Frightening the horses

Subject: Frightening the horses.

It's a mad crazy world. What seems common sense is contested by the 'experts' and we the uninitiated are put back in our box by those who know better.
I'm speaking of the 'corona virus' and the advice we receive from our Prime Minister,  flanked as always by his team of experts who, if and when the wheels fall off, can be thrown to the dogs for giving poor advice. What seems sensible, to withdraw all contact from possible carriers of the virus by closing down most if not all aspects of social interface is deemed unnecessary at the moment because, it is argued we must allow the virus to progress through the society in the hope that we will produce the antibodies to fight the contagion. The people who die are 'collateral damage', to  use that wartime phrase, much favoured by the warriors amongst us but not when used to evaluate casualties  in peace time.
Perhaps the enormity of war and battlefield jargon is appropriate when potentially we face a fight against the virus and collateral damage, the smoke screen we need to hide the truth of innocent people killed in combat will in the wider scheme of things be appropriate, perhaps we simply can't afford to be squeamish. It's not to over egg things to say, thousands of people will die, people will lose their jobs, families will suffer and only in wartime does it provide any equivalence.

As the nation, nay as the whole world reaches a tipping point health wise, the financial reverberations caused by having to close factories, offices, schools, sporting events, travel and hotels will be dire and cause much mayhem. The new shaky ramshackle world of part time employment, the low wages which have to be propped up with taxpayers contributions are now the building blocks on which this society is built. It used to be the case that social responsibility towards each other started in the employment arrangement but this has  steadily been eroded by successive governments. Globalisation 'of the means of production', exporting decent jobs to the farthest corners of the globe, exploiting the poor to work all hours possible without any surety of contractual employment has the knock on effect of the Gig economy with its inherent instability and low unsustainable wages.
No unemployment insurance for them, no margin for error if earnings dry up, no place to hide when the economy falls apart.
So what started as a Chinese phenomena and our genuine amazement at the draconian measures used to corral people into their homes, or the self discipline of the South Koreans who willingly withdrew and isolated the virus from spreading within a month or so we, led by Boris are hesitant to do anything for fear of 'frightening the horses'. Perhaps when this is over, the horses will thank us.