Posted on 03/27/2020 6:47:39 AM PDT by Kaslin
The arrogant attitude that we or they own the answer and that anyone suggesting alternative responses to the coronavirus must be acting from stupidity, malice, or greed must stop.
Two weeks into the coronavirus pandemic, much remains unknown. There are two certainties, though: Americans need more humility and we need more awe.
Americans need humility to recognize the limits in our predictive capabilities; the uncertainty of scientific models; and that the countervailing interests of safeguarding lives and livelihoods render it impossible for any political leader to achieve a perfect outcome.
The reflexive rejection of contrary views as either an ignorant exaggeration (or downplaying) of the danger of the coronavirus must soften. And the arrogant attitude that we or they own the answer and that anyone suggesting alternative responses to the coronavirus must be acting from stupidity, malice, or greed must stop.
We need the humility to recognize that we just don’t know—a lot. What we know now, we didn’t know three months ago. COVID-19 is a new disease. Initially, experts believed most people infected with the coronavirus had contracted the disease by exposure to animals. In mid-January, there was only “some indication” that “a limited person-to-person spreading of the disease” was happening.
By January 21, 2020, the first known cases in the United States involved travelers from Wuhan, China. At that time, experts at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) still believed “the current risk from this virus to the general public is low” and “for a family sitting around the dinner table tonight this is not something that they generally need to worry about.”
Yet at the time the CDC stressed that it was preparing “as if the coronavirus was the next pandemic.” The CDC initiated airport screening and by January 21, 2020, CDC scientists had also developed a diagnostic test for use at CDC headquarters, while they continued to prepare a diagnostic test that could be used by state public health agencies through the flu-tracking system.
By the end of January, within two weeks of receiving the genetic sequencing of the coronavirus from China, the CDC had created the test for the public health system and obtained the necessary Food and Drug Administration approval. By then, President Trump had also banned travel from China, even though at the time the scientific models recommended against that step.
By February 3, 2020, the worldwide threat of the coronavirus became clear. President Trump instituted more travel bans—Italy and then select European countries, and later the United Kingdom, Mexico, and Canada. Those measures saved lives and slowed the spread within our borders, even though the prudence of those decisions only became known retrospectively.
Conversely, retrospect revealed that the flu-tracking system was ineffective for screening for the coronavirus. Experts had wrongly concluded that the virus remained outside our borders and believed that quarantines—which had not been used for some 50 years—and “very aggressive” tracking of close contacts would isolate and limit the spread in the United States.
But the virus had already been present in the United States for too long, leading to a quick spread of the disease and worries that the pandemic would kills millions in our country. The government responded by closing down businesses, schools, government services, and churches—in effect, closing down America.
The blame-throwing began. The government did too little, too late, and people will suffer and die as a result. No, the government did too much—it overreacted, it destroyed American businesses and livelihoods over a disease that is less severe than the flu.
Just as the experts did not know the reach of the coronavirus in January, they did not know the risk of the respiratory disease in March. How deadly is it? How easily is it spread? How is it spread? How many lives are at risk? Who is at risk?
Americans accustomed to instant gratification have lost their sense of awe. Science is not infallible. And testing, treatments, and cures are not immediate.
The world is facing a new disease that was never before known to exist in human beings. Yet, in the span of three months, our country went from a gene sequence, to limited diagnostic testing through the CDC system, to high through-put testing and the creation of an entirely new testing system, to instant tests and self-swabbing kits. Simple pin-prick blood tests that will detect coronavirus antibodies will be ready soon.
Our country has also unleashed the power of capitalism to identify several promising therapeutic options, and human studies are already underway. A vaccine has also already been developed with human studies already initiated—months earlier than expected and faster than any prior vaccine trial. Hospital patients are also already receiving plasma from survivors of the coronavirus, with doctors hopeful that the antibodies from those who have recovered from the disease will successfully treat those in critical condition.
