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[–][deleted]  (3 children)

[deleted]

    [–]rdh2121[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

    On no a plague exactly like the cold or the flu.

    Neither of those are a plague, and neither of those are like the Coronavirus, which has been shown to cause semi-permanent lung damage, for just one example of how it's different, so...

    How will we ever survive this pandemic?

    Masks and social distancing. Or sacrificing the elderly and immunocompromised if you're an asshole, like the majority of the country seems to be, I suppose.

    Oh wait I know probably the exact same way we survived all the other ones.

    Yeah, with MILLIONS OF PEOPLE DYING. How about we, y'know, try to AVOID THAT THIS TIME, especially since the effort it takes to do so is so incredibly minimal (and yet somehow so difficult for some people)?

    Welcome to Earth. You are guaranteed no safety here.

    This is a retarded argument, and you know it. The entirety of human history has been about decreasing the inherent risk of human life on Earth, and I guarantee that you take countless anti-risk precautions both for yourself and others every single day without even thinking about it, so you can take your hypocritical bullshit somewhere else.

    [–][deleted]  (1 child)

    [deleted]

      [–]rdh2121[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

      I am immunocompromised(lupus, sjogrens, RA, and FMF) so.....not the asshole you think I am.

      Fair enough. I apologize for my tone - I just have to wade through so many conspiracy theories and so much science denial on this sub that I think I may have stopped giving people the benefit of the doubt, but that's on me.

      If I feel unsafe or that I might get infected I don't go somewhere. It's called being responsible for your own health.

      Absolutely, and this is, of course, best practice. But, not everyone in that position has the social support network to go into public in their place, and so have no choice but to take those dangerous actions for necessities like food and medical care, not to mention the fact that any spread of the virus makes it more likely that immunocompromised people will come in contact with it.

      Wearing a mask and social distancing is such a small thing, and can help so many people, that it boggles my mind how so many people are so resistant to it. I agree that it shoudn't be mandated by law, but it should be mandated out of respect for your fellow man.

      We don't require people to wear masks for any other disease. Why not the flu?

      For multiple reasons, but the biggest one is the fact that we have a vaccine for the flu that millions of people get every year, which provides a degree of herd immunity that reduces the transmission rate and deadliness of the flu.

      Another reason that might be just as big is the fact that we've known practically everything about the various strains of flu for decades, and have expectations for both the numbers and symptoms of people that have to be treated. The Novel Coronavirus, on the other hand, is, well, novel, and so we still know surprisingly little about it, both the virus itself, its symptoms, and the way it kills. Even now, we're still discovering new info, like how it can cause permanent lung damage. Plus, since we have no herd immunity, the chances that medical facilities will be overrun with its rapid spread are greatly increased, so people who should have lived through the virus with appropriate medical attention will instead die due to lack of capacity (this is why New York's death rate is so much higher than every other state's, and many, if not most of those deaths were preventable if people had taken proper precautions with masks starting much earlier).

      These are just a few of the reasons.

      Last year I had the flu for three months. Literally three months of illness. It sucked, but I'm not about to require that every other person in my general vicinity wear a hot uncomfortable mask when it is 95 degrees outside.

      I had the flu for the first time this year too, and can definitely vouch for it sucking. But, again, our medical facilities are prepared for the seasonal flu; we haven't had time to get the infrastructure in place for a rapidly-spreading pandemic, even if its symptoms and death rate look similar to that of the flu (with the very limited amount of info we have about the virus so far).

      I am against legally mandated mask wearing, but I absolutely believe in extreme social shaming for assholes who are willing to trade others' lives for a tiny bit of discomfort when they go outside (which they shouldn't be doing anyway unless they have to! double assholery!).