Fighting the Wrong Fight on the Coronavirus Shutdown

This is a little off the immigration topic:

I am watching with dismay as our society divides on yet another fault line, this time between the “open up the economy” crowd, and those that remain concerned that a resumption of full economic activity will result in a new spike of Covid19 illnesses and death. This is a choice that should not have been necessary,, if government had been working efficiently.

There in no basis to think that the economic shutdown and social distancing didn’t have at least SOME effect on keeping COVID19 related deaths in the US to 80,000 over the last 9 weeks. Likewise, even if the US just peaked today, there is no basis to believe that the back end of the curve won’t look like something like the front of it - thousands more deaths over however long it takes for the disease to wind down. Nobody wants to be among the thousands of “residual deaths” that are coming no matter what we do. Furthermore, I am not sure that “opening back up” will have even the economic benefit that people are hoping for. Yes, some people would resume their lives cavalierly. But many people will remain fearful, and they would self-practice a shut down. They might get a haircut - less often - but they probably won’t rush off to buy a car.

The answer was and remains testing, vaccine development, and understanding RNA in order to fight the virus. I’ve been yammering since February about a “Manhattan Project” for the virus, and I saw on the news last night that a group of scientists and business people have now stolen my “Manhattan Project” banner. Good for them! 

If we don’t have testing and vaccines, the confidence level needed for economic revival will never develop. So all the fulminating and all the second guessing about the wisdom of the shut down is for naught. Had there been no shut down, at least 80,000 people would still have died, and we’d be sitting around reading FB posts about how we should have stayed home to save them. We will never know what could have happened. And until we have a better answer, many people will still stay home. Those who think the level of fear is insignificant are deluding themselves. Nobody wants to be in the next 80,000.

When people are in crisis and under stress, they lash out. In the social media debates and public discourse, people are expressing their frustration and vulnerability by attacking each other. Bringing an AR to a street protest is an admission of vulnerability. Attacking a friend on FB is an example of a loss of control due to stress. It’s a weakness and a display of fear. Justified? Maybe. Productive? Courageous? No. 

While I think the governors should recognize what we’ve learned so far and start re-opening the economy piece by piece, we should direct our indignation at the only entity that has the power, resources, and authority to restore confidence in the economy by finding and coordinating a solution to the Coronavirus- the Federal government. Or we can fight with each other, which is what the scavengers of democracy want us to do. 

This is not an either/or proposition. One may think the State governors messed up by shutting down economies, but even if they donned hair shirts and self-flagellated on Main Streets all over the land, thousands more Americans are going to die without testing and a vaccine. So don’t let your fear and vulnerability distract you. The important question is: what if anything, has the Federal Government done to solve the Coronavirus problem? Sure enough, the virus doesn’t just evaporate in the face of economic stimulus.