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Comment by stcredzero | Hacker News Reader

I wonder how many lives could have been saved if we (western/European countries) didn’t have such an aversion to wearing face masks

My wife and I were one of the few people wearing masks at the start of the pandemic, before the closing and work from home orders came. We were harassed by random people shouting at us.

Also, I don't really get the societal penalty for disaster preparation. It's completely illogical. Just a few weeks before the news was really onboard with the pandemic, a woman at my apartment was looking at how many amazon boxes I had on my hand cart. I told her, "In times like this, it pays to be prepared." She looked at me like I was scum. My understanding is that some news outlets were actually denigrating disaster preparation at that point.

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> Also, I don't really get the societal penalty for disaster preparation.

It makes a lot of sense: if you're preparing for a disaster, you won't go down with everyone else when disaster strikes. This creates some feeling of resentment which caused people to lash out at you.

you won't go down with everyone else when disaster strikes. This creates some feeling of resentment which caused people to lash out at you.

A well known psychologist was castigated a few years back for his likening people to lobsters. Yet here we have a perfect example of people acting like the proverbial lobsters who drag the escaping lobster back into the pot.

Crab pot metaphor.

I was in a similar position at work. I was continually pointing out from mid-January onwards, that this was a serious issue that might spread world-wide. That we should at least conduct some tests/drills to insure that our business could function remotely. I was treated like a third head had grown atop my shoulders.

Jump to mid-March, when the pandemic was obvious to anyone with the least amount of curiosity, and the same group was saying "It's just a flu." The only thing that was socially acceptable to discuss was how many guns you might need in an apocalypse.

Denial is a powerful opiate.

the same group was saying "It's just a flu."

Technically, not an influenza virus. However, from what we know of virus diseases that cross species, it's not the 1st time a virus with this severe capability to spread rapidly has crossed over into humans. It's also not going to be the last.

The aspect of that statement that's true, which is worse than a lie, is that, "It's just a flu," puts people in mind of a disease that's a normalized part of everyday life. It's often the case, that when a virus crosses over to our species, the situation is far more dire than normal.

IIRC, when syphilis crossed over into humans, it would flat-out kill people in 2 weeks.

My best theory so far is that when it comes to telling people what they themselves need to do (as opposed to inactionable general fear), mainstream media narratives are based around telling audiences the easy answer that they want to hear - eg you don't have to do anything to prepare, and those that do are wrong. Obviously this has always been an ongoing quality (eg no need to oppose the Iraq war since it's just), but with a public health emergency it's front and center.

How do you look when you look at someone like they are scum?

In any case, harassing people for wearing a mask is stupid.

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