COVID-19

[Tailsfan101]

Idaho was the second-to-last state to get COVID-19, only behind West Virginia. Of course, the first case is also in my county...

[JoeyC]

I understand that people are concerned about Covid-19's immediate impact on the people; the deaths, quarantines, etc.

But I also feel that a lot of people aren't considering the damage that Covid-19 will do to the economy, especially in the aftermath of all of this.
This more so by the fact that some policies that overreact to Covid-19, depending on what the policies do, could further worsen the post-outbreak economy.

A suggestion drawn by this: perhaps we're focusing too much on the short term effects of Covid-19 and their mitigation and not enough on the potentially more harmful economic aftereffects.

[SilverBreeze]

I understand that people are concerned about Covid-19's immediate impact on the people; the deaths, quarantines, etc.

But I also feel that a lot of people aren't considering the damage that Covid-19 will do to the economy, especially in the aftermath of all of this.
This more so by the fact that some policies that overreact to Covid-19, depending on what the policies do, could further worsen the post-outbreak economy.

A suggestion drawn by this: perhaps we're focusing too much on the short term effects of Covid-19 and their mitigation and not enough on the potentially more harmful economic aftereffects.

I agree with you, and the panic isn't helping us get through this outbreak very efficiently, but just to throw in a counterargument: you could say that by mitigating the spread, you are reducing the severity of the outbreak and reducing economic aftereffects indirectly, which balances out the effects of the initial actions. For example, there would be fewer people calling in sick and not being able to work, and hospitals would need to treat fewer people.

[snowyowl]

I think that at this point, the economic impact is inevitable, but the economy has always recovered, this is no different. The most important thing is to limit the spread, regardless of the effects on the daily lives of people. For example, my home state of New York has been reluctant to close schools, especially in NYC, because there are many students in need of lunch that are provided by the schools.* The inevitable decision to close NYC schools was eventually made, but it appears to be too late: the rate of COVID-19 spread in NYC is faster than anywhere else in the country.
3/14: 213 cases in NYC
3/15: 269 cases
3/16: 329 cases
3/17: 644 cases
3/18: 1,339 cases (with 2,382 statewide)

This nearly doubling that has occurred recently is clearly a sign that they were too late to "flatten the curve".
*My point here is that if schools would inevitably have to be closed, then waiting so long posed much more of a threat to society than if the governing body in charge of this had been more bold, although I do understand the difficulty of the decision.

[SilverBreeze]

I think that at this point, the economic impact is inevitable, but the economy has always recovered, this is no different. The most important thing is to limit the spread, regardless of the effects on the daily lives of people. For example, my home state of New York has been reluctant to close schools, especially in NYC, because there are many students in need of lunch that are provided by the schools.* The inevitable decision to close NYC schools was eventually made, but it appears to be too late: the rate of COVID-19 spread in NYC is faster than anywhere else in the country.
3/14: 213 cases in NYC
3/15: 269 cases
3/16: 329 cases
3/17: 644 cases
3/18: 1,339 cases (with 2,382 statewide)

This nearly doubling that has occurred recently is clearly a sign that they were too late to "flatten the curve".
*My point here is that if schools would inevitably have to be closed, then waiting so long posed much more of a threat to society than if the governing body in charge of this had been more bold, although I do understand the difficulty of the decision.

I agree with you, but also remember more cases doesn't always mean worse prevention; sometimes it only means better testing. Places with better healthcare will tend to have disproportionately higher numbers due to more testing, although it's not exactly something that can be verified experimentally. Also remember to take into account population densities, although you could argue that part of the responsibility is to mitigate the spread by encouraging more isolation that would be put into effect in a less-populated area.

[Things2do]

I think that at this point, the economic impact is inevitable, but the economy has always recovered, this is no different. The most important thing is to limit the spread, regardless of the effects on the daily lives of people. For example, my home state of New York has been reluctant to close schools, especially in NYC, because there are many students in need of lunch that are provided by the schools.* The inevitable decision to close NYC schools was eventually made, but it appears to be too late: the rate of COVID-19 spread in NYC is faster than anywhere else in the country.
3/14: 213 cases in NYC
3/15: 269 cases
3/16: 329 cases
3/17: 644 cases
3/18: 1,339 cases (with 2,382 statewide)

This nearly doubling that has occurred recently is clearly a sign that they were too late to "flatten the curve".
*My point here is that if schools would inevitably have to be closed, then waiting so long posed much more of a threat to society than if the governing body in charge of this had been more bold, although I do understand the difficulty of the decision.

