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May. 1st, 2020 05:19 amI'm continually frustrated of late over numerous peoples' reactions to allowing people to go back to work and reopen things. Specifically, I'm quite annoyed that so many people think the whole thing was about preventing everyone from getting sick, and that letting people go back too early will undo everything. But that's a complete misunderstanding of why we did it. Yes, it was to prevent the elderly and those at risk from catching it immediately and dying, and perhaps even giving some a chance to wait for...something. But the whole point of "flattening the curve" was never to prevent sickness, or even death. It was meant simply as a means of prolonging the run of the virus, preventing the hospitals and such from being overwhelmed and having people die needlessly from getting overlooked. Granted, our time has done just that, and has helped us know how to better deal with it, and even get a better grasp on how bad it really is. Stanford just recently released a study showing that far more people already have the antibodies for it than thought (something like 21% in New York, I believe), making it far less likely to kill in general. It will still do that. Any new illness is going. The flu kills ~20,000 a year, and we have flu shots and immunities.
I maybe get out once a week, usually for food, and it's an odd combination of reactions you see from people. There's this element of fear that tinges everything and everyone. I'm by no means downplaying the severity of this new thing when it does hit at its maximum. A friend of my roommate died to it not long ago. I think it's great that people are washing their hands more and thinking about cleanliness, but we can't live our lives in fear. Either we get sick, or we don't. Either we die, or we don't. As long as we're washing and not licking strangers, we have to get back out there and live life. I do have to say that I've enjoyed how much everyone wants to communicate with each other during all of this. I've talked more with my roommates and various friends in these past few weeks than in many months previous. I will miss people having to be homebodies. But if we don't get everyone back working, there won't be a life left to live. We went from the best jobless stats in decades to some of the worst. Suicides and other stress related problems have skyrocketed, more than making up for any benefits of staying in. My two cents.
I maybe get out once a week, usually for food, and it's an odd combination of reactions you see from people. There's this element of fear that tinges everything and everyone. I'm by no means downplaying the severity of this new thing when it does hit at its maximum. A friend of my roommate died to it not long ago. I think it's great that people are washing their hands more and thinking about cleanliness, but we can't live our lives in fear. Either we get sick, or we don't. Either we die, or we don't. As long as we're washing and not licking strangers, we have to get back out there and live life. I do have to say that I've enjoyed how much everyone wants to communicate with each other during all of this. I've talked more with my roommates and various friends in these past few weeks than in many months previous. I will miss people having to be homebodies. But if we don't get everyone back working, there won't be a life left to live. We went from the best jobless stats in decades to some of the worst. Suicides and other stress related problems have skyrocketed, more than making up for any benefits of staying in. My two cents.
