In the pandemic companies needed support, and so wherever possible, it made sense to pay them to render services to schools and the poor rather than simply donate tax-payer money to them.
There comes a time when "pushing" one's ideas that could save our world becomes morally the right thing to do. And so, if you have the time, I urge you to read my book, "Nexus. A Treatise in Defence of Love as Mankind's Answer," so that we can rescue each other and our planet from the trouble of our current era. There is a link to a free version and a Kindle version from my bio (bio-link below).
A levels and other examinations were always unfair, yet perhaps it took a pandemic to see it. You can be amazingly clever, but if you're disadvantaged then there is a high chance that you'll have issues with stress deregulation in your body. What that means is, that for your body, an increase in stress will defocus your brain and hinder exam performance. For a student who lives with more affluence, there is a good chance (yet not a guarantee) that their stress response is well regulated and in exam conditions their brain achieves a higher level of focus. So, maybe the government didn't do such a bad job of their algorithm (though there are heart-breaking stories out there for sure that need correcting), maybe it's actually evidence that unfairness has been "baked into the cake" for generations. Perhaps that's the "big lesson" the government needs to ace.
Our aim in the pandemic was to keep all of our policies as child-centred as possible, for our children are the future of our nation and their health matters. As a precaution we opened the "mom and pop" schools for vulnerable kids and key worker children. Their schooling was to remain open year round with fun "camp" activities in the holidays. If that wasn't sufficient, the next stage was alternate "week on, week off" schooling for the remainder of the school population. As a last resort we sent pupils home from the schools in the most affluent 2/3 of postcodes and spread the pupils from the least affluent 1/3 of postcodes between the newly emptied schools to give proper social distancing. This way the kids most likely to be living in stressful or cramped housing with more stressed parents were always taken care of, well fed, educated and loved by their teachers. By doing this we reduced the ACEs in society and gave our entire country a better future in terms of health, happiness and our economy.
In Britain pubs, restaurants and cafes became overflow schools to provide food and a good learning space for the most needy students. Business boomed and so did educational outcomes. The rest of the school population had more space to socially distance too, it was a societal win-win.
Homeschool could be challenging for many people for many reasons, and so we started the government "mom and pop" schools. They were run by a pair of teachers (one male, one female where possible) out of local cafes and restaurants. The teachers were good role models and emotional anchors in the storm that was rocking the world. The renting of the space was a much needed boost to local business and the kids were fed a full days worth of good food in a relaxed learning environment. We did it in the homeschool way with siblings together, with time to relax and socialise built in. The teachers took on a loving parent approach combined with teaching tailored to each child's ability and interests. Homeschool has better results than private school, so the educational outcomes were optimal. Kids who feel loved develop healthier brains and bodies, and so the social and health outcomes were great too. It was a big reorganisation, for sure, but these bubbles were needed in the pandemic and once we tried it, why go back? It was far better for everyone.
To age is a privilege, to care for our younger generations is a sacred duty, for no society who believes otherwise has any future that is good. And so, in this pandemic, as we do the very best we can for people of all ages, to reduce the ACE score of the younger population, to give them the conditions they require for full health in terms of neurological development and body health, is our priority. Children and the young are the future, we love them, we support them, we are honoured to care for them.
In the pandemic we opened university accommodation all year round, enabling students to stay on campus, thus protecting their parents and reducing community transmission. The virus did effect younger people of course, and some of them seriously so, yet they needed to live, to love and to make the life long friends that come of university days.
The pandemic and climate change needed a slowing of people and goods to bring health to people, and so we needed to find a way to make food and housing also linked to that slower pace of living. We needed to speed up the formation of functional communities, of working for love and volunteering, and let the frenetic pollution causing need for "jobs" be a thing of the past.
From the level of friends to nations, in the pandemic the phrase, "Friends first, competition second," took on a grander significance.
In the pandemic we had stranded international students, and so we started the adopt-a-student scheme so families could volunteer to take on students and care for them as if they were their own children until they could return home. Without these offers many of them would have starved, become homeless and suffered mental health troubles. After all, when we start to love each other's children, we start to unite as one world.
