Well, at least she didn't claim that it was her constitutional rights to barge into random hospitals carrying virus. Cultural differences, I guess.
Just wait a week or so.
"Just wait a week" is the refrain of everyone who is panicking right now, as it has been for the past few weeks.
Because that's how the exponential function works. Italy started earlier so its numbers are still growing by thousands every day.
But the numbers for France and Germany are almost exactly the same as the numbers that Italy had 10 days earlier, and Switzerland trails Italy by only 5 days once you correct for the smaller population.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_2019%E2%80%932...
So I ask again, if this is such a super-pandemic, why are Germany and France fine despite having looser quarantine measures and earlier outbreaks than Italy? And why do you expect them to get dramatically worse over the next week?
Looking back at the January data, however, there were already more cases of pneumonia than usual in that same area and many of those that survived now have antibodies. And in fact, the strain that is hitting Italy was actually already present in Germany in January based on genome analysis; for whatever reason the real outbreak started a bit later in Germany than in Italy, but that's expected because the initial phases of the epidemic are random.
Is this what you want in your community?
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/03/03/8099657...
If that's your definition of "fine", then when you wrote this:
> why are Germany and France fine despite having looser quarantine measures ...
were you actually saying:
"why are Germany and France having looser quarantine measures despite having looser quarantine measures?"
/shakes head
"Why are Germany and France not worse off than Italy despite having looser quarantine measures and an earlier start to their outbreaks?"
And I still haven't heard an answer which comes close to justifying Italy suspending its citizens' rights. But that's fine; it won't matter in a few months, and we're approaching an easy opportunity to make money and travel smart as the herds follow their predictable migrations.
I just wish that people were less eager to give our fundamental rights away over this; history shows that they are unlikely to come back once they are surrendered. I'm already tired of the CBP shutting down entire 80mph interstates to search every vehicle passing through; where does this end?
Anyways, arguing about it is just something to do while everything is shut down, eh? :)
You're wrong. The constitution explicitly carves out allowances for quarantines.
A "nobody is allowed to leave their homes starting now" type order would obviously be practically impossible to enforce, but that's a different matter.
Where? I could be missing something, but I don't see that:
The closest I could find was the part that grants Congress the power to pass any law that it wants, but I don't think that the executive arm could unilaterally lock down interstate travel. It also says:
>The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.
We are citizens of the United States, not of one state in particular. We pull together, or we fall apart.
China shut down it's entire industry for two months. Knowing full well the risk of losing global business permanently. Perhaps it is time for drastic measures.
See how China scientifically tracked spreading: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22528245
> China shut down it's entire industry for two months
and kept everybody at home (and if you violate those restrictions, go to jail), and had masks for everybody... It's safer to be in China than EU now.
I think we need to acknowledge that the worst-cast predictions are laughably inaccurate, and a little bit of fear of the unknown is not worth losing our civil rights over.
Coronavirus has begun exponential growth in the rest of the world. The rest of the world already has more cases than China did when exponential growth inflected.
As of today, it's not showing any signs of inflection. On February 26th, Trump said we had 15 cases in the US, and would be close to zero within a few days. 11 days later, we have 607 cases, 22 deaths, and 8 recoveries. That's a growth rate of 40% per day, and holding steady.
The scary number isn't 607. And it isn't even 22. Nor is it 22/607 or 22/(8+22). (which, tbh, is pretty scary)
The scary number is 40%.
Sure, it's "just" old people with a high probability of dying. But I have several elderly relatives. I'm not enthusiastic about losing any of them.
Now do you honestly think China would shut down it's entire economy for 2 months over the flu? Have you actually read any published literature on the virus, or are you just watching people around you prepare and laughing at them? 8% of the Iranian parliament was infected last week - two were dead by Friday.
Because this is all unfolding slowly, we still don't even know if any of the following speculation is true:
1. Multiple Chinese sources report reinfection after recover
2. Multiple sources report positive tests after recovery
3. Hot weather may not stop the virus (see Singapore)
This is not SARS. This is not just another flu outbreak. Global markets are crashing because they see what's happened in 6+ countries now. It's time to get your head out of the sand.
Do you know that fucking Mecca is deserted right now? I don't think that's ever happened before.
The markets crashing is overdue IMO; things have been overheated for a long time now and a correction has been expected for awhile. It had may as well come as a result of herd behavior rather than market fundamentals, and I say let it ride. Like the old adage goes: be greedy when people are fearful, and fearful when people are greedy.
Also, the Hajj isn't until July this year; it's not surprising that Mecca is not crowded, and closing it for most business at this point in time is not beyond the pale in a global sense.
If states in the US do try to lock down their borders, I might drive across a few just to reinforce the fact that such measures are unconstitutional and anti-American. This is all starting to feel like mass hysteria, considering how much reports vary from country to country and the whiplash speed at which the overton window is moving. How long until Congress passes the Pandemic-triot act to suspend the 1st amendment in the same way that the Patriot act suspended the 4th and 5th?
This happens every 5 years or so; SARS, swine flu, and H1N1 were all more severe, and we didn't destroy our societies over them. We just have more access to information and mediums of emotional contagion nowadays. I understand that most people disagree with me on this, but that's what happens with mass hysteria and emotional contagion. Know that not everyone buys into it, and if you are keeping calm you are not alone :)
Personally, I'm thinking of visiting Venice in a few weeks once the planes and trains are operating again. This seems like a great opportunity to avoid the crowds and get a good deal on seeing the city before it is submerged for good.