There are also trade-offs with quality of life (especially social life). Without guaranteed basic income, most people have to work. Modern 2-working-parent families have developed with public schools as child care. Remote learning doesn't work well for many kids, and even worse for their parents. The early lockdowns only slowed the spread, hence the selective pressure for infectiousness against masks and vaccinations. Consider the way that poor compliance with dosing can contribute to antibiotic resistance, by weeding out only the most susceptible strains of bacteria.
Many people are very social, and for them the shutdowns had immediate and known downsides (loneliness, social isolation, lack of intimacy and physical contact) compared to the vague potential of illness. Masks have problems for some people: they make my ears hurt after an hour or two, and they fog up my reading glasses, but also for those who subconsciously depend on lip-reading. If masks are required at a social event, I'm probably not interested (I can wait until conditions improve).
Compliance was always only so-so, and hence was never very effective. Vaccines were rolled out slowly, and with simplistic priorities; for example, old retired people can just stay home, but young retail workers don't have that option. Vaccinating the staff in nursing homes, rather than the patients, would have also slowed the spread in the larger community (although vaccines weren't available until it was too late).
Anti-intellectualism is the disaster that keeps on dissing your ass.
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Date: 2022-Jul-09, Saturday 09:51 pm (UTC)Many people are very social, and for them the shutdowns had immediate and known downsides (loneliness, social isolation, lack of intimacy and physical contact) compared to the vague potential of illness. Masks have problems for some people: they make my ears hurt after an hour or two, and they fog up my reading glasses, but also for those who subconsciously depend on lip-reading. If masks are required at a social event, I'm probably not interested (I can wait until conditions improve).
Compliance was always only so-so, and hence was never very effective. Vaccines were rolled out slowly, and with simplistic priorities; for example, old retired people can just stay home, but young retail workers don't have that option. Vaccinating the staff in nursing homes, rather than the patients, would have also slowed the spread in the larger community (although vaccines weren't available until it was too late).
Anti-intellectualism is the disaster that keeps on dissing your ass.