Why I’m taking the coronavirus hype with a pinch of salt

The Guardian ^ | March 6,2020 | Simon Jenkins

[Hojczyk]

We’ve been here before, and the direst predictions have not come to pass.

Not so politicians and the media. They love playing to the gallery, as they do after every health scare and terrorist incident. Front pages are outrageous. No BBC presenter seems able to avoid the subject. Wash hands to save the nation. The BBC must be sponsored by the soap industry.

It is always hard to reflect balance and perspective in news. In this case, it is surely essential. It would help if Hancock was handed back the virus brief by Downing Street. It would also help if events were not cancelled, factories and offices not closed, and holidays not abandoned.

Of course, I could be wrong. I could get ill. Millions could die. But it is also possible that come the spring, this crisis will have passed. So for the moment, if you see a virus story containing “might” “could” “possibly” or “worst-case scenario”, stop reading. You are being fed war talk. Let them wash your hands, but not your brain.

[Conserv]

No salt. Corona Extra.

[nascarnation]

Killing off us old folks is bullish for the SocSec and Medicare budget shortfalls.

Of course politicians will continue to find ways to spend the money elsewhere

[proxy_user]

The real crisis is always the one no one sees coming.

You could look at something like the year 2000 computer bug. Companies saw what might happen, and spent billions of dollars to make sure it didn’t happen.

Once everyone is on the alert, the crisis is already contained. You may say that we were worried about nothing, but that’s not really true. Our worries made us take action that prevented a serious problem.

[Black Agnes]

It’s odd how people who weren’t in the tech industry think Y2K was an imaginary thing.

[trebb]

Probably gonna be more old folks kicking the bucket from heart attacks than The Great Dem Hope Virus” - especially with allergy season coming - someone will sneeze and nearby oldsters will go into cardiac arrest.

The bright side is that most of us aren’t a threat to the Clintons - those folks have a lot higher mortality rate than the virus kills.

[dp0622]

Hey that was good :)

[Vermont Lt]

“It could be gone by Spring.”

Are they lifting these articles from 1918?

(To paraphrase Arnold, “It’ll be back.)

[MasonGal]

I agree!! So very true!!!

It could have been a REAL problem, for sure.

[Vermont Lt]

I worked my ass off for a year certifying stuff was compliant.

It was real for me.

[AndyJackson]

You may say that we were worried about nothing, but that’s not really true.

This has already cost the world probably close to $100B in efforts to contain it.

[The Duke]

It’s odd how people who weren’t in the tech industry think Y2K was an imaginary thing.

All I know is that I've found this cool new way to save space in my database. I just store the last two digits of the year and prepend '20' whereever I use it!

Interestingly, we have "another" Y2K on the horizon that's probably every bit as big, and that is receiving zero attention. That's the end of the UNIX epoch (which counts elapsed seconds since Jan 1, 1970).

[hsmomx3]

Is this also a way to eliminate cash and go cashless?

I also wonder if this coronavirus test can give a false positive result when many of us have allergy-related respiratory symptoms this time of year. It’s going to be a/already is bad allergy season here in AZ.

[HangnJudge]

Alternately... From the American Hospital Association...

https://www.businessinsider.com/presentation-us-hospitals-preparing-for-millions-of-hospitalizations-2020-3?amp&__twitter_impression=true

[Black Agnes]

LOL.

IAS.

I attribute it to magical thinking. ‘I’ll be raptured by then, I’ll never have to worry about that!’ kind of thinking.

[Deo volente]

Interestingly, we have "another" Y2K on the horizon that's probably every bit as big, and that is receiving zero attention. That's the end of the UNIX epoch (which counts elapsed seconds since Jan 1, 1970).

Please explain. I've never heard of this.

[Ratman0823]

I worked my ass off for a year certifying stuff was compliant.

We also had to get up at 0200 on January 1st. Had to dial into a conference call for our group while spending 20 minutes going through the scripts I "carefully" wrote to check that my systems were still working. Then the person in charge of our group had to get on a different conference call to report the all-clear on our systems, and so on up the line.

Twenty years later and I still have the occasional nightmare about that project.

[Vermont Lt]

I was at a New Years party. At ten minutes to midnight, we ALL had to o home and jump on calls.

Worst NY Eve ever.

[dinodino]

UNIX time stamps stored in signed 32-bit ints will overflow in the year 2038.

[fireman15]

My wife and I have personally been inside the Kirkland Life Care Center dozens of times so it hits home for us more than most others. She is a retired nurse and department head at multi-level skilled care facilities and had friends who worked there. We tried to get ahold of our closest friend who worked there but have received no response. The last time we visited was less than a year ago. It was still a good place. And of course I spent 25 years helping to transport people with breathing difficulties to the hospital.

When my wife was at the asian owned and run beauty salon the other day getting her nails done, she was trying to calm the people there. Both the customers and staff were freaking out, and she had to remind them that the flu or falling down in the tub was a much greater hazard to their health. We live in a society that routinely overlooks the real hazards in life and fixates on the minor hazards. Why should this be any different?