Editing 2395: Covid Precaution Level

{{comic
| number    = 2395
| date      = December 7, 2020
| title     = Covid Precaution Level
| image     = covid_precaution_level.png
| titletext = It's frustrating to calibrate your precautions when there's only one kind of really definitive feedback you can get, you can only get it once, and when you do it's too late.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is another in a [[:Category:COVID-19|series of comics]] related to the {{w|2019–20 coronavirus outbreak|2020 pandemic}} of {{w|COVID-19}}. 

This comic seems to represent the problem that precautions that are insufficient feel excessive to many people and vice versa, thus there is such a large overlap between the 2 sections. Even a moderately sensible individual will likely consider some blanket precautions restrictive because they don't allow a nuance of behavior they think they should be able to embrace safely; meanwhile they'll find some of the actual official exceptions, that probably do not apply to them, to be taken reckless advantage of by others.  Additionally, neither range mentions whether the precautions are actually effective, which also can have a level of subjectivity.

Randall points out that part of the challenge with finding the 'right setting' is that you can only know for sure that your precautions were insufficient if and when you catch COVID ''and'' either get tested or develop symptoms, by which point it is too late to change your precautions (although your case could at least inform others). However, some people do not take precautions seriously even though they believe in COVID because they view it as a mild disease, like the common cold or influenza, that won't kill them, and there have been people who contracted COVID-19 multiple times, so perhaps Randall was referring to dying from COVID-19 instead.

==Transcript==
:<Big>COVID Precaution Level</big>
:[Shown is a control knob for adjusting the stringency of precautions taken against COVID-19 (the knob has a black line indicating exactly where it is pointing), with fewer precautions to the left, more to the right. Most of the lower two thirds of the range is labelled "precautions that feel insufficient"; most of the upper two thirds is labelled "precautions that feel excessive".  There is an overlap between the two, covering about 1/4 of the range.  The control is set to somewhat above the top of the "insufficient" subrange.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:COVID-19]]