Group Calls For Lockier Lockdown In VA
Please take more of our terrible, terrible freedom.
As evidence mounts that our errors were mainly in the direction of over-reaction, and that the best thing we can do now is to get the economy fired up again, this recommendation certainly sounds kind of ridiculous. And that's kind of an understatement.
It seems to me that we still aren't all that sure what we're dealing with--this bug may have some nasty surprises left. But, given the available information as I understand it, I find this proposal more than a little bit frustrating/angrifying. It doesn't help that everything's tainted with politics, too, with the blue team arguing for more "distancing" and longer lockdowns, and the red team chomping at the bit to minimize the latter at least and get back to work. So it's hard not to wonder whether this proposal is, in part, a shot in that battle, a way of affirming the position of the blues and giving Northam a way to represent his 6/10 estimate as a compromise. But those sorts of arguments loom larger when you don't understand the technical details--so that's probably what's up with that.
It really is puzzling, though, that anyone would make such a recommendation when it's clear that the country isn't going to opt for a two-week, total-lockdown, completely-squish-the-SoB strategy. I don't see how it can do any good for VA to do it when other states don't. That strategy just seems to me to be off the table.
And, again, any medical argument of this kind that doesn't take the economic costs into account can't be taken very seriously.
Here's the open letter. Most of the signatories seem to have no special, relevant expertise. Among them are a "self-employed illustrator," a "poet/musician/artist," a Target employee, and an "unemployed stagehand." That doesn't change the fact that many do seem to have relevant qualifications--though they don't state their areas of specialization. Your average M.D. probably doesn't know anything more about all this than a well-informed layperson. Weirdly, something like 2/3 of the signatories seem to be female. I'd be really, really interested to know their party affiliations--and I don't mean that as thinly-disguised snark...I really would. I'd be willing to bet at least a little money that around 70% are on the blue team.
Needless to say, we could all look back on this in a month or a year and regret not having taken their advice...but as things stand now, I wouldn't.
As evidence mounts that our errors were mainly in the direction of over-reaction, and that the best thing we can do now is to get the economy fired up again, this recommendation certainly sounds kind of ridiculous. And that's kind of an understatement.
It seems to me that we still aren't all that sure what we're dealing with--this bug may have some nasty surprises left. But, given the available information as I understand it, I find this proposal more than a little bit frustrating/angrifying. It doesn't help that everything's tainted with politics, too, with the blue team arguing for more "distancing" and longer lockdowns, and the red team chomping at the bit to minimize the latter at least and get back to work. So it's hard not to wonder whether this proposal is, in part, a shot in that battle, a way of affirming the position of the blues and giving Northam a way to represent his 6/10 estimate as a compromise. But those sorts of arguments loom larger when you don't understand the technical details--so that's probably what's up with that.
It really is puzzling, though, that anyone would make such a recommendation when it's clear that the country isn't going to opt for a two-week, total-lockdown, completely-squish-the-SoB strategy. I don't see how it can do any good for VA to do it when other states don't. That strategy just seems to me to be off the table.
And, again, any medical argument of this kind that doesn't take the economic costs into account can't be taken very seriously.
Here's the open letter. Most of the signatories seem to have no special, relevant expertise. Among them are a "self-employed illustrator," a "poet/musician/artist," a Target employee, and an "unemployed stagehand." That doesn't change the fact that many do seem to have relevant qualifications--though they don't state their areas of specialization. Your average M.D. probably doesn't know anything more about all this than a well-informed layperson. Weirdly, something like 2/3 of the signatories seem to be female. I'd be really, really interested to know their party affiliations--and I don't mean that as thinly-disguised snark...I really would. I'd be willing to bet at least a little money that around 70% are on the blue team.
Needless to say, we could all look back on this in a month or a year and regret not having taken their advice...but as things stand now, I wouldn't.
posted by Winston Smith at
9:37 AM
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