General / Off-Topic The safest place

[askavir]

Why do you think some people get it and the vast majority don't? What is the key difference that clicks in peoples heads and the survival instinct kicks in?

It's not the vast majority, not even the majority, but still a very large number of people who don't get it.

I think there's 3 factors at play here in this particular country:

1 - The infection spread started later than in neighbouring countries, so even though our deaths per confirmed case rate is very high (due to our understaffed and underequipped health facilities), the total number of deaths isn't yet big enough to scare. Portuguese student average math results in school are terrible, so many people don't understand deaths per case rates, they can only understand totals.

2 -Many people simply don't give a fart about others, or about community in general. Staying at home is not a simple matter of personal safety, it's mainly a matter of containing the spread to prevent others from dying. And many portuguese couldn't give a rat's behind about others, as long as they can still go to the beach and their favorite football team wins on sunday. In fact I believe this is quite common on all of europe, perhaps in all the western world, as a whole we are caring less and less about others and only tend to think of ourselves.

3 - Despite recent improvements, we as a people, like other mediterranean countries, aren't on average as educated as people from central and northern europe. So there are still a lot of thick skulled, stubborn people here. Too many still think it's just a slightly stronger flu.

 

[jasonbarron]

It's not the vast majority, not even the majority, but still a very large number of people who don't get it.

I think there's 3 factors at play here in this particular country:

1 - The infection spread started later than in neighbouring countries, so even though our deaths per confirmed case rate is very high (due to our understaffed, underequipped and underequipped health facilities), the total number of deaths isn't yet big enough to scare. Portuguese student average math results in school are terrible, so many people don't understand deaths per case rates, they can only understand totals.

2 -Many people simply don't give a fart about others, or about community in general. Staying at home is not a simple matter of personal safety, it's mainly a matter of containing the spread to prevent others from dying. And many portuguese couldn't give a rat's behind about others, as long as they can still go to the beach and their favorite football team wins on sunday. In fact I believe this is quite common on all of europe, perhaps in all the western world, as a whole we are caring less and less about others and only tend to think of ourselves.

3 - Despite recent improvements, we as a people, like other mediterranean countries, aren't on average as educated as people from central and northern europe. So there are still a lot of thick skulled, stubborn people here. Too many still think it's just a slightly stronger flu.

I know you're just talking about Portugal, but you could be describing anywhere, really. I don't think it's not caring about people dying per se, though, as much as a self centered inability to see that's what their actions are going to cause. Death and suffering for them aren't "real" until they're living with it directly. Plus, what I'm finding is that a lot of old people are generally not very smart for whatever reason.

 

[askavir]

Plus, what I'm finding is that a lot of old people are generally not very smart for whatever reason.

I have to agree... Here most of our old people only has the 4th grade, many elderwomen not even that. They should be scared, our health facilities are terrible (well, our public facilities in general are all terrible - for european standards), so far for every person that has recovered, 3 have died, it's one of the worst ratios in the world, in europe only the UK is worse off in this ratio.

Btw, can someone explain what the heck is going on in UK? The numbers look terrible.

 

[Noobilite]

I have to agree... Here most of our old people only has the 4th grade, many elderwomen not even that. They should be scared, our health facilities are terrible (well, our public facilities in general are all terrible - for european standards), so far for every person that has recovered, 3 have died, it's one of the worst ratios in the world, in europe only the UK is worse off in this ratio.

Btw, can someone explain what the heck is going on in UK? The numbers look terrible.

Mass suicide? They are realizing the empire died and are now giving up.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=km8QHSxDc8c

Is japan going through similar things. I haven't heard anything about them during this whole period. I know anime is not stopping much. Unless some of it was already done and waiting to be put up places.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9gKyRmic20

 

[Ian Skippy]

Btw, can someone explain what the heck is going on in UK? The numbers look terrible.

They started quarantine late, only the Netherlands turned around later. A relatively ok stat to compare countries (though the usual caveats about shifted timelines, differences in reporting et cetera) is 'deaths per million capita'.

Portugal: 12
UK: 18

The top three, ignoring 'dwarf states' San Marino and Andorra, is

Italy: 178
Spain: 146
The Netherlands: 45

For comparison, US is at 7. Which sounds good, until you see it has increased by 900% the last week. All in all, Portugal is doing suspiciously well compared with Italy, Spain and France (40). So either they are very lucky, or the stats are miles off.

 

[Mole HD]

I have to agree... Here most of our old people only has the 4th grade, many elderwomen not even that. They should be scared, our health facilities are terrible (well, our public facilities in general are all terrible - for european standards), so far for every person that has recovered, 3 have died, it's one of the worst ratios in the world, in europe only the UK is worse off in this ratio.

Btw, can someone explain what the heck is going on in UK? The numbers look terrible.

The general populous is way to busy breaking into depots and slashing the tyres on ambulances to care much about a silly thing like a global pandemic. At present, in most English cities Ambulance crews have to be escorted by police...they were being spat on by cretins proclaiming they had active Covid-19 when answering emergency calls.

 

[jasonbarron]

The general populous is way to busy breaking into depots and slashing the tyres on ambulances to care much about a silly thing like a global pandemic. At present, in most English cities Ambulance crews have to be escorted by police...they were being spat on by cretins proclaiming they had active Covid-19 when answering emergency calls.

Is this just a rumor or is it widespread and for sure happening? I hoped like hell that we wouldn't see genuine civil unrest...but prepared for it just in case we did. Incidentally this phenomena is why I've been so critical of the media here in America which is doing everything in their considerable power to stir this kind of thing (and worse to come) up.

