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Fight_the_bastards t1_j7i9h4x wrote

Reply to comment by Asterose in (Virology) Has SARS-CoV-2 outcompeted all the other coronaviruses which have been called the ‘common cold’? by jsgui

Yeah, it’s like people who complain about how the rules for masking “changed constantly.” Well, when you’re learning new things about a disease, countermeasures are going to change, and also it didn’t help that a substantial percentage of people (including in state and federal government leaders), actively ignored the guidance for idiotic reasons.

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Asterose t1_j7iacdj wrote

Seriously. They might as well be saying "last week the weatherman said it would be sunny but NOW they're saying I'll need an umbrella tomorrow?! Those idiots who study weather are obviously useless and don't know what they're talking about!" Except instead of just risking getting soaked, they're playing games with a goddamn virus.

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birdstork t1_j7jicz0 wrote

People do say that about the weatherman - I hear it all the time. Meteorologists take time & explain how the pattern could shift but people don’t listen.

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Endogamy t1_j7jjuav wrote

Yeah complaining about inaccurate forecasts is so widespread and almost always wrong. It’s almost always someone who didn’t pay attention to the details of the forecast or misheard/misunderstood/misremembered it, or heard a forecast for another place but assumed it applied to them etc.

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Asterose t1_j7kifq2 wrote

And also doesn't understand that weather is just really damn difficult to predict. That humans have figured out the level of accuracy we do get now is genuinely impressive.

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Asterose t1_j7kip5x wrote

Slightly different, I'm well aware of that which is why I specified it being sunny last week, as in people thinking last week's sunny weather should mean it couldn't possibly be rainy tomorrow ;)

I might not have worded it quite clearly enough and gave the impression I meant people complaining about current forecasts being wrong. Weather is actually really difficult to predict in quite a few cases, so the level off accuracy we currently have is genuinely impressive, and I wish more people could appreciate that.

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jsgui OP t1_j7kgdd1 wrote

It would be like the weatherman playing the game of pretending the weather will be dry so when he goes to the shop there are still umbrellas in stock for him and the various other weathermen to buy. Then as soon as supply of umbrellas is not the pressing issue the weatherman admits it’s actually raining.

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jsgui OP t1_j7kg4sl wrote

At some point early on the guidance itself was untruthful. The public were being told that masks were not effective while various hospitals were buying and using them.

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CySU t1_j7klonm wrote

Those same people rely on monochromatic thinking to get through their daily lives. A lot less energy is spent weighing pros and cons so if someone else appears to be making conflicting statements overtime it’s a lot easier to dismiss as “hacks who can’t even get their story straight”.

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