Has the world overreacted re Covid-19

[HoHoHo]

Simple question - has the world overreacted to this virus given there are 7.6 billion people on the planet and according to official figures 11.2m people are confirmed to have had the virus, 6m have recovered, 4.6m are still poorly and 528k have died.

[smifffymoto]

The simple reply is what was done was the right approach.If nothing had been done could we have coped with the potential of millions of dead,because the world did what it did we will never know if the virus would have mutated etc.

Edited by smifffymoto on Sunday 5th July 10:41

[HoHoHo]

smifffymoto said:

The simple reply is what was done was the right approach.If nothing was done could we have coped with the potential of millions of dead.

You could equally argue if the funds which amount to many trillions around the world that have been used against this virus were directed at other illnesses many, many millions would have recovered from those?

I’m guessing you are a no and that’s OK with me, it will be interesting to see the general opinion once this poll has been running a while.

[RDM]

Is there no option for...

I don’t know, don’t think anyone knows and there’s probably no chance we’ll ever be in a position to know

[smifffymoto]

Not everything has to be put into monetary terms with regard to cost.

[Sophisticated Sarah]

In hindsight yes, but at the time we were told that millions would die and this could be awful so governments took the correct actions with the crap information and advice they were given by researchers desperate for funding.

[Gecko1978]

HoHoHo said:

smifffymoto said:

The simple reply is what was done was the right approach.If nothing was done could we have coped with the potential of millions of dead.

You could equally argue if the funds which amount to many trillions around the world that have been used against this virus were directed at other illnesses many, many millions would have recovered from those?

I’m guessing you are a no and that’s fine

The funds were not in the bank sitting there ready to spend the funds were printed in short notice and at the expense of great debt because that seemed like a better idea than letting many more people die. In the UK on the worst day we hit 1000 deaths there about. What if that had been left to continue so no furlough or lock down. 1 month of that and deaths would have doubled but likely been way more.

The actual cost to the economy of more old people dying may have been less, but I am not comfortable with the idea that your old so its ok you die. I also think that the debt can and should be inflated away over time and not reduced via higher wealth or income tax.

[xstian]

HoHoHo said:

You could equally argue if the funds which amount to many trillions around the world that have been used against this virus were directed at other illnesses many, many millions would have recovered from those?

That theory would only work if we didn't have the cost of a pandemic to deal with.

[amare32]

How many other people with other illnesses that have died due to all the focus on Covid19? I’d be interested to know what that figure is...

My mum fought and died from cancer in a space of 6 months back in 2018. I would imagine it would be much shorter if Covid19 happened then.

It’s been an overreaction for sure.

[poo at Paul's]

HoHoHo said:

Simple question - has the world overreacted to this virus given there are 7.6 billion people on the planet and according to official figures 11.2m people are confirmed to have had the virus, 6m have recovered, 4.6m are still poorly and 528k have died.

Do you not think your question and reasoning is a little flawed. Using the stats that result from the reaction to question whether the reaction was an over reaction or not?

[Getragdogleg]

No, a lot more than half a million people have probably died.

Don't forget that China have told utter lies about their death figures.

It utterly slaughtered a huge number in China and even if its not admitted publicly the governments of the world have a better idea of the true figures, hence the reactions.

Anyone trusting in the CCP for truth needs to come see me, I have a bridge for sale.

[sunbeam alpine]

I've voted no - although I accept that there isn't really a 100% correct answer.

I think it's a case of "damned if you do, damned if you don't". We'll never know how many lives have been saved by the reaction - or how much worse it could have been had there been a much more relaxed attitude.

Maybe we'll get an indication now if there are renewed outbreaks with the relaxation of measures.

[98elise]

HoHoHo said:

Simple question - has the world overreacted to this virus given there are 7.6 billion people on the planet and according to official figures 11.2m people are confirmed to have had the virus, 6m have recovered, 4.6m are still poorly and 528k have died.

That's the figures because we reacted. What would they be if it was let to run its course?

It's no different to the millennium bug. People say it was an over reaction as hardly anything happened. The reason hardly anything happened is because we reacted to it and fixed 99% of the issues before it became a problem.

[ATG]

poo at Paul's said:

HoHoHo said:

Simple question - has the world overreacted to this virus given there are 7.6 billion people on the planet and according to official figures 11.2m people are confirmed to have had the virus, 6m have recovered, 4.6m are still poorly and 528k have died.

Do you not think your question and reasoning is a little flawed. Using the stats that result from the reaction to question whether the reaction was an over reaction or not?

Quite. It's a bit like saying I don't need chainsaw trousers because I've never cut my leg off while I've been wearing them.

[Louis Balfour]

ATG said:

Quite. It's a bit like saying I don't need chainsaw trousers because I've never cut my leg off while I've been wearing them.

That's one of my sayings.

[djc206]

smifffymoto said:

Not everything has to be put into monetary terms with regard to cost.

True but almost everything has a monetary cost and most things can be bought or sold. I dare say if you viewed it purely from a monetary perspective in a really cold utterly inhuman way then we should barely have reacted at all given the actuarial value of the lives of those dying from covid. Thankfully there’s still some humanity left in the world and we are lucky enough to live in a society that tries to help everyone.

Personally I don’t think we got the balance quite right here, I respected the initial reaction to some extent but I think we were far too slow to come out of it and get going again and I don’t think schools should ever have been shut. I wouldn’t have wanted to be the one making any of the calls though, that’s an unenviable task.

[christian-ohtc3]

HoHoHo said:

Simple question - has the world overreacted to this virus given there are 7.6 billion people on the planet and according to official figures 11.2m people are confirmed to have had the virus, 6m have recovered, 4.6m are still poorly and 528k have died.

Putting it down as percentages of the world population would give a clearer picture, 528k died is a massive number but a tiny percentage of 7.6bn

The confusion comes from how they have compiled the stats, the figure of 528k is a combination of died from the virus, died with the virus but from something else and died suspected of having the virus.

Nobody knows how dangerous or contagious the virus is and there are so many contradictions coming out from different official sources its just a mass panic with no clear direction taken.

[PositronicRay]

RDM said:

Is there no option for...

I don’t know, don’t think anyone knows and there’s probably no chance we’ll ever be in a position to know

Exactly this.

Only a simpleton could be so sure and self confident to answer such a binary question.

[Hub]

It isn't really fair to apply hindsight when we didn't really know anything about the virus or how deadly it really was, and there is much we still don't know - like long term health effects for example. Daily cases globally are still increasing, so while I think ultimately the answer will turn out to be yes, you have to answer no because of the seriousness of the threat as it emerged!

[SS2.]

98elise said:

HoHoHo said:

Simple question - has the world overreacted to this virus given there are 7.6 billion people on the planet and according to official figures 11.2m people are confirmed to have had the virus, 6m have recovered, 4.6m are still poorly and 528k have died.

That's the figures because we reacted. What would they be if it was let to run its course?

Sadly, we're unlikely to ever know the answer to that.

Worth noting though that many people were already modifying their behaviour before any lockdown was imposed - additional sanitising, increased distancing, avoiding public areas etc.

It would be very interesting to know just how many more deaths would have been attributable to the virus (including those where folk avoided attention for other medical conditions) had the public simply been left to their own devices.