The COVID overreaction makes us look like spineless sentimentalists

10^th September 2021

Comparing historical pandemics is difficult but from what numbers I can find it seems that COVID is the mildest pandemic in recorded history. Black death killed at-least 30% of the entire population of England in two years. COVID has killed 0.2% in a similar amount of time.

Even more pertinently almost all of the people who die from COVID either have underlying conditions or are extremely old.

So how did we react to this mild pandemic? Mass fear-mongering. Mass lock-down. The government borrowed half-a-trillion pounds to fund healthy people of working-age to sit at-home and do nothing. You could probably invent a cure for cancer or feed an entire country with that much money.

Think about what this says about our culture:

• That proportion is irrelevant and we will over-react to an unlimited degree over a sad story affecting an arbitrarily small number of people.
• That we hide at home from the slightest of risks.
• That our rights can be taken away on a whim by the government, and most people don't even seem to care.
• That simply being close to other people and breathing can be criminalised.
• That we can just bundle our problems into a half-trillion pound sized can and kick it down the road.
• That young people's mental health, learning and development is a secondary priority to the convenience of old people.

Honestly we should all be ashamed of how we reacted to this pandemic. Think about what we would do if a real pandemic hits.