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Comment by swampthing | Hacker News Reader

I feel like I'm missing something obvious — why do we need to analyze what happens when truck drivers stop making deliveries, if no one is talking about banning those deliveries?

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This is correct. Truck drivers are still working in Italy as far as I can tell. There's food, and TP.

Op might be thinking about drivers voluntarily stopping driving due to flu fears, either of getting it or spreading it? But yeah, even then I doubt many would be willing to put their business/livelihood on the line. They may reason that it's just a flu; most won't die and many won't have any symptoms at all--and it's hard to blame them for that.

I don't understand casual use of the word flu in relation to this pandemic. Even if it was "just a flu" in terms of impact, it would be needlessly confusing.

Understand it or not, that's how a lot of people think of it--those are the facts on the ground. And one of the upsides of that condition is that the economy hasn't yet been completely blown to bits, because not everyone is taking things so seriously.

Pandemic is a big-picture word. The average family will be far more affected by the results of serious people taking things too seriously than they will by the virus itself. The reason my neighbor can't go to the store and buy TP has nothing to do with the specifics of an illness and everything to do with over-serious, poorly-calibrated perceptions. (Downvote away, but that doesn't change the world condition)

By "serious people taking things too seriously" are you referring to people like the WHO, the CDC, and Dr. Anthony Fauci? Are you saying we should all ignore their recommendations, and just go about life as usual? For instance, that we should forget about social distancing and isolating those who have the disease?

Did I say any of that? Are you asking, or accusing? I don't really think such a reply is warranted here.

What facts on the ground does usage of "flu" reflect? It's not influenza and nobody seriously calls it flu. Even those least interested in the specifics know it as as unqualified "coronavirus" or Wuhan virus. To call it flu is to deliberately downplay its significance, make a joke out of it. Whatever the reality of the situation.

> To call it flu is to deliberately downplay its significance, make a joke out of it.

To the contrary, regular non-joking, totally serious people still call it Chinese flu, bird flu, I've even heard bat flu, probably some others. I think you are forgetting common lack of awareness / ignorance.

https://www.reddit.com/r/China_Flu/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_flu

https://extra.ie/2020/01/18/news/irish-news/new-chinese-flu-...

https://www.inverse.com/mind-body/wuhan-flu-how-to-protect-f...

You can see why--a lot of media sites like the one above still show their original URL even though the titles have been changed.

Delivery drivers (excluding ready to eat food delivery) is actually an interesting job. You would imagine it is social, but typically they just spend so their time in their truck or bringing packages to front doors. There typically is no interaction with people, unless they require a signature.

I would imagine their risk of contracting the disease is much lower than majority of people.

If they would be asked to stop performing their job it would be to be with solidarity with the rest of people. It's not like the air is poisoned.

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