Why is covid-19 being downplayed?

Seriously, I'm rarely outraged, but listening to Rojo on this week's podcast was disgusting to say the least. I don't mind him rambling nonsense when it's not serious, but this topic is no joke.

The facts are clear:

- w/o drastic measures, number of cases is doubling every couple of days (check individual countries on

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

, without strong measures such as Italy until recently; notice there'll be a time lag until they have an effect)

- around 10-20% need hospitalization (ballpark numbers)

- you don't have to be a genius to realize that very soon the hospitals will be overwhelmed

Listen to experts, Sam Harris had somebody recently on this podcast (Prof. Christakis) and also Joe Rogan (Prof. Osterholm). From everything we know so far, without drastic containment measures capacity limits will be reached soon in the health care system.

According to the data, US went from 100 to 1k cases in 8 days. Current rate looks linear in logs, i.e. constant growth rate, i.e. that would mean 10k in 5 days, 100k in 13 days, 1M in 21 days, 10M in 29 days, which amounts to 1-2M people in hospitals. Of course states and cities and companies are already imposing drastic measures, so hopefully we won't get there.

Seriously, there is no rational explanation for why certain right-wingers in particular do not believe in science (there are also idiot left-wingers in general).

“Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.”

― George Carlin

It's a good question. No idea their motivation as this may become one of those rare occasions where politicians and pundits are held responsible for being wrong. Johnson's herd immunity plan is possibly the most dangerous and stupid idea of the century. Glad to see we have at least cut them off as of today. Meanwhile, 3500 new cases in Italy today. The timing of St Patrick's day does not instill confidence.

Agree with educated runner too--Rogan's podcast was extremely informative. Also Nicholas Christakis is the second most valuable person to follow for all things COVID19 (1st being Yaneer Bar-Yam).

Right wing anti science? I guess you left wingers can continue to deny that there are only 2 sexes and that fetuses can only develop into humans.

dr Know wrote:

Right wing anti science? I guess you left wingers can continue to deny that there are only 2 sexes and that fetuses can only develop into humans.

????

Address the issue. Why is it not a concern that US hospitals could see 1-3mm cases in 3-5 weeks if nothing is done? How is this not alarming?

Clearly, the reason it is downplayed is to further Trump and the belief that the economy and wall street are just fine. So he can get re-elected.

It's obvious.

He is creating fake news by failing to acknowledge the truth. And he is doing so at the our risk. Let alone the glaring lack of leadership displayed by Trump.

dr Know wrote:

Right wing anti science? I guess you left wingers can continue to deny that there are only 2 sexes and that fetuses can only develop into humans.

I'm not a "left winger". I'm firmly centrist right, except on some social issues.

But back to the subject - what is the motivation to downplay it? It makes absolutely no sense.

It's actually being way overblown! For examples, saying we will run out of respirators if the healthcare system is overwhelmed. "We did projections" said one prominent TV doctor. Well what he either didn't know, and that's shameful, or he lied was that the government has the power to simply buy more!

Still the government is not the solution to all our problems. People are. The government makes things worse. Public anything has a really bad track record, as you would accept.

FelonDJT wrote:

dr Know wrote:

Right wing anti science? I guess you left wingers can continue to deny that there are only 2 sexes and that fetuses can only develop into humans.

????

Address the issue. Why is it not a concern that US hospitals could see 1-3mm cases in 3-5 weeks if nothing is done? How is this not alarming?

Because that won't happen. I'll be happy to come speak to your Rotary Club in six months and explain why a few of us were able to keep our wits during this latest phony crisis.

coronasceptic wrote:

FelonDJT wrote:

????

Address the issue. Why is it not a concern that US hospitals could see 1-3mm cases in 3-5 weeks if nothing is done? How is this not alarming?

Because that won't happen. I'll be happy to come speak to your Rotary Club in six months and explain why a few of us were able to keep our wits during this latest phony crisis.

So....explain. Why will the rate of infection magically decline? Why? How?

When 60 million were infected with h1n1 under Obama, we were told it was not a problem. But now crazies think this is being downplayed when it is 1% as severe?

dr Know wrote:

When 60 million were infected with h1n1 under Obama, we were told it was not a problem. But now crazies think this is being downplayed when it is 1% as severe?

