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by davidw 2236 days ago
HN doesn't usually fare that much better with COVID-19. It got politicized in the US, so there is a partisan faction that is going to parrot or at the very least, try to explain away, whatever the federal line of the day is, no matter how crazy.
1 comments
klmadfejno 2236 days ago
I don't think I see many people arguing appeals to the party line. I'm probably posting more about it because I'm frustrated that, while I despise the current white house admin, I do think the lockdowns as implemented are likely to do more harm than good, especially as time goes on. I hate getting lumped in with the president, or having it be assumed that the president's line of rhetoric is representative of my thinking. I hate seeing people post dumb entitled shit about how the lockdown only hurts the rich and anyone who thinks otherwise is fine with killing people. There's so much garbage on both sides of the issue, but unlike most political issues, this one hits home for almost everyone.
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mywittyname 2236 days ago
> I do think the lockdowns as implemented are likely to do more harm than good, especially as time goes on.

I completely disagree. Places are very likely to be shutdown regardless, whether due to government authority or the virus rampaging the workforce. One of those is more permanent than the other.

We could send people back to work, but doing so safely requires effective testing & equipment. The USA bungled their response to the crisis, and so it has neither of those things. Which means reopening the economy at this point is probably going to sacrifice a lot more lives.

The entire point of the lockdown was to buy enough time to put into place the stuff we need to safely reopen. And clearly that didn't happen.

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klmadfejno 2236 days ago
> The entire point of the lockdown was to buy enough time to put into place the stuff we need to safely reopen. And clearly that didn't happen.

That sounds like a pretty good argument supporting the idea that lockdowns as implemented are likely to do more harm than good?

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davidw 2236 days ago
No one wants or thinks the lockdowns are a long-term solution. They were put in place to :

1) Stop the health care system from being slammed.

2) Buy time for testing/tracing/isolation, and get enough PPE for health care workers.

The fact that we are squandering that time is a travesty that has a cost measured in lives, and billions of dollars as the economy worsens.

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klmadfejno 2236 days ago
Anecdotally, many, many people think lockdowns are a long term solution that will lead to global eradication.
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