Coronavirus Craziness

For philosophical reflections on the COVID-19 pandemic. How can philosophy help us to understand it, to combat it and to survive it?

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vegetariantaxidermy
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Re: Coronavirus Craziness

Post by vegetariantaxidermy »

Skepdick wrote: Fri Mar 20, 2020 6:33 pm
vegetariantaxidermy wrote: Fri Mar 20, 2020 6:30 pm
Skepdick wrote: Fri Mar 20, 2020 6:28 pm
You do understand that death-rate and total-deaths are different metrics, right?

The one one measures percentages, the other measures body count.
Yes. Do you?
And you are aware that more testing might end up reducing the death rate, but it wouldn't reduce the body count.

All the worse for your argument, because if the death rate in Italy is over-estimated then it means that the number of infections is under-estimated.

Which is precisely why Italy's number of new cases is growing exponentially - way faster than China.
That's the point--that a lot of people aren't being tested for it who might have very mild symptoms. I'm just pointing out that the overall mortality rate is not necessarily higher than anywhere else. People are saying 'Why are more Italians dying of it than anywhere else?' And I'm only reporting what the possible reasons are that have been speculated on.
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Re: Coronavirus Craziness

Post by Skepdick »

vegetariantaxidermy wrote: Fri Mar 20, 2020 6:43 pm That's the point--that a lot of people aren't being tested for it who might have very mild symptoms. I'm just pointing out that the overall mortality rate is not necessarily higher than anywhere else. People are saying 'Why are more Italians dying of it than anywhere else?'
And I'm only reporting what the possible reasons are that have been speculated on.
No. You are mis-interpreting the question as "Why is the mortality rate higher in Italy than anywhere else?"

You are clearly mis-understanding that "Why is the morality rate higher?" is a different question (with a different answer) to "Why is the body count higher?"

Discrepancies in mortality rates can be attributed to/explained by counting errors.
Body counts cannot.
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Arising_uk
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Re: Coronavirus Craziness

Post by Arising_uk »

Skepdick wrote:...
Which is precisely why Italy's number of new cases is growing exponentially - way faster than China.
If you believe in China's reporting that is.
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Re: Coronavirus Craziness

Post by Skepdick »

Arising_uk wrote: Fri Mar 20, 2020 6:56 pm If you believe in China's reporting that is.
Yip. There is that.

It would make me way more at ease knowing that Italy isn't an outlier. Towards figuring out the epidemiology of this thing less variance would be a nice-to-have.

Alas. Governments and damage control... Russia and Chernobyl.
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Re: Coronavirus Craziness

Post by commonsense »

Some of the previous posts make me wonder if ageism is being justified by the pandemic response. A we-vs-them mentality is beginning to show.

Seniors are at greater risk for both morbidity and mortality. So, other adults die at a lower rate than the elderly, but most of these other adults have no immunity as yet and will suffer at least mild illness.

Retirees make purchases and investments, but they do not contribute goods or services to the world economy. I guess you could say that seniors are being protected at the expense of Millennials and Gen X-ers.
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Immanuel Can
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Re: Coronavirus Craziness

Post by Immanuel Can »

commonsense wrote: Fri Mar 20, 2020 8:48 pm Some of the previous posts make me wonder if ageism is being justified by the pandemic response.
It's not ageist to say that older people are more seriously affected -- they are. It would be plausibly ageist to ignore that fact, and to let them die, would it not?
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Re: Coronavirus Craziness

Post by commonsense »

Immanuel Can wrote: Fri Mar 20, 2020 8:56 pm
commonsense wrote: Fri Mar 20, 2020 8:48 pm Some of the previous posts make me wonder if ageism is being justified by the pandemic response.
It's not ageist to say that older people are more seriously affected -- they are. It would be plausibly ageist to ignore that fact, and to let them die, would it not?
Agreed. I should have cited a specific post. I think there were 2 that vilified old fucks. I should‘ve said instead that I observed an attempt to validate ageism.
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Re: Coronavirus Craziness

Post by commonsense »

vegetariantaxidermy wrote: Thu Mar 19, 2020 11:24 pm What I would like to know is why no old people are coming out and saying 'Stop! This is madness! We don't want this. Having a future for children and young people is far more important then saving a few of us who are at death's door anyway. And what will happen to us if we can't get our medications in the future because the world economy has collapsed?'

