Like I don't think this is an easy question, I think "atomization" has obvious costs when it comes to public health but also obvious benefits As keeps getting pointed out the countries that did really well with COVID-19 are also highly urbanized and atomized
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Like I get the impulse to start talking about the obvious ways shelter-in-place has magnified the psychological and practical stresses of living alone or in smaller groups
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But look if we actually all moved back into big family houses right now, a bunch of people who are currently infected would instantly infect everyone living with them right The infection rate would jump upward massively overnight
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That's why they actually said not to do that, that if you have the opportunity to move out of your apartment into a big group home right now you must not do so if at all possible
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That's the whole thing about arguing about the virus The logic of contagion mandates antisocial behavior The virus makes many things that were otherwise good, bad You can't just convenient argue "Anything that would make life better would also help fight the virus"
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Like bluntly if nobody at all was married and nobody had a family and nobody had kids and every single person lived alone in their own sealed off apartment Regardless of whether this would be desirable or sustainable long-term In the short term it would slow infection immensely
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The real issue is we don't have true centralized quarantine for positive cases Like there's no way the whole population could live like this but if you could put *everyone who is currently infected* in a room by themselves for long enough the virus would just be gone
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But, you know, you have to know who's infected to do that There's our whole problem
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End of conversation
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