Is there a better way than having another lockdown? (1)
In critiquing the Great Barrington Declaration 鈥� described as a call for a let-it-rip, herd-immunity approach to the pandemic 鈥� Graham Lawton notes that mainstream scientists see curbs on freedom as the only way to keep a lid on the virus for now (24 October, p 23).
A democratic, civilised nation needs to recognise that freedom is inseparable from responsibility. There are many norms that people follow, codified or not, that allow us to exercise freedom if, and only if, our actions involve self-restraint, in ways that limit or avoid harm to others. When a significant number of people flout the rules of society (or public health) and cause harm, then governments need to step in on behalf of citizens to enforce restrictions that minimise harm.
The pandemic is a compelling case for this intervention.
Is there a better way than having another lockdown? (2)
While Lawton is right to question herd immunity, it is irrelevant to the strategy of targeted isolation of the susceptible, the purpose of which is to avoid overloading the health service and allow normal social and economic life to continue. That idea was taken up in and more recently in the Great Barrington Declaration.
It is the core strategy of targeted isolation, not the role of herd immunity, therapy or vaccination, that needs urgent consideration.
The present, haphazard pseudo-policy of successive lockdowns merely postpones the inevitable and extends the disaster to social and economic life.
Is there a better way than having another lockdown? (3)
Even in the worst-case scenario if the coronavirus were allowed to “let rip”, the overall harm is likely to be less than that of lockdowns.
While covid-19 deaths may rise, those due to cancelled surgery, undiagnosed cancer, job loss and suicide will be averted. I have yet to hear an explanation as to why lives lost to covid-19 are more worthy of protection than lives lost to other causes. Until this year, concerns about the side effects of such overreaction to infectious diseases were seen as the mainstream consensus.
For example, a co-written by Donald Henderson 鈥� the mastermind of smallpox eradication 鈥� , until a vaccine is available, communities “respond best and with the least anxiety when the normal social functioning of the community is least disrupted”, and that hand washing and personal hygiene should form the bulk of pandemic mitigation methods.
Is there a better way than having another lockdown? (4)
An important point behind the call to ease lockdowns is that, unless the scientific advice is tempered by consideration of social and economic impact, it risks being labelled as myopic and self-serving.
If, at the end of this pandemic, the excess death rates turn out to be minimal and the economic and social costs extreme, society might be far more ambivalent about following the science when some future emergency strikes.
First, make sure that this strange lightning exists
I enjoyed Eric Canan’s look at the potential causes of ball lightning (24 October, p 46). However, it made me think that before we introduce such exotic concepts as four-dimensional lightning or Gatchina plasmoids as explanations, surely the first step is to establish that ball lightning is a real phenomenon.
Canan points out that although ball lightning has been reported for centuries, there is only anecdotal evidence for it. So can we even be sure it exists? In this respect, it is no different from, say, ghosts or Bigfoot. Neither of these, like ball lightning, has ever been reliably captured on film, despite over a decade of people having phone cameras to hand pretty much all the time. If we have no evidence to define the phenomenon, how can anyone claim to explain its cause?
Kick your way to a better sense of balance
As a medical student and an avid martial artist, I found your article on balance fascinating (10 October, p 34).
Karate is all about stability. For more than 10 years, I have trained in this martial art barefoot, honing my balance and mental focus. After training, my body feels more in tune with my mental state. I have always taken for granted the positive physical and mental effects of my training, but reading about the relationship between balance and mental health made me treasure this even more.
Martial arts weren’t included in the “How to restore your balance” section, but what better way to do so than getting barefoot in a dojo and kicking things?
Doubts over Venusian life may save us a fortune
I would like to nominate Ignas Snellen and his four colleagues for a Nobel prize (31 October, p 18). By concluding there is no sign of phosphine in Venus’s atmosphere, they may have saved millions of dollars, euros, pounds, roubles and I don’t know what else that were going to be spent on missions there to look for life!
Cat food is the real ecological villain
The most significant ecological impact of cats may not be what they kill, but what they eat (31 October, p 42). Each of the 373 million pet cats in the world consume an amount of meat similar to a human in many places, around 40 kilograms a year. Meat is the food with the biggest ecological cost in terms of land use, deforestation, water and energy consumption. Perhaps this is a cost the planet can ill afford.
Helicopter money may be the best answer (1)
In your article on rebuilding economies after the pandemic, the thinkers you questioned were on the ball except when it came to quantitative easing and monetary theory (31 October, p 36). The latter is a failure and the former shouldn’t be deployed in its usual form because the extra money it injects into economies ends up in quangos and in the hands of CEOs and shareholders. For a real boost, take a tip from former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis and give every voter or householder 拢10,000.
Helicopter money may be the best answer (2)
The most impressive book I have read this year is The Deficit Myth by Stephanie Kelton. It gives a brilliant exposition of an idea largely dismissed in your article, modern monetary theory. The essence of its argument isn’t that nations should spend their way out of trouble, but that balanced budgets shouldn’t be the primary aim of financial management.