The same can be said for so many decisions strategies undertaken by the government. That is why we have so many scientists, doctors and experts voicing the same disbelief against their fellow scientists, doctors and experts. Very little has made sense right from the very start. Unfortunately, all the "good" people have been pretty much sidelined through the whole pandemic, all the ones who believe in what they were taught, what almost the whole scientific community believed about viruses. These people get no airtime. Anything that goes against the televised narrative doesn't get seen or heard.
There's a lot about this pandemic which has been truly baffling. The U-turning on herd immunity was certainly one of them.
First, it was the only game in town, then overnight the message from the same people was that to believe this meant you wanted to "kill granny" and then an admission that herd immunity was a few days away (remember that from a couple of months ago), was a good thing and that we should be proud that we've achieved it, then it went all quiet again as the new message was to panic and shriek over this new "more dangerous" Indian variant which has been anything BUT more dangerous than the dominant strains in either of our previous waves, now we're back onto herd immunity again in all but name but this time they're not actually using the phrase ("we'll need to live with it" is the new buzz-phrase but it means the same thing).
One could almost conclude that these people simply don't know what the hell they are talking about.
As for the rest of your post, I do get where you are coming from and have some sympathy for parts of that view. I am also open to persuasion that lockdown may have done more harm than good. I'm not persuaded that lockdown has killed more than it has saved but it's certainly not the clear cut success that the mainstream is claiming. I do however still believe it was necessary at the start. I'd have removed lockdown last May and only re-introduced it once it was clear the NHS was going to be swamped. And I do mean CRYSTAL clear from actual real data - not "the models suggest, we might, possibly, could, maybe...." clear.
Stacking up on your side of the argument are some reasonable and intelligent people who have presented very good arguments to back their positions. But you've also got every crackpot under the sun piling in on that side as well, screeching about "blocked" cures such as things like Invermectin, prayer, vitamin C and in one famous case - injecting bleach straight into peoples lungs. When you look around you and see that collection of raving nutters on your side of the argument, you haven't a hope in hell of having your voice heard.
That's been an issue from day 1.
I read a book about non-violent civil disobedience. I can't remember the name of the book but it had a white flower on it. It talked about how people like Gandhi, conscientious objectors during the wars, the people involved in the Northern Ireland peace process etc. won the day using peaceful methodsand one thing stood out which reminds me of what's happening now.
There's a time and place for having your voice heard. When the timing is wrong, you are wasting time and effort. There were lessons in there about when to accept that right now you have lost individual battles, to keep your powder dry, don't give in to violence and to focus on winning the overall war. Those advocating peace during WW1 were completely overwhelmed by the emotional urge for "glory" amongst the population. Could you imagine people agreeing to forced conscription for a 3rd world war now?
12 months ago, you'd have trouble convincing anyone that lockdowns were a bad thing and that masks were useless. Public opinion goes largely on emotion and a year ago people were embarassing themselves by banging pots and pans on a Thursday night. You had no chance whatsoever to successfully present an opposing narrative.
Now, however, things are changing. People are still led by emotion but now they're starting to see that this is affecting them personally. They've seen the vulnerable all fully vaccinated but are still not free. People are now asking what the hell the point of all this was. Now you're seeing civil disobedience on a much larger scale. Beaches, parks, trains, planes, pubs, packed with people not social distancing or wearing masks. More and more people are now shopping without masks on and not being challenged anymore. Governments rule by consent and you can see they're losing the war. They KNOW they are losing the war. It's beautiful to watch this happening.
