This article makes a lot of sense, up until the Covid part.
From how I am seeing things, any government intervention was designed to alleviate the capacity of the health care system, trying to take care of such patients. Whether that was right or wrong may be another matter. There will be lots of research coming out. But I doubt it very much that the discussions in the political back rooms were around getting people to stay home forever to oppress them.
Canada had about one/third the per capita Covid rates as the USA. I attribute that to better management--and a more compliant population.
I believe that had we taken reasonable precautions voluntarily, we could have dramatically reduced the spread. And maybe the Swedes did that! More research will be required.
But our selfish nature wants us to go to hockey games, bars, churches, Trump rallies, etc. because it is our right to do so, health consequences be damned. To say that the masses sheepled into the government guidelines is totally false. At best, we might have had a 60% compliance.
It seems 1/3 of people who contract Covid are ending up with some long term side effect. In 1996, I came down with a viral infection that eventually led to chronic fatigue syndrome. It took 12 years for my body to beat back this ailment. I had to take on simpler occupations to earn a living: my engineering career was lost. I suspect many Covid patients will have to do the some--and that will have a negative effect on the economy.
I consider Covid as a practice run for the next pandemic. This one could be 10% lethal. And infectious people might stay in the asymptomatic stage a lot longer.
To me, the good pandemic practices are simple:
!. Reduce your exposure to the public.
2. Figure out which public functions are more important to life (like kids being in school).
3. Wear a mask when in public--even if it is only 46% effective in preventing transmission.
4. And some social outings are important for our psyche. Just attend fewer and follow the good practices as best you can.
But we are clearly not ready for a more lethal pandemic if we can't follow these practices.
