Covid-19

My main takeaway from having read it was this:

The author used to assume that the reason post soviet Russia was so… the way it was/is was because of being post soviet.

Now the author is seeing more or less the same thing here in the states and he’s forced to discount what he used to think was the cause as the US was never soviet and now he’s arrived on a new cause:

Staggering inequality.

In many way’s Scott’s not wrong, the oligarchs are living in a different world and talk about problems, such as roads or pandemics, as abstract things. They don’t have to use those roads nor is their experience with the pandemic even remotely similar to, say mine.

Scott isn’t wrong but also misses the point of the article. It’s like Scott saying “I’ve not read the article, but gravity exists” and then saying “Scott’s not wrong”.

The cause isn’t staggering inequality. That means the situation is possible, but not what is causing this precise malaise.

I think the author has correctly identified common traits between the post-soviet Russia and the current US. However, those common traits are by no means the cause. They are simply common symptoms of governments that are controlled by a few powerful people to serve their own needs and not the needs of the many.

You can say what you think the root of the problem is, but why be so dismissive of the article? It’s an interesting read with interesting observations, and I thought people on the forum might enjoy it.

Of course everything can be boiled down to whatever root cause you might want to see there, or you can find your pet cause in every topic.

However, not every article or link shared has to conform with your expectations, or go far enough in its conclusions. Always making everything about your own pet cause is another exhausting habit for readers of this forum. You take any topic, remove the subtlety and nuance, this time without even reading it, and make it about your own ideals.

To make it easier for you, you never need respond to anything article I share again. I’ll add a comment bellow every link saying “Yes, Scott, we know cars are evil and all billionaires are stupid” and then everyone else can just enjoy the article for what it is without you dumping on it or saying it doesn’t go far enough.

Maybe you could actually discuss the issue at hand instead of attacking me every time I don’t agree with you 100%?

I agreed that the author is correctly identifying things that the governments in US and Russia have in common. I just don’t see those things as the root cause of the problems we face. A culture in which public servants prioritize keeping superiors happy and obeying bureaucracy over actually serving the public causes many problems, but is clearly not a root cause.

I’m not discussing anything with you. I’m also not attacking you. There’s nothing to discuss and nothing to attack. I’m not posting here to start a discussion with you or anyone else.

I posted a link to an Article I thought was interesting and had some observations I’ve not seen outlined elsewhere. That’s it.

It’s not my job to now defend the article, the author, the conclusion, the depth, the breadth, or anything else.

I’m not saying I agree with the article 100%, nor that I disagree with you 100%. I’m not saying anything like that.

Maybe if others had responded, I’d be happy to discuss it with them. But now the discussion is “how Scott can steer the forum into his theories of political original sin without even reading the article” and how he can, after finally reading the article, criticize it for not conforming to his views enough.

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Normally after big juggling conventions and related travels, I arrive home, start relaxing and immediately get sick. There’s always some bug floating around the convention, and being super close to people watching shows, juggling in hot sweaty environments, parties and dancing, etc… it’s rare not to catch something.

I’m rarely ill at the festival or in the traveling/holidaying after, but it hits as soon as I get home and stop being so active. My body relaxes, and so it seems does my immune system.

Except this summer! I was invited to the French Juggling Convention. It ran five days, had 450 jugglers… but was 95% outside and with lots of distancing at all opportunities and mandatory face mask wearing. I was super active, took part in events, performed in the show. Then afterwards we went on a 10 day camping holiday with lots of mountain biking.

Now I’ve been home for a few days, and I’m having a weird experience where my body is shattered and recovering from all kinds of physical activity and tiredness from camping for two weeks, but without the swollen throat and bunged up nose and coughing that I’d normally have at the same time.

I prefer non-social distanced conventions, but I’m very much appreciating not having a cold or flu or any sickness since February, and also only having to spend two days recovering after a big convention trip rather than five days.

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Although theme parks have reopened, they’ve seen low attendance, below the limits set to allow for social distancing.

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Anecdotal data

So far I only know maybe 3 people, personally, to have caught the infection. None seem to have had the lasting symptoms like I’ve had.

All 3 had the cough and fever and that’s it.

Can’t say for sure why that might be, my guess is genetics. * big shrug *.

Only now 5 months later starting to see some normality.

Related to this, I was recently thinking about the fact that so far nobody that I know personally has had Covid-19, even with friends all over the US and the world. It makes me think about the significance or lack thereof of that fact. Is everyone in my social network doing a good job of taking appropriate precautions? How much does luck account for this result? As widespread and bad as Covid-19 is, is this a case of human perception not being good at groking large numbers and melding infection & death rates with the size of my social network?

I’m happy about this fact and it doesn’t lessen the precautions I am taking, but now that it has been going on for a while I am not sure if I should be relieved or waiting for the other shoe to drop.

My partner had a COVID 19 test and they had to send the results in a secure form:

Fax!

It’s 2020 and we needed a fax machine number!

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Basically, letting people to their own demise if they decide to travel during this crazy times. This is very irresponsible.

This is sad, but athletes should now better. The damage that corona will do to lungs could potentially end his career. I hate it when people have the “It is not going to happen to me complex”.

I don’t know why the discussion (more broadly not like here) has centered on masks specifically. I see so many articles focusing on this guy doesn’t have a mask, these nut jobs believe masks impinge on their free speech, etc. etc. Masks are like the second most important thing about dealing with this.

This focus on masks leads me to believe one of two things:

1: Everyone just agrees that we should social distance (not going to things in person or when absolutely forced to go to in person staying outdoors and 6 feet away from other people) as much as possible, wash our hands frequently, not touch our faces (or our masks ffs), use hand sanitizer when soap and water are not available, etc.

2: We don’t agree on that and for those who don’t agree on that we’ve decided masks are the most important thing to emphasize, which… well. I’m not an expert or anything but it strikes me as odd that we focus on masks to the exclusion of all else.

tl;dr: Yes masks AND perhaps more importantly, the things from point 1.

Most people can’t avoid going out to buy food, work an essential job, etc… So “just socially distance” literally isn’t an option for them.

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I thought researchers were pretty clear that airborn transmission was by far the largest vector of transmission and that other vectors were not terribly important.

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MAGFest is asking if people would attend in-person.

I would highly encourage any of you who have attended MAGFest in the past to tell them No. For obvious reasons.

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