The herd

California, Oregon, and Washington decided to finally get some sense and start talking about opening things back up. The goal, as I’ve read, is to get to a point of herd immunity.

I've been saying that for weeks now to whoever will listen. I say that as someone who works in tech and I actually have been working from home since I started my most recent job in October. (i.e. unrelated to all this)

The idea that we need to destroy the country "to save every life from this" is absurd. People will just die from other things -- not the least of which may be suicide. Imagine being close to retirement and watch everything that you've worked for for your entire life just poof away as everything implodes.

Will some people die? Yes. But people die of all sorts of things too. Every year somewhere between 40,000 and 120,000 people die of the plain-jane everyday flu. Dying is as much part of life as living. Do I want to die of this? Of course I don't. Do I want my mom to die from this? Of course not. Do I want you to die from this? No. But the world is full of risks. We have to get back to living and not just whithering in a self-imposed prison.

We have seen that the vast majority of people get better from this. It's likely way better than the stats are saying because, anecdotally, I've heard from so many people they've had the symptoms and didn't or couldn't get tested. Then got better.

And this doesn't even get to the final point: almost everyone's job in the long term is essential. Besides entertainment, what do you interact with every day that isn't essential in some way? You'll need new clothes at some point. A hair cut. A car. New glasses. Whatever. And then work your way back the supply chain of everyone that's involved in making those things.