Over the last month, health experts have also been able to accumulate untold amounts of data. That data will provide more certainty about the disease and analyses will allow for our leaders to make more educated decisions concerning the reopening of America.
It may well be that that data will suggest early decisions were an overreaction and that businesses and livelihoods were unnecessarily destroyed. But models constructed from newly acquired data might be wrong, just as the models recommending travel from China continue unabated proved wrong.
As we wait for more details on the coronavirus, we would be well served to abandon our hubris and accept that our country has never faced a similar crisis and that we will never know for sure whether, without the aggressive response taken by our federal and state governments, every locale would now be facing the same dire situation New York City finds itself confronting.
Likewise, those Americans who believe our country averted the worst disaster our republic ever faced need some humility: We need to recognize that reasonable people can also justifiably believe the government’s blunt response unnecessarily crippled our economy, destroying lives and livelihoods in the process.
We need more compassion for those people—real, living human beings with families, homes, hopes, and dreams. Moms and dads who labored for years, decades, generations to build something by sweat and toil, only for it to be destroyed within a month. Small businesses with no choice but to lay off employees, hoping to stave off a permanent shuttering of operations. As those lights extinguished, employees were left without jobs and paychecks, and with an unknown future.
That suffering is real, too. Any ignorant politicians who pretend the reopening of America is about Wall Street should be ashamed of their partisan grandstanding. They should be forced to repeat that nonsense while looking into the red, weep-weary eyes of the average Americans who built this great country.
Lol the ironic nature of this article is funny. Arrogantly demanding everyone act with humility by supinely surrendering all critical thinking to Govt Authority out of blind exaggerated fear.
TLDNR: “Stop thinking sheep! Do as your are told by your betters!”
Oh puhleeeeze
Let’s call this for what it is.... people with an agenda played this for all it was worth. They postulated ridiculous theories that the press ran with. They decided to tank the economy and make Trump look bad
Trump on the other hand knows how to solve problems. At the end of the day Trump will have more ammo for his policies
Where are the bodies which should be piling up?
Each day the lack of mass death is harder to deny.
This kills people, but certainly not as many people as a strong summer heatwave.
Exactly and now having been exposed as panic stricken chicken littles, the panic peddlers are now trotting out the defense “Well maybe we were wrong but that doesn’t mean your are right”
How about the humility of them finally admitting they recklessly exaggerated the problem just like the critics have been pointing out all along.
We have had viruses as bad as this thing loose in this country and they did not panic.
So what makes this one so special?
It is a human manipulated virus, done in China, at a BIO WEAPONS LAB!
“Arrogantly demanding everyone act with humility by supinely surrendering all critical thinking to Govt Authority out of blind exaggerated fear.”
You should hear NPR, ‘put your faith in the doctors and scientists’.
To the author of this:
NO. New tactic ha ha wow. Don’t pretend to be humble just to save your face with friends who think Trump is the devil and thereby strengthen your relationships with the new dictators in the new world order. When anyone starts suggesting my moral responses I suggest you look in the damn mirror. We don’t need the “can’t we just all get along” crap. What that means is yellow dog nonsense. We need to get off of our knees and TELL THE TRUTH about what’s really going on here.
God I am so cynical today. Please forgive me Lord I can’t see anything good today so far. Sorry folks. It’s hard to know who to trust these days.
Re: Lol the ironic nature of this article is funny. Arrogantly demanding everyone act with humility by supinely surrendering all critical thinking to Govt Authority out of blind exaggerated fear.
TLDNR: “Stop thinking sheep! Do as your are told by your betters!”
***
Applause
The unemployment claim data posted this week tells a pathetic story.
1. The total number of national new unemployment claims is 3.28 million.
2. Nearly 400,000 of them come from Pennsylvania alone -- more than twice as many as any other state.
3. Pennsylvania, up until this week’s unemployment claims report, wasn't even among the top ten states in the U.S. in terms of reported COVID-19 cases or fatalities.
4. The same goes for Ohio, which is #2 on the list with almost 200,000 claims. Ohio (population 11.7 million) has about the same number of unemployment claims as California (population 40 million).
5. In terms of the economic impact of this fiasco, this was really a disgraceful blunder on the part of the stupid governors of these two states -- who brought financial ruin upon their constituents for no damn good reason at all. Pennsylvania, for example, has 400,000 people who are now out of work ... and only 15 reported COVID-19 fatalities.
This is a national disgrace, in my humble opinion.
Re:We have had viruses as bad as this thing loose in this country and they did not panic.
So what makes this one so special?
It is a human manipulated virus, done in China, at a BIO WEAPONS LAB!
***
I also has one unique characteristics not generally seen in the flu, such a prolonged asymptomatic period in which one is contagious and a large number of those who get suffer no or moderate symptoms.
DO WE WANT PROFESSIONALS WITH SO MUCH INFLUENCE IN PUBLIC POLICY?
This fiasco shows the danger of -- believe it or not -- relying TOO MUCH on the advice of professionals who know more about a subject matter than anyone else in a situation where hysteria and unpredictable human behavior play such a huge role. The danger isn't in relying on the professionals; it's in relying on them when the expectations are completely unreasonable.
I work professionally as a civil engineer, and I specialize in the planning and design of transportation infrastructure. If you tell me there are 100 fatalities in motor vehicle crashes in this country every day and you ask me how to eliminate them (or at least reduce them by 95%), I'm going to give you a simple answer that will solve the problem entirely: OUTLAW MOTOR VEHICLES.
Now if you give me the same scenario and tell me that you want to reduce the current fatality rate by 5% every year for the next ten years, I'm going to give you a much more reasonable and practical set of recommendations that aren't preposterous on their face.
This is what is happening with all these medical professionals who are advising our political leaders. Are you noticing a pattern in the answers they give in these press briefings? Almost every answer is basically a variation of one of the following:
1. "We don't know for certain."
2. "Without any certainty we recommend extreme caution."
That's exactly what is happening here. They are medical professionals. They will never even declare an "end" to this viral outbreak until a vaccine is developed that is 100% effective.
“”””””””””We have had viruses as bad as this thing loose in this country and they did not panic.
So what makes this one so special?
It is a human manipulated virus, done in China, at a BIO WEAPONS LAB!”””””””””””””””””””””””””””
If you knew that doctors don’t have cures for many of these infectious diseases it would help.
No, we've become cynical and suspicious of those in power who manipulate findings, studies, dollars, etc., for their own agenda instead of the people. Granted, this may have come on fast and it's always the things you don't know you don't know that can bite you, but we shut down an entire booming economy ostensibly just because the elites/powers saw this as an opportunity...whether it was a manufactured virus, dry run for something later, or just taking advantage of the situation (never let a crisis go to waste).
While your use of all caps was great. You forgot the sarcasm tag. Here is an example of how it is used.
The Chinese designed a “bio weapon” that causes half of those infected to have no symptoms at all, another 30% to have symptoms so mild that they believe they just have a cold, and the people who get really sick and even die are the same groups that might die from a typical flu. Those Chinese bio weapon designers must be geniuses. /s
See that is the sarcasm tag. You use it when you write something stupid on purpose to make a point.
I = It
Maybe all this was allowed to end the trade war and possibly to disrupt Brexit. How many calls would have to be made to guarantee it?
Maybe all this was allowed to end the trade war and possibly to disrupt Brexit. How many calls would have to be made to guarantee it?
It might be helpful to chart the democrat/deepstate/medias plots against Trump in the past three years. The ramped it up with this one. They’re running out of time, and they’re getting desperate. And increasingly dangerous. Once they start referring to the general public as “the herd”, it becomes easier for them to manipulate the herd.
It ain't braggin ifn' it's true.
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