I still remember the discussions when it still was China's problem. People were already speculating that the virus might have spread across the globe. When the first European countries got hit and basic data was available, the deaths of millions was already predicted in academia. Scientists knew this would become a real problem.
This simply shows that most humans are incapable of risk assessment and unwilling to take measures in advance.
Instead, they rather wait for shit to hit the fan and then deal with the problem applying reactionary "solutions". It's the same bs with all our (global) issues: the vast majority is not going to take it seriously until it's too late, until they experience the negative impact themselves - and even that can't beat chronic denial.
Our species really has to change on a fundamental level.
When you think about it, human evolution happens on the scale of millions of years, yet our recorded history is what -- maybe 20k at most? We could be generous and call it 100k. Either way, that still means we're the stupidest possible species to have formed a modern society. Like, we crossed some bare-minimum evolutionary threshold, and there hasn't been enough time or genetic engineering to advance further. We think of ourselves as smart but that's only cause we compare ourselves to apes. Future humans who have evolved or (more likely) engineered themselves will look at all of us like we look at chimps.
We are the bare minimum of what it takes to form a modern society.
I work in biotech, and my coworkers and I were eating lunch in March chatting about what was about to happen. Everyone was casual and was like "we'll be back to work in about 6 weeks." I stayed quiet for a couple minutes then said, "in about 2 weeks, you are going to start to see some shit. And in about a month or two, we'll see the real shit and we'll know how fucked we are.". People blinked, and then kinda laughed me off. Everyone got on board shortly thereafter. I know what you mean.
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u/Kavinsky12 16d ago
And then he gets it, and he says "it wasn't so bad."
As if he doesn't arguably have access to the best healthcare in human existence.
Just downplaying something that's killed thousands and grinded the world to a halt.