Interesting listening to a couple of select committees today. One discussed the suggestion coming out of one USA study that we will need a degree of lockdown until 2022. Could we really live like this for another 2 years? People are already getting restless in the USA. The discussions were very revealing about the reason the UK reacted later than others.
There was a recognition that an earlier lockdown would have saved more lives if it was maintained for a very long time. Accepting that we (the public) would not be able to social distance for years meant that introduction of lockdown had to be delayed to be most effective (to cover the peak). The balancing act is one I would not want to be responsible for.
The scientists were not the best at explaining their views, or perhaps understanding that society is perhaps less reliable than a scientific experiment. I did enjoy the Austrian government explanation of why they have insisted on masks in shops – the science was not conclusive but the masks provide a reminder to people that there is a medical emergency – sometimes you can’t depend on science to make a decision. Very pragmatic.
One thing that was explained was that the numbers being published each day that we are using to see if we are being successful with lockdown are not the numbers being used by the scientists.
One thing that is becoming clearer is that the number of deaths being reported is only one of a large number of factors affecting decisions (okay, I knew that anyway – but it is now becoming clearer from public information) and most of us are not privy to more than a small fraction of the information needed to know how to manage the response. No amount of “Internet Research” will help us to judge whether government decisions are right, we can’t judge the answers, because we don’t even know the questions.
Even if the government tells us the answer is 42 we can never really judge it unless we know the question. We can believe the answer is right or wrong, it makes no difference. In the end this is a sort of faith journey, and whether we have faith or not we have no option but to travel on the journey. I guess this must be easier for people that are religious, not because they find faith in politicians easier, but because they have an alternative to faith in politicians. Maybe not the best time to be a left-wing atheist.