I wish a solid leader would emerge as the open-early-but-smartly case. We now have a dangerously unbalanced public conversation of a competent but weak public figure arguing for the cautious long-shutdown case (Fauci) and a powerful idiot arguing for the open early case (Trump).
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If public health officials are the only smart people in the room, we're in for deep economic damage. They're bright, but they are by nature conservative in certain ways (as they should be). They are doing the right thing, advocating like lawyers for arresting the worst case
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But the other side needs somebody equally competent and cautious thinking imaginatively about agile opening, hammer-and-dance policies, test-and-trace surveillance possibilities etc. Try rapid open testing in pilot regions, get data quickly on how infection rate responds etc
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Right now, we have an idiot in charge whose idea of rapid opening is to paint wistful pictures of "packed churches" and Hollywood speechifying rhetoric about "this country was built to go to work"... the kind of talk that will lead to grand gesture reopenings that blow up.
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What I'm most concerned about is that an **ill-conceived** hasty re-opening without adequate instrumentation or agility is done just in time to create a false dawn long enough to see Trump through November, and then a bigger surge and crash that takes even longer to open up from
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This is not going to happen in the US probably. Some other comparably liberal democratic country will show the way and offer America a face-saving way to imitate and follow, with some personal branding flourishes :(
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Well, Gavin Newsom is *saying* the right things to be re-opening thought leader, but I have trouble trusting him.
Fun family split. I like Garcetti and am suspicious of Newsom. Wife likes Newsom and is suspicious of Garcetti.
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