I am completely fixated by this. You can not help but be however when I actually look at the data it's just a bad 'flu year, and is dwarfed by Spanish 'flu. Had we done nothing where would it be is perhaps the question?
The deaths are a significant leap from where we were in 2019 and in that sense it's a huge leap but we are only returning to the levels pre-flu jab. Then I happily went through school and was oblivious to illness.
We have to consider though what this would be if we did nothing. That is not clear. There are some countries such as Iran which lack the economic strength to lockdown. This epidemic is marked by waves which peak and then seem to crash but do they crash because every society naturally hunkers down until it passes.
It does not matter whether you are a modern civilised society or a favela, when illness comes to your neighbourhood everyone instinctively does the same - quarantine.
I think I go with the fear of the unknown. The world has. We aren't all hysterical surely? When you consider the cost to business and wealth production, the elites who run the world would not have sacrificed their wealth had it not been necessary?
i couldnt agree more, the excess death spike it put on here for a 10 year time series sees us back to the levels of early 2000s. there is a point about 'what could have happened if we didnt act' but i would argue the disease has not been affected much by what we have done.