Reply To: Show us zee papers.. Passports of your not coming in ever….

[danlee 22443xp 2]

I saw an interesting interview a couple of days ago with one of the behavioural scientists on SAGE (that’s the scientific advisory group that advise the UK government). His analogy is that COVID is like driving cars. When cars became popular a small proportion of drivers would have severe or even fatal crashes which not only cause harm but had an economic cost in terms or repairing damage to roads and property (analogous to people catching COVID).

 

The response was not to say “oh well, we need to get around, so lets allow everyone to drive as they see fit.” Instead over the years governments have built up a whole range of risk management strategies such as the highway code, speed limits, better road and junction designs, mandated car safety features, driving licenses, etc. These have all reduced the risk of car crashes and increased their survivability.

 

SAGE’s advice to the UK government regarding COVID was the same. In order to “live with COVID” we would need to have a whole range of risk management strategies to help reduce the risk. It seems the UK government largely ignored the advice, but that’s a slightly different issue.

 

Here’s a link to the interview for anybody interested in seeing it themselves: https://youtu.be/BlEjNqQStg0