Never has a virus been so oversold

[StitchInLime]

A friend just sent this article from The Spectator to our Whatssap group and I have to confess, I'm struggling to counter the statements made in it.

www.spectator.co.uk/article/never-has-a-virus-been-so-oversold

HAS this virus been oversold? Now we have a better understanding of it, is it time to relax a bit?

Or is this article wrong? And if so, how (no need to get into debate about the author and source, but I mean the quoted stats)? I feel I need to argue against it in the Whatssap group but am struggling with how.

[LastTrainEast]

it's nonsense. For example it compares how many died from the Asian flu of 1957 with how many died from covid and it forgets that this is how many died from covid despite the whole world going into lockdown and despite medical advances since 1957.

"The government has destroyed the country, and needs to keep ramping up the hysteria the better to keep destroying it." Not just this country but all the countries. Presumably on orders from the Freemason Lizard people (Like the Queen) or maybe aliens.

[Ethelfleda]

I’m not the right person to answer you because he has really just summed up how I feel about it all.

[Northernsoulgirl45]

Without lockdown more would have died or suffered long term complications. In fact we should have locked down sooner so we could come out of lockdown sooner. Unfortunately BJ was more interested in baby showers than running the Country.

[amusedtodeath1]

Relax a little yes, that's exactly what we are doing while the temperature is warm. No one can predict what will happen when winter sets in but I suspect it will be completely different to what's happening now.

It seems like it was oversold now, but it didn't in March and it probably won't feel like that over Winter either.

[Mustbetimeforachange]

And me (Lionel Shriver is female though)

[CruCru]

And me!

[Keepdistance]

The danger is of the deaths or disability of the young healthy people. Under 70 and working. Many with long covid. The dr xand with a new heart issue and under 65.
Also it's due to the need for such long hospital treatment as that can save lives but cannot be available to everyone. So then you have a 1% risk of death become whatever % dying just because they need oxygen and that can be any age but more as you get older. Few countries can prvide that to everyone at once.
If you wanted to go for herd immunity (which the uk are doing slowly) you would need lots of lockdowns and releases. And have to be careful not to exceed capacity. Capacity was exceeded in london parts of italy and new york.
I thunk sending all dc back to school will be the start of the next wave. But he gov dont want to be blamed for all the deaths. Otherwise they would insist on masks in school and part time like many other countries

[Eng123]

If its right what does it change for you? All anyone can do is their best to keep going. We have no influence on the policy and have to live or die with the consequences, I feel the same about Brexit - a total disaster but one that sould have been avoided!

[bibbitybobbitycats]

Lionel is slightly known for being deliberately provocative at times I think? There was that odd picture with the UFF mug for starters.

www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/lionel-shriver-i-do-not-want-to-be-told-i-m-privileged-1.3512472

[Hazelnutlatteplease]

The death toll is only what it is because countries did what they needed to (just about) in time.

You need to look at countries where it has gone unchecked to know we dodged a bullet. And we still haven't fully assessed the long term lung damage yet.

China had its first cases/deaths in the November it took until February-ish for china to recognise the magnitude of the crisis. This is a slow burn.

[ACautionaryTale]

Social media is to blame

If this was the 1980s we wouldn’t have had this lockdown shit to deal with

It would have been a very bad flu year

I am 100% certain sociologists will conclude this in the future

[Ethelfleda]

(Lionel Shriver is female though)

Whoops

[MotheringShites]

Thank the lord for Lionel Shriver.

[bibbitybobbitycats]

@ACautionaryTale

Social media is to blame

If this was the 1980s we wouldn’t have had this lockdown shit to deal with

It would have been a very bad flu year

I am 100% certain sociologists will conclude this in the future

I know social media is to blame for a lot of things, but I honestly don't think it is the cause of half the world going into lockdown. The virus is the cause of that.

[Eng123]

@Keepdistance
"
he gov dont want to be blamed for all the deaths. Otherwise they would insist on masks in school and part time like many other countries"

Can you explain that? What is to gain by doing so. The reason we are going back full time is that our society is geared around full time education and the average working family cant support education if children at home medium/long term.
Masks are a barrier to education. Let's see if the rates begun to rise nor not and then adapt. Certainly pubs and sports should close before schools.

[MotheringShites]

Without the internet it would have been impossible for all those people to WFH. We would have had to get on with it.

[onedayinthefuture]

@ACautionaryTale I really think you could be right. Social media and the media have a lot to answer for.

Many of us could have been none the wiser. The hospitals shut down to pretty much everything else so they were going to make sure they coped.

[ACautionaryTale]

@bibbitybobbitycats

No, if there hadn’t been the doomsday end of days posts on social media

Half the world
Would not have gone into lockdown

Politicians reacted to pressure

Just look at what happened when Boris announced a herd immunity strategy (which I still believe is the best) and then backtracked because of media reaction

[thenightsky]

@Ethelfleda

I’m not the right person to answer you because he has really just summed up how I feel about it all.

Me too.

[CuriousaboutSamphire]

...and the Earth is still flat; moon landings fake and 5G is fucking evil!