Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/06/20/as-covid-19-surges-apple-re-c.html
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While rolling surge-related re-closings and re-openings of economies were always expected to continue in general until a vaccine becomes available, in the U.S. this is happening at greater frequency while we’re still technically in the first wave.*
The result is likely to be a deepening of already existing inequality (in terms of loss of life and economic health) between GOP-dominated states and the more enlightened Dem-dominated states. And before we crow about “just desserts”, there are a lot of people in those backwards states who are going to suffer through no fault of their own.
[* added to that, we can expect more surges throughout the country in the coming weeks after macho mask-eschewing attendees of BigotFest 2020 return home from Tulsa]
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At this point, even the busiest and/or most Fox-addled person has had more than enough time to process the ‘rona sitch. We should all have realised that for the forseeable future it’s going to be like weather: sometimes it will be fine, sometimes you will need an umbrella, and sometimes you’ll need to hide in the basement.
And yeah, it helps a lot if the weather channel and your local weather report mostly agree on the forecast and don’t just lie about it for ratings. But you also don’t need a forecaster to tell you not to climb trees in a storm. The really stupid thing about Turmpfan covid truthers is that their rugged individualism consists of refusing to take personal responsibility.
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It’s really more correct to say “expands” or “accelerates” since it never went dormant. We basically stopped it from growing for 6 weeks but never materially suppressed it on a national level.
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It’s crazy watching this unfold. I can understand not wanting to go under a full lock down, but why not just take the simple, basically free first line of protection? Wear a fucking a mask when you are around people, and try not to be around people from outside the house hold while inside. That’s free. We should all be trying to do that no matter where we are. If that keeps the virus spread low, we don’t need to start making grim trade offs between people lives on the economy. It looks like vaccines might actually be kind of close. We could all just be a little uncomfortable for a few months and not kill a bunch of people by having them suffocate slowly to death. Even if it “just” old people and people who happen be compromised in their health in some way who die, it would be nice to not kill a them. They are people too. You will be one of them one day unless you die a sudden, violent, and early death.
Then you watch that fucking Oklahoma Trump rally, and they couldn’t even do the simple stuff. Basically no one had a mask. They didn’t hold it out doors. The audience was largely older, overweight, and unhealthy looking. They didn’t try and space people out. In other states we are opening up bars and casinos and packing people in. All of the places taking the more hands off approach and taking it less seriously are shooting up in their numbers.
We are going to kill a bunch of people, and even if they are already have a health problem, they are still people and it sure would be nice to not kill them. A bunch of my relatives are those people. I’d like to not have my next family reunion literally decimated, to say nothing of other people’s friends and families.
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Because Trump made it a political issue. And so tens or hundreds of thousands of people are going to die that wouldn’t have if he had just given reasonable advice from his own task force and set a good example. And the economy is still going to be fucked which since we have the stupidest system where your healthcare is the responsibility of your employer means more people are going to suffer and even die.
Seriously, if in mid March Trump had acted like a responsible adult and explained to people what was going on (and what democratic governor’s were also trying to say although very inarticulately in most cases) the by mid may instead of 20,000 new cases a day we might have been down to only a few thousand daily cases nationwide. In that case we could now have more places open more safely with far fewer people dying. But Trump doesn’t know how to do anything but fight so he turned this into a fight and we all lose.
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As I said in a different thread, I’m pretty sure anti-mask folks think you are endangering them by wearing a mask, because what’s keeping them safe is their choice to live in a reality where covid doesn’t exist.
They wouldn’t say it in those words, because that would break the spell, but it’s an effective strategy as long as you know which mental doors to never open. And, of course, as long as you don’t happen to get hit by the reality bus.
Almost all of us have used the same tactic to deal with something in our lives. Without it, we wouldn’t have firefighters, or clean high-rise windows, or car travel. So we shouldn’t necessarily judge anyone for processing individual risk this way. But with covid, the point is that it’s not individual risk; if you are infected, most of the risk is to other people.
And while Turmp makes everything worse, the rest of us have largely sucked at framing this conversation usefully. Most reasonable folks get that it’s a collective problem, and wearing masks etc. is for the good of society rather than you specifically. But this kind of language is so alien to our Reaganite tongues that, when we try to explain it to the folks who haven’t quite gotten it yet, we can only speak in terms of self-interest. But if someone’s argument is “it’s my risk to take”, then you’re not proving them wrong or even actually disagreeing with them.
IMO the messaging right from the start should have been: “covid is unlikely to kill you, especially if you’re young. So this is not about you. But if you become infected, there is a good chance it will kill someone. So here’s the best info we have on how you can avoid that”.
Instead we’ve mostly had blame and fearmongering, with the inevitable implication that it’s brave to defy the consensus, which maga simpletons have internalised in a completely predictable way.
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So Jake Paul can finally loot that Apple Store in Flagstaff.
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