I'm not saying that we should ignore the infection rates but all we hear about is the infection rates increasing in the US and elsewhere. If the infection rate is increasing and the death rate is reducing then the economy can function again while those who are really vulnerable are still being protected. Our economy being closed down causes inconvenience and some hardship but if all of the economies in the rich world stay closed or nearly closed it will kill millions or tens of millions in the developing world. As I have said before I find the behaviour of the rich world to this virum myopic, self indulgent and morally reprehensible.I don't accept the premise of the argument.
Why do we have to focus on one or the other? Seems important to pay attention to both, as infection rates may be ahead of the curve of hospitalisations and ICU entries. Most people who aren't in vulnerable groups are shaking this off ok, but against that there is a significant minority of people who didn't end up in hospital who have follow-on symptoms in terms of an auto immune response.
I don't think we know enough about this virus yet in terms of long term impact on the 'recovered' to just focus on hospitals.
Also, you say "the virus will remain with us for years to come"? You've written off vaccine being available in the next 12 months - maybe you're right, but at that is an assumption?
The infection rate in the US is increasing at what seems to be an alarming rate but the death rate is continuing to decline, as is the number of people in hospital with the disease. Should those be the numbers we concentrate on?
There is one meaningful statistic no-one can answer - what is the prevalence of COVID-19 infection per 100,000 (or million) of our population? How about that Tony/the half of the civil and public service producing meaningless numbers and comparisons, where are the useful numbers?
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