03-31-2020, 09:14 AM
(This post was last modified: 03-31-2020, 09:16 AM by danbrotherston.)
Something telling here: "Residents are clamoring to see whether the virus has been detected in their neighborhoods so they can take more steps to avoid any contact"
You should always act as though COVID is in your neighbourhood. If you are waiting to see if someone is infected, you are acting wrongly.
The most interesting thing about all this, is almost all of our efforts are to protect the community, but it seems like most people interpret them personally, "I will social distance so *I* don't get sick". Or, "I don't care about getting sick, so I won't social distance".
I don't know if this is true in all cultures, I suspect that it is not, but this kind of attitude leads to suboptimal outcomes, because people are optimizing for the wrong goals. Some people are incredibly ridiculously careful to a degree that is not justified unless you are a high risk individual, while others spend little effort. But the whole point is that everyone makes some effort, and speed of spread reduces. You might get sick or you might not, but the community as a whole stays relatively healthy. Instead we get people going to McDonalds for a coffee and dousing the whole place in santizer and throwing garbage around.
You should always act as though COVID is in your neighbourhood. If you are waiting to see if someone is infected, you are acting wrongly.
The most interesting thing about all this, is almost all of our efforts are to protect the community, but it seems like most people interpret them personally, "I will social distance so *I* don't get sick". Or, "I don't care about getting sick, so I won't social distance".
I don't know if this is true in all cultures, I suspect that it is not, but this kind of attitude leads to suboptimal outcomes, because people are optimizing for the wrong goals. Some people are incredibly ridiculously careful to a degree that is not justified unless you are a high risk individual, while others spend little effort. But the whole point is that everyone makes some effort, and speed of spread reduces. You might get sick or you might not, but the community as a whole stays relatively healthy. Instead we get people going to McDonalds for a coffee and dousing the whole place in santizer and throwing garbage around.