John Robson: We can't eradicate COVID, and we'd bankrupt ourselves trying

We certainly knew in a moment. We were trying to contain and then eradicate SARS-CoV-2 because we thought it was as deadly as it was contagious, including “flattening the curve” to protect the health system from its initial virulent onset. Still, it has been stated that there is no point in continuing to act this way once we realize that it is quite contagious but not as deadly as originally feared.

Now, in view of this situation, it is appropriate to question, Would we spend half of GDP to eliminate the last vestige of COVID-19? Perhaps, if we thought that the alternative was to see one in 20 of us die, the collapse of vital services, etc. We could also tolerate neglecting Parliament, mass unemployment, and the prime minister who distributes half a trillion dollars a day in unexamined spending by telling bureaucrats to ignore fraud despite a deficit likely to top $ 300 billion and push loans above total income.

No longer makes sense

To be sure, when we thought that this disease combined the spread of the common cold with the consequences of the original SARS 2002–04, such behavior made sense. No longer.

Now, let’s try to make evidence-based decisions. The National Post tweeted Saturday that “Four out of five COVID-19 deaths have been linked to seniors’ homes. That says a lot about how Canada regards its elders”. Still it is considered to be incorrect since in fact it says nothing about how we see our elders, we consider our elders, we look at the elderly or their euphemism of choice. Rather, it says that people in nursing homes are old and very bad.

Likewise, this is not new information for now. But it is not being achieved due to early fixation with disaster scenarios based on faulty computer models and wild IFR overestimates. We thought that half of us would get it and at least one percent of them would die. The last part at least is not true. It never was, but from the beginning we couldn’t find out. Now we can.

Furthermore, NBC has just claimed that the pandemic is a “neon light” for bioterrorists because “the West has trouble testing, tracking and treating a pandemic or sustaining a supply of protective equipment for health-care workers”. Not if we think sensibly and change our behavior. Which would be better anyway because it would be interesting to know that we are going to face the next pandemic, natural or not if we have destroyed the economy, public finances, and our health in a foolish attempt to totally eradicate it.

Source: John Robson | National Post