Monday 16 March 2020

(d/p) · 10ⁿ

Not to discount the suffering of anyone or prematurely make assumptions on how this pandemic will conclude, it is refreshing that we are more willing to discuss death in perspective and possibly lose tolerance for any of loss caused by avoidable behaviours.
We don’t have the luxury of being precious. For example—via Slashdot—one study suggests that the government imposed lockdown and the general aversion to travel and socialising and the attendant net reduction in air pollution may in the end save more lives than limiting the contagion itself through distancing. Estimates place the annual fatalities worldwide from travel related pollutants at seven million. Divergent as these threats (albeit years of overexposure to smog probably put more at risk of developing COVID-19 by compromised lung function) are, it is worth investigating why we react so differently to each vector and let the latter support the sustainment of the former.