Board 8 > Do you think coronavirus is now a bigger news story than 9/11 was?

(+) Yeah! (+)

ctesjbuvf posted...

I'm sure 9/11 "learned" people some things too.

lol nah. We really didnt. Some say we still as a country havent reflected and moved on from 9/11 fwiw.

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As bad as 9/11 was, at the end of the day most people weren't really affected by it too much. The wars in the middle east sucked, and the increased airport security is inconvenient, but it was far from the worst things that 9/11 could've led to.

Coronavirus is a lot more personal since even if no one you know catches it, your day to day life has still been greatly impacted by it for the last 4 days (or more) and counting. If this continues for at least another 3 weeks, I think it's no contest that coronavirus is more impactful.

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Talking about 9/11 in the past tense is why it's so much more powerful and destructive than this virus, which ultimately is temporary no matter how bad it gets (unless it becomes yearly.....). It has woven itself into all norms of society. It will NEVER go away.

For example:
ctesjbuvf posted...

Okay, you absolutely cannot pull the money argument against corona when it's basically just beginning and the whole world is in a finalcial crisis.

The goal of the virus financial crisis is to fix it and go back to how things were. The goal of the 9/11 financial crisis is to keep it going for as long as humanly possible, at the cost of as many "unimportant" lives as possible, and that's what the world has been doing.

In other words, the only reason the virus is causing such a financial crisis right now, is because of the massive inflationary machine driven by the never ending war that gained public approval after 9/11 all over the world (but especially US/EU). This is not a steady economy being broken, this is a bubble bursting. Blame the bubble moreso than the needle.

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For the world? Yes.

To America? Politicians have milked 9/11 for well over a decade.

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Oh look its the corona virus stay home for 2 week unless you are elderly than it might kill you

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metaIslug posted...

In 100 years people will know about 9/11 but they won't know about the virus imo

Unless the virus gets worse, but I don't think it will

What do you mean unless it gets worse?

Its getting worse every day. We already know we cant stop the spread we are literally in a "slow it down as much as possible" pattern right now.

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We still know about Spanish Flu
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metaIslug posted...

Do we? Ask young people or even adults about the Spanish flu. Or really any epidemic besides the black plague.

Clearly we just need an insidious sounding name and this will go down in history.

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One thing I would compare 9/11 to is Pearl Harbor, and I bet asking young people about Pearl Harbor would lead to similarly ignorant results
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As someone from the Caribbean, 9/11 was seen as a shocking event but not much more (I remember some classmates didnt know about it till the Wednesday). The only real change I noticed was at the airport.

In contrast COVID-19 has already caused schools here in Barbados to close early despite there being only single digit confirmed cases. People over 70 are told to stay indoors, cruise ships have stopped arriving. And yes even on a small island people are panic buying toilet paper

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9/11 was representative of a bigger problem than COVID-19 (so far). But certainly the virus is a bigger deal than 9/11 was by itself.

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Oooh aye, It's even.

9/11 also had Anthrax tossed in the mix.

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First responders and survivors of 9 11 are still dealing with the effects of all that was in the air after the buildings came down

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Curious what the "other" vote was for

And if it isn't already, covid will certainly be a bigger story by the time it's over.

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metaIslug posted...

I expect it to slow down significantly though.

Why


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9/11 is still (at this time) the bigger news event - but if Covid-19 results in a whole year of severely restricted economic and social activity while it kills 100ks of people all over the world it will probably be bigger. If we get it under control in 3 months or so and can return to normality with some social distancing, 9/11 would stay bigger.

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metaIslug posted...

In 100 years people will know about 9/11 but they won't know about the virus imo

Unless the virus gets worse, but I don't think it will

Bet most young people don't know about 9/11.

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Haste_2 posted...

9/11 was representative of a bigger problem than COVID-19 (so far). But certainly the virus is a bigger deal than 9/11 was by itself.

Im curious about what you see as the bigger problem

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metaIslug posted...

Is this a serious question?

Yes. What evidence is there that the virus is going to slow down anytime soon? At all?

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Maybe not if everyone was actually quarantining
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South Korea is several leagues above the rest of the world in handling this and they're still reporting new cases. The US is on about the same level as Italy in handling this and Italy isn't doing so hot right about now.

Jakyl25 posted...

Maybe not if everyone was actually quarantining

Basically, this

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I also just want to reiterate that I dont think 9/11 was a bigger deal than the tsunami that killed over 200,000 people, because that happened.

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One thing I will recognize is that New York was too slow to respond to its dense population being particularly hazardous for something like this. Its very possible, maybe even likely, that they will go over the tipping point for hospital care availability.

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red13n posted...

One thing I will recognize is that New York was too slow to respond to its dense population being particularly hazardous for something like this. Its very possible, maybe even likely, that they will go over the tipping point for hospital care availability.

I think it's extremely likely. They can still avoid most of the population getting it, but from what I've read some of the hospitals are near the breaking point now and we know it'll get considerably worse for at least the next week or two.

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yeah i think now it is

No contest. Beer virus has affected my life in 8 days more than 9/11 has affected my life in 20 years.

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red13n posted...

Clearly we just need an insidious sounding name and this will go down in history.

how about "China Virus"

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neonreaper posted...

how about "China Virus"

I prefer kung flu

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b7

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9 11 is a bigger story as it was done by humans.

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I am older than some on this site. I was just graduated from highschool when 9/11 happened. I very much remember it. but I still say this is bigger. this is crippling the entire planet

Right now the virus is, because it's affecting the whole globe every day. We'll see if the long lasting effects are as wild as 9/11's were

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Lightning Strikes posted...

I also just want to reiterate that I dont think 9/11 was a bigger deal than the tsunami that killed over 200,000 people, because that happened.