Just because the economy will recover doesn't mean there aren't many people who are hurt by the slowed economy. At some point, it's possible that more people may die from the economic effects than from the virus itself (e.g. all the medical research that goes unfunded because there is less wealth to put towards that). Even aside from the directly comparable mortality*, there are other side effects in terms of the hardships posed by economic recession.

Consider the edge case - thereotically, everyone in the world could totally isolate themselves for six weeks and basically eradicate Covid-19 entirely. Obviously there are major downsides to this, which is why we don't do so. Clearly the effects of such measures on peoples' daily lives have some consideration.

* to the extent that mortality is even directly comparable (c.f. DALY)

[CookiePie1]

If I were to be honest, I don't really care about COVID-19. I can't tell if I'm just being calm, or if I'm in denial.

My mom is always reading the numbers of cases aloud. I think the expected reaction is shock, fear, anxiety, or at least an "omg that's pretty bad." My mom is very much worried about the disease. My dad is worried about the economical impacts of this. My sister just plays league all day but she gets mad at me whenever I say I don't care about coronavirus. Whenever people talk about coronavirus I kinda tune them out. And sometimes it gets to a point where I become annoyed or irritated whenever people tell me news about the virus. Being an avgeek, I am slightly concerned about the airlines. But even still, it's not the only thing on my mind all the time.

There was a kid at my school who tested positive. They were in school for four days with flu-like symptoms. AND I'M STILL NOT WORRIED.

Is there something wrong with me?????

[jimmy-bond]

If I were to be honest, I don't really care about COVID-19. I can't tell if I'm just being calm, or if I'm in denial.

My mom is always reading the numbers of cases aloud. I think the expected reaction is shock, fear, anxiety, or at least an "omg that's pretty bad." My mom is very much worried about the disease. My dad is worried about the economical impacts of this. My sister just plays league all day but she gets mad at me whenever I say I don't care about coronavirus. Whenever people talk about coronavirus I kinda tune them out. And sometimes it gets to a point where I become annoyed or irritated whenever people tell me news about the virus. Being an avgeek, I am slightly concerned about the airlines. But even still, it's not the only thing on my mind all the time.

There was a kid at my school who tested positive. They were in school for four days with flu-like symptoms. AND I'M STILL NOT WORRIED.

Is there something wrong with me?????

I vibe with the first part. The economical impact is grand, but everything else isn't too bad. It's happened before. But I think the case at your school is where you should be slightly worried. I don't believe any high school students in my state have tested positive, but they're still reinforcing our spring break with two extra weeks, so I'd expect something similar in your case.

[JoeyC]

AND I'M STILL NOT WORRIED.
Is there something wrong with me?????

Nope. The main part that will probably affect you (given that you don't seem to have elderly living with you) is the recession and there's nothing that you can do about that. In In life things happen that you have no control over, in which the best thing to do is to not fuss about it - do your part and be at peace.

of course during the recession is a killer time to be doing stock market - historical data has noted that while the stock market dip hurts many, the best days of the stock market occur during the recovery period of recessions, so if you got the money on hand,,,

[SilverBreeze]

If I were to be honest, I don't really care about COVID-19. I can't tell if I'm just being calm, or if I'm in denial.

My mom is always reading the numbers of cases aloud. I think the expected reaction is shock, fear, anxiety, or at least an "omg that's pretty bad." My mom is very much worried about the disease. My dad is worried about the economical impacts of this. My sister just plays league all day but she gets mad at me whenever I say I don't care about coronavirus. Whenever people talk about coronavirus I kinda tune them out. And sometimes it gets to a point where I become annoyed or irritated whenever people tell me news about the virus. Being an avgeek, I am slightly concerned about the airlines. But even still, it's not the only thing on my mind all the time.

There was a kid at my school who tested positive. They were in school for four days with flu-like symptoms. AND I'M STILL NOT WORRIED.

Is there something wrong with me?????

There's really no reason to be worried on a personal level. As long as you're doing your best to prevent spread(for example, by not licking every surface on a subway and then coughing in everyone's faces), especially around the elderly/young children/people in contact with risk groups, you should be fine. We should care because it's transmissible and deadly to risk groups, not because it's extremely deadly to us. Nothing you've said implies you don't care about others, and not being worried as a teenager makes sense.

As for family... sometimes the only two options are lean toward the other extreme or get sucked into a positive feedback loop.