The Coronavirus

[Warren Dew]

(05-01-2020, 07:54 AM)David Horn Wrote:

(04-30-2020, 11:03 PM)Warren Dew Wrote: Wrong.  The "ME" in MERS stands for the Middle East, which is not the same as Asia, as you may not be aware.  Most Pacific Rim countries have seen at least one change of government since SARS.

To the extent there was a benefit, it was from most of the citizens having been through it before with SARS, and acting before the governments could interfere.  Japan and Taiwan did have early restrictions on travel from China, but South Korea missed the boat on that.

Is there ever a time that you see any benefit at all from common effort?  No, this is not the success of individual effort. South Korea was a gentler version than Singapore, I grant you that, but both were collective efforts.

Everyone wearing masks actually is a common, collective effort.  It's just not a government run effort.

It's a perfect example of the "think globally, act locally" philosophy that dominated the environmental movement in the 1970s.  In this case, "think globally" means, "if everyone wore a mask, then transmission would be cut massively, thus greatly reducing the damage from the pandemic".  "Act locally" means, "therefore I should wear a mask, even though my mask doesn't protect me personally, because if everyone does it, then everyone will be protected, including myself".

I don't understand how any Boomers could have missed that, without missing the counterculture entirely.  I'm sure Eric would understand it.  It amazes me that any Boomer could have to wait for the government to tell him what to do before he could take action.