Civilizational Triage

This one is for Aesop.  You are reading him, right?

In emergency medicine, you triage the casualties.  It is called triage because you separate out the casualties into three groups.

• Those who will probably recover with or without care.  (AKA the walking wounded.)
• Those who will probably recover if given prompt medical care.
• Those who will probably die even with prompt medical care.

Your first task is to evaluate each casualty and separate them into their appropriate groups.  Some of the walking wounded can be drafted to assist.  Some of the dying will die while you do this.

Then you provide immediate first aid to the severely injured, who desperately need it, but will also benefit from it.  You arrange evacuation from the scene to a location that can provide better care for them.

Once that is done, you provide first aid to the walking wounded.  That's all most of them will need.

Once that is done, you provide palliative support to the dying.  Comfort them, as you would wish to be comforted.

Why do you do this?  Because resources, especially time, are limited.  You can't do everything.  If you try to save everyone, you will end up saving no one.

A pandemic, if it is truly a global epidemic, is a civilizational threat.  In the face of such a threat, we must act to preserve not individual lives, but civilization itself.  The future belongs to the young and healthy.  Old, sick people will be missed, but are not required.  Infants will be grieved, but can be replaced. 

Yes, I am a hard man.  I've already been through three wars, and seen genocide up close.  I don't care about your or anyone else's feelings.  I just want my nation, my people, to survive and thrive, and am willing to do what is necessary to achieve that.