[quote Porcupineinwaiting]@Ohthatsgreat it's not lockdown that causes missed cancer care appointments, it's the pandemic itself. Not having lockdown would fill the hospitals with COVID patients even more, making them even more dangerous to those with underlying conditions, especially cancer patients receiving treatment, and result in many more missed appointments as staff got sick or were diverted, or because the patients themselves became too scared to attend.[/quote]
My argument here is (sorry for caps but it seems difficult to get this point across):
LOCKDOWN IS NOT A SOLUTION
Lockdown is a lazy, unimaginative panic measure that appeases the fearful and suits people who have comfortable living conditions and 'safe' jobs.
It doesn't actually do anything positive.
With lockdown, people still struggled to access healthcare, so it didn't solve that problem.
With lockdown, other illnesses, especially mental illnesses have not only been neglected, they have increased, due to isolation, loneliness, stress, lack of access to support etc. It didn't solve a problem there, it created one.
Lockdown causes people to lose their livelihoods, their businesses and their jobs. Again, not solving a problem, just creating one.
Thousands of people who locked down and followed every rule still got covid, many of them in hospital, when they were at their most vulnerable. Once again, not solving a problem, just delaying one.
Meanwhile, people who are at low risk, who could be out there making the world work, ensuring the vulnerable have what they need, keeping the economy going to ensure a steady supply of funding the NHS, education and everything else that's necessary to keep people healthy and functioning, are pointlessly stuck at home, wasting months and months while things fall apart. Further still, not solving a problem, just creating many many more.
Lockdown is cowardly, clumsy, destructive and ineffective. It should never be a go-to option. And yet, here are so many governments, stuck going back and forth on the same 'solution' despite the havoc it's wreaking. It's unbelievable really - incredibly shortsighted and just plain stupid.
We will all look back on this time and say 'what the fuck were we thinking?' With a bit of perspective there will be very few people who look back and think 'that was the right choice.'
It is a bad choice. There is no other way to colour it. For middle-class and wealthy people, it's a struggle. For poor people it's potentially a death sentence. But hey, it 'saves lives' - as in, it saves the lives the powerful people care about - and fuck everyone else eh?