Since famine follows pandemics, it's time not only to focus on food production, but also to limit or stop biofuel production, thus taking pressure off grains in terms of volume available and price.
The need for scientists to work with and support agriculture had never been greater than when the pandemic hit, because without their help the pressure on the environment and soils would have led to unsustainable practices, the lowering of the water table and the loss of natural habitat.
"In this pandemic," said Clara, "it is time to start talking seriously about the conservation and utilisation of plant genetic resources in relation to food security. We can't keep on letting the money-market determine the strategies of seed companies, especially in relation to their 'terminator seeds.' If we had arrived on Earth from some other planet and started devising a food security plan, it would certainly bare no resemblance to what we have now. And then we add in climate change, of new weather patterns changing the diseases our farmers face... we can act together now, or starve tomorrow. I'm voting for food security, how about you? And yes, the choice may become 'vegan or starve' in many areas of our world. However, then we'd have less contact with other species and future chances of other cross-species pandemics would thus be lowered. All the gold on earth can't feed us, but these precious plant genes can."
Only a demonetized world can give us optimal neurology, a healthy era with robotised factory and food production, protect against climate change. And though a chequer-board pattern of self-sufficient capable city and country units to give needed flexibility in pandemics isn't entirely incompatible with some form of monetization, it's a whole lot simpler to implement without it.
Jesus would lead is flock to safety, with real wisdom and love - and in these challenging pandemic days we need to follow his example; we need to feed, clothe, house and love the poor as brothers and sisters, as fellow children of our creator.
It made sense to put stimulus money toward paying farmers, stores and restaurants to provide food for free. That way, regardless of social status or access to bank accounts and such, everyone got fed well and we avoided the social unrest other nations saw in the pandemic.
Emotionally coping with the pandemic was a challenge for all, yet especially the young, for their brains have yet to gain the ability to calm anxious thoughts - that being wired in by the mid-twenties. And so the best advice we could give was to imagine a line on the ground, such as a middle line upon a long road that stretches into the horizon and beyond, and imagine one foot on each side of that line. One side is empathy, the love we have for everyone regardless of age, the other side is logic, science and pragmatism. Then we walk that road always with one foot on each side of the line, always rooted in both empathy and logic. Our empathic side educates us to do our best for all, and to ensure everyone feels loved. Our logical side reminds us that everyone needs food, a home, warmth and a feeling that life will go on and we will need a united and strong society going forwards - one fair and appreciative of everyone.
In the authoritarian regimes they controlled official numbers by releasing a rumour that went viral - that anyone found with the virus mysteriously disappeared along with their entire household. Soon there were no reports, no bodies found and the "unanimous support" for the regimes continued.
Pandemic protocol 101 was to stop international transportation, especially between areas of land that were separated by bodies of water. That finances were put above lives in the past was the most shameful aspect of the pandemic response. And for those that must travel, with produce and such, health screening is paramount. So now our protocols are clear and internationally agreed. When a virus spreads so rapidly, your first line of defence is always prevention of infection, to test and go for elimination of the virus. When you get that right, the uninfected areas of the globe are able to help the infected parts by sending in resources. When the entire world gets infected there's nobody left standing to help anyone. Indeed, we save each other as a global team or we drown in the slurry of international competition, financial greed and emotional indifference.
Pandemic protocol 102, after case one in on any land mass, is to instigate the national "Russian doll" - to stop travel between cities, towns and villages and to close schools. This is only possible when the agriculture and provisions society needs are all capable of regional production and everyone has enough income to stay at home as required. It also depends on there being good housing for all, well ventilated, sanitary and with access to the outdoors - be that a one-way bike track or walking loop to maintain proper social distancing.
