Hacker News Reader

Comment by dustinmoris | Hacker News Reader

I’m proud to say that so far I have refused to give any data away and when forced I used a fake name and fake phone number. Nobody should participate in this idiotic attempt of trying to control a virus. It’s impossible. The only way back to normality is herd immunity. It will have to happen sooner or later, through natural immunity, a vaccine or most likely a combination of both. I have it rather sooner than later. Only way back to normality is to start acting normal now. Everything else is madness. Also the people who make 100% of the sacrifices are working age adults and children, basically those who are virtually at no risk of dying from this virus. Feels plain wrong that people have to give up everything for nothing in return.

View on HN

> Only way back to normality is to start acting normal now.

You can do that if you wish. Nobody is really stopping you in most countries.

I’m not joining you though. And I would bet that I am joined by enough people that normal cannot be achieved.

You already lost the bet judging by last six months. Will you still pay up?

Correct: working age adults and children, basically those who are virtually at no risk of dying from this virus.

Also correct and much more important: this virus can have incredibly deleterious effects on otherwise healthy people beyond killing them.

Just because it probably won't kill you doesn't mean it can't fuck you up. In fact I think I'd rather the virus kill me than leave me with permanent damage that destroys any quality of life.

What percentage of patients will have permanent damage that destroys any quality of life?

Nobody really knows yet. Check back in a year or so.

Why do we need to wait a year? There are already millions of people who have recovered from acute infections. If a large percentage are continuing to experience severe symptoms then where is the data?

The numbers are all over the place right now, but some studies are showing up to 50% of people seeing persistent issues (particularly abnormal fatigue). It's not clear yet if that's really what you'd call long-term, though; a lot of it may go away.

Which studies? Please provide a citation.

Nobody can possibly know if it's permanent, of course, but currently it's looking like about 10% of people don't completely recover.

Please provide a citation for that number.

Any percentage is too high and a risk I'd rather not take. Other people's cavalier attitude towards limiting the spread, thus increasing MY risk of infection is what pisses me off most about this whole story.

By that logic no one should ever be allowed to do anything that exposes others to risk. Every time someone drives a car there's a percentage chance they'll run you over, leaving you crippled with no quality of life. It is unreasonable and unethical to expect others to protect you from all risk.

yeah, keep acting normal, that's sure to bring back tourism and economies. broadway just cancelled all their shows until may of next year, a pure business decision, nothing to do with gov't policy.

i understand we're anxious and angry to return to a sense of normalcy, but make no mistake, it has nothing to do with sheer will. business cannot survive on the select few "choosing" to be reckless.

it will return when we get it under control and people's perceive risk (whether valid) goes down.

> nothing to do with gov't policy

Not true. If they were allowed to fill their theaters up, they'd probably have reopened already. The business decision to not reopen is because they can't be profitable with the vastly reduced capacity that the government is currently mandating.

look at any country with open policies. attendance at theaters and the like are at record lows. spending is down. broadway in NYC runs on tourism.

you might survive for a few months, but if the science is correct, you will just shut down again or people will be afraid to go. broadway can't afford to gamble like that.

Look at where exactly? The only equivalent to Broadway I know of is London's West End, and they don't have open policies.

> The only way back to normality is herd immunity.

Contract tracing seems to have worked out great in many countries. And you’re entirely discounting the possibility of a vaccine here. Given that a lot of people will have to die in order to achieve herd immunity (and the science isn’t even clear on exactly how many yet, nor on the long term implications for those that survive a COVID infection) I’m not sure blanket assertions are the wisest choice right now.

We now know for a fact that the world-wide IFR is 0.13%.[1]

It's time to give choice back to the people.

I'm not anti-anything. I'm pro-choice. I'm with you.

[1] - Monday Oct 05 the WHO announced there were 750 million cases of Covid worldwide (see tons of news sources). According to the official WHO tracker there have been 1 million deaths. 1 million divided by 750 million is 0.00133333 or 0.13% IFR.

The rest of us are pro-choice, too. We’re choosing to follow the guidance of our well respected public health officials. Even if you are totally free to choose (you are where I live in Vancouver) this doesn’t prevent businesses from being impacted by the majority decision to reduce virus spread by limiting dining out, etc.

The solution, and the inevitable return to normalcy will come when people feel protected. That can come with herd immunity, which is nearly impossible (NYC had excess deaths in the same range as the Spanish flu and only has 20% immunity in the population to show for it) or it can come with advanced treatment, therapeutics and at some point a vaccine.

This is a multi year process but the result will be a return to normalcy, as happened with the Spanish flu.

I think you’re in the minority, one that gets smaller and smaller daily. Downvote all you want.

3-in-4 Canadians say they would support a mandatory mask policy. Hope that gives you some perspective outside your bubble.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com