A failure in public messaging right now is failing to explain to people that, in the best case, our extreme measures right now will put us in the same situation we were in in January, except with more knowledge about the disease, how to treat it, and hopefully more tests in hand
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In particular, people need to understand that their vulnerable loved ones will likely stay in danger for many months. The public expectation (set by political leaders and not corrected by the press) that we will beat this and go back to normal is very upsetting. Too much lying
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The reason I am pushing so hard for extravagant use of our location surveillance infrastructure as an epidemiological tool is not because I have discovered my inner authoritarian, but because we need an answer for millions of elderly people about how we'll keep them alive
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That goes even more for anyone who is in a high-risk category but still in the workforce. We just can't tell people to go into hiding for years, or to risk their lives because the rest of us get antsy. We need some other solution while waiting for an effective therapy or vaccine
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Also there are going to be some places where eradication is a viable strategy even now, and they will become very salty about accepting visitors of any kind. Hawaii might notice that it's one of the most remote places on earth, tourism be damned
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Above all, we need honesty about these difficult topics from political leaders. The kind of effective, radical measures we're enduring are impossible without broad public support. The limiting resource here is trust, which has already been squandered, and risks running out
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There's going to be tension between people who are not personally scared (callow youth, those who had the disease and recovered, covid truthers) and those in high risk groups who feel like they're sitting on Death Row. We need to find a way to stay united after a false victory
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