Comment by sjcsjc | Hacker News Reader

Comment by sjcsjc | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

I believe your comment is in good faith, but I also believe you are wrong.

This approach sounds very similar to the UK approach, overseen by Whitty[0] and Vallance[1], and agreed with by Neal[2] and Ferguson[3] (and I assume more but I haven't looked very hard). I don't think all these guys are morons. Well, I hope they're not.

[0] Chris Whitty, UK Chief Medical Officer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Whitty

[1] Patrick Vallance, UK Chief Science Officer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Vallance

[2] Keith Neal, Professor Emeritus - Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases, Univ of Nottingham https://uk.linkedin.com/in/keith-neal-1818b391

https://www.nottinghampost.com/news/nottingham-news/nottingh... (there was a better quote on the BBC but I can't find it now)

[3] Neil Ferguson, https://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/neil.ferguson Haven't got a link but I heard him speak on UK Radio 4's Today programme this morning.

In what sense would my comment not be in 'good faith'?

The UK allowed the Cheltenham festival [1] to take place this last week as well, attracting 250.000 visitors.

The mere fact that the UK arrived at the same conclusions as Sweden does not make those conclusions any more valid or wise.

[1] https://cheltenhamfestivaluk.com/

Yeah, fair enough, my good faith line was a bit pointless. I was just trying to be nice before disagreeing with you. Ham-fisted of me.

I was (quite vociferously) of your opinion till Boris Johnson's press conference on Thursday. I changed my mind during it listening to Whitty and Vallance explain their strategy. I now think it makes sense.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Etlyvt9n_QE

Dr. John Campbell goes into the contradiction between the approach used in e.g. Sweden and the UK vs. that advocated by the WHO. He is with the WHO on this point, as am I. In a few months time we'll know which approach worked best.

Just seen this, which supports your point of view:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-51892402

Edit: Ah. The list of signatories is worth reviewing.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com