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Comment by eecc | Hacker News Reader

Indeed. I rationalized it so: COVID is a wild enemy that will do whatever to survive at our own expense. We need to fight and wage all-out war, conscript, treat the wounded and comfort the widowed.

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The problem is unchecked propaganda could push you to make these same conclusions about anything and anyone.

Yes, the slippery slope argument. Anything can be “unchecked propaganda”, you need to prove it is 1. Propaganda and 2. that it is unchecked

That is not rational at all. It's a manageable disease class with limited health impact on population, in death numbers comparable to strokes. It is not appropriate to compare it to war at all; in most places people are not afraid of COVID much.

It’s only manageable with heavy handed medical care and heavy handed containment to preserve care capacity. Have you been living under a rock or are you just trotting out talking points? Let me ask: how many deaths in the USA alone? How does it compare to KIAs in one of the many US wars? Please stop pretending you know what you’re talking about

Let's get some perspective on U.S. deaths in 2020 [1]:

[1] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2778234

For the whole year 2020, heart disease was 2x bigger killer (700 thousand) than COVID (350 thousand). Cancer was bigger killer still than COVID. Stroke was smaller than COVID - I was wrong about that.

COVID gets scary in the few months when it gets out of control, like in January [2]. Those trips are a reason to use some extraordinary measures to prevent next ones.

[2] https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/brief/covid-19-continues...

Long term, COVID is a smaller killer than the other killers in the U.S.

So is every illness, potentially, and yet the world never cared before.

Yes, like every infectious disease with a high mortality rate and capable of overwhelming our healthcare infrastructure. And no, the world of professionals do care, as always. You’re talking about yourself

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