I recently became aware of an international movement called the Zero COVID Campaign. The movement aims not just to reduce the spread of COVID to lower levels, but to literally eliminate COVID entirely.
Home - Zero Covid
Inside the Zero Covid campaign - UnHerd
For the past year, I have been deeply disturbed by COVID denialists who have repeatedly, on RF and off, spread conspiracy theories and misinformation about COVID, ranging from denying that it exists, denying or minimizing its deadliness, claiming masks are ineffective at stopping its spread, claiming the virus was intentionally created and spread as a tool for social control, and so on. As a person who works on the "front lines" in a healthcare setting, I want society to take COVID precautions seriously, get as many people vaccinated as possible, and prohibit unnecessary social gatherings until the virus is brought down to safer levels.
But I must say, I'm also concerned about this movement on the opposite end of the spectrum, that seems to want an even stricter lockdown of society until there is literally ZERO COVID left - a goal that I don't even know is achievable, particularly given the mutated strains of the virus we're already seeing. It is further concerning that this seems to be the philosophy adopted by authoritarian regimes like China.
Am I overreacting? Have you already heard of COVID Zero? Are you in favor? Why or why not?
I think this is one of these rare times where our utopian ideas of democracy and freedom, work against us.
While I firmly believe that no government should have the kind of authoritarian powers like the Chinese (or worse), it shows to be quite helpful in times like these.
I can't help but wonder.......... how would Europe look right now if on February 1, 2020 the entire continent would have gone in full blown ultra-restrictive lock down for like a month or so. Like literally shut down. Nobody leaves the house. The army brings necessary food packages and meds and all
real requirements to your home. Debt collecting is pauzed (during that month - nobody has to pay rent, morgage or what have you) and the government compensates wherever it is truly required.
What would have happened? The "first wave" would have never occurred. Would it have just delayed everything?
I look at china and eventhough the politics are debatable at best... I feel like they are making a mockery of us westerners. We struggle to properly test those who come home from holidays in foreign countries (which we still allowed for some strange reason)... yet in China, after just 4 cases they shut down an entire city with a population twice the size of Belgium the country and subject them ALL to a test in just 4 days and thereby nip it in the behind.
In Wuhan, life has pretty much returned to "normal" for months now.
It's a good question: do the means justify the end?
Well in this case... I loath myself for saying it but... well... maybe it does.
We are so obsessed with our "personal freedoms" that it borders pure selfishness. Why can't we "take one for the team" and have a "draconian" short(*) lock down to get it down to at least controllable levels - or indeed down to 0.
(*) "short" lockdown, as compared to the entire past year of restrictions and problems and multiple "soft lockdowns" and social isolation and .... still no end in sight.
Imo, we are being ridiculed by the likes of China. Meanwhile, their economy is getting back on track and getting stronger, while we are decapitating ours with a dull blade. Slowly and painfully.
China instead said "
when your toe hurts, cut off your foot and move on " while we struggle and struggle and struggle to save the toe hoping we'll only lose a part of the nail.
