#1 ·
I’m kindly asking for a review and a change in how the COVID topic is being "moderated" in the politics section.
Exponential growth is currently being proven in Europe—if you look at the data from Denmark or the Netherlands, for example, and compare it to the growth rates reported by other reliable sources just a few days ago, or even China outside of the Hubei province from last month—it's a trending topic on Google... yet posts containing recommendations from the WHO, Mayo Clinic, and similar organizations are being deleted under the guise of "avoiding panic."
The first thing I want to address is that "panic," as the moderator perceives it, seems to be a very subjective concept based more on zombie movies and perhaps reading too many posts about immigrants (and no, I’m not being sarcastic or mocking, I’m just observing) rather than the actual definition of the word.
The second thing I want to touch on is that—since this is the largest forum in the country, and there's a high chance people will come here looking for individual advice because the topic is indexed in search engines—it is extremely dangerous during this epidemiological phase to repeatedly claim that the WHO, Mayo Clinic, and FEMA are idiots... we all know that people in certain parts of our own country don't need much encouragement to simply ignore official guidelines just because they are labeled as "recommendations."
I'm no statistics expert, so I listen to those I trust—and I assume others do too regarding this matter—otherwise, I ask my doctor, and my doctor tells me what the health authorities tell them. However, I do understand the law, and a recommendation from an official body is a legally significant matter that shouldn't be allowed to be mocked or deleted "to prevent panic." Recommendations from public or emergency agencies are based on the constitutional assumption that we are all free, civilized members of a community who realize we have an impact on it, and they rely on that. We've seen clearly in other countries how things unfold when recommendations aren't taken seriously, forcing the government to declare a state of emergency and then implement mandatory measures—nobody decides on that easily, and usually, such decisions are made far too late.
So, I am truly, most kindly asking you to assign someone to moderate this topic according to the general forum rules.
There will always be some contrarians, conspiracy theorists, rude individuals, nationalists, and the like (I run into them on the train every day, after all—they actually just stopped laughing at me today for coughing into a tissue and being angry that I smell like antiseptic because I had to touch something )... but the general forum rules are more than enough to keep them in check.
There is a massive difference between being cautious and panicking.
So, please consider this. Thank you and best regards...
Exponential growth is currently being proven in Europe—if you look at the data from Denmark or the Netherlands, for example, and compare it to the growth rates reported by other reliable sources just a few days ago, or even China outside of the Hubei province from last month—it's a trending topic on Google... yet posts containing recommendations from the WHO, Mayo Clinic, and similar organizations are being deleted under the guise of "avoiding panic."
The first thing I want to address is that "panic," as the moderator perceives it, seems to be a very subjective concept based more on zombie movies and perhaps reading too many posts about immigrants (and no, I’m not being sarcastic or mocking, I’m just observing) rather than the actual definition of the word.
The second thing I want to touch on is that—since this is the largest forum in the country, and there's a high chance people will come here looking for individual advice because the topic is indexed in search engines—it is extremely dangerous during this epidemiological phase to repeatedly claim that the WHO, Mayo Clinic, and FEMA are idiots... we all know that people in certain parts of our own country don't need much encouragement to simply ignore official guidelines just because they are labeled as "recommendations."
I'm no statistics expert, so I listen to those I trust—and I assume others do too regarding this matter—otherwise, I ask my doctor, and my doctor tells me what the health authorities tell them. However, I do understand the law, and a recommendation from an official body is a legally significant matter that shouldn't be allowed to be mocked or deleted "to prevent panic." Recommendations from public or emergency agencies are based on the constitutional assumption that we are all free, civilized members of a community who realize we have an impact on it, and they rely on that. We've seen clearly in other countries how things unfold when recommendations aren't taken seriously, forcing the government to declare a state of emergency and then implement mandatory measures—nobody decides on that easily, and usually, such decisions are made far too late.
So, I am truly, most kindly asking you to assign someone to moderate this topic according to the general forum rules.
There will always be some contrarians, conspiracy theorists, rude individuals, nationalists, and the like (I run into them on the train every day, after all—they actually just stopped laughing at me today for coughing into a tissue and being angry that I smell like antiseptic because I had to touch something )... but the general forum rules are more than enough to keep them in check.
There is a massive difference between being cautious and panicking.
So, please consider this. Thank you and best regards...