[conspire] CABAL in the time of Cholera^W SARS-CoV-2: March event cancelled

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Ruben Safir (ruben at mrbrklyn.com):

Before you say a word, read the bottom bit.


> I know you said it is valid, but it isn't.  First of all, Y2K wasn't a
> disease that affected biological systems that evolve and killed people
> and can also kill the researchers.  

_Twice_ in a row, now, you have utterly disregarded the actual (valid)
comparison I made, and, instead pretended as if I had made an entirely
different (stupid and invalid) comparison.  This embarrassing public
blunder on your part would have been avoidable if you had exercised a
tiny amount of impulse control and _thought_ before posting.

The _sole_ point of comparison I made is that it was possible to make
Y2K seem like a non-event through diligent hard work behind the scenes
that prevented a technology-failure blowup and then allowed idiots in
the press and elsewhere to draw the non-sequitur conclusion that there
never had been a threat in the first place.

By comparison, it is provably possible through painstaking but pervasive
public health measures to slow down community transmission of SARS-CoV-2
in the USA to the extent that an overwhelming of and collapse of the
nation's medical system (such as recently happened in Italy) will be
averted,


The fact that one item is not a disease, blah blah blah is completely
irrelevant to the point.

Kindly stop blithering.  This is not a good use of your time, and I 
am going to have to terminate the abuse of my time.  It also makes you 
look _really_ stupid.



> Put this in perspective.  NYC just shut down ALL THEATER, BARS,
> SCHOOLS, LIBRAIES, MUSEUMS, RESUTURANTS, GOVERNMENT OFFICES, and is
> considering a curfew, among other things.  The panic has created
> shortages of essential medical supplies and groceries, like diapers,
> toilet paper, thermonters.

Oh, just fuck right off.  And take the moronic all-caps melodrama with you.



> In case you are math challenged that is different of about 500 deaths?

No, dumbass.

Population of Philadelphia in 1918 was 1.8 million.  Population of St.
Louis in 1918 was 750 thousand.  St. Louis suffered an elevation above
its baseline pneumonia and influenza numbers of about 230 deaths, total.
Philly over the same time period had about 46,000 extra deaths.  

But the _real_ point is in the implied relative risk to an average
member of each city's population.  That was eight times higher in
Philly, as mentioned -- and I don't give a tinker's damn about your
notion that expressing it as a rate per 100,000 residents is somehow
distortive.  Go argue with someone who doesn't have a math degree.
I'm done.


> I really don't feel like looking up the death rates in Phili and St
> Louis.  Neither city shut down its baseball parks and most other venues.  

Bullshit.  St. Louis banned _all public gatherings_ two days after first 
case presentation.  You obviously don't know jack and pulling stuff from
/dev/ass.   Come back when you are not intending to waste my time.


> And BTW you cherry picked the WORST case which was Philedephia where
> they completely screwed up the management of the epidemic.

Which is to say, Philly put off all social-distancing measures for a
month until October 1918 (first cases having been reported Sept. 17,
1918 -- Philly even permitted a huge parade on Sept. 28th) when local
medical and public health resources had been overwhelmed by community
spread, and St. Louis was a shining example of a city that did the
opposite.

Yes, I picked Philly as a prime case study in how to screw up by
delaying effective measures to slow community response, and St. Louis 
as a prime case study in doing the opposite.  Clever of you to notice
that I cited relevant data to make my point.

Whatever your reason to think that it was somehow unfair to do so, I 
_really_ do not want to hear it.  Be insane somewhere else.

Seriously.  Do.  Not.  Attempt.  To.  Argue.  On.  This.  With.  Me.
Again.  If you fail to take that seriously, this time I'll trebuchet
your ass off the mailing list, rather than you flouncing away on your
own initiative as you did last time.