Alec Hogg: Breaching the Covid-think divide a challenge

Over the past 15 months I've spent many hours listening intently to those on both sides of the Covid-think divide. But it was only yesterday during an interview with Discovery Health CEO Dr Ryan Noach that the penny finally dropped. Have a listen (click here) and you'll hear how Noach prioritises saving lives over all else. Which is rational because he is a trained medical doctor whose sworn priority is to save lives. That puts Noach and others like him on a collision course with those on other side – like actuary Nick Hudson and SA's only living Nobel laureate scientist Prof Michael Levitt (click here). Both argue, equally rationally, that society would be best served by an approach to the pandemic based on a cost-benefit analysis. It's quite a divide. Especially when you overlay the reality that huge debts have been accumulated by the response which will have to be paid by the young – a liability incurred in addressing a disease that kills the old. SA's official life expectancy is 64. After the interview, Noach sent me the graphic (above) plotting ages of Discovery member coronavirus deaths. Their average age, he added, is 65. In the UK, where official life expectancy is 81, the covid mortality age averages 82. Food for thought..Another point which Levitt, a Stanford professor, forcefully argued during our May 2020 interview (click here) was that lockdowns actually increased covid deaths rather than saved lives. His point appears to have been proven by the experience of Peru. It imposed the harshest lockdown on earth (see The Economist) and has the world's highest covid mortality rate to show for it (0.5% of the population). Yesterday Peruvians gave a razor thin victory to leftist Pedro Castillo in the runoff presidential election against the daughter of a former dictator. Click here for a superb commentary published on the Carnegie Endowment's website. For context, mortalities in the US and UK are at 0.2% of the population; SA's official number is just under 0.1% (57k deaths on 2019's pop of 58.6m). ___STEADY_PAYWALL___.On the subject of superb pieces, political commentator Gareth van Onselen has delivered a cutting analysis of SA president Cyril Ramaphosa's "green shoots" analogies. It's on Politicsweb this morning. Click here..Similarly, cutting, this time relating to unrealistic expectations, is the Wall Street Journal's report on the inability of mining companies to deliver on a promise to employ more women. Like many other theories which look so good during academic or political chatfests, the idea of sex-agnostic employment in mines has not translated to the real world. Click here..Already reeling from a desertion by its promoters, the good ship Bitcoin yesterday ran into another powerful headwind when the Basel Committee for Banking Supervision announced a plan to apply stiff regulation on crypto currencies. Click here for the WSJ.com report..PLEASE READ – FOR YOUR WSJ.COM ACCESS….As a Premium subscriber you are entitled to full membership of wsj.com (normal price $29 a month). Be sure to action your access through the Premium link on the BizNews website. Because of The Wall Street Journal's credential requirements, be sure to create a password which has at least 8 characters and includes at least one letter and one number – NB it MAY NOT contain any special characters (ie #, !, @ etc). To maintain access to WSJ.com, you MUST enter our partner's website via BizNews Premium at least once a month. A final PS, if you had previously signed up for WSJ you'll need to clear the cookies from your device. Our help desk can assist – support@biznews.com.

Alec Hogg: Breaching the Covid-think divide a challenge

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