There are plenty of ways to slice and dice and chit on the pandemic dilemma, but here's one for you boyos -

We're calling it personal responsibility these days: social distancing, and mask wearing - a general requirement for everyone - to protect those at risk.

Imo, one of the primary issues around the response to Covid, and the populations' reaction to that national response, is a poor balance of short term and long term goals. It would seem that herd immunity is an overarching goal, the effort to 'flatten the curve,' was meant to slow the spread so we didn't overwhelm hospitals, but it turns out we're only ever a short period away from some medical catastrophe anyway.

So in the future, when this all happens again: if the government called for all young, healthy people to willingly get sick and then properly isolate - in an effort to achieve herd immunity while minimizing the risk to those who are compromised - would you do it?

It's just another form of personal responsibility. Except instead of sending kids overseas to fight and die for their country, or absolutely ruining the global economy, we ask the healthy, willing population to sacrifice themselves for the greater good.

Good idea? Terrible idea?

I've had the common cold before, nothing to be afraid about. I'm not obese or elderly. I'll be okay...

No but I would just go about my life normally as I did before March 2020, and I do for the most part, which some people seem to think is the same as willingly infecting yourself.

But imagine that instead of choosing willful blindness to the circumstances, and instead of succumbing to fear (not you precisely, but people in general), you (we) approached covid with some kind of honor or acceptance.

There is no avoiding the virus.

To simply tread carefully and watch out for yourself (to further protect others) is kind of a divisive effort.

So why not go get that fcuking bug already, weather the sickness for two weeks, and return to society as a member who actually made a sacrifice.

If that infection allowed me to get around mandates? Yes

There's another much easier and safer way to get herd immunity. It's called a vaccine. Idiots.

If you're willing to expose yourself to the live virus, why not just a part of the spike protein instead?? Logic. Not even once. Typical MAGA retards living on mount stupid.

I mean the point would be to effectively navigate us through the period that the virus causes concern. Presumably, if we could incite 150 million adults (in the US) to participate, the virus could actually stagnate and disappear in a fraction of the time. Of course there are still plenty of concerns, BUT, I believe we could condense this multiyear affair into just a few months. Plenty of people will still die, it's just the way of life. But heck, at least people stood up for something, and had some honor.Okay wincel. But the vaccine has taken over a year to develop, and there are still plenty of hurdles between distribution, safety, and effectiveness. Please consider the thread topic.

I haven't tried, but I did totally joke in the beginning, and still do I guess. I would love a two week vacation of sitting at home and playing video games, eating hot soup.

I hate the fear mongering.

Live free or die.

So keep your distance and wait the 3 fuking months to take it holy fuk.

Bro holy fuk I've already waited 9 months, and I ain't even mad about my situation. I'm mad about small business and big pharma. I'm tired of the medias portrayal and everyone being so phucking selfish and whiney.

It usually takes years to get a vaccine. They sped this chit up and got it out just for whiners like you. They moved heaven and earth to make this fuking happen just so we have an out. The vaccine is our best chance. Once most are vaccinated, we could conceivably start reopening with some measures until we are sure infections have died down.

I wanted to get the virus until I heard not everyone achieves immunity based on exposure.

All I'm saying is that there's been a lot of casualties, between death and GDP and individuals' livelihood. This pandemic was only unprecedented because of our global connectedness. Since this will likely not be the last time it occurs, we ought to consider alternative means. I think a 'draft' kind of response would actually be a lot better in each of the ways I just mentioned.Similar to the variety of seemingly healthy people who drop dead, I believe this is less prevalent than the news would have us believe.

This pandemic disaster was unprecedented because nobody took any of the warnings from scientists seriously that this exact type of thing was inevitable.

Yes with the right plans in place, you'd never even need lockdown. If we could have nipped this in the bud early on, we'd have been fine.

Okay, humanity is indeed imperfect, and there are people we can point the finger at. But honestly, was there ever a chance that this could have been totally avoided? I really don't think so. It's a virus! It originated in CHINA, one of the most densely populated places on earth. Even if we put the whole world on a strict lockdown (which china actually did do, pretty stringently), it's hard to imagine halting the virus entirely. Don't you agree?

But granted that we made mistakes during the early stages, that doesn't really change we still need an effective way to combat it. And I understand the utility of a vaccine, of course vaccines have saved us from so much in the past! But I think there are better ways of working together to achieve a common goal besides this hermit style isolation/shutdown. Do you not see any shortcomings in our current state? You can't imagine anything better?

Sure, but what I'm saying is that our long term effort and reliance on a vaccine might be more painful and costly than a targeted approach to herd immunity. As miraculous as science is these days, it still doesn't solve our problems perfectly. I think there are alternative means to group success. Do you?

No, because thankfully the scientific community came together in unprecedented unity and developed an incredibly effective vaccine in record time.

Now the hard part: getting flutards to drop ridiculous conspiracy theories and understand the benefits of vaccination.

I had COVID beginning of October, weird to say that I'm sorta glad I got it and got over it so I wouldn't infect anyone.

Why stop at COVID? Might as well get SARS and MERS

Because covid is a global problem and sars and mers aren't.