Re:The San Francisco Bay Area shelter-in-place order is bein...
by Mediterraneo10 on Tuesday April 28, 2020 @05:19AM
(#23005171)
No, the science doesn't "support shelter-in-place", because science in itself doesn't support any particular policy. Instead, the science is simply predicting a certain number of deaths or burden on the healthcare system, and certain public-health officials are recommending policy to minimize number of deaths, because their sole priority is to save human lives. However, someone else could look at that same science predicting a certain number of deaths, and say that such a number of deaths is an acceptable sacrifice and a policy of reopening the economy can be pursued.
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Re:The San Francisco Bay Area shelter-in-place order is bein...
by BaronSamedi on Tuesday April 28, 2020 @06:28AM
(#23005544)
Good point. I've seen this mistaken notion of science a lot recently. Scientists can describe the world and make predications about how it might behave, they don't have anything to say (as scientists) about what one ought to do.
Also, it appears that by "science" commenters here really mean epidemiologists or medical scientists, not economists, psychologists, political scientists, etc. Scientists from each of these fields have a limited perspective, a good leader tries to balance these perspectives when choosing a course of action. Of course, the medical view matter a lot now but its not the only view that matters.