ML2 @mathlover@social.cleverlibre.org

@sdas

The phrase "COVID grows exponentially" is a shortened form of the notion that, *in an ideal environment when there are no measures/mitigating factors being taken*, COVID will grow *initally* according to an exponential curve. This is true not just of COVID, but of any infectious disease introduced into an ideal environment where there is no native immunity.

If one were to assume that no one did anything and everyone carried on as normal, over time this curve would become sigmoidal rather than exponential. This would be because COVID would have infected everyone it could (which could mean everyone period in this hypothetical) and unless you think, say, 0.5~2% of those infected people dying is a good thing, I'd say that this end case scenario isn't something we would want to see.

@EuphoriaLavender
Unfortunately, I liked to comment on active discussions on Twitter, and there's no way to avoid the awful parts then. It's one thing to have occasional ad hominem arguments show up, it's another thing when everyone in a thread is doing it, while agreeing with you, in reply to you pointing out someone else's ad hominem.

Twitter's small length limit and poor support for multi-tweet replies inhibit thoughtful, nuanced discourse and make poorly-thought out simplifications the path of least resistance. At least on Mastodon the default is longer and you can choose instances with longer limits.

@joey_zozo
Oh. XD

@joey_zozo
Huh? How?

@akeno @sda
> Planned surgeries worldwide have been cancelled hospitals have never been more empty.
What does that have to do with COVID case counts? Also, the graph is for Michigan and encompasses a long timescale in a state with control measures. Not sure why it's Michigan, and not sure what this proves about COVID having exponential growth rates when nothing is done about it.

> not your careerist corrupt parents.
Akeno, my parents refused to specialize into more lucrative roles because as generalist they could do more clinical work and help treat people more effectively. Don't ad hominem and insult them again, or I'm going to stop talking to you on this.

@sda I'll concede economics doesn't excuse alarmism. You are right about that.

Please explain your position in the second paragraph regarding COVID not being exponential in growth. As a mathematics doctoral student whose parents are both medical doctors knowledgeable about epidemiology and involved in COVID mitigation in our area, I'm all ears.

@sda To be fair, just because the media is going overboard in your area doesn't mean cases aren't exploding elsewhere. Also, COVID has this tendency to be exponential, so if you are in an urban area (like Ashevlle) and enough people aren't following social distancing or wearing masks (I'm not there, so I wouldn't know), this could get ugly.

While this does sound alarmist, it's local TV news. How else would they make bank besides ad revenue? Zero-point energy using viewer stupidity as a catalyst?

@essie
Race is a social construct in the same sense that "warm", "cold" and "hot" are. One may not be able to define a point where "cold" water becomes "warm", but one can certainly say that the water that scalded you in the shower isn't "cold". There is an underlying phenomenon, but it is one of continuous variation rather than discrete well-defined blocks. The same applies to differences in human populations.

@LaF0rge From what I am reading this sounds like Mexico is unfortunately adopting the same restrictions as the DMCA here. It's more complicated than the article says (jailbreaking and rooting are still common in the US, Sailfish OS is still legal, etc, etc.) but this definitely is not a good development.

@doliu666 Same. Being booted off of large all-consuming platforms may be a bad thing, but in this case it couldn't have happened to a more deserving guy.