Muh Muh Muh My Corona (virus)

That's actually good stuff, with some trepidations. I'll just mention a couple.

1. "State of emergency? The virus is not even here yet! He's just setting the table for canceling the election! Don't let him get away with it!"

10. It's hard to win a negative. Just as it's hard to defuse a terrorist threat and claim victory when nothing happens, it's hard to "beat" a virus and claim victory. Detractors will just say it was never that big of a threat and we overreacted.

Think back to the summer of 2001. What's the reaction if we institute all kinds of inconvenient and privacy-threatening security measures because we're hearing some chatter about terrorist activities in Afghanistan? "Government overreach!" would have been the obvious reaction . . . even though such a reaction would have been a "victory." But because the terrible thing never would have happened, few people would have appreciated the victory.

That's just human nature.

 

So what? The death totals were high enough in other countries to show this was a real threat even if we had kept them under control here. The point is that all of those things could have been done and it is inarguable among the sane that we would be in far better shape in terms of the spread and treatment of the pandemic than we are now. Fewer people would have gotten sick. Fewer would have died. Fewer would have suffered for weeks or months of symptoms. Fewer would be dealing with damage to their lungs, hearts and other parts of the body that may be permanent.

 

50 Indians

0 Chief

 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

State of Emergency declarations release funding to deal with a problem. It can be declared after something bad happens or in anticipation of a disaster. States of Emergency are declared for hurricanes before hurricanes hit. You know it's coming and there will be problems so let's get stuff in place. It's normal. We knew this was coming. Because Europe got hit first. We declare a state of emergency late February when we get our first cases. That isn't hard.

We're not fighting terrorism we're fighting a pandemic where we need people to be on the same page. How do we do it? Make it seem like it's the most American thing you can do to stay home for a few weeks. Wear a mask. Or do what we need to do to win. Difference with terrorism is we aren't fighting an idea with rah rah we're better than you (which doesn't work). We're asking people to sacrafice to make themselves better. Rah rah we're tougher than a virus. We can stay home for a time. We can avoid crowds for a time. We can wear masks for a time. We're American and F you if you think we can't.

 

I'm not saying your ideas aren't good. Just the opposite.

I'm just saying how they would be interpreted by a bunch of humans trying to pay next month's mortgage. "Shut down my business?!?!? Because of some nursing home outbreak in Washington? WTF!?!?"

 

it's the perfect inertia of the hypothetical!

no one ever does anything, except when they do!

 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

tl;dr virtue signaling so much hate

 

You guys are forgetting we were officially in a recession before the pandemic.

 

With the feds in charge, I think the supply lines for ventilators, PPE for frontline workers and other materials would have been smoother instead of the states bidding against each other. DPA would have been activated. Instead, we got Trump singing the praises of the MyPillow guy.