Ok maybe Obama was wrong, why make the same mistake?

Here, I fixed it to for you.

ledi wrote:

I hate even using this term but I feel forced to - Why is the “left wing” media/some politicians exaggerating the impacts of Covid-19? It’s pretty obvious medical systems will (and have been in some countries) become overwhelmed if it was allowed to spread unchecked, leading to many unnecessary deaths.

So... what is the incentive for people like Sean Hannity and Boris Johnson to not exaggerate the threat? (as well as some on this message board) I’m genuinely confused what the pushback is to the unanimous medical community and proof from other countries that medical resources will not be stretched to the point of unnecessary deaths occurring. What is the incentive to exaggerate?

The more dead Americans, the better. Please touch each other.

—Vlad Putin

What are you talking about? Trump made declarations already and the media has covered it nonstop. Yes Obama and the media tried to cover for him. Trump is way out in front of this and the media has actually way overblown it. People in need of food and basic health supplies will go without due to the run on the stores. Elderly will die of isolation out of fear of leaving their houses.

Trump eliminated the White House Pandemic Office. He tried to cut funding to the CDC, twice. He has been making a show of shaking hands, and downplaying this. He is way behind because he refuses to listen to actual scientists. He wanted Larry Kudlow to handle it.

dr Know wrote:

When 60 million were infected with h1n1 under Obama, we were told it was not a problem. But now crazies think this is being downplayed when it is 1% as severe?

H1N1 - R0 of 1.4-1.6, hospitalization rate of 0.4%, death rate of 0.02%

Influenza - 1.28, 1%, 0.1%

Covid-19 - +3.0, 20%, 1%

Imagine 20yrs of influenza hospitalizations happening in 6 weeks. That what is going to happen if you don't pull your head out of your ass.

ledi wrote:

I hate even using this term but I feel forced to - Why is the “right wing” media/some politicians downplaying the impacts of Covid-19? It’s pretty obvious medical systems will (and have been in some countries) become overwhelmed if it allowed to spread unchecked, leading to many unnecessary deaths.

So... what is the incentive for people like Sean Hannity and Boris Johnson to downplay the threat? (as well as some on this message board) I’m genuinely confused what the pushback is to the unanimous medical community and proof from other countries that medical resources will be stretched to the point of unnecessary deaths occurring. What is the incentive to downplay?

Its not that serious. Are you living in fear that you could get h1n1? The worst that will happen is you have a disease for a week, feel like shi7, barf some and lay in bed and sleep a lot. That sucks, but does it sound that bad?

Now if you are an obese boomer who doesn't regularly exercise and don't know what dragon fruits, buddha's hands, lychees, and goji berries look like you should be a bit scared. But then you're probably not on letsrun.

I admit that I was downplaying at one point. I’d classify myself as moderate and not affiliated strongly with either political sides.

When the outbreak was going on in Wuhan, I thought it was a big deal and Chinese were covering up the numbers. However, after getting more info that only the elderly were dying and it felt like the spread was inevitable, I thought it was going to be like the flu. But the last couple of weeks, I’ve realized I was wrong for not taking it seriously. I thought there’s no way that US would shut down like how it’s happening now.

I’ve realized that it’s much more serious than a flu where no ones immune to it, so if someone has coronavirus, then it can spread to everyone they contact. Unlike the flu, since many have flu shots or already immune to the type of flu from previous exposure, it doesn’t spread as much.

Also, I’ve had flu before and I thought I was going to die and this is much worse.

It’s time for everyone to take it seriously.

I think luckily for US since the country is so spread out, I think there will eventually be quarantine of hot spots and hope most of the country won’t be shut down.

ledi wrote:

dr Know wrote:

Right wing anti science? I guess you left wingers can continue to deny that there are only 2 sexes and that fetuses can only develop into humans.

I'm not a "left winger". I'm firmly centrist right, except on some social issues.

But back to the subject - what is the motivation to downplay it? It makes absolutely no sense.

You don't see a downside of triggering panic and crippling the economy "just to be on the safe side"? I'm not saying covid19 is nothing, but there are potentially serious consequences either way.