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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b>From:</b> extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org> <b>On Behalf Of </b>Stathis Papaioannou via extropy-chat<br><br><b><o:p></o:p></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal>>…Suppose there were an epidemic of a more dangerous virus…<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>How much more dangerous and how much more contagious?<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>>… and epidemiologists agree…<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>How many epidemiologists? Qualifications necessary?<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>>… that lockdowns and other measures to separate people from each other would help…<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>How much does it help? Does it help more than it harms?<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>>… Should we implement those measures or just accept that hundreds of millions will die?<o:p></o:p></p></div></div></div><p class=MsoNormal>-- <o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal>Stathis Papaioannou<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>We don’t know that hundreds of millions would die. That’s the problem. We are asked to do these things but no one really knows how these pandemics will play out. There have been over 2 million covid deaths. How can we know something else will cause hundreds of millions? How many died because of lockdowns? We don’t know.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Stathis this question cannot be simplified. After all this, we still don’t know the answers to some very fundamental questions.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>We can compare states however, such as California and Florida. They both have a lot of international travel, plenty of domestic travel, similar climate, similar population demographics, about twice as many people in California but those two are perhaps our best test case.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>California is and has been on lockdowns, schools closed, masks required, strict protocols. Florida ended all that in September. This is what happened. California has twice the population and three times the new case rate:<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><img width=732 height=472 style='width:7.625in;height:4.9166in' id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image001.jpg@01D6EF3C.A4337400"><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><img width=723 height=457 style='width:7.5312in;height:4.7604in' id="Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:image002.jpg@01D6EF3C.A4337400"><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>How are these two or more epidemiologists going to resurrect enough credibility when they predict hundreds of millions of deaths?<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>spike<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></div></body></html>