An open letter to wejo

Sorry, not buying it. You have become Chief Foot Dragger. Really a shame during a time of national crisis.

This is a Black Swan event. You're an Ivy Leaguer. Look it up and consider the tone you're setting here.

I think it's ok if such a person posts a question like this. If they're being straightforward about it, maybe it's even ok for someone to state that they would simply prefer to let 5% of the world's population die from this virus than to have their daily routine inconvenienced.

But when it comes to issues of public health, I think it's not ok to spread disinformation or to consistently question the reliability of the best available information, for the same person to post the same "questions" multiple times in different ways on every relevant thread and ignore the answers and continue posting the same "questions" which are really just their opinion, or maybe not even their opinion but their attempt at trolling.

wejo wrote:

[quote]JesseIsGarbage wrote:

The point being experts in Britain were thinking this was a good path forward just 2 days ago and now if someone asks about a similar path forward their question is supposed to be deleted? What is wrong with talking about why it is no longer a good option?

Experts in Britain weren't saying that the herd immunity approach was a good path forward. It was basically just Patrick Vallance, Boris Johnson's chief scientific adviser who was pushing the herd immunity plan. And to be fair, his idea was not to let everyone run free. He believed that a more moderate social distancing program could allow the low risk population to gradually get the virus which would then start developing herd immunity. Vallance's plan was immediately panned by just about every scientist in the UK and was also trashed by both members of the Torries and Labour in the UK. There was simply no evidence to support Vallance's conclusion that COVID 19 would become annual virus that could be fought with herd immunity. The plan was completely scratched within 48 hours because it was so incredibly reckless and dumb that no one in Johnson's government could possibly defend it in public as positives went from 40 to 1,500 in just two weeks.

Stupidity kills wrote:

Wejo is a Republican and it's Republicans that are the virus-deniers. And it's Republicans that will get us killed.

There was hope on Saturday after U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill with a public agreement trump said he would sign the bill. Some thought Republican lead U.S. Senate would quickly sign the bill sans amendments. Majority Leader mcconnell gave a public interview today. Not only will U.S. Senate refuse to sign House bill as is, U.S. Senate is writing their own bill from scratch. The House bill is written to help individuals in distress. Republican bill will be written, no doubt with intent to bail out large corporations. We are stuck in gridlock while Republicans will ruin us all.

Herd immunity is not a novel idea. How about 2 million years of evolution? I know all the religious nuts don't want to recognize that we actually did evolve WITH virus'. And yes, we actually became stronger and lived longer after pandemics. Look at the stats after the plague.

And since it is a "Novel" virus ( actually it's a garden variety virus of no significant matter) how do you think imposing these ridiculous standards of Social Distancing is at all effective? The Brits succumbed to political pressure. Sad, because we do know that a virus can mutate and become dangerous (Spanish Flu). The initial population infected had immunity to the second round. What you are proposing is so anti-constitutional it's scary. The fear-mongering is alarming. I know most people eat anything they are spoon-fed. Sadly, it has become apparent that people are truly incapable of logic and reasoning when fear is a factor. I feel like the anti alarmists are making way too much sense and hence why you want the posts removed. If the posts are as ridiculous as you propose all the critical thinkers (such as yourself) wouldn't believe that a rational person could drink the kool aid.

I thought Fauci did a poor job of explaining the following in his press conference. Here's my paraphrasing what he should have said.

If you're on top of the news today about cases and deaths in the United States... and by the way, most people aren't on top of the latest news... if you're on top of the news and reacting accordingly to that news, YOU ARE A WEEK BEHIND in what you should be doing.

That's because RIGHT NOW there are thousands of people walking around with CV who are asymptomatic. They won't show symptoms for about 5 days. Then, they'll get tested... maybe, if they go in right away... and it will take a couple more days to get the results back.

So if you reacting solely on what you're seeing now, you're a week behind in how you should be reacting. Where will we be in a week to 10 days? To get a best guess, look at Italy, Germany, and France where the case rate is doubling every 3-6 days.

