The reason I keep up the drumbeat here is because of this, because Covid-19 genuinely is a very dangerous virus that will continue to pose a threat until we have it under complete control.
Someone posted here a while back that during the pandemic of 1917-1919, governments imposed lock-downs to stop the spread of the influenza, then lifted the lock-downs whenever the population became restless. As a result, H1N1 kept spreading. That pandemic circled the globe for 3 years, killing 50 million people before it was done.
I very much do not want to see Covid-19 become endemic or continue to kill more people. I want it gone. I think that people truly do not understand that the economic and societal cost of doing nothing is far far greater than any discomfort over temporary lock downs. Businesses are adapting. Schools are adapting. We can get over this, but not if people start believing untrue narratives that undermine the efforts to bring Covid-19 in check and yes, to completely eliminate it.
Your lockdown will wind up killing more people than Vivid does.
Covid death rates are dropping. Meanwhile, people have been deferring surgeries, cancer screenings, etc. The deferred care will result in deaths.
The economic downturn will also result in deaths. What happens when we, as a nation, can no longer afford our former world -class health system?
And I submit that you seriously underestimate the damage the "lockdown" has done, and is doing. I think you also underestimate the political tide that is rising, and that the governors of even the blue states will be forced to quickly ease their restrictions.
Doing nothing, as you point out, is not a good option. But there's a middle ground between the "lockdown" and "doing nothing".
Further, when the governors and public health directors come up with crazy, arbitrary rules that they want to enforce on people, it undermines the sensible precautions that we should be taking. Example: my governor, Gavin Newsom, has banned sitting on a beach towel on the dry sand. What? How in the world can transmission occur if my family is sitting on the beach, 60 feet from the nearest other family? Is this the only pathogen that survives the blazing sun of a California summer day -- on a beach?
None of this should be read as downplaying the seriousness of the CCP virus, I'm fully convinced of that. But tradeoffs are going to have to be made.
Covid 19 vaccine shipped 02/25/2020 by Moderna Therapeutics
https://time.com/5790545/first-covid-19-vaccine/
WOW! A Bill Gates supported company developed this vaccine even before the pandemic really got started!
And it’s testing started on 03/17/2020:
And here are the results!
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the NIH, is funding the trial. The vaccine is called mRNA-1273 and was developed by NIAID, and Moderna, Inc., a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotechnology company.
“Finding a safe and effective vaccine to prevent infection with SARS-CoV-2 is an urgent public health priority,” NIAID Director Anthony Fauci said. “This Phase 1 study, launched in record speed, is an important first step toward achieving that goal.”
And on 03/21/2020 we learn a little more:
(and this one is really important)
WOW AGAIN! Bill Gates and Anthony Fauci at their very best!
Now try this on for size:
1. In late 2019 a new corona virus appeared in Wuhan China, and hidden from public view at the time by China government. Actual origin not yet proved in public, but following links are pertinent:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/china-hid-work-bat-woman-21853459
2. Covid-19 first appeared in the USA in late January. Trump was informed of this new virus and it’s potential to become a pandemic. He banned travel into the US from China and got strong objections from Congress, along with assurances from CDC and NIH (Dr. Anthony Fauci) that this was no big deal and worry was not justified.
3. A national emergency was declared by President Trump on March 13. President Trump was strongly criticized for overreaction.
Reliable tests for the virus were not generally available but “vaccine testing was already starting. The CDC “Contact” Tracing strategy was already in place but no significant testing available to be traced.
4. By April 11, the federal government approved disaster declarations for all states. Now President Trump was strongly criticized for being too late.
CDC guidelines and worldometer statistics provided by the CDC emphasized forcefully and consistently “Case Fatality Rates” and labeled them “Death Rates” which is deliberately misleading (explained be me many times before in several different forums).
This has been pure FEAR MONGERING at best. Actual population Infection Fatality Rate (IFR) is a few orders of magnitude lower (because “cases” is usually a tiny percentage of “infections”.
My opinion is that the real purpose of all this fear mongering is simply convince the public that this Covid19 “epidemic” is really an extremely dangerous “pandemic” and giving up our liberty is justified to prevent something worse than the Spanish Flu in 1917 with 50 million deaths.
The government motivation of course is to rapidly establish massive increases in the power of the political bureaucracy (DEEP STATE SWAMP).
The urgency is that it must be accomplished before President Trump is re-elected in November.
That’s not a camel’s nose under our tent. Its actually something much larger and much more dangerous!