Thanks Ryan for an extremely thoughtful critique. I think we differ where it comes to the question of emotion - you seem to infer that I'm using certain examples primarily for their emotional content, whereas I was actually using them to illustrate just how large changes in social moeurs can be. With regard to Covid, I simply see what the data tells me. Transmission rates of a disease that leaves (according to WHO data) more than 90% of people asymptomatic, while lovely for providing sensationalist news headlines, aren't necessarily a trigger for astonishing government interventions that without any argument have left hundreds of millions of people very much in a precarious situation. As for childhood vaccinations, as I grew up in what then was called the third world, I have always been a huge proponent because I've seen what sensible vaccination campaigns can achieve in terms of alleviating human suffering.