Bunk Moreland said:

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**** certain entities exploiting COVID because it's an election year (both sides) and the horse they always ride in on.

We can have open movie theaters around the country right now with limited capacity and more showings and be completely fine but we have petrified 50% or more of this country. This **** is getting ****ing ridiculous.

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Europe started out worse than us. China started out worse than us. They all petrified their countries, took appropriate action, and are now reopening sports and will do theaters soon as well.

So sorry, but no, its not because people are petrified, but rather because people here tried to half ass it, continue to try to half ass it, and wont' take the appropriate steps to get **** under control. This isn't about an election. It never has been. Its been about appropriate public health.

The proof is right in front of our faces. Tenet will be see in Italy and China first but we ****ed it up here and we continue to **** it up here. I hope those old reruns of Jurassic Park and ET or whatever people went to see in theaters the past couple of months have been worth it.

They didn't petrify their countries because those are monolithic cultures without a hysterical media. We're a nation of 50 smaller nations and the most diverse culture in the world. That hurts during times like this.

Those countries also didn't dramatically increase testing capacity or volume nearly as much as the United States has. They also didn't start including serology positives in with actual tests like the US did (and the CDC sorta apologized for last week), leading to more panic with the 'spikes'

There is no issue with theaters opening and people going to them right now in every state in America. Just like there's no issue with schools opening. The only thing driving it is hysteria. Not going to turn this into F16 so I'll leave it at that .

Bunk Moreland said:

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They didn't petrify their countries because those are monolithic cultures without a hysterical media. We're a nation of 50 smaller nations and the most diverse culture in the world. That hurts during times like this.

Those countries also didn't dramatically increase testing capacity or volume nearly as much as the United States has. They also didn't start including serology positives in with actual tests like the US did (and the CDC sorta apologized for last week), leading to more panic with the 'spikes'

There is no issue with theaters opening and people going to them right now in every state in America. Just like there's no issue with schools opening. The only thing driving it is hysteria. Not going to turn this into F16 so I'll leave it at that .

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Dude they reacted way stronger than we did. I don't know what to tell you. The theaters opening early is completely a symptom of our refusal to do things the appropriate way. This entire situation has been our society trying to find a short cut through this situation instead of just handling it.

Well you kick the can down the road and you can just keep kicking. I don't know what to tell you if you still think there's no issue with theaters reopening.

Bunk Moreland said:

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They didn't petrify their countries because those are monolithic cultures without a hysterical media. We're a nation of 50 smaller nations and the most diverse culture in the world. That hurts during times like this.

Those countries also didn't dramatically increase testing capacity or volume nearly as much as the United States has. They also didn't start including serology positives in with actual tests like the US did (and the CDC sorta apologized for last week), leading to more panic with the 'spikes'

There is no issue with theaters opening and people going to them right now in every state in America. Just like there's no issue with schools opening. The only thing driving it is hysteria. Not going to turn this into F16 so I'll leave it at that .

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They tested and traced, social distanced and isolated effectively, and have virtually eliminated new cases.

Even if if cases are being miscounted to some extent, we're at 10x+ in new cases per day than most developed nations. We obviously didn't do something right.

Quick clarification I'm not saying the US handled it effectively or more effectively than other countries. Though that is up for major debate because we have done better than many European countries if you look at deaths per million etc.

What I'm saying is that no matter what, the moment the virus came to our shores, in the most divided and hyped election year of all time, all of our media and elected leaders were going to work to exploit the crisis. If this was 2019 or 2021, with a president of any type (even dumb Trump), the media hysteria simply would not be there and we would have had a more unified national response. That's my contention. Oh, and also that for the vast majority of the population it's completely safe to go to movie theaters socially distanced and put kids back in schools. Just like in other countries where they continue to protect the elderly and most vulnerable.

MBAR said:

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Bunk Moreland said:

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**** certain entities exploiting COVID because it's an election year (both sides) and the horse they always ride in on.

We can have open movie theaters around the country right now with limited capacity and more showings and be completely fine but we have petrified 50% or more of this country. This **** is getting ****ing ridiculous.

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Europe started out worse than us. China started out worse than us. They all petrified their countries, took appropriate action, and are now reopening sports and will do theaters soon as well.

So sorry, but no, its not because people are petrified, but rather because people here tried to half ass it, continue to try to half ass it, and wont' take the appropriate steps to get **** under control. This isn't about an election. It never has been. Its been about appropriate public health.

The proof is right in front of our faces. Tenet will be see in Italy and China first but we ****ed it up here and we continue to **** it up here. I hope those old reruns of Jurassic Park and ET or whatever people went to see in theaters the past couple of months have been worth it.

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Any attempt to compare how we handled it to how China handled it is nonsense. They were welding people into their ****ing houses for Christ's sake.

its your last part of your comment that really is the crux of the situation for me. Yes, its relatively safe for a 30 year old healthy person to go to the movies right now and enjoy a film. But, it spreads the disease, which makes it unsafe for a lot of other people, which puts additional strain on the healthcare system which then in turn makes it less safe for everyone. So yes, while the individual risk isn't high, cumulatively it increases everyone's risk by a large margin.

And this is the main point I feel you're missing. You're more worried about media hype instead of the actual risk on the ground, and because as a young individual you don't have much personal risk if you contract it, you don't see the big deal if you contract it. But every new case is a person who then spreads it to more instead of keeping the virus at extremely low levels. It keeps the fire going instead of putting it out. And eventually, that fire reaches people that ARE at higher risk, and eventually when enough low risk people get it, some of them DO die or DO have extreme complications. The individual risk isn't the issue, the spread caused by low risk individuals not taking it seriously enough is because it can rapidly cause this situation to spiral out of control.

The main problem is that the lag tie makes it incredibly difficult to reign in once its out of control. There are parts of Texas just as bad as NY right now. The general public has shown a huge inability to make responsible decisions on their own, but then again what are they supposed to do when bars and theaters are allowed to open. Of course they think its no big deal.

There's a reason why public health administrators are freaking out about this disease while many others in teh general public are more upset about other things.

I'll make this my last post on the subject since I don't want derail this thread anymore than I already have and I appreciate that even though we disagree you keep it respectful Bunk. I just think your risk analysis here is not framed appropriately.

Anybody want to try to sneak into another country to try to watch it with me?