Re:Facebook says it has removed promotion of anti-quarantine...
by TheOtherDave on Tuesday April 21, 2020 @05:11AM
(#22933283)
What about the lives lost to the increased rates of suicide and drug/alcohol abuse that will accompany an economic collapse?
Re:Facebook says it has removed promotion of anti-quarantine...
by camgunz on Tuesday April 21, 2020 @10:59AM
(#22935484)
We have tools to combat an economic collapse. The defense we have against COVID is to shelter in place until we get a huge testing system up and running (which we currently don't have a plan for).
The key point there is that you do that with their consent. Also you are required to be insured to cover you in the case that you screw up and hurt or kill people. Please show me the insurance company that will cover you if you recklessly spread COVID-19 to someone who then dies.
I don't consent to you risking my life and the lives of people I care about just because you're getting a little cabin fever.
> you take the lives of everyone in your car and those around you in your hands while driving.
Says who? The data we have so far does not support (or refute) that. We just do not know yet.
> But the economic costs - the careers and education opportunities lost to regular people will impact their whole lives.
Yes, that's potentially true. But if you want to be persuasive, you're going to need to quantify that, with error bars and probabilities. We have pretty solid estimates as to how many people are likely to die based on various social distancing, shelter-in-place, full quarantine, etc. scenarios. Those lost lives can't be "fixed" after they're gone.
Economic harm can be lessened and even fixed. No, I do not have confidence that everyone will be made whole after this; unfortunately governments and people in general are far from perfect. But that's not an excuse to take other actions that will directly cause deaths.