The other day someone suggested to me that the pandemic was overblown, possibly a hoax, no more dangerous than the common cold. The last part grabbed my attention. Just now, I saw that US deaths were approaching 90K, with the worldwide total over 300K. Some cold.
This kind of argument was more common a couple of months ago, the strained comparison often invoking the flu - we don't shut the country down for flu, why do we shut it down for corona? I admit it, I didn't have an initial counterargument, possibly because there is some logic in the point. The flaw is obvious in hindsight - hospitals have never been overrun by the flu.
The pandemic posed a simple, important question to the world - when does a disease cross that line where we are willing to pause everyday activity and divert significant resources to the fight? I guess it's when the total number of treatable patients exceeds treatment capacity. I think seeing this response in action is a positive result of the pandemic. After all, if you had asked me six months ago about society's attitude toward preventable deaths, I would have given a far more cynical answer than I can today after what I've seen thus far in 2020.
