[noah_buddy]

> I don't want anyone, comorbidities or otherwise to have to suffer the effects of covid

This is a childish worldview, not because empathy is wrong or harm minimization is wrong but because you're subjectively presuming that COVID harm is more valid a goal to minimize than: depression and suicide, deaths and bad health due to inactivity, etc, etc. Further, we have no idea of the knock-on effects, perhaps we'll realize in ten years that we've created a demographic time bomb because everyone under the age of 20 right now will be incredibly distrustful of society and government, and choose to not actively contribute. My point is, someone is being harmed by the choices we make, even if COVID deaths go down (but, then again, with all our actions in the US, we've seemingly not avoided that much COVID infection and death, worst of both worlds).

>and I think the fact that many hospitals and healthcare workers (at least in the US), seemed to be at their breaking point means now does not feel like the time to try and ignore covid

Perhaps, the issue is that we've created an industry where the credentialing is monopolized by special interest groups when we also need that industry to be adequately staffed to absorb shocks like pandemics. If we wanted to alleviate overburdened doctors, we could've eliminated the functional cap on the number of students studying each year to be doctors back in 2020. But, your average doctor would actually oppose that choice, because their incentives are not aligned with society's.

[tracker1]

I would say that a solution to that would be more volunteerism. Perhaps even drawing some inspiration from the 2nd amendment. "A well organized militia being necessary..." ... Actually, you know go a step beyond registration and have more coordinated training, including field medics.

If 1 in 10 people have a minimal level of field medic training, that would cover a LOT of slack in terms of something like a national or global pandemic. It doesn't have to be regular doctors, or even RNs that take up the slack. The bulk of the work is cleaning, monitoring and keeping things relatively calm and structured. Triage is meant to sort based on urgency of need... You don't need the most trained people to give attention, and keep things relatively calm.

Of course, the reasonableness of training 1:10th of the population in this way for an event that may occur once a century and is largely unavoidable is also up for debate.

[remarkEon]

>deaths and bad health due to inactivity

This is the next big story about the deleterious effect of lock-downs and masking and social distancing etc, after basically ruining a generation of education. Many are in the worst shape of their lives right now because they haven't been able to do their usual work-out routine at the gym. The knock-on effects of this won't be felt for a while, but they will be real. Ironically this makes otherwise healthy <65 year old people more at-risk for bad covid outcomes (albeit it's still exceedingly low risk, especially if vax'd).

[orwin]

I'm sorry I'm a bit insensitive, this isn't my experience at all.

Me and all my friends are in better shape (most of them left big city to go to a more rural area), all of them now cook (i might have influenced this). my brother and sister are too, two of my cousins went from 35+ BMI to 30 BMI, the rest are still in shape. It might be because of the environment, or the country. It is easier for me to be outside, we have outdoor gyms 8n most cities, sometime with gym trails. My point is the experience is very anecdotal, and can be great for some and a disaster for others.

I've heard that autistics people in the US suffer from wearing masks. My psychologist (specialized in functional autism) told me that most of her patients feel the same way I do, or better, even those deeper on the spectrum.

Again, I'm not saying you're wrong, but you are generalizing too much, and maybe too US-centric.