Sivad wrote:Whatever. Bodies break down over time, they become weaker and weaker until they can't hold up under even the slightest stress. The straw that breaks the camel's back is just the proximate cause, it's not the explanation.
Acute respiratory distress syndrome is not "slight stress" and unless you can show that they would have died anyway at the time, it's the virus that drives them over the edge.
Sivad wrote:But a lot of them aren't dying as a consequence of the virus, they tested positive for the virus but they died of something else totally unrelated.
For god's sake, use your brain. Why do you suppose ventilators are in short supply? These people can't breathe because they are infected with a virus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome - SARS. The hint is in the name.
Sivad wrote:Another issue is false positives where some percentage are testing positive when they don't actually have it. I can't find anything on it but as busy as the labs are there's guaranteed to be a lot of cross contamination and other issues.
Sure thing, Sivad. It's not like in the western countries with large outbreaks people are only tested if they show up at hospitals with severe symptoms. Doctors can combine tests with clinical features because there's something going around these days which causes people breathing difficulty. Have you heard of it by any chance? It's called severe acute respiratory syndrome or SARS.
Sivad wrote:Those are anomalies in a few regions where demographics and environmental and social factors are converging to create freak storms. It's not the norm and wouldn't be the norm even if we went with the mitigation strategy.
These "freak storms" are just outbreaks which are a common feature of epidemics. There's nothing extraordinary about them.
Sivad wrote:I do care but I have rational priorities that don't permit plunging the world into authoritarianism and economic chaos just to protect me and mine [in the short term].
I guess it depends on how you define "worst case" because from where I'm sitting this world is heading straight into the worst case scenario at full speed. Do you have any idea how dangerous it is to panic a civilization, create economic chaos, and then give governments broad sweeping powers of social control? It's sheer fucking mindless stupidity to be unleashing those kinds of forces, there's no telling what kind of horrors could come about as result of that.
You can voice your concerns without pretending that there isn't a major threat to the life of millions of people.
As for Ferguson, you quoted him, so his credibility or otherwise is not my concern. I just provided the context to your quote which is that the UK would remain shut down to varying degrees (see the Imperial College paper which I have linked in one of my replies to you in the other thread).