I've been accused of being selfish by a work colleague because I'm putting their loved ones at risk by going to the pub. Now, I don't consider myself as being stupid, but I don't understand their logic - if their "at risk" granny is nicely isolated at home, how does it effect her? Surely I'm only risking the health of the staff who have to be there, and other "selfish" folk who are also in the pub?
No, you and everyone else in the pub is risking the health of everyone you all then have contact with, and everyone they have contact with, and so on, which is how viruses spread rapidly through a community from small beginnings. From a couple pf pages ago:
1) People have tested positive for the virus without displaying symptoms so not feeling ill is no guarantee you're not spreading it
2) 10s of thousands of people will die from this (the CMO's "best hope" is "only" 20,000 deaths). People you know and care about will die. How many is down to how quickly the virus spreads. How quickly the virus spreads is down to people's behaviour. Like not doing stupid shit like going to a pub with "less than 20 people" in it that will all spread the virus not just to each other but to everyone else they have contact with
3) If the virus spreads quickly it will overwhelm the NHS, that will probably happen very quickly due to a decade of underfunding. At that point, people will start to die not just of coronavirus but because they can't get in intensive care for heart attacks, chronic diseases etc
4) If you think you won't get affected because you're not in a high risk group, in the US 40% of cases hospitalised are in the 20-54 age bracket. At the moment, they're largely not dying because there are enough intensive care beds and ventilators to go round. Once this thing peaks, there won't be. Then those people will start doing too because they can't be treated. Even if you are one of the wankers who think the old and sick are expendable because "I'm all right Jack", it's not just old people who will die from this.
5) If you find the current "social distancing" irksome, you're going to really hate a full lockdown when you literally won't be allowed out of your house unless you're a key worker or getting supplies (and possibly not even for that if they can sort out home deliveries). That will become necessary if people like you continue to do stupid shit like going to a pub with less than 20 people in it.
We are not islands, isolated from each other. We are all connected and how we behave affects everyone. If we make sensible choices and act like we are all responsible for each other we can limit the impact of this thing. If we act like selfish wankers, we're all going to be going to a lot of funerals, explaining to grieving families how it's all overhyped, it's just a bit of flu really and there's no reason to stop behaving like we are the only people who matter.
