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[Max™]

Trump: Fauci, what does the counter say about the death toll so far?
Fauci: It's... it's over 9000!
Trump: *crushes a ventilator for some reason probably to fuck over blue state governors* WHAT NINE THOUSAAAAAND?

[martinuzz]

Boris Johnson has been admitted to hospital, for he isn't getting any better after having tested positive.
Spokesmen ensure that it's nothing to worry about, he's just admitted for testing.

[Starver]

Well, it's obviously not for his sperm count, unless they're trying to establish his upper limit.

(Seriously, though, he's been looking rough on some of the shots of his videolinking-in. He always favoured 'bedraggled' while trying to look 'affably approachable', which probably helped with his philandering as well, but it wasn't that.)

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Time to roll those dice.

[Quarque]

You can comfortably say the entire fucking state is infected with the crow plague now

For context, keep in mind that an "entire state" being infected is at a level of bad that we haven't seen yet. Nowhere did a majority of the population get infected nation-wide: not in Italy, nor in New York. Thanks to self isolation, mostly - those measures are working.

If it would really get that bad, we would not be counting the dead in thousands anymore. There would also be no room in any hospital for the vast majority of patients. This is the `steep curve` scenario we need to avoid.

[Quarque]

double post deleted

[Frumple]

Oh, sure, the entire population isn't infected. There's just not a single county in the entire state that's realistically lacking an outbreak. It's better like being a mildly symptomatic carrier is better than being on a vent, I guess.

[Reelya]

Some people have decided that they need to destroy the cellphone towers to stop coronavirus. Just what everyone needs with the lockdowns.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/4/21207927/5g-towers-burning-uk-coronavirus-conspiracy-theory-link

[Zangi]

Some people have decided that they need to destroy the cellphone towers to stop coronavirus. Just what everyone needs with the lockdowns.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/4/21207927/5g-towers-burning-uk-coronavirus-conspiracy-theory-link

.... Listening to the 2 videos in that article.
Maybe sometimes, unmitigated free speech is bad.  Sometimes.

[Reelya]

I think the overall problem there is that truth becomes another popularity contest, and popularity contests haven't proven to be a good way of promoting the best of anything.

That plus the fact that having unlimited ability to filter your inputs means that ideological bubbles form. So, people are self-isolating into bubbles (helped along by algorithms which try and give you more of the stuff that you want to see), and inside each bubble, ideas rise to the top based on pure popularity.

Pretty much every idea on how to fix this has flaws. For example, you could say that every time you view one thing, we pair it with something saying the opposite. But that creates further problems: every evolution video would have to be paired with a creationist video, and every video which mentions the world being round must be paired with a flat-Earth video. And vice-versa. This would break people out of their bubbles, but would create a false equivalency problem along with it - every video saying some true thing would by definition be paired with a video full of lies.

[martinuzz]

Meanwhile in China, people are scared to death of foreigners.
Our Volkskrant China correspondent (who has lived in China for many years now and speaks fluent Chinese) writes about taking the train:
"When I entered the train, I was assigned a carriage all to myself.  Any other people in the wagon were asked by the train staff to leave to another carriage, and she heard him say that was because 'the foreigner is dangerous'".
She also has to show her papers nearly everywhere, from train station to shops, to show that she has been quarantined after having been outside the country (in fact, she was double quarantined, 2 weeks when she returned to Belgium (her home country), and again 2 weeks when she returned to China, and she expects to need to be quarantined for a 3d time when she returns to her own home in Beijing).
Her papers are meticulously checked a few times a day, sometimes taking up to 1.5h (when buying a train ticket).

Where when this all started, the world was afraid to let Chinese travellers enter their countries, now it is the other way around, the Chinese are terrified of any foreigners from countries that are coping with corona.


EDIT: Meanwhile in Madrid, an ice skating rink is being used to store the dead, while in Barcelona, parking garages are used to store coffins.

[delphonso]

Now people are remobilizing in China, cases are increasing. It coincides with shutting the borders to foreigners. Plus there were a few actual stories of Italians and Americans coming here and being infected. I've had to explain myself just once or twice. But I'm not in a big city these days, so others might have a different experience. Can't blame people for being cautious, and haven't seen anything turn nasty.

On the plus side, I was given a QR code to scan which will show I've been in China for more than 2 weeks - checks passport number. This has been enough to get past any issues. That said, I'll be going to an embassy this week and that might be a whole different beast.

[Bralbaard]

I think the overall problem there is that truth becomes another popularity contest, and popularity contests haven't proven to be a good way of promoting the best of anything.

That plus the fact that having unlimited ability to filter your inputs means that ideological bubbles form. So, people are self-isolating into bubbles (helped along by algorithms which try and give you more of the stuff that you want to see), and inside each bubble, ideas rise to the top based on pure popularity.

Pretty much every idea on how to fix this has flaws. For example, you could say that every time you view one thing, we pair it with something saying the opposite. But that creates further problems: every evolution video would have to be paired with a creationist video, and every video which mentions the world being round must be paired with a flat-Earth video. And vice-versa. This would break people out of their bubbles, but would create a false equivalency problem along with it - every video saying some true thing would by definition be paired with a video full of lies.

It also doesn't help that with everybody confined to their homes, there is no escape possible from your online bubble. Under normal circumstances you would be at least somewhat likely to speak to colleagues or other people with different opinions and backgrounds. With the current lockdowns, impossiblity of normal social interactions, and atmosphere of paranoia, one can expect that the influence of conspiracy theories will increase a lot.

[Trekkin]

Now people are remobilizing in China, cases are increasing. It coincides with shutting the borders to foreigners. Plus there were a few actual stories of Italians and Americans coming here and being infected. I've had to explain myself just once or twice. But I'm not in a big city these days, so others might have a different experience. Can't blame people for being cautious, and haven't seen anything turn nasty.

On the plus side, I was given a QR code to scan which will show I've been in China for more than 2 weeks - checks passport number. This has been enough to get past any issues. That said, I'll be going to an embassy this week and that might be a whole different beast.

Is there any indication anyone's against the wet markets reopening?

[thompson]

Some people have decided that they need to destroy the cellphone towers to stop coronavirus. Just what everyone needs with the lockdowns.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/4/21207927/5g-towers-burning-uk-coronavirus-conspiracy-theory-link

Be vigilant, citizen. You most certainly can catch viruses over the wireless. They come in through old Windows, but fear not as Apples can hold them at bay.