Comparing car smashes to Covid-19 is just silly!
Logic just isn't some people's strong point and Covid-19 brings out the worst. Here's a classic example of rubbish reasoning.
In my own local area, police have notified us of a car smash in which a young life was lost. On their Facebook page post, commenters made the usual remarks about sadness, family impact and so forth. One bright spark made the comment that more people are dying in car accidents than from Covid so why are we still allowed to drive cars during lockdown and social restrictions?
Sadly, illogical arguments also tend to spread virally. A number of people hit the 'like' button. That tells us clearly that some people just don't have decent powers of reasoning. They do have astoundingly bad powers of comprehension. Poor logicians often think a weak comparison is a perfectly good substitute for a strong one if it seems to support a sentiment they're in love with.
Clearly, this argument is meant to assert that lockdowns and social distancing constitute an unnecessary and unfair impost. Why are we allowed to run the risk of dying in car accidents but not of dying from Covid-19? This neglects the plain truth that the reason Coronavirus deaths are so few is because lockdown, social distancing and masks are mandated. That fact clearly escaped them.
We can cruelly but accurately point out another question implied by such an argument. Why we are allowed to run a risk of killing others by driving our car, but not by transmitting the virus to them? If we veer off the road and hit a tree we can kill our family members in a smash. But, we aren't allowed to kill our elderly mums and dads with Coronavirus.
According to the sorely miffed mask-and-measures maligners, that just isn't fair. Will they claim that one is no worse than the other? They obviously haven't seen it like that.
The major point these Einsteins have missed is that car smashes aren't viral. The damage ends when the vehicle comes to rest. Conversely, the virus - believe it or not - spreads virally. So, if you catch it and give it to a family member, you and they can pass it on to potentially dozens, hundreds and thousands of people. The death rate, ignoring the long term health impacts to survivors, is approximately two percent. Hence, if you pass it on to 1000 people you will have helped to kill twenty.
You can't do that with a car accident. That's largely why you are allowed to drive your car during restrictions. Social distancing, masks and other measures which greatly slow down the spread of the virus must stay for the time being. This is all aside from the plain fact that motor vehicle transport is central to many people's survival at this point. You'd think the aggrieved would have at least seen that, but apparently not.
Note: All intellectual content is completely the work of the author.
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