D&D and the rising pandemic

[Sacrosanct]

Yeah, someone from work was chatting about their parents still doing bingo and planning a fish fry for this weekend. It was safe because it was just people from the church.

Someone should tell them about South Korea, where a Church was an epicenter for the virus

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Yeah, someone from work was chatting about their parents still doing bingo and planning a fish fry for this weekend. It was safe because it was just people from the church.

The thing is that it could be safe if no one from their church has traveled out of the area or had anyone come visit from out of the area for the past few weeks. But explaining the difference between "could be" and "is not" does not work so well with a lot of people.

I live in the US, in Virginia, and all the known cases are in parts of the state, or in bordering states, nowhere near me, so most stuff here is still "business as usual" for a lot of people. I work in food delivery, so I will be working til the state forces us to close, which seems unlikely right now, as it seems most states want takeout and delivery food to stay available, since this is a regular source of meals for so many people.

 

[Oofta]

If we had widespread testing easily and freely available, it would be a different story. But even in rural areas, people go on vacation, delivery people come in from out of town, people get infected without being sick enough to even realize they're sick.

While the Spanish flu was deadlier, a common pattern was that small isolated towns merely delayed the spread of the disease. Once it started spreading it was in many ways worse than in some larger communities. The world is a lot more connected now than it used to be.

On the other hand, I get it. I'm isolating myself for now ... but how long will it last? If it's a year or more before we have an effective vaccine are we really going to shut down for the next year or two? Or do we just do our best to flatten the curve and accept that most people are going to get it sometime this year and hope for the best?

Oh well, enough depressing thoughts. I've got to write up an adventure and play around with Roll20 for my home campaign going online for a while.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Some experts are suggesting 18-24 months of certain restrictions because they think Covid-19 might bounce between the Northern & Southern hemispheres for a bit.

This means that Covid-19 will reshape modern society as much as the 1918 flu did before it.

Perhaps the western handshake will die out, replaced with the namaste...

 

[slobster]

Hope springs eternal that people will listen this time. But people have short term memories and if the precautions we're taking now actually help they'll be "See! It wasn't that bad!"

For better or worse people are generally very bad at risk analysis.

Hopefully I'm wrong and we take this kind of risk seriously. This time.

I'm also worried that the lesson a lot of people will learn will be something to the effect of "China is bad and evil and this is all their fault," as opposed to anything on the disease preparation front.

I mean, China's government are jerks, and they botched the initial response badly out of self interest and desire to maintain good media narratives...which is beginning to sound a little familiar. So while they should shoulder some blame, they were victims as well (the first victims, meaning we theoretically should have had time to learn from their epidemic and prepare for our own) and we are learning firsthand how hard it can be to get it right.

But having a good scapegoat can be real attractive when otherwise people would start asking about why we weren't ready, and who here in this country might shoulder some of the blame.

 

[robus]

I'm also worried that the lesson a lot of people will learn will be something to the effect of "China is bad and evil and this is all their fault," as opposed to anything on the disease preparation front.

To be fair, they have sourced a disproportionate number of outbreaks in recent years. Their wet markets need to be permanently closed for example. I don‘t think that’s much to ask after causing a global recession?

And the close captivity wild animal breeding also needs to be sorted. Just basic modern hygiene and animal husbandry would be appreciated.

 

[slobster]

To be fair, they have sourced a disproportionate number of outbreaks in recent years. Their wet markets need to be permanently closed for example. I don‘t think that’s much to ask after causing a global recession?

Right, they totally deserve criticism for their handling of the virus. They did a bad job, and the misinformation they are putting out there right now is pretty bad and inflammatory, too.

But the outbreak here in the US has more than a single cause, and there were plenty of people who should have known better and should have been preparing. They didn't, clearly. The fact that we lag the world in per capita testing is just one part of that, the loud and persistent minimizing of the threat the virus posed by senior voices in politics and the media were also incredibly detrimental.

There are a lot of lessons we should learn from this pandemic. Learning those lessons well should permit us to mitigate our risk from a future pandemic. But I'm worried that, rather than learn any of those lessons about our own shortfalls, we will be much more likely to simply blame China entirely, ignoring our own culpability because hey jingoism is so much more satisfying than introspection.

 

[Oofta]

Right, they totally deserve criticism for their handling of the virus. They did a bad job, and the misinformation they are putting out there right now is pretty bad and inflammatory, too.

But the outbreak here in the US has more than a single cause, and there were plenty of people who should have known better and should have been preparing. They didn't, clearly. The fact that we lag the world in per capita testing is just one part of that, the loud and persistent minimizing of the threat the virus posed by senior voices in politics and the media were also incredibly detrimental.

There are a lot of lessons we should learn from this pandemic. Learning those lessons well should permit us to mitigate our risk from a future pandemic. But I'm worried that, rather than learn any of those lessons about our own shortfalls, we will be much more likely to simply blame China entirely, ignoring our own culpability because hey jingoism is so much more satisfying than introspection.

Easier to blame that "foreign virus" than to take responsibility and make even minor sacrifices or accept that there's some things only the government can do to prevent the inevitable future outbreaks.

 

[HarbingerX]

Hope springs eternal that people will listen this time. But people have short term memories and if the precautions we're taking now actually help they'll be "See! It wasn't that bad!"

For better or worse people are generally very bad at risk analysis.

Hopefully I'm wrong and we take this kind of risk seriously. This time.

Yep. Like everyone who said Y2K was overblown. They have no idea how much was work was done.

 

[Zardnaar]

Some experts are suggesting 18-24 months of certain restrictions because they think Covid-19 might bounce between the Northern & Southern hemispheres for a bit.

This means that Covid-19 will reshape modern society as much as the 1918 flu did before it.

Perhaps the western handshake will die out, replaced with the namaste...

I pointed out in another forum there may be no vacine and Covid could be recurring.

If that's the case it will have to be business as usual eventually.

But it's going to be the great leap backwards to grandparents day when small pox and polio were around.

Got bored so are looking up how things used to be done including authoritarian regimes.

The virus is also on China with the wet markets. It's a total failure of basic standards. China was cut out of the world market back in the day (pre 1973).

To early to say what the way forward is. I have my suspicions ranging from government interventions, wartime rationing and command economies.