I need to correct myself here:

The counter argument to that is - People in their 80's have always been dying of human corana-viruse infections. So why do we need to put the country on lock down for what is nothing more than a minor new variety of a common disease that has always has been killing old people.

Again, this is logic.

I can tell you exactly what you'd get next: "But what if it was YOUR mother?"

That's the point where I lose the plot and say something like, "I just can't wait until things get back to normal, when we were all immortal".

You just cannot win an argument like this: once people go down the route of overly emotional responses, the only outcome is they look like a nice, caring, sensitive person and you look like a mean, cold-hearted, calculating one - even if everyone can accept in the abstract that elderly people in general tend to die.

I've tried this sort of thing over and over again, and it's just to futile and frustrating.

> I can tell you exactly what you'd get next: "But what if it was YOUR mother?"

My reply would be, my mother is 78 and her current medical risk of dying from SARs Cov2 in the next year is lower than dying from Influenza. According to the standard clinical risk calculator (PSI/POST) used in thousands of hospitals in the US today. I have an beloved uncle who has been in hospital multi occasions for pneumonia. His risk of dying from SARs Cov2 is lower than dying from Influenza in the next year.

And your risk of dying of influenza this winter is pretty much what it was last winter . But much lower than it was 10 years ago, In 2010.

Thats the actual medical science. Not what some guy said on the telly.

Now if you want to really mess with their minds point out that around 20% of common colds are actually human corona-virus infections. Caused by human corona-viruses that are about as dangerous as SARs CoV 2. They kill thousands of old people ever years. So the actual medical risk of my mother (or father) dying of SARs CoV2 in the next year is actually just a little bit higher than them dying of a common cold. But still lower than dying from influenza.

And when people start getting all indignant just end the argument with - Thats the actual science, look it up in the published literature. That wont win the argument there and then, but enough of it will stick. You have to plant the seeds. That's the only way to deal with mass hysteria. Play the long game. Very frustrating I know, but its the only way to try to talk currently irrational people back to some kind of sanity.

Play the long game. Very frustrating I know, but its the only way to try to talk currently irrational people back to some kind of sanity.

I expect I'll keep trying, but yesterday I was asked why I wasn't "listening to scientists" and told "immunity is NOT a thing". 🙄

It's an uphill struggle.

It's happening.

Public demand for a 'Plan B' is growing and, whether you like him or not, Farage now entering the fray to challenge the current Westminster covid way of thinking will change things.

We should all be feeling more positive about the outlook, putting aside the next four weeks of unnecessary UKGov face-saving.