 

[Shadow Quest]

Is this just a rumor or is it widespread and for sure happening? I hoped like hell that we wouldn't see genuine civil unrest...but prepared for it just in case we did. Incidentally this phenomena is why I've been so critical of the media here in America which is doing everything in their considerable power to stir this kind of thing (and worse to come) up.

Just a normal Saturday night in the UK certainly widespread but now with lock down some what random rather than sprawling over the "Night Economy" high st

 

[jasonbarron]

I hope they do, buddy. We'll miss you.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMiEFyTuuh8

 

[metatheurgist]

In a sense, there are quite a few similarities with Chernobyl.

As we all know the CIA was responsible for that. /s

 

[GJ51]

The end is near

Whoa is me

 

[WhiteHaulerMan]

Is this just a rumor or is it widespread and for sure happening? I hoped like hell that we wouldn't see genuine civil unrest...but prepared for it just in case we did. Incidentally this phenomena is why I've been so critical of the media here in America which is doing everything in their considerable power to stir this kind of thing (and worse to come) up.

Its been reported in a few reputable papers, although probably not as prevalent as the newspapers are makjng out.

Additionally (using personal/annecdotal experience), that is business as usual here. My soon to be brother-in-law is an ambulance driver and he's experienced it in the past, and when I had to provide part of the military support in the firemans strikes, saw first hand this kind of nonsense (going so far as getting a false call out, and being ambushed and pelted by the local youths with stones).

 

[Wotthe Dickens]

Why do you think some people get it and the vast majority don't? What is the key difference that clicks in peoples heads and the survival instinct kicks in?

As a kid, I once saw a sign outside a park which said ‘No dogs. (Not even yours!)’.
It made me laugh at the time because it’s so true- and I am often reminded of it throughout my life.
Human evolution counts for something in this I believe, in the same way that we cannot comprehend infinity. If we understood our insignificant role in the universe maybe we would just look up at the stars - and promptly get eaten by some ancient wild beast.
It’s sometimes a useful attribute to not see the bigger picture, to ignore orders or others sense- no-one would risk crossing that fearful river to get to the potential greener pastures otherwise?
I don’t know, obviously!
In the past, with conversations with my grandma (who was 100 this feb!) she often asked a similar question about ‘the youth of today’, in my day, she’d say, people took more responsibility for their actions as there was no benefits or financial support.
To some degree I’m sure she’s probably right, but also, in her day, she knew all in her Neighbourhood and some idiot acting out of line would soon feel the social consequences.

 

[Patrick_68000]

Just to make sure people understand how totally not surprised the scientific community is:

This is the revenge of the Pangolin.

-----------------------------

 

[askavir]

The general populous is way to busy breaking into depots and slashing the tyres on ambulances to care much about a silly thing like a global pandemic. At present, in most English cities Ambulance crews have to be escorted by police...they were being spat on by cretins proclaiming they had active Covid-19 when answering emergency calls.

I had heard before that the UK has an ongoing youth delinquency serious problem, but never though it was so widespread. I wonder how this happens in such a large scale, in an age where most young europeans go to school all the way to college, and on the other hand there's so much youth delinquency, I wonder what is causing this divide in the UK.

 

[ianw]

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport...ilator-intensive-care-uk-update-a9433101.html

Some encouraging news - neccessity being the mother of invention and all that.

 

[metatheurgist]

Its been reported in a few reputable papers, although probably not as prevalent as the newspapers are makjng out.

Additionally (using personal/annecdotal experience), that is business as usual here. My soon to be brother-in-law is an ambulance driver and he's experienced it in the past, and when I had to provide part of the military support in the firemans strikes, saw first hand this kind of nonsense (going so far as getting a false call out, and being ambushed and pelted by the local youths with stones).

Yep, this is not new. The mental giants of the world were doing dumb things before they had one more excuse to abuse emergency workers.

 

[Leper Messiah]

I think you're mostly seeing connections where none are implied.

The only real coincidence here is that there was a virology lab in close proximity to the first reported cases, and that does seem to be just that...coincidental.

The article you've linked to feature an argument about whether certain forms of bat SARS would even need to mutate to infect humans and doesn't imply that that SARS-CoV-2 was in any way engineered.

That viruses are created and manipulated for research purposes is not news and SHC014-CoV isn't SARS-CoV-2. Indeed, the altered/constructed SHC014-CoV variant looks like it's constructed because it's built from previously known material. SARS-CoV2 is not, which is strong evidence that it's natural. It also appears to have less affinity for human ACE2 than the 2003 strain of SARS-CoV, which wouldn't make any sense if it were meant to be a weapon, or even part of ‘gain-of-function’ research mentioned in that article.

I know it's not the same strain...what I'm saying is that lab, that's in the same area as the recent outbreak, specialises since 2005 in Bat Corona viruses, in 2015 they published a paper on manipulating a bat Corona Virus with a strain of SARS to see if they could make it infect human cells and by all accounts they did. So do you think they've been twiddling their thumbs since 2015? Can you categorically state they did no more research on OTHER strains of Bat Virus investigating whether or not they could be altered to infect humans.

Yes it could be coincidence, but it's NOT just a coincidence of locality, it's coincindence of WHAT they are researching and co-incidence they have already alterered a strain of Bat Corana Virus to infect human cells....once maybe, two is pushing it, THREE co-oncidence? That IMO is Douglas Adams levels of improbability!

 

[Synkreto]

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport...ilator-intensive-care-uk-update-a9433101.html

Some encouraging news - neccessity being the mother of invention and all that.

Awesome !

 

[askavir]

What's this thing some communities have with eating bats anyway? Ebola was also transmitted to people from bats... It's like eating rats. Although in the Congo I can understand that with starvation we don't get to be picky, but was it the case in China, or was it some local bullpoo belief that it enhances virility like their thing with eating tiger testicles?