Posted on 03/12/2020 6:58:05 AM PDT by billorites
Coronavirus is a significant public health issue, but the response to it, in many quarters, has been hysterical. Events of various kinds are being canceled or modified: schools are closing or going online, the NCAA basketball tournaments will be played without fans in the stands, New York’s St. Patrick’s Day parade has been canceled, countless businesses (like my old law firm) are closing their offices and telling employees to work from home. I think there are several reasons for this, beyond legitimate concerns about spreading the disease.
First, a fear of liability that is probably misplaced. If other schools send their students home, and you don’t, and coronavirus makes some of your students sick, might they sue you for negligence? It would be a lousy case, but since anyone can sue anyone for anything, the fear of litigation is not wholly misplaced.
Second, many want to create a crisis that they can blame on Donald Trump in hopes of electing a Democratic president. This one doesn’t need any explanation.
The third reason is most interesting to me: I think many people are using coronavirus as an excuse for not doing things they didn’t want to do in the first place.
People who may have been exposed to the virus are being urged to self-quarantine, which means staying home and interacting with other people only virtually, or failing that to strive for “social distance,” which means not getting into close physical proximity with others. A great many people are self-quarantining, in part because they have been liberated by their employers to do so. But isn’t staying home and interacting with other people only virtually pretty much where we have been headed for the last 20 years?
Why go out? You can save a lot of money cooking at home, you’ve got a giant flat-screen TV (or several), there is beer in the fridge, you would rather spend time with your wife and kids than attend boring business or social events. So why not stay home? To the extent you want to keep in touch with other people, you can do it via email and text. You can post photos on Instagram to let them know what you are up to (i.e., staying home). You can Face Time, Tic Tok, or whatever. “Social distance” is much what most of us are increasingly used to. Why risk personal contact?
A further note on sports crowds: today it’s the NCAA basketball tournaments; tomorrow, who knows? I have long said that attending a professional or major college sports event means being part of the studio audience, like at a sitcom or game show. They aren’t playing the game for you, they are playing for the people watching on television. You are just part of the colorful background to the game. If you doubt this, go to a pro football game and observe how much time is spent with the players standing around while the crowd in the stands waits patiently: TV time outs. In the future, they could do away with live crowds altogether. They easily could create a pretend crowd and fake crowd noise via CGI, and who would know the difference? Meanwhile, an overwhelming majority would rather watch the game on television, the medium for which the event has really been created, rather than attend in person.
Maybe I’m crazy, but I think a great many people welcome the opportunity to self-quarantine, or at least achieve social distance, as the apotheosis of a trend that has been going for quite a while. In today’s world, with electronic communication everywhere and pretty much everything ready to be delivered to your door, there is arguably little reason to go out. I think this is part of the reason why so many people and institutions are ready to embrace staying home. Perhaps, in years to come, coronavirus may be viewed as a tipping point on the way to a world of social isolation.
I've often wondered if they don't do that already. I've noticed the camera angles at games rarely going above ground level, but seeing crowd-sourced pics showing lots of open space in the "cheap seats" (i.e., non-corporate levels).
Second, many want to create a crisis that they can blame on Donald Trump in hopes of electing a Democratic president...
That one doesn’t wash so well now that MANY countries are taking this thing incredibly seriously and it is having devastating effects in a country in Western Europe.
NOW BLAMING IT on Trump..that’s another story THEY WILL lie and distort every single chance they get.
But it is a crisis. Just because it hasn’t reached flu numbers yet doesn’t make it not one.
And just because more people have died in car accidents this year doesn’t make it not one..
I think with good containment it can be under control by june or july with plenty of time for a rally and a big Trump victory
Going to most sporting events has become a rather unpleasant experience. Traffic getting there, way overpriced parking once you arrive, and a crowd full of obnoxious drunks who are really not pleasant to be around. Plus obnoxious rap music being beamed at me near threshold-of-pain decibels during every stoppage in play.
As someone with pretty severe social anxiety (to the point of having to take meds), I like self-quarantining just fine, thank you.
The thought that Joe Biden would have handled this better is laughable.
He can barely function as it is, and every single decision would have been made on the basis of what is most politically correct.
Quarantine CONgre$$ CoVid - 535. Ankle bracelets would be nice too. OK...I’ll chip in for the specially sized one for Hillary. Can you lend me some of the “foreign aide” moolah, Joek?
signed: DEPLORABLE
What are the protective measures South Korea and Taiwan took that Italy did not?
I can think of a couple, but I’m just guessing:
1. Have a protocol in place for anyone arriving with corona virus symptoms—use a different door/wing/building, and strictly control access to that entrance while not allowing access of these patients thru other entries.
2. Protective gear worn by all seeing potential coronavirus patients, with strict cleaning protocols, both area and personnel.
3. Work now to create isolated ICU. Another wing, floor or building from main ICU. This is where the Government money should be generously and quickly applied.
What else?
I have also thought that maybe virtue signaling is part of this. Look how much I care, I care so much that I shut down the NBA.
Seems a bit of that may be going on also.
Maybe Trump could commute Stone and Manafort, considering their ages
Joe Rogan did a podcast with Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist from Minnesota. Pretty straight forward information without sugar coating it or making panic based predictions.
The gist of it:
Expect several months of this before leveling off or dropping.
Didn’t quite compare it to the Spanish flu
Quarantines and canceling large events will help flatten the peak of cases.
Thanks for those graphs - make the needed measures clear to understand. It’s not just the death rate, it’s the percentage that need intensive care.
NOW BLAMING IT on Trump..that’s another story THEY WILL lie and distort every single chance they get.
But it is a crisis. Just because it hasn’t reached flu numbers yet doesn’t make it not one.
And just because more people have died in car accidents this year doesn’t make it not one..
I think with good containment it can be under control by june or july with plenty of time for a rally and a big Trump victory
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do, your comment about the ongoing effort to blame it on Trump got me thinking. Personally, I’m of the opinion this blame game will backfire and serve only to have his supporters and others on the fence, so to speak, to realize the box that he has been placed in thru no fault of his own. Also it will be seen as a blatant political ploy which the opposition is using for strictly political positioning. It’s just so obvious for many reasons.
I think fear of lawsuits is the #1 reason you see all these major events closing. If league X closed there games and yours didn’t, then if somebody gets the sniffles or a tummyache, they can blame it on the coronavirus and have a lawyer sue you for millions. Because a certain percentage die from the disease and since it can take up to two weeks to manifest itself, there’s no way the league can defend itself and say they weren’t the cause of the spread.
These leagues are potentially losing a ton of money over this so you can bet they are looking at the potential legal fallout for playing during the heart of the crisis.
Osterholm is a highly respected epidemiologist.
Here is the video -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZFhjMQrVts
Huge amounts of testing. S.Korea was testing half a million people a day at the peak.
Self quarantine = I can binge watch every season of Game of Thrones again.
In your bathrobe.
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