Out of 8 billion that's not very impressive. Millions die in years without "pandemic". (quoted because in the past that mend >1% infection-deaths, this was <1%, yet still a pandemic).
We spend a lot of time and money avoiding lifestyle diseases. A virus isn't a lifestyle disease.
No it but it seems to kill those that have 'm LS diseases underlying.
> We spend a lot of time and money avoiding lifestyle diseases.
I never saw lockdowns on McD and Dunkin'Dos :)
And I'm no in favor of spending to stop diseases. I feel better about heavy taxes on unhealthy stuff, and tax breaks for healthy stuff. (While the other way around happens all over the glove with life stock and feed subsidies).
You are subject to "groupthink" unless you self-sustain in the woods somewhere. We call it "society." Many things you do every day are a result of "groupthink." The pipes that deliver the water, the social contracts that say you need to wear pants.
How would you have done things differently to avoid racism, wars, poverty, and mental health crises? Do you think the suicide rate would have been half as high if twice as many people died from the virus?
These are not easy questions to answer. I certainly don't know, and I don't expect you to. It's very easy to act like you know better in hindsight.
The only non "groupthink" way to approach this pandemic would have been to do nothing. There's not a datapoint on the planet that supports doing nothing. Everything else requires some societal "groupthink" effort.
> Hospitals are also incentivized to inflate the issue of shortages to get more funding.
That's a conspiracy theory which has no supporting evidence — which is highly unlikely given how many thousands of people would have to be keeping it perfectly secret — and it doesn't fit with how the American medical system works. Hospitals have been reporting significant financial stress because they make most of their money from the elective procedures and other higher-profit treatments which are being canceled due to COVID-19 overload.