I said it before (elsewhere) and i'll say it again: act and conduct yourself like EVERYONE you come in contact with is an unknowingly asymptomatic infected, for as long as there is no medicine that significantly reduces the need for hospitalization or, better yet, a vaccine is found and distributed worldwide, regardless of how long that takes.
EDIT
By "you" and "yourself" i mean in general: not @ you specifically.
Considered the ramifications for that when you consider a 'cure' is never conclusive? Even a vaccine is not. Flu vaccine... we still get the flu and elderly still have a highly elevated chance of dying from that. For Covid, even vaccinated, risk groups will still exist. The percentage might drop a bit here and there, and the R-number might go down. What you WILL be seeing in the coming months is a combination of treatments that allow us to reduce the severity/impact of covid on the body and subsequently the mind (the goal will be to avoid IC).
I'm not joining in that panic mode, if you don't mind. I treat this as I do every other disease ever - its invisible and you might catch it. I know, I like living on the edge. Its pretty comfy, try it. Think long and hard, and place yourself two years from now. Are you going to be the same person? I doubt that.
At the same time, what you can 'reasonably' do, in my mind, is to get yourself tested whenever you think you might have been in a high risk area. If we all do that, we can take the sharp edge off any big spreader events and can probably go about our merry way, keeping R below 1. The biggest advantage of that approach? I'll list it for you.
1. No social awkwardness or strange behaviour.
2. You can still do whatever YOU want in total freedom to protect yourself or others.
3. No peer pressure elevates our civil rights to where they should be.
4. We will be able to accept lockdown measures and specific orders (you're a risk, please stay at home) over prolonged periods of time; I think this must be clear by now, it ain't gone tomorrow. Or
ever.
5. Social unrest is kept to minimum.
6. Its
fair. Right now society is full of haves and have nots. In a risk group? Lots of rules and rights don't apply for you. Imagine being in an elderly home right now. Yep. Not seeing anyone. Just wither and die, thanks. You want to keep that up? But its not just them. Suicide rates are already higher than they've ever been in many countries. Socially challenged people have even less reason or means to come into contact with others. The list is endless and the pain is everywhere. Loneliness and social distance
is a killer.
What we need to do at large right now, is devise a strategy to go back to business as usual, with minimal constraints. We're slowly moving that way. Going all 'must do all I can'-mode now, is going to eat away at you faster than you might think. What will happen is more specific, directed/regional/local lockdowns and I reckon we will try to extinguish this everywhere it pops up in number.
Oh and note: ask the highest ranking virologists what they think of this... they will
all agree. Yes you want to maximize protection, but not at every cost and definitely avoiding counterproductivity. Nature will have its course, whether you want it or not. The harder you press down on Covid today, the more likely you create a new one the next day. Its a struggle we won't ever win.
I'm taking all the info I see around me, and my conclusion has still not changed from the very onset of this crisis. The risk is minor, it hits the weakest link in our evolution (prolonging old age with no 'benefit' to the species, only emotional attachment), and it has all the characteristics to remain in the population, unseen. Its clearly an answer to balance out overpopulation. This is the way of nature, and that is why, it will be covid today, and covid v2 tomorrow - because we won't stop saving lives.
So that is the real end game here.
About that social unrest... its happening. The whole BLM thing for example, you can rest assured the lockdowns are a catalyst. Not a cause; but definitely a catalyst. Things are and have been brewing, we have urges. The fact they go out and take that sort of risk, says something about the importance of the subject. But it also places perspective on how bad this virus really is. So far, almost none of these protests have been superspreader events.
How about this one - note. This is
Germany. With some of the more successful policies, very good testing policy, and relative freedom. And known to stick to the rules. They had to quarantine a whole flat, 120 known cases inside, 700 people. This was saturday:
Police officers injured because they wanted to break out @ Gottingen. So I'll repeat that: the
social norm in this country, is you stick to the rules, no matter what. But here these same people are literally taking up arms and becoming violent against police. Normal people. Could've been one of us. So like I said. Think long and hard.
Terwijl het aantal besmettingen in ruim tachtig landen toeneemt, waarschuwt de WHO voor ‘een nieuwe en gevaarlijke fase’ in de pandemie. Volg de laatste ontwikkelingen rondom het coronavirus in dit liveblog.
www.volkskrant.nl
