George has also survived cancer and at least one heart attack. His mortality risk is probably on the high end compared to the average 65 year old, though he isn't obese.

Are you sure he knows better than bloviating software developers? Seems unlikely.

/s

Plus the junk code he gets to try to understand is actually worse than theirs. Improbable as that might also seem sometimes.

Harder to read != worse.

I have yet to see a programmer write code that manifests an artifact as effective, adaptable, and robust as a human body.

"Worse" might not be the right adjective. The code he works with scales horizontally to billions of cooperating instances, apparently can produce consciousness, and has been rigorously tested over geological timescales.

Sarcasm should not be used on HN - covered by "Don't be snarky" in the guidelines.

Disclaimer: I have a love/hate relationship with sarcasm myself!

While I respect expertise a lot it's not necessarily the case that a disease expert has a more reasonable take on personal behaviour, in fact funnily enough I've met a lot of people in the field who are extreme OCD level germaphobes, that is to say they may be irationally afraid due to their of work

Sort of like software developers turning neurotic about minor glitches because, not despite of their knowledge

Thanks for that. At first I thought his isolation was insane, but his age does put him in a particularly bad risk group.

My father is over that age, and he's also near Atlanta, but isolated in a suburban home, wears a mask, gets food from other family members that are being very careful, etc.

I'm glad he's at least in a place where he can get outside (in his yard). Being in an apartment building and never getting out sounds like prison.

He is also known for doing ridiculous things to his body in the name of science...

Experts can also be morons, these aren't exclusive terms.

(I should clarify - he may have good reasons to stay inside for 5 months and I think that's anybody's prerogative to decide their risk tolerance wrt covid.

But for most people that's absolutely insane, essentially agoraphobic.

I've seen evidence some otherwise completely healthy people are long-haul locked inside their small apartment and it's sad to see.)

The part we aren’t discussing is that he understands that some people can have the disease for months. He is 65 and probably doesn’t want to damage his body. Why take any risk this early in our understanding? A year from now we’re going to know so much more about Coronavirus.

“ reported that as many as one-third of patients who test positive for covid-19 but are never hospitalized battle symptoms for weeks or even months after contracting the virus. “I think that people are highly underestimating this disease,” Church says.“

How shall I put this - I took his course. Absolutely not a moron. Unlike so many I fear of his fellow countrymen.

it's more that being an expert doesn't rid you of biases, and things like recency and availability (not to mention authority and esteem) combined with our robust and unwavering bias against novel dangers, is more potent than our rational brains can often handle, no matter who you are.

and sometimes you're too close to the issue: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_students%27_disease

I don't think you know who George Church is.