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I'm baffled how "just return to our lives" shows up as a foregone conclusion in the way many people think about this disease. The most realistic path to managi

I'm baffled how "just return to our lives" shows up as a foregone conclusion in the way many people think about this disease. The most realistic path to managing COVID is herd immunity. -> Just return to our lives. We may never achieve COVID herd immunity. We'll just keep getting it over and over. -> Just return to our lives. Sure, let's imagine a world where we accept widespread and repeated COVID infection as a presence in the average person's life. That means we should immediately, in every organized society, start planning for: - Significant growth in the numbers of the long-term disabled: Planning living environments for a population with chronic and lifelong respiratory damage. Many of us will be unable to run, distances we are expected to be able to reasonably cross on foot will shrink, and a lot fewer of us will be able to do manual labor such as construction or do jobs that require prolonged standing. - Planning for a vastly reduced employment, either because entire segments of the economy are no longer in demand, or because a lot fewer of us can take on certain jobs because of disability. - Significantly reduced average lifespans: changes to policies around retirement age, senior housing, life and health insurance policies, etc. I think saying "just return to our lives" obligates someone to describe what we should start doing to be able to live the kind of lives we will return to!

barbacoa 6y ago
I think it's interesting how freaked out people get when they realize how powerless we can be as a species even with all our technology. I'm baffled that "flatten the curve" is now "lock down until further notice".
- rumanator 6y ago
  If you want to understanf how "flatten the curve" turns into "lock down until further notice" you first need to take into consideration the fact that a) this phenomenon only happens in free democratic countries where the people have a say in picking their government, b) covid19 infection rates and deaths is used extensively by populist opposition parties to stir discontent torwards incumbent parties in particular but democratic regimes in general.

barbacoa 6y ago

I think it's interesting how freaked out people get when they realize how powerless we can be as a species even with all our technology. I'm baffled that "flatten the curve" is now "lock down until further notice".

rumanator 6y ago
If you want to understanf how "flatten the curve" turns into "lock down until further notice" you first need to take into consideration the fact that a) this phenomenon only happens in free democratic countries where the people have a say in picking their government, b) covid19 infection rates and deaths is used extensively by populist opposition parties to stir discontent torwards incumbent parties in particular but democratic regimes in general.