Thread by @bobscartoons

Let me make my moral position on this whole situation as clear as possible:

I believe that any government or advisory body, faced with a pandemic of a virus which appears to be dangerous, should take action to limit the harm it causes to a population.

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However, ANY action taken should UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES directly cause suffering (financial, psychological or physical) or death to any person in that population, whether or not that person is at risk from said virus.
It follows that any leaders NOT imposing measures against

a virus because they are in direct conflict with that principle, cannot be blamed for injury or death attributed to the virus. It also means that death or injury caused as a direct result of ignoring that principle, CAN and SHOULD be blamed on the leaders in question.

I believe that if a society or worse, humanity as a whole, not only abandons this principle but turns it upside down - i.e 'There is no limit to the death and destruction we might cause, as long as it prevents harm from this ONE particular danger' - then a situation arises where

almost any level of immoral act can be justified. Fear and paranoia will dominate all life and love and freedom will eventually become worthless. There is a huge ethical difference between action and inaction.

I do not believe that any human being alive, regardless of their

background, qualifications or level of expertise, is unqualified to hold this view with absolute conviction. Nor do I believe that their opinion is worth more or less than anybody else's.

I now find myself living in a world where almost every media outlet, almost every

healthcare worker, almost every politician, teacher, religious leader, lawyer, police officer, scientist, historian, thousands and thousands of my fellow human beings, do not agree with any of the above.

But this is my view. And no statistics, graphs, papers or photos of people

in hospital will ever change my thinking. If I am wrong, then everything I have ever learnt about decency, morality and what it means to be good is also wrong.

I do not think it is hyperbolic to say that the future of our species is hanging by a thread.