Comment by throwawaysea | Hacker News Reader

Comment by throwawaysea | Hacker News Reader

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I think "did well" is a spectrum. Some countries chose to enact very authoritarian lockdowns, and achieved success that way. Others balanced between freedoms and restrictions. Still others have to work within the bounds of their political system - what their laws permit and don't permit.

From some quick web searches, it seems to me that India did many of the things you mentioned. I'm not sure if they did all of them, or to what extent they did each one - understanding that precisely is probably not possible without being involved in those particular actions. But it doesn't seem to me like they did nothing.

> ALL countries that downplayed the pandemic ended up with second or third waves.

Do you think India downplayed the pandemic? I don't get the sense given that they did building by building lockdowns and have police patrols ushering people back into their homes. We should keep in mind that each country is different - they have different population sizes, city densities, wealth levels, infrastructure quality, Internet access, cultural priorities, and so on. China is not India - it has an authoritarian governmental system. Taiwan is not India - it's small and rich and is an island. I'm not sure these comparisons are fair.

> I think "did well" is a spectrum. Some countries chose to enact very authoritarian lockdowns, and achieved success that way

And other countries had fourteen months of rolling half-assed lockdowns, and have achieved a few million sick, with tens-to-hundreds of thousands dead.

At this point, I can't imagine who in their right mind would prefer what we got, compared to one hard lockdown that solved the problem, requiring only minimal follow-up measures.

Not everyone with mental health issues or depression agrees with lockdown regardless of suicide statistics.

> Not everyone with mental health issues or depression agrees with lockdown regardless of suicide statistics

I don't understand this argument against public health measures. People should die because we have an unchecked mental health problem?

Because getting one disease doesn't mean you get to condemn the rest of the public to misery? Look at what makes people vulnerable to Covid and you'll understand.

The early data suggests suicide rates dropped, so however these people feel, the fact is that fewer died from suicide.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0...

Ah, so fuck depressed people as long as they didn't die?

Also, I said "regardless of suicide statistics." Did you miss that part?

The lockdowns were pretty close to a scenario of ‘fuck everyone, but at least this way they won’t die’.

I’m not sure what you wanted, depressed people to feel a little better but have rampant covid?

Except you're spreading misinformation. Not everyone was at risk of dying.

You're not sure what I want? I've clearly spelled it out.

> Except you're spreading misinformation.

We locked down hard and kept New Zealand’s death toll to 26. Other places have done other things, but I prefer our approach.

What does your response have to do with the quote? It's a clear straw man.

New Zealand and Australia likely won't open until 2023 because vaccination campaigns are slow and public health authorities are afraid of variants. I'm perfectly fine with people in these countries making those decisions. I just think they should be a little more understanding about the rest of the world that prefers open borders to hysteria.

Also:

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/five-hour-ambula...

> Patients with heart attack symptoms and spinal injuries are being forced to wait in ambulances outside hospitals for as long as five hours in what paramedics and the Australian Medical Association have described as a deadly public health emergency.

> Ambulance response times are at their worst since 2016-17 and Ambulance Victoria has instigated emergency protocols – where patients can be instructed to take taxis to hospital instead of waiting for ambulances – three times more this year than in the previous two years combined.

I've been reading a lot about how NZ's health system is overwhelmed too.

I am allowed to criticize other nations just as you have criticized the US. Debate is allowed here.

You're quite rude and unpleasant yourself.

You want understanding from us and understand our perspective but our approach is hysteria?

> I've been reading a lot about how NZ's health system is overwhelmed too.

What has this got to do with covid? There isn’t any in the community. It’s eradicated.

This is an odd thread and it isn’t contributing anything, altering prior comments also makes this hard to follow.

I'm talking about the healthcare system in general.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/03/30/nzhe-m30.html

If it's so odd you can cease responding if you like. It's pretty clear you can't handle criticism at this point and choose to lash out instead.

HN was slowing down my posts so I edited the one above this one.

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