Originally Posted by
2seven0
Pithy insults notwithstanding, I'd like for anyone to refute my position with facts and common sense:
Is the Wuhan Virus (COVID-19) a hoax? No!!
Is it extremely dangerous if not deadly to a very small, very select segment of the population? Absolutely!
Should those people most vulnerable take whatever precautions they deem necessary for their safety? You betcha!
As for 99.99+% of the population to which the virus presents little to no risk whatsoever is the reaction far worse than the virus itself? Absolutely! Bankrupting thousands of businesses, leaving millions unemployed and plunging tens of millions of people worldwide into poverty will prove to be the greatest mistake modern man has made.
There is no reason healthy people with stout immune systems (as I suspect most on this forum are) should drastically alter their lifestyles. You're far more likely to be killed or injured riding your bike, driving a car, drowning etc. than dying from this virus. We all do things that aren't "safe" on a daily basis because we take steps to mitigate the risk.
Is this the first virus to infect mankind? No. Have there been deadlier viruses that a greater percentage of the population were at risk of getting? Yes. Did we react as we are now? No. Why not?
Have any of you contracted a communicable disease in your lifetime? I have! Guess what- I got sick then recovered! but I certainly didn't tiptoe around in fear wearing a mask everywhere! Or demand it of everyone else!
And society wasn't subjected to unconstitutional "lockdowns" by petty narcissistic fools either.
Please tell me where I'm wrong.
West
You asked for numbers so,
The population of the US is around 328M. If 99.99% of the population will be unaffected - that means that 32,800 will be affected. SInce around 3 times that many have ALREADY died, it is safe to say that one is way off.
All you need to do is look at NYC to see that this one is different. There may well have been 'smaller' responses that would have been as effective or more effective, but to say that this is similar to other experiences that we have had seems very wrong to me. We did what we knew how to do and hopefully future responses will be more targeted (as in smaller) and more effective.
And don't get me started on 'safe' (the summer of 2019 was safe WRT to Covid-19 and that will never happen again) or 'science says'. Science has been all over the map, although we have nowhere else to look right now and it is probably science that will ultimately save us here (vaccine).
dave