Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

Wait what?

“I also stopped worrying about COVID and wearing masks and keeping social distance. If humans are weak and die from a begnin virus then it's part of the circle of life. Keeping everyone alive through unsustainable measures only harms our planet due to over population and further exploitation.”

Benign?




COVID-19 really is a benign virus, as far a viruses go. I don't agree with the rest of that statement, but its effects on people infected are absolutely mild when compared to some other viruses: Polio, HIV and Ebola have much worse effects.

Other viruses that we control for with vaccination regularly have much more severe long-term effects than we now know from COVID, like causing birth defects (Rubella), deafness (Mumps), immunocompromization (Measles) or cancer (HPV).


Yes, humans in previous generations wouldn't even bat an eyelid at the death rates. it wasn't long ago that people used to willingly go on boat journeys even though 10% of the passengers would typically die on the way


> on boat journeys even though 10% of the passengers would typically die on the way

Source? Seems highly implausible (in general).


The "middle passage" portion of the slave trade saw ~15% mortality, though that would have been high for non-slave passenger travel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Passage

Deaths at sea definitely occurred. Credible accurate records don't seem to be available however, as this article's abstract notes:

Farley Grubb, "Morbidity and Mortality on the North Atlantic Passage: Eighteenth-Century German Immigration" (1987). https://www.jstor.org/stable/204611


Yeah, the only kind of boat where that was probably true was the kind where the majority of "passengers" definitely weren't going willingly.


"Coffin ships" that carried the Irish fleeing the potato famine to America were notorious for their death rate and generally bad conditions. Of course, this was an already weakened population of passengers.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: