2300: Everyone's an Epidemiologist
| Everyone's an Epidemiologist |
 Title text: If enough people uphill decide to try the rolling strategy, they can make the decision for you. |
Explanation
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This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Created by a ROLLING HUMAN AVALANCHE. Explanation is not made yet. Do NOT delete this tag too soon. If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks. |
In this instalment of the coronavirus series of comics, Megan complains that the sudden rise in awareness of COVID-19 has led to many people that act as if they are experts on the issue of global policy and the virus's traits, while in fact most are just repeating what they have heard from various news outlets, which do not always get everything right. [citation needed] Cueball notes that her analogy fails to account that everyone is directly affected by the virus, meaning that everyone should be educating themselves on the topic as much as possible. Cueball however agrees with her that the people who may be saying that we need to get out of lockdown as fast as possible without seeming to consider the lives at stake are frustrating to listen to. Randall's bias bleeds through a bit here, as he seems to be oversimplifying the situation. Not many people are actually advocating for the solution he makes fun of here, but painting with such a wide brush makes it seem so.
The rolling-down-hill strategy is reminiscent of 1217: Cells in that it solves the immediate problem (whether being stuck on a mountain, or having some disease) while also likely killing the patient. It may therefore be in reference to Trump's widely-reported comments that an injection of a disinfectant could cure coronavirus; such an injection would of course do far more harm than good.
Transcript
[Megan and Cueball are walking with makeshift medical masks covering their lower faces.]
Megan: Ugh, everyone's an epidemiologist.
Megan: It's like when there's a mountaineering disaster in the news, and suddenly everyone is an expert on mountain climbing safety.
Cueball: I mean, it's not exactly like that.
Cueball: If the entire world's population were suddenly stranded on mountaintops together, a lot of people would understandably be trying to become mountaineering experts really fast.
Megan: Okay, that's fair.
Megan: But I do wish they wouldn't keep going on TV and saying "According to my research on gravity, if everyone curls into a ball and rolls, we'll get to the bottom quickly!"
Cueball: Yes, that's definitely not helping.
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(I was seriously thinking, from the first glance of the title, we were going to get another visit to 1052. Although "An Epidemiologist's Life Is Not A Happy One" could be worthwhile.) 162.158.155.194 16:30, 30 April 2020 (UTC)
Ok, not sure that particularky stupid Trump 'advice' is a part of it, even if he proclaims himself an (apparently sarcastic) expert. And I think the cheese-rolling is interesting but at best tangential. Added my thoughts re: Herd Immunity to the end (ties in well with the titletext) but welcome future thoughts and re-edits to improve some awkward phrasing and perhaps spit the Titletext out into a traditional (pre-Trivia) end para of its own. Or whatever is seen fit. 141.101.107.84 17:02, 30 April 2020 (UTC)
- Ok, para added with "flock immunity" before Trump now needs reviewing against the one with "herd immunity" link after the cheese. (Re: comment below about needing tempering - I'm not sure either says it's a good idea.) 162.158.159.74 00:57, 1 May 2020 (UTC)
- Do we also need to be more Fair and Balanced, and include the fact that it seems that (at least from the numbers this morning) 31% of known cases have already recovered and 7% of known cases have died (based on 3,270,000 cases known, 1,020,000 cases recovered, 234,000 dead)? And that we've shut the world economy down (based on a world population of 7,594,000,000 people) for a virus that has only managed to infect .04% of us?Seebert (talk) 13:04, 1 May 2020 (UTC)
- "cases known" is a key word there: We don't know how many cases go undetected nor how many of those result in deaths not reported as connected to the virus, so "only managed to infect .04% of us" is not an accurate statement. I personally do not feel endangered by the virus & do believe that the shutdown has been leveraged by a bipartisan coalition of financial elites to further centralize privatized profits & ownership while simultaneously using the virus as an excuse to justify further erosion of civil rights... however I do not feel the least concern to maintain an economy that benefits the most wealthy with increasing exclusivity. If anything, I would wish for more meaningful disruption & a move to decentralized power structures. This epidemic has already ended lives on an order of magnitude greater scale than 9\11 & it's likely to return at not-insignificant scales year after year even with immunization. I am not an epidemiologist, but I think this is a strong motivation for us to take a long hard look at general immune health & what impact the long-term effects of worldwide chemical stress have on our resistance to such illnesses. I'm much less worried about employment or investor returns than I am deeply worried about what profit-driven decision making is doing to the general public's quality of life. I'm not worried about the shutdown; I'm worried about what hasn't shut down.
- ProphetZarquon (talk) 16:05, 1 May 2020 (UTC)
- pretty sure this discussion *IS* the explanation of this comic...
- Do we also need to be more Fair and Balanced, and include the fact that it seems that (at least from the numbers this morning) 31% of known cases have already recovered and 7% of known cases have died (based on 3,270,000 cases known, 1,020,000 cases recovered, 234,000 dead)? And that we've shut the world economy down (based on a world population of 7,594,000,000 people) for a virus that has only managed to infect .04% of us?Seebert (talk) 13:04, 1 May 2020 (UTC)
The comment about accepting losses to acquire herd immunity should be tempered: it's been pointed out by *real* epidemiologists that we don't know yet whether surviving COVID-19 will confer useful immunity; hence WHO's recommendation that countries wait to issue immunity certificates. 22:56, 30 April 2020 (UTC)
Third paragraph: 'all at ONCE' 172.69.34.220 23:06, 30 April 2020 (UTC)
- Saw that, before reading your comment. Corrected it. ("Ones"->"Once", for reference.) 162.158.159.74 00:57, 1 May 2020 (UTC)
When and where were Trumps comments regarding disinfectants misreported? As far as I can tell, the linked guardian article reports basically the same things other news outlets have, that Trump said: "And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute! And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning." If this is actually misreported, what did he actually say instead?
- The misreporting was a combination of taking the statement out of context, plus public ignorance and interpretation. Everybody immediately jumped to "injecting bleach" when in reality he was talking about Ultraviolet Blood Infusion, a disinfectant technique used with cancer patients for the last 50 years. The hint is that the quote in question came right after the disinfecting properties of sunlight. Trump is a different kind of politician- nobody other than him would be a big enough idiot to brainstorm in the middle of a press conference- but he's not THAT big of an idiot. Also, just to prove the press is a bigger idiot than Trump, well, Ascorbic Acid is a perfectly safe injectable disinfectant at large enough doses. Turns a portion of your blood into hydrogen peroxide.Seebert (talk) 15:05, 1 May 2020 (UTC)
- I think you're still giving him too much credit. I can believe he had been briefed on potential applications of ultraviolet blood infusion & ascorbic acid injection, but what came out of his mouth was unambiguously ignorant spitballing in front of the press. He didn't reply with "I was talking about ultraviolent blood intrusion and lysergic acid injection" or any other stumbling but quasi-comprehensible explanation when questioned about it later: He claimed he was being sarcastic. Either he's lying about that, or he's doing sarcasm wrong; he's definitely not qualified to be making decisions for other people nor to act as a mouthpiece for those who do.
- ProphetZarquon (talk) 16:17, 1 May 2020 (UTC)
