Why was just encouraging the sick/elderly/vulnerable and those in direct contact with them to self-isolate (and providing them the means to do so) never considered a viable option for managing the pandemic?

I honestly wonder if many people were just, subconsciously at least, a little tired of their daily lives - of commuting, of dealing with annoying coworkers, of being dragged to social events they didn’t wanna go to, of waking up early and driving their kids everywhere or spending hours in uncomfortable classrooms, of having no time for their hobbies, etc. I know I felt that way - hell, my friends and I joked in early March that we kinda wanted to get mild cases so we’d have an excuse to chill at home and watch Netflix and order delivery for two weeks with no responsibilities without feeling bad. So I think when the first lockdown was announced, especially with officials saying it would be over soon, people almost took it as a mini vacation and welcomed the idea when it was being proposed for their areas.

At this same time, news about China building emergency hospitals and welding people in their homes, of overwhelmed hospitals and overflowing morgues in Italy and NYC and constant coverage of how scary dying of COVID was and of PPE shortages and empty shelves at grocery stores and an assumed mortality rate of 3%. That, plus the initial virtue signalling, is what I think flipped the tide and made most people forget we’ve known from the start - that COVID isn’t the equal opportunity killer it was painted to be and is really only dangerous to certain easily identifiable demographics.

/r/LockdownCriticalLeft Thread Parent