@50but17inside
So interested to read a comment above fabout this all being an over reaction when death rate is so low. I see and hear this sentiment from people all the time and it shocks me that so many people still don’t get it.
The death rate is irrelevant. Taking all emotion out of it, on a purely objective basis it doesn’t matter how many old people die - in fact let’s be honest, it’s economically positive for old people to die. That’s not what this is about. It’s about the number of people who will get the virus - young and old - and will need a hospital bed and - this is the key bit - the services of trained medical staff to recover. I honestly don’t think the government messaging about this has been clear enough. People still don’t understand.
Yes, this. And the wider societal effects of allowing a virus that spreads so much free reign - I am so baffled when people talk about how they think it's an over reaction, as if they somehow believe that if we hadn't locked down, if we hadn't brought in restrictions, masks, SD, then by some magic everything would be ok and people wouldn't be losing work or having MH issues. It wouldn't just have been the death rate which would have been far, far higher, but the rate of infection affecting every single industry with more and more people off sick or isolating. Imagine the effect it would have if allowed to rip free - decimation of services at every level, mass MH issues due to the shock of mass deaths and what that would look like in an NHS utterly overrun, other illnesses even more left undiagnosed and untreated meaning far, far more deaths of cancer, sepsis, a hundred other things.
People who say it's an overreaction due to the small death rate remind me of people who say all the fuss about the millennium bug was an overreaction. They do not do their research to find out that for many years IT people worked round the clock to mitigate the issue. Without that work it would indeed have caused worldwide chaos. And the same with this. As the WHO says, the best way to make sure of better effects through society at every level is to contain the virus.
Now, I think our government have done things badly. They've made stupid and seemingly arbitrary decisions at times. They've dilly dallied too long and given contracts to their mates so wasted billions. But what choice was there? It's not like we're the only country in the world to impose lockdowns. Those who say it's an overreaction, what would you do?
I have every sympathy for those struggling. It's ok to say that and reach out. This is really, really crap. I've been shielding for most of this year and I am fed up. But there's also a part of me that gets very upset when people go on about how this is only existing, that it's not life, because for me and many other disabled and long term sick people this is life and we find ways to draw joy in the everyday even when housebound for months or years. It's really offensive when people belittle our lives in this way - and even more so when we are then blamed for all of this, as those pesky people who are just going to die anyway so why is the government bothering?
I think that, on the contrary, history will judge us harshly for not reaching quickly enough. 80,000 people have died of Covid - of, not with - see ONS - and excess deaths are even higher. Sometimes we forget what an utter tragedy that is in our scramble to minimise because the majority are old and/or sick anyway.
So yes. It sucks. But it is what it is and we just have to get through. Hope is on the horizon with the vaccine, the government will hurry it up because all they want is a growing economy again. It will get done and once most of us pesky old and vulnerable are done it'll be far less of a problem in hospitals. Sadly some healthy people will still die of it or contract long covid but it'll be more like flu, that will just happen. It's arresting the exponential nature of it that matters here so that we can begin to ease things.
It will get better. It will.