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A somewhat random thought: Do folks remember the blow over vaping and lung illness late last year? Coincidence?

https://time.com/5753947/va...

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Yes, I believe Dr. Fauci is in a pickle right now, with so much criticism rising and people beginning to think clear, after an initial fear and panic. I'm very interested to see how he'll try to wriggle out of it.

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Rafal Smigrodzki These last days, more testimonies are appearing online, of nurses and doctors, explaining that the testing method for COVID-19 in itself is never tested on accuracy. There's a YouTube video with the title "More nurses come out with proof of the method of testing being wrong" The test shows pathogens of all sorts in saliva or blood, and thus, almost every patient will be tested positive and put in quarantine in a hospital unit, attached to tubes and a ventilator if he/she's unlucky. I recommend the movie "And the band played on" a 1993 movie. The HIV outbreak.

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Hi Moneyrunner, are you describing the present condition in Britain? Sounds like it, for I've travelled through Britain for almost 5 years and noticed how the prevailing class system makes sure that every shoot for change is kept in the freezer. At least, as long as possible.

And since change is part of life, those that try to prevent it, grow into fossils. That's life's sense of humor I believe.

As a Dutchy, that class-system is a strange one to me, and I've witnessed many in a state of mind as if they're waiting for someone else to do the job (change). It's hilarious, in a way, for in groups, on a mission or supporting a charity, there's much fondness for fuss and drama.

Same with Brexit, Juncker had to cut the Gordian knot and declare Britain ex-EU on Jan. 31 2020. The naughty schoolkid was sent from the classroom, in Brussels.

During my years in Britain, I've come to see that society as one of its magnificent creations, a locomotive, where the polished and oiled parts show off the function of it, drawing the attention of the person who watches it perform in clouds of steam and piercing whistles.The wealthy upper class of Britian.

While in the meantime, the small nuts and bolts, the little bits and bobs are showing wear and tear, falling off and slowly bringing the black dragon to a standstill. The method to keep a balance in British society, is a design turning against itself.

This locomotive' s speed, with the machinist shovelling coal, causes it to move on for a few more miles before it's rolling off the rails. Moving toward a collapse, that's how many aspects of British life seem to show up right now.

A number of British residents, told me that they felt that Britain's condition has never been as bad as it is now. And what's typical in these same people, is that they act as if they've got nothing to do with it. It's a complacency that seems to stem from a depressed numbness. Not all are like this, there are competent strong go-getters in Britain, but they're often not that keen on competition.

Personal performance and status is a big thing, for upper and lower classes. See how Britain is full of contradictions, dealing with its issues? Alas, these are my observations. If you're British, you may find some flaws in them, as a native.

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I'm trying to pay a compliment to Matt Prather, for his skill to seek the truth and keep the truth alive. These words, in a page of his website, with J.F. Kennedy's speech, are spot on:

"Many major religions have been borne out of a revolution of thought against a wrongful established order, only to become a wrongful established order themselves after enough generations pass. Then, quite as if by divine providence, new thinking starts taking place which upsets the wrongful establishment again, and people rapidly set to work on a new order".

I hope Matt will find this here. Blessed be, Devon.

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I wouldn't take the twitter poll of a niche blogger as measure for the public push for "opening", for reasons that should be fairly obvious to any of its more avid readers. I'm not from the US, so I won't risk talking about their particular situation (or rather, situations, becuase yours is a big country with widely contrasting responses to the crisis, both horizontally and vertically), but rather point out some things that make me dubious of the premises of this article in particular.

Now, having said that, in my own country a general quarantine was also enforced, but since I'm an "essential worker", that is I work at a clinic, even if I'm just a receptionist, I have been going out all the goddamn time. During this time I've noticed that more people dared to go outside the more this lockdown lasted, and I could have taken that for "the public slowly winning the push for reopening", but then I thought to myself, who is "the public"? What does "the public" actually want?Polls still tell us there seems to be a preference for keeping the lockdown going for as long as is necessary, with the "as necessary" part being left to expert assessment. Voices of discontent are obviously rising, policies are starting to show their weakspots, and policymakers are starting to show contempt for those who rightfully point those weakspots out and lumping them with those who are merely ideologically opposed to this whole thing. All within expected parameters of sociopolitical discourse.I see more people going on about their business than I saw last week, but this has been going for more than a month now, and any increase in traffic feels almost like a return to normalcy. The thing is, neither is that traffic nearly close to what it was before the lockdown, nor can I go inside the heads of those people to ask them what they think of being outside.Many of them would have gone outside earlier if they dared, regardless of the general impression and/or public approval of the policies Many others who go outside don't really have a choice, and who knows how many of them would rather the lockdown continued so that those who want to go outside just because they're tired of being indoors don't end up fucking with their health.Not to mention, as time went on, there has been a slow relaxing of lockdown measures, in line with the success of it.

