Originally Posted by
WTF11
In 2019, over 163,000 people died of cancer in the UK alone, my wife being one of them. Personal experience put to one side, let me ask all those who are rabidly focussed on the "eradication of Covid-19", and ask, how many billions have been spent on combatting a virus that (mainly) kills those who are old, with underlying health issue, or both? In the UK ALONE the bill for that campaign, when all the costs of business support, mental illness brought on or at least exacerbated by self distancing, staff furlough support, new "Nightingale hospitals around the country, etc etc...will exceed £500bn in this year, THIS YEAR!!!! In the year 2018/2019, the UK government committed £546m to cancer research, including projects that will run for many years. In the year itself, £442m was spent on ongoing research activity, including projects started in previous years. so around 10% of what will be spent, to combat a virus that, if the absolute worst case scenario was to be realised, might kill around half those that cancer WILL kill, and that in this year, not year, after year, after year.
There will be no reliable virus for many months, and as we all know, viruses mutate, so a virus that is effective against Covid-19 may be useless against the next mutation. So what would you suggest? We hunker down, pull up the drawbridge, hope against all logic that we wont catch this particular nasty, and watch as the world around us disappears to hell in a handcart?
OWT mentions Leeds and their chances playing behind closed doors as a reference to something that represents what was normal. He could have asked the same question (essentially, what will happen when "normal" returns) about just about any facet of life as we knew it, the answer would be the same, we don't know.
One thing we SHOULD know, is that up to a little while ago, we knew the cost of everything and the value of nothing.
We as a society were quite prepared to buy anything and everything from China because it was cheap. Nothing wrong with wanting a bargain (I'm a Yorkshireman FFS!), but perhaps now we will question why a little more, instead of diving for the credit card or the "buy it now" button. As for re-starting the season, there will never be proof that Covid-19 is gone (you can't prove a negative) and asking for it is misguided and cannot be afforded (financially or in other terms). We need a health system that is INVESTED IN so it is fit for purpose, we need the general public to start to exercise common sense in what they ask the NHS to do (no more 999 calls for an ingrowing toenail etc), we need the global community to start to adhere to decent standards in their food supply chain (and no, I don't mean tribes in the Amazon basin have to go to Sainsburys, but lets not eat anything with a face just because its there, as appears to be common practice in some highly populous nations), and we need to return to some semblance of normality where buying 10 million toilet rolls is considered unacceptable behaviour.