Originally Posted by
LTNman
I think we can all be certain that restrictions will be lifted way to early so to save the economy.
This type of cynicism is most unhelpful in the context of a very challenging national debate. COVID-19 was a brand-new virus when it emerged in December. No medical expert - let alone any politician - knew how it would play out ahead of time. For this, politicians in the UK have turned to advice from the medical and scientific community. There has been cross-party support for this approach, and rightly so. The party leaders in the UK are not medical doctors. Their job is to take on the advice of the Chief Medical Officer and the Chief Scientific Adviser and implement it on a best endeavour basis. Dealing with the virus is a steep learning curve for everyone, and it is easy for 'gotcha' journalists and keyboard warriors to criticise. But would they do any better? Having unlimited PPE, unlimited ventilators, unlimited reliable testing kits and a viable vaccine from day one would be lovely. Well, there is no magic wand for that. Everybody is doing the best they can. Party-political affiliations are not the problem. Production capacity is.
Timing the relaxation of lockdown restrictions will be a matter of delicate judgment. The economy is a valid consideration (the death rate rises in recessions), but not the only one. There is a good reason why 'solitary confinement' is considered a punishment in the penal system. It adversely impacts mental wellbeing. When assessing the C-19 measures, the benefits of restricting transmission of the virus on the one hand must be weighed against competing medical implications on the other. Depression, suicidal tendencies, anxiety attacks, loneliness, alcoholism, substance abuse, self-harm, problem gambling, domestic violence, stress, physical inactivity, comfort eating, backlogging of deferred elective surgeries, missed cancer check-ups. The extended lockdown costs lives too. Many shades of grey must be considered in timing the easing of restrictions. Remember too that a very high percentage of C-19 deaths befall people with remaining life expectancy of less than three months due to existing conditions. C-19 can administer the 'final push' to those already in palliative care. Every life is precious, but that must include those resulting from the unintended consequences of longterm lockdown too. The medical profession has a very difficult call to make on this one, and the politicians would be foolish to second-guess their advice. They know that armchair critics will rile against them whatever they decide (as if they know better). We should offer our support to those making the tough calls and avoid the temptation to join the baying mob. Criticising with the benefit of hindsight is so easy.
There are some looking particularly bad, and they have politics in common...Trump, Johnson, Erdogan, Bolsonaro.
PPRuNe purports to be a forum for professionals. So surely we can rise above nonsense like this? Those four names represent national leaders who have little in common politically. To lump them together with some absurd innuendo doesn't inform us about their respective strategies to deal with C-19. It just makes you come across as rather silly. Please show us you can be better than that.
I'm sure most here wish to see the airline industry return to normality ASAP. But that's going to be a long-haul (pardon the pun). Let's try to stay objective and plan for the future rationally. The virus is nobody's fault. It's one of those things, like an earthquake, a tornado, or a volcanic eruption. Sometimes bad stuff happens. The sooner we quit playing the blame-game and look to rebuilding the industry with positive intent, the sooner we will emerge from this mess.