Every public health officer should be held to account for their recommendations during this pandemic. We've only ever eliminated ONE human infectious disease. Why did they think this one would be number two?
Yeah, my biggest problem with the pandemic response is that it's become unhinged from any definable end-goal. You can argue whether the original "Flatten the Curve" plan was a good idea but at least it made sense and had a clear understanding of what it can do and what it can't do.
The pandemic will only end once herd immunity is achieved
Herd immunity can only be achieved through either vaccination or infection/recovery
It's unlikely that a vaccine will be developed before the pandemic ends
Therefore the only realistic scenario is that people need to get infected; however
The disease is potentially lethal. Of people who get infected some will recover without medical intervention, some can be saved but only with medical intervention and some will die even with medical intervention.
Projected demand on the hospital system exceeds the available hospital capacity
Therefore some people who could be saved won't receive the treatment that would save them
If we take measures to slow the spread of the disease we can ensure that hospital demand never exceeds supply
By May we learned that the disease was significantly less harmful then even the best case projections and hospital demand was never going to exceed capacity. By summer the first wave was over but restrictions we still in place with no clear understanding of how they contribute to the end goal. Shouldn't we have been allowing the disease to spread over the summer to build immunity? Are we trying to fully eliminate the virus through lockdowns now? Really, what are we doing?
Now we are locking down even though we know hospital capacity won't be exceeded. We have a vaccine that's 95% effective, your legally required to get it but also it won't prevent you from becoming infected or spreading that infection to others so we won't be ending any lockdown restrictions at all. We're running massive deficits while bankrupting our tax base, which we of course have to keep doing until "the pandemic ends". Whatever that means. No one seems to care what austerity measures we'll be force to implement when "the pandemic ends" and how many people will die when there's no money to pay for our healthcare system.
Every public health officer should be held to account for their recommendations during this pandemic. We've only ever eliminated ONE human infectious disease. Why did they think this one would be number two?
Yeah, my biggest problem with the pandemic response is that it's become unhinged from any definable end-goal. You can argue whether the original "Flatten the Curve" plan was a good idea but at least it made sense and had a clear understanding of what it can do and what it can't do.
By May we learned that the disease was significantly less harmful then even the best case projections and hospital demand was never going to exceed capacity. By summer the first wave was over but restrictions we still in place with no clear understanding of how they contribute to the end goal. Shouldn't we have been allowing the disease to spread over the summer to build immunity? Are we trying to fully eliminate the virus through lockdowns now? Really, what are we doing?
Now we are locking down even though we know hospital capacity won't be exceeded. We have a vaccine that's 95% effective, your legally required to get it but also it won't prevent you from becoming infected or spreading that infection to others so we won't be ending any lockdown restrictions at all. We're running massive deficits while bankrupting our tax base, which we of course have to keep doing until "the pandemic ends". Whatever that means. No one seems to care what austerity measures we'll be force to implement when "the pandemic ends" and how many people will die when there's no money to pay for our healthcare system.
Seriously. What the fuck are we doing?