents cannot answer... that is called "progress". That is, in fact, the goal. And yes, parents have been complaining about progress for time immemorial - but that doesn't stop it.

At university

There is a slightly more moderate middle here.

You are never, ever going to be able to enforce a lockdown in the States such as NZ had. It just isn't feasible. Never minding we're talking, what, ten times the population spread over an area several times larger. It's just not going to work. You have to remember, there are individual STATES that are larger than New Zealand. Combined with various other issues, such as a serious lack of social welfare net in the US, unless you're willing to let large numbers of people starve to death, the kind of lockdown that NZ practiced just isn't going to happen.

OTOH, I live in a country where things are largely back to normal. Travel is unrestricted, and nothing is really closed. Yes, we are having about 500 cases a day. In a country of 120 million? That's acceptable, no? Remember, Japan's had less than 2000 deaths, in a population that is extremely susceptible to Covid.

If people would simply accept some minor restrictions - limit gatherings for a month or so, wear the damn mask, that sort of thing - Canada and the US would have solved this already.

How the hell wearing a mask got turned into a partisan political statement is just the most baffling thing I've ever seen.

Asia seems to be coping the best.

More experience with SARs, mask wearing and cultural I suppose.