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At the cost of a lockdown for everyone we could have offered targeted protection to the most vulnerable who wanted to avail themselves of it: - Work from home

At the cost of a lockdown for everyone we could have offered targeted protection to the most vulnerable who wanted to avail themselves of it: - Work from home options or in the worst case unemployment benefits for duration of the pandemic - Reimbursement for food/goods delivery fees - N95 masks and training on fitting them properly - Hotel/AirBNB rooms as an alternative to congregate living - Small gated communities with entry quarantines / contact tracing In the meantime those at low risk could have continued to live more normally and building up some herd immunity as a stopgap measure until vaccines were ready. Certainly Sweden handled things more along these lines and in the long term their society would be better for it. China caused every single COVID death in the world, whether through labs or wet markets, so I wouldn't sing praises of authoritarian governments.

whimsicalism 5y ago
> hina caused every single COVID death in the world, whether through labs or wet markets, so I wouldn't sing praises of authoritarian governments. > in the long term their society would be better for it No, I think successful suppression was both shown to be very possible and the better option. Political failure means that millions have already died, and more will follow. Of course, suppression is a no-go now, I'm not denying that. > China caused every single COVID death in the world, whether through labs or wet markets, so I wouldn't sing praises of authoritarian governments. It's a nation of 1.2 billion, many new viruses are bound to originate there. I think it is disingenuous to blame the governance of China for the outbreak. We all know how our own government works. Are we honestly supposed to believe if this outbreak had originated domestically that we would have reacted fast enough to contain it? We couldn't even avert it when we had multiple months advance warning, China controlled an active infection within their own borders and has successfully suppressed a potential pandemic in the past (SARS). I don't think we've demonstrated any capacity to do the same.

whimsicalism 5y ago

> hina caused every single COVID death in the world, whether through labs or wet markets, so I wouldn't sing praises of authoritarian governments. > in the long term their society would be better for it No, I think successful suppression was both shown to be very possible and the better option. Political failure means that millions have already died, and more will follow. Of course, suppression is a no-go now, I'm not denying that. > China caused every single COVID death in the world, whether through labs or wet markets, so I wouldn't sing praises of authoritarian governments. It's a nation of 1.2 billion, many new viruses are bound to originate there. I think it is disingenuous to blame the governance of China for the outbreak. We all know how our own government works. Are we honestly supposed to believe if this outbreak had originated domestically that we would have reacted fast enough to contain it? We couldn't even avert it when we had multiple months advance warning, China controlled an active infection within their own borders and has successfully suppressed a potential pandemic in the past (SARS). I don't think we've demonstrated any capacity to do the same.