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   Andrasta 💚💜🌼🌎🇦🇽 (judeet88@universeodon.com)'s status on Tuesday, 26-Dec-2023 09:53:53 JST Andrasta 💚💜🌼🌎🇦🇽

   • Thomas 🔭🕹️

   @thomasfuchs It boggles the mind...is it part of the human psyche to have such a death wish I wonder? Or is it such a strong sense of importance and invincibility that it inevitably leads to death and disability? Are we seeing a new behaviour or was this tendency always there?

   • Embed this notice
     joesabin (joesabin@mastodon.world)'s status on Tuesday, 26-Dec-2023 09:54:40 JST joesabin

     • Thomas 🔭🕹️

     @thomasfuchs life expectancy is down significantly in the US since 2020, yet people ignore the problem. Now we have vaccine hesitancy across the board here in the US.

   • Embed this notice
     Gordon Oliver (gordotango@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 26-Dec-2023 10:38:05 JST Gordon Oliver

     • Thomas 🔭🕹️

     @thomasfuchs The responses to COVID (masking, going to large gatherings, close indoor quarters) are all risk-reward calculations. People are generally not good at risk calculations (we tend to either under or over estimate risk — often based on hope), and we are inundated with COVID misinformation. The risk of death by COVID is not far off from a bad flu year, and it is better if you have been vaccinated and seek treatment. The risk of PASC is not well understood, so falls to personal bias.

   • Embed this notice
     Kyle Montanio (fantasticaleconomics@geekdom.social)'s status on Tuesday, 26-Dec-2023 11:36:10 JST Kyle Montanio

     in reply to

     • Thomas 🔭🕹️
     • WanderingTaoist

     @WanderingTaoist

     It's interesting that, if I'm understanding you correctly, you use the fact that driving is more dangerous than Covid to argue for reducing our Covid precautions rather than an argument for a need to also make our roads safer.

     If I were to put both in perspective, I'd see two cases where relatively small costs (like wearing a mask or driving a smaller vehicle) result in large benefits from improvements to quality of life.

     @thomasfuchs

   • Embed this notice
     WanderingTaoist (wanderingtaoist@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 26-Dec-2023 11:36:11 JST WanderingTaoist

     • Thomas 🔭🕹️

     @thomasfuchs
     Meh. About as many people die weekly from vehicle crashes as from Covid, but I'll bet it didn't stop you or many others from driving to family or friends' houses.

     My point being that the danger, at this time, is more in the perception than the numbers. Many people, though, have been traumatized by the pandemic, and struggle to see its current lethality in light of the larger picture.

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     Jeremy List (jeremy_list@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 26-Dec-2023 14:33:40 JST Jeremy List

     • Thomas 🔭🕹️

     @thomasfuchs it's been about 4 years and most people have had it once or twice, and those who've had it more than that tend to be pretty messed up by it. Extrapolating from that yields pretty ominous conclusions!