Of course they aren't, because they are selfish old fucks.
I haven’t heard from younger adults that they want old people to die so that they can collect paychecks.
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Immanuel Can
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Re: Coronavirus Craziness

Post by Immanuel Can »

commonsense wrote: Fri Mar 20, 2020 9:14 pm
Immanuel Can wrote: Fri Mar 20, 2020 8:56 pm
commonsense wrote: Fri Mar 20, 2020 8:48 pm Some of the previous posts make me wonder if ageism is being justified by the pandemic response.
It's not ageist to say that older people are more seriously affected -- they are. It would be plausibly ageist to ignore that fact, and to let them die, would it not?
Agreed. I should have cited a specific post. I think there were 2 that vilified old fucks. I should‘ve said instead that I observed an attempt to validate ageism.
Right. But they don't sound terribly nervous about voicing it. I guess maybe they'll shift if you point out that's ageism, but I'd be surprised if they did. People protected by the internet type all kinds of strong stuff they'd probably be embarrassed or afraid to say in public.
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Re: Coronavirus Craziness

Post by commonsense »

As for me, if I had my druthers I’d ruther die quietly in my sleep than die of pneumonia.
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vegetariantaxidermy
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Re: Coronavirus Craziness

Post by vegetariantaxidermy »

commonsense wrote: Fri Mar 20, 2020 9:19 pm
vegetariantaxidermy wrote: Thu Mar 19, 2020 11:24 pm What I would like to know is why no old people are coming out and saying 'Stop! This is madness! We don't want this. Having a future for children and young people is far more important then saving a few of us who are at death's door anyway. And what will happen to us if we can't get our medications in the future because the world economy has collapsed?'

Of course they aren't, because they are selfish old fucks.
I haven’t heard from younger adults that they want old people to die so that they can collect paychecks.
They wouldn't dare. That's the stranglehold Political Correctness has on everyone now. And how the fuck is ANYONE supposed to live without 'paychecks'? All those stupid old fucks who are being silent on this will be far more likely to die without the pharmacy-load of medications most of them consume every day. Nature doesn't give a flying fuck about humans and their moronic 'ists'.
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Re: Coronavirus Craziness

Post by Skepdick »

vegetariantaxidermy wrote: Fri Mar 20, 2020 9:41 pm They wouldn't dare. That's the stranglehold Political Correctness has on everyone now. And how the fuck is ANYONE supposed to live without 'paychecks'? All those stupid old fucks who are being silent on this will be far more likely to die without the pharmacy-load of medications most of them consume every day. Nature doesn't give a flying fuck about humans and their moronic 'ists'.
Well. At least you hate all of humanity equally.

Misanthropy/self-loating. Potatoh/potato.
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vegetariantaxidermy
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Re: Coronavirus Craziness

Post by vegetariantaxidermy »

commonsense wrote: Fri Mar 20, 2020 9:27 pm As for me, if I had my druthers I’d ruther die quietly in my sleep than die of pneumonia.
It's not 'ageism'. Old people are just self-absorbed fuckwits for the most part. All they talk about is their ailments or funerals. It's not safe to say 'how are you' to an old person.
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vegetariantaxidermy
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Re: Coronavirus Craziness

Post by vegetariantaxidermy »

Skepdick wrote: Fri Mar 20, 2020 9:43 pm
vegetariantaxidermy wrote: Fri Mar 20, 2020 9:41 pm They wouldn't dare. That's the stranglehold Political Correctness has on everyone now. And how the fuck is ANYONE supposed to live without 'paychecks'? All those stupid old fucks who are being silent on this will be far more likely to die without the pharmacy-load of medications most of them consume every day. Nature doesn't give a flying fuck about humans and their moronic 'ists'.
Well. At least you hate all of humanity equally.

Misanthropy/self-loating. Potatoh/potato.
Life is for the young--not for extending the lives of the ancient at the expense of the young. I care about young people here who had just bought their first home, with large mortgages. I care about people losing their jobs and livelihoods. I care about a soaring suicide rate amongst the young. I care about children who will inherit 'what'? A world where the clock has been turned back several hundred years and for what? To save a few selfish old farts who were near the end of their lives anyway, and who probably wouldn't have even died of the virus? There have been no deaths here so far, and not even any serious cases. That doesn't read like a 'black plague' to me. Even the elderly have an 86 percent chance of survival.
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vegetariantaxidermy
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Re: Coronavirus Craziness

Post by vegetariantaxidermy »

What I want to know is what the fuck are politicians playing at? When did they EVER give a flying rat's arse about people, but now all of a sudden are prepared to risk everything to save a hypothetical handful for something that is probably less deadly than seasonal flu, (when you take into account the fact that it doesn't seem to affect children and that many people have it with few or no symptoms which don't get reported)??
Is this all internet driven? Conspiracytard fearmongering? Politicians not wanting to lose votes by being perceived as not doing enough, forced into action by frenzied social media morons? The dark side of online virtue-signalling. Now we will all pay the price.
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