Well throw in a bag of crisps and pork scratching's you now have a 3 course gourmet meal.

Dont for get the HP brown sauce!

I thought a three course meal was a starter, main course, and pudding? ..... Maybe the crisps could be an appetiser, but I think you'd need a spotted dick to have a three course meal.

The long term average deaths per day in the US, for all reasons, is about 11,500, the current pandemic deaths/ day in the US is averaging around 700-800, so the number of deaths caused by coronavirus is about 7% of total deaths, in other words, of the people who die today in the US, approximately 13 out of every 14 will die for something other than coronavirus.

Is coronavirus serious? Yes it is, but I am increasingly thinking that it has attracted greater gravity than is objectively warranted.

Nailed it right there.

And not a crème brûlée in sight.

Interesting, seems you've changed your tune on it in the last month or so?

A little maybe - I think people should stay home, but I am a pragmatist and [1] clearly people don't want to be forced to stay home, and [2] the economy is going to implode if there is another extended lock-down.

So if people are too stupid to heed the advice and/or consider the risk of death, or unknown longer term health consequences of covid infection, to be less important than going to work, then so be it. Western democratic countries just aren't equipped to enforce 100% lock-downs and clearly attempts at partial lock-downs have failed (the UK and most of Western Europe is now deep into a second wave that is worse than the first, at least in numbers of infections) so at the moment the UK and western European countries appear to be about to destroy their own economies in a futile attempt to reduce the infection rate, but it hasn't worked so far, so why are they persuing the same policy that has already failed?

Oh, and [3] There isn't a shortage of stupid people in the world.

If only every had the option to work from home.

I agree with the basic argument you make. Given that a vaccine will be unavailable on a wide scale until mid/late 2021 then we can expect a great number to become infected in spite of lock downs.
As an oldie I don't relish a cull of those of my age but as a general rule we acquiesce to culls of the young during wars. Can it be that a reluctance to allow the virus to burn itself out results from so many policy makers being in sensitive and threatened categories?
I've said it before that when I was young many dangerous illnesses were abroad and as a population we accepted the risk and carried on as usual.
https://www.acsh.org/news/2020/06/23...age-race-14863 contains some interesting statistics that confirm the risk to under 55s being relatively low and below 35 is very low.
It's a difficult decision and I hate to admit it, but Trump has a valid argument when he promotes economic activity for the working class over risks to the elderly.
If we examine the acceleration in infection rates in the UK and Europe, it's clear that infections are not under control and who can argue with the mayor of Manchester when he questions the order from London to lock down when to do so will be only a temporary stop gap measure that'll very likely only pause the path of infections yielding very little permanent success.
Of course the counter argument is that attempting to build a 'firebreak' lowers the infection numbers in the short term allowing health systems to cope following scares earlier in the year, but techniques to cope with the illness have improved and although the threat to the elderly and infirm remains, the lower threat to those who need to work to earn money to feed their families should carry more weight than lawmakers seem to give it.
Perhaps a cull of elderly lawmakers will be a good thing.

BC is bollocks. I had Covid-19 and wasn't allowed to take a test. This was when Henry was getting all the credit for "record low numbers" - yeah, because she refused to test anyone.

How do you know you were positive?

My experience was the opposite was simple and easy for me to get tested, just required a phone call to the local facility, appointment made, tested, and results 24 hours later.

Bingo. It isn't just all that cheek kissing.
https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/video-sh...emic-1.5144769

Really is tough on the teachers. I hope they recover quickly with no lingering symptoms.

In my area in north west France five recent clusters started up at the schools.

We are talking pubs here and no Northern pub would ever dream of serving creme brûlée. Bloody southern shandy drinkers its a bloody pub you know where you drink beer not serve fancy bloody desserts etc.