MMQB: To prevent future pandemics

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  • #113323
    Billy_T
    Participant

    I’m not a scientist or a doctor, and I don’t even pretend to be those things on TV, or during Pressers. But I do think I have a pretty good nose for cause and effect and logical sequencing. If this, then that, etc.

    So I’ve been wondering a lot lately about What Could Have Been, and What Should Be The Case in the Future . . .

    Everyone should wear a mask in public, once we learn of a new communicable disease. Perhaps it should be the norm during “regular” flu season as well. But especially once we learn of even the beginnings of an outbreak. Wear masks, practice physical distancing to the degree possible, and logic says it won’t spread nearly as fast or as far.

    Logic says that the mask itself will prevent most of the spread from the wearer to others. There is still a lot of disagreement, of course, regarding how much they protect the wearer, though the sum of the info seems to point to Not much. It’s more of a reminder not to touch your own face before thoroughly washing your hands, etc. But, obviously, if everyone is wearing one, we don’t need peak protection. We’re all protecting each other by not spreading disease, etc.

    I also think we could radically reduce the spread of disease by retrofitting all public spaces to be as “touch-free” as humanly, technically possible, especially bathrooms, and make that the legal building/safety code going forward. All new buildings would need that protocol. No-touch entrance and exits, and inside bathrooms, for toilet seats, covers, TP, flushing, soap dispensers, faucets and all doors.

    Zooming out even more, into far more difficult political terrain, we need to wage ferocious war on behalf of the planet, its ecosystems, its natural habitats, etc. Climate Change, the destruction of those natural habitats and ecosystems, and our factory farms, especially, create, will create, rapidly accelerate and weaponize countless super-bugs, and right now we’re not capable of fighting them. Not even close.

    We’re in a new age of pandemics, largely of our own creation. You all know what I view as the main cause.

    We need to solve for X.

    #113328
    InvaderRam
    Moderator

    no more hugging?

    eventually. the matrix is coming… and we’ll all be isolated in our own individual pods… but then we’ll have to worry about computer viruses…

    seriously though. this could very well change the way society operates.

    in a lot of ways hopefully good. human encroachment. destruction of ecosystems. factory farming. yeah. hopefully, those things change.

    i also worry that it could change some things for the worse. what that is? i don’t know right now. but you know humans will find a way to screw it up somehow.

    #113332
    Billy_T
    Participant

    no more hugging?

    eventually. the matrix is coming… and we’ll all be isolated in our own individual pods… but then we’ll have to worry about computer viruses…

    seriously though. this could very well change the way society operates.

    in a lot of ways hopefully good. human encroachment. destruction of ecosystems. factory farming. yeah. hopefully, those things change.

    i also worry that it could change some things for the worse. what that is? i don’t know right now. but you know humans will find a way to screw it up somehow.

    Looks like I did a poor job expressing my thoughts. By retrofitting to “no touch” in public places, I didn’t mean Person to Person. Just Person to Surface, or Person to Inanimate objects, when possible. Motion sensors for as many of these things as we can manage — again, especially in bathrooms.

    So, in “normal times,” when there isn’t any pandemic, we’re still reducing the spread of bad stuff. Folks should hug all they want, etc. And when we do get hit with another bad one, we’re already set up for much less transmission via surfaces, etc.

    Just thinking about some of the easy things we could do to minimize spreading our own emissions to one another, and it would create tons of jobs, too.

    #113333
    wv
    Participant

    I dunno how to prevent them. But i know that if the government made a lot less bombs and Imperialism, and diverted the money into public-health, we’d all be more…healthy. And safe.

    I keep seeing mainstreamers noticing that ‘more people have died now, than during 9-11.’

    I’m glad they are noticing that. Maybe they will start making connections. Putting two and two together. Figuring it out.

    Nah. They wont.

    w
    v

    #113335
    Billy_T
    Participant

    I dunno how to prevent them. But i know that if the government made a lot less bombs and Imperialism, and diverted the money into public-health, we’d all be more…healthy. And safe.

    I keep seeing mainstreamers noticing that ‘more people have died now, than during 9-11.’

    I’m glad they are noticing that. Maybe they will start making connections. Putting two and two together. Figuring it out.

    Nah. They wont.

    w
    v

    All of that is too true about where taxpayer dollars go, and where they should go.

    I wish people would make another deduction too, one that seems beyond obvious to me:

    The capitalist system is especially useless during a catastrophe like this, and actually led to it in the first place — for a host of reasons.

    On a fundamental level, any economic system that makes the personal accrual of wealth paramount is going to fail the vast majority of people. It can’t help but do that. Any economic system with an end goal of wealth concentration is guaranteed to fail the vast majority of humanity. What is produced is merely a means to that end in that case. It doesn’t matter what it is. Shit on a stick, if it sells. Anything to get rich.

    I wish people would at least consider other end goals: the health, safety and welfare of all, for instance. Meeting the needs of all. Solving crises for all. Preventing new crises. And the creation of more, actual free time.

    People and the planet first, last and always.

    In short, the end goal should be the general welfare and a sustainable planet for all. Making more and more money as the end goal is just flat out insane.

    #113345
    zn
    Moderator

    “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” — Yogi Berra

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