I've always had trouble acting my age, and it was a complete shock to find myself at an age where I found myself gently nudged into retirement.
So you can imagine that when I look at Covid stats that tell me some 95% of Covid deaths are folks 65 and over, I pay attention.
After all, I don't want to be the guy who dismissed the pandemic and then dies from it. That would just give too many people the last laugh.
I'm taking what you might call a "fatalist" approach, as in, if my number comes up it comes up. Nothing I'm gonna do about it. Let's face it; there's going to be a cause of death on that death certificate, and I'll be just as dead if the certificate says Covid or says something else.
Which is why I have grave reservations about our lockdown policies. Ya, lockdowns might save a few of us over-65s, but to what end? Some of us might get another twenty years, others just a few years, and the average Covid fatality, an 82 year old in a long term care home with multiple co-morbidities, might get a few months or weeks.
At what cost?
Thousands of independent businesses gone forever, their trade absorbed by Walmart and Amazon.
Thousands of mom and pop restaurants gone (but don't worry. Mickey D hasn't skipped a beat.)
Millions of folks making ends meet with their low-wage jobs at those independent businesses thrown out of work, permanently. Millions of these people are facing eviction and bankruptcy.
And that's all worth it so we can add a few months to the lifespans of the elderly ill who are rotting away in under-staffed and under-funded care homes?
No thanks.
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