How To Deal With A Deadly Worldwide Pandemic

P

PoliTalker

Diversity Makes Greatness
There seem to be two schools of thought on how to get through the pandemic.

A) Take it very seriously. Take proper precautions. Adjust lifestyle to protect oneself and others. Change plans. Avoid large groups. Listen to experts and authorities, heed their advice. Practice safe measures to try to eliminate transmission of the disease. Take the vaccine. Avoid sharing air by use of distancing and masks. ( Thanks to ThatOwlWoman: ) "If you come down with a respiratory illness, get tested and if positive, stay home till well again."

B) Call it all fake news. Blow off any advice from experts or authorities. Make up derogatory terms for the pandemic. Blame China. Claim no fear. Continue life as normal. Get an attitude of animosity towards experts, authorities, and others who are heeding government directives. Doubt the numbers and reports. Call it just the flu. Latch onto unverified fake treatments and prevention techniques. When others die, call them weak or claim they would have died anyway. Make fun of those who are following safety measures. Refuse the vaccine, but take credit for it if it helps your politics. Advocate for politicians to avoid taking any action to reduce deaths. Forge fake vaccine documentation if needed and try to lie your way past checkpoints. Claim that business/money is more important than lives.

I think that just about covers the two sides. Discuss?
 
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There's a third not considered. Take it seriously, but don't panic over it. Take reasonable precautions but don't go shutting down the economy, imposing all sorts of stringent and inflexible mandates, laws, and rules on behavior. Certainly, don't expect or impose things that are patently draconian like vaccine passports in some one-size-fits-all attempt to "do something."

People--well most people--are intelligent enough to know what's best for themselves in most situations. Relying on a paternalistic nanny state government to tell you everything you can and cannot do is not only counterproductive but downright totalitarian. Government doesn't know best and usually just fucks everything up. Sure, they can make recommendations and you can decide based on that information what to do that is best for you, but don't let bureaucrats run your life because they're idiots.

In this scenario, Fauci for example, can suggest courses of action but he should be given ZERO power to impose anything. As the OP points out, such draconian measures will only result in pushback in any case, so they're destined to fail. The usual bureaucratic response is to up the totalitarianism with even more restrictive and intrusive measures that still don't work. At some point, the imposition becomes so great that it fails and those it is imposed on stop doing what is demanded entirely when they can.

People can decide for themselves and the few idiot exceptions like a Typhoid Mary can be handled on a case-by-case basis. Kick the bureaucrats to the curb, they're fucking idiots anyway.
 
PoliTalker said:
There seem to be two schools of thought on how to get through the pandemic.

A) Take it very seriously. Take proper precautions. Adjust lifestyle to protect oneself and others. Change plans. Avoid large groups. Listen to experts and authorities, heed their advice. Practice safe measures to try to eliminate transmission of the disease. Take the vaccine. Avoid sharing air by use of distancing and masks.

B) Call it all fake news. Blow off any advice from experts or authorities. Make up derogatory terms for the pandemic. Blame China. Claim no fear. Continue life as normal. Get an attitude of animosity towards experts, authorities, and others who are heeding government directives. Doubt the numbers and reports. Call it just the flu. Latch onto unverified fake treatments and prevention techniques. When others die, call them weak or claim they would have died anyway. Make fun of those who are following safety measures. Refuse the vaccine, but take credit for it if it helps your politics. Advocate for politicians to avoid taking any action to reduce deaths. Forge fake vaccine documentation if needed and try to lie your way past checkpoints. Claim that business/money is more important than lives.

I think that just about covers the two sides. Discuss?
Click to expand...

There's kind of a middle ground too. We're an example. We got our vaccines and the booster, as well as the flu shot. We go out as we please, but try to avoid crowded times. If we do have to go inside a busy place, we wear masks. We still practice diligent hand-washing. Basically it's just all the stuff you would normally do in an active flu season, to stay healthy.

The only thing that I would add to the above is "If you come down with a respiratory illness, get tested and if positive, stay home till well again."
 
