{"id":51703,"date":"2020-03-10T08:58:51","date_gmt":"2020-03-10T13:58:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=51703"},"modified":"2020-03-10T08:58:53","modified_gmt":"2020-03-10T13:58:53","slug":"the-virus-is-a-time-machine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=51703","title":{"rendered":"The Virus is a Time Machine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Virus is a Time Machine<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/a>
Heinrich Hofmann\u00a0Christ and the Rich Young Man\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>1889<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Around mid-January I started including coronavirus news in the daily Automatic Earth \u201cDebt Rattle\u201d news aggregators, and wrote the first essay on the topic on January 29. Tons of people since have asked why, but I thought the virus had \u201cpotential\u201d. Though not everybody would agree, I still think that. So the Debt Rattles are full of coronavirus these days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a proper understanding, we must remember that China was 4-5 weeks too late in reporting the disease, and after that the west was 4-5 weeks late in acting on the news. This happens simply because a politician who cries wolf will have a short career, and reporters, certainly today, follow that same model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I explained 5 weeks ago why this happens the way it does in China in The Party and the Virus<\/strong><\/a>, but western countries\u2019 political and media systems are structured very much the same way. Being early to warn does not help your job prospects. Unless you\u2019re 100% sure, but then you won\u2019t be alone and there\u2019s nothing left to warn about. So might as well stay mum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until you must speak, and then you\u2019re way behind, and you\u2019ll be as wrong as you are late. Cast in stone. Bias \u201cR\u201d Us. But then, that\u2019s why there\u2019s the Automatic Earth. The Matrix is never perfectly sealed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the case of COVID19, the story is not about the numbers of cases or fatalities at any given point after two months and change, it\u2019s about the disruption it will cause. We have a highly contagious virus that can cause death. That is all you need to know really. Feel free to claim that reactions and measures are over the hill, but no government has the option to say things are not all that bad and it\u2019s business as usual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Virus is a Time Machine Around mid-January I started including coronavirus news in the daily Automatic Earth \u201cDebt Rattle\u201d news aggregators, and wrote the first essay on the topic on January 29. Tons of people since have asked why, but I thought the virus had \u201cpotential\u201d. Though not everybody would agree, I still think […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[29193,28817,29192,14788,29194,441,1464,512,29196,1577,19497,13924,29195,740,5177,29197],"class_list":["post-51703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-cases","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid19","tag-deaths","tag-dynamics","tag-iran","tag-italy","tag-media","tag-nntaleb","tag-politicians","tag-precautionary-principle","tag-raul-ilargi-meijer","tag-seasonal-flu","tag-south-korea","tag-the-automatic-earth","tag-trendlines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51703"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51704,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51703\/revisions\/51704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}