You think we'll get to 200,000 Corona deaths? We're currently at 19,000, including 3000 in China, after four months.
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Literally 25% of the world's population in lockdown right now.

Tell me again about 9/11.

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GildedFool posted...

Tell me again about 9/11.

You'll just ignore it again and act surprised when you repeat its mistakes

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Jakyl25 posted...

One thing I would compare 9/11 to is Pearl Harbor, and I bet asking young people about Pearl Harbor would lead to similarly ignorant results

Well at least up until this month I'd say Pearl Harbor was easily more well known than the Spanish Flu, at least in the US. Though it was also more recent.

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Yes, I think this is already bigger than 9/11.

9/11 may be a bigger single day event, but coronavirus is a bigger overall event due to the length of time it will be affecting the daily lives of so many people. 9/11 was also a more localized event (being based in the US), compared to coronavirus that is an international event.
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coronavirus is pretty big, but probably 9/11 is still bigger to me

but let's see what happens when New York runs out of hospital beds (I mean I'd rather not, but seems that's where things are headed)

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9/11 is a bigger news story in terms of impact. Since its terrorism

Corona virus will have a much more lasting impact

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These things are all a matter of perspective. For most of the world, Coronavirus is probably the bigger news story. However, for most Americans, Coronavirus is still merely a nuisance.

9/11 Literally shut down the entire nation out of fear and it shut it down very suddenly. I think some people forget that Downtown New York City blew up on live television right before the nation's eyes. Most of the nation watched it happen. It was the first attack on the mainland US since the American Civil War. It was a serious wake-up call to a nation that thought it was invincible. Even if you didn't think the US was invincible, The suddenness and visual impact of 9/11 were very powerful. I remember sitting down at work when it happened and staring at a TV that was in the break room with every employee in the shop. Each employee had stopped working and sat speechless with jaws wide open for quite sometime watching the towers collapse.

While the virus is a serious matter, not once has any news story about it completely stopped me in my tracks - or anyone else I know - the way that 9/11 did. The slow buildup, lack of real shutdowns (outside of sports, travel and leisure activities), and deaths limited to the elderly and those already in poor health really haven't been nearly as big of a shock to most Americans. So, while yes, it would be arrogant to assume that 9/11 affected the rest of the world as much as the USA, from an American perspective - 9/11 is still the bigger news story.

Now, if the US gets put in a China-style full lockdown for a couple of weeks/months or the death count spirals out of control with bodies piled up in the streets, then yes - the coronavirus could become a bigger news story in the US.

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By the time Sunday is here we will have lost more baseball than we lost for 9/11.

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cyko posted...

These things are all a matter of perspective. For most of the world, Coronavirus is probably the bigger news story. However, for most Americans, Coronavirus is still merely a nuisance.

9/11 Literally shut down the entire nation out of fear and it shut it down very suddenly. I think some people forget that Downtown New York City blew up on live television right before the nation's eyes. Most of the nation watched it happen. It was the first attack on the mainland US since the American Civil War. It was a serious wake-up call to a nation that thought it was invincible. Even if you didn't think the US was invincible, The suddenness and visual impact of 9/11 were very powerful. I remember sitting down at work when it happened and staring at a TV that was in the break room with every employee in the shop. Each employee had stopped working and sat speechless with jaws wide open for quite sometime watching the towers collapse.

While the virus is a serious matter, not once has any news story about it completely stopped me in my tracks - or anyone else I know - the way that 9/11 did. The slow buildup, lack of real shutdowns (outside of sports, travel and leisure activities), and deaths limited to the elderly and those already in poor health really haven't been nearly as big of a shock to most Americans. So, while yes, it would be arrogant to assume that 9/11 affected the rest of the world as much as the USA, from an American perspective - 9/11 is still the bigger news story.

Now, if the US gets put in a China-style full lockdown for a couple of weeks/months or the death count spirals out of control with bodies piled up in the streets, then yes - the coronavirus could become a bigger news story in the US.

I couldn't have put this better myself.

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We are going to approach or surpass 300 deaths tomorrow. And we are still likely a couple weeks from peaking.

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Perhaps 9/11 had more visual impact. It had explosions, airplane crashes, buildings crumbling and people dying en masse. An action/disaster movie gone live. Of course people would be glued to their TVs on that day. You don't actually see the deaths of the coronavirus. For most, it just means shelter in place, event cancellations and empty streets. The horror happening at the hospitals everyday happens indoors and does not reach the average healthy populace. Perhaps if ill bodies turned all purple, got massively suppurated and then exploded, then maybe, it would get more people's attention, yet they act as if the diseased were all dying from old age.

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cyan1001 posted...

First responders and survivors of 9 11 are still dealing with the effects of all that was in the air after the buildings came down

Several people who were inflicted with COVID-19 have also suffered permanent lung damage?

I think for the world, yes, easily. I've had MANY people tell me that they've never experienced anything like this and the situation the country is in now. I can see the US growing to that state, but as one of the posters said above, the impact of 9/11 was definitely that America, this untouchable nation, this emperor of the world, was attacked and suffered a devastating blow on their own territory by a foreign nation, which hadn't happened since basically Pearl Harbor (which was then in the middle of a World War as well). If 9/11 had happened anywhere else, and kids had told their parents they were afraid, the parents would have replied with "That won't/can't happen here". And then it did. It smashed the air of invulnerability that permeated the US, so in that sense I don't think coronavirus has "beaten" it yet when it comes to a news story in the US.

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Maybe it's because I was in the midwest but my life was definitely not "shut down" by 9/11. We didnt even stop classes for the day.

I remember a lot of mourning and sadness and fear and patriotism but 90% of stuff in my life kept going.

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