corona? :(

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It's a good question, and I'm not sure. But I think what it boils down to is they don't want anything complicated, anything that they can't present to their supporters as a situation with an easy solution that suits them. In the case of Trump and Bolsonaro, climate change sceptics/ignorers, they are perhaps averse to publicly following the advice of scientists (or even believing it). Perhaps hard nosed capitalism, making money and letting people do it without constraint, is what their supporters want, and so the thought of telling them they have to stop donig what they want is unbearable for such leaders (even if they believe the danger themselves).
 
Right wing politicians tend to put money (especially if it's their own) before everything, so in my opinion it boils down to that. Also in many cases I don't think it's about which sides they are in, it's about them being... not exactly Nobel prize candidates (Trump would be Trump even if he was a democrat).

What baffles me is how, to these days, there's still people supporting conspiracy theory positions despite how bad things have gotten. Like, how bad does the evidence have to punch you in the face before you are willing to consider the fact that you are wrong? It truly terrifies me.
 
That reminds me of 2 questions:
- Are/were conservatives more dismissive of the severity of the virus? People like Bolsonaro, Trump and Johnson (famously shaking hands with infected) downplayed the dangers and referred to it as no worse than a flu (which is already a big killer, though). Right-wing media was also busy downplaying the situation, calling it "hysteria".
- If that is the case, why are conservatives so adamant in refuting the danger of the situation, compared to politicians on the left?

(Sweden is an interesting exception - but the PM didn't dismiss the danger. The government just chose a different, 'relaxed' approach.)

It’s more complicated than that. Other conservative governments such as that in Poland took it very seriously and installed a lockdown far ahead of schedule.
Some governments in power may downplay the pandemic in order to prevent the economy from taking a hit, whilst others are just ignorant and stubborn.
 
Yes. It's not black and white. There are exceptions. But there seems to be a trend.
Duterte suggested shooting down people not complying with the lockdown. That's commitment! (But to be fair, that's his solution to everything).

Apropos
 
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Influenza and the common cold seem to be more of an exception than the rule though. There is an Italian virologist who is a professor at Emory in Atlanta and he has been sharing what he knows to try and prevent disinformation. In one of his recent Facebook posts (unfortunately in Italian, but here's the link) he states that there is some evidence that covid19 will more than likely be unable to evade a vaccine once it is developed (of course he can not say it for sure, that is often how science works).
 
Difference is, the common cold (also a corona virus) is mostly harmless,
and influenza comes in waves/seasons and we have vaccines to minimise the fallout.
The health care sector has adjusted to influenza over many years.
This novel coronavirus comes on top of this and seems to be more virulent, with a slightly higher death rate.
In some areas the virus went from non-existent to increasing the usual death rate by a factor of 5 in a matter of weeks.
It also might not come in waves but generally exist in pockets and constantly, throughout the year, create outbreaks.

That's why some are talking about a new normal, where all the mesaures we see now become an every day thing:
face masks, social distancing, avoiding crowds, hand sanitizers everywhere.
If a person has respiratory symptoms they are prevented from going to work, shopping, cinemas, busses, planes etc.
 
I wish they would, though. Whoever invents a vaccine against the common cold should get a Nobel Prize.
The common cold constantly mutates which is why we never become immune to it. A new vaccine would have to be developed each year, much like for the flu (but the flu actually claims lives).
there is no benefit in developing a vaccine for the cold, especially with the pricetag.
 
Currently I'm living in worst hit region in Poland (though, admittedly, the official numbers aren't that high, comparing to some other European countries, but the worrying thing is that they're steadily growing) and my hometown went from 1-3 new cases per week to 25 new cases just today. Doctor that is a friend of family painted even worse picture, so that's relaxing. The most frustrating thing is that while I try to do everything I can to minimalize danger from me to others, there's still so many people that do ****-all in that area. At first they were queuing to disinfectant dispensers in front of malls, today on my shopping run I noticed barely anyone using it. I saw people without masks, deliberately going on a collision course with you on a sidewalk. I'm not going anywhere with that, just needed to vent.
 
In Georgia, one of the earliest states to ease up on lockdowns and assure the public it was safe to go out again, the Department of Public Health published a graph around May 11 that purportedly showed new COVID-19 cases declining over time in the most severely affected counties. The entries, however, were not arranged in chronological order but in descending order.

?

... Instead, Georgia lists new cases on the day the patient first reported symptoms.
When politicians are put in charge of statistics...
 





 
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It's like in the old Czechoslovak joke:

"The party determined the following criteria for the next president: 1) respected in the international community 2) non-partisan candidate 3) member of the Communist party"
 
Americans must put a president in the White House come January, 2021, who will understand that public health should not be guided by partisan politics.
Yeah, like that's going to happen. It feels like every decision made in Washington nowadays is based on partisan politics. It's a ****ing joke.
 
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