The irony of being confined to my house during one of the best summers my country has ever known, to "fight" a disease that is well-known to be worse for vit-D deficient people.....
That is basically what has happened anyway, at least to health services in the UK (and more specifically, in Wales where I live). Covid cases make up a very small proportion of total patients, total patient numbers are significantly lower than average for the time of year (and that has been true since March 2020), yet you cannot now get an ambulance unless you are essentially dying, and availability of routine healthcare (at least, what NHS normally offered) has nosedived.
Could not agree more. I also strongly disagree with the use of highly emotive words like "horrific" mutations. Exactly how are they horrific, given how little anyone knows about this variant? In my opinion, it's incredibly irresponsible public fearmongering.
FWIW my trust in academia, and specifically medical, will never return.
- Patches on patches and old bugs resurfacing with new ones will cause sysadmins to prematurely age and drop out of the profession
- Despite ever-more sophisticated designs and capabilities, machines will struggle to run the latest versions of applications that do the same thing as their predecessors decades ago
- Computing systems will feel more and more like houses of cards held together with string and tape, as "excess value" is aggressively engineered out
Oh wait. I was describing the Anti-Singularity (a pet theory of mine that all technological development inevitably outpaces our ability to maintain it, and that we will end our days desperately trying to get barely-functional systems that we have no hope of re-creating, to do something useful).
The age-related effects of Covid most definitely are significant. If we've decided Covid is worth curtailing the essential liberties of select groups of people, surely it would be much more effective to target those most at risk?
No. "they" are going to lead fine lives, revered as warriors against social injustice, and living in the most exclusive corners of the state. As is typical, the next generation will pay the price.
For what it's worth, it drives me crazy too. The only reason we live such comfortable lives, that we can dedicate so much effort and money to such considerations, is due to the giants on whose shoulders we stand.
Interesting. Apparently Texas has some incredibly unhealthy people, as the unvaccinated death rate there is significantly higher than the unvaccinated death rate in the UK.
The relevant data is on Table 4, page 15. Eg: For the 30-39 age group, Covid death rate amongst the unvaccinated was 0.7 per 100,000, and it was 0.1 per 100,000 for the double vaccinated. For the over 80 age group, it was 117 per 100,000 for the unvaccinated, and 47 per 100,000 for the vaccinated.
If anything, it's more effective for young people...
What is a "blended household"? I was only allowed my regular household, so just the 3 (then 4) of us confined inside our own walls for months.
>lockdowns prevented our healthcare systems being overwhelmed thus causing many more excess deaths
It is impossible to know if this is true. That is - if shutting healthy infants, children, young adults, and healthy adults in their own homes for months had any net gain. Personally, I've only seen downsides. Friends (also with kids) that have had latent mental health issues come to light, family losing their jobs and livelihoods, etc etc.