[DrTiTus]

I'm just glad I think for myself.

Originally Posted by Lightspeed

Hundreds of thousands of healthcare workers are dead as a result of this pandemic.

Out of the 3.45 million COVID-19-related deaths reported to WHO, only 6643 were in HCWs.

Source

(The paper linked to from the citation on the page which provides an "estimate" of 80-150 000. They provide their methodology, and acknowledge it's just a rough estimate based on statistical wizardry of bad data [garbage in, garbage out], and not at all accurate. But go on, exaggerate further the propaganda as your argument - it is a just another example of how we ended up where we are.)

They also consider all sorts:

In this database, HCWs are defined as “all staff involved in the provision of care to a COVID-19 patient” and further include allied and auxiliary health workers such as cleaning and laundry personnel, X-ray physicians and technicians, clerks (including admission/reception clerks), phlebotomists, respiratory therapists, nutritionists, social workers, physical therapists, laboratory personnel, orderlies (including staff moving patients), and catering staff.

I'm not saying these people's lives are any less important, but some of the included jobs are not highly skilled, so we're not exactly losing potential cures for cancer here. You screaming "hundreds of thousands of healthcare workers are dead!" vs "there have been 6643 reports of death among healthcare staff" is just a little bit of a stretch of the data we actually have. Even the fact that you used plural hundreds, instead of a single hundred suggests you intentionally exaggerated for effect.

Did you read the paper, or just the headline? Please tell me how you gained your knowledge. Please submit, in triplicate, witnessed by a JP, your credentials, all your grades ever, a complete academic whakapapa, a recent psychological evaluation and show us on the doll where you got touched.

I'm happy for you to mock me - but it doesn't add any credibility to your argument. If you can't understand that it takes individual actions to change society, then I don't really think you learned much from history.

And it _is_ a human factor that is the source of our woe. The virus did not shut down the country - the humans in government shut down the country. It is humans that are dictating who we can and cannot trade with, when we can see our family, what we must inject into our body, and whether we'll be able to earn money to survive. The virus did none of this of its own accord.