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We all made profound sacrifices so that we all may enjoy the best chance of survival. No one thinks it's a good thing that children's lives were disrupted. No o

We all made profound sacrifices so that we all may enjoy the best chance of survival. No one thinks it's a good thing that children's lives were disrupted. No one is pro-pandemic. If this is an unacceptable result to you - and sure, it should be - then we need to be working to prevent the next pandemic rather than wringing our hands about the current one.

logicalmonster 4y ago
> We all made profound sacrifices so that we all may enjoy the best chance of survival. Would it be unreasonable for me to point out that not everybody sees it that way? Did pharmaceutical companies genuinely make sacrifices or did they make bank? Ditto for large corporations who took advantage of local competitors often being shut down, authoritarian politicians who used Covid as an endless excuse for failing policies and power grabs, and endless grifters who managed to cash in on all of the dollars flowing in ways that are too numerous to list.
- maxbond 4y ago
  No that isn't unreasonable. But when I said "we" I meant human beings, not pharmaceutical companies. I do agree that pharmaceutical companies and other corporations took advantage of the situation in a way that is inappropriate. I don't mean to suggest that the response to the pandemic shouldn't be criticized, but that it should be criticized with the goal of moving forward and doing better. And if you're suggesting that we should hold these companies accountable, by taking away their patents on vaccines for example, I'm all for it. What I more often see seems to imply we shouldn't have responded at all and should have "toughed it out" and just let people die.
  - logicalmonster 4y ago
    > What I more often see seems to imply we shouldn't have responded at all and should have "toughed it out" and just let people die. It's about making a smart cost-benefit analysis. We do this all of the time when it comes to death: for instance, we all willingly hop into cars even knowing there's a non-zero chance we could die in an accident. I can't really blame anybody for the response on day 1 when we were operating in a fog of war with limited trustworthy information, but I think once we learned about the age-stratified risks associated with Covid, we should have focused on protecting the vulnerable and working to restore normal society as much as possible. IMO, here's the big picture concern about the Covid response. The events of the last few years are possibly heading the world towards a global financial meltdown and absolute chaos (including wars) that could possibly lead to far more human suffering than anything Covid could have possibly thrown at us. The total response to Covid shouldn't be evaluated by just the last few years, but by the next decade or so where we reap the consequences.
kspacewalk2 4y ago
No one thinks that anyone thinks it's a good thing that children's lives were disrupted. No one thinks anyone is pro-pandemic. The question is, and always was, about priorities and what's acceptable to inflict upon young people "just to be on the safe side". The worst part about school closures is how pseudoscientific the rationale was, and the most infuriating part is that it came with a generous dollop of patronizing "trust the science" exhortations. Closing schools was a terrible mistake, and until we countenance that, it's going to be a problem.

logicalmonster 4y ago

> We all made profound sacrifices so that we all may enjoy the best chance of survival. Would it be unreasonable for me to point out that not everybody sees it that way? Did pharmaceutical companies genuinely make sacrifices or did they make bank? Ditto for large corporations who took advantage of local competitors often being shut down, authoritarian politicians who used Covid as an endless excuse for failing policies and power grabs, and endless grifters who managed to cash in on all of the dollars flowing in ways that are too numerous to list.

maxbond 4y ago
No that isn't unreasonable. But when I said "we" I meant human beings, not pharmaceutical companies. I do agree that pharmaceutical companies and other corporations took advantage of the situation in a way that is inappropriate. I don't mean to suggest that the response to the pandemic shouldn't be criticized, but that it should be criticized with the goal of moving forward and doing better. And if you're suggesting that we should hold these companies accountable, by taking away their patents on vaccines for example, I'm all for it. What I more often see seems to imply we shouldn't have responded at all and should have "toughed it out" and just let people die.
- logicalmonster 4y ago
  > What I more often see seems to imply we shouldn't have responded at all and should have "toughed it out" and just let people die. It's about making a smart cost-benefit analysis. We do this all of the time when it comes to death: for instance, we all willingly hop into cars even knowing there's a non-zero chance we could die in an accident. I can't really blame anybody for the response on day 1 when we were operating in a fog of war with limited trustworthy information, but I think once we learned about the age-stratified risks associated with Covid, we should have focused on protecting the vulnerable and working to restore normal society as much as possible. IMO, here's the big picture concern about the Covid response. The events of the last few years are possibly heading the world towards a global financial meltdown and absolute chaos (including wars) that could possibly lead to far more human suffering than anything Covid could have possibly thrown at us. The total response to Covid shouldn't be evaluated by just the last few years, but by the next decade or so where we reap the consequences.

kspacewalk2 4y ago

No one thinks that anyone thinks it's a good thing that children's lives were disrupted. No one thinks anyone is pro-pandemic. The question is, and always was, about priorities and what's acceptable to inflict upon young people "just to be on the safe side". The worst part about school closures is how pseudoscientific the rationale was, and the most infuriating part is that it came with a generous dollop of patronizing "trust the science" exhortations. Closing schools was a terrible mistake, and until we countenance that, it's going to be a problem.