this post was submitted on 07 Jan 2024
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And COVID just proved that a significant part of the population will absolutely refuse to admit it's a threat or a problem, dismiss it as hysteria or a hoax, and end up spreading it everywhere. Or hosting rallies and events about the evil government trying to control them and end up with a superspreader event. Even IF we had the means to prevent the spread, these idiots would undermine it. We're all fucked.
Sadly I believe you're right.
The other side of the coin is desperation, too. Let's say there's a truly serious pandemic. Huge numbers of people getting sick, not enough resources to treat them all, even if there is a treatment.
In that scenario, even in a world with no antivaxers or antimaskers, where everyone trusts the science and the doctors, do we think everyone is going to just stay in their homes following the quarantine rules, when there's not enough to go around, and doing so could be a death sentence?
Or do we think they'd go out, and try to get their hands on what they need to survive? Be it food, medicines etc...
Even in a world of people who trust the science like you or I, we're probably screwed if things really get that bad, and the only reason COVID didn't get that bad is for all its awfulness, it's actually a relatively mild illness overall (not to disrespect the many deaths it caused, just to say that as things go, it could have easily been more infectious, more deadly, harder to treat, etc).
When things get that bad, good people will be so desperate to save themselves, their families, their children, that they'll break the rules, spread the disease, and doom us all :-(