Systemic Stupidity

[LesPalenik]

How else can you describe endorsements of misguided demonstrations that spread the Covid-19 infections, cause deaths and result in huge damages while the same government officials keeping doctors at home preventing them from treating patients and saving lives?

At least, some officials are now speaking out against the self-indulgent anti-racism protests. 

Australians who defied public health rules and rallied in support of the U.S. “Black Lives Matter” movement were reckless and self-indulgent, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said on Sunday.

More than 20,000 people protested in Sydney and other cities on Saturday, in solidarity with U.S. anger over the death of a black man in police custody and calling for an end to similar deaths of indigenous Australians.

Cormann said the protesters risked a second outbreak of the novel coronavirus. “I think it is incredibly selfish,” Cormann told Sky News. “It’s incredibly self-indulgent.”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-minneapolis-police-protests-australia/australian-minister-calls-anti-racism-protests-self-indulgent-idUSKBN23E07C

[Chairman Bill]

Self-indulgent? Wow. Just, wow.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

How else can you describe endorsements of misguided demonstrations that spread the Covid-19 infections, cause deaths and result in huge damages while the same government officials keep doctors at home preventing them from treating patients and saving lives?

At least, some officials are now speaking out against the self-indulgent anti-racism protests. 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-minneapolis-police-protests-australia/australian-minister-calls-anti-racism-protests-self-indulgent-idUSKBN23E07C

Amen, brother!

[LesPalenik]

There are many more experts questioning the wisdom of allowing these non-essential and risky activities.

As thousands of demonstrators continue to protest the killing of George Floyd, health experts are worried that a second wave of COVID-19 infections could be sparked by the mass gatherings. "What we have here is a very unfortunate experiment going on with COVID virus transmission," said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

If history is any indication of how this might play out, we need look no further than the 1918 flu pandemic. In September of that year, after the first wave of spring flu infections subsided, Philadelphia decided to proceed with a military parade, which drew a crowd of 200,000. Within a day, every hospital bed in the city was filled and within six weeks more than 12,000 Philadelphians were dead, according to The Washington Post.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/mass-protests-lead-wave-coronavirus-infections/story?id=70997184

[Ray]

Yes, it will be revealing to see whether there's a surge in Covid-19 infections and deaths as a result of these demonstrations.

Australia is very lucky in that it has a relatively low number of Covid-19 deaths so far, at just 102. Australia's population is quite small at 25 million. America's population is about 13 times as large. Multiply 102 by 13 and you get 1326. How does that compare to the death rate in the US, which is currently at 112,128, over 84 times the Australian death rate.

The protests in Australia are also much more peaceful than the protests in the US. No tear gas and rubber bullets from the police.

[langier]

Perhaps one of two results.

1. If Covid-19 is still as virulent as we are told by our rulers, Darwinism eliminates many, proving the officials correct in their prognostication.

2. If Covid-19 isn't as bad as we were told, perhaps an equal uprising will go agains our ruling officials for pulling a fast one over on us all.

Time will give us the answers.

[rabanito]

There are many more experts questioning the wisdom of allowing these non-essential and risky activities.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/mass-protests-lead-wave-coronavirus-infections/story?id=70997184

There is no question that these activities increase the risk of the infection spreading more.
Since racism and policial violence seem to be - in this context - an exclusively American problem, there are no possible benefits in sight for protesting in France, Australia or in Bangladesh.
The pandemie can only win.

[faberryman]

I have watched some of the television coverage of the protests in the US, and thought that most of the people were wearing masks, so it seemed they were taking sensible precautions.

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

There is no question that these activities increase the risk of the infection spreading more.

Yes.

Since racism and policial violence seem to be - in this context - an exclusively American problem, there are no possible benefits in sight for protesting in France, Australia or in Bangladesh.

Well, racism is not an exclusively American problem, but it does seem to have a political connection as well.

The protests that are going on around the world were triggered by the murder of George Floyd, but they do focus on local issues/injusttices as well. The ones in my country were trying to observe social distancing, but that didn't fully work, so protests were shut down early because they violated the distancing rules. Many people were wearing masks, so that might mitigate the spread somewhat, and the fact that the number of infected people has come down a lot also helps. However, I'm also afraid it could throw us back to locking down again, in the middle of the process of gradually unlocking the economy.

The pandemie can only win.

If we act foolishly, yes.

[Jeremy Roussak]

I've made it, I think, crystal clear that political discussion related to the coronavirus (and this plainly is such) are permitted in one thread only.

This thread is therefore locked.

Jeremy