If those pushing for an end of lockdown want to win, they only need to convince enough people to go out to make the rest of the public feel that it's all been in vain because "look at them, they'll make it spread like crazy anyway, might as well join them". There doesn't even need to be an unified public voice on that, only a strong enough push against the communal effort to make it crumble, or at thevery least to make it look like it crumbled. The State would be more or less powerless against that, but it would not in any way mean "the public" was acting with a cohesive voice.

Now, of course bringing up another country has its BIG caveats. Here, policymaking has been more or less unanimous. Where the public seems more divided, it's likely that policymaking will have a stronger footing, which is kind of the opposite case as to what you claim is happening in the US. But that says nothing about what's "the best course of action", only about what's "the course of action most likely to happen". And the bottom line is still that one of the two key elements of this analysis, that is, "the unified voice of the public", has been poorly defined and quickly glossed over. At the very least, if the conclusion ends being right, it would not be a credit to this article anyway.

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Agreed. When I use the term "expert", I'm referring to someone who has actual expert knowledge, not someone credentialed but otherwise useless. An ignorant buffoon can sound like an expert to someone who knows even less about a given subject than they do, especially if the ignorant buffoon has credentials that impress the listener. I think that's a chronic problem in journalism.

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There are very few places you can go to the local pub at this point (and the plus-size SWAT team might show up in an MRAP to arrest you if you do...); the issue is "unnecessary trips", and I think the cell data is a pretty good indicator they'e increasing. There's also the increase in traffic, but since you aren't driving to work with me I understand if you disregard an anecdotal observation. You're almost certainly correct that supporters of the lockdown think it should apply to others, not them, but doesn't that still indicate a lack of support in principle?

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The people are opening the economy and the government (elites and experts) can get on board or be left behind.

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Well, phone data is not a very god measure, because going to hike in a remote mountain trail counts as more movement that going to the local pub; however, you could have more "social distancing" in the first case.

But, even more important, the two things are not contradictory (a classical collective action problem); someone could want to go out but, at the same time, to think that is better if everyone stays at home - a kind of almost literal "prisioner's dilemma" (btw, this is exactly the reason because there is *forced* lockdowns, instead of people simply, voluntarily, staying at home).

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The polls said that Hillary would have more 1-2 percent points than Trump, and that was exactly the result.

And, even if the polls had failed in this point, is different to fail in a very small diference than in the very big margins that the polls are given against "opening"

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33.5 million Americans have lost their jobs in less than two months. Countless small businesses are closed and many will never reopen. A lot of people complain they're having a hard time collecting unemployment, so they have no income. Meanwhile, I doubt many if any of those self-proclaimed "elites" (they keep using that word, but it doesn't mean what they think it means) are in the same predicament. Why should they care, they've got theirs and will continue to do so. If anything, they likely foresee themselves coming out of this even more powerful than they were before. Some of them are the ones who say that "to make an omelette, you have to break some eggs." Well, they've broken millions of eggs but the only ones eating the omelette are themselves.

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Not necessarily. Some "experts" merely have credentials.

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And not all experts have expertise. They have credentials.

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:see; Technocrats

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The derision and contempt we've seen directed at people concerned for those who've been harmed by the economic and social impacts has been a factor in undermining the 'elites' as well I think. Their response has been strikingly calloused, as though 'those people' are beneath consideration..

That attitude has been evident from the beginning, but became concrete to people once the failure to address nursing homes was evident. And from that point we've just seen an escalation of hostility and extortionate threats. So even if they do come together on a common policy, I think they're lost the moral standing to effect their plans.

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