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Australia will be the slowest to go back to normal since they will need to maintain national quarantine forever - until a suitable vaccine is found and administ

Australia will be the slowest to go back to normal since they will need to maintain national quarantine forever - until a suitable vaccine is found and administered. $25,000 per person is a huge amount of money, far greater than for any national scheme, ever. Probably approaching Australia's expenditure for a world war or major international conflict. Keep in mind that currently in Europe - there is very limited excess mortality. For example in Belgium right now, there are less excess deaths than from a heatwave in August: https://www.euromomo.eu/graphs-and-maps/#z-scores-by-country https://www.euromomo.eu/graphs-and-maps/#z-scores-by-country Sweden and other non-lockdown countries are already back to normal. The only thing preventing normality is politicians who insist on lockdowns for a virus which is currently not causing excess deaths beyond what we would expect from regular influenza.

doubleunplussed 6y ago
The fear is the trend, not the numbers so far. Belgium's healthcare system is at breaking point, and the death rate is doubling maybe every 10 days: https://chrisbillington.net/COVID/Belgium.svg https://chrisbillington.net/COVID/Belgium.svg
0xfaded 6y ago
Well, my parents live in Perth. They've been living a normal existence since May. Monetarily, it's no different than any other medical expenditure. Would you spend 25k for an extra year of normal life? What about if you're 20-30? Colour me jealous.
- Devils-Avocado 6y ago
  In Sweden 0.06% of the population has died from COVID, and those that did have a median age of about 80. Would you pay $25,000 in order to have a 1 in 1,666 chance of living an extra few months when you are 80 years old? No one would take those odds - but it has been forced on the population.
  - 0xfaded 6y ago
    I'm not talking about dying, I'm talking about normal life. I live in Denmark, with arguably more restrictions than Sweden. I'd happily sacrifice 25k in future lifetime earnings to have 2020 back. (BTW, as a startup founder, the possible costs of COVID may wind up being far more disastrous to my lifetime earnings)

doubleunplussed 6y ago

The fear is the trend, not the numbers so far. Belgium's healthcare system is at breaking point, and the death rate is doubling maybe every 10 days: https://chrisbillington.net/COVID/Belgium.svg https://chrisbillington.net/COVID/Belgium.svg

0xfaded 6y ago

Well, my parents live in Perth. They've been living a normal existence since May. Monetarily, it's no different than any other medical expenditure. Would you spend 25k for an extra year of normal life? What about if you're 20-30? Colour me jealous.

Devils-Avocado 6y ago
In Sweden 0.06% of the population has died from COVID, and those that did have a median age of about 80. Would you pay $25,000 in order to have a 1 in 1,666 chance of living an extra few months when you are 80 years old? No one would take those odds - but it has been forced on the population.
- 0xfaded 6y ago
  I'm not talking about dying, I'm talking about normal life. I live in Denmark, with arguably more restrictions than Sweden. I'd happily sacrifice 25k in future lifetime earnings to have 2020 back. (BTW, as a startup founder, the possible costs of COVID may wind up being far more disastrous to my lifetime earnings)