The pandemic was the mother of all "trolley problems." On one track was a smaller number of children and young people, on the other was a vastly larger number of elderly folk. We chose to save the kids as much as we possibly could - and not only from the virus, but from abuse, neglect, starvation and social unrest. So while our body count is higher, we're trying to save the young from multiple threats and we ask the press to keep that in their thoughts - to ask themselves what "lever" they would have pulled. Additionally, the press and scientists alike appear to not be making a clear distinction between personal infection curves and population death-rate curves. One person suffers and recovers (we hope), at the population level that is not the case until enough people have become immune. In short, the lower your first "death-curve" the potentially higher and worse second waves can be. And so, until "the fat lady sings," let us support each other the best we can. Let us look for all the signs of a healthy society and, though we love and care for all the best we can, we put kids and young families first. Let us hope for a vaccine and pray that we have learned the lessons from this challenging time, lessons that will enable us to build healthy nations and a healthy world with liberty, equality and fraternity for all.
We realised that society needed a more flexible structure to cope with pandemics, so we gave the education budget directly to parents, allowing them to homeschool or form community schools as they wished. That way, if another pandemic came we could protect the core of society - young families - all the faster.
To cope with the pandemic we needed intelligent and creatively flexible policy makers - people who could put the wellbeing of humanity above ego, vanity and greed.
Perhaps the first step out of social distancing is to allow our youth to meet up with one or two friends, to have a "buddy system" to ease their loneliness - and to allow for young love to boost mental health.
In this pandemic, if we are willing to sacrifice people on the alter of the fictional financial system, it really is a cult at odds with everything love and faith stand for.
In this pandemic we learn from our key workers, the ones the monetary system exploits most fiercely, more about the reality of our existence, of the truth the monetary system seeks to obscure.
In the pandemic we stopped all mortgage payments and rent payments for a year, that with the education budget going into universal child care payments, more parents were able to stay at home, support their children and stay safe. And, for the teenagers, we did something a little extra, we texted them a new code every week for free take-away in their area - everyone needs a little boost every now and then, and this kept them far happier and healthier. Many restaurants and pubs joined in the effort to keep the food-love flowing, and as a bonus it kept their businesses thriving even in those tough times. All we asked of our kids is to make art, make music, make videos that kept each other happier - to become an emotional life support system for youth. And as for the teachers? The education sector for online support expanded so fast, innovating and providing better teaching methods than classrooms can ever cater for... it was a win-win all round.
The monetary system was built to enforce rigid darwinism in society, and this is why in a situation that needs love to guide us through, all the economists can bring to the table is cold emotional indifference to vast suffering. They can't honestly ask as all to enact social distancing to save lives in one breath and then reopen schools knowing full well it will lead to "round two" of massive death rates. Money is fiction, kids are real, can we have people in charge who will choose reality over fiction?
Looking at the models, there was no safe way to reopen schools in the pandemic, and so we took the per head funding for each student for that academic year and paid it directly to parents on top of their child benefit money.
The professor said quite bluntly, "It is immoral to put children, youth or their parents at risk to save the old. Regardless of risk factors, everyone has the right to put their child first. A society that places the old before the young has no future and the old have no entitlement to any treatment at the expense of the young. And so whilst we do the very best we can for our grandparents generation, we guard our nation's children. It won't lead to the smallest body count, but it will lead to the smallest count of small bodies. Our NHS workers and store clerks with young families need to go home and stay safe, before all our hearts break at their loss. Bring in newly qualified medics for the care of children and their parents, for maternity wards, for younger adults. Let those willing to step forward in the care of the elderly come and create whatever standard of care is achievable. Then close all schools and nurseries completely (except for vulnerable children who need them), reallocating willing teachers into the social services to boost care of vulnerable children. Boost child helpline services and support to the poor, practical and emotional. Open hotels or unoccupied housing for the refuge of battered women and their children. Keep predators of children and women in jail regardless of the risk to themselves, indeed re-incarcerate known child-predators in these days of fewer police offers and parole officers available - but release petty offenders, especially parents. In short, let us repurpose what we have done to shield the old in defence of families with children; we then keep that going until there is a vaccine."
It was challenging to remain level headed at potential falsification of data from China, yet it was vital to keep in our thoughts that these choices were made by officials and not the people themselves - the people suffered greatly. Additionally, any move that increases poverty in China will only serve to increase the chances of a new pandemic. Whatever happened, our future is together, working to make all poverty history, and opening the doors to a world where all can have sanitary living conditions and dignity. The west has used China as a giant slave-factory for decades, starting off on the wrong foot since the opium wars, and so a future of peace depends on such inner and historical reflections.
In the pandemic it was vital to ignore the many "cures" that circled the internet, the scammers who hadn't either the good intention nor the medical training to properly advise. It was a time to listen to our doctors, our trained and educated professionals who had poured their hearts and souls into public health.
So many key workers were the ones who society had marginalised in the money-nexus era, and so after it was over we knew we'd need to make a fairer world together that honoured the talents of all - one in which neighbours really did show love to one another.
We realised that it was vital to replace the staff of all essential services (starting with those for children) with staff who had already had and survived the virus (and were in good enough health) as soon as possible. Following that, other key services followed suit. Herd immunity can only ever be implemented with viruses that are harmless to a large section of society, and this virus could kill anyone of any age.
Replacing key workers with immune workers in the pandemic required the removing of the monetary system, for only when people worked for love and all had equal access to food, shelter and other necessities could the program realistically be successful. For the world it was their "Highwayman" moment, choosing between their money system and their lives.
We realised that the only way to save maximum lives in the pandemic was to keep social distancing protocols and isolation of the vulnerable in place until the vaccine was ready, however long that took. After all, money is an invented thing, and all the money in the world can't bring back one person. The lost babies and children broke our hearts in ways that would never mend. So it was time to honour life as sacred and choose God's way over money.
Dearest America,
In these pandemic days it is time to let go of rancour and the language of competition and division. It is time to embrace kind speech, compassion and empathy - words that bring a sense of togetherness, trust and mutual support. What the world loves about America is not the things that money brings, yet the warmth of your hearts and the childish sense of joy you shine on the world. So, team USA, we need you to keep that light bright and come together in good faith. You may not have a health care system as other developed nations do, yet you can play to your greatest strength - your warm hearts, your love of being heroes, your team spirit and faith in love and liberty. When you channel your inner Captain America or Wonder Woman, you will rise through the dark days and emerge into the daylight as one, truly united and in a state you can be proud of,
May God be with you all,
Angela Abraham
We began an online course, globally accessible training, that prepared medics for the specific symptoms of the pandemic virus, that way we had a ready pool of volunteers who'd already had and survived the virus when our healthcare system needed them. Because nothing says "We love our doctors, nurses and paramedics" like showing up in work gear.
When a health service becomes overwhelmed, then the lives they usually save, such as from heart attacks or accidental injuries, can become lethal too. So as we practice social distancing we protect the vulnerable - vulnerable kids included - and wider society from more than the virus itself.
That which either boosts the immune system or lowers its total load increases the chance of health being restored, and so our response to the pandemic was more of a recipe that could be altered in different locations rather than a one-size-fits-all approach or single solution.
In the pandemic the people who lived in the slums were most at risk and one of the best things that could be done for them was to ensure they had plenty of fresh food to eat. This was especially true in Mexico where there was an abundance of avocados and fresh produce.
In the pandemic the food giants donated their profits into a mobile food bank, one that went to the poorest districts and gave food to the needy.
In the pandemic, rather than have people all crowd into the supermarkets, we set up many local distribution points of "grab bags" of cupboard staples for different size families, including baking supplies and fresh produce.
In the pandemic we made special editions of our favourite TV shows and soap operas to role model healthy living during the social distancing measures. We did "street talk" with everyone a safe distance apart, daily exercise, learning guitar, learning drawing, expressing emotions in music and more. We could take turns doing improvised art in the street. Seeing it on television made guidelines and rules work that would have otherwise been impossible to communicate in an orderly way. As such, our television programming and movies became another public health service.
In the pandemic we launched new nation wide television shows for the arts, a kind of "Blue Peter" thing I guess you could say, but we enhanced it with a website where kids could be praised and given constructive advice by other artists. We had different versions for different ages and different artistic talents, including writers, and it gave a new structure to life at home.
Every day at noon, we could stand at our garden gate, many metres away from any neighbour, and have conversations, offer emotional support and share laughs where they could be had. It was this sort of chit chat that began to rebuild our communities.
In the pandemic many nations chose new temporary national anthems to rally a spirit of togetherness, we Brits went for "the frog song," or rather, "We All Stand Together," by Sir Paul McCartney.
During the pandemic, for the isolated, we began a cooking show. Learning how to make breads and pastas from scratch gave people structure to their day, a sense of achievement and great food to eat.
There came a time in the pandemic when the only way out was a comfortable universal basic income for all, to free the medics to work from the heart rather than for salary, and to free us all to volunteer and do what we knew was right for society.
Please recall in this pandemic, that money is a greater fiction than any other work of man, and is not a part of creation - that mankind is made less healthy by the money-nexus and healthy by a love-nexus. We are born to protect the natural world and each other from a deep and abiding sense of love.
There came a time in the pandemic for the large food producers, distributors and stores to remove their profit margins entirely and deliver food at a price the masses could still afford. Though some chose to keep their prices at a normal level and put their profits into the food bank, it was a much needed step to calm populations.
With the pandemic came the new baby boom generation, with so many at home for such a long time, and it more challenging to get birth control, it was kinda obvious what would happen.
As Aldous Huxley said, there is no social stability without individual stability, and so, in this brave new world, we began free take-out food options in low income areas. None can be stable without the ability to feed their family and themselves. If people have food and shelter, everything calms down.
Volunteering in the pandemic was my daily exercise, riding my bike, delivering prescriptions and much needed supplies to the vulnerable. Being out in that sunshine and doing good for community all at once, it doesn't get much better than that!
In the pandemic the self employed were hit hard economically, and so everyone who had posted self employed tax returns were sent emergency payments during the crisis. The stress caused by financial hardship on top of the pandemic would otherwise have been too much for those families and made self isolation all the more challenging.
Once the pandemic was over, the volunteering had only gotten started. Only a world where everyone could live a sanitary and dignified life would we be free of such disease.
When the pandemic was over for us, when we were mostly immune, the non-key workers from our nation went in droves to become key workers in other nations, to keep them as healthy as possible, to see them through the worst.
As we watched Cuban doctors land in Italy, to help in their time of need, we were reminded what strong alliances the world may create when we show love to one another.
In a pandemic the negative chaos can become more deadly than the virus; especially if the virus is killing those whom would have soon died in any case - as much as we love them and wish to protect them. Then the greater loss of life comes from those who die of preventable causes as the healthcare system is swamped, as food distribution and production is interrupted. Life can be lost from violence or deterioration of health in mental and physical terms. Seeing all the potential avenues for saving people is paramount. And so, in addition to ramping up healthcare provision and slowing the numbers of infected people to a manageable flow, a key way to save people is social order and the following of rules. So we follow the rules and we do this from a sense of love for one another.
In the pandemic we ordered all grains edible by humans kept for direct consumption by people and the excess animal herd slaughtered and frozen as reserve food. The newly fallow land was then put to the plough. This way we fended off the starvations that have historically followed disease.
Each day in this pandemic, though it is only early spring, we open many doors and windows each early morning to clean the air of the house and help our lungs. It's kinda similar to changing the water in a fish tank, you change a little bit at a time.
In the pandemic, though younger and fitter folks tended to fare better, there was a large proportion of suffers that required hospitalisation. And so it was a duty of us all, whilst keeping the nation running as best we could (whilst prioritising the health of children and the vulnerable) to also slow the spread of the virus by all and any means we could muster. At the same time we ramped up medical capacity to its maximum, with hotels as hospitals, with the army, with so many volunteers.
As the pandemic moves from the initial measures into the months ahead, it is vital that amongst the seriousness and sombre stoicism, we find ways to have fun and alleviate stress. Our stress response evolved for short term situations rather than the long term, and so the way we mitigate cortisol levels will help to increase the immune systems of all. Laughter is not only a medicine in the best moments of living, yet a tonic in the darkest hours.
