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On 14/03/2020 17:07, Stuart LaForge wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:mailman.0.1584205662.6148.extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">We
could follow Taiwan's lead. Taiwan is an island right off the
coast of China with 23 million inhabitants many of whom work on
the mainland. Despite their proximity and population density, they
only have 50 cases of COVID-19 and 1 death. Yes, they were on top
of the epidemic from the very beginning but also of note, the
government foresaw the shortage of surgical masks so the
government took over production of surgical masks. Note that in
the picture everyone is wearing them going about their daily
business. If everybody healthy or sick wore a mask all the time in
public, the virus would not be able to spread. Let that sink in:
only 49 infected out of 23 million people with the Chinese
government cyber-attacking them the WHOLE time. We can beat this
virus if we stop panicking and just start fighting the virus
instead of fighting each other over asinine politics; blaming this
political party or that for something that nature did.
</blockquote>
...<br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:mailman.0.1584205662.6148.extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org"><b>Frequent,
transparent communication
</b></blockquote>
<br>
This seems to be highly instructive, and not just with respect to
outbreaks of infectious diseases.<br>
<br>
The extremely different, almost diametrically opposite, attitude and
response that Taiwan has had, compared with China, is directly
linked to the dramatically different outcome, so far at least, in
each country.<br>
<br>
I can't say what this reveals about Italy, but I'm wondering if we
will see a correlation, worldwide, between transparency, coupled
with a willingness to respond immediately in a practical way -
rather than just political/ideological posturing - and
infection/survival rates.<br>
<br>
Maybe a plot showing COVID-19 infection and mortality rates against
... Hm, against what? maybe several plots, with scales for how
repressive a regime is, how secretive it is (yes, I know, how can
you trust their figures?), how 'politicised' it is (e.g. the
tendency to twist everything towards scoring political points,
regardless of the cost to human lives)?? Any better ideas?<br>
<br>
What I'm getting at is something concrete to point at and say "When
you have this kind of government, and there's a crisis, more people
tend to die. When you have that kind of government, and the same
crisis, more people tend to survive" kind of thing, using COVID-19
as a practical example. Something that, hopefully, can't be argued
with.<br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Ben Zaiboc</pre>
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