— from Tom Eversole —
China implemented strict countermeasures to stop COVID-19 to save people. Americans are reopening businesses to manage COVID-19 to save capital. It is a false choice. Saving both is possible as per New York’s smart reopening plan.
Soon 3,000 Americans may die from COVID-19 daily, yet those deaths are largely invisible to most of us. America’s “check engine light” for isolation measures currently seems to be when hospitals and the sick-care system crash.
Two 787 Max planes fell from the sky recently, and FAA grounded the fleet. If six airliners carrying COVID patients dropped from the sky every day until we reached herd immunity at 2.4 million deaths, people would notice, and perhaps federal agencies would do their jobs.
Who would get out of bed to put out most of a wildfire approaching their house, but go back to bed leaving pockets of the fire ready to resume their advance during the night? Georgia and some other states have done that, and America is waiting 14-28 days to exhale.
The “Liberate” protesters demonstrated more defiance than understanding of the epidemic’s potential or risk. While Michigan allows open carry of guns in public for a legal purpose, what purpose does an assault rifle have but to kill wide swaths of people when carried into a crowd? Protesters had no right to deliberately expose law enforcement officers to their pathogens during a stay-at-home order declared expressly to prevent it.
Hopefully, voters have seen enough to elect responsible state and federal officials this fall.
It’s lives versus livelihoods, not lives versus capital, IMO. You can save both by using sensible compromises, requiring masks, handwashing, social distancing, keeping the frail people home. You will not resurrect the economy to its prior state of jobs and vitality, every unbiased economist will agree. It’s also the futures of the young (2.99 trillion dollars in US debt to be financed to pay for this) versus the lives of largely the elderly. After all, we let people die from smoking, drug addiction, alcoholism, car accidents, to a much greater degree than die from COV-19. Although I regret the massive loss of life, I think we will live to regret how this crisis has been handled economically.
(P.S. SJC, the jury’s still out on how successful we’ve been. Or are you planning to ban tourists for two years or until a vaccine s developed?
Seems by the end of May when it’s time for SJC to extend or reduce restrictions it will be pretty obvious how well this played out in states that are relaxing restrictions now. I can’t imagine how 3000+ deaths and 200,000 new infections DAILY aren’t going to totally overwhelm medical resources already stretched thin.
But hey, it’s been going so well, what’s the likelihood of it turning out worse than expected?!
Tom, thanks for your insightful analysis. Americans are being slowly coaxed into accepting thousands of COVID-19 deaths based on an economic premise. The question – who is expendable – isn’t one human beings should be asked to answer. The pandemic also asks us to reevaluate the current definition of freedom. Is it a human rights value to freely expend oneself in any manner that might bring momentary pleasure, while thrusting pain, suffering and death upon others? I think not. Has common good been sacrificed at the expense of self interest? If one dies needlessly, our collective consciousness of right and wrong dies with them.
All’s fair in a Letter to the Editor, and thank you for your opinion.
Unfortunately, there is a typo in your aircraft model: it should be Boeing 737 MAX. That case happens to be a(nother) colossal fiasco that carries its own political and ethical symbolism.