The bottom line is that every virus strategy is going to be "risking lives". From the "do nothing and hope it goes away" strategy to the "shut everything down and hope it goes away" strategy, through all the "flattening the curve" strategies in between, they're all going to be risking lives, given no-one really knows how this is going to work out.

But one thing I do know is that now is not the time for political grandstanding or international conflict. We're all in this together as a planet, and our best chance of getting through it is by working together.

And I also know I would prefer to listen to a group of people who have spent their careers specialising in studying how infectious diseases spread. As the original article says, this list has "no leading experts in the science of the spread of diseases", and if anyone has taken the time to look at the list it is largely maths PhD students and the like. Which I guess is still better than the Silicon Valley charlatans and wannabe social media influencers who seem to be getting a disturbingly uncharacteristic amount of airtime on HN at the moment.