Trump Official Pushed for ‘Herd Immunity’ Strategy, Emails 显示 

Oof.

Tfw rapid spread was the goal.

The Dow Jones demands blood sacrifice <3

What makes it worse is that "fighting the pandemic" vs. "saving the economy" has been a false choice all along. Ever since the virus started, pundits and officials have been weighing up exactly how much mass death they’d be willing to accept for the sake of continued profit. Meanwhile in the real world, the economic response is the pandemic response, and vice versa.

Look at NZ: they went with a hard lockdown at the very start. Now they're virus-free and link It grew by 14% last month, the strongest quarter in NZ's modern history.

Meanwhile the US: link.

Sweden also went the herd immunity thing and their case mortality rate is about triple that of its Scandinavian neighbours, with the economy in no better shape. link on it.

"fighting the pandemic" vs. "saving the economy" has been a false choice all along.

I can see that too. I feel like if they really wanted to, they could have salvaged the economy/kept it from crashing. This to me damn near feels like the gov trying to prune citizens away or something. I mean I don't think that it's truly that way but it feels like it.

I swear, if my country (USA) can't get more people to take this virus seriously and wear a mask, socially distance, and get vaccinated, it's gonna' be more months and more lives before we get rid of this freaking virus.

^ Exactly tho. I think that a harder and more aggressive push like a lockdown (though it would suck ass in the short term) would probably be better in the long run. Sort of like how it's better to just type that essay and get it out of the way instead of prolonging it.

^Yes. If we had just gotten the lockdown right the first time in March like New Zealand did and had federal and state governments who gave enough of a crap to help out people and small businesses, we probably wouldn't be in this mess.

Exactly. I think that this whole thing is a huge combo of a bunch of systems failing to work as they should due to corruption. A lot of deaths could have been avoided if there had been organization and if politics had been set aside for a while.

"This to me damn near feels like the gov trying to prune citizens away or something. I mean I don't think that it's truly that way but it feels like it." Honestly not far off. Coronavirus disproportionately affects working class and elderly people. In the eyes of the ruling class, the former are valuable only insofar as their labour can be exploited for profit (so ofc big business isn't gonna support lockdowns / stay-at-home orders etc). The latter aren't even valuable for that. The ruling class does not give a shit about the lives of either of them.

Hence *gestures widely* this.

Also re "pruning citizens away": link