As a long term listener of TWIV (4 years, IIRC), I think the service they have done for the community is priceless, especially once Daniel Griffin started doing his clinical updates. That said, I remember when COVID first started hitting, and their reaction was initially "meh", then like everyone else, it started to dawn on them how bad this was going to be. So still take their voices with a grain of salt.
In the latest TWIV, their comment was that the things you would do to prevent COVID are the same no matter if it is a new Strain or not. That's true - but we also have to deal with a increasingly uncomfortable truth - in many places, the COVID incident and death rate are pretty much the same, despite dramatically different legal and social dictates around masking, etc. Italy, France, USA, UK, Spain, Belgium, etc are all within 10% of the total death per million population, for example.
There is a weird cycle around COVID. Everyone reports on how awful it is somewhere, people draw a over-broad conclusion about the moral or scientific failures of the continent / state / country / red state / blue state, then that wave of covid waxes in one place, and wanes is another, and the cycle repeats again.
This pattern continues despite different travel restrictions, different masking policies (way less then my state in the USA, for example), etc.
SO I think the answer is not - we couldn't change anything - but rather - what is really the science behind this - and do we truly understand what is going on?
I get that Vincent is burned out and has a knee jerk reaction, if I had to deal with all the insanity around the Hydrochloroquine crap I would be too.
And then there are places like Taiwan that have kept themselves COVID free and report a grand total of 7 deaths on 22M inhabitants, without any lockdown needed and thus experiencing minimal economic impact. And yet no Western country seems to want to learn from that.
1) Act immediately and aggressively at the first sign of potential virus.
2) Get your population used to wearing masks when ill with cold like viruses and thus ensure sufficient supplies and willingness to wear masks when the government mandates it.
3) Preferably be an island or have absolute control of your country (China)
There was a period when countries could've done what Taiwan did but once the virus got a hold in continental europe and usa it was over.
Taiwan had an emergency law in place thanks to lessons learned from SARS. Allowed government to track cell phones for quarantine and case tracking. This has turned out to be highly effective, without requiring a total authoritarian government. Even though I'm usually very much pro privacy, IMO with sufficient checks and limitations in place such a law is very effective - I'd gladly give up privacy in case I was tested positive or have traveled abroad in exchange of not needing any lockdowns and live normally otherwise.
> I get that Vincent is burned out and has a knee jerk reaction, if I had to deal with all the insanity around the Hydrochloroquine crap I would be too.
I used to like TWIV, but once they aggresively and unprofessionally tried to "debunk" the lab origin hypothesis of the pandemic (which is still pretty much viable one) I kinda lost any respect to these people. I'd rather listen to UCSF podcast, way more professional.
In the latest TWIV, their comment was that the things you would do to prevent COVID are the same no matter if it is a new Strain or not. That's true - but we also have to deal with a increasingly uncomfortable truth - in many places, the COVID incident and death rate are pretty much the same, despite dramatically different legal and social dictates around masking, etc. Italy, France, USA, UK, Spain, Belgium, etc are all within 10% of the total death per million population, for example.
There is a weird cycle around COVID. Everyone reports on how awful it is somewhere, people draw a over-broad conclusion about the moral or scientific failures of the continent / state / country / red state / blue state, then that wave of covid waxes in one place, and wanes is another, and the cycle repeats again.
This pattern continues despite different travel restrictions, different masking policies (way less then my state in the USA, for example), etc.
SO I think the answer is not - we couldn't change anything - but rather - what is really the science behind this - and do we truly understand what is going on? I get that Vincent is burned out and has a knee jerk reaction, if I had to deal with all the insanity around the Hydrochloroquine crap I would be too.