Yes. People don't realize that we are on the verge of a much bigger crises than the Great Depression if we don't start the engine back up soon. I think 30% unemployment will look like wishful thinking if this keeps up for too long. The economy has never been turned off like this in modern times.
I understand the danger of the virus. I understand it isn't just the flu. But to say lives are always more important than money is a) not how society has ever worked, and b) shows a major underestimation of what a second great depression actually means (hint, it isn't just about bank accounts).
We have always accepted risk to allow convenience, commerce, and modern life. For example, if we published every auto-accident death, you would see 3,700 deaths per day. It would look like a bloody massacre. Under our current risk tolerance level for the virus, that would mean an end to all automobile travel no matter the cost to society.
A severe and lasting depression could be far more detrimental to society than the deaths caused by this virus (mental health, suicide, and significant loss of quality of life for billions of people). The people hurt the worst will be the lowest socioeconomic levels. They aren't concerned about bank accounts, they are concerned about feeding their families and having utilities and shelter.
Not to mention that all the "essential procedures" you are hearing are not happening at hospitals are more essential than you think. For example, treatment of heart disease, cancer, etc. What are the lasting health effects of stopping those procedures for months on end?
The part that bothers me the most is that I think there is a middle-ground that would have been much better than these long isolation (for non-essential workers) where the virus will likely just rage again once we come out of hiding.
First, each country should have spared no expense to build temporary facilities, ventilators, testing kits, and protective equipment.
There is a middle ground here where businesses stayed open with extreme protective measures (such as mandatory masks, readily placed hand sanitizer, and mandatory table distancing in restaurants). Infected individuals should have been quickly isolated.
Yes, there would be more deaths. Yes, hospitals would have been overwhelmed at times. But, we would have had not collapsed modern society in the process. People die. It stinks. But we are animals susceptible to disease and death. It is a fact.
We have accepted significant risk and death in so many areas to make society better as a whole. We used to tolerate risk, even death. We need to quickly pull up our big boy/girl/people pants and face this thing head on.
. I already predict the lawyers are going to be coming out in full force after all this.
