What about all the videos of people going back to normal months ago? Movie theaters, night clubs, mass gatherings, no more mandatory masks. Have you seen those? What’s worse, trapping some tenants for a few days so that country can reopen, or 350k dead? They did offer food delivery after all. Also been validated by Chinese coming here.

Originally Posted by BoilerUP View Post
"Hoaxer".

Which has been used in this thread to describe a news story from the San Francisco Chronicle in which an infectious disease expert offers her opinions of why California numbers are so high and compliance with 'mandates' is currently so low (but doesn't offer "solutions") as well as to describe people who point to California's mandates alongside other states and their comparative cases per 100k figures.

SARS-CoV-2 is absolutely NOT a hoax. It is a real novel virus that is making a lot of people sick and killing some of those people. Yes, health systems in many locations across the country are being stressed by the numbers of both.

Looking at what statistics are available across the nation, the group at highest risk for hospitalization, ICU admission and death are those age 65 and older. Period dot, full stop, this is a fact, science, truth, and not a matter for debate from anyone with a shred of objective reasonability. If we can protect this group via vaccination, we will have eliminated the overwhelming majority of COVID inpatient hospital admissions and mortality.

Yes, even if we do that we will still have some people under 65 getting severely ill and some dying...but as a percentage those occurrences will be MUCH less. Yes, some in these groups will survive but have issues for weeks or months after their primary symptoms end...but this isn't unique to SARS-CoV-2 as it has been observed in many different kinds of viral diseases. This doesn't mean these groups cease mitigations, or don't get vaccinated once available...but harm reduction philosophy says this type of policy will result in the least harm in terms of lives lost, medical resources utilized, and economic/social damage.

This is a pandemic. We humans think we can control everything Mother Nature throws at us, and that hubris does not juxtapose well with reality. Science - not feelings or emotion or religion or whatever - has shown us that YES, mitigations do work to mitigate spread but NO, mitigations are not 100% effective in eliminating spread. The only way to STOP spread would be a 3-4 week hard fast Hubei-style lockdown that would effectively kick off the Civil War II in this country and frankly has not been shown to be remotely necessary for the observed virulence of SARS-CoV-2.

We're allegedly professional pilots here - our profession NECESSITATES we have the ability to work through a bad situation, objectively consider what is and what is not, then decide the path that results in the best odds of a positive outcome for all effected parties. A pandemic isn't an engine rollback, but the ability to 'wind the clock', take a deep breath then start considering options once you've got the aircraft stabilized is pretty universal here.

It is wholly inappropriate for public health officials - who ONLY focus on public health - to drive the policy boat without giving properly weighted consideration to economic and social impacts...or human psychology when they see their 'betters' doing as they do not as they say for their constituents. For example, I can say "What has happened with in-person schools being closed for nearly a year does not conform with observed science from around the world and is going to have significant societal downside impacts for at least a generation" and that doesn't make me a "hoaxer". I can say "Less than 5% of COVID spread has been contract traced to indoors in-person dining, is it really necessary to decimate thousands of restauranteurs and put millions out of work for this risk?" and that doesn't mean I don't care about people who DO get sick.

We're not all dumb stupid science-denying "COVID is a fake news hoax" types. We all have our individual perspectives and biases, but even with that we're all capable of evaluating what is and what is not and making a considered risk assessment for ourselves and our families given the FACTS as presented. Policymakers ignore that reality at their own peril...