[ExI] enough time has passed...

[Stathis Papaioannou]

On Sun, 23 Jan 2022 at 20:18, Rafal Smigrodzki via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

>
>
> On Sun, Jan 23, 2022 at 2:02 AM Stathis Papaioannou <stathisp at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>>
>>> And don't get me started on masks, these dehumanizing, humiliating
>>> pieces of medically useless trash.
>>>
>>
>> OK, so your objection is a practical one, not a moral one. If masks were
>> effective, say reducing R0 from 1.1 with voluntary use to 0.9 with mandated
>> use and thereby potentially ending the epidemic, you would be OK with
>> mandating them, right?
>>
>
>  ### Let's continue exploring the misogynistic virus counterfactual: Let's
> now posit that women can be vaccinated and fully protected from harm. Do
> men still have an obligation to be vaccinated? No, since everybody who
> needs protection can obtain protection at low cost to herself and there is
> no justification to impose on the lives of men. The changed premise of
> vaccination availability for women changes the calculus of what constitutes
> efficient action, and equitable apportionment of burdens among members of
> society, and therefore it changes the type of action that is justified.
>
> Let's now look at your example. Obviously, an intervention that reduces R0
> below 1 in a population is only effective in ending an epidemic if there
> are no reservoirs of the pathogen capable of re-introducing it into the
> population (such reservoirs may be other human populations not affected by
> the intervention or they may be animals). If there are significant
> reservoirs, e.g when the infectious agent is endemic, such as Covid, the
> intervention that only slightly affects R0 will fail, and therefore is not
> justified under almost any circumstances. Full-blown epidemics usually end
> when the population dies out or reaches herd immunity by infection or
> vaccination, not through measures that only slow the spread of the disease.
>
> Sure, in a counterfactual world where mask wearing eliminates epidemics I
> would in certain situations endorse mask wearing despite their dehumanizing
> nature but in the real world masks provide absolutely no long-term benefit
> and should be vigorously opposed. It's easy to construct counterfactuals to
> justify just about anything (like my misogynistic virus world that
> justifies vaccine mandates) but so what?
>

As long as you’re not a nasty man who doesn’t care if others die.

> --
Stathis Papaioannou
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