This is going to sound like mockery but I don't mean it that way: we need to try to be more understanding & forgiving of folk who are saying bonkers things at present. It's been a long time in this appalling situation, all of us are desperate for it to end & we're all at the end

of our tether. For some the tether's fraying & the usual self-censoring or politeness is breaking down. Such folk can start to flail, indulging crazy conspiracy theories they'd usually laugh off or know not to express in polite society. It's not really them. It's lockdown talking

For others the fast-changing situation has at some point left something they said that seemed reasonable at the time now (at least in their own heads) overtaken by events & they are desperate to be remembered for something other than that. The most obvious example of this is

some of those SAGE types that went on TV early on advocating herd immunity & now declare we need to maintain lockdown til the end of days. All they care about now is how they're remembered. They'd rather be remembered as the loons who said we shld stay locked up forever

than as the loons who said we shld let 250,000 people die when working vaccines had already been developed & were just awaiting testing & regulatory approval.

Lockdown & social distancing has been very hard on everyone. After this is all over, we should wear very lightly any crazy things desperate, battered, rapidly-weakening folk have been saying towards the end.