Originally Posted by
exochaft
It's not worth the fight in this setting, as it's pretty clear in these forums who worships which idol... and idol worship at the altar of Scientism blinds those to not see anything objectively that counters their world view. Naysayers are trying to present a false binary choice, which results in you getting called names like "flat-earthers" as the standard snide retort. Irony is the earth being flat was considered scientifically true as a matter of consensus in the scientific community and beyond refute at the time, and people were chided/ridiculed (and worse) when they questioned the science presented to them, even when they had evidence and data to back up that the world was round. Further irony is that the same people calling you a "flat-earther" would probably be ridiculing you as a "round-earther" while feverishly defending the earth is flat themselves back in the day.
More back to my original point leading towards the Blizzcon discussion, a few of the concrete things we know about Covid-19 from local/international, peer-reviewed studies and data is that the virus ravages old people and those with pre-existing conditions (we knew this back in Feb/Mar), as well as knowing younger people are not the vector for the virus (basically the younger people don't spread Covid-19). Last I checked, we don't have 65+ year old people massively attending Blizzcon, and the amount of people with pre-existing conditions that would lead to an increased chance of dying from Covid-19 are likely very small. Even according to the local info for Covid-19 where Blizzcon is typically held, the vast majority of deaths are +65 and older, and it's not even close (most of which are LTC/nursing homes). I couldn't find the percentage of Covid-19 deaths that had comorbidity factors in the local/California data because it doesn't collect that info... but from data from multiple states/countries that do track this info, generally >90% of people dying from the virus have at least one comorbidity factor (where I live 98.2% of the people who have died in my state had comorbidity factors regardless of age).
The smart thing to do is not throw out hundreds of years of immunology science/knowledge by having Blizzcon with the following stipulations: if you're 65+ years old and/or have pre-existing conditions that don't jive with Covid-19... don't go, just stay home and get a Virtual Ticket. If you're young and healthy, come on in. If you're paranoid, you can wear gloves and masks as a personal choice.
If Blizzcon was held at a casino, where there's decently high levels of elderly playing slots/bingo/etc., I'd either cancel or change venues for certain. If Blizzcon was catering to old/infirm people as the major makeup of their audience, canceling Blizzcon would be an appropriate reaction. If Blizzcon had speakers/presenters lined up that were the target demo of Covid-19 deaths, I'd want them to not show up at all if they didn't want to and/or remotely present. Considering the actual data that can be extrapolated locally and worldwide, Covid-19 itself isn't a compelling enough reason to cancel an event such as Blizzcon given the demographic of people that show up in person. A more logical reason to cancel Blizzcon would be state/local governments pressuring and forcing Blizz to cancel, avoiding frivolous lawsuits from the "I got Covid-19 at Blizzcon, I'm suing!", or blaming the virus on not being able to have content ready for Blizzcon (whether legit or not). Considering they are delaying content until at least 2021 and doing the equivalent of a live stream, I'd say it's a combination of all these reasons.
Yes, Covid-19 is serious. However, it's not serious (nor statistically significant in most cases) to healthy, young people in comparison to most things that kill the same demographic every day. The virus is certainly serious to elderly people and/or those with pre-existing conditions that align with the comorbidity factors of said virus, especially if they're in LTC/nursing homes. For those that wish to virtue signal concerning the virus, using the Blizzcon announcement is probably the worst hill to die on. If you want to get angry at people recklessly endangering individuals, get angry at the handful of state governors that ordered LTC/nursing home facilities to harbor people who contracted/exposure to Covid-19 in their facilities. That's as close as letting the wolf into the hen house as you can get.