Comments on: More COVID lockdown madness from Australia

By: AppleBetty

AppleBetty — Mon, 09 Aug 2021 02:02:05 +0000

Zaphod and om,

Thank you very much!

By: Zaphod

Zaphod — Mon, 09 Aug 2021 00:49:14 +0000

@AppleBetty:

Botswana? Surely you jest. You *are* aware, I hope that Botswana is a subsidiary of Anglo-American (DeBeers) masquerading as a Nation State? Do you think they will be able to run things behind the scenes forever and that it won’t revert to being African? 🙂

It’s possible to run this type of charade better than the United Fruit Company ever did… but nothing lasts forever. Africa Always Wins.

I love Japan in small doses. It does get a bit hard to fit in for the long haul. Perhaps Hokkaido — they’re more relaxed there. But frozen six months of the year.

Uruguay: Zaphod like! The aim, after all, is to live out one’s days being Bypassed by History. And for giving one’s progeny a fighting chance might be the ticket too.

Iceland: No. Bjork. God no!

Despite all the above and my view that benign tyranny is the best we as humans can hope for (CCP less dangerous for Chinese People in 2021 than USG is for US People in 2021 because CCP has passed through adolescence. US techo-tyranny is just being born with lots of screams and blood and shit flying around. Early Days. Wait until it’s a teenager.)… despite all this. I hanker for a villa in Chiangmai and a Durian Tree in the yard.

By: om

om — Sun, 08 Aug 2021 15:15:02 +0000

Apple Betty:

Saint Helena, good seafood? Elephant Island, only seafood? Easter Island, lots of other big heads to keep him company.

By: AppleBetty

AppleBetty — Sun, 08 Aug 2021 13:41:34 +0000

Zaphod wrote, “I’m done with this crap. I’m seriously considering taking up PRC Citizenship …”

And where else would you seriously consider? Any thoughts on Japan, Botswana, Uruguay, Iceland ?

By: Richard Aubrey

Richard Aubrey — Sun, 08 Aug 2021 12:21:11 +0000

Dave’s scenario has been, almost, run in real life. His presumption, planted axiom, is that the government’s SEVERE ACTION would be, you know, competent.
This, in the face of a Chinese Fire Drill response to a far less difficult problem.
Can you increase incompetence exponentially, or only by a factor of a couple of digits?
The studly heroes running China’s response can’t even keep their coverups covered up. And they have The Power. And they don’t have a political party whose best idea was that anything, no matter how useful, promoted by its opponent must be slagged and prevented by any means possible.

By: AesopFan

AesopFan — Sun, 08 Aug 2021 05:10:17 +0000

@ R2L “But Dave is asking a very pertinent question: just how and when and what would or should we be doing as a society and under government direction if the disease is distinctly more lethal than Covid-19?”

You gave a thoughtful response, but Neo has covered all of that territory many times, and what she hasn’t considered, many others have.
See John Tierney and Kevin Roche in the punditry class, for links to the actual epidemiologists who address your questions.

I don’t see any reply by Dave yet.

By: AesopFan

AesopFan — Sun, 08 Aug 2021 05:07:08 +0000

KyPerson – this one’s for you.
https://i0.wp.com/www.powerlineblog.com/ed-assets/2021/08/IMG_3764.jpg?w=500&ssl=1

By: R2L

R2L — Sun, 08 Aug 2021 02:38:25 +0000

But Dave is asking a very pertinent question: just how and when and what would or should we be doing as a society and under government direction if the disease is distinctly more lethal than Covid-19? We have the history of 1918 and other (near?) pandemics to guide us, and several factors would impact the actual behavior.
1) what is the impact on our medical and other support systems with nonlethal infected persons?
2) what is the population most impacted – age, “race”, sex, mixed, etc.?
3) how quickly can we/ did we isolate and quarantine the infected?
4) what vaccines and/or therapeutics are available? By when? Qty?, etc.
5) would it matter if it was explicitly recognized to be the result of accidental vs. purposeful vs. natural sources? Governmental or nongovernmental actors?

Etc. etc. etc. But we might hope someone somewhere between Congress, the CDC, FDA, med schools, et al. is asking or has asked and generated a national response plan of some sort. I would have thought that was what the CDC and the discipline of epidemiology was all about, but we have seen very little beyond what appeared to be ad hoc responses (and very mediocre modeling at that) rather than a logical pattern matching to previously developed prospective scenarios.

Clearly a very complex problem that can’t and won’t be asked and answered in a blog post or comment. But as a thought experiment, if we back down from Dave’s 50% to 10% or 5%, might we still expect and justify rather significant government mandates and controls? Decline to the 3%, 2%, or 1% level of lethality and maybe more attention is given to logical waivers, etc.? I suspect we would tolerate higher levels of impact on mature adults and seniors, but react more radically if children and youth are the main group of causalities. Or child bearing age women over older women or men in general.
YMMV.

By: Mike+K

Mike+K — Sat, 07 Aug 2021 18:41:26 +0000

I would like to recommend this summary and update on the SARS-2 virus. It helps to shine a light through the insanity.

By: om

om — Sat, 07 Aug 2021 18:01:18 +0000

From Heather MacDonald,

“Statistics show the COVID vaccines work and are very low-risk. Many on the right are ignoring these facts.”

https://spectatorworld.com/topic/covid-hysteria-contagious-among-conservatives/

ht: https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/