Then, many/most will say _fuck it_, I'm taking my life back. I'm visualizing that day, and will welcome it.
How are you going to protest your way into a concert that isn't performing?
How are you going to demand your way into a university that isn't teaching?
How are you going to riot your way into a Disneyland that isn't running?
How are you going to force your way into a sports stadium that isn't playing?
How are you going to disobey your way onto a cruise ship that isn't sailing?
We are much more at the whim of our authoritarian overlords destroying everything joyful in life than we ever realized. We are no longer ever allowed to make personal risk management decisions.
Obesity and heart disease have been killing far more people in the US than covid and yet Mcdonalds and Coke advertisements are everywhere inbetween television entertainment.
Also note obesity/heart disease are among the greatest risk factors of poor health outcomes for covid.
Why is there little to no mention of eating healthy and exercising in the government's health guidelines to combat this threat?
There are countless other examples of bureaucrats caring more about money and power than public health - while putting on the appearance of caring for public health. See also: the war on drugs.
If not, how much more deadly (be precise) would the flu need to be before we should ban group socialization?
Trying to figure out if you're thinking in terms of a logical metric based risk analysis, or just emotion and terror of death.
Seems like this ratio would vary greatly among such demographics.
Obese people are twice as likely to be hospitalized for covid.
When hospital beds are being overrun, someone elses life long decisions to disregard their own health does indeed affect other peoples health negatively.
Living life like there's no pandemic is not just personal risk, it's risk to other people and to society as a whole. If you don't understand that a year in, you're either not capable of understanding or you just don't care.
Your freedom borders with mine - you should be allowed to do EVERYTHING which doesn't affect others without their consent.
Ignoring COVID-19 precautionary measures isn't one of those things, and I am happy the joy-destroying authoritarian overlords took that choice from you.
People don't exist in vacuums. Nearly every decision you make is going to affect society somehow. If you decide to eat fast food for every meal and become obese, that isn't happening in a vacuum. Sooner or later you will start putting strain on the healthcare system and if enough people do the same, the "joy-destroying overlords" are going to start taxing sugar and fat (or other agency-limiting measures) to save you from yourself. Is that the world you want to live in - where the government has to increasingly limit everyone's agency in order to save more lives?
What if I and 500 of my friends want to have a comics convention? With everyone fully aware and accepting of any risks?
Nope, absolutely not allowed anywhere in the entire damn world.
It's right there in the US Constitution. "No law abridging the freedom of the people to peaceably assemble." It does not say "except in case of arbitrarily-declared forever-lasting so-called emergency." If you want it to say that, amend it. If such an amendment wouldn't pass, that's because it damn well shouldn't.
This is freedom-destroying authoritarianism, and the frightened sheep like you eat it up. This is where democracy breaks, if 51% of people want to lock down the other 49% forever, the other 49% are fucked forever.
If you fear contagion and think you need to stay away from me, that is on YOU to restrict YOUR activities. You do not get to restrict mine.
Do you agree that a higher number of people will die if they do this? Are you OK with that?
If not, then you must admit that, _of course_, increasing longevity to the absolute maximum possible extent should not be the only goal of public policy. And then it becomes clear that we’re talking about degrees. How many deaths are worth how much misery, suffering, and lost time among healthy people? Reasonable people can answer that question in different ways, but clearly the answer isn’t “zero”.
People should choose their own risk management decisions, not have a government forcibly do it for them. If you're concerned, you can choose to restrict yourself, but you have no business restricting me and any number of people that mutually wish to interact with me.
States seem to be able to punish that kind of risk taking without complaints about "joy-destroying authoritarian overlords".
Are you into apocalypses? There's the British quick-spreading strain, and there are the Brazilian and South African variants that the vaccine does not offer good protection against. I predict that COVID will be like Picardy Fever, not like the Spanish Flu - there will be outbreaks every few years here and there.
If this thing can basically be treated no differently than the common cold once vaccinated by most people and in the outliers something a little worse there will be no popular support to continue draconian lock down measures.
The goal is to stop the bleeding. The patient is on the floor right now and haemorrhaging liters blood. We want to stabilize the patient and let them get on with their life as quickly as possible. We cannot let perfect be the enemy of "Good Enough" here.
At least in the west, global logistics of vaccination seem to have collapsed. We need to, as a species, get on top of vaccine rollout for next time. It’s delayed at the moment because we didn’t make enough vials over summer FFS.
And? The world doesn't end when new strains of the cold or the flu happen. Every year. As it's happened for as long as there have been humans.
Humans have "eradicated"... Polio? Because it's rather serious? What else have we eradicated?
COVID is here to stay.
https://theconversation.com/tuberculosis-kills-as-many-peopl...
However, in the US a lot of diseases were eradicated locally. Malaria used to be endemic, and tuberculosis.
There’s also a list here: Diptheria, Mump, Measles, Rubella
Some have made small comebacks due to anti-vaxxer sentiment, but eradication certainly isn’t some impossible goal.
https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/quality/6-diseases-the...