MESSAGE
| DATE | 2020-05-04 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] Morphing the Flattening
|
viral Medium piece published in mid-March famously called the period of
lockdowns to squelch the disease, the Hammer, and the subsequent period
of living with it after the worst had been averted, the Dance. The
article didn’t deny the seriousness of the disease; if anything, it was
alarmist. Yet by the standards of the current debate, the piece is
unacceptably lax.
“The time needed for the Hammer,” it said, “is weeks, not months.” After
that, it predicted, “our lives will go back close to normal.” And it
contemplated living in a fuzzy realm of trade-offs between important
goals — or, as the author put it, “a dance of measures between getting
our lives back on track and spreading the disease, one of the economy
vs. health care.”
Such an acknowledgment of the need to strike a balance between the
economy and public health is now considered tantamount to murder.
It has become a trope that pro-opening Republicans want to get people
killed. A column in The New York Times was headlined: “How Republicans
Became the Party of Death.” A Guardian piece opined: “ ‘Trump is Killing
His Own Supporters’ — Even White House Insiders Know It.”
But the curve has been flattened. As former Food and Drug Administration
Commissioner Scott Gottlieb notes, the time of doubling of cases
nationally has increased to 25 days.
An analysis by Sean Trende of RealClearPolitics shows most states below
their peak cases. There are some states — for instance Minnesota,
Virginia, Delaware, Iowa and Indiana — that are still around their
peaks. But others like Alaska, Montana, Idaho, Hawaii, Louisiana,
Michigan and Oklahoma passed their peaks weeks ago.
see also
California will allow some businesses to reopen with curbside pickup
Not too long ago, the Republican who supposedly most wanted to get
people killed was Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida. In announcing his
re-opening plan, he recalled all the dire projections of what would
befall Florida because he was supposedly late in issuing a stay-at-home
order, effective April 3.
Yet Florida is coming out of this phase of the epidemic vastly better
off than Louisiana, Massachusetts and New York. About 40 percent of its
hospitals beds have been available at any given time.
In retrospect, there was wisdom in DeSantis letting municipalities and
counties take the initiative in a big, diverse state.
Besides which, people are capable of making their own decisions. They
decided to stay at home before the state formally told them to.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, the movements of people began
declining in mid-March, well before the statewide stay-at-home order.
The reverse is also true. If they are still afraid of the virus, people
aren’t going to return to normal, whether their states are formally open
or not.
In a better world, the lockdowns wouldn’t have merely avoided the worst
but crushed the spread of the disease. That hasn’t happened. We will be
engaged in a Dance for some time, even if one faction in our national
life only ever wants to wield a Hammer.
https://nypost.com/2020/05/04/pro-lockdown-extremists-in-denial-about-why-we-did-it-in-the-first-place/
--
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town
that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological
proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
http://www.mrbrklyn.com
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
http://www.brooklyn-living.com
Being so tracked is for FARM ANIMALS and extermination camps,
but incompatible with living as a free human being. -RI Safir 2013
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