difficult decisions are made more complex when adding more voices. there are many perspectives to all decisions and few things have one clear answer.
virologists are saying : extend the lockdown to August 2020 and possibly another year or two thereafter. biological health mostly agree that the longer people are isolated the more successful the virus will be contained.
economists are saying : open the economy now.
this is a question : can we contain the covid-19 virus?
and; if the answer is : yes (and the majority of global scientists agrees that: they do not know)
the following question will be : at what cost? (not cost to rich people, the cost to the government, the cost to social grants, the cost of paying SA Police and Defence Force Salaries, the costs to you.)
South Africa is not a wealthy nation.
our government will run out of money and will run out of resources. all i have to do is point to a neighbour, directly north.
when/if we run out of resources, we will be even worse off than we would have been if we succeed in containing covid-19, if that is even possible.
imnsho South Africa should follow a customised example of what Denmark is doing.
it is a balanced, safe and workable solution that could be customised to fit our particular situation.
here is the philosophy of the crux : people do die of many different things. we can stop the death on our roads over the easter weekend by locking down the entire country booze free, over easter weekend. but, is this a “good”, “free”, “open” way of protecting our people from death on the roads over the easter weekend?
the probability is that we will all be exposed to covid-19 – the probability is that a percentage of us will die from the disease. the probability is also high that we will die from heart disease, old age, the flu (1 in every 1000 people)
the purpose of the lock down is to flatten the curve, to buy time.
the only reason to extend the already extended lockdown is if the purpose has now changed.
this is the core of it all and this is the decision: has the purpose of the lockdown changed, or not?
i guess we will find out soon enough…
btw – the reason i am writing this is because i am worried that people do not understand that everything is a balance. even if you are a closed society, an open society, a society run by a dictator, a society controlled by a king and elite, a democratic society or whatever you are and wherever you live:
EVERYTHING is all about balance.
whether your specific society is moving towards a different type of society, this does not matter. it is still all about balance.
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here is the link I am being forced by law, to display as my constitutional right to free speech is restricted: www.sacoronavirus.co.za