Curious about what you all think about people not only like Peter Hitchens, but also like the person he quoted in this interview. Do you think they're all fools, like you think I am? Or do you think that it's possible you're not as right as you think you are? Some of these people are eminent scientists in their own right.
https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/04/03/the-alleged-cure-is-immensely-worse-than-the-disease/
ETA: I'm not so much interested in specific rebuttals or analyses of the arguments in that interview, as in your thoughts on the reality that there are MANY scientists and epidemiologists who aren't considered "fringe" or "cranks" who are against all of this and who say the virus isn't what it's being made out to be. But when I read them and agree with them, you act as though I'm a wacko. Do you think they're all wackos, too?
My own thought is that there is much sensible in the article, but in the end it does downplay the reality of this virus.
I know you aren't sold on this, but this virus is a whole heck of a lot worse than the flu. It kills a much higher percentage of the people infected with it.
Does that mean the best option for society is the shutdown that we are taking? Is that the best option for Britain? For the US? That's much harder to answer. The fact is that the economic havoc we are putting on ourselves will be very, very, bad, and will even cause some death by itself. So, how much is too much? How much is worth it?
Those are difficult questions. My problem is that, in the USA, we don't have a lot of alternatives, and I don't believe the leadership is getting us there.
What I wish were happening is that a group of very smart people were getting together and figuring out ways that we could really slow the spread of this disease. I mean figuring out how to ramp up testing, not by 100,000 tests per day, but by a million tests per day. How we could make 1,000,000,000 masks. How we could truly harness the power of industry to make PPE right now, in really big quantities, instead of patting ourselves on the back because we told existing companies at full production.
That would address Hitchens' concerns.
I see a tiny bit of that starting. Here's an anecdote. I know a woman who has gotten contracts to make a few hundred masks. I've known this woman since she was a girl. She sews. She's a woman with a sewing machine. She has made, and sold, a few hundred masks. I'm sure they are not perfect, but I'm sure they are good and a lot better than nothing.
We should be doing things like that, a lot If we did that, it would eventually reach a point where those measures would be more effective than shutting down the economy.
