But, we need to be clear that the response to the birdemic was not an "over-reaction" as so many people keep saying. Universal lock-down and universal social-distancing (ULDSD) is not an over reaction, it is the wrong reaction.
More than that - the ULDSD reaction makes the epidemic worse; which is to say that it leads to more deaths from the birdemic, as well as (many) more deaths from other causes of dying (cancer, strokes, heart disease, diabetes, autoimmune disroders, suicides, other infections etc).
In the context of understanding how respiratory disease epidemics are survived - why they have not wiped-out the human species long since, despite the fact they they cannot be 'contained'; and that sooner or later everyone will be exposed until the herd immunity is high-enough that the disease dies-out - you need to comrehend that the mantra of 'flattening the curve' necessarily leads to more deaths due to lengthening the epidemic.
If you don't understand why, then a blog post is insufficient to explain it. However, it has been explained clearly, coherently and accurately by one of those increasingly rare individuals who is both honest and competent - if you can set aside 40 minutes to pay attention:
If you can follow Knut Wittkowski's explanation, you will see that lock-down and social distancing is not an 'over-reaction', nor is the strategy 'useless' - but it is actively harmful.
Which is not in the slightest degree unexpected; considering the real purpose of ULDSC, and the motivation of the entities who are behind it.
Note added: If you try to protect everybody, you will kill the vulnerable (the old, and with other illnesses) - as is happening; because by extending the epidemic (aka flattening the curve) the virus will get to them sooner or later. If you genuinely want to protect the vulnerable - the large majority of not vulnerable (especially children and their parents) need to be exposed to the virus while the minority of vulnerable are protected until the epidemic burns-out due to a high percentage of the exposed becoming immune. This shortens the epidemic. If you are young and healthy and genuinely want to protect the old and unhealthy; your sacrifice is to be exposed to the virus, sooner rather than later, and become immune either through getting an illness or (more often) simply by fighting it off. Sheltering isolated at home, (or behind a mask), is selfishness.
