@TheKeatingFive
I find the intolerance of Covid deaths, compared to the quite high acceptance (comparatively) of cancer deaths/RTA deaths (just plucking two examples) prior to the pandemic very interesting.
There is so much we could have done over the years to minimise cancer deaths. But we didn’t, because of cost, or the impact they’d have on our way of life (the irony).
And that’s before even getting started on the many preventable developing world deaths that would only take a bit of money thrown at them to sort.
The cognitive dissonance here raises many questions.
There's a few things to consider here.
First of all, I wouldn't say that there is a high tolerance of cancer deaths/RTA deaths (to use your examples).
Regarding cancer, we have pretty widespread screening programmes available already, including smear tests and mammograms as just two examples. The HPV vaccination has been rolled out to both boys and girls and will help to prevent certain types of cancer. There's information widely promoted about healthy lifestyles and preventative measures people can take in their day to day lives in order to reduce their risk of developing cancer. And there are treatments that are often successful too.
Regarding RTAs - people have to take a driving test before they are allowed to drive a car on their own. We have speed limits, traffic calming measures, speed cameras, and a system of fines/points as a deterrant. Cars over a certain age have to have an annual MOT to make sure they are road worthy.
And so on.
However, there are other aspects at play here too. You can't catch cancer off someone who has it. They don't need to die on their own. And you can't pass cancer on to your mum or your nan who might die from it.
Plus, the strain on the NHS from treating covid means that other treatments are being affected. I already know someone who has had a much needed operation cancelled because the NHS is under so much strain here.
What would you suggest as an alternative? If we let covid run rampant through the population, the NHS won't cope because it's already struggling now. We've got a high level of excess deaths already. Many people who have had covid are reporting long covid symptoms which are potentially life changing for them. And there is no suggestion from the research that herd immunity is something that is actually achievable simply through everyone catching it - because antibodies seem to disappear after a couple of months, and there are already reports of people catching this twice. It seems that the only ways we can manage this are either keeping covid suppressed at a manageable level which will mean either long term restrictions or repeated lockdowns until there is an effective treatment/testing system/vaccine in place, or going for a zero covid strategy, in which case we could be free from restrictions but would need extremely tight border controls.
I disagree that there is any cognitive dissonance between being concerned about covid and concerned about deaths from other causes.