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[Icky Thump]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

Yeah, I was wrong.

But even at a loss of two million lives, statistically, it's not enormous: .00608273 (2mil/328.2mil)

Then you have to factor in how many of those deaths were among the significantly aged, to assess life years lost. Increasingly, you get a picture, particularly in Sweden, of a disease that has hunted the old and co-morbidity-riddled most perniciously.

Is that acceptable here (as it is among policy makers in Sweden)? Most would say if it were preventable, no. If this was not preventable save pre-emptive actions that had to have been taken long ago and could not be taken fast enough when we were caught flat footed, you'd have to list those deaths as largely unpreventable. They'd be sad consequences of policy inaction. But netted against them must be the offset for life years lost, and when you consider this disease thankfully does not end many young lives or healthy lives with many future life years to look forward to, you see a reason to make the argument, "This is not good, and not acceptable, but it's also not an apocalypse, and people should be a bit less alarmist and more circumspect in their thinking about the situation."

"But we must do all at any cost to save lives!" is a comment I hear a lot. It's a great emotive response to someone asserting that we need a balanced approach that takes the economy and the value of preserving some normalcy into account. I'd say wearing masks and observing social distancing while the scientists develop more therapies and hopefully a vaccine seems a reasonable way to approach life right now. I have no patience for anyone who refuses to wear a mask. It's ludicrous. But I also have no patience for anyone who asserts that this was entirely preventable or that we should engage in national or even regional lockdowns bacause "lives!!!"

This is bad. But as grandmother (mine lived thru the 1918 flu) would have said, "stiff upper lip." It doesn't take much to be careful. Do so.

That's only if masks and social distancing doesn't work.