Tweet
The NYT this morning has muted coverage of the pandemic. My take is that the pushback against the CDC's positions on holiday travel and gatherings as well as the pushback on a more local level for attempts by officials there to impose restrictions is having an impact. I see headlines stating that airports and airlines are statistically not drivers of the increased numbers of new COVID cases but Fauci warns that "large numbers of people in airports are going to cause us problems." It's disconnects like this that are behind pushback ..... and this is just one of many similar examples I could list.
TBF, the math supports an appropriate level of concern and, as DSL opines, you'd think this would precipitate some level of compliance with increased restrictions for the grater good. But, no, quite the opposite is occurring it appears. IMO, some of this is due to the contradictions that people well informed on the pandemic see involving the futility of half-assed, high social and economic cost mitigation measures that are in some cases, both costly and are significant inconveniences without significant PH benefit.
Beyond this are business owners who are generally incompliance with sensible mitigation measures they incorporated early on and continue in the current circumstance. These are working in a macro sense as generally, gyms, retail, sporting events and most restaurants/bars cannot be pointed too as sources of new infections. There are exceptions but the tendency is to find one crazy ass bar scene, take photos of unmasked and un-distanced party goers then generalize this behavior to all bars and all restaurants ..... thus, prompting calls to shut em' down. Officials under media pressure and for fear of appearing not to be doing something, oblige. It's stupid and responsible business owners know this and resist more restrictions ....... very appropriately, IMO.
Americans see this shit and rightly go fuck it. Some with inappropriate abandon and that kind of behavior punishes people like us who are generally doing our own risk assessments and acting appropriately and according to self-ascertained level of risk using the many tools out there to do that. So, I'm sanguine with where we are and what we'll experience over the next 90d. It's sad that people will die because of the fuck-it crowd, as small as I think it actually is but potentially devastating it can be. But, officials should come to grips with the reality of American culture and behavior. Stop with the dire consequences line that breeds fear that will be long lasting preventing a strong economic recovery. Worse this kind of fear mongering has great potential of precipitating unnecessary negative social outcomes.
TBF, the math supports an appropriate level of concern and, as DSL opines, you'd think this would precipitate some level of compliance with increased restrictions for the grater good. But, no, quite the opposite is occurring it appears. IMO, some of this is due to the contradictions that people well informed on the pandemic see involving the futility of half-assed, high social and economic cost mitigation measures that are in some cases, both costly and are significant inconveniences without significant PH benefit.
Beyond this are business owners who are generally incompliance with sensible mitigation measures they incorporated early on and continue in the current circumstance. These are working in a macro sense as generally, gyms, retail, sporting events and most restaurants/bars cannot be pointed too as sources of new infections. There are exceptions but the tendency is to find one crazy ass bar scene, take photos of unmasked and un-distanced party goers then generalize this behavior to all bars and all restaurants ..... thus, prompting calls to shut em' down. Officials under media pressure and for fear of appearing not to be doing something, oblige. It's stupid and responsible business owners know this and resist more restrictions ....... very appropriately, IMO.
Americans see this shit and rightly go fuck it. Some with inappropriate abandon and that kind of behavior punishes people like us who are generally doing our own risk assessments and acting appropriately and according to self-ascertained level of risk using the many tools out there to do that. So, I'm sanguine with where we are and what we'll experience over the next 90d. It's sad that people will die because of the fuck-it crowd, as small as I think it actually is but potentially devastating it can be. But, officials should come to grips with the reality of American culture and behavior. Stop with the dire consequences line that breeds fear that will be long lasting preventing a strong economic recovery. Worse this kind of fear mongering has great potential of precipitating unnecessary negative social outcomes.
Comment