User profile: Trumpster

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Forums > Living in Kunming > New Coronavirus

A couple thoughts.

1) Herd immunity only works if the virus does not mutate, which is why flu shots are required every year and why there are no vaccines for the common cold.

2) SARS-CoV-2 is to Covid-19 as HIV is to AIDS. Being infected with a virus is not the same as having the disease. There could be a significant lag between getting infected and developing the disease (as is the case with HIV and AIDS) or getting infected and not developing the disease (as is the case in Hepatitis carriers). So depending on the specific nature of the virus/disease, you might only track one but not the other.

3) Its easier to be an armchair general than to be at the front lines making the tough decisions. Thus far, no country has been "perfect" in their response and it would seem Trump is guilty of the many things Pompeo is blaming China for.

4) There is always a cost associated with any government policy/decision that is rarely discussed. It is undisputed that whether it is forced quarantine, volunteer social distancing, or shelter-in-place orders, there is an economic cost for society to shoulder, actuarians can workout how many extra deaths will result from such burdens. In essence, saving X number of people will cost Y number to die from the measure. Quite an ethical conundrum even if X is vastly greater than Y.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > New Coronavirus

I think we are talking about two different issues here, @JanJal. While you are more focused on governmental policies and their resulting circumstances, I am discussing the emotional responses to the unknown or the intangible.

I can see your points and I've articulated mine and so the rest is just a matter of preference and philosophy. To each their own.

:)

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Forums > Living in Kunming > New Coronavirus

But isn't that my point? The economic disruption and hardship is real because we can witness it but is the danger from Covid-19 really as bad as presented? To be clear, I am not discounting the dangers and the existence of Covid-19, only questioning the rationality of the response people have over the perceived ebb and flow of the disease.

For example, if some of my acquaintances or their acquaintances become ill from the virus, I will become concerned regardless of whether or not it's a national or international phenomenon. By the same token, even if there is a global epidemic going around but my community seems to be immune from it, I would be less concerned. But is it rational to become alarmed by reports without corresponding evidence? To make another point, people are sighing a sigh of relief because there have been 0 new cases in Yunnan for sometime, but yesterday, or there abouts, a new case was confirmed, so what does that mean? We go back to fear? Wasn't the risk the same today as it was before the new case of announced?

I do not need to know anybody that was injured in that fallen building because I can see the rubble of the building, in this scenario, the tangible aspect is the buildings themselves and not the people inside. If a thousand buildings collapsed in Beijing, should I be concerned about my building in Kunming? Probably not, unless there is factual evidence linking those buildings to my building. If a couple of buildings collapsed in my xiaoqu would I be concerned? Absolutlely! And I will not go back to living there until I can assured by factual evidence that is it safe to occupy.

So again I say, I am not advocating ignoring precautions and living life as normal and burying one's head in the sand, but to react emotionally to reports of something happening remotely is irrational.

Fear due to personal experience is rational, however illogical it might be. Fear due to unsubstantiated hearsay is both irrational and illogical.

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@Geezer, putting aside the politicking of the Chinese government, the oversimplification of the freedoms enjoyed in the US in her speech is very problematic.

What was the point of her analogy? That freedoms blossom in the US while withers in China? Let us not forget that those freedoms were fought for and paid for by the blood of the preceding generations. While she enjoy the labors of those sacrifices, is she ready to make sacrifices of her own? The answer, sadly, is no, as evidence by her insincere non-apology and "commitment" to spread Chinese ideals and culture. Instead of of standing up and defending those freedoms, she cowers at the hint of retribution.

To discover freedom, perhaps you can speak to the minorities that face systematic discrimination everyday, speak to the Muslim communities on how much they enjoyed their freedom, give an opposing view at a MAGA rally to see the freedom of speech at work.

I find nothing at all about her speech or its synthesis to be worth defending other than her rights to make such a speech. But at the same time, I equally defend everyone elses' response to it, CSSA included, those freedom of speech are equally sacred to me.

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Granted, the suppression and control of outside the mainstream narrative is more overt in China but government control, or at least the control by the main parties of the narrative exists in America just the same, just more subtle.

The finger pointing, as you say, is the result of the two party system, the discourse and freedom is but an illusion. Outside attacks on each other, their views are nearly identical on almost all issues. Both parties have talked "tough on China", both panders and caters to the Middle East and Israel, the only difference is a matter of degrees and the facade of the institution in which they support.

"As a nation, we began by declaring that 'all men are created equal.' We now practically read it 'all men are created equal, except negroes.' When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read 'all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics.'

When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty – to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy."

― Abraham Lincoln, 1855

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It cuts both ways, how about China as a currency manipulator, China is stealing our jobs, anything Chinese is viewed as suspicious by the Republican party and the American public in general as that was the narrative being pushed. Japanese companies, Korean companies, German companies, even American companies have all recently been involved in massive product recalls that poses a public safety risk and yet I don't see the same fervor as when it was a Chinese made product.

Such is the nature of politics & government and humans. Always pointing fingers and seeing flaws in others when thinking themselves to be perfect and superior.

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