DEADLINE open thread. Have a party.

Honestly, I think many of the testing measures for KA have more to do with paranoia than effectiveness (my! what a shocking concept!).

I'm thinking of how Dr. Abbey, who is clearly a competent albeit arrogant researcher and knows a bit about KA, handled Shaun's party. She didn't need testing units to figure out if they had amplified. It's not rocket science.

Now, should everyone be as lackadaisical about it as her? No. But do they need to be tested eight times just to get into an apartment building? Absolutely not.

Frankly, I can think of a lot of better, safer, and more effective ways to prevent outbreaks in populated areas. But... it's like in 1984. The point is not to Win the War. The point is to waste resources and retain the siege mentality.

Agreed.

My overall reaction to the books is that she is writing something of an allegory on our current culture of fear and terror, and how much that's changed through time. And yeah - I don't want to live that way. We don't need to live that way.

Yeah, between the blood tests to get into and out an elevator, and the airplane bathroom, you do think, "Isn't there any point where you can assume you're safe for five minutes?"

Then when you remember that random amplification out of nowhere can happen... yeah. They have reasons.

Well, I can think of a few hypothetical "better" ways to handle random amplification. But I think the risk of random amplification is seriously overstated and suspect that the CDC is way inflating those numbers. I mean, when was the last time you saw someone randomly keel over and die on the way to the bathroom?

I suspect that their reasons have a great deal more to do with control and maintaining a culture of fear, rather than preventing an outbreak.

That too. I'm just also thinking that there is some (slight?) justification for the policy in addition to fear-mongering. It's like why we get searched for certain shit at the airport every time: because it happened once, we should assume it could and will happen again, even though it's not likely. So there's less bitching than there could be because it did happen once, rather than "So far nobody's smuggled a bomb in their uterus, so all women need a gyno exam before getting on a plane." (Though that day is probably coming soon.)

Not that I like that at the airport either.

Welllll ... I realize their reasons have way more to do with control/etc... BUT...

When's the last time I _saw_ someone randomly keel over? Never. When's the last time it happened? Every single day, without even the slightest doubt.

I was honestly really surprised the CDC bathroom didn't have a test kit to get out, because dying going to the bathroom isn't anywhere near out of the question. (It's kinda common-ish... bathroom stuff lowers your blood pressure and if it's already weird/low... BAM.)

It's not that these things can Never Ever happen. They... could. (I'm not so sure about people dying on the toilet every day; if that were the case, it wouldn't get in "News of the Weird". OTOH, I know that older people "vagal out" and knock themselves unconscious all the freaking time - oh, the things you hear from EMTs).

The thing is, I strongly suspect that they could handle these issues better. The level of protection they have now could be equally provided by low-tech means, with far less fanfare, or using the level of technology shown, they could be at the point where it would be pretty inconceivable for someone to encounter a zombie. But they're offering neither. What we're seeing is high intrusiveness with low value.