I agree that people at particular risk need to take particular precautions. The higher the risk, the higher the extent of precautionary steps. My dad is a cancer survivor who is still on preventative chemo and anti-rejection drugs due to a transplant. He probably shouldn’t leave the house, and meet with visitors.
I am obese and have both obstructive sleep apnea and diabetes. These are some of the co-morbidities that tend to cause hospitalization. I should be careful, social distance and wear a mask. But, I go to the gym and don’t wear a mask there. Perhaps unadvisable, but I think the odds of my health seriously declining if I don’t go to the gym are higher than if I do. And, I can’t get enough air when wearing a mask. So, it is a risk I take.
My kids are in college, and are relatively unlikely to need hospitalization. Each of them has already had COVID-19, and other than my daughter losing her sense of smell, they are both fine (as are all of my nieces, all of them having had the virus already). My nephew is the only college aged student in the family that hasn’t had Covid.
My point is, different people have different risk profiles. Young healthy people COULD die if they get it, but it is no more likely to kill them than the flu is (maybe less likely). And, we don’t shut down the world for the flu.
Meanwhile, my wife needs surgery to remove tumors that her doctor thinks are probably cancer. But, she may not be allowed to have the surgery because the hospital is full (and it isn’t full of college students). “Elective surgeries” are cancelled. But, she has not been personally told that he operation is cancelled, though she has been told that it may be a last minute decision to cancel anyway. So, Covid can kill people that didn’t ever get Covid.
And, people have businesses that they have invested all fo their wealth in, but they need cash flow to stay in business, which doesn’t occur during a lockdown. People can loose their business, their home and then their will to live. No matter how many people the virus may kill, locking down will kill more people than locking down will save.
