3 ms·

Do you think the economic effects would have been the same without a lockdown? We had a pretty bad flu season a couple of years ago, but no lockdown and no eco

• gdubs 6y ago
  I think it would have been worse; maybe not immediately, but over the long term I think it would be catastrophic. The movie theater is on fire — how long can you keep it open? Keeping it open means it’s harder to keep the fire under control — and you risk the theater burning down completely. And how many people are going to want to keep going to a smoke filled theater? “Don’t worry, it’s only a risk for the people in the cheap seats.” As far as the flu, this pandemic has revealed how cavalier we are about it. It is, as you say, an almost yearly strain on our system. So, for one, we’re adding an even bigger strain on top of an already big strain. Second, this is a novel virus — inherently there’s a lot more risk. There’s a lot we don’t understand, including whether there’s lingering conditions for otherwise young and healthy people.