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Comment by fctorial | Hacker News Reader

> The scary part is that of the official 8,200 or so people that have been confirmed to have the virus there's been 171 deaths, and 143 recoveries.

It isn't that bad. It means that this virus won't kill more than 50% of population even if we were to shut down all research right now.

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Uh, in what world is wiping out half a population not that bad??

Thanos Did Nothing Wrong /s

The new world, post smallpox that wiped out up to 90% of the population. That's setting quite a low bar though, it would still be about on par with the black death.

It would be good for the environment

Humans are part of the environment. Every bit as much as a tree or a koala is. So it wouldn't be good for all of the environment.

I've noticed it's never people in a vulnerable group that talk this way.

If they really believed in it, they could start by giving the example and hope others follow.

Christ. I can't imagine wanting half the population to die "for the greater good"...

One could argue that thinning the population of the older demographic with pre-existing (and expensive) conditions could be a net benefit to governments with socialized healthcare. See Taiwan which has repeatedly had to refund their system because of an aging population and the related growing costs.

I'm not disputing your point, but with respect to Taiwan, the fact that visiting a doctor is almost a sport certainly doesn't help - An average of 14 visits per year per person:

>There is a high level of health seeking behaviour in Taiwan. It is part of the Taiwanese culture to take medicines or to seek medical help frequently, even for minor ailments.

>The average outpatient department visit rate is 14 times per year per person.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3960712/

That's not what I meant. I was saying that there's at least 50% chance that you might be immune to this virus. Who knows, there might be 1000 people who were infected but never went to hospital because they got better without medical care.

Sarcasm doesn't do well on HN. Maybe for good reason.

There was no sarcasm here. The comment just states that the virus' 0 day fatality rate is at most 50%. Why are you offended by this fact? Obviously we might see some twists like the virus becoming more resiliant, and obviously we won't shut down all research. The actual death count of this disease will be much lower.

Trust me, I know what I'm talking about. I've played plague inc.

I didn't mean that your comment is factually incorrect.

It's just that neutrally observing that 50% of a population would die is at least off-putting.

Given your explanation, maybe you were mocking the credulous. Mocking doesn't work well on HN either.

I've looked at comment histories for many shadowbanned users, and I'm just echoing commentary.

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