Here's the bad news out of Italy. Doctors are having to triage (choose who gets care and who gets left to die) for ICU beds. Even so, HALF of ICU admissions are dying anyway!

https://www.euractiv.com/section/coronavirus/news/all-is-well-in-italy-triage-and-lies-for-virus-patients/

This is a very good compendium of thoughts on herd immunity and COVID 19 from experts in the field. The big problems with the herd immunity approach are 1) we do not know whether that immunity will last until the next round; 2) we have no way to know who should be in the initial herd and to keep those who should not (vulnerable populations) out of the initial heard; 3) if you blow it with no. 2, the death toll and strain on the health system will be overwhelming and horrific; 4) there will be a vaccine and possibly treatments such that herd immunity by vaccine will be a much safer approach

Precious Roy wrote:

4) there will be a vaccine and possibly treatments such that herd immunity by vaccine will be a much safer approach

China already has a coronavirus vaccine in trial:

You guys can argue all you want. The virus don't care. UK is doing a 70+ quarantine, just like we will. I already said you'll hear about it before Thursday is up. And you will.

https://newsobservatory.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Here-are-the-coronavirus-mortality-rates-by-age-group.jpg

Read my post again. You see the part where I said :

It isn't my job to write and publish a whitepaper every time some crackpot retard comes on the board with yet another stupid hot take. And I have good news for you : it's not your job either! Those crackpots who post nonstop with reckless abandon? Yeah, well, they aren't that for no reason are they? They're crackpots, and you'll never stay in front of them all.

I don't mean to sound cynical and I'm not saying you shouldn't argue. I get into with the crackpots sometimes. And some posters are genuinely curious and open to new information. There's a lot of people here who are legit geniuses with great information to share (like Avocado's Number but you know what, the crackpots pretty much drove him away too). But this is LetsRun, not an academic journal. Maybe you ban the patently false and dangerous information like "drinking paint stripper will protect you from coronavirus" and maybe that's even on us to do our due diligence to report those posts. For everything else, sorry, but it's up to you, the reader, to do the legwork at the end of the day.

Math Professor wrote:

David S wrote:

This is a perfect example, his post took 30 seconds and mine is going to take 30 minutes.

You must be a really slow typist if it took you 30 minutes to write something that short.

The answer is easy. If you have some other pre-existing illness and think you are at risk then you can stay home. Let the rest of society get on with our lives because the coronavirus is harmless for the vast majority of people. What do you suppose we do about the many thousands of deaths every day from car crashes? Lock everyone up?

Hmmm on second thought, I'm starting to see David S' frustration

interested reader wrote:

he sobering conclusion to be drawn from these data is that Canada and US are following similar trends as those experienced in China and elsewhere, and as such we are on track to see cases explode here like elsewhere. Kindly note in viewing these plots that the data show a picture looking back in time, since confirmed cases are counted several days after someone first presents with symptoms, and then it takes time for each case to be reported and aggregated.

Let me see if I got this straight. You want Wejo to shut everyone else up because, based on YOUR expert analysis, You have determined that cases "will explode." So, anyone that disagrees with your OPINION, should be silenced? The only people that are irresponsible here are people like you who MAKE SH!T UP and try to sell it as models, estimates and projections. The facts don't support any of what you believe. The facts show that the common flu is killing more people than the coronavirus RIGHT NOW - and no one is concerned about that. Everyone is holding up their skirts and running around afraid of something that is less of a concern than the thing they are ignoring.

Whether you like it or not, these are the facts.

220,000 is still more than 97

370,000 is more than 5,894

interested reader wrote:

Reality and Truth wrote:What some folk are doing is comparing this crisis with other health crisis and asking why this one is dwarfing all others.

The OP has missed no point. Deniers and foot-draggers like you have missed the point. This is a health crisis unlike any we've experienced in my generation (I was born mid-60s). It will affect everyone on this board, somewhere within their networks of friends and family, directly or indirectly in tangible, difficult ways. I know you think I'm being alarmist, and I'm at peace with that label.

