Thread by @dgurdasani1

Some brief thoughts on the concerning relativism I've seen creeping into media, and scientific rhetoric over the past 20 months or so - the idea that things are ok because they're better *relative to* a point where things got really really bad. 🧵

Many pointed to summer in the UK saying it was a success because 'freedom day' didn't translate to anything like Jan 21 or March '20. No it didn't, but >18000 people died since (many deaths may have been avoided with simple measures like mask mandates, mitigations in schools)

And of course we have 1.2 million with long COVID with children seeing a doubling in 4 months. But all this is okay, because it's not as bad as Jan, or March last year. When the pandemic hit in March, we were thoroughly unprepared.

We've had 20 months of learning. So why are we still ready to accept things getting as bad as Jan '21 or March '20 before we act. Surely, with all we've gained in 20 months we should be less accepting of people getting ill & dying, rather than comparing with Jan.

The reason this worries me - is that I think two years ago, the idea of 170,000 deaths happening over 4 months (many avoidable), and 1.2 million people, including 77000 children getting chronic illness would've been far more shocking than it is now.

Now we're happy to accept 30-50,000 deaths/year, despite all the research on COVID-19, all the technological advancements. It hasn't meant we accept less suffering as a society, it's bizarrely just meant we tolerate more infection as long as deaths are *less than* before.

In effect govt, media, and sadly even some scientists have moved the target to it's ok as long as it's not like the catastrophe it was at x point in time - which means we just tolerate more infection, rather than consider that perhaps we should do better.

I think when we're okay with 1000 people dying each week from a preventable illness, and say this is good news, maybe we need to recalibrate where we've gotten to. When we say, a crisis leading to 100K cases is ok, because it may not get us to Jan '21, maybe it's time to reflect.