[james-skemp]

A lot of this situation reminds me of Y2K planning, but your comment is really spot on. Thank you.

Y2K is going to be a big deal if we don't do anything about it. We do something about it. People complain Y2K wasn't a big deal.

That, like this, means we're doing things right. Maybe we're going a little extreme, but the alternative is likely worse, and there is never a magic dial to spend just the right amount of effort/money/time.

[triceratops]

:-) I've made that comparison before too. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22559590

[james-skemp]

I remember that article but not your comment; that article made me realize that I had forgotten the science behind soap, and just knew that it was good to use. :)

It's unfortunate that it's so easy to find preparation wasteful when it ends up not being necessary. But, we all have different life experiences.

[Marsymars]

Running with the Y2K analogy though, social distancing is like punting the Y2K issue down the road by a matter of weeks.

[triceratops]

We had plenty of warning and time to prepare for Y2K and knew for certain that it was coming - neither of which is true for Covid-19. If the entire world had somehow only realized in June 1999 that Y2K would be a problem, they absolutely would have done everything possible to gain even a few more weeks.

[bduerst]

Yeah, it's like inverse survivor bias.