T. A. Gardner said:
There's a third not considered. Take it seriously, but don't panic over it. Take reasonable precautions but don't go shutting down the economy, imposing all sorts of stringent and inflexible mandates, laws, and rules on behavior. Certainly, don't expect or impose things that are patently draconian like vaccine passports in some one-size-fits-all attempt to "do something."

People--well most people--are intelligent enough to know what's best for themselves in most situations. Relying on a paternalistic nanny state government to tell you everything you can and cannot do is not only counterproductive but downright totalitarian. Government doesn't know best and usually just fucks everything up. Sure, they can make recommendations and you can decide based on that information what to do that is best for you, but don't let bureaucrats run your life because they're idiots.
Click to expand...

I really wish that that were so. I do agree with your first paragraph.
 
T. A. Gardner said:
It is, government today simply doesn't give people a chance to act on it. For those that are stupid, nature usually takes care of business. We shouldn't be coddling the stupid.
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Unfortunately the trouble with the stupid is that during a pandemic, they infect others. Not everyone has the luxury that we do to be able to shop or dine out at slower times, avoid crowded work places (we are retired), go to the movies in the middle of the afternoon in the middle of the week, and so on. My kids are a good illustration of how stupid can affect the average person. They're all vaccinated. Yet my middle daughter's baby caught the virus from his day-care provider. He then infected both his parents and his auntie, my oldest daughter. Only my son-in-law escaped without financial harm; my daughters missed two weeks of work because their employers said "Don't come back till you test negative." Each one only had a couple of sick days saved. How many ppl can afford two weeks off w/o pay due to some unvaxxed asshole's stupidity?
 
PoliTalker said:
There seem to be two schools of thought on how to get through the pandemic.

A) Take it very seriously. Take proper precautions. Adjust lifestyle to protect oneself and others. Change plans. Avoid large groups. Listen to experts and authorities, heed their advice. Practice safe measures to try to eliminate transmission of the disease. Take the vaccine. Avoid sharing air by use of distancing and masks.

B) Call it all fake news. Blow off any advice from experts or authorities. Make up derogatory terms for the pandemic. Blame China. Claim no fear. Continue life as normal. Get an attitude of animosity towards experts, authorities, and others who are heeding government directives. Doubt the numbers and reports. Call it just the flu. Latch onto unverified fake treatments and prevention techniques. When others die, call them weak or claim they would have died anyway. Make fun of those who are following safety measures. Refuse the vaccine, but take credit for it if it helps your politics. Advocate for politicians to avoid taking any action to reduce deaths. Forge fake vaccine documentation if needed and try to lie your way past checkpoints. Claim that business/money is more important than lives.

I think that just about covers the two sides. Discuss?
Click to expand...

Do the opposite of whatever Chicken Little Politalker advocates for.
 
ThatOwlWoman said:
Unfortunately the trouble with the stupid is that during a pandemic, they infect others. Not everyone has the luxury that we do to be able to shop or dine out at slower times, avoid crowded work places (we are retired), go to the movies in the middle of the afternoon in the middle of the week, and so on. My kids are a good illustration of how stupid can affect the average person. They're all vaccinated. Yet my middle daughter's baby caught the virus from his day-care provider. He then infected both his parents and his auntie, my oldest daughter. Only my son-in-law escaped without financial harm; my daughters missed two weeks of work because their employers said "Don't come back till you test negative." Each one only had a couple of sick days saved. How many ppl can afford two weeks off w/o pay due to some unvaxxed asshole's stupidity?
Click to expand...

So, you are saying in effect, that the stupid infect the stupid because if you weren't stupid you wouldn't be indulging in activities that might get you infected...
 
Hello ThatOwlWoman,

ThatOwlWoman said:
There's kind of a middle ground too. We're an example. We got our vaccines and the booster, as well as the flu shot. We go out as we please, but try to avoid crowded times. If we do have to go inside a busy place, we wear masks. We still practice diligent hand-washing. Basically it's just all the stuff you would normally do in an active flu season, to stay healthy.

The only thing that I would add to the above is "If you come down with a respiratory illness, get tested and if positive, stay home till well again."
Click to expand...

Nice addition. I concur. Thanks.

Done to the OP. Still had time.
 
Hello ThatOwlWoman,

ThatOwlWoman said:
Unfortunately the trouble with the stupid is that during a pandemic, they infect others. Not everyone has the luxury that we do to be able to shop or dine out at slower times, avoid crowded work places (we are retired), go to the movies in the middle of the afternoon in the middle of the week, and so on. My kids are a good illustration of how stupid can affect the average person. They're all vaccinated. Yet my middle daughter's baby caught the virus from his day-care provider. He then infected both his parents and his auntie, my oldest daughter. Only my son-in-law escaped without financial harm; my daughters missed two weeks of work because their employers said "Don't come back till you test negative." Each one only had a couple of sick days saved. How many ppl can afford two weeks off w/o pay due to some unvaxxed asshole's stupidity?
Click to expand...

The lesson from hindsight: Would have been prudent to require the babysitter to be vaccinated.
 
Tolerance of the intolerable has never been and will never be a virtue.

The anti-vaxxers must be purged in swift, Draconian fashion
or Covid will wipe out as significant a percentage of the overall popultion as the Bubonic Plague did centuries go.

Once again America's most tragic failing flagrantly reveals itself: the belief that moderate measures can solve immoderate problems.
 
T. A. Gardner said:
So, you are saying in effect, that the stupid infect the stupid because if you weren't stupid you wouldn't be indulging in activities that might get you infected...
Click to expand...

Some people have no choice; they HAVE to shop when it's busy. They HAVE to send their kids to school. They HAVE to work in an office, plant, or other setting with other ppl around. Even if they are completely immunized, they can still possibly get sick from one of the stupids, like my kids did. They likely won't get *that* sick, and they likely will not die -- but they *will* miss time from work. Not everyone gets paid for being off sick for 10 days. Do you think it's fair for Sheldon Stupid to infect his whole office because he's an anti-vaxxing moron?
 
ThatOwlWoman said:
Some people have no choice; they HAVE to shop when it's busy. They HAVE to send their kids to school. They HAVE to work in an office, plant, or other setting with other ppl around. Even if they are completely immunized, they can still possibly get sick from one of the stupids, like my kids did. They likely won't get *that* sick, and they likely will not die -- but they *will* miss time from work. Not everyone gets paid for being off sick for 10 days. Do you think it's fair for Sheldon Stupid to infect his whole office because he's an anti-vaxxing moron?
Click to expand...

So? Life is full of risks. You have to weigh these and make a decision. Fauci plague isn't the end of the world and as diseases go it's not particularly nasty by comparison. Small pox, as one example was far more virulent and deadly and went on for centuries. People learned to live with it rather than live in fear of it.
 
T. A. Gardner said:
So? Life is full of risks. You have to weigh these and make a decision. Fauci plague isn't the end of the world and as diseases go it's not particularly nasty by comparison. Small pox, as one example was far more virulent and deadly and went on for centuries. People learned to live with it rather than live in fear of it.
Click to expand...

This was a relatively easy pandemic to to manage, sure we have not had one in awhile but our ancestors left a detail instruction set that had been developed over thousands of years through trial and error.

We ignored them.

Buckle Up!
 
T. A. Gardner said:
So? Life is full of risks. You have to weigh these and make a decision. Fauci plague isn't the end of the world and as diseases go it's not particularly nasty by comparison. Small pox, as one example was far more virulent and deadly and went on for centuries. People learned to live with it rather than live in fear of it.
Click to expand...

That's really, really dumb, Gardner. Millions died from smallpox, and in 1796 a vaccine was developed for it. 225 years ago. It was eradicated because we all got vaxxed. The last case of smallpox was in 1977, 44 years ago.
 
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