D&D and the rising pandemic

[Zardnaar]

Sweden is changing strategies because their initial one did not yield the desired results.

Sweden has admitted its coronavirus immunity predictions were wrong as cases soar across the country

Sweden's chief epidemiologist has admitted that the country is experiencing a second wave of coronavirus as cases and deaths from the disease surge.

www.yahoo.com

For a while people were pushing Sweden's strategy.

Even early on though per capita they were losing more than USA.

They did take less of an economic hit but easily explained by higher levels of government spending pre Covid anyway.
Norway or Finland probably doing about the best you can in Europe.

Germany not doing so well now either despite positive press 6 months ago.

Italy and Spain were just earlier along in the transmission cycle. AFAIK it jumped from Spain early on into places like Ecuador and Peru. Things were dire in Ecuador early on as well.

Seems they took the earlier we're doing better approach and kept doing it.

 

[Thomas Shey]

It's an example where free speech hurts us. One could easily argue that restricting speech is bad, but the reality is, having it wide open has been weaponized and allowed the stupid and the evil to win. Youtube can make someone a flat-earther in 3 weeks due to how it leads a viewer to more extreme content. Blocking all forms of false content and content producers would nip that in the bud. If anybody spreading falsehoods about Covid got shutdown, we'd have more compliance with guidelines.

Would that be a terrible world? Turns out the one where everybody is allowed to say anything isn't working out because Somebody is actively using that against us. Might be time to settle for "Kind of Free" speech.

On the other hand, restricting speech for "the public good" has a sufficiently dodgy history its hard for me to get on board that one, either. Its about as intrinsically corrupting a tool as possibly can exist.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Or, actually put an effort into teaching people some critical thinking skills.

This would be my inclination.

Unfortunately, there's a few too many people who find critical thinking skills a threat to the ideology they have, and have made it policy to present them as suspect, so...

 

[Mikeythorn]

On the other hand, restricting speech for "the public good" has a sufficiently dodgy history its hard for me to get on board that one, either. Its about as intrinsically corrupting a tool as possibly can exist.

This is very much a tangent, but I keep hearing statements like this and they really annoy me. Lots of countries, including my own, have laws restricting speech for the public good and they work fine - and have worked fine for very long periods of time. Sure, you can find dodgy cases of restriction of speech at various points of world history, but you can also point to anti-hate speech laws in most of the Western world that function effectively and provide important protections for vulnerable people.

 

[Thomas Shey]

This is very much a tangent, but I keep hearing statements like this and they really annoy me. Lots of countries, including my own, have laws restricting speech for the public good and they work fine - and have worked fine for very long periods of time. Sure, you can find dodgy cases of restriction of speech at various points of world history, but you can also point to anti-hate speech laws in most of the Western world that function effectively and provide important protections for vulnerable people.

Except we're not talking about hate speech. We're talking about conspiracy theories and misinformation.

And once you're allowed to block that, I have absolutely no faith in things being labelled "misinformation" that are simply awfully inconvenient for the people in control of the process. And I don't know of a single place that has the ability to do that where its not been abused. Do you?

 

[Umbran]

Except we're not talking about hate speech. We're talking about conspiracy theories and misinformation.

To keep this in bounds and not going down the general political route...

If that misinformation is relevant to public health, that's a real problem. If you spread misinformation about covid-19 and someone dies, well, then there's dead people out there. That's right, at this point, the misinformation that you put in quotes to make is seem questionable can kill people.

So consider that. Your right to free speech has limits.

 

[Thomas Shey]

To keep this in bounds and not going down the general political route...

If that misinformation is relevant to public health, that's a real problem. If you spread misinformation about covid-19 and someone dies, well, then there's dead people out there. That's right, at this point, the misinformation that you put in quotes to make is seem questionable can kill people.

So consider that. Your right to free speech has limits.

I absolutely agree. I'm just noting that any general attempt to address the tendency for misinformation to propagate through modern digital channels is fraught, and simply solutions to it are even more fraught. But the fact facts about COVID-19 have become political is idiocy of the first water.

 

[Umbran]

I'm just noting that any general attempt to address the tendency for misinformation to propagate through modern digital channels ...

... is really beyond the topic of this thread. This is a thread about Covid-19. For reasons of our no-politics rule, we should avoid talking about the "general attempt".

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

ND’s Gov is changing tactics (about damn time):

North Dakota governor changes tack and issues mask mandate

After months of resisting ordering the people of North Dakota to wear masks and limit the size of gatherings, the state's Republican governor relented in an effort to stem a coronavirus surge that is among the worst in the U.S. and that threatens to overwhelm the state's hospitals. Gov. Doug...

finance.yahoo.com

And of course...

Rick Becker, a Republican state representative who is a plastic surgeon and who owns two bars in downtown Bismarck, said Saturday that he will refuse to wear a mask and that he suspects many others in the conservative state will protest the “draconian” directive.

“The electorate is going to be split,” Becker said. “People who want the government to take care of them will be happy.”

 

[Zardnaar]

ND’s Gov is changing tactics (about damn time):

North Dakota governor changes tack and issues mask mandate

After months of resisting ordering the people of North Dakota to wear masks and limit the size of gatherings, the state's Republican governor relented in an effort to stem a coronavirus surge that is among the worst in the U.S. and that threatens to overwhelm the state's hospitals. Gov. Doug...

finance.yahoo.com

And of course...

News here was saying South Dakota was getting a 50-68% positive rate on their testing.

I've been using ABC on youtube for American stuff while father in law uses CNN.

Been expecting this since sturgess so maybe Covid doesn't spread as fast as I thought.