Sam wrote:JR,
You can prepare and react without shutting down the economy. It wasn't an either/or situation. The projections could not have been more off base. 2 Million deaths? Really? It's twice as dangerous as the seasonal flu....People have lost everything because we wanted to protect so few from.....a nasty flu. My regret is that Trump bought into it and overreacted.
Hard to believe you have Libertarian tendencies when you are fully behind this overbearing Govt intervention in peoples' livelihoods and personal liberties.
This is political. Consider that the first estimated death tolls were over 2M and they have been cut by a factor of 20....they have been 20 times lower than expected. Trump is still being ravaged every day for his response. It didn't matter what he did. The MSM would be complaining if we had a single casualty. In the end, they want only one casualty....Trump's presidency.
Doing nothing IS doing something. Investors on Wall Street do it every day, choosing not to buy nor to sell. Its a strategy for long term gain.
Sam the Cherrypicker- the 2.2mm number comes from an Imperial College calculation which assumed the "Sam Way" if everyone did nothing different- No lockdowns, no social distancing, people didn't wash etc. The whole pandemic is not some Socialist conspiracy. Will Democrats point at decisions and overplay stuff Trump said, did, did not do- yup. Will Republicans play up the actions he took, the missteps of Dem governors etc- sure will- but the actual Pandemic is real and actions taken by all levels of Government saved a sh**load of lives- you are just too dumb and self-absorbed to realize-- Even with all of the actions taken there are still 100,000 dead- that's not a few That would fill the Rose Bowl
I just got an e-mail from my wife's cousin in Italy. They just are getting out of their lockdown(where you needed passes to drive around) and the estimates there are 50,000 dead when all is said and done(they were dying to fast to test)
My Libertarian tendencies are in general to let people live their lives-with the key being as long as it does hurt/or infringe on someone else. I also deal with the public and realize what the intelligence of the average person(and realize by definition half are dumber than that) This was a public health emergency that required drastic actions- where all the decisions right-of course not, but the overall premise of shutting things down was the right thing to do. Just as cautiously reopening is the way to go.