So it happened. I finally joined the COVID havers gang.
So far it's been better than what some other people have experienced, but it's not over yet. Here's to hoping that it'll get better from here.
I'm one of those people who never really did much to actively avoid it, mainly because the numbers here in Singapore has never been super high. However, there is a spike right now (right now about 10 times higher than previously) and with me not taking much in the way of precautions (other than the obvious ones, like basic hygiene and avoiding people's coughs) I guess it had to happen.
@loke Welcome to the "so this is it?" gang.
@loke I keep asking myself if it was worth all the lockdowns and other measures the past couple of years.
@modrobert OK, I don't like discussing this topic, as it tends to attract antivaxxers and other peole who argue from a position of anti-facts. But I'll take your question as an opportunity to summarise my thoughts on this.
This a complicated discussion with no single and correct answers.
What is clear is that even the comparatively mild symptoms that I'm experiencing, compared to the original alpha strain on an unvaccinated person, would be very severe if not deadly for immunocompromised people.
That by itself doesn't make it so bad, there are many such diseases after all, but what became very clear to me after the rest of the family got it at the same time was just how easily this thing spreads. If you have tens of thousands of people all trying to get medical care at the same time, some people will die who otherwise would not have died simply because of a lack of resources.
The rest is just a mathematical calculation to determine how many deaths you're willing to accept.
Of course, the error bars on those calculations were huge so it was impossible at the time to be certain of the right approach. I honestly believe most countries did what they thought was best to avoid a potential worst-case scenario. With more information we can see that some countries were excessive, and some didn't do enough.
However, there were some things that did just not make sense at all and has nothing to do with saving lives. Some of this is still ongoing. For example, when the daily case numbers are in the tens of thousands, and the number of those which comes from incoming travellers are in the single digits, what is the reason for having restrictions on travellers? This still happens today in places like HK and Japan. The reasons it's kept is complicated but has very little to do with a desire to keep people safe.
And then we have China, which is an absolutely fascinating, and terrifying, example of what happens when you only have look at a single pint of measurement. If the only goal you have is to eliminate cases, then that can certainly be done, but I thibk everybody can agree that the societal cost is not worth it. In fact, they probably lost more human lives to their measures than they have saved.
@modrobert so far milder than an actual flu. That said, actual flu is pretty horrible.
I was feeling really awful in Thursday, and it's been getting better since then.
The rest of the family has also caught it now. It seems like I brought it to the house. Let's just say that even though I think we all have what is considered mild, it's not a particularly enjoyable experience. 0/10 don't recommend.