Chat about Novel Coronavirus - 2019-nCoV - COVID-19

Enter the Common Sense Group.

How wonderful. Rather proves my point. I think.

Common sense as a concept is pure bollocks. "It's never common and very rarely sense", is my view.

Ok - how about"common knowledge" then ?

Clapham common?

I'll confess to a possible case of "breaking the rules" - basically my parents collected me 3 weeks early because I fractured my elbow and couldn't easily carry shopping, do washing up, cook etc.

Really fucking shit the way that people who follow the rules get shafted hardest but that seems to be a built-in feature of the government's strategy. I trust most people on this thread are sensible and well-informed (i.e. have the sense to isolate for 2 weeks before you go anywhere along with testing and avoiding anyone on the journey) and if so it's hard to see why you shouldn't carefully/cautiously skirt the rules, because the reward for compliance is having your plans turned on their head with a few days' or even hours' notice.

Hopefully I'm allowed back into Scotland...

Can't drive. it's OK i think the crazy rush will have been yesterday and today. Fingers crossed.

the reward for compliance

There is no 'reward'.

.https://freakonomics.com/2011/09/29/the-myth-of-common-sense-why-the-social-world-is-less-obvious-than-it-seems/

The concept of “exchanging presents” in the context of a global pandemic is beyond fucking baffling. I would say the same about Christmas, but appreciate the country is probably full of god-botherers attending church 52 weeks of the year.

Feeling ok I hope, not hit badly with symptoms?

You’re right, common sense means something different to everyone.

Everyone’s fear of consequence and death is different.
So if you regularly drink drive without insurance, you’re probably not going to be that fussed about wearing a mask or caring about the welfare of others.

I wonder what compliance to covid restrictions are the more ‘risky’ your lifestyle is?
For example if you’re a brake less fixie courier, are you strictly covid secure?

Excellent article. My favourite section

Common sense, in other words, is extremely good at making the world seem sensible, quickly classifying believable information as old news, rejecting explanations that don’t coincide with experience, and ignoring counterfactuals. Viewed this way, common sense starts to seem less like a way to understand the world, than a way to survive without having to understand it.

One problem in this specific situation is that the general population doesn't understand disease transmission and risk in a sufficiently detailed way to override habitual behavior, especially when it's wonderful or inconvenient. We also don't appreciate the accumulation of lots of small additional risks, that we justify in our own case, into a national shift in infection rate and, ultimately, death.

The problem isn’t southerners having a jolly up to the lakes, it’s the fundamental economic unbalance of the country which forces northerners to head south to gain employment.

Ftfy

Does anybody know if this new strain is confined to the Uk at the moment or not?

Just have this nagging feeling that the whole of Europe has it and Johnson is just using it as an excuse for being a self serving feckless cunt.

A little thing that annoyed me about the BoJo presser yesterday.

One of the scientists made the point that asymptomatic transmission is high, so we always have to assume that we might be infectious.

BoJo jumped on it and said "Yes, this is very important, always act as if you my might be infectious."

No, no, no, you fucking cretin. Always act as if you ARE infectious. Just a little example of how to undermine the messaging by being a bit stupid.

Magnify by size of audience, and this little thing becomes a big thing.

Along with the UK, the same mutation of the Covid-19 virus has also been detected in the Netherlands, Denmark and Australia

^ From a BBC article. If its in the UK and Australia, does that mean its everywhere?

John Mack has a lot to answer for...

I might move up north (not sure where you are) just to be close to you.

She had options is my point.

Just have this nagging feeling that the whole of Europe has it and Johnson is just using it as an excuse for being a self serving feckless cunt.

My feeling too, conspiracy theory alert; feel like it’s an excellent claim to make to prevent sounding like he’s doing a U turn again without admitting they didn’t do enough; it was the virus that mutated

the reward for compliance

There is no 'reward'.

Increasing your own chances of getting through the pandemic without contracting COVID, and doing what you can to protect people around you? Not being moralistic, I just think it’s by no means a wasted effort. Even if it feels that way... :/

By the time they notice it, let alone announce it, it’s all over the place.

one fairly depressing feature of this pandemic is the consistently infantile levels of morality expressed. classic examples:

he / she / they broke the rules therefore so should I be able to.

it's their fault for not telling me how I should / shouldn't behave.

why should I obey the rules if it involves hardship for which I am not rewarded?

This ^

I blame ...

Please wait until the pandemic has abaited, and travel is permitted. Then wait a bit longer.