I stand by every comment I’ve made. None of which included personal attacks. Most of which included citations.
Your personal attack is entirely inappropriate. I suggest perhaps it’s you that should take a break from the discussion.
As we can see just looking at how different countries have responded, there is a wide spectrum of responses, and countries have been successful getting R0 below 1 with different approaches other than total shutdown.
Even the Imperial College report notes that there are no easy choices here;
> We do not consider the ethical or economic implications of either strategy here, except to note that there is no easy policy decision to be made. Suppression, while successful to date in China and South Korea, carries with it enormous social and economic costs which may themselves have significant impact on health and well-being in the short and longer-term.
It’s crucial to note that there cannot be population health without economic health. It is not a choice between shutting down to save lives versus keeping the economy running and costing lives.
Computational Biologist Francois Balloux (Director of UGI at UCL) raises the point;
> The covid-19 pandemic is not just an epidemiological problem. It is a ‘Global Health’ problem, that can only be tackled with an integrated and global approach. For example, there is no such thing as a choice between managing the pandemic vs. protecting the economy. (11/12)
> Health and the economy are closely linked. The correlation between per-capita GDP and health (life expectancy) is essentially perfect. If the covid-19 pandemic leads to a global economy collapse, many more lives will be lost than covid-19 would ever be able to claim. (12/12)
Yes, my attack is personal, in the sense that it’s aimed directly at you and your reckless disregard for people’s lives. You’re spreading dangerous and false ideas in the face of a global pandemic, ideas that will cost tens of millions of lives if people take them seriously. There’s no reason anyone should listen to you, since you have no expertise, you’ve been wrong about everything all along, and you continue to disagree with the experts, as you have all along.
But like you said, you stand by every statement you’ve made.
Please stop posting flamewar comments to HN. We ban accounts that do that, regardless of how wrong the other person is or you feel they are. You owe this community better if you're posting here, particularly now, when stress, fear, and anger are at higher than normal levels, and nobody knows exactly what is happening.
Edit: unfortunately, it turns out that you've been doing this so much that I've banned your account (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22659159). Please don't create accounts to break HN's guidelines with.
I stand with the experts that I’ve been citing. You should log off if you can’t maintain civil discourse.
You couldn’t be more wrong with your accusations, and I will continue to lend my perspective to this debate with a slant toward long-term macroeconomic thinking that I believe is essential in managing a global health crisis, and saving the most lives long-term.
Except the experts have disagreed with you from the start. You think we’re shutting down countries all over the globe against the advice of public health officials? Or even economists?
I have no doubt you can produce a “citation” of someone that agrees with you, especially if you twist their words to support your point. But you’re not seeking the truth, you made up your mind a long time, which is why the vast majority of experts disagree with you.
And I have zero doubt that you lack the shame and introspection to stop posting now, about something you know nothing about and have been wrong about all along. You should be ashamed though, you’re part of a movement costing lives. And I won’t be “civil” while you do so.
