We failed to defeat covid (and now it's too late) (and my take on what should have been done)

[Riebeck]

To be precise, you didn't fail, but governments and billionaires influencing them did. But to be fair, they probably wanted us to fail.

Of course I only half ass put thought into this, but it still seems like it would have been more effective than what actually happened.

pandemic in review

March: In the beginning, we went into lockdown WAYYY too early. There weren't even many cases going around. At first, people didn't mind it despite major cities having less than 20 cases. It was actually kinda cool and interesting. Not even hardcore Trumpists opposed it in the beginning.

April: The first and only good restriction was locking down the borders. Good job, but everything inside the country should have stayed open. Why? Because there was no serious spread. Nobody saw the threat. Many field hospitals were built and never used. The rebellion begins.

May - August: Cases rise. Heroes are the frontline workers. But then started the repeat cycle: Lockdowns extended, new variant, open some things, close others, tighten restrictions, vaccine delay, political strife. Repeat. This cycle is still happening. People slowly started seeing the pattern. We rebelled. The resistance grew stronger with each new restriction.

September - December: Secret gatherings. Cases spike. People grow weary of the pandemic. But it's too late to impose a China-style lockdown. The government has played all its cards. Heroes are the ones who fight the restrictions.

2021: Protests for freedom every week, while some only pretend they care about wearing masks. Those who obeyed for a full year are finally giving up and going maskless. Vaccine hesitancy grows. Reaching herd immunity seems like a pipe dream.

I bet sometime in the future news reports will admit we failed and can't beat the virus.

My take on how we could have avoided all of this:

March: Lockdown borders.

April - May: Do nothing but Wait for cases to spike. Recommend masks and distancing and building capacity, but no enforcement.

June: The spike hits, #stopthespike. Intense China style lockdown, eliminating 99% of cases. It would have been much easier to keep people at home for a month, rather than have us follow restrictions for 16 months straight, which has obviously failed.

July - August: Summer of reopening! This would have been the greatest summer in decades.

We wouldn't have even needed a vaccine if we did it this way. Thoughts?

[Gray-Wisp]

We should just keep the borders closed as standard policy tbh.

Not a die hard Trumpist but as someone who understands basics economics I opposed lockdowns from Day 1. Yeah they were a giant mistake but the government will never let a good crisis go to waste. The government is controlled by big corporations and they capitalized on a perfect opportunity to destroy small businesses. I'd say everything went exactly according to plan.

[goaded]

Try looking at reality.

February: Trump knew it was deadly and probably airborne.
March: cases were growing exponentially in the areas it had a foothold.
April: lockdowns slowed the growth.
June: re-opening accelerated the spread again, while in other places, like the EU, numbers were low.
October: as people moved inside again, growth accelerated in the northern hemisphere.

[msc545]

My thought is that I am grateful you were not in charge of anything at all.

[anylolone]

Lockdowns basically don't work with covid.
But hindsight is 20/20.