Before you start wan king them off too hard lets see what the cold weather brings. Viral load seems a big factor in morbidity in this disease. People will still catch it when the weather and environment is hot/warm (see India etc) but the mortality rate seems lower compared to where we were at the start of this. Of course this may be because therapeutics have advanced (the main reason why I supported lock down in the first place) but it may also be because this virus is not as potent in the heat, something that research points to.
I hate the fact that the old and frail are seen as an inconvenient but necessary sacrifice to keep the economy going despite what the have given to society, the tax they have paid, the other contributions they have made... but all that matters not as long as Starbucks etc can keep their offshore not taxable profits rolling in. F uck that.
For me, I dont see the old and frail as expendable, I think we have a responsibility to protect those weaker that us, and we must do so even if it is at our expense.
But even if you don't belive as I do... i urge you to think about 'long Covid' it has left mathron runners unable to climb a flight of stairs. I know I couldn't run a marathon and maybe only 10% of people on here could... are you willing to roll that dice?
I dont think the old and frail are seen as an inconvenience but all we have left after this is data and lessons. We should have protected the weak and elderly earlier and alot better and there is no doubt we would have been in alot better place, with or without lockdown and for me thats been the biggest killer, not the delay in lockdown. If we had shielded those at most risk without a total lockdown we would have been clear now.
Its just a fact now looking back that those that moved on to pastures new were over a certain age or with secondary illness. When you look at the flat data globally under 50 and the percentage of deaths is extremely low and most of them come with a secondary underlining condition. The majority of deaths come from 60 - 80 plus. That was the case last December - where we are now so includes your winter toll too so I dont believe these is going to be a second coming to manipulate those stats like you fear, I hope I am right.
In terms of Marathon runner situation, I totally get that, its not good but then not to be blase those stories are dwarfed by the stories where people make a full recovery and like the common flu some people take longer than others to get back to the norm.
Im not pouring scorn on what has been an awful virus but we are getting to the realms where the long term affect of Lockdown is going to change the world into something we dont recognise than the future death toll which is important for me because its about what we do from now, we cant bring back the dead but we need to shape the future.
If you look at most jobs and the likelihood of them return to pre virus levels you are looking at the end of next year. If I look at my own industry its reliant on people who gave us contracts having their jobs, they dont, so those people have to get their jobs back which is based on the companies getting enough business to employ the people, to then get enough time under their belt and enough more money to sign overseas contracts. The timeline alone is 12 months to normality, in that time my company will have gone under because we cant wait for that moment. When consumer operators that are open already and have been for 2/3 months are laying off 2000 to 5000 people then we have problems.
Come the end of the lockdown which we are still in and at threat to be under till the new year you are going to get near to 1 sixth of the country in unemployment, that is going to kill more people than the virus ever did, someone listed earlier the major issues that have come from lockdown, the longer this goes on the worse it is going to get and people will not be pointing towards just the deathtoll.
Like I said its horrendously sad for those that have died and grave mistakes have been made, but we have a choice, we all sit indoors and pretend that is going to bring them back but take a slow death walk into the abyss or we look to move forward and do so not in guilt and knowing that it is not p1ssing on the memories of the dead.
I am up for blaming the Government for their incompetents, its where the bulk of blame lies. But lets not let that replace the need for us to move forward and save the country for the sake of peoples existence
