[Info-vax] [Totally OT] Covid-19, was: Re: Creating an open source version of VMS, was: Re: OpenVMS Hobbyist Notification

[Phillip Helbig undress to reply]

> > * Most orgs are ordering IT people and other "paper pushers" to
> >   work from home
> 
> There are multiple benefits from this, but, it's not always optimal.

If it were, it would be standard.  However, under the circumstances, 
those who can work from home are lucky.  (Depending on your job and 
where you live, you might continue to get paid if you stay home even if 
you don't work.)

> One example is people who consider school a child care system.  It 
> isn't, but some use it as such.

Really?  In most places, children are required to go to school.  I don't 
think that one can criticize anyone for planning on their children being 
in school during certain times.

> This current problem is not new.  When I was young, STDs were not a 
> major issue.  Then along came AIDS and such.  People have for the most 
> part learned that when one sleeps with another, they also are sleeping 
> with all other contacts, and all their contacts, and such.  One could 
> argue that you're sleeping with most of the world.  

STDs are really quite different than COVID-19.  It is very hard to get 
most STDs.  Even for most kinds of sex the risk of HIV infection is 
small.  COVID-19 is much more serious.

> Aviation and travel continues to grow.  One reads about future aircraft, 
> pilot, and such needing to grow to meet the ever increasing demand. 
> More and more people are traveling, and traveling often.  With something 
> as contagious as Covid-19, this quickly becomes a distribution network 
> that reaches everywhere on the planet.

True, but remember the plague?  Killed, what, one-third of the 
population?  No planes back then, and no travel faster than a horse; 
most travel was on foot.

> We need to start thinking of solutions.  I seem to recall that travel to 
> some locations requires one to have certain immunizations up to date. 

That works as long as one is dealing with diseases against which 
immunizations exist.

> Perhaps more will be needed in today's and tomorrow's world.  Perhaps 
> certain type of testing should be mandatory for all travelers.  Catch 
> one person infected, and you can stop it there, before it becomes many.

There should be much more of it.  One reason it doesn't happen is 
because of resistance of people who see it as infringing their freedom.  
People, your freedom stops where it affects someone else's freedom, such 
as their freedom from disease.

> One thing pointed out is the number of deaths each year from flu.  A 
> better plan could also reduce this.

The "regular" flu has killed more people this year than COVID-19.  
(However, that is not a reason to downplay COVID-19; it is much more 
contagious, and we don't know how it will develop.  Like a sniper on the 
loose, knowing that more people will die of the flu, or in traffic 
accidents, before he is killed or captured doesn't mean that one 
shouldn't report on him and try to protect oneself from him.)  There are 
probably two main reasons that it is so many.  First, many people think 
that they have had the flu, but they actually haven't.  Some aren't 
sure.  (The flu is like an orgasm: if you aren't sure whether you've had 
it, you haven't.)  Thus, they tend to vastly underestimate the 
seriousness of the disease, until they get it.  Second, many people 
don't get vaccinated because they think that vaccines cause autism, or 
are a scam so that big pharma can earn easy money, or whatever.  
(Frankly, I have little problem with such people getting the disease for 
which they refuse a vaccination; the problem is that they infect other 
people.)