Still stand by this. We need to start putting anybody who can't WFH in appropriate PPE and back to work. Even retail and restaurants can operate at a limited level if they have masks and regular temp checks. The alternative is an economic implosion that might be worse than 1929. https://twitter.com/mattparlmer/status/1241929988603105281
If you haven't looked closely at the shelves at your grocery store because you're having an app task a worker to risk getting sick while shopping for you, you're probably not seeing the shortages that are taking hold. If the lockdowns are allowed to continue it'll only get worse.
Ending these ridiculous lockdowns doesn't mean we should stop social distancing. It just means that we need to start living in the real world where people take calculated risks to keep the economy going so that we don't trigger a Venezuela-scale systematic collapse.
Much of this policy is being driven by panicked bureaucrats who are desperately trying to make illegible things legible for reasons that have more to do with their own psychological state than any evidence one way or another. Very little critical thinking going on at the top.
The media is doing its usual thing making this into an all or nothing, lockdowns or anarchy, binary issue. It's not. Literally all retail can operate with curbside pickup. Factories and warehouses are way safer than any grocery store even without PPE and regular temp checks.
I'm not arguing that the models are wrong, or that covid has been circulating since last July, or even that the CFR is overstated. I am arguing that we approach the problem rationally and with evidence, and that we think realistically about the risks of economic collapse.
We're not solving this with lockdowns, fancy cell phone tracking, and cheering for medics on the balcony every night while we wait for the state to conjure a vaccine. Temp checks, masks, *targeted* closures, and WFH will give hospitals and testing labs enough room to breathe.
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