Apparently you slept through the AIDS crisis.

Facts Matter wrote:

The facts show that the common flu is killing more people than the coronavirus RIGHT NOW - and no one is concerned about that. Everyone is holding up their skirts and running around afraid of something that is less of a concern than the thing they are ignoring.

Whether you like it or not, these are the facts.

220,000 is still more than 97

370,000 is more than 5,894

Hey, why you guys keep going on about the nuclear plant about to meltdown? Don't you know how many people are dying of the flu RIGHT NOW? Nobody is dying from the nuclear plant RIGHT NOW! Facts Matter!

yosri wrote:

interested reader wrote:

The OP has missed no point. Deniers and foot-draggers like you have missed the point. This is a health crisis unlike any we've experienced in my generation (I was born mid-60s). It will affect everyone on this board, somewhere within their networks of friends and family, directly or indirectly in tangible, difficult ways. I know you think I'm being alarmist, and I'm at peace with that label.

Apparently you slept through the AIDS crisis.

AIDS was quite different.

There was very little general penetration outside of gay men (and a bit later Haitians and hemophiliacs) at the outset. This is why it was called initially GRID - gay-related immune deficiency. However, AIDS was virtually 100% lethal until effective antivirals were developed.

Lots more differences and some similarities (unwarranted panic for instance), but this illness and its immediate impact is shaping up to be very different than how AIDS played out.

Yes, 'Interested Reader", we should check back. I for one am expecting massive unrest due the undisciplined and haphazard government intervention.

Most people have no idea how severe the economic collapse will be from literally shutting everything down. The long term hardships coming down the pike from killing our economy will dwarf those of COVID.

So yes, let's check in - say in 6 months time.

mizerable ash whole wrote:

Yes, 'Interested Reader", we should check back. I for one am expecting massive unrest due the undisciplined and haphazard government intervention.

Most people have no idea how severe the economic collapse will be from literally shutting everything down. The long term hardships coming down the pike from killing our economy will dwarf those of COVID.

So yes, let's check in - say in 6 months time.

Totally agree with what you just said. This coronavirus is nothing compared to the enormous long term economic damage that will see many, many people lose homes and go bankrupt not to mention the long term recession. All these short term actions for coronavirus are extremely near sighted and lack perspective on the long term consequences of destroying the foundations of the economy that is what actually lets you produce goods and services needed to fight a disease or another disaster.

Wuhan-400 wrote:

Facts Matter wrote:

The facts show that the common flu is killing more people than the coronavirus RIGHT NOW - and no one is concerned about that. Everyone is holding up their skirts and running around afraid of something that is less of a concern than the thing they are ignoring.

Whether you like it or not, these are the facts.

220,000 is still more than 97

370,000 is more than 5,894

Hey, why you guys keep going on about the nuclear plant about to meltdown? Don't you know how many people are dying of the flu RIGHT NOW? Nobody is dying from the nuclear plant RIGHT NOW! Facts Matter!

Your analogy would only be relevant were the coronavirus outbreak equivalent to a nuclear meltdown. It isn't!

And funny you should mention yet another thing people like to freak out about for no reason. Nuclear power is the greenest and safest form of power hands down, much safer than using coal. I would post the death rates for mining coal, but you have a problem understanding "greater than" versus "less than," so I'd only be wasting my time.

Facts Matter wrote:

And funny you should mention yet another thing people like to freak out about for no reason. Nuclear power is the greenest and safest form of power hands down, much safer than using coal. I would post the death rates for mining coal, but you have a problem understanding "greater than" versus "less than," so I'd only be wasting my time.

Good grief. Nuclear power is worst form of energy production, it produces waste that is radioactive effectively forever, the costs to just mantain safely are enormous and stretch on for the rest of mankind. Fukushima alone could be ELE as those multi-melted down cores continously release radiation into the Pacific, accumulating every year.