>Glad you liked the stories...again, they are illustrative of the fact that even the "vulnerable" cohort can have decades of impactful lives remaining, not just for themselves, but for their families and friends...and for others...who do you suppose represents a significant proportion of the staffing at your local Food Bank, Salvation Army or Red Cross facility?...you guessed it...retirees; many of them in their 80's or 90's, and all of them could be classed as "essential workers"...certainly their 'customers' would agree...disadvantaged families with little kids showing up every week of the year. I know this first hand since my wife and I have been there every week helping to make 300 lunches for the last dozen years or so...as part of a crew that has welcomed the assistance of several 90 year olds.
BTW, I'm not putting the 'onus' on God for how long we live...that's on us to use our 'God-given' talents to maintain/extend our lives.
>Let me boil this second paragraph down...you're an attending physician in the hospital's ER...a patient shows up with an unrelenting cough, fever and difficulty breathing...all signs of COVID-19...the 'check-in' staff notes that the patient is 77 years old...your quick response is "our charts say you should have been dead last year..."Next"!
Clearly, the 'stories' had no impact on you.
>You are extrapolating in this paragraph...no one is asking for 'extreme measures' in treatment...just the same care as any other patient, regardless of age...btw, most everyone I know has signed "DNRs" (i.e. Do Not Resuscitate forms).
What you're really getting to is the very real case of overwhelmed hospitals being forced to make gut-wrenching triage decisions that could often involve age, because too large a segment of our society thinks 'mitigation efforts' are too bothersome and we should just let "natural herd immunity" take its course. BTW, this scenario will not always be to the detriment of those 65 and over...right now we have over 60,000 deaths in the younger, working age group; many with unknown 'vulnerabilities'. I'm not sure that they and their families would appreciate your "strategy" for dealing with COVID-19.
>Wow!...i've got to complement you on 'coming clean' with what you believe in. You might want to stop for a moment and realize that it isn't just your liberal friends who are advocating masks, social distancing, hand washings, take-out dinners, TV only sporting events and other draconian measures...the political and HC leaders of virtually all nations on earth are implementing the same recommendations...and I'll go out on a limb to claim that they are not all liberal.
Vaccines are coming...all these measures are temporary (if observed), so repeat this phrase when you're feeling stressed..."Jobs will return...COVID victims won't".
>OK, so now we get to the end of your rope...5% of our population (i.e. the Elderly), of which you (currently) have no affiliation with, are messing with the lives of the other 95%...therefore, let's all get back to normal and let those folks deal with the consequences...did I miss something?
>re: COVID death reporting...I'm hesitant to bother our very busy family ID and ICU Docs over message board debates, but if you'd like, I'll try to get their first hand opinions on the accuracies of death certificates...let me know.
>Finally, wrt the 1918 Epidemic v. COVID...check out the link...you might want to take this into consideration...as well as the photos from 1918.
So where do we go from here?...My advice to you is to accept that the temporary restrictions are meant to save lives while keeping as much of society functioning as possible, and we need to 'get familiar' with such measures. This pathogen is already mutating and there will certainly be new ones in the future...as history has shown us, there is high likelihood that they will attack today's low-to-zero vulnerability cohorts (e.g. 1918 Epidemic)...trust in the professionals who devote their own lives to protecting YOU.
Link: https://www.contagionlive.com/view/new-analysis-shows-1918-flu-covid19-had-similar-mortality-impacts