A lot of people seems to be asking lately, "What If...?"
What if we hadn't locked down?
What if we didn't try to "flatten the curve?"
What if we had just let the virus run it's natural course without enacting never before tried NPIs?
What if we did actually follow the previous governmental pandemic planning procedures or the follow the findings that resulted from numerous exercises for similar outbreaks?
We are so divided.
Whether it be politics.
Whether it's religion, race or gender.
No matter the issue, we polarise everything & we divide ourselves into separate camps.
We take labels & pigeonhole ourselves.
We've become deeply tribal
We attack those we perceive to be against us.
Despite holding many similar views, sharing similar experiences, feeling the same emotions, our first instinct is to highlight or focus on our differences.
We take those difference as an excuse to other people & dismiss their genuine concerns.
We seem to automatically use those differences to build barriers.
We ridicule or insult strangers, simply for expressing their views.
We enter into arguments over the smallest difference of opinion & then show hatred & aggression to those open enough to speak their mind.
I was called an essential worker. I carried a letter daily in case I was stopped by the police on my way to or from work.
How quickly that changed.
When people like me questioned if the lockdowns, mask wearing in the street & other NPIs were proportionate or helpful, they were called Corona deniers.
Lockdown sceptics or critics soon began to be called Covidiots. Here in Germany they were called Querdenkers.
For over 2 years, hundreds upon hundreds of world leaders, government ministers, politicians, pundits, scientists, as well as respected doctors & nurses, have convinced millions that you stop yourself from catching a respiratory illness by isolating yourself from society
It is this dangerous illusion that has cost so many so very much, and it continues to cost us all very dearly.
We now have millions, maybe even a billion who are scared of their fellow human beings.
Still.
2 years on!
It is deeply depressing.
Some will never recover - their behaviours changed forever.
They will continue to live in fear until they day they pass.
It is simply criminal.
And it was completely avoidable too.
Just look at the UK Government's abandoned Pandemic Response Plan.