Well you didn't want to tough it out and eradicate it so that we can enjoy what Taiwan, New Zealand and other places were able to enjoy, so you can't really complain about the slow-burn alternative - which is what we are doing right now. Everyone had been warned that restrictions will have to be tightened up again if the number of new cases increases, and the current rate is higher than what we have seen in the spring. Don't call that a surprise now and bargain for something else. You cannot have your cake and eat it too - all the complaining doesn't change that. In fact, I should be pretty annoyed at people who insisted on taking this path instead of eradication - because it actually made the whole thing worse and risk losing the all the gains during the initial lockdown.
Sure, you can pursue something similar to what the US is doing (i.e. nothing), if you don't consider that to be a limit. Just don't come back and complain when it is my "whatever" caught it and didn't make it. I guess 200K dead is what you get when you have a good chunk of people believing they knew better than even imperfect experts.
We haven't even finished with the COVID world, dreaming about the end of the tunnel doesn't make it come faster; and choosing the wrong policies now may actually end up making it worse and delaying the end.
The age of deference is over.
The issue about people not getting the vaccine is not people being anti-vaccine.
It is that the response to this pandemic has been such a disastrous mess from our politicians, the WHO, the leading Superpower the USA, and non-stop conflicting advice from doctors and infectious disease specialists.
Like the big difference from the early 90s is that we are no longer in an age of deference as there was a monopoly on information. Now many people have incorrect info or fake expertise but they are not fully blind as before due to limitless information on the internet.
Like I heard doctors hear that their young patients routinely push back or ask questions while elders just take the doctor's word as the word of God.
That's an excuse - whatever faults the governments had, most were able to push forward policies that kept the virus from spreading unchecked. Places where government failed to do so are precisely where they undertook policies contrary to expert opinion and/or having significant portion of the population refusing to heed expert opinion and continue to engage in high risk activites (e.g. US, Brazil; UK during the early phase of the epidemic). Don't blame conflicting advice among experts either - those petered out quite quickly after the initial confusion - there is no question after a month or two that wearing masks help reduce infections; that being in indoor spaces in close proximity is high risk - where it failed is when you have members of the public as well as certain politicians keep on pushing the narrative that everything is a-okay and normal, and that precaution is unnecessary.
Like denying that there is need to close dine-in at bars and restaurants and putting forward some arcane set of restrictions that are hard to understand and enforce. That's not being able to see with "limitless information" - that's foolishness masquerading as "citizen expertise".
Now many people have incorrect info or fake expertise but they are not fully blind as before due to limitless information on the internet.
"These are dangerous times. Never have so many people had access to so much knowledge, and yet been so resistant to learning anything." — Tom Nichols,
The Death of Expertise
AoD
