It is important to explicitly acknowledge the roles of immunity (even when imperfect), because it means that the impacts of our actions are no longer a monotone function of our "effort", which means our responses require careful long-term thinking.
Although I should note I have also not seen someone actually quantitatively make the opposite point - that it is worse. The main argument (that I've seen) is some vague false dichotomy about 'the economy' that ignores any impact the pandemic itself has on the economy
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It is also probably worth noting that this sort of argument rarely takes into account the fact that longer delays allow treatment development. I'd much rather get COVID-19 in 2021 than 2020!
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Yes the benefits of delay must be weighed against what can be gained by using the time/compliance we have now to affect the infected population. These discussions aren't happening enough. Also, you might rather have it in summer than winter:https://twitter.com/WesPegden/status/1295752780792115206 …
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I talk a lot about the mistake people make thinking it is always safer to err on the side of extreme action.
Here is a simple thought experiment to illustrate this point.
Imagine you are given a magic wand which, if you wave it, will reduce COVID transmission by... 1/11