Why are people so obsessed with death count? We still don't understand the long term effects of this virus. You don't know the "Long Covid" count for example. And there is very little evidence that vaccines are effective at preventing that.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6...
In general any serious viral infection can potentially cause post-viral syndrome. That's not a valid reason for keeping pandemic control restrictions or mandates in place indefinitely. At some point we have to accept the risk and move on.
That is a big advantage over comparing case numbers, which depend heavily on testing, or long COVID which there’s not even a hard definition of.
Are we relying on patients to self-report whether they had COVID, what they long term effects they noticed? If so, it seems like we’re testing mass hysteria as much as actual effects.
I was likely infected and noticed the taste/smell issue. Since I’ve recovered, so has my taste/smell but it was not an immediate recovery and I have no idea if I “lost” some amount of scent sensitivity.
It is probably the same as pre-COVID, but if I heard others were reporting this issue it would be very easy to convince myself that I did lose sensitivity and report that.
And at the economic and government level, there exists a calculus for determining the "value" of a citizen to determine whether to address a situation.
There's a good Planet Money episode on this. [1]
"They say a human life is worth about $10 million."
It's a pretty messed up thing to try and determine, the dollar value of a person's life, but if you have to make tough policy decisions then it's a tool.
[1] https://www.npr.org/2020/04/15/835571843/episode-991-lives-v...