The politics of maths. Covid deaths in the UK, but the same principles apply globally. Currently running…

The politics of maths. Covid deaths in the UK, but the same principles apply globally. Currently running between 300-500 deaths per day. That’s 110,000-150,000 per year. (1500 die in an average flu year, in the UK). Short thread about epidemic psychology. /1 #covid19aus #auspol https://t.co/3mCWkXml74

Have joked before that the only thing that has become endemic in countries like the UK now, is deaths. You can see it on the graph. Since about September last year, deaths have never really dipped below 100-200 per day. Even that is over 30,000 deaths per year, if continued. /2

The spin is magnifying our stupidity. The latest wave (here too) is described as causing less severe illness and death. Compared to what? Those previous epidemic peaks. Those are end-of-civilisation peaks, if they were sustained. Hooray, we’re doing better than that. /3

Epidemic disease patterns produce bizarre social psychology. Because deaths are concentrated in those relatively short peaks, idiot politicians can still maintain the fiction that things are going OK. We have pandemic downtime where that illusion is fed. But right now,…/4

…since the second half of 2021, is a MUCH more dangerous pattern. Because the ‘peaks’ don’t end. It’s endemic death. Sustained over a longer time, it will kill a lot more people than those astronomical peaks. And because our entire perceptual system and psychology is driven…/5

…by change and contrast (the frog boiling on the stove) - we notice change, not stasis - populations can be seduced into believing that this is now normal. Many in the UK seem to have settled into that lethal slumber. Hundreds dying every day has been normalised. /end