[quote Attheendofthedaywhenallsaid]@Tealightsandd why would you even think about these things? or post them? there have always been people that will un luckily suffer long term effects from random viruses, take the Herpes Simplex Virus, millions and millions of people catch it, no symptoms, some catch it mild symptoms, some catch it and end up in ITU. Im sure there are people that have caught Herpes and it has caused X Y and Z and we will never know.
Cannot live in fear.[/quote]
This pretty much.
The government cannot wrap everyone up in cotton wool and protect them from an airborne virus indefinitely.
Those most at risk of LC have been offered vaccination.
Those who are younger or at school may still be vulnerable but I have to say, to an extent its just life - and the government has no choice but to prioritise higher risk groups and acknowledge risk from other health conditions.
Very few people will die in their beds of old age, otherwise fit and healthy.
I genuinely think there are limitations to what the state can do.
Its a lottery as to what we are at higher risk from - some of it genetics and some of it socio-economic.
Given the nature of how more socially deprived communities have more under lying health issues directly related to poverty, I'd argue that restrictions are compounding health vulnerabilities of this group anyway and they now, largely have protections from the vaccine. Indeed we know the link between health risks and socio-economic issues and that this relates not just to covid but other conditions. We cannot separate the two things out. They are long term chronic issues that cannot be resolved overnight in the midst of a pandemic.
They are the result of decades of unresolved social issues by multiple governments and local authorities under different parties.
Long term this is where government intervention can improve things, but not in a crisis situation where efforts, resources and money are focused on maintaining restrictions.
Far from being unsympathetic to these issues, im very much of the mindset that they need addressing.
I think i see the only routes to resolution involving seeing the big picture and the many facets of it though. That does mean stopping this thing of only seeing covid and dealing with what has become unrealistic public expectations / disproportionate anxiety resulting from an inability to process and contextualise risk and balance with other competing issues.
This isnt easy. We have conditioned ourselves and been conditioned by government. A certain section of the population are always resistant to change and the change back to normality will be harder for some than others.
Our lifestyles have all been affected in one way or another. And some of these habits aren't good ones.
When i see posting with emotive language and the blinkers on, it does set off certain alarm bells and where someone is at with things.
Theres definitely posters who are struggling with context, risk assessment and don't understand evidence based medicine principles atm. Nor do they fully understand human behaviour in a liberal society and the limitations this places on governing in a crisis situation.
To put it another way, we are running out of options and running out of time and anything we do at this point is a gamble based on probability as we cannot see the future. Undoubtedly we will continue to make mistakes as a result and those with hindsight will remind everyone of those mistakes in due course.
At some point we will have to make a leap of faith whatever we do. Thats the trouble.