What Is The End Game With Covid-19?
4 min read
I will start this post that this is not 100% my words but I have heavily edited it. I saw this anonymously posted with no attribution to the original author but I felt it made very good points. This is not intended to be political and I have removed the obvious political connections. This is focusing on the objective viewpoints, the common sense, the logical approach to this once-in-a-lifetime situation (hopefully). This is not a rant nor is it intended to be a venting post but a conversation about other risks in everyday life put into perspective.
What is the end game with Covid-19?
What is the target formula to allow normal life to return? Is it zero cases? If that’s the end game the only way that will happen is if we just stop testing and stop reporting. This disease, like pretty much every other disease on the planet, will never go away. People will catch this, like the flu, like norovirus, like the common cold, like Ebola forever.
Will the answer be a vaccine?
It took 25 years for a chickenpox vaccine to be developed. The smallpox inoculation was discovered in 1796 the last known natural case was in 1977. We have a flu vaccine that is only 40 to 60% effective and less than half of the US population choose to get one, and roughly 20,000 Americans will die of the flu or flu complications. Perhaps there will be a mandate to take the vaccine in order to attend school, travel to some foreign countries, be out in public places, etc. We already have a growing number of anti-vaxxers refusing proven, tested, well-known vaccines that have been administered for decades but aren’t necessarily safe. Social media is already spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories to what a Covid vaccine would also bring, which is not helping adoption. In addition, the rush to get a vaccine is dangerous whose long term side effects and overall efficacy are anyone’s best guess.
How long are we going to cancel and postpone and reconsider?
Schools are opening and closing again after a few infections. Restaurants, malls, private businesses are being forced to close but only certain ones allowed to remain open (liquor stores are essential?). Events are postponed, cancelled and changed without a defined end game target in place. What if October’s numbers are the same as August’s? Fall sports are being moved to spring. What if next March is worse than this one was?
When do we decide the quality of life outweighs the risks?
Covid can be deadly or very dangerous for SOME people. The current data is you will be fine if you contract it. Aside from underlying conditions, age, anomalies, just like with anything else, the overwhelming majority will recover. There are many other things SOME people will die from where the overwhelming majority of people will not yet life is allowed to continue, especially when you combine all these together. Life is risky.
Some of those are:
- Seasonal Flu
- SARS
- H1-N1 (or any of them)
- Strep Throat
- Chicken Pox
- Strawberries
- Shellfish
- Peanuts
- Pneumonia
- Asthma
- Sugar
- Tobacco
- Alcohol
- Firearms
- Cars
- Airplanes
- Lightning
- Sharks
- Falling down the stairs
- Choking
We take risks multiple times a day without a second thought. We know driving a car can be dangerous, we don’t leave it in the garage. We know the dangers of smoking, drinking and eating fried foods, we do it anyway. We speed and don’t buckle our seatbelts. We take more medicine than directed. We know to wear a helmet on a motorcycle, many do not. Quite a few people don’t think twice about unprotected sex, they just hop right to it. Is hugging Grandma really more dangerous than rush hour on the freeway? Is going out with friends after work more risky than 4 day old gas station sushi? Or operating a chainsaw?
We are told going to the grocery store is dangerous. Yet a summer of riots, protests with 50,000 people in close proximity didn’t create the spike the math said should have happened without a doubt. Hot spots aren’t appearing where they should. One American city has had almost 90 continuous days of crowds in the streets, yet no spike of infections. The spread looks ‘natural’. It’s out there, people will contract it, people will get sick and some will unfortunately die. Isolated or not isn’t matching the narratives.
When and how did we so quickly lose our free will?
Is there a waiver somewhere I can sign that says, “I understand the risks, but I choose a life with Hugs and Smiles, and the State Fair and Concerts and Homecoming.” I understand that there is a minuscule possibility I could die, but I will most likely end up feeling like crap for a few days. I understand I could possibly pass it to someone else if I’m not careful, but I can pass any virus or bacterial infection onto someone else.
We know the risks. You can either accept the consequences of behaving with those risks or you can choose to not.
We either get busy living or we get busy dying.
Life is once and you don’t get any mulligans, so I guess I would rather spend my time enjoying it and living in the moment and not worrying about what-ifs and maybes with proper, common sense risk assessments and acceptance than being forced to conform when other more serious past situations we have not been.
That sentiment is not shared alone and yet we have to follow the rules placed upon us because that’s what we have allowed for now.
What is the end game?
End of Line.
Binary Blogger has spent 20 years in the Information Security space currently providing security solutions and evangelism to clients. From early web application programming, system administration, senior management to enterprise consulting I provide practical security analysis and solutions to help companies and individuals figure out HOW to be secure every day.
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