When all the office workers went home, there was all this space in the city centre. And as the virus waned we turned some into a new thriving arts scene, a place to get out all of the hurt of those tough months we'd suffered. The music was incredible. Other places became new digs for the homeless with volunteer support, that next winter after the pandemic start was the first with every citizen in a warm bed and well fed. I guess we had learned the big lesson, that the health of one is the health of us all, that we really are all connected.
In the pandemic a national database of volunteers opened up, one in which you could enter your skills, availability and if you believed yourself yet immune to the virus. From there life began to become more orderly again.
When Lucy began to cough we opened all the windows and doors right up, we were camping indoors, allowing her lungs to fill with the cleaner outdoor air. There we were in our woollens with hot cocoa, all watching something funny on tv. It was so hard emotionally, yet so bonding at the same time. There's something about tough times that drags love out into the open and shows us we are so much more than we ever knew. Added to that, I can feel my own empathy rising, not only for people of past pandemics and wars, but for those who suffer daily.
From the Victorian era, to the Spanish flu, where poverty walks, disease stalks... and soon comes to the attention of us all.
When choosing to isolate or not, listen to your "mother's instinct" and let it roar rather than allowing the intellect to suppress it. If your child has a vulnerability, shield them.
Perhaps, going forwards, our schools should be increasingly staffed and populated by those who have had the coronavirus and can no longer be vectors for the disease.
In those pandemic days, when schools were run more as fun activity camps, we brought therapy dogs in too. They did so very much to help our kids.
Whatever policies we make in a pandemic, the holistic health of children and young families must be our first priority. After that, we go all out to protect the vulnerable, to shield and guard them as much as humanly possible. When we come at this with a profound sense of love for all, pathways through this dark forest are illuminated one step at a time.
To lower the stress on our youth we cancelled all testing in favour of teacher recommendations for their next courses of study, dealing with the emotional impact of a pandemic was quite enough for them.
In the pandemic we kept schools open, yet introduced an opt out scheme so that parents wanting to home educate could do so.
During the pandemic our schools switched to a far more fun education, with more games, more dancing and laughs. Testing kids, causing stress in such emotionally tough times, was something their mental health just didn't need. Our teachers became a vital part of their emotional support system, extra family when they needed it the most.
There came a time in the pandemic when needed to shield the old and vulnerable as completely as possible, when we needed to slow the spread among the adults who did not have children in their lives. And so working from home became the norm, and that went on for some months.
At the start of the pandemic it was late winter, and so we planned to turn more of our land to the plough rather than for raising livestock. We can feed more people that way.
In the pandemic the government asked the nation's gardeners to step up, to grow as much produce as possible and teach others how to do the same. We had television and radio shows that kept in time with the season, telling people what to plant and when, what weeding to do, how to keep their plants healthy and well. Schools did there part too, the children learning how to grow everything from cress to tomatoes, potatoes and cabbage. Some streets took down fences to make the gardens long plots of veggies, others used their greenhouses to amp up numbers of starter plants to give to neighbours. Eating local really took off in those challenging times.
In the pandemic it made more sense to bring retired doctors in as trainers of healthy volunteers than place them on the front lines, that way the benefit was magnified and we protected them better.
From the worker at the plough to the machinist in the ventilator factories, there were so many who showed true valour, who took risks for others in the same way soldiers do.
In the pandemic our medics were our heroes, everyone from the specialist doctors and nurses all the way to the St. John's Ambulance Brigade, those champions of volunteering who trained up so many.
In the summertime of the pandemic year, to save grandparents from risking infection while taking care of their grandchildren, we put together American style summer camps run in the schools by young volunteers. We kept the kids as healthy, happy and well fed as we possibly could.
"Did you know," said Rufus, "that in 1918 during the flu pandemic they found that caring for the afflicted in tents increased survival rates by about 75%. Never underestimate the power of fresh air and sunshine. Their temporary tent hospitals saved a lot of lives."
