Coronavirus thread

Started by JBS, March 12, 2020, 07:03:50 PM

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Todd

Quote from: Spotted Horses on March 26, 2024, 12:17:13 PMThe justification for closing the schools was never that children were vulnerable. It was that epidemiological studies had shown that schools were a major pathway for the disease to spread through a community.

I am fully aware of the rationalizations used.  You think they were reasonable.  That's fine.  I do not.  Neither your opinion nor my opinion are scientific. Your rationalization is typical of those who defend policies that ranged from mediocre to horrible.


Quote from: ritter on March 26, 2024, 12:18:48 PMThen we should hope for a nice, good war close to home, shouldn't we? That's when savvy investors and businessmen really get wealthier...

If by "we", you mean Europeans, sure, I guess.  One of the many beauties of being an American is that wars that boost defense industry and financial sector profits, and more than occasionally market indices at the same time, always occur over there.  By over there, I mean in countries on the other side of either big ocean separating us from the tumult of less stable regions - eg, Africa, Europe.  (Sure, one could look at Haiti now, but that's small potatoes and not really going to generate sweet free cash flow, you know what I'm sayin'.)
The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

Karl Henning

Quote from: Karl Henning on March 26, 2024, 12:44:54 PMThis, in spades.
This is non-scientific anecdote, but the latest virus I contracted (not 'flu, not COVID, not strep, but the "none of the above" virus) followed directly after the only time I was in an enclosed space with a substantial population of strange children all year.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

DavidW

Quote from: Madiel on March 26, 2024, 12:58:15 PMI think expert views on this changed over time and depending on conditions. Certainly early on I remember that scientists here were advising against school closures, despite the average parent saying "but we always get diseases from the kids".

Policy was always a moving target as we continued to do research and learn more.  Being flexible and dynamic in face of such uncertainty I find to be wise, others, oddly enough, find it to be foolish.

DavidW

Quote from: Karl Henning on March 26, 2024, 01:06:58 PMThis is non-scientific anecdote, but the latest virus I contracted (not 'flu, not COVID, not strep, but the "none of the above" virus) followed directly after the only time I was in an enclosed space with a substantial population of strange children all year.

As a teacher at a boarding school TELL ME ABOUT IT.  Illness spreads like wildfire here.

Madiel

Quote from: DavidW on March 26, 2024, 01:36:40 PMPolicy was always a moving target as we continued to do research and learn more.  Being flexible and dynamic in face of such uncertainty I find to be wise, others, oddly enough, find it to be foolish.

I don't know about your media-political culture, but around here changing your mind is regularly portrayed as some kind of disaster or sign of weakness. The theory seems to be that between elections you're not supposed to actually take on data or think or govern.

And when it comes to science there's a similar attitude. Scientists are just supposed to state the answer. There's no insight into how the scientific method actually works.

I always marvelled at one interview with a now long-departed politician. In the same interview his answer to one question was a very open "I don't know" and his response to a quote from a few years earlier was "I've changed my mind". My estimation of him went up massively because of his willingness to publicly say both those things.
I am now working on a discography of the works of Vagn Holmboe. Please visit and also contribute!

Pohjolas Daughter

Yesterday while doing a crossword puzzle, I ran across a number of quotes from Richard Feynman one of which was "I would rather have questions that can't be answered than answers that can't be questioned".

And "We never are definitely right, we can only be sure we are wrong".

From this website  https://www.azquotes.com/author/4774-Richard_P_Feynman
Pohjolas Daughter

DavidW

Quote from: Pohjolas Daughter on March 27, 2024, 03:44:52 AMAnd "We never are definitely right, we can only be sure we are wrong".

Karl Popper's falsification theory.  There are other philosophies of science, but that tends to be the one I use as a compass.

What is interesting or maddening is David Hume's philosophy which turns the entire idea of science and empiricism on its head.  I see it more as a reflection that we have unspoken axioms necessary for the endeavor of scientific inquiry.