Thread by @1goodtern

I regularly see people, apparently people who would be otherwise considered intelligent, saying things like, "you just want us all in lockdown forever" or "are you going to mask forever?" or something else that also fails to understand the situation.

Here's what I want:

First, I want people to take some time and effort to educate themselves about the effects of Covid infections.

I have provided risk assessment services for billion dollar companies, and the first part of risk assessment is facing the problems and potential problems.

Being honest about them.
Examining them.
Thinking through their implications.

So what do I want?
I want some honesty.
I want some transparency.

Now that honesty and transparency itself demands information.

You can't have an informed opinion without information.

Governments have shut down the programs of surveillance that allow real clarity about the situation.

It's astonishing to me that the government here are following the Trump doctrine of "if you don't test it will just go away".

They have been increasingly doing it for both the short term problem of acute covid infections, and now increasingly for the long term problems of Long Covid.

If you discourage testing, people won't know what caused their illness.

If you don't gather data about Long Covid, then... no one has Long Covid.

So:
Honesty
Information
Awareness

And that awareness needs to apply to the information about the harm covid causes, and also to the information about how we might be able to stop covid spreading.

This is why it drives me nuts when people say things like "you want us all in lockdown forever"

Because it's a statement based in ignorance.
It's ignorant about the danger of Covid.
And it's ignorant about the way covid spreads.

And that's why the first thing we need before any mitigation is considered is honesty and clarity about what Covid infections are doing and going to do.

None of the lies about Covid being just a cold, mild, or over.

Honesty about the damage it causes to brains, hearts, kidneys, lungs, nerves, blood vessels.

None of the lies about Covid being unstoppable.

Honesty about the fact that it's airborne, spread by aerosols that are breathed out like smoke and float on the air.

We need programs of education that share the established scientific fact about the harms and about transmission.

Because then, once we're working on a level playing field about what it does and how it transmits, then we can start to think about what to do about it.

I don't want us all in lockdown forever.
I want us all to be healthier.

And covid is making us *unhealthier*.

So if we want to be healthier, then we need to reduce the spread of Covid.

One school of thought was that the way to reduce the spread of Covid was for everyone to catch it.
That school has closed.

It was always a stupid idea.

Covid immunity doesn't work like that.

Another school of thought was that repeat infections would make us all more able to deal with Covid infections.

That one was wrong too.

It hasn't gone away of its own accord.
It hasn't got milder.
It's still grinding its way through body after body leaving a trail of death and disability.

The people who said we can rely on vaccinations fail to mention that vaccinations just aren't available to most people any more.
And immunity wanes in six months, so you need regular vaccinations if you're relying on them.

Which you shouldn't be if you want to avoid harm from covid.

Vaccines don't eliminate the risk of serious illness or death, they just reduce it.

So now we're in this death circling limbo while the ideas that covid will just go away and that covid will stop harming people... while those ideas are waiting to die.

I don't want lockdowns, and I don't want to mask forever.

I want people to stop getting repeatedly sick and sicker.

What will it take to make that happen?

It starts with honesty, awareness, education, clarity.

It grows with compassion, empathy, understanding, perspective.

And it ends with sensible serious measured action.

If we don't relearn how to undertake this process, we're doomed.