I am replying to post 61, btw
once in a generation events continue to increase in frequency.
This is, at least in my perspective, the critical issue underlying all of our discussion about COVID and any response to it. We have been operating under the assumption that we're not going to see an event like this in our lifetime. I have seen no evidence tending to support that belief.
In fact, what I am actually concerned about is what happens when a pandemic with an R-0 factor of something like 2-4, and an IFR of around 10-15%+ or worse hits.
COVID, though catastrophic by any objective measure, is a "dud" when it comes to actually killing people. Many did die, and that is very tragic, but the reality is that the bullet here was dodged by about 99.999% of human civilization (at least in terms of illness). The economic catastrophe caused by government lockdowns will haunt us for the rest of our lives, but that's tangential to the point of focus now.
COVID may have helped get the technology in place for some vaccines, and rapid commercialization of them (like with mRNA technology) and that's good. But if ebola as contagious as COVID were to start circulating, that's going to destroy civilization as we know it beyond repair. It's the kind of thing humanity will never come back from.