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So this story is a good occasion to point out something I've been noticing about the narrative behind this quarantine, a narrative that I worry has been created for political expediency. https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/Experts-worry-quarantine-fatigue-is-starting-15226487.php
The way it has been framed, by officials and journalists alike, is this: The American people should be expected to be thoroughly content with an indefinite economic shutdown and stay-at-home. It's up to ordinary citizens to be OK with all of this while vaccines are developed.
My question is, why? Why is THIS the narrative? Why isn't the messaging more about the finite amount of time that governors and medical professionals have before mental health issues and simple risk assessment push people outside?
The assumption seems to be that effective therapeutic drugs, vaccines, and good policy are going to arrive when they arrive. There's no messing with them. In the meantime, regular citizens are given celebrity PSAs to remind them to be OK with not living life.
This is backward.
This is backward.
It's not regular citizens that need to be assumed to be flexible and willing to endure indefinitely. It's the ruling class. It's the expert class. It's the storerunners of bureaucracy. The burden of response is on them because the power is on them.
Bemoaning "quarantine fatigue" and wagging the finger at beachgoers reveals a profound disconnect between the people at the controls of society, and the society itself. The question isn't why are the plebes not staying home. It's why are there not better medications yet.
