Originally Posted by
Lead Balloon
And some of us are arguing that the response be the subject of a proper cost-benefit analysis. It's a completely uncontroversial concept applied in many other aspects of the workings of our society.
It may be that the real costs of the response outweigh the value of the lives saved. Or it may not be. And the real costs are not confined to just curtailed liberties.
(I was struck by the implications of a societal phenomenon of which I was not aware but recently heard explained by a doctor practising in the inner suburbs of Sydney: Many older people go to shopping centres to get warm, because they cannot afford to heat their homes. And well-known psychologist, social researcher and writer, Hugh Mackay, recently pointed out that the worst punishment we inflict on prisoners is solitary confinement. But we are effectively ordering all these old people to go into solitary confinement. At least prisons are heated. It reminds of that song by another well-known public figure: Ozzie Osbourne. "Killing ourselves to live.")
If Australia continues to stumble from outbreak and lockdown to outbreak and lockdown, without some clear and credible evidence of why it's all 'worth it', I fear that the 'circuit breaker' will be very, very ugly.
No need for it to get ugly. Just get everyone (or at least 60% of the population) vaccinated. Stop the hysteria regarding the AZ vaccine and get on with it. It seems to be working out pretty well in the UK.
Australia is coming a very embarrassing 38/38 of OECD countries for full vaccination. Accept there is always some risk with every medicine we use and I say again, get on with it like the rest of the world. Nothing more needs to said!