0.05% is huge. That's one death per 2000 infected. If you extrapolate that out to the world population, it's one-third of a holocaust. To me that handily justifies restricting the entire population.
Then again, lots of things kill more people and don't mobilize nearly this level of response. Which I guess has to do with them only killing people in third world countries, cough malaria...
None of these problems, including COVID, could be permanently fixed with the COVID restrictions. COVID is endemic.
The reduction in quality of life for the 99.95% as a result of the restrictions is far too high a price to pay even if it saved the entire 0.05% of this demographic who die from COVID.
The costs to mental health, economic well-being, education, as a result of the restrictions, are also staggering.
Any rational person would trade a 0.05% increase in chance of premature death, which is only 1/2,000, to live without the COVID-motivated restrictions for the remainder of their 80 year lifespan. Basic math tells you that. 0.05% of an 80 year lifespan is only 14 days. Would you endure all the COVID-related restrictions, for your entire life, just to add 14 days to your life?
And this thought experiment is under the absolute best case scenario for the restrictions which is that they completely eliminate the risk of dying from covid which they do not in reality.
I would bet for most people, the COVID restrictions reduce quality of life by at least 5%. Meaning people would be willing to shorten their lifespan by 5% in order to not live with them. A 0.05% risk of death doesn't even come close to justifying the restrictions.
The simplistic narrative that supports these restrictions is simply wrong. It's unscientific and irrational and only supported due to the inertia of public opinion.
Isn't the problem that trying to save someone dying from the flu requires less human resources than trying to save someone dying from Covid-19 ? And that Covid infects more people than the flu, making more people sick than the flu so Covid reduces our economic capacity more than the flu would ?
COVID hospitalization rates are 1-5% and much lower still for lower-risk demographics like those under 49. And hospitalization generally lasts a couple weeks, not more.
Moreover, COVID burns itself out as the population lacking immunity dwindles with the pandemic's advance. It's a transient phenomenon. The economic damage it causes would seem to pale in compairson to the damage done by severe restrictions imposed for months/over-a-year on the entire population, including the majority who are healthy and relatively unsusceptible to it.
Then again, lots of things kill more people and don't mobilize nearly this level of response. Which I guess has to do with them only killing people in third world countries, cough malaria...