Conversation

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I think it’s a live referendum on the importance of institutional and expert responses in an age that has convinced itself both are irrelevant and have lost all trust and credibility.
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People I thought were radical BTFSTTG types are suddenly turning into CDC stans and believers in epidemiology credentials. Nobody is suggesting popular referendums like Brexit to shape responses. There’s a limit to faith in crowds/distrust of authorities after all.
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The thing is, even if the institutions and experts are responding poorly, there’s no “populist” alternative on the table. Almost anyone can be President it seems, but very few can do things like analyze viruses or synthesize vaccines.
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Populist options will be limited to cures worse than disease in the short term. In the long-term biohackers might generate local responses from hacker spaces with crispr or whatever. Right now, the vilified experts are the only available line of defense
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Most of you, I’ll bet if you get the symptoms you’ll go see a doctor and accept their protocol. You won’t be calling your friendly neighborhood anti-authority conspiracy theorist for advice.
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Pandemic was one of those known unknowns that is starting to become a lot more...known. Potentially world changing social and economic consequences. Hope for the best, prepare for contingencies.
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Yea what’s different to me is: 1. High transfer rate 2. High death rate 3. Elusive source 4. Sheer helplessness. I view this single most important threat to humanity right now. Knowing China is best suited to deal with crisis due to power concentration at center, and still hard.
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