The problem here is straightforward. You can’t re-open services while the pandemic is still raging. Since the pandemic is still raging, “reopening“ just means getting more people sick. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/03/two-cruise-ships-hit-by-coronavirus-weeks-after-industry-restarts

A lot of politicians have decided that it’s clever to pretend that the pandemic is over, but it turns out that the virus isn’t fooled by such tricks. You can reopen services, but that involves actually getting rid of the pandemic first.

Note that there are straightforward and economically feasible ways to completely get rid of the pandemic without enforcing terribly much social distancing, but they involve things like universal weekly saliva testing that for some reason no one takes seriously.

And so we’ve arrived at the point where people keep speaking about re-opening as though it is something you can do when there are still hundreds or thousands of cases every week in your local community. Which is insane. But it seems to be what everyone has settled on.

This has driven home for me that most people just can’t think, even when their livelihoods and lives depend on being able to think. Most people accept the word of authorities even when they’re clearly lying, and look to social proof for behavioral cues.