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Given some of the hostility doing the rounds at the moment when people have questioned the response of Governments to this outbreak, I anticipate that some might well have read this piece and still think that I have said that Covid-19 is not a problem. I have not said that, and I do not think that. What I have said can essentially be summed up as follows:
There has been a lack of reliable data upon which to take monumental socioeconomic decisions. Nevertheless, monumental socioeconomic decisions have been taken anyway. These decisions will have profound effects, quite possibly tanking the economy, plunging people into poverty, destroying civil liberties, and risking civil unrest. Now that more reliable data has started to come in, it seems to be showing that the initial concerns were vastly overblown. Given the above, we must look not just at the left-hand side of the scales, but also the right-hand side, and calmly assess whether the measures being taken are proportionate, or whether they are likely to do far, far more harm to the lives of millions than the threat they are intended to deal with.
Adding the new data coming out about the virus and mortality rates to the left-hand side of the balances, and considering the seismic and devastating effects on people, families, businesses, society and the economy that the current response is likely to bring, I can’t say I am remotely convinced that the path we are charting is proportionate or wise. For the Black Death, yes. For Covid-19, I remain sceptical.
Via ThePlanetaryArchives/BlackHorseMedia - San Francisco