If this virus is gonna be an annual event (returning as a different mutation), we need to live it this year in a way we could replicate every year, though we'd hone our response I'm sure.
In this pandemic it appears that we have missed an opportunity to count our blessings, that our children and their parents are relatively robust to this virus. Surely it's okay to say that. More over, in medicine we, "first do no harm," and shutting the institutions children and their parents rely on is a high degree of harm. This is why we seek to protect our elders whilst keeping the rest of our population as healthy and stable as we can.
The best defence you can have in this pandemic and any subsequent rounds is to get in shape. Eat clean; three calorie controlled meals a day with plenty of fibre and good balanced nutrition. Take daily exercise, indoors or outdoors, there are plenty of great exercise videos online. Have healthy social contacts that bring joy into your life. Find time to dance, listen to music that helps you to feel good. Laughter really is great medicine, so feel okay about watching comedy or having fun with friends. Keep stress low for you and others, kindness and love are so very important to the immune system. In all of this trouble, let us remember to live well and show a little class.
Use of power leads to more use of power, so we're gonna get through this pandemic with societal cooperation and love, that's the only way to preserve the liberty our ancestors gave their lives for.
In this pandemic we keep a warm heart and a cool head, that's our way, that's British.
In the pandemic we turned hotels into pop-up hospitals, "deputising" volunteers in as our staff.
2020 was the time for generation X to step out as strong leaders, to become good role models and live a hero's creed.
There is a difference between the medical approach to one person and the medical approach to a population because a population has many more ripple effects when one "string" is pulled, and this is something to take note of in a pandemic.
In this pandemic, dear media, "Think before you ink," because fear lowers immune responses and thus raises medical complications at the population level.
If media spreads fear then it spreads increased use of the primitive brain areas at the very time we most need the functions of the more highly evolved prefrontal cortex - it's tough to practice social medicine when they keep pouring out the poison.
The flu shot is a sort of "greatest hits" of the previous flu season, weakened and mixed in together... but there are always novel flus new to the season that can infect anyone... immunised or not. So even when there is a vaccine, anyone can catch a new version of the virus. When we think of this ability to mutate, we can recall that the common cold is a coronavirus, we can and do catch new colds. They mutate and return, it's what they do. And so, we do need pre-vaccine strategies that maximise total population health, maximise care of children and keep society functioning maximally - to at least, "first do no harm." Moreover, we need a fitter society that has time to exercise and eat right, time to have fun and de-stress. Perhaps this is a terrible way to learn that we need to be kinder to our bodies and brains. Perhaps it's time to get serious about implementing bio-medically appropriate social policies.
Shutting schools is a recipe for social chaos chaps, it's kids home alone with nothing to eat while their parents scramble to get enough work to pay rent. It's stressed out adults who begin to fight and that stress often ends up as verbal or physical abuse on kids. On top of social ills, that stress lowers the immune system - whereas socialising and playfulness boosts natural immunity. We're not going to throw our kids and young families under the bus. But we should have a homeschool option for those who can take care of their kids, especially those now working from home.
Nudge theory takes time to be adopted into society and form a solid societal neural network, it needs time to solidify so people are confident that they chose the ideas for themselves. In these pandemic days, realistic "empathy hooks" that ignite the logical-analytical capabilities, told with kind words to promote a sense of realism over fear, work best with populations. In short, we need the "wise chief" leaders to level with us and lead from the front by good example, yet to show the heart of the good parent at all times.
A key way to fight a pandemic is with positive chaos, to sew kindness and love into the fabric of society at every opportunity possible.
We Brits are a nation that prides itself on independence, let's be honest, if there is no traffic coming we cross the road regardless of that the lights say. Yet now we need to take lessons from the Germans in civil obedience, because only then can our nation come out of this with optimum strength. There is no pride to be had in childish defiance when the attitude of a well disciplined soldier is required.
In the pandemic the islands were arks in a flood.
When we reduced the virus to a low enough level, we put into place better trace, test and treat procedures, keeping it as low as possible until the vaccines were ready. Our aim wasn't to live with the virus, it was to end it.