1) Because other people's lives have no value to you? Because money is more important than lives? Of course people's lives matter. However, if the economy is affected too severely, it may end up causing more harm than the Corona virus through knock on effects, such as an increase in crime owing to lost jobs. Thinking of the economy purely in terms of money is something I've always had an issue with. Money (or rather, wealth) is not an evil thing, people actually end up forgetting what it's supposed to represent:resources for use to create more resources. Unfortunately we live in an age where some people have become selfish and see it as a status symbol. A good economy allows more research and development to happen - like how to combat Corona virus. It's no coincidence that as the world generates more 'worth' medical (and other) technologies advance. 2) What happens when it's you? Or someone you know in the low risk group? What happens when one of these low risk people infect a high risk person? Your grandparents? Your parents? Your friend with asthma? Related to the above, what about the other people who could have been saved in a worse case scenario where the economy collapses and a high number of people end up homeless, dying in large numbers in the winter? I love my friends and relatives (well some I tolerate!) but what person would I be if I chose my parents over, say, 50 people? 3) What are the odds the health care system, the NHS, can't handle the high risk cases let alone the perceived low risk? Because, the low risk groups death rates should be far less and manageable, though more data on this would be helpful. 4) I'm all for "the only stupid question is the one not asked" but some simple deliberations such as the above would've easily answered this question. The above points represent my thought process before I asked the question.
I hate to say it but in a way money is more important than lives, if there's enough of it anyway. Get high enough in most companies and you'll soon find out that lives have a monetary value attached to them, that is to say companies decide if it's cheaper to fix a problem, such as a safety issue, or cheaper to payout compensation now and again for lives lost. The government would've made exactly that calculation for this whole COVID thing and my guess is that if it wasn't for the reputational damage, i.e their chances of being reelected would crater, they wouldn't have spent all this money.
Where abouts in France are you? I'm in the Creuse and it's lovely and quiet, my partner is off out shopping today for the first time since the lock down so I guess I'll find out 2nd hand what Gueret is like some time today.
I live in Allier, it's also lovely and quiet, as of now, countrysides are more or less spared, but who knows what will happen if it goes on like that for months more...
Am i the only one finding it more than a little galling to hear people praising NHS staff and other key workers, it's not that i don't think they don't deserve it but heck if you value them so much then why'd you treat them like crap all these years, 6 months ago we were 'debating' if these same people even earned enough to stay in the bleeding country, we were calling them 'low' skilled workers. If we value these people so much maybe we should've shown that sooner.
I will always maintain that the NHS is probably the greatest thing to have ever happened in the UK. As you say, I just wish more people realised it and that it was better looked after @Nexxo I've not been following this thread closely. Are you on the front lines, so to speak? My doctor neighbours are having a hard time of it.
I'm almost tempted to post a few pictures of my workshop (it is a complete tip of course) which is a nice 150 square metres on the ground floor and 120 upstairs, which will hopefully be turned into a games room and home cinema at some point in the next few years. But I feel that may be a bit much for you at the moment.
I don't know. I'm not sure that everyone praising the NHS now was also treating them like crap previously, and to be honest I'd rather look on the positive side here - if this gives people in general a better appreciation of the NHS then it's a good thing, rather than being something that pisses you off because you see a perceived hypocrisy in the actions of the "great British public". I guess what I'm trying to say is that we can look at the negative in anything if we try hard enough. This forum in particular seems to attract a certain level of pessimism, cynicism and general misanthropy and to be honest it's really tiresome at times.
If i thought people in general would have a better appreciation of the NHS, and other key workers like those working in supermarket, then I'd share your optimism, unfortunately I've been around long enough to know the chances of that happening are vanishingly small. Just to add I'm not saying that everyone praising the NHS now was also treating them like crap previously, just that some, particularly TPTB, were.
Again with the world-weary, I know better, cynicism. Each to their own, but as I've said my piece and don't want an argument, I'll bow out at this point.
I'm not sure anyone was treating the NHS like crap before, I can't recall anyone decrying the work they do? The powers that be, maybe through lack of adequate funding, however at the same time the whole Trust setup leads to massive inefficiencies - money wasted across the service.
Again? When did i previously give the impression that I'm world-weary, that I know better, or was being cynical? Not everyone lives some sort of idyllic life where we can just pretend there aren't any negatives because we find it tiresome to think of the worse things happening to others, where we get bored listening to people saying TPTB are motivated by self-interest, and get annoyed when people who've been treated like crap all their lives dare to speak out.
I just hope that the current situation underlines just how important the NHS is and how mobilising it for a situation like this is much more direct (and cheaper) than it would be if they sold it off to the american pharma industry. Pray they keep it as it is, I shudder to think of what it would be like if it had been sold off to Trump's buddies.
Yep, that never happened... Tweet— Twitter API (@user) date Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying people decried the NHS, I'm saying we didn't demonstrate that we valued them, along with a lot of the people we're now relying on, like bin men, bus drivers, supermarket staff, etc, etc. Like i said 6 months ago we were telling them they were 'low skilled'.
1) That's not he WHO's job. That's not how the WHO works. 2) It's down to countries to handle how to manufacture test kits and provision lab capacity. The UK decided that, instead of preparing for this in advance using the several weeks of low infection levels, they would utilise that time for valuable thumb-twiddling. In contrast, South Korea went full-in on rapid manufacture and testing while starting at a much later point in the infection curve, and has hit 6.1 tests/thousand population vs. the UK's paltry 0.9: I'm tempted to just keep using respirator for the commute after all this is over.
Maybe next time i need to spell it out for you as it seems you've missed the point by so much that you can't even see it anymore.
