[andybak]

Yes and those are part of the cost/benefit equation which needs to be carefully (and continuously) considered.

In fairness I guess I was reacting less to your specific comment and more to the chunk of this community that seems to think anyone under 60 should be running through the streets with joyous abandon.

[logicchains]

> Yes and those are part of the cost/benefit equation which needs to be carefully (and continuously) considered.

This I agree with. I'd argue however that most countries have done a terrible job of it, e.g. nobody has published a cost-benefit analysis expressed in some kind of comparable unit like QALY (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality-adjusted_life_year). Seems most analysis either only looks at the cost or only looks at the benefits, or makes no attempt to quantify them. Maybe it's not politically appealing to put a number on human lives, but that's what public health officials routinely do when dealing with other issues, because otherwise it's impossible to make consistent comparisons and judgements.

>more to the chunk of this community that seems to think anyone under 60 should be running through the streets with joyous abandon.

This is a consequence of the lockdowns that some people anticipated. I.e. much like making drugs illegal isn't necessarily the most scientifically effective way to reduce drug usage, forcing everybody to stay at home isn't necesssarily the best way to keep everyone at home. People forced into something are less likely to comply for a long time than people who decided to do something of their own free will, or were otherwise persuaded to.

[machinehermit]

The problem though is that people under 60 running through streets with joyous abandon could be what actually causes the least amount of total death in the long run.

Keeping most of the population who is not at risk from developing herd immunity is lengthening the time of exposure for the people who are at risk.

Just the fact we haven't updated our strategy at all after getting data on the age distributions is pretty bad.

[andybak]

All the outcomes I've seen that reach herd immunity involve an unacceptable amount of harm - both in deaths to at risk groups and in terms of suffering across the board.

While we may have to face this outcome I think it's too early to do so until we have more data and a deeper understanding of the disease.

In the UK I get the impression that the population is more cautious about loosening the lock down than the government is. I think other countries are the same. The US might be the outlier here.