Three Aspects of a Pandemic

Lives – Livelihoods – Lifestyles.

Isn’t it clear where the emphasis should be?

We can focus on saving lives.

We can focus on saving livelihoods.

We can focus on giving people back their lifestyles.

These are inter-linked, but they are also a hierarchy. Making decisions in this pandemic is complex, but the drivers are there to steer the decisions, which need to happen at the right time, not too late and not in haste.

If we mix up lives with money and a trip to the pub, we will make a hideous mess of it. When we get the hierarchy wrong, it’s not just a mistake, it’s a cause of rising deaths. Is that manslaughter?