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I feel like many countries were pennywise and pound foolish with the pandemic. The cost to shut down a society and keep everyone locked down is tremendous, tril

I feel like many countries were pennywise and pound foolish with the pandemic. The cost to shut down a society and keep everyone locked down is tremendous, trillions lost from business being stopped, emotional scars that will last decades if not a lifetime for a majority involved. Investing in vaccines/therapeutic treatments would have been a fraction of the cost and some countries just don't want to pay the tiny cost(compared to the alternative of complete lockdowns). You have the EU trying to pay the absolute minimum for vaccines(which contributed to their glacial rollout and extended lockdowns). And Australia with its minimal vaccine purchase. What is concerning is once a government thinks it can wield the power of extreme lockdowns it will never surrender said power. "We are doing this with your safety in mind, do not complain or deviate from our orders". Given a variant of covid seems to be popping up every 6-8 months would South Australia keep their population in perpetual lockdown, and forced use of that horrible app? Scary times we are living in now.

throwaway0a5e 5y ago
>I feel like many countries were pennywise and pound foolish with the pandemic. The cost to shut down a society and keep everyone locked down is tremendous, trillions lost from business being stopped, emotional scars that will last decades if not a lifetime for a majority involved. A year and a half ago there were tons of people who agreed with you. Those people were told their opinions were unwelcome.
aww_dang 5y ago
>The cost to shut down a society and keep everyone locked down is tremendous, trillions lost from business being stopped, emotional scars that will last decades if not a lifetime for a majority involved. Indeed when you look at it this way it doesn't make sense at all. Consider the possibility of vaccine passports leading to CBDCs, negative interest rates and perhaps even social credit scores. All of these are now possible thanks to the germ of the pandemic. Actors involved have been advocating for these solutions for more than a decade. For me, this makes more sense.
nanis 5y ago
> The cost to shut down a society and keep everyone locked down is tremendous There are people who did not leave their domiciles between March '20 and June '21. These people still got money deposited in their bank accounts, had invisible people deliver their food, and throw away their trash, and maintain the buildings they live in. All they saw were people on TV telling them how justified they were in their stance. They have no clue what impact anything has beyond their front-door.
jimmydorry 5y ago
>And Australia with its minimal vaccine purchase. I wouldn't say Australia purchased the minimum amount. The two vaccines they settled on (very similar to the UK strategy) were AstraZeneca and Pfizer. With a population of ~26million people, they secured 10 million Pfizer doses in November 2020 and would cover the rest of the population with AstraZeneca as the global supply of Pfizer was severely constrained and Australia, being essentially low-risk, had very low priority compared to other countries. In February 2021, the government secured an additional 10 million Pfizer doses and another 20 million in April 2021. 20 million of the 25 million population would be covered on Pfizer alone, and once local manufacturing of AstraZeneca ramped up, the entire population again essentially have access to AstraZeneca. I don't recall the exact numbers, but I believe at one point we were producing a million AZ doses a week. AZ was never supply constrained. Where it all went wrong though was that since Australia had near zero COVID risk locally, the Australian Immunization Advisory Group weighed up the risk of AstraZeneca clotting against chance of contracting the disease, and put out advice recommending Pfizer as the preferred vaccine for everyone under 60 (putting it simply, as this age changed several times). Since Pfizer is not manufactured locally, this set back the entire vaccine roll-out, and put us at the mercy of Pfizer global supply (of which we already had more than enough contracts, but had to wait for fulfilment).
- grecy 5y ago
  The Prime Minster saying "we're not in a race to get vaccinated, there's no rush" was also a major contributing factor. He specifically said there would never be drive-thru vaccine sites, no "mass vaccination" centres, etc. etc. He honestly thought a head in the sand approach would be best, and now over half of Australia's population are in a strict lockdown (can't go more than 5km from home) because of his uselessness.
  - chii 5y ago
    yep. incompetence at all levels of government - and i'm not just blaming one person like the prime minister. The leaks that led to the lockdowns came from hotel quarantines - which was known to be inadequate, and was always meant to be temporary. But the construction of a specialized facility was not prioritized, leading to two more waves after the first that costed way more than any quarantine facility would've costed had they expediently built one.

throwaway0a5e 5y ago

>I feel like many countries were pennywise and pound foolish with the pandemic. The cost to shut down a society and keep everyone locked down is tremendous, trillions lost from business being stopped, emotional scars that will last decades if not a lifetime for a majority involved. A year and a half ago there were tons of people who agreed with you. Those people were told their opinions were unwelcome.

aww_dang 5y ago

>The cost to shut down a society and keep everyone locked down is tremendous, trillions lost from business being stopped, emotional scars that will last decades if not a lifetime for a majority involved. Indeed when you look at it this way it doesn't make sense at all. Consider the possibility of vaccine passports leading to CBDCs, negative interest rates and perhaps even social credit scores. All of these are now possible thanks to the germ of the pandemic. Actors involved have been advocating for these solutions for more than a decade. For me, this makes more sense.

nanis 5y ago

> The cost to shut down a society and keep everyone locked down is tremendous There are people who did not leave their domiciles between March '20 and June '21. These people still got money deposited in their bank accounts, had invisible people deliver their food, and throw away their trash, and maintain the buildings they live in. All they saw were people on TV telling them how justified they were in their stance. They have no clue what impact anything has beyond their front-door.

jimmydorry 5y ago

>And Australia with its minimal vaccine purchase. I wouldn't say Australia purchased the minimum amount. The two vaccines they settled on (very similar to the UK strategy) were AstraZeneca and Pfizer. With a population of ~26million people, they secured 10 million Pfizer doses in November 2020 and would cover the rest of the population with AstraZeneca as the global supply of Pfizer was severely constrained and Australia, being essentially low-risk, had very low priority compared to other countries. In February 2021, the government secured an additional 10 million Pfizer doses and another 20 million in April 2021. 20 million of the 25 million population would be covered on Pfizer alone, and once local manufacturing of AstraZeneca ramped up, the entire population again essentially have access to AstraZeneca. I don't recall the exact numbers, but I believe at one point we were producing a million AZ doses a week. AZ was never supply constrained. Where it all went wrong though was that since Australia had near zero COVID risk locally, the Australian Immunization Advisory Group weighed up the risk of AstraZeneca clotting against chance of contracting the disease, and put out advice recommending Pfizer as the preferred vaccine for everyone under 60 (putting it simply, as this age changed several times). Since Pfizer is not manufactured locally, this set back the entire vaccine roll-out, and put us at the mercy of Pfizer global supply (of which we already had more than enough contracts, but had to wait for fulfilment).

grecy 5y ago
The Prime Minster saying "we're not in a race to get vaccinated, there's no rush" was also a major contributing factor. He specifically said there would never be drive-thru vaccine sites, no "mass vaccination" centres, etc. etc. He honestly thought a head in the sand approach would be best, and now over half of Australia's population are in a strict lockdown (can't go more than 5km from home) because of his uselessness.
- chii 5y ago
  yep. incompetence at all levels of government - and i'm not just blaming one person like the prime minister. The leaks that led to the lockdowns came from hotel quarantines - which was known to be inadequate, and was always meant to be temporary. But the construction of a specialized facility was not prioritized, leading to two more waves after the first that costed way more than any quarantine facility